Latest / None of Your Business Podcast / Shofar, So Good: Senator Bill Weber’s Bold Political Path

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Shofar, So Good: Senator Bill Weber’s Bold Political Path · None of Your Business Podcast

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  I would, I would hope that everyone in our community, if we
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  talk about the good and the bad. But if people sat down and did
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  this, no matter what your political affiliation is, no
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  matter where you live, what walk of life, if people talk to each
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  other rather than at each other, I think we may we'd have a
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  better society as we need a big, we need a big civic lesson.
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  Hallelujah. None of your business, Oshi,
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  None of your. Business Michael, It's the None
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  of Your Business podcast hosted by Michael Anoshi.
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  Welcome back everybody to another amazing episode of the
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  None of Your Business podcast. I am so happy to be back in this
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  chair in the center with the logo behind me.
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  And I have my Co host to my right and I have an amazing,
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  amazing guest to my left, Senator Bill Weber.
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  It's a pleasure to have you here this morning.
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  Thank you so much for coming. Before we begin, just want to
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  thank all of our wonderful listeners and followers and ask
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  everyone to continue subscribing, commenting, liking,
• 1:00
  even not liking. Just tell us, give us the
• 1:02
  feedback. We love, love, love our
• 1:04
  feedback. We want to thank our wonderful
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  partners at Prime Source for sponsoring this amazing effort
• 1:09
  and for all the new beautiful tablecloths and shades and
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  lighting that we have. And as we continue to grow, may
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  we all continue to grow together.
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  So we're here with none other than newly elected Republican
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  Senator Bill Weber. And I am excited to have you
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  here because when I say newly elected, I mean fresh hot off
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  the press. I mean, like, oh Gee, I know
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  that you went out to vote, right?
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  Yes, I made every effort to go vote.
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  I was never a big voter back in the day, but in the last like
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  eight years, I started making a conscious effort to be more
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  involved. You know, you don't have a right
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  to complain. You don't have a voice if you're
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  not going out to vote. And I truly believe that.
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  So I made an effort to go vote. And by the way, the process was
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  really easy. They somehow have a very
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  organized. I got there within 10 minutes.
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  I was in and out. It was amazing.
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  Now I just want to tell you, Michael, when I think of
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  politics and politicians, I have a lot of respect for politicians
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  because they need to be good at a lot of things.
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  You know, someone who's in a specific industry, they're in a
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  specific lane. They have to master that and
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  that's it. But when you're in politics,
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  like you have to be a people person.
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  You, you have to know business. You, you have to be a sensical,
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  logical person. There's just an array of things
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  that you have to do that it's difficult.
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  And I have a lot of respect for people to go into politics,
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  especially at a high level. You know, it's, it's, it's one
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  thing when you're a politician at home, you know, you're
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  arguing with your wife and your kids, you know, but this is on a
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  grand scale. It really is.
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  And you have so many people that you have to please and you have
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  to contend with so much. It's an it's an audacious job
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  and it's a daunting, daunting task.
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  And it's not for everybody. This is only for for the elite.
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  That's for the people that could that can handle this.
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  Speaking of which, Senator, how are you feeling?
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  We feel great. So, you know, it's, it's great
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  to be here. Thank you for welcoming me in on
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  this podcast. It feels great.
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  You know, it's nice to get rewarded for hard work and, and
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  it's been hard work since day one.
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  You know, I like to tell the story of election night 2022
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  when we won. We were up on stage declaring
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  victory. And at the time Supervisor
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  Holman of Clarkstown whispers in my left ear saying your re
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  election starts in about 5 minutes.
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  And it was good to really have that said to me because you
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  know, it's always you're always running for re election,
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  unfortunately in in this cycle that we have here, especially in
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  New York, when you have Senate seats and that are every two
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  years. And you have to always be
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  cognizant that everything you do has to be amplified to the fact
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  where you have to be out and about in the community, out and
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  about in your district so that people get to know you and that
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  people earn that you can earn their trust throughout the two
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  year cycle so that when it comes Election Day, you're not an
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  unknown entity or an unknown brand.
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  And that was important for me to hear back in 2022.
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  And I really was guided by that for the two years in office.
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  I have to tell you, I feel the excitement in the community.
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  I feel the excitement on the WhatsApp chats.
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  I feel the excitement every time we go to a local party.
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  You're there, you're, you're, you know, you're there in the
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  trenches with us. And I was just talking about
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  that with you a minute ago. How is that in terms of dealing
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  with the community, right? And, you know, one of the
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  challenges that we have in sales and marketing is, you know,
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  adapting to new communities, right?
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  Not, you know, everyone is Jewish that owns nursing homes,
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  right? So we're out there trying to
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  find those people and trying to connect with them.
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  And I'll never forget the first time I was in Louisville, KY,
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  and I was speaking fast to the to the nursing home owner.
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  And he says to me, Michael, you got to slow down.
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  And I just had to adapt to what was happening there.
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  So how has that been for you? How's how are the Shalom czars
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  and the parties and then going to the other sides of the
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  community and joining in. There's how's that experience
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  been for? You so it it's been it's been
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  exciting. You know, it's, it's something
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  that I recognize day one that we have probably one of the most,
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  you know, diverse districts, you know, in the state.
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  What I did is I made sure that my office, people in my office
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  reflected the district, Democrat, Republican, it didn't
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  matter. I think I had the most
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  bipartisan Senate office probably in New York State and
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  probably in the 38th district's history.
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  But I also hired people that, that were reflective of the
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  district. One of my first hires was Mort
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  Becker, who's here with us today.
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  We also hired 2 Creole speaking members of the community.
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  We had a Spanish speaking resident as well and also people
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  reflective of Orange Town and Clarkstown in the secular
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  community. What we did day one was we made
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  sure that all of our Senate literature that we put out into
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  various newspaper articles were in various languages, whether it
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  was in Yiddish, whether it was in Creole, whether it was in
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  Spanish, to make sure that everyone feels comfortable.
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  Everyone knows what a senator's office does and really let them
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  know in their language and let them know that we have people at
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  our office that can pick up the phone that that they will not
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  have a language barrier with. So I felt it and very important
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  to do that to show not only the effort, but, you know, making
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  sure that that we that we were sensitive to their needs as
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  well. Well, by the way, I have to ask
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  you, because this is very fresh, you know, you recently won.
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  It was a big victory. I remember in camp, in summer
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  camp when I was the general of the red team and that moment
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  when they announced the winner, it was, it was the best feeling
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  ever. And we had hundreds of kids who
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  started jumping up and down. It was a frenzy.
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  It was just an elite moment and such joy, pure joy.
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  You know, in the, in our Baseball League in, in our, we
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  have a softball tournament that we play in and I won this year.
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  And that feeling was just second to none.
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  Like it didn't matter any other accomplishments that had in my
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  life. Like that moment was just it was
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  ecstasy. This winning an election.
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  I mean, this is the pinnacle. This is like the highest point
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  you can reach. And to win at that moment when
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  it was clear that you were the winner.
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  Like, what does that feel like? What do you, what's going
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  through your mind? What do you tell yourself at
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  that moment? It's hard not to, you know, get
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  ahead of yourself and feel really, really good about
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  yourself. But what do you tell yourself?
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  What's that like? It's exciting.
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  Listen, you know, winning is obviously much better feeling
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  than losing and I've been on the losing side and it doesn't feel
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  good. But when you win, you I think
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  reflect on all of the good things that you did and they're
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  they're rewarding and really looking towards, you know, what
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  you wanted to and what we want to accomplish in the next two
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  years. So and I talked about it
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  rewarding, but we also kind of even it out and kind of take a
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  deep breath and and and talk about the journey that that
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  comes ahead of this too as well. So, you know, you get into
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  election and you talk about a lot of things that you want to
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  accomplish in the next two years and to really have the reward
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  given to you on Election Day is just another step in what we
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  want to accomplish long term. Yeah, and it's a big
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  responsibility. You know, thousands, hundreds of
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  thousands of people put their vote of confidence in you.
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  And I said, all right, Senator, you want to be, you want the
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  job. You know we're going to put you
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  in office. And they did.
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  The people have spoken. You are now the elected
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  official. That's, that's a lot to take in.
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  Do you feel that pressure? Do you feel that weight of all
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  right, I, I got to get to work. I have a lot of things I got to
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  do. So I feel that, yeah, obviously
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  there's always pressure that comes with it, but as I said
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  before, it's rewarding. And you know, the one thing you
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  always hear about people saying, well, politicians don't do
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  anything. They all they do is go around
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  and shake hands. It's a lot of work.
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  I have to say it is a lot of work.
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  It's a lot of handshaking, it's a lot of events that you go to.
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  But in the end, it's worth it. And you know, I maybe it's that
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  the business background that I have being ACPA and, and also
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  being in private business for 30 years.
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  You know, you always have to be willing to be open minded to
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  change with the times, as they say, but really going to various
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  media forums to really get your message out and really don't
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  necessarily do the old way of politicking.
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  But also, you know, innovate yourself and have have, you
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  know, young, the younger generation around you that would
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  show you the new ways to reach voters.
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  And we, we tried doing that and I think we were successful in
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  doing that by also just bringing in being out there, being on
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  these watch apps groups, being willing to blow the shofar at a,
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  at a, an event. And I was successful on the
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  second attempt. But and then we did a little
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  music video the the day before the election, but trying to
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  reach the voters of all ages and really being hip with the times,
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  I guess. You were you were in business
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  for a few decades before you went into politics.
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  What was that transition like? What happened?
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  It's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's hard, but it's also
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  very similar. And I think you mentioned it
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  before, you know, I don't know if we were on air or not, but we
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  were talking about market share and, and customers and you know,
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  in business that's, you know, that's what it's about, right.
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  You got to pick up the phone all the time.
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  That's why we're very successful in terms of our constituent
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  services at our office because we're there to help our
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  constituents. And, and if you don't answer the
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  phone, you don't, you don't went over constituents just like it
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  is in business. But also when you talk about
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  market share, right, that's business and you always talk
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  about improving your market share.
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  You know, we felt very comfortable over the summer
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  months knowing that our our brand and our hard work was
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  paying off in terms of polling and stuff like that.
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  And, and we used Jim McLaughlin of the McLaughlin Group.
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  I know Mike Lawler uses them and and Donald Trump uses them.
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  He was very comfortable where we stood in the election.
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  This was in August, but he said don't lose market share,
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  maintain your market share and you win the election.
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  And that was something that we, you know, really focused on the
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  last 60 days as well because, you know, market share is again
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  and something that we always look at in the business sector.
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  But you know, I knew that day one coming out of the business
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  sector into politics. It's about advertising, it's
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  about marketing, it's about making sure that people know who
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  my brand is and that's why we were very focused from day one
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  on really marketing my brand. It's interesting, I always tell
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  people that come to me for career guidance.
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  One of the most important things is building your personal brand
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  and you don't have a choice. This is everything for you.
