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Interview Only w/ Jerry Demings - Can A Democrat Win Statewide In Florida? · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: so use that code well. Joining me now is, as
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  Speaker 1: many of you know, I may not be an official
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  Speaker 1: resident of Florida, but I still am a Floridian, which
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  Speaker 1: means I'm always going to over index on Florida politicians
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  Speaker 1: on this podcast. And joining me now is the mayor
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  Speaker 1: of Orange County, also a candidate for governor. It is
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  Speaker 1: Jerry Demings, your mayor. Welcome to the podcast.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, glad to be here.
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  Speaker 1: I'll admit so I did a little research, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: admit there's something in here that I was that you
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  Speaker 1: have a terrific unusual background for a politician. The reason
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  Speaker 1: I say this is that it's not every day that
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  Speaker 1: there are elected officials whose first trade was accountant. And
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  Speaker 1: given how we have so many governments who don't know
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  Speaker 1: how to balance books at all, I think we could
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  Speaker 1: use some more accountants in politics. Tell me how do
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  Speaker 1: you go from accountant to police officer to sheriff to mayor?
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  Speaker 1: Tell me about accounting? About that past.
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  Speaker 2: So, yes, I'm a graduate of Florida State University, where
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  Speaker 2: I studied.
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  Speaker 1: All that against it, I tease that, And I'm married
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  Speaker 1: to a knowle.
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  Speaker 2: It happens, it does happen, And so am I a
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  Speaker 2: mayor to a no. But when I was undergraduate, I
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  Speaker 2: was highly recruited by various federal law enforcement agencies. But
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  Speaker 2: when I got to graduation, the first job that I
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  Speaker 2: took was as an accountant. But while I was working
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  Speaker 2: for about a years an accountant, the federal government continued
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  Speaker 2: to pursue me, and quite frankly, they convinced me that
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  Speaker 2: a career in law enforcement might be a good career
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  Speaker 2: for me. Secondly, I saw some things happening in my
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  Speaker 2: neighborhook that I didn't like, where the neighborhood was becoming
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  Speaker 2: infested in drugs. I had a brother was addicted to heroin,
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  Speaker 2: and I was just frustrated, but I wanted to do
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  Speaker 2: something about it, and so I applied to the Orlando
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  Speaker 2: Police Department, and obviously I got hired. I thought I
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  Speaker 2: would stay there for a year, and I ended up
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  Speaker 2: staying there for twenty one plus years and rising from
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  Speaker 2: a police officer street comp to chief of Police and
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  Speaker 2: had the privilege of being appointed you police in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: nine to eight. But the accounting kind of helped me
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  Speaker 2: to run the agency because it wasn't just about public
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  Speaker 2: safety at that point. I was brought in, you know,
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  Speaker 2: several hundred million dollar operation at that point, and it
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  Speaker 2: just kind of set me up perfectly for what I'm
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  Speaker 2: doing today because I started out at the local level,
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  Speaker 2: the granular level, understanding the true needs of people who
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  Speaker 2: struggle within their communities.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I was born and raised in Miami, and
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  Speaker 1: I noticed that you're born and raised in Orlando. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've gotten this because I get it. It's
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  Speaker 1: like nobody's born in Miami, nobody's born in Orlando. Everybody
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  Speaker 1: moves to Orlando, but you're a native, and that's interesting
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  Speaker 1: to me because you've seen you know, I've always say
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  Speaker 1: Florida has changed more than it's not changed as far
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  Speaker 1: as my experiences have been. You know, you know, I've
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  Speaker 1: left Miami in nineteen ninety. By two thousand, Miami was
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  Speaker 1: more different than it was the same. And that's just
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  Speaker 1: the story of Florida. Florida's always growing, it's always changing.
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  Speaker 1: But talk about Orlando in the eighties when you became
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  Speaker 1: a police officer to what Orlando is today.
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  Speaker 2: So and back to her the eighties. At that time,
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  Speaker 2: it was a period of call for reform of the
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  Speaker 2: nation's law enforcement agencies. We came off of Arriot in
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  Speaker 2: the nineteen eighty period of time, and I.