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  You know, your personal brand is everything what people see about
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  you and and they say, and I was enjoyed joined into the WhatsApp
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  group, which are the first thing I do when someone forces me into
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  a WhatsApp group is I do what normal people do is they leave,
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  I leave the group. But this one I didn't leave
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  because I saw pictures and videos of you blowing chauffeur
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  and I started learning about your Jewish family.
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  And you know, I was like, I was intrigued and I was like, you
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  know what, I need to learn more about this guy and see what he's
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  doing for the community. But I was wondering in the
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  beginning, OK, what made him go into this world?
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  Like you were in business for a number of years.
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  So what happened? What was that?
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  Process yeah, because they they do say that there's no reward
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  for someone going into politics. Like it's just, you know, you're
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  entering into a world that could potentially become a nightmare.
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  You know it's risky business. It's very tough.
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  You really putting yourself out there.
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  You're going to be very vulnerable.
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  You're going to be susceptible to all kinds of comments, you
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  know, good and bad, you know, and.
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  She and I are going through that now, you know we open the.
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  Podcast, by the way, we we welcome all the negative
• 12:21
  comments. We look forward to those because
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  we love haters. Everybody loves haters.
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  We especially love haters. It fuels us.
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  It drives us. And by the way, most of those
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  negative comments like those people that have always
• 12:31
  something to say that puts you down, it's they're just trying
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  to lift themselves up. That's what they're doing.
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  That's terrible that they have to resort to that is by putting
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  someone else down. But for all the haters, we have
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  double and triple tenfold the amount of people that are
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  positive and people that are trying to lift you up and people
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  that are saying, wow, you're doing a great job.
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  I'm really enjoying it. You should keep going and then
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  motivating you. You always have both sides of
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  it. But you know, this is this is
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  really. Making a decision to be a public
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  figure. Yeah, that's like really putting
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  yourself on a pedestal. When did that happen for you?
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  What was that like? It was a transition that I made
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  probably, you know, 10-15 years ago, getting involved in
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  politics. You know, what's when you're in,
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  you know, in, in the private sector or you're a resident of,
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  of a village or a town or a county, you don't like sometimes
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  what's going on in your government and that kind of
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  fuels you to, to try and get involved.
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  I think as you said, you know. What was it?
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  Well, take us back. It started off really when the
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  whole Saint Lawrence thing came out.
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  You know, I was frustrated with what was going on in town and it
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  got me really interested and motivated into politics.
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  And, you know, I made mistakes, you know, I think, you know, not
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  being someone who's been in politics for 20-30 years, it,
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  that was everything in there wasn't in, in my blood, right?
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  And, you know, you, you make mistakes, you get tripped up,
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  you know, you know, you're not fueled in or at least seasoned
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  in, in, in knowing the whole political mechanisms.
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  But I'm a good learner. I'm a listener.
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  I'm someone who, you know, takes criticism, takes the good and
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  the bad, as you say, and takes, you know, takes those criticisms
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  as motivation and has learning lessons as well.
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  And that's something that that I build upon and you know, those,
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  those, you know, downs became ups and those negative comments.
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  Hopefully we turned around to the to the point where we can at
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  least have positive, constructive conversations in
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  the future. You know, everyone's not going
• 14:17
  to vote for me. I think Mike Lawler always says
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  this comment about Ed Koch where he he said, if you agree with me
• 14:24
  100% of the time, go, you know, go see a shrink or something
• 14:27
  like I'm going to butcher his the the the comment.
• 14:29
  But the fact of the matter is everyone's always not going to
• 14:32
  agree with me or, or, or vote for me, but that's OK because,
• 14:36
  you know, when the election's over, which it's over right now,
• 14:39
  our statement reflected our sentiment.
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  The election is over. It's time to get to work.
• 14:43
  And we have a lot of things that we need to get done for our
• 14:45
  residents. So it's something that I'm
• 14:47
  focused on doing. And it's it's working with
• 14:49
  Democrats and Republicans. You know, I'm in a very, you
• 14:52
  know, blue district or purple district, but it's blue by
• 14:55
  registration, purple by its voting habits.
• 14:58
  But it means that I need to make relationships and and build
• 15:01
  coalitions locally so that we can get done things done at the
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  state level. Yeah, Michael, by the way, I
• 15:07
  don't mean to interrupt over here, but normally our model
• 15:10
  when we have a podcast is we have a bottle of wine and we
• 15:14
  drink a little bit. I'm assuming that you didn't
• 15:16
  roll it out because out of respect for Senator, like, is
• 15:19
  that what it is? No, no, no, no.
• 15:22
  But he doesn't seem to me like the kind of guy that's, you
• 15:24
  know, he, he knows how to have a good time.
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  It seems like, I feel like, you know, he wouldn't be so turned
• 15:29
  off if we were to handle the bottle.
• 15:30
  Am I right in this or am I wrong?
• 15:32
  You're right. What kind of guy are you?
• 15:33
  Like are you like, you know, can we hang out or doesn't have to?
• 15:36
  Be I'm a gin and tonic guy. You know I'm not.
• 15:37
  I'm not. There you go.
• 15:38
  You see there? You go, well, he has he has
• 15:41
  these things called chill with bills.
• 15:42
  So like, you know. I want to hear about.
• 15:44
  That I mean, that's something that, you know, for, you know,
• 15:46
  we, we need to have our own and our community with him.
• 15:48
  What is this chill with both that was?
• 15:50
  That was the creation of Mort Becker over over here, off, off
• 15:54
  to the side. It was a way that we were able
• 15:57
  to connect with people by we would go to various restaurants
• 16:02
  and or people's homes. I think our first one we did at
• 16:04
  Nussies. Oh love that place.
• 16:06
  But then we did lashi. Did we do lashishi?
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  We did lashishi. He's been all over the place.
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  Look at this guy. Amazing.
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  We also did him in private homes.
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  It was a way that we brought food in.
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  You know, food is always a good, a good attraction for people to
• 16:19
  come. Most important.
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  Everyone else is most important. It was a way for people to come
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  in and ask me questions about where I stood and, and voice
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  their concerns in an, in an unfiltered manner.
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  And you know, you know, politicians sometimes,
• 16:32
  especially at the higher levels, they have a wall, right?
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  You can't, you can't talk to your politicians.
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  It's hard to connect. You don't get an answer.
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  We felt it important that, that I get out and about in the
• 16:40
  community to really create a buzz about my campaign, create a
• 16:43
  buzz about me and get people there to really feel comfortable
• 16:47
  with me to in the end, know that I'm a real person, that I'm, I'm
• 16:51
  a friend. I'm someone who can relate to
• 16:53
  them, to their, you know, their concerns, whether it's paying
• 16:56
  high taxes, Well, I pay those same high taxes, you know,
• 16:59
  whether it's struggling, you know, because you have 4 kids
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  and it's the chaos of light everyday life.
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  Well, I have 4 kids and I have the struggles of everyday life.
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  It was important that people know that I'm not just a name
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  or, or a politician as they say, because that that could be a
• 17:13
  dirty word to a lot of people. I wanted to be the person of the
• 17:16
  people and I think that we gave us a really broke down barriers
• 17:20
  and broke down walls between what what politics is and what
• 17:23
  relationships are. I want to vote for you again.
• 17:25
  Can I go back? Can we go back to the polls and
• 17:26
  vote again? I'll tell you why, you know,
• 17:28
  because what you're saying now really does resonate.
• 17:30
  You know, I'm somewhat I have 4 kids.
• 17:32
  I pay high taxes. You're one of us.
• 17:35
  You're not someone that is sitting in its own little field,
• 17:38
  you know, And well, you're a real person, like you said.
• 17:40
  And the fact that you did this chill with Bill thing and you
• 17:43
  went out to places to the people, I think that's a much
• 17:46
  more modernized way of how politics is going.
• 17:49
  Look at Donald Trump. He went to the Joe Rogan podcast
• 17:52
  like 20 years ago, such a thing would have been like, Are you
• 17:54
  ready? Your mind you're running for the
• 17:56
  president of the United States, You're gonna go sit with the
• 17:58
  people and Joe Rogan. Yes, yes, that's exactly right.
• 18:01
  That's exactly what catapulted him.
• 18:04
  And Kamala Harris, she didn't take that opportunity.
• 18:07
  She didn't sit down with Joe Rogan, right.
• 18:09
  And that that may have been a very big mess, but.
• 18:11
  She's that with the view though. She's that with the view
• 18:13
  exactly. But at the end of the day, this
• 18:16
  is the new modernized form of politics, is that we're all
• 18:20
  involved in politics much more than we ever were.
• 18:22
  And we asked, I think it was your brother who was a
• 18:25
  Councilman. We asked him, like, what changed
• 18:27
  in politics that people are so in tune with what's going on?
• 18:30
  I think the average consumer knows so much more than people
• 18:33
  did 20-30 years ago. And he said very simply, social
• 18:36
  media, social media really created that platform that now
• 18:39
  everybody is involved. You say something, 20 minutes
• 18:41
  later, the world knows about it and everybody understands
• 18:44
  exactly what you meant by it as well.
• 18:45
  So by really taking that to your advantage and by sitting and
• 18:49
  mingling with the people, I think that's really what set you
• 18:52
  apart. And I think that's what people
• 18:53
  really resonated to you. And I think that's an amazing
• 18:57
  thing and people should, should learn from that.
• 18:58
  It's not just in politics, but in business and anything.
• 19:01
  People just want to do business with people.
• 19:04
  They don't want to necessarily do business with your company.
• 19:06
  They don't care about your product is just as good as the
• 19:09
  next guy's product, a little bit better, a little bit worse.
• 19:11
  But people want to know who are you?
• 19:12
  You know, I'm going to spend time with you Now that we're
• 19:14
  doing business together. I want to enjoy myself while I'm
• 19:16
  spending time with you. I want to have a good time.
• 19:18
  You know, we've got one life to live.
• 19:20
  And I think that was a really clever thing that you did is
• 19:23
  that you understood that and and you really capitalized on.
• 19:25
  That you know, it's also that that power of 10, right?
• 19:27
  So we would have people that come to chill a bill and they
• 19:30
  would say, can we take a selfie with you?
• 19:31
  Right. And that selfie goes right up on
• 19:33
  their WhatsApp status. And you know that everyone's got
• 19:36
  hundreds of people have followed them, followed them, followed
• 19:38
  them. So it was building that brand
• 19:39
  and really saying, Oh, I want to go to that one next one.
• 19:42
  And, you know, even and even with visiting schools, we
• 19:45
  visited a tremendous amount of schools in the last two years.
• 19:48
  And we went to camps, whether it was camps locally here in in in
• 19:52
  Ramapo and Muncie and throughout Rockland.
• 19:53
  But we also went to camp Hask and a lot of the camps upstate.