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  Speaker 1: Was starting all over Florida. We had three of them
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  Speaker 1: in Miami in the eighties.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're correct. It was happening all over Florida,
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  Speaker 2: all over the country. And so as I entered law enforcement,
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  Speaker 2: there were these calls for police reform. And so here
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  Speaker 2: I am forty five years later, and I will tell
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  Speaker 2: you that there's still calls a police reform, but today
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  Speaker 2: that call is for police reform of our federal immigration
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  Speaker 2: and customs enforcement agents more so than the state of
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  Speaker 2: locals and so Florida. My entire forty five year career
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  Speaker 2: of a public has always been a call to take
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  Speaker 2: a look at the way we do business as a
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement agency, as a local government. And so I've
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  Speaker 2: had the opportunity now to live through four and a
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  Speaker 2: half decades of change, concert change, and so here i
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  Speaker 2: am today. I say that that experience of being here
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  Speaker 2: at the granular level has adequately prepared me for the
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  Speaker 2: state wide level. Now. Over these years, I've been able
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  Speaker 2: to have appointments to different state oversight commissions, to federal
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  Speaker 2: oversight commissions. I had an opportunity during the Obama administration
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  Speaker 2: to be appointed to the FEMA National Advisory Council. I
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  Speaker 2: had the opportunity to speak on behalf of the nation's
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement agencies and how to bring about change as
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  Speaker 2: part of different national committees, and the same with the
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  Speaker 2: State of Florida. Had opportunity to serve on the Criminal
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  Speaker 2: Justice Standards and Training Commission here in Florida that regulates
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement agencies, and I've enjoyed doing it. But also
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  Speaker 2: I've had the opportunity to really delve into some of
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  Speaker 2: the most significant issues facing just working class people here
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  Speaker 2: within our state. And that has set me up perfectly
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  Speaker 2: to be a mayor now, you know, and been a
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  Speaker 2: shaff lease, chief mayor, deputy county administrator.
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  Speaker 3: All of those things, the sun total of those things
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  Speaker 3: gave me experience, broad experience by wish to govern, and
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  Speaker 3: also the measure the performance of our state and local
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  Speaker 3: governments over the years.
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  Speaker 1: Let me go to law enforcement training. What's the look?
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  Speaker 1: There's no one. I don't want to sit here and
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  Speaker 1: say there's just one answer here. But is it better
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  Speaker 1: recruiting or better training? That should be the focus? You
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  Speaker 1: know it should be? You know, is it you got
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  Speaker 1: to recruit a certain type of person, of a certain
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  Speaker 1: type of character or training matters more than anything what
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  Speaker 1: would be your you know what matters more here?
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  Speaker 2: What matters is not one of those things, but all
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  Speaker 2: of them. You got to hire the right people in
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  Speaker 2: the first place. And today, in the competitive hiring environment
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  Speaker 2: that law enforcement or public service binds themselves in in general,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of competition out there, and if you're
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  Speaker 2: not careful because of the competition, your lower your standards,
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  Speaker 2: and sometimes by lowering your standards, you're not going to
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  Speaker 2: get the right people through the door in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: This is a huge problem, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they could be ethically compromised, but then training. Once
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  Speaker 2: you focus on getting the right people who have backgrounds
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  Speaker 2: with the desired kinds of backgrounds that you want to
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  Speaker 2: see from a hiring perspective, then you have to train
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  Speaker 2: them adequately. And then the third piece really is you
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  Speaker 2: have to provide adequate supervision. If you lead men and
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  Speaker 2: women to the human experience out there, sometimes they'll make
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  Speaker 2: a poor decision they need because of the lack of
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  Speaker 2: experience of what happened. You need to have good supervision.
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  Speaker 2: And the fourth piece you have is you have to
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  Speaker 2: hold an account That means you have to have the
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  Speaker 2: appropriate discipline. One of the things that we've seen now
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  Speaker 2: with the frustration the immigration and customs enforcement, they've had
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  Speaker 2: to ramp up so quickly because the President forced this
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  Speaker 2: quick ramp up until they didn't have time to really
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  Speaker 2: adequately scream and hire the right people. Then, secondly, they
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  Speaker 2: didn't provide adequate training because they wanted to get them
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  Speaker 2: in the field so quickly, they cut the training in short.
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  Speaker 2: And then the third thing is they haven't really supervised them.
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  Speaker 2: They don't have well experienced people who are doing the supervision.
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  Speaker 2: And then lastly, they didn't hold them accountable and as
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  Speaker 2: a result of that we saw some outcomes that appear
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  Speaker 2: very cruel to Americans. Regardless of what party you're in,
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  Speaker 2: it was cruel. We saw some consequences of that that. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: when you put law enforcement officers out there with a
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  Speaker 2: gun on where they can have the authority to use
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  Speaker 2: deadly force or force, that force needs to be appropriate
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  Speaker 2: given the circumstances, and good law enforcement agencies are trained
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  Speaker 2: to avoid the use of deadly force if they can.
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  Speaker 2: But you got to have all of those ingredients that
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  Speaker 2: I just talked about in order to avoid a calamity.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why we have seen now the challenges that
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  Speaker 2: we have with immigration and customed enforcement. Now, of course,
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  Speaker 2: we all agree that you want to get the worst
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  Speaker 2: or the worst off of our streets, the most violent offenders.
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  Speaker 2: We don't want them in our country, we don't want
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  Speaker 2: them in our state, we don't want them in our neighborhoods.
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  Speaker 2: But the way you go about doing that still has
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  Speaker 2: to a job with the law and best practices, and
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  Speaker 2: some of what we have seen now is just not
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  Speaker 2: best practices when it comes to law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's the recruiting videos that Ice used.
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  Speaker 1: I watch a lot of college football and so what
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  Speaker 1: was what was jarring during college football season this last
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  Speaker 1: fall was and they would sort of target by community, Hey, Seattle,
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  Speaker 1: do you want to you know, not have be told
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  Speaker 1: how to be?