• 19:57
  And I found it, you know, our opponents criticized saying,
• 19:59
  well, bill only goes to school and camps.
• 20:01
  But to me, you know, being on the education committee and
• 20:03
  being on the disabilities committee.
• 20:05
  Of course I'm going to visit camps.
• 20:06
  I want to end schools. I want to know the successes.
• 20:09
  I want to know what what's working and not working and
• 20:11
  bring those comments and experiences back to Albany as
• 20:14
  well. So that also built our brand as
• 20:17
  well because there was so many families that we ran into that
• 20:20
  said, oh, my son or my daughter saw you at their school and they
• 20:23
  keep talking about it and they brought the palm, the pen with
• 20:26
  your name on it and they took felt selfies with you at camp.
• 20:29
  You know, that was kind of making again, building the name
• 20:32
  brand by even having the kids and and the parents involved in
• 20:36
  this entire experience. Very smart.
• 20:37
  You know, my 7 year old son came home last week from school and
• 20:42
  you know I'm talking to him, he says.
• 20:43
  Daddy, are you voting for Mike Lawler?
• 20:47
  I'm like, what, like, what are you talking about?
• 20:49
  Like he's, he's 7. What do you know about like, you
• 20:52
  know, politics? But like, that's yeah, start him
• 20:54
  young. You know, people should be
• 20:56
  involved. Like this is your life, you
• 20:58
  know, and this is the community that we live in.
• 21:00
  And this directly affects your quality of life and what we
• 21:04
  believe in as a community and what's good for the public.
• 21:06
  Like, you know, this really matters.
• 21:08
  It really makes a difference. I want to say I, I know that
• 21:10
  you're involved in a lot of things, fiscal responsibility,
• 21:15
  disabilities and many different things.
• 21:16
  I didn't, I did a little bit of my research and I've also been
• 21:18
  following you over the past few months and I'm super impressed.
• 21:22
  I have to just say because you know, like we talked about in
• 21:25
  the nursing home industry, there's so many different parts
• 21:27
  of running the business in politics also, there's so many
• 21:30
  different parts. There's so many people that you
• 21:32
  have to care about. You know, you, you go to camp,
• 21:35
  ask if you were just busy helping the people with Camp
• 21:38
  Hask, you'd be busy all day long, of course.
• 21:40
  And, and it's such a noble cause and it's something that we wish
• 21:44
  that people would help people that need those kinds of help
• 21:47
  all day long. But you can't, you have to
• 21:49
  spread yourself out. I'm curious, what are those
• 21:52
  challenges that you think that the world around you is facing
• 21:55
  now? You're going to these chills.
• 21:57
  You're hearing the people talk are the people that are coming
• 21:59
  to you and saying, you know, this is a challenge.
• 22:01
  You're like, you know what, hey, I never thought about that.
• 22:02
  That is a good challenge and I'm going to go look into it right
• 22:05
  now. Like, I'd like to hear about
• 22:06
  that. I think the biggest challenge
• 22:08
  I'm hearing is the affordability crisis locally and, and it means
• 22:11
  a lot to to different people, whether whether we talked about
• 22:14
  it a minute ago, whether you live in Ramapo or and send your
• 22:19
  kids to private schools, you have a very big tuition bill
• 22:21
  above and beyond your taxes, whether you're a senior at any
• 22:24
  at any anywhere in our county. It's very difficult to live here
• 22:29
  because you're on a fixed income and rents are high and mortgages
• 22:33
  are high and cost of living is extremely high.
• 22:35
  And the younger generation, I know they're struggling as well
• 22:37
  in terms of, you know, how much it is to buy to, to rent a one
• 22:41
  bedroom apartment anywhere in the county is just it's really
• 22:44
  big struggle for people. So we really need to solve that.
• 22:47
  And you know, it's going to take some state investments.
• 22:50
  You know, I think a couple years ago, the governor talked about,
• 22:53
  you know, some incentivizing, you know, more affordable
• 22:56
  housing built in, you know, at various areas of the state.
• 22:59
  And, you know, she used an approach I think that was very
• 23:04
  that turned off a lot of people, especially in the Hudson Valley.
• 23:06
  We, we were essentially against what she was trying to do in
• 23:09
  terms of, we called it local control of local planning and
• 23:12
  zoning. I think most people in the
• 23:13
  Hudson Valley want their own local towns and villages and
• 23:16
  county to be in charge of their own zoning.
• 23:19
  But the but she wasn't wrong on the, on the the fact that it's
• 23:21
  very unaffordable delivery and we need a more affordable
• 23:24
  housing. So I talk about affordability,
• 23:26
  people's water bills, their tax bills, their, their electric
• 23:29
  bills added on to their, whether or not they own a house with
• 23:33
  their mortgage or their, you know, their rental apartment.
• 23:35
  That's a big problem that I hear throughout the entire district
• 23:38
  that we need to somehow deal with.
• 23:40
  It's been talked about for a long time, but it's getting
• 23:42
  harder and harder for people to have any money leftover in their
• 23:46
  checking account after they have to pay their bills.
• 23:47
  So it's something that we have to really tackle immediately.
• 23:51
  And realistically though, what do you do?
• 23:53
  I mean like you know when I when I get some piece of mail and it
• 23:57
  says your taxes was reduced recently by 2% or 5%.
• 24:01
  You say where to go to. Like what?
• 24:03
  Like it doesn't really help much.
• 24:04
  Like that's not really what I'm looking for.
• 24:06
  So I'm curious like what kind of solutions are there?
• 24:09
  What are the real solutions? I don't know.
• 24:11
  I, I I'm. I also feel like it's a little
• 24:12
  bit sort of tied into, you know, the federal control as well that
• 24:17
  there's, there are limitations as to what a state can do
• 24:20
  directly that will affect, you know, the people living in that
• 24:23
  in those districts. But what, what, what is some of
• 24:26
  the remedies? What, what would you know, what
• 24:28
  needs to give in order to bring some of those costs down?
• 24:31
  Because you're right, affordability, I mean, I think
• 24:34
  everybody could agree that's probably the number one thing is
• 24:36
  we have so much, you know, tuitions are very expensive, you
• 24:39
  know, private tuitions and the taxes that we pay is not just
• 24:42
  high, but I think it's higher than a lot of places in the
• 24:45
  country. Yeah, we're probably in, I don't
• 24:46
  know, top ten. I'm making up that number.
• 24:48
  I don't. Know if that's you may you may
• 24:49
  be top two between Rockland and Westchester for sure.
• 24:52
  Maybe top? Two maybe in the country.
• 24:54
  And then the state. State in the state, even though
• 24:57
  the country we're probably pretty high, you know, but it's
• 25:00
  like what's the next steps? Where do you go from here?
• 25:02
  I think what what Congressman law has been talking about in
• 25:06
  terms of changing that SALT tax, the SALT deduction limitation,
• 25:10
  that was something that, you know, the Republicans did and,
• 25:13
  you know, eight years ago, which is a bad idea.
• 25:15
  I saw it, you know, being a CPAI do many personal income tax
• 25:19
  returns. And I see the effect it has on a
• 25:21
  lot of our local residents because as you said, we're one
• 25:24
  of the highest taxed counties. So you add property taxes and
• 25:28
  school taxes, but also your income taxes and having that
• 25:31
  limited in terms of deductibility puts a lot of
• 25:34
  pressure on people's pocketbooks.
• 25:36
  So getting that corrected, hopefully we'll, we'll put some
• 25:39
  more money back in people's pockets.
• 25:41
  I think there's a lot of things we could be doing at the, at the
• 25:43
  federal and state level in terms of increasing the child care
• 25:47
  child tax credit, which is something that gets immediate
• 25:50
  money back into people's pockets.
• 25:53
  And it's, you know, being open minded on, on allowing people to
• 25:57
  deduct other things on their returns, whether it's medical
• 26:00
  and a lot of people have a lot of high medical bills.
• 26:02
  Maybe we should, you know, allow that to be more deductible,
• 26:05
  whether it's private tuition, you know, that's something I
• 26:07
  think we need to be open minded with in terms of allowing people
• 26:10
  to deduct it. So it's those are those are to
• 26:14
  me, things that should be on the table immediately to look at.
• 26:17
  And then I think long term, we have to talk about how do we,
• 26:19
  you know, how do we incentivize, how do we help local
• 26:22
  municipalities, you know, least doing it without that, without,
• 26:26
  without a hammer, but having incentives for local
• 26:29
  municipalities to allow housing to be built, that's affordable
• 26:32
  housing. And right now it's, it's not
• 26:34
  happening. And as I said, the governor's
• 26:36
  approach was wrong, but her entire concept was not wrong.
• 26:39
  And that's something that we need to go back and revisit at
• 26:41
  some point. Did it ever happened to you that
• 26:43
  you're about to do laundry or go to the cleaners and you or you
• 26:46
  get back something from the cleaners and you put your hands
• 26:48
  in your pocket and you find 20 bucks?
• 26:51
  Oh, my God, Michael, those are one of the joys of life.
• 26:54
  What do you mean? Those are like moments that you
• 26:57
  live for. Like when you reach into your
• 26:59
  pocket of a pants that, you know, you didn't wear in a week
• 27:01
  or two, you know, and you put your and you find a $20 bill.
• 27:04
  I almost don't want to spend it. I just want to like, frame it or
• 27:07
  something. It's free money.
• 27:08
  Like somebody just, you know, it's amazing.
• 27:10
  Yes, I know that. My wife's older.
• 27:12
  My wife says whenever she like if she's doing the laundry or
• 27:14
  something, if she finds money and and that's her money.
• 27:16
  Of course, if I didn't take the money out of my pocket, I gave
• 27:19
  it up that by. The way any money she finds is
• 27:20
  her her money, OK, even if she doesn't find it, it's still her
• 27:23
  money. Let's face it.
• 27:24
  Whether we like it or not. Yes, yes.
• 27:26
  I'm curious. You go into your pocket, you
• 27:27
  find 20 bucks. What are you spending your $20
• 27:29
  on? Oh, I don't.
• 27:31
  Know usually it's gone. I don't get any.
• 27:33
  Do we even have cash on you? Do you like?
• 27:35
  Harvey cash on. So that that's it's interesting
• 27:36
  to say I generally don't carry cash at all.
• 27:38
  I don't either by the way. Me.
• 27:39
  Neither I don't need. It and it gets a little
• 27:41
  complicated because sometimes we will go to event like 2 weeks
• 27:46
  ago I went on a Sunday morning to up in Havish to a fireman's
• 27:49
  breakfast and I went with one of my staffers and they had cash on
• 27:54
  on them thankfully because I had nothing on me and we walked in
• 27:56
  and I'm like you take credit card and they go no cash only.
• 27:59
  But I think more and more people don't carry any cash on them.
• 28:02
  Yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's a digital world.
• 28:04
  By the way, firemen here are all volunteer.
• 28:06
  All volunteer. Up here in Rockland, yeah.