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  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 1: Are you tired of essentially being told you have to
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  Speaker 1: follow a certain set of rules. Come come to Ice,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and we're going to throw all this money
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  Speaker 1: at you. What were the unintended consequences for for a
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  Speaker 1: sheriff's department, like like Orange Counties with these ad campaigns
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  Speaker 1: that were all over the country. This was and it
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  Speaker 1: was essentially they were trying to recruit other law enforcement,
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  Speaker 1: which of course only undermined local law enforcement.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, even the sheriffs across the nation and some of
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  Speaker 2: the sheriffs here in Florida, they pushed back because quite frankly,
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  Speaker 2: they were competing for talent. When you look at the
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  Speaker 2: minimum qualifications to be a law enforcement officer, they're pretty stiff.
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  Speaker 2: But what we saw happening is in this field of competition,
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  Speaker 2: the sheriffs in the nation primarily said we're going to
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  Speaker 2: cooperate with the federal immigration enforcement efforts. Certainly the sheriffs
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  Speaker 2: in Florida did that. The oval lambing majority of them said, hey,
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  Speaker 2: we're signing on board because in our state, the majority
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  Speaker 2: of the sheriff's just happened to be Republicans, and so
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  Speaker 2: they were playing they were playing an ice with ice,
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  Speaker 2: but then Ice turning around out on them and started
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  Speaker 2: offering some of their officers and deputies incentives, signing bonuses,
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  Speaker 2: and that frustrated the sheriffs, and so they began to
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  Speaker 2: call them out and say, wait a minute, this is
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be a partnership. We did not look for
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  Speaker 2: you to be poaching from our men and women who
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  Speaker 2: are serving our local agencies, and especially some of the
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  Speaker 2: state law enforcement officers here in the state of Florida.
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  Speaker 2: Many of the state law enforcement officers are the lawyers
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  Speaker 2: paid law enforcement officers in the state of Florida, and
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  Speaker 2: so even within the state, when Ron de Santis chose
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  Speaker 2: to really step outside of his core responsibilities as a
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  Speaker 2: governor to protect the state, he stepped into the arena
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  Speaker 2: of doing federal immigration enforcement. Immigration is a federal responsibility,
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  Speaker 2: not a state, although we all have to protect our
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  Speaker 2: borders in order to keep our states safe. But he
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  Speaker 2: really got all in at all costs, and the last
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  Speaker 2: that I have heard the state of Florida, with the
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  Speaker 2: promise from the federal government, is oled over six hundred
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  Speaker 2: million dollars that really could have gone to take care
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  Speaker 2: of some of the essential needs of our state. We
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  Speaker 2: have homelessness that seem to have spiked here within the
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  Speaker 2: state of Florida, and many different affordability issues related to
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  Speaker 2: our social issues that the state could have used those
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  Speaker 2: dollars to assist our local governments and really deal with
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: some of the affordability issues. But rather, because they jumped
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: into immigration and customer enforcement, those dollars are no longer available.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I want to move to why you're running for governor,
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  Speaker 1: but one last question for you on certain law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: Should the county sheriff be an elected position? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I know the state wants it to be, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: and I know like Miami Dade County had to add this.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: They didn't want to have an elected sheriff, and then
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: they I think they're sort of were forced to because
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  Speaker 1: not every community thinks that should be something that's up
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: for up for a vote.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so I've been through all three, right, I've been
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: a chief of police, an appointed chief of police by
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: the City of Orlando.
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  Speaker 1: Mayor, working for a mayor essentially right a mayor.
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  Speaker 2: I've been a director of public safety working for the county,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: and I've been an elected sheriff. And what I can
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: tell you is that sometimes as an appointed chief of police,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: politics enter into the issues that I had to deal with.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Sometimes politics related to funding adequately funding my police agency.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Sometimes politics entered into the priorities about how we would
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: deploy resources. Now always said I'm forever grateful for the
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: mayor that appointed me. The only wanted to have served
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: as mayor of the City of Orlando Lyndy Hood. But
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: sometimes we had conflict as things were happening. I was
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: chief of police during the events of nine to eleven
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: and there was a nexus even here to our local
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: government with that. I won't get into the details now,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: so suffice it to say, you know it wasn't perfect then.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: As an appointed director of public safety by the county
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: wide mayor, again politics kind of in and into that.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: I had oversight for the jail during that era, and
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: sometimes you have frustration related to the costs of benefit
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: of how we were doing business. But when you appointed,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: sometimes you are not free to be as interesting fred
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: as you want to be. When you're making statements to
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: the public. But now I will tell you my style
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: was my agreement with both the mayor both mayors was
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: that you hired me to run this agency, and if
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: you want to run it, I'm not your guy. But
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: then as a sheriff, a sheriff is elected an electric
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: constitutional officer and really can depoliticize to some extent the
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: breath of the responsibilities of law enforcement and can I believe,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: more effectively advocate for a budget, can more effectively be
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: held totally responsible for the employ up under their command.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: And so it really depends on the size of the agency.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Some of these law enforcement agencies, quite frankly, are just
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: not large enough and some of those duties should be
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: better handled by a medium to a larger agency for
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: just for cause efficiency, And so I see all of them.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: It depends on the community.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like you think size of jurisdiction. You being
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  Speaker 1: able to deal with a mayor as a peer rather
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  Speaker 1: than as a subordinate. Is you're making it. I mean,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's an
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  Speaker 1: interesting argument, that you're peer to peer with a mayor
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: on advocating for money rather than having to play the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: internal political game.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, because some of the other politicians while here the
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Orlando mayor is a non partisan position. The Range County
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: mayor that I serve in now as non partisant. I
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: didn't get elected just by Democrats. I got elected by
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: an entire community and in some jurisdiction The sheriff is
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a partisan position in this jurisdiction. When I was elected
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: as sheriff, it was a part of some position. However,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: the role and the responsibility that I had was a
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: non partisan role was to keep people safe. I really
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: didn't care what party they were in long as a Democrat,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: and so I think there's something to be said about that.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And because of that, I typically always had bipartisan support.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: I want all of my elections as a sheriff. I
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: was on the ballot five times. I won all five
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: of those elections by landslide overwhelmingly, three general elections and
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: two primaries during the decade that I was a sheriff here,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: and so I have the greatest admiration for the men
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: and women who serve, but I believe that I had
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit more authority being the high sheriff. The
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: sheriff and counties considered one of the highest local elected
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: officials anywhere in the country, and I had the privilege
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: of being to serve in that role.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: All right, So here's the basic question. Why do you
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: want to run for governor? Why do you want to
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: be governor?
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I want to run for governor because I care about
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: my state. I've demonstrated after forty five years of public
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: service now having been very active in our state's politics,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: haven't been very active in setting the priorities for our
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: state from a local government perspective, through numerous different organizations
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I have been part of from being part of the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Florida Chiefs of Police Association, to being part of the
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Florida Supreme Court Mental Health and Substance Abuse Task Force,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: to being part of the Florida Sheriff's Association, to being
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: part of the Mayor's Association, to being part of the
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Florida Association of Counties, and even at the national level,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: being active with the National Association of Counties, being acted
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: with our state associations. It has given me the opportunity
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to lead in bringing about the type of reform, the
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: type of governance that we want to see at the local, state,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: and federal level. And so because of that, I have
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: great joy in being part of the solution, rather than
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: just being part of the problem, of sitting on the
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: sidelines and just rather than trying to make things happen
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: and bring about the change that one would want to see,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I've chosen to get into the fight. And the other
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: thing quite frankly, that really forced me to finally make
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: a decision was the unfair, uneven reviewing, the scrutiny that
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the state was putting local governments under. They created this
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: farce of a dolge process here in the state of
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Florida that was right in political agendas, and they came
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: into our county And just today, as a matter of fact,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the chief financial officer for the State of Florida came
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: into my county and criticized how we were doing business.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't have a clue about one money management.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: He has no real credentials in that regard. But he's
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: running for re election and so he's a performance politician
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: that came in. But we are wrestling with the needs
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: of our community day to day. So just the prospects
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: of taking my level of interest and public service to
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: the next level, I'm really highly motivated to move to
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: be governor to kind of expand the work that we're
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: doing here. We can gain some one respect back as
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: a local government because our state has been pre empty
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: local government authority and that's frustrating for all of us
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: who serve at the local level, and it's unfair, quite frankly,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: to the citizens. So all of that has motivated me.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: And then the last thing that I will tell you
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: that motivated me to get in this race. The Census
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: administration threatened to remove me from office and all six
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: members of my Border count of Commission when I challenged
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: his zeal to force local governments here in Florida into
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: supporting immigration and customs enforcement. And when I pushed back
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: on that, after all the other local governments had signed agreements,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I was pushing back all signing the agreement. And so
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: he announced publicly, you know, through media forums, that if
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: we didn't sign the agreement, he was going to remove
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: us from office. Now, this is because Florida had passed
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: legislation that said that all local governments must cooperate with
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: immigration enforcement using their best efforts. Failure to do so
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: will result in your removal from office. But we have
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: seen the governor here remove our prosecute, our state attorney
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: from this jurisdiction, and so it was somewhat of a
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: real threat. But then when we really studied my legal
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: team and I studied the agreements, it really didn't require
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: us to do anything that we had not been doing
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: for a decade. And so reluctantly. I signed the immigration
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Agreement in the Government Services Agreement, and it really didn't
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: require us to do anything because the jail reports to
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: me ultimately as the CEO for our county. It doesn't
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: report to the sheriff. Our sheriff had already signed the
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: two eighty seven G from the law enforcement perspective, like
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: all sixty seven other sheriffs in Florida had done. And
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: then in terms of the sixty seven counties, all the
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: other counties had signed it before before I did. But
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: it really has been effectively meaningless to us. We still
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: do what we needed to do. But all of those
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: things kind of frustrated me and said, you know what
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: we can do better and if we want better results,
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: then we have to elect people and send people the
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: talent has it to do the work it needs to
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: be done, that's not afraid to do so. And so
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: I'm here, I'm running now to be that person to
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: bring back some normalcy and some balance in our style
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: of governing here in the state of Florida. If that
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: makes sense to you.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: No, it look it makes sense. But let me let
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: me talk about challenge number one for you. Let's say
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: you get elected governor in Orange County, you've got a
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: county Commission that uh shares your worldview, at least politically.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: As governor, you're not going to have a legislature that's
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: probably going to share, uh share your what. You're going
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to have a potentially a pretty combustible relationship. Who knows right?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: How do you work? You know what?