• 28:07
  Did you know? Did you know this?
• 28:08
  That they're all volunteer? Well, I know firemen in general,
• 28:10
  usually a. Volunteer isn't in the city.
• 28:12
  Not right, Not in the city. But in New York and the big
• 28:14
  cities not, They're all paid. But they're not paid a lot.
• 28:17
  I'm saying they're not getting, you know, they're not getting
• 28:19
  rich by being a fireman, right? It's a, it's a big, a big
• 28:22
  component of it is really being volunteer, you know, work that
• 28:25
  they're doing. I I just find it interesting
• 28:27
  that that up here they're volunteers.
• 28:29
  They don't get paid for doing it.
• 28:30
  What other people are volunteers out here serving the
• 28:32
  communities? Are there others other than?
• 28:34
  Have Arum. Cavarum also.
• 28:36
  Right. Yeah, that's I think so, yeah.
• 28:38
  Great people Javarum, great, great people.
• 28:41
  You know, they started out as like an organization that was
• 28:43
  like you have a flat tire will come and help you.
• 28:46
  They've grown into so much more than just that.
• 28:48
  But even that alone is a beautiful thing.
• 28:49
  I'm not going to fix peoples tires like I got, I got stuff to
• 28:52
  do, but these guys were taking out time in their day no matter
• 28:54
  what and no matter how small of a task it is, how big they're up
• 28:57
  for it. They're amazing people.
• 28:59
  I want to ask you something, you know, just a triggered for me
• 29:02
  when you made this comment about, you know, the private
• 29:04
  schools, you know, we pay for it's very expensive.
• 29:07
  So in our community in Muncie, there's about, I don't know, 6-7
• 29:12
  day camps that you can go to. And a lot of them have been
• 29:16
  around for 1020 years, for a long time.
• 29:18
  And we don't really have, you know, a building that can
• 29:21
  accommodate this many kids in the summer.
• 29:23
  So typically what we've done, and I know that 'cause I used to
• 29:26
  be involved in a day camp many years ago, I was a head
• 29:28
  counselor at a day camp for a long time that I became an owner
• 29:31
  of a day camp. And I was involved in this
• 29:33
  aspect of securing a building of where we're going to be for the,
• 29:36
  for the summer. So what the camps typically
• 29:38
  would do is we would go to public schools and we would ask
• 29:41
  the District E Ramapo if, you know, we can rent, not for free,
• 29:45
  if we could rent, you know, lease their buildings for the
• 29:48
  summer. And it was a nightmare.
• 29:51
  It was a tedious process. They made it very, very
• 29:54
  difficult for us. And there were certain summers
• 29:56
  that we didn't know even a week before camp if they were going
• 29:59
  to actually give us the building or not because they didn't just
• 30:02
  like, you know, make it a simple process.
• 30:04
  And two months before they gave us a yes or a no, They made us
• 30:07
  sweat it out to the last, to the last minute.
• 30:10
  And it always bothered me. It really bothered me because
• 30:13
  the community, the extended communities, you know, in
• 30:16
  Ramapo, at least the Jewish communities, you know, we pay
• 30:18
  taxes like everybody else. And part of those taxes goes
• 30:21
  towards the public school system, towards education, which
• 30:23
  is fine. That's amazing.
• 30:25
  That's where it should go. I'm glad they're spending the
• 30:27
  money wisely, but we don't really benefit from the public
• 30:30
  school system. We don't.
• 30:32
  And you know, we have the private school systems and we
• 30:34
  pay for it, which we should. We want to go to private.
• 30:36
  You got to pay. We understand, you know, but
• 30:38
  come on, let's let's do a little bit of basic math over here.
• 30:41
  You know, we're not benefiting in any way We pay towards it.
• 30:44
  I'd think that they would be jumping out of their seats to
• 30:47
  help us and to at least let us use the building.
• 30:50
  So by the way, you're making money on this.
• 30:52
  So you're monetizing, which is good for the schools, right?
• 30:55
  Otherwise it's sitting there empty and you're not making it.
• 30:57
  It's just costing you money. You have an opportunity now to
• 30:59
  actually make revenue and help people at the same time and ask
• 31:03
  any day camp owner in our communities.
• 31:06
  They the biggest issue, the biggest obstacle they we have
• 31:10
  and running the day camp is are we going to get a building this
• 31:12
  year or these rampers going to tell us for whatever reason,
• 31:15
  they don't even like reckon with us.
• 31:17
  They just tell us yes or no and we have to pull every connection
• 31:20
  that we know. By the way, you're going to be
• 31:21
  getting a call Senator soon, you know when we need help.
• 31:24
  But literally what's going on? What's up with?
• 31:26
  That I'm glad you brought that up.
• 31:27
  You know, so probably one of the first challenges we dealt with
• 31:31
  coming into office was exactly that.
• 31:33
  We got calls from Manny Schwab from Camp Fun.
• 31:36
  There you go, Rabbi Isaac from. He already started getting the
• 31:39
  calls. Nice to meet you.
• 31:40
  Wait. A second am I the only one that
• 31:42
  doesn't have anyone on their phone?
• 31:43
  What's happening? They're all calling.
• 31:44
  Already it was probably right around March, 1st month, month
• 31:48
  or two into office and we got a call from Rabbi Isaac and from
• 31:51
  Manny Schwab saying that they weren't able to secure their
• 31:53
  camp space. They were told that the
• 31:56
  buildings were going to be unavailable.
• 31:58
  The, the district had the, all the opera money that they were
• 32:00
  doing the constructions on and we worked to get them the camp
• 32:04
  space. And that was one of our proudest
• 32:06
  moments. One of our biggest successes
• 32:08
  right out of the gate was speaking with the administration
• 32:12
  at the time, speaking with, you know, the not only board
• 32:16
  members, but the administration in each round and securing that
• 32:18
  space. And I got on the phone with not
• 32:21
  only last year, but this year, getting on the phone with the
• 32:24
  administration would also the construction managers who are
• 32:27
  doing the projects. You know, maybe I kind of used
• 32:29
  my own experience in the private construction world talking
• 32:32
  about, you know, all of your schools are not going to be
• 32:34
  having the construction at the same time.
• 32:36
  We have thousands of kids that rely upon and especially their
• 32:40
  parents rely upon their, their kids going to camp.
• 32:43
  Again, as we said, relatable. I have 4 kids.
• 32:45
  My kids went to camp. My wife and I work full time.
• 32:48
  We need our kids to be in a camp environment in the summertime
• 32:52
  for our work schedules, but also for their, their, their great
• 32:55
  experience too. So we, we were able to work with
• 32:58
  the school districts to do it. This year was a little bit more
• 33:01
  challenging. I know Morty over there's has
• 33:04
  his head down, but he was very successful in helping camp Fund
• 33:08
  Rabbi Isaac or Camp Rabbi Isaac, right?
• 33:13
  So we were able to at least get them a space for the kids for
• 33:17
  portion of the day. They were able to use the
• 33:18
  outside fields over by I think Grandview.
• 33:23
  So we made it work, but I, I do see some challenges.
• 33:26
  I see challenges going forward in terms of the lack of camp
• 33:32
  space. So I think what we need to do is
• 33:35
  be more innovative in terms of maybe using, utilizing some of
• 33:37
  the State Park areas. You know, I, I think there's
• 33:39
  challenges there because there's not enough restroom facilities,
• 33:43
  But I think we need to be forward minded and knowing that
• 33:45
  if you're not going to have enough spaces on the public
• 33:47
  schools, because you know, obviously there's public school
• 33:50
  camps that go on as well. So you have, you know, you have
• 33:52
  limited space to do it, but it's something that we're going to
• 33:55
  have to deal with because in terms of enough properties to
• 33:58
  handle the amount of kids in camps is something that I'm.
• 34:01
  I'm curious about your approach. What do you do when you get a
• 34:03
  no? When someone says no, I can't, I
• 34:05
  can't do it. It's not going to happen.
• 34:07
  I mean, being in politics, being a a person of the community,
• 34:10
  what is your approach? And and maybe you can tell me
• 34:13
  something that happened to you that where you got to know, but
• 34:16
  you turned it into a yes, it. Was it was with the camp that
• 34:18
  camp in in with the district last year, a year and a half
• 34:22
  ago, back in March, You know, immediately we got no, we're
• 34:25
  doing construction, it's not going to be available.
• 34:27
  And I took, you know, I listened to the no and I said, well, it's
• 34:31
  not good enough. You know, we have kids that need
• 34:34
  to go to camp. We have parents that are relying
• 34:36
  upon these kids to go to camp. So we worked through that no and
• 34:39
  got it to a yes with some limitations.
• 34:41
  You know, we had to, you know, you know, work around a
• 34:44
  calendar, work around a schedule that was more more conducive for
• 34:48
  what was going on. But you know, you do get Nos.
• 34:51
  Don't, don't get me wrong, it's not like I convert every no to a
• 34:54
  yes. But you know, we, we try and
• 34:56
  take a no and we, we take it back and say, well, is this just
• 34:59
  government saying no because government likes to say no
• 35:02
  because, you know, in government, things work slowly
• 35:06
  and too slow for what I'm used to in the private sector.
• 35:09
  But just trying to take a no and really seeing if there's other
• 35:12
  opportunities to do it. So I, I consider it a challenge
• 35:16
  on a lot of Nos, but there are certain Nos that, that are
• 35:18
  frustrating, but we try and, you know, work around that as.
• 35:21
  Well, it actually reminds me that one of the things that I
• 35:24
  was taught when someone tells you no, and I try to teach this
• 35:27
  to salespeople and people that just want to, you know, move
• 35:30
  forward in life and try to get yeses is you ask the following
• 35:33
  question. Under what circumstance will you
• 35:36
  say yes? And just let's just go through
• 35:39
  it. Well, no, it's impossible
• 35:41
  because we're doing well. Under what circumstance would
• 35:43
  you say as well if, you know, you gave me more money or if you
• 35:46
  if this person wasn't around, you know, So what would be that?
• 35:49
  Yes. And it's something that you're
• 35:51
  going to, of course, face challenges in the future of
• 35:53
  politics and dealing with people.
• 35:55
  Michael yesterday. Literally just yesterday we did
• 35:59
  an annual review on one of our sales reps.
• 36:02
  We do annual reviews for all our reps.
• 36:03
  If you're here for one year, then we do quarterly reviews,
• 36:06
  but after one year you get annual reviews.
• 36:08
  So on his annual review this very topic came up is you're
• 36:14
  getting a lot of no's out in the field and you're coming here as
• 36:18
  to well, that's why you know, I didn't have the greatest year
• 36:22
  because I got a lot of no's. So I told him I wanted to tell
• 36:25
  you about something personal that happened to me four years
• 36:29
  ago. A family member was going
• 36:31
  through a medical experience, traumatic.