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: What's your How are you going to work with a
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Republican legislature that's you know, that can have a mind
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: of their own. Even Governor DeSantis would tell you that.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I work with them now, uh with me? And
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: not all just about partisanship. It's about right versus wrong.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: And I believe when you focus on what's right versus wrong,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: we all know what that looks like. Even though today
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: we have people and leadership positions who are working really
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: hard to make right look wrong and wrong look right.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: So I look forward to going to the state level
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: having some common sense and balanced approaches to government. My
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: style of leadership is not to just always make the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: decision Uni Ladderman, but to involve the people and making
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: decisions for themselves. I never forget that we are a
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: government of the people and by the people. It's we
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: the people. And so when we get back to doing that,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: and we can get back to doing that, then we
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: can perhaps bridge some of the gaps that exist today
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: along partisan lines. I happen to be a Democrat. I'm
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: registered to be a Democrat when I think I was
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: seventeen and a half years old, so we're talking about
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: about fifty years since I've been a Democrat. I lined
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: up there. But I'm a Democrat, and here in our
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: local jurisdiction, I don't just represent Democrats. I represent everybody
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: in this community and the governor. If the governor is
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: doing his or her job correctly, they shall never forget
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: that they represent all of the people, no matter how
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: you get there. And so I've demonstrated that over time.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I've always had some bipartisan support in my elections, especially
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: now because it's a non partisan race. I probably had
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: as many republicanly vote for me as anybody else did.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: And so the path of victory for me now as governor,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: even though the Republicans have a one and a half
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: million or so registration advantage over Democrats, they won't be
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Democrats and Republicans won't be the only ones who will
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: be voting in this election cycle. All of those minor
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: parties are no party affiliates or the so called independence,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: they will vote and even I tell you every day
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I have some wonderful Republican friends who I respect. Just
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: today I was out of the airport at our Bought
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: meeting and some of my Republican friends kind of talked
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: to me about what was going on in Cuba. And
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: some of them have supported me financially what I have
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: had to raise money. Some of them I have appointed
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: to various positions, and so I look forward to getting
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: back to a tallahasset that is not just focused on
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: divisions because they're not healthy for our state. At the
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: end of the day, some of what we're seeing in
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: our state here a state where the President calls home,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: but what is happening in Washington, d C. Is dividing people,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: and people are seeing that. I believe people want something different.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: So I got into this race to offer Floridians something different,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: a person that is no drama. I'm not a performance politician,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: you know. I take the work that we do very
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: seriously to offer them an experienced leader. I'm an experienced CEO.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Now my budget that I'm manage her in a Range
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: county is about nine point seven billion dollars this year.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: A dozen states.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: But I handled real issues, dealing with homelessness, mental health
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: related issues, dealing with community issues, and that's what I'll take.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Even crisis you know I've had over the years, I've
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: had the kitchen sink thrown that million in terms of
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: from responding to a terror attack, the Pulse ninth Club incident,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: to managing a global pandemic. So as governor, the governor's
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: role is to not just govern during the good times,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: but bad times, and that means taking care of all
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: all people, regardless of the political persuade.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Well, look, I mean you a strong case could be made,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: ears prepared as anybody I've ever seen to run for governor.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: But as you know, it isn't always about whether who's
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: got the best resume, right, So what's your diagnosis as
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: to why Democrats have not elected a governor since Lawton Childs.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: We lost our our footing, okay, And I believe some
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: of that is because of part ofsan politics. Sometimes quite frankly,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: we perhaps didn't run our best and our brightest. And
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida, there's been a deliberate attempt
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: to not pay our legislators in the State House or
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: the State Senate. Very well, you're talking about someone for
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: the work that they do, making twenty seven to twenty
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: nine thousand dollars a year. And quite frankly, it's a
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: part time legislature. We're probably will pass them being part time.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: But it has been deliberate, i believe by the party
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: in power to keep the payload so that they would
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: attract a few of people who are I'm going to
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: say more suited, more experienced, and so that's a problem.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: And so they have jerry manner the districts. They have
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: put their foot on the scale through redistricting efforts, through
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the ability to appunt our members of the judiciary right
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: from the Florida Supreme Court all the way down to
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: our local county courts, and so all of that has
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: resulted in this dominance that we see of the Republican
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Party within the state of Florida. And they don't intend
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: to change. They want they're doubling down. We see Jerry
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Manda redistricting maps now based upon partisanship. Whether they will
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: admit it or not, that's quite frankly what they.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Thought that was unconstitutional.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: That's probably going to be un constitutional. But then this
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: blending of the courts with the executive branch with the
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: legislative branches happened. But getting back to the central core
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: of your question, I think that Democrats could have run
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: better candidates, and I say that very objectively, and we didn't.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: And sometimes some of the positions that we took were
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: not consistent with where the majority of Floridians were. And
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: so we've learned from that, and so we have to
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: get close under the Baill curve where more people are
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: because quite frankly, we shared some Democrats. What I mean
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: by that is there are some who were Democrats who
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: got frustrated with our party and they left the Democratic
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Party and they are now no party affiliates or independence
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: and so we have to take ownership in the blame
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: for that because we didn't listen. We were not listening
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: to them. So the path to victory for me is
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: to make sure that I'm talking about the issues that's
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: important order to the majority of Floridians. I have to
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: make certain that we create a pathway to victory where
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: we talk about the issues that's important, where I'm perceived
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: as being electable. Also, we have to make sure that
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: we organize and mobilize this grassroots movement that we're talking
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: about today. Uh, in order for me to get elected
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: and at the end of the day, demonstrate that, you know,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I'm confident and I'm comfortent uh to do the work
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: that needs to be done. Uh and broaden my appeal
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: to the masses, the overwhelming majority of people. And so
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: we have a way that we're doing that. I'm running
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: a campaign. I have to communicate what we will do. Uh.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: We have to breed some hope back into the Democratic partner.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: The Democrats in Florida have lost and lost in since
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: thirty two years.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little bit like the football.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they believe. I can tell you
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the national people they don't believe.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: So you see this this pen that I wear. I
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: branded my campaign to Believe campaign. So I do have
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: to talk with people about believe again in your government.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Believe that you can have an impact on who gets elected.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: And so that's what I'm doing. I'm running to create
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: this believed movement and give them some of what our
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Republican friends are doing right now. They're helping us, you know,
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: we're seeing some changes across the state of Florida where
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: we are seeing more Democrats elected to positions we've just
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: sold last evening in Georgia, you know, on the Democratic side,
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: Keisha lance Bottom won that primary. We're seeing here in
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: the state of Florida. In some areas right in President
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Trump's backyard, you know, Democratic House member got elected. We're
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: seeing those things. So we're seeing some signs that Americans
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: are frustrated. People within our state are frustrated and they
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: want something different, and we have to capitalize on this
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: movement for change, and so all of that is a
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: pathway to victory for us.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: What's the Santus done right in his eight years.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I do believe that one of the things that DeSantis
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: has done right is he has focused the state on commerce,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: on diversifying our economy. Our economy is thriving, and we
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: are the land of opportunities. The growth in this state
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: has continued where people are migrating here from all over
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: the world. He did, of course, he didn't do it alone.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I believe that the investments into our state have been
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: partly because of we're state with no state income tax,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and long before the Santis got in office, he kind
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: of he's been able to capitalize on the momentum that
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: the state had. But for the most part, he's created
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: some momentum with international business that is here. And so
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: I certainly don't agree with him with many things. You know,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: as we were dealing with COVID, you know, I sparred
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: with him over COVID protocols. As it relates to healthcare,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I think he's done a terrible job our state. The
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: costs of healthcare, and our state has gone up significantly,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: our healthcare from corporate perspective. Uh, they're tops in the
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: nation in revenue above in terms of health care affordability,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: we rank forty fifth or near the bottom in that regard.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: So you have done a great job there, And I
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: can go on and on about it, but you know,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: I try to be back.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I know it's a you got more cases against them,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: But you know, you strike me as somebody that isn't
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: going to assume somebody is one hundred percent wrong all
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the time.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: No, rarely it is somebody one hundred percent role of
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: all the time. And no, are you one hundred percent
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: right if you're that person. Now, we see some personalities
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: on the national scene. Now I believe that they are
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: right one hundred percent of the time. Well, they're really honest.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: That's that's yeah, that's I'm going to pick up two
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: issues that are very Florida centric. You sort of hinted
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: at one of them, you know when it when it
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: came to the no income tax, because it's about how
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: your fund government when you don't have an income tax.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: And we look, Florida ain't gonna get an income tax