• 36:34
  It was really rough. And there was one person, Brody,
• 36:38
  I think is a physical therapy company, gave me advice that at
• 36:42
  that moment didn't seem like it was such powerful advice.
• 36:46
  But as I went through my experience, it was tremendously
• 36:50
  impactful of what he said. And I lived by it.
• 36:53
  And it was this very sentiment. And what he told me was in this
• 36:56
  field, medical field, you're going to hear a lot of Nos.
• 36:59
  You're going to hear a lot of people tell you, no, this can't
• 37:01
  be done. No, that's not a good idea.
• 37:03
  No, don't do this. You can hear a lot of that.
• 37:05
  And you're going to have a hard time responding to that because
• 37:08
  this is not an area that you know anything about.
• 37:10
  I mean, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a clinician.
• 37:12
  I don't know the space. And I'm going to accept it
• 37:15
  because the professionals are telling me no.
• 37:17
  He says, here's my advice to you.
• 37:19
  Anybody who tells you no at this point is in your way.
• 37:22
  That person is not the right person.
• 37:24
  He's just in your way and now you know, you have to work a
• 37:28
  little bit harder and you got to go a little faster because you
• 37:30
  wasted your time. That person that said no was in
• 37:32
  your way. Go to the next person because
• 37:34
  he's not the only doctor. He's not the only surgeon, He's
• 37:37
  not the only practitioner. There are others who are going
• 37:40
  to say yes, so keep going. And it might sound like it's
• 37:43
  simplistic advice. It really may.
• 37:45
  But when I lived it in real time, I realized that if I would
• 37:49
  have listened to that guy who I thought knew it all came with a
• 37:51
  high reputation. And if I would have accepted
• 37:53
  that yes, at that moment, I wouldn't have found the next
• 37:56
  person who actually said yes and who's also as capable, who's
• 38:00
  also competent. That was the advice he gave me.
• 38:02
  And I told this to this Rep. I said you need to treat it in
• 38:05
  business the same way. There's millions of customers
• 38:08
  out there. It's not the only one.
• 38:10
  And even with this customer, they tell you no, it's because
• 38:12
  you didn't ask the right question or you didn't have that
• 38:14
  right interaction. He's in your way.
• 38:16
  Go to the next person in the organization.
• 38:18
  That was the advice and it sat with me and what you guys are
• 38:21
  talking about. And I feel like it just, it
• 38:23
  blends in very, very well. Don't accept no.
• 38:25
  It sounds easy. Don't accept no.
• 38:28
  I see the this the the trophy you have there from I guess your
• 38:30
  softball tournaments. Oh yes, right.
• 38:32
  When you think about a baseball or softball analogy, right, the
• 38:35
  best hitter in, in baseball average wise would probably
• 38:38
  someone who got hits three, you know, 350 or 303.350.
• 38:43
  It means they've, they failed 65% of the time.
• 38:45
  But you have to look at that and, and really put in front of
• 38:48
  you where you can get your successes, where you can get
• 38:50
  your wins and really focus on that.
• 38:52
  Because whether you're in sales, most you'll get 10 no's on the
• 38:56
  phone or 10 hang ups before you get one successful 1.
• 38:59
  You have to look at that in politics as well and really try
• 39:01
  and keep your, your head to the ground, your ear, you know, your
• 39:04
  ears and mine, your ears open and really focus on where you
• 39:07
  can make the successes. And and you know, no's can be
• 39:10
  turned into yeses of course, but it takes work.
• 39:13
  Yeah. And you don't look back and say,
• 39:15
  you know, I had a lot of failures in my life.
• 39:17
  You look back in and say I had a lot of learning lessons in my
• 39:19
  life, not a failure. If you look at a failure as that
• 39:22
  was an opportunity to grow, an opportunity not to repeat the
• 39:25
  same thing and understand I got to try something different and
• 39:28
  get a different outcome, then you'll never have any failures.
• 39:31
  It's just a lot of learning lessons.
• 39:32
  Yeah, I agree. I'm curious.
• 39:34
  Where'd you grow up, by the way? I'm curious about you.
• 39:36
  So about a mile away, 2 miles away from here in Pearl River.
• 39:40
  So my parents moved up from Brooklyn and Queens in 1969.
• 39:45
  My mother I guess was pregnant at the time I was born, I think
• 39:49
  8 months later after they moved up here.
• 39:50
  I was born in Nayak Hospital. So live, lived there for into my
• 39:55
  early 20s. Got married, moved to Nanuet for
• 39:58
  about a year or two years and then we built our home in
• 40:01
  Montebello. In 2006.
• 40:03
  So I've been there ever since with my wife and four kids.
• 40:06
  Beautiful. Wow, how is Montebello?
• 40:08
  It's a. Nice beautiful area Montebello.
• 40:11
  It's very beautiful. We are on a private road.
• 40:15
  We love where we are. It's we get bears and we get
• 40:18
  deer and we get, you know, all different type of wildlife, but
• 40:21
  it's. I think that bear came to visit
• 40:23
  me the other day also, by the way.
• 40:24
  That, This, that. Same beer.
• 40:26
  Yeah, he's been around the community for a.
• 40:27
  While, yeah, he goes all over the place, he gets around that.
• 40:30
  Bear, I think it's been doing its circle for a long time, but
• 40:33
  you know, it's nice to live in a community where you know, you
• 40:37
  can, you know, just go out in your backyard and listen to
• 40:40
  nature and or go on hiking trails in Kakiak Park or.
• 40:43
  Especially in the fall. When the fall is beautiful,
• 40:45
  nothing like it. We love living there and we we
• 40:47
  love the fact that, you know, we feel safe.
• 40:50
  We feel secure. We have great neighbors that
• 40:53
  we've got new, a lot of new neighbors.
• 40:55
  Do they vote for you? I hope so well.
• 40:57
  By the way, anybody who lives in your area didn't vote for you.
• 40:59
  You cut them off because that's not cool because they know who
• 41:02
  you are. So that gets a direct insult if
• 41:04
  they didn't vote. For you I have to tell.
• 41:05
  You no. It means that I need to do if,
• 41:07
  if they didn't, I need. I need to work and really show
• 41:10
  them that there's. That's what he's a politics.
• 41:12
  Exactly. Because I don't have that.
• 41:14
  I'm too emotional. Like if I would find out
• 41:16
  somebody didn't vote for me, I would have what to say to them
• 41:19
  and I would be like, I would attack them.
• 41:20
  I'd be like, what is like, why didn't you vote for me?
• 41:23
  What's the reason? What's the reason we don't find
• 41:24
  out? By the way, there's a reason why
• 41:26
  it's not made public. And some of the, some of the
• 41:30
  first things I did in 2022, the day after I I won is I went and
• 41:34
  spoke to a lot of community groups that didn't vote for me,
• 41:37
  saying that we're going to work hard every day for everyone.
• 41:42
  You know, you said that you feel safe and secure and, and I love
• 41:45
  that. And the truth is, you know, here
• 41:48
  in Rockland County, it's pretty safe.
• 41:49
  It's pretty secure, but you're a senator and it's the
• 41:53
  responsibility of just the local community is much more beyond
• 41:57
  that for Someone Like You. And therefore I'm curious, I
• 42:01
  don't feel that safe and secure anymore as a Jewish person.
• 42:04
  Visiting certain towns, visiting certain areas recently,
• 42:08
  listening to what happened around the the world around the
• 42:11
  globe, Just being Jewish is putting yourself in a situation
• 42:16
  where you don't feel as secure as you used to.
• 42:19
  How does government get involved in that?
• 42:20
  How can you as a person in the political landscape affect my
• 42:25
  life to make me feel more secure when I travel?
• 42:28
  What steps can you guys do to help us feel more secure?
• 42:33
  I'm just, I, I really am genuinely curious, other than
• 42:36
  the fact that, OK, you know, I could take lessons in karate or
• 42:40
  I can, you know. Carry a gun.
• 42:42
  Carrying permit exactly, you know, but I'm not talking about
• 42:45
  that extreme, I'm talking about from a more political landscape.
• 42:48
  What can be done and what's on your mind in terms of?
• 42:51
  Right, so I was happy to be appointed to the anti-Semitism
• 42:56
  working group that we went around the state to get
• 42:58
  testimony and we we did one in Rockland County as well to get
• 43:01
  testimony of experiences of anti-Semitic activities and
• 43:04
  anti-Semitic assaults and and and crimes against our Jewish
• 43:09
  residents. And this was before October 7th
• 43:11
  last year. So we were, we know there was a
• 43:13
  heightened increase in anti-Semitic activities in the
• 43:16
  state and we it was obviously further compounded and we saw
• 43:18
  what was going on throughout the state in the, in the nation,
• 43:21
  especially on college campuses. But we we need to keep our
• 43:25
  resolve up and we need to continually pass stronger laws
• 43:29
  again, you know, hate crime laws and other laws to really, really
• 43:34
  show that we're serious about addressing this issue.
• 43:38
  We need to, I think strengthen laws and penalize college
• 43:42
  universities and schools that are allowing this hate to be
• 43:44
  taught that we see a lot and not get to that whole free speech
• 43:48
  argument. But you know, I think what, what
• 43:50
  we know is what we saw on Capitol Hill and Harvard and
• 43:53
  Columbia and other these higher institution like the the
• 43:58
  president's came there and they couldn't even tell you what
• 43:59
  anti-Semitism was. And we we saw, we know what it
• 44:02
  is and we we saw what it is. The one thing that we did do in
• 44:05
  this year's state budget that was passed in April was we put
• 44:09
  an extra $35 million in, in grant money that's available to
• 44:14
  religious schools, shuls, houses of worship, that they can access
• 44:18
  grant money to increase their security there at their, at
• 44:23
  their facilities in terms of hardware, you know, doesn't,
• 44:25
  doesn't pay security. System doesn't pay for.
• 44:27
  Operating expenses, but cameras and such.
• 44:30
  We actually had a forum at RCC week before the election where
• 44:35
  we had and we invited a lot of these smaller nonprofit
• 44:38
  organizations to come in because navigating through the grand
• 44:42
  process in New York State is very difficult and if you're not
• 44:45
  a larger organization, you missed the deadlines, you don't
• 44:48
  get pre qualified. So we had a great turn out there
• 44:51
  of local school administrators and local, just all types of
• 44:58
  nonprofits that came there to to learn about how they can access
• 45:02
  the money. So it's more money in terms of.
• 45:05
  So let's break it down for a minute, if you don't mind.
• 45:06
  So number one is responsibility in terms of actions have
• 45:12
  consequences, right? And that's that's really great
• 45:16
  because you know what recently happened in Amsterdam?
• 45:18
  I saw this video I. Saw that did last night.
• 45:20
  And I was just, I was blown away.
• 45:23
  There was someone that was pushed into a river and they
• 45:25
  weren't allowing him to come out of the river and he was at risk
• 45:29
  of drowning until he screamed and free Palestine.
• 45:32
  And I was embarrassed for the person and I was hurting me
• 45:34
  inside. And I was thinking to myself,
• 45:37
  this person is being recorded. They're going to know who took
• 45:39
  the recording. If they don't punish that person
• 45:43
  to an extent where they don't, you know, never ever think of
• 45:46
  doing this again. It's not going to work.
• 45:48
  So you mentioned the, the idea of the hate crime and then
• 45:51
  you're talking about the, the idea of putting security
• 45:53
  measures, funding those cameras and systems.
• 45:57
  The other day I was walking in New York City.
• 46:00
  It was a there was a protest going on and I felt a little
• 46:03
  bit, you know, insecure and my surrounding.
• 46:06
  And I'm walking up by one of these, what was a beautiful
• 46:10
  hotel called the Roosevelt Hotel, which is now a playground
• 46:14
  for, you know, people that are coming in over the border.
• 46:18
  And I've been to beautiful weddings there and it's a shame.
• 46:19
  What? Happened.
• 46:20
  It's really a shame. And I'm walking by there and I
• 46:22
  was, I was scared because I saw someone holding, you know, you
• 46:26
  know, obviously flags that, you know, weren't welcoming to
• 46:29
  someone like me walking down that street.
• 46:31
  You know what I did at that moment?
• 46:33
  I took out my phone and I made believe that I'm live.
• 46:39
  And as I walked through the crowd, I said, we're live here
• 46:43
  right now in front of the Roosevelt Hotel.
• 46:45
  And they all stayed away from me.
• 46:47
  So I do want to mention that the idea of putting security cameras
• 46:51
  and funding the local, you know, areas of giving them the ability
• 46:56
  to put cameras is also an amazing idea.
• 46:59
  You know, together with fighting those crimes and making sure
• 47:02
  they punished properly. Let's continue down that road.
• 47:05
  What else can be done? What else is happening so that
• 47:08
  we can feel more secure knowing that?
• 47:10
  Like I don't have to pull out a camera and make believe I'm live
• 47:13
  when I'm walking down the streets of.
• 47:14
  This is what he's saying is the number one thing is to put a
• 47:19
  deterrent current for people to do such things, right.
• 47:22
  And the harsher you are and the more you criminalize it, it will
• 47:26
  limit people, Yeah. That's what I was curious.
• 47:28
  Right now they feel very brazen to do things like this because
• 47:31
  of our soft on crime policies. So somewhat especially, you
• 47:36
  know, in New York and other states as well, if we reinforce
• 47:40
  that and it's it's peace by force, it's making sure that
• 47:43
  people understand that we're strong and that we have resolve.
• 47:46
  And that if you step out of line and if you do any type of hate
• 47:50
  to any person, no matter what their background is, no matter
• 47:52
  what their creed is, I don't care what religion they are.
• 47:55
  But if you do any type of hate crime, you know, in America,
• 47:58
  everybody knows this. In America more than almost any
• 48:00
  other country, you're better off.
• 48:02
  You're better off murdering someone before you steal from
• 48:05
  the government. When you stood from the
• 48:06
  government, they have all kinds of repercussions.
• 48:09
  They'll put you away for 50 years, they'll put you away.
• 48:11
  And if you murder someone, I mean, they'll put you away, but
• 48:15
  it's not as bad. I mean, white collar crimes are
• 48:18
  known to have harsher, you know, like you would.
• 48:21
  Some would say that maybe the punishment doesn't fit the
• 48:23
  crime, but no. But why?
• 48:24
  Because that's the exact reason why we have to make a bigger
• 48:26
  deterrent because people think that's not so bad.
• 48:28
  I just started to murder anybody.
• 48:30
  I didn't rape anybody. And therefore people would feel
• 48:32
  more emboldened to do those types of crimes.
• 48:34
  That's the crime. You have to punish more.
• 48:36
  That's exactly the one that you have to do more.
• 48:38
  So when people feel like they can do whatever they want, they
• 48:41
  can go out in the streets and literally beat up someone
• 48:43
  because they're standing behind some type of free Palestine or
• 48:46
  whatever it might be. It doesn't give you the right to
• 48:47
  beat someone up in the in the in the street almost to death.
• 48:50
  You see the four or five guys standing around, there's one
• 48:53
  person on the ground, they're kicking him repeatedly,
• 48:55
  repeatedly, right. There has to be peace by force.
• 48:58
  We got it. And that's a very important
• 49:00
  thing. And that's the thing what the
• 49:01
  senator is saying. No, but that's is that we have
• 49:02
  to make sure that we're putting his place.
• 49:04
  Big punishment. So my question is and follow up
• 49:07
  on that and thank you, Ishi, which is perfectly said.
• 49:10
  Is that enough right now? Is the hate crime punishments
• 49:13
  enough today that it is a deterrent?
• 49:16
  You know is. There I think it's something we
• 49:17
  have to I think continually look at and continually monitor and
• 49:20
  you know, look at this statistics, but also really have
• 49:24
  those having those laws prosecuted, I think with real
• 49:28
  penalties, I think would be I think a big deterrent, as you
• 49:31
  said. But I think it also comes down
• 49:34
  to the fact that we need to have a better educated society,
• 49:38
  right? And I think it comes to the, to
• 49:41
  the fact that we need to make sure the kids are learning about
• 49:44
  the Holocaust more. You know, we, we have a, the
• 49:47
  Holocaust Museum at RCC is, is amazing if you haven't gone to
• 49:51
  it and visited. You should.
• 49:52
  You should go there. A lot of the schools are going
• 49:55
  and requiring the the the classes.
• 49:57
  I think it starts in middle school for kids to go in and see
• 50:00
  what what happened because. I didn't even know that it
• 50:03
  existed. Me neither, I'm hearing this.
• 50:04
  History repeats itself. And you know, I saw something
• 50:07
  yesterday that said never again is happening now, right, Right.
• 50:09
  So we need to make sure that education and we got to do it at
• 50:12
  the early ages because I think we we need to make sure that the
• 50:15
  next generation is educated as as to what happened and and we
• 50:19
  need to make sure it doesn't happen again.
• 50:20
  But it takes and continual education.
• 50:23
  Of the younger generation. Look, you know that's what I was
• 50:25
  referring to earlier, right? Is what, you know, what is
• 50:27
  second step? Education.
• 50:29
  Step of education. Is stemming it at the roots
• 50:31
  where it's starting from, You know, if you eradicate that,
• 50:34
  you'll have less of a problem later on.
• 50:36
  But right now, unfortunately, you know, the colleges, right, A
• 50:38
  lot of these campuses, that's where it's all coming from.
• 50:41
  They're they're misleaded. They're breeding ground.
• 50:43
  They're breeding ground for hate right now.
• 50:44
  And we've seen it and it was exposed during right during post
• 50:47
  October 7th last year. We saw what what, what went on.
• 50:51
  But we also know that we have a lot of people around the world
• 50:54
  that are funding right these, they're putting money into these
• 50:57
  endowment funds, people that are just affiliated with bad actors
• 51:00
  around the world that are really.
• 51:02
  They're perpetuating it. It's terrible.
• 51:04
  You know, by the way, in our little circles, I think
• 51:06
  everybody in this room, like, you know, this, we see what's
• 51:09
  going on. We're very well aware of what's
• 51:10
  happening. How could you not?
• 51:12
  It's all over the place. It's rampant.
• 51:13
  But let's just like on the flip side, remember that I get along
• 51:17
  with, you know, the people in our community And like in my
• 51:20
  inner circles, you know, you have a Muslim people, Black
• 51:23
  people, Hispanic people, Jewish people, Christian.
• 51:27
  We work with all of them and we get along like, let's not forget
• 51:30
  about the good. And a lot of mainstream, this
• 51:33
  doesn't really happen. We don't care what background
• 51:35
  you're from. We don't care what they do.
• 51:36
  We're all humans. We're all here to make our lives
• 51:38
  as best as we possibly can, right?
• 51:40
  We're just trying to make a living, support our families,
• 51:43
  have a little fun little recreation, never hurt anybody.
• 51:47
  And there's a lot of good going on and all you see on the news
• 51:50
  and all you see is all the, The Dirty parts, all the, the
• 51:54
  detrimental things that are happening around the, you're
• 51:56
  seeing that unfortunately. And let's not forget there's a
• 51:59
  lot of good Senator, right? There's a lot of good that we
• 52:01
  also need to remember and focus on that a little bit too.
• 52:04
  For every 10 minutes of bad media, let's give 2 minutes of a
• 52:08
  nice story. Let's remind everybody, hey,
• 52:10
  here's a beautiful story that happened in the community.
• 52:12
  Let's do a little bit more of. That unfortunately the media
• 52:14
  doesn't highlight the good, the good in the world.
• 52:16
  It's, you know, negative or, or controversy sells more on the
• 52:19
  media forms. But you know, as, as I've gone
• 52:23
  around our our entire district, whether it's people to people,
• 52:26
  which is a food bank or whether it's Tomko Chavez, we have so
• 52:30
  many great organizations and people that are donating their
• 52:32
  time and really making a difference in this world and
• 52:35
  right, we should be celebrating them more.
• 52:37
  And that, that's why, you know, we attend those, you know, as we
• 52:39
  talked about earlier, I, I attend other events, but we, we
• 52:42
  go and visit all our nonprofits as well, because there's so much
• 52:46
  great greatness going on in our community.
• 52:48
  Whether it's like I said, no matter where we are in the
• 52:50
  district, we have great organizations that are doing
• 52:53
  great work everyday, work that government can't do or wouldn't
• 52:56
  do as well as they do it because people's hearts and minds are
• 52:59
  behind it. But unfortunately, in this day
• 53:01
  in politic and and in media, the the goodness of everyone doesn't
• 53:04
  necessarily get get highlighted. And it should.
• 53:07
  And maybe, maybe if they were more people would would would
• 53:10
  participate in those goodness and really do it instead of
• 53:13
  being online as I call keyboard warriors, talking about all the
• 53:16
  negativity and why we should all fear each other rather than
• 53:19
  embrace everyone. Keyboard warriors.
• 53:21
  That's that's a good name I'm curious about.
• 53:26
  You're a senator. There aren't many of you.
• 53:29
  This is a very rare type of job that you have that most of
• 53:35
  Americans do not have. Can you give us a little glimpse
• 53:38
  into what your day typically looks like when you wake up and
• 53:41
  you're not coming to do a podcast?
• 53:42
  You don't have anything major on your agenda.
• 53:44
  You're just going to work today, right?
• 53:46
  And you're going to do your thing, you know, nine to five,
• 53:48
  let's assume obviously you're probably working many, many
• 53:51
  hours beyond that. But your responsibility wise,
• 53:53
  you go to an office in the morning and you sit down on the
• 53:55
  overs, you make calls, you bring in for me.
• 53:57
  What does your day look like from when you wake up until you
• 54:00
  come back home? Right.