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: anytime soon. I'm not going to sit here and say
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: that that's the answer. But does the state need more
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: revenues or does it need a better or does it
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: need to be prioritized better.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Well, we're growing state, okay, we're the fastest growing state
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: in the Union. When you're growing, it's going to require
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: more money. The cost of living has gone off. One
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: of the things I pride myself on is being a
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: good steward of the people's money. But sometimes these priorities
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: are shifting. We'll state where we're a peninsula. We have
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: been adversely impacted by major storms and hurricanes. That's cost here.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Those things are very unpredictable. We cannot control the global
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: economy with some of what we're seeing with the influx
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: of people who are coming in who find themselves ill
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: prepared to really thrive in our environment, and so quite frankly,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: you know, the cost of living has gone up so
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: much our workers. In order to keep our workforce, you
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: got to pay people. In order to get the food
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: to the market from the fields, you got to pay people.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: We are relying on immigrants, and God bless the immigrants
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: who want to come here and do the difficult work
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: for the amount of money that they're paid paid. And
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: so as a result of all of that, I think
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: that our state needs more money. But government should always
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: look for the opportunity to look for inefficiencies, and when
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: you find those efficiencies, you should use those dollars to
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: do other things well. But the fact that we're growing,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: growing in complexity, I don't see a scenario where the
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: state's budget really is going to decline. What our state
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: solution to these issues right now has been to deflect
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: them to the local governments. Where our state is.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Not property taxes right and stuff like that.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: They're not working hand in love with our local governments.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: They're putting a burden on our local governments to come
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: up with the solutions to the most difficult challenges that
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: we have, housing, affordability, transit, transportation, healthcare, all of those
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: things they're putting on the backs of local governments. While
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: they can say, well, we reduce the state's budget, but
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: they've transferred it to us. And that's what frustrates those
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: of us at the local government because.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Especially one who's been an accountant, you actually know how
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that legacy works. Not everybody, not every mayor.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Does I know how this works as a mayor. Had
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: been the perfect setup for me to be the governor
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: to understand how we can more efficiently use money, because really,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: if we invested more and some of the social challenges,
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: it's like treatment fundamentally ill, like treatment for the substance abuser,
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: like treatment for persons who suffer with various behavioral disorders,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: are core occurring issues. When we work with spending money
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: on the front end to get those individuals more self
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: reliant in a self indulgent world, we can get them
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: more functional. Sometimes they're not committing crimes, they're not stealing
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: because they're on drugs. We changed our public policy in
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: our county and I've been part of that now for
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: quite some time, and by doing so, we have avoided
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: increasing costs in our county, the state of Florida. If
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: we spend more time with health care and mental health
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: related issues, we probably will have had less violent crime
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: because some of these persons who go out and commit
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: violent crime, they're mentally ill. With the moss that was
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: just attacked they or so ago in California, I suspected
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: those young people, those teenagers have been radicalized. I suspect
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: that they probably were in need of some mental health
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: counseling and treatment. But it's too late for that. You know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: they acquired guns and went and killed innocent people. Well,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: if they had gotten the right treatment, maybe some people
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: will be alive today. In my experience, I responded to
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: these scenes where I've had law enforcement officers who were
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: seriously injured, shot and killed in the line of duty
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: because they were confronted by a person who was mentally ill,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: who had a god. All of those types of things
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: we have to get serious about talking about, I believe,
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: as a nation, as a state, how to more effectively
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: address some of those types of issues. Because if we
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: reduce crime, we reduce recidivism. By getting people healthy again,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: we reduce costs, and so that's what I do. I
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: take the cast savings and then I use it for
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: some some other needs.
• 45:29
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• 47:00
  Speaker 1: And yes, I too, am a customer. Look, my mother
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: lives in Seminole County, so I hear about this a lot.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Which is the following she gets a new insurance company.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: It seems like every six months, right every year. You know,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: she doesn't want to change insurance companies. Insurance companies pull
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: out or they decide they can't cover homeowners. And we
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: know why the problem is this is you said it earlier.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Florida's a peninsula and it's just going to get more storms.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: There doesn't seem to be a good answer. How do
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: you either entice more insurance companies to come to Florida
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: and write policies to create better competition and hopefully lower prices,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: or do you subsidize And there doesn't seem to be
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: a good consensus, and I don't know if there's a
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: good answer, But what's your plan?