• 54:01
  So it's, it's kind of different between the beginning of the
• 54:03
  year and the end of the year. So starting January 1st, we go
• 54:07
  back or January 3rd or 4th, whatever, we go to Albany.
• 54:10
  So we're not in session from June 10th or 9th through the end
• 54:14
  of the year. So we're back in our district.
• 54:16
  We could be at the call of the governor for special sessions,
• 54:18
  which you know happened, but they're infrequent.
• 54:21
  So from January to June, a lot of my time is spent, majority of
• 54:26
  my time is spent in Albany. You're up there two or three
• 54:28
  days a week when you get towards April towards the budget being
• 54:32
  due or towards the end of the legislative session when all the
• 54:35
  bills get passed. You're up there five days a
• 54:38
  week. But during those five days a
• 54:40
  week or three days a week, I'm back in the district either at
• 54:43
  night, you know, I come home and at night or on the weekend,
• 54:45
  depending on, you know, when we, when we get finished there.
• 54:48
  So a lot of time is spent in Albany at, you know, that
• 54:50
  January to June cycle from June or mid June through through the
• 54:54
  end of the year does. Everybody stay in the same hotel
• 54:56
  in Albany, Like how does that work?
• 54:57
  Like they don't. So I think the younger
• 54:59
  generation stays in the. Airbnb well.
• 55:03
  Stays in in in Albany, closer to the capital.
• 55:05
  They like to go out, but kind of the old, some of the old timers,
• 55:09
  I stay in the same hotel with Semkefelder.
• 55:12
  You know, being in my mid 50s, I stay with the older generation
• 55:16
  because when we're done for the day, I don't need to go out.
• 55:18
  Been there, done that. So I kind of stay a little bit
• 55:21
  off the beaten path, but it's, we don't all stay in the same
• 55:25
  place. But, you know, I, we, I think we
• 55:27
  all tried our own course, but through through the January to
• 55:30
  June, we're in Albany through June, through December, we're
• 55:33
  primarily in our district office.
• 55:35
  Our district office is in Nanuet 163 Airport Executive Park near
• 55:39
  Costco, which is a great spot because we can be at any point
• 55:42
  in our district in 20 minutes. But you're right, it's not a
• 55:44
  nine to five job. There's been times I've been in
• 55:46
  Albany, I've come back for a wedding in our district that
• 55:49
  night on a Monday night or a Tuesday night, and then go back
• 55:51
  to Albany right after. It's only an hour and 45
• 55:54
  minutes. You know, when I was in in the
• 55:57
  private sector as an accountant coming out of Rockland, I had
• 55:59
  clients in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
• 56:01
  Trust me that that's a worse commute than driving up and down
• 56:04
  the Thruway where you can schedule all your calls and you
• 56:06
  can get, you know, work done and accomplished in that ride
• 56:09
  itself. And it's an easy ride.
• 56:11
  And, but, you know, Jan, June through December, we're visiting
• 56:14
  camps in the summer, we're visiting schools where we're
• 56:16
  going out giving accommodation, accommodation awards or Empire
• 56:20
  awards to recognize nonprofits and businesses.
• 56:23
  And really going out and having senior fairs and Veterans
• 56:26
  Affairs and all these other type of community events to really
• 56:30
  listen to what our our our residents need and bring those,
• 56:33
  you know, experiences and those that information back to Albany
• 56:36
  for the next legislative cycle. Wow, what is the biggest #1 like
• 56:42
  accomplishment that you would be very proud that in 10 years from
• 56:46
  now we could all look back and, you know, we're enjoying
• 56:48
  whatever the results were then. But we can say, oh, you know,
• 56:51
  Senator Bill Weber, I mean, he was a pioneer.
• 56:54
  He was a trailblazer on there. What is that one thing, not
• 56:56
  necessarily that you maybe you won't or will accomplish.
• 56:59
  You're not putting any pressure. But what would be a nice, what
• 57:01
  would, what means something to you, what's personal to you to
• 57:04
  say that this is something I had a part in and, and I'm glad that
• 57:07
  I did. It was a lot of work.
• 57:08
  But here we are now at this point, it wasn't easy, but we
• 57:11
  got it done. What would be something
• 57:12
  personal? So it's going to be on the
• 57:13
  school related matters and you know, we were we're successful
• 57:17
  and proud to accomplish getting private school families busing
• 57:20
  in Suffern Central School District.
• 57:22
  There was a lot of challenges for the last 8-9 years with with
• 57:26
  private school families not being satisfied and not getting
• 57:30
  the services that they needed with their families in terms of
• 57:33
  the public schools do a great job in terms of scheduling the
• 57:36
  busing for the public schools. It's easier.
• 57:38
  It's one high school, 1 middle school, maybe 5 elementary
• 57:40
  schools and all of those start and end times are, you know,
• 57:44
  more consistent when you have private schools, you know, you
• 57:47
  have larger families, but you also have different bell times,
• 57:49
  the kids, younger kids start earlier, the older schools.
• 57:52
  So you had a lot of challenges. We were able to through through
• 57:55
  consistent with consistent advocacy with and meeting with
• 58:00
  the some school board members and administration and
• 58:02
  suffering. We got them to allow a large
• 58:06
  number, at least a number of nearly 500 students were able to
• 58:10
  get busing through their own through their own yeshivas or
• 58:14
  through their own private schools.
• 58:17
  And it's going to be a, a, a great improvement for them.
• 58:19
  And I I've we've already gotten great positive feedback.
• 58:22
  I think it was about 25% of the kids now in Suffern Central have
• 58:25
  busing through their own schools and.
• 58:27
  That that is a big one and it. Didn't cost the district any
• 58:29
  more money, which is important because from the public school
• 58:31
  point of view, the the whole back what could be, well, it's
• 58:34
  going to cost the district more money.
• 58:35
  We don't want to do it. We're going to utilize it
• 58:37
  through our own system. We're able to show them that
• 58:39
  it's not going to cost them more money and they were open minded
• 58:42
  in in looking at this new system.
• 58:44
  You, you don't have to wait 10 years.
• 58:45
  That's something that you. Yeah.
• 58:46
  Feel good about actively happening, right?
• 58:48
  And and we'll hopefully we know the district, we'll, we'll see
• 58:52
  the successes of it and build towards that.
• 58:54
  But we'll also, I think showed surrounding districts where
• 58:58
  you're having a large increase in private school families,
• 59:00
  Clarkstown, N Rockland, Nanuet, that they're going to have
• 59:03
  similar challenges. The families that are moving in
• 59:05
  there will have similar challenges and we can at least
• 59:08
  show those districts that it didn't have any negative impact
• 59:11
  on. Budget.
• 59:12
  You have a template now for the others.
• 59:14
  It didn't be done. Negatively on the budget, but it
• 59:16
  also says that you can have peace and harmony and everyone
• 59:18
  can feel satisfied with this well.
• 59:19
  Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
• 59:21
  And I just have to ask you, because this has been in our
• 59:24
  community spoken about many times when it comes to busing,
• 59:27
  why can't I know when the bus is coming to pick up my child?
• 59:32
  We have the technology. It's available in city buses.
• 59:35
  You mean like a like a tracker? Tracker that where the bus is up
• 59:38
  here. And by the way, Senator, if you
• 59:40
  don't mind me pushing my little agenda here, I as a parent am
• 59:44
  willing to pay a monthly fee to just see when is the bus going
• 59:48
  to be there, so to sit out and talk.
• 59:50
  To your wife, because I have a feeling that you're not aware of
• 59:52
  this, but most neighbourhoods have a chat, a WhatsApp chat,
• 59:57
  no? No, no, I know they have a chat.
• 59:58
  I know. I don't know what happens.
• 59:59
  I'm very aware of. This the bus shows up to the
• 1:00:01
  1st. Person and then everyone lets
• 1:00:02
  them know when it's coming. Exactly.
• 1:00:04
  Everybody has a heads up where the bus stop to.
• 1:00:05
  That's not. I, I think there's, it's been
• 1:00:07
  talked about. I I've heard some of the
• 1:00:09
  districts talk about getting an app on the phone where the
• 1:00:11
  parents can know where their child's bus.
• 1:00:13
  Is that's what I'm. There was some privacy issues
• 1:00:15
  that I think there were a lot of a lot of families were concerned
• 1:00:17
  also saying by. The way, Michael, really, this
• 1:00:20
  is what you talk about? Busing.
• 1:00:22
  We have a senator sitting there talking about an hour and you
• 1:00:24
  want to get an app that tracks a bus?
• 1:00:26
  Absolutely. But it's no, it's, I think it's
• 1:00:28
  an important. And by the way, I don't have
• 1:00:29
  kids in school that it matters to me.
• 1:00:30
  Anymore I don't even have. Kids, I'm talking about people
• 1:00:32
  in the community, and this is what they're talking about every
• 1:00:34
  day. You know, in the winter it's
• 1:00:36
  freezing to have your child. I disagree.
• 1:00:38
  I disagree. This is not what community
• 1:00:40
  people are talking about. We have a lot more pressing.
• 1:00:42
  You're talking about bussing. So we're I was talking about
• 1:00:44
  busing because it came up. There was privacy about, you
• 1:00:47
  know, if someone has a family where maybe the the mother has
• 1:00:50
  custody and the father doesn't, he has access to the app or
• 1:00:53
  there's people, you know, bad actors that can get information
• 1:00:55
  about where the buses are going. So there there's some privacy
• 1:00:58
  issues that they're going to work.
• 1:00:59
  Through What's the community talking?
• 1:01:01
  About not this. What is it not this what the
• 1:01:03
  team was talking? Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:04
  What are they talking about? I don't know why can't we have
• 1:01:06
  more bars? Why is there, why are drinks so
• 1:01:09
  expensive? Like why do I have to really
• 1:01:11
  $18.00 for a Margarita when that's the question?
• 1:01:13
  Like 3 years ago it was like $9. You know that those are things
• 1:01:17
  that real Americans, Michael. Struggle.
• 1:01:18
  You're paying on that one. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:20
  I'm a lot of. I'm a lot of.
• 1:01:21
  Chime in every once in a while I actually have something to say.
• 1:01:24
  What about the traffic? Yeah, could.
• 1:01:26
  We talk about that, the infrastructure of the traffic,
• 1:01:28
  it's crazy how it. Takes.
• 1:01:30
  Would you like to send it to put on a yellow vest and no.
• 1:01:34
  There's got we, we discussed it actually, we talked about this
• 1:01:36
  podcast priority, priority coming in and starting, but you
• 1:01:39
  know, that's a it's a big need in our in our community.
• 1:01:41
  Now we, we have a growing community in Rockland County
• 1:01:44
  and, and the infrastructure dates back and, and was designed
• 1:01:48
  for what Rockland was 40 or 50 years ago and rather than what
• 1:01:51
  it's going to be in the next 40 and 50 years.
• 1:01:53
  And I think we as a, as representatives in our district,
• 1:01:56
  but also as a state have never made the investment that I, that
• 1:01:59
  I feel has been necessary to really be innovative and be
• 1:02:02
  forward thinking. And that may mean widening Route
• 1:02:05
  59 in certain parts and that may mean putting sidewalks in, in a
• 1:02:09
  lot of newer areas that haven't been considered in the past.
• 1:02:12
  And that may mean reducing speed limits on 2O2 and Wesley Hills
• 1:02:16
  where it's 50 miles an hour, where you have, you know, you
• 1:02:19
  have people walking and riding their bikes in on a, on a, on a
• 1:02:22
  shoulder that's about 3 feet wide.
• 1:02:24
  I think we need to say what is Rockland and this area going to
• 1:02:28
  be in the next 50 years? And let's plan for that
• 1:02:30
  accordingly. And let's put the money away,
• 1:02:31
  whether it's at the state level, bringing that in or at the local
• 1:02:34
  level, factoring in that those are our responsibilities to make
• 1:02:38
  sure that we have our our residents are, that are walking,
• 1:02:41
  are safe and it leads into the hole.
• 1:02:43
  We'll talk about busing. You have a lot, a lot of, you
• 1:02:46
  know, busing incidents, bus accidents, kids getting off the
• 1:02:49
  bus and in areas at bus stops that are not the safest because
• 1:02:53
  there's, you know, not enough sidewalks, there's not enough
• 1:02:56
  area on the road. I think all of those things
• 1:02:59
  factor into where we need to be over the next 50 years and, and
• 1:03:03
  really make the investment starting now because you can't
• 1:03:05
  do it all at once. You have to do it in pieces.
• 1:03:07
  But if you have a plan going forward, I think it makes for a
• 1:03:10
  better and more safe. OK, yeah, I agree.
• 1:03:12
  Listen, it's very normal. You know, the, the city is
• 1:03:15
  growing, you know, we're expanding and infrastructure's
• 1:03:17
  got to go along with it. And it takes time.
• 1:03:19
  You know, I I I respect that. I'm curious, what what does it
• 1:03:21
  take to get a street named after you?
• 1:03:24
  Like, at what point did you, like, make it?
• 1:03:26
  And they're like, ah, let's name the street Senator Bill Weber
• 1:03:29
  St. Like, what happens?
• 1:03:30
  How does that work? Well, no, we're not aiming one
• 1:03:33
  after me. What I will tell you is like we
• 1:03:34
  we did a street naming recently that we passed the legislation.
• 1:03:37
  Who decides what to name streets even to begin with?
• 1:03:39
  Who decides that? It depends.
• 1:03:40
  So at the state, I'd love to. I don't know who named my street
• 1:03:42
  Boar Court, but who thought it was a good idea.
• 1:03:45
  Let's name this street after a boar like.
• 1:03:47
  Probably in those cases, probably the developer, right.
• 1:03:50
  We we talked about being in the development business for for
• 1:03:53
  myself years ago. They got the pick.
• 1:03:55
  It's not like a citywide or statewide thing.
• 1:03:57
  No, no, not the local roads, no, but on the state roads, yeah.
• 1:04:00
  So for example, over in Spark Hill to Pan area, Spark Hill, we
• 1:04:05
  we renamed a road after a long time administrator at Saint
• 1:04:10
  Thomas Aquinas. So Route 340, which is a state
• 1:04:12
  road, we renamed a portion of that road.
• 1:04:15
  I announced 2 weeks ago up in Garnerville area, we're gonna
• 1:04:18
  rename part of Route 202. Well, she wants a street named
• 1:04:21
  after him. How does he go about that
• 1:04:22
  process? No, no, no, no, I don't want.
• 1:04:24
  Any for for us if that's. True.
• 1:04:26
  I just wanna know, like what the process is and who's naming the.
• 1:04:28
  It's a lot of power for someone to have to be able to just give
• 1:04:31
  a name to a street that's now landmarked forever.
• 1:04:33
  So it's a big deal. Maybe I could sit in that board.
• 1:04:36
  I'd love to be a part of that. I also wanna know, like, who
• 1:04:38
  people come up with these strangest names.
• 1:04:41
  Sometimes you come in the street.
• 1:04:41
  Like what? What's it called?
• 1:04:43
  Like, how do you spell that? It's a strange thing.
• 1:04:45
  I'm just curious about I'm. So for state roads that are
• 1:04:47
  existing, because the state roads are there, we can rename
• 1:04:50
  portion of them with state legislation.
• 1:04:52
  I, I carry the bill in the Senate.
• 1:04:54
  My counterparts in the Assembly will do it.
• 1:04:55
  The governor passes it and we change that name.
• 1:04:58
  Terms of local towns and villages.
• 1:04:59
  They've recently renamed portions of, you know, various
• 1:05:03
  towns and villages after, you know, police officers that have
• 1:05:06
  passed away or firemen or, or, or community minded people as
• 1:05:09
  well. But I think when it comes to new
• 1:05:11
  private streets or, or new developments, I think the
• 1:05:14
  developers have a say in terms of what what those names are
• 1:05:17
  going to be on those streets. I think years ago we built the
• 1:05:21
  development right outside the Gary Goldberg's mansion in
• 1:05:24
  Montebello by the mansion there. And we had we had something to
• 1:05:27
  say in terms of what those streets were being called.
• 1:05:29
  What's the Gary Goldberg's mansion?
• 1:05:31
  Oh, it's, it's on Montebello Rd. It's a big old house that was, I
• 1:05:36
  think occupied by Thomas Ryan years ago, and it's now an
• 1:05:40
  office development. But I remember at that point
• 1:05:43
  being involved in some of the street naming.
• 1:05:45
  So I can't comment on why a lot of those street names are named
• 1:05:49
  after, you know, after those people.
• 1:05:52
  But I I know that on local developments they have a they
• 1:05:55
  have a say in. It.
• 1:05:55
  Weren't you a developer in your area?
• 1:05:57
  Weren't you a part of that development team?
• 1:05:59
  Yeah. So did you have a part in naming
• 1:06:01
  the streets? Well, no.
• 1:06:02
  We came after the streets were named, but one of the streets
• 1:06:04
  were named after a firefighter that was lost the 9/11.
• 1:06:07
  And they got right so. That's exactly right.
• 1:06:09
  Which part was hard name to pronounce?
• 1:06:10
  Sikorsky. Greg Sikorsky.
• 1:06:12
  Yeah. And.
• 1:06:13
  But we're proud to live on a street that's named after
• 1:06:16
  someone who was a hero. A.
• 1:06:17
  Local. That's a very nice story.
• 1:06:19
  Like if I would live in a street named Greg Sikorsky St. and some
• 1:06:22
  of you know, I have a story to tell him now.
• 1:06:24
  Like I, I have a reason to enjoy the name of my street, you know,
• 1:06:28
  versus like I'm embarrassed to tell someone boar court spelled
• 1:06:31
  BOAR and make sure to tell them how it's spelled also, because
• 1:06:34
  it could be anything. As you know, a few I'm going.
• 1:06:36
  To petition to change your name of your street.
• 1:06:38
  So how do I go about that center?
• 1:06:39
  The street next to me, by the way, is called Stag, and I think
• 1:06:42
  Stag is more appealing. The name Stag is like, you know,
• 1:06:44
  has it has much more, you know, it's a nicer name.
• 1:06:47
  Especially any final questions before we wrap?
• 1:06:49
  This up I have so many questions.
• 1:06:52
  Can I come work for you? Can I just like can I spend some
• 1:06:54
  time? Can I just like tail you for a
• 1:06:56
  day or? Two, actually, you know, I'll
• 1:06:58
  tell you a funny story. So we have two interns that
• 1:07:00
  worked with us over the summer, but during last legislative
• 1:07:03
  cycle, it was done through the League of Women Voters.
• 1:07:06
  Students came up from the high schools here to shadow US,
• 1:07:09
  shadow US senator for the day. And we had two, two young girls
• 1:07:12
  that that shattered us for the day.
• 1:07:14
  They came into conference with us when we went into executive
• 1:07:16
  session. Obviously they had to leave, but
• 1:07:18
  they shouted us from my office to our conference before we were
• 1:07:22
  going to the floor, to the Senate floor.
• 1:07:24
  So we can maybe you'll you'll come shadow us for a day and see
• 1:07:27
  the day in the life of. As long as you agree to shadow
• 1:07:30
  ushi. OK, I will.
• 1:07:32
  No, no. His life is way more interesting
• 1:07:33
  than mine. I just work a lot.
• 1:07:35
  I work a lot. But this is, you know, Michael.
• 1:07:37
  We should do it together, by the way.
• 1:07:39
  And do you think we should get into politics, the two of us?
• 1:07:41
  What do you think? I think so.
• 1:07:42
  Do you have any other aspirations beyond this?
• 1:07:44
  Like, are you going to be one day running for the US, you
• 1:07:48
  know, for Congress, for US senator?
• 1:07:50
  I know President what's what. I'm very happy where I am right
• 1:07:53
  now. Again, he's by the way, this
• 1:07:56
  guy, he's, he's the real place. He knows what to say.
• 1:07:59
  Absolutely, Senator, I just want to say again, congratulations.
• 1:08:01
  Thank you. Thank you for everything you do
• 1:08:03
  on behalf of the community. It is a pleasure to get to know
• 1:08:06
  you more personally, and I'm happy that our listeners have a
• 1:08:08
  chance to also get to know you more.
• 1:08:10
  And we look forward to many amazing, great things that
• 1:08:13
  you're going to be doing for us, for our community, for our
• 1:08:14
  families, for yourself, and for all the people around you.
• 1:08:18
  And just want to wish you a lot of good luck and everything that
• 1:08:20
  you're we're doing. And with God's help we will will
• 1:08:23
  persevere and all do good things and there will be peace amongst
• 1:08:26
  us. Hopefully not through force.
• 1:08:27
  And we don't need that. But you know, we do what we need
• 1:08:29
  to do. Amen, brother.
• 1:08:31
  Amen. Just what any final?
• 1:08:33
  That would lesson I would I would hope that everyone in our
• 1:08:36
  community if we talk about the good and the bad.
• 1:08:38
  But if people sat down and did this, no matter what your
• 1:08:41
  political affiliation is, no matter where you live, what walk
• 1:08:45
  of life, if people talk to each other rather than at each other,
• 1:08:47
  I think we may we'd have a better society.
• 1:08:49
  As we need a big. We need a big civic lesson.
• 1:08:52
  Hallelujah. I love that Senator, really.
• 1:08:54
  Thank you so much for coming. We really appreciate that.
• 1:08:56
  Thank you. Thank you again.
• 1:08:58
  Prime source for sponsoring another amazing episode.
• 1:09:01
  Please don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, get
• 1:09:03
  involved, and it's a wrap. Have a great day everybody.