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you have to do really four things. One,
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: I do believe that Florida needs to incentivize up in
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: casually insurance companies moving here in the state of Florida, Okay,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: through our regulatory authority. I believe that there's an opportunity
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: to do that, to create more competition by creating incentives
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: if that is reducing if they move into the state,
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: creating a center for reduction in property taxes for them
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: or business taxes for them. There's an opportunity to do that.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: The second thing that if we create this competition, typically
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: competition drives price down. If we do are successful in that,
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: then the second thing that we should do is require
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: that when they make profit in this state beyond a
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: certain point, they should have to be required and reinvested
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida. And in order since they
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: get the incentives. The third thing that happens in the
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: state of Florida is we have a lot of fraud.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: There are a number of people who file fraudalent claims,
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: and the State of Florida doesn't do a really good
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: job of investigating the fraud that happens. At least three
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: different state agencies in the State of Florida stigation that's
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: related here. In addition to those, private and insurance companies
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: have their own fraud investigators. So for me, I want
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: to consolidate the responsibility for the investigation of fraud and
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: to lawn state agency and then I law the person's
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: the staff to focus in that area. Right now, some
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: of our law enforcement in the state of Florida is
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: being pulled off of doing investigations and they're doing immigration
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: and customers enforcement. Right they're doing what the federal government
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: really should be doing and not what the state should
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: be doing. And then the next thing that I think,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: we have a state that is heavily influenced by developm
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: They kind of controlled tallahassee, uh they go and we
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: see legislation that is introduced that preemps local government authority.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: It comes to land use related decisions, and when you
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: take the decision making out of the hands of those
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: local authorities, and you invested really in the influence of
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: the legislators and the developers. We are building and places
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: that we shouldn't be on this peninsula. We are not
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: adequately recognizing the consequences of sea level rise and global warming,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: and all of those are things that are real. And
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: I believe through our regulatory authority, we can build to
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: a higher standard where we build when we're not building homes,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: whereas in flood zones and what have you that since
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: you grew up in Miami. When I go to Miami,
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: I see all types of calamities there because the building
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: codes were not consistent, They're irregular. There are people who
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: were allowed to build too close to wetlands, on wetlands
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: and the like. And so from I believe from a
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: sustainability perspective, we have not done what we should be
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: doing in the state of Florida to protect our environment,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: and so we have to make some improvements there. So
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: we do those things, harden the target for when the
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: hurricane made the storm comes, then we can reduce costs.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: We can't do a lot.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Of should the state Should the state band manufactured homes?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: And I say this, I'll give you an example, Rick,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: I remember after the hurricane that hit sout I say,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: the hurricane so many hurricanes. I think it was Charlotte
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: or I'm probably confusing Charlotte County, but it was one
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: of the hurricanes that sort of came came over Fort Myers, Naples, Charlotte,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: that area of the state, and Collier County had banned
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: manufacture housing. Charlotte County had not. Even though the hurricane's
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: eye went over Collier, there was more damage than Charlotte.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: It's because those manufactured homes just can't withstand even the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: category ones versus Collier County had less property damage because
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: they had high It was my county higher standards, and
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: you know it was I remember the Senator Scott made
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: this point and then I said, well, then should we
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: not have manufactured housing? And he sort of, you know,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to do that. And I understand the hesitancy
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: because a lot of developers, you know where it does
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: make homes cost more if you banned manufacture housing. And
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: here we are having a crunch on that. Where are
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: you on that?
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I do think that some of these manage fact
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: housing projects that I'm seeing now, they can stand in
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: a Category two or three with this move modern technology
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: in the way they construct some of them, but clearly
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: and coastal communities. Coastal communities are more likely to have
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: a direct hit from hurricane versus an inland community like
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: my account. But two thousand and four we had three
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: hurricanes that major member category hurricanes go across our count
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: and we're inland. Our manufactured homes really farewell. So I
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: think the conversation has to be about where you build
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: and what you build. And so I believe that through
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: having some type of guidance from the State of Florida.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: I said earlier, my stylar leadership is to bring subject
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: down experts together and this is gonna This is an
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: area that I would love to tackle, is to do
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: a full reset and review of Florida's building and codes
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: and adopt some standards that make sense. And some of
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: those standards need to be based upon geographical location. Some
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: of those standards need to be based upon affordability because
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: some of the tiny homes are accessory dwelling units that
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: are being built now. Uh they are, They're pretty good.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: And I can tell you in our inland counting, our
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: manufactured homes have fared well historically. Uh so there are
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: some things that you can do to mitigate the damage
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: and how you require them to be constructed. But then, uh,
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: you know, if you're out on the coastal community, uh,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: you know, there's some challenges there. So I think that
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: there's some some room for change. And so these are
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: the types of things I enjoy tackling. H We know
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: that that's a serious issue. But to get the best
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: outcomes where we don't introvertently drive up the as the
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: rent payments that are already through the rules, I want
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: to make sure we have the right solution and use
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: a modern technology and making these types of.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Decisions, all right, I want to I always like to
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: end on a little lighter note. But before I get
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: to the lighter note, the subject matter that I'm going
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: to end on actually has gotten a little heavier. Over
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours. The NAACP is calling on
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: African American high school students to essentially boycott state go
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to going to state universities in the South in states
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: that are remapping and getting rid of predominantly African American
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: congressional seats. That would you know that you know how
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: important college football is in the state of Florida, and
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: it's certainly an interesting idea that the NAACP is coming with,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: and I understand where they're coming from on this. You
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: think that would be fruitful? Do you think that would
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: be useful in a positive protest?
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: I believe that what happens when people get chronically stressed,
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: they resort to extraordinary responses, and what the NAACP is doing.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: Is responding to the extraordinary circumstances that we find ourselves in.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: Where we live in a nation where the president by
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: executive water did away no or the women business enterprise
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: related programs. We live in a state where the governor
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: and the legislature passed legislation that prohibits local governments from
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: investing in diversity, equity and inclusion types of programs. As
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: if the playing field has been level to where we
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: see these gerementary district districts that that is underway. This
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: is caused the response to the NAACP has a jown
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: in Now. I'm a lifelong member of the NAACP, and
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have some of the civil liberties that I have.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have enjoyed some of the successes I have today,
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: but for the fight that the NAACP of the NACP
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: has been involved in. However, have I said all over
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: that I do think that that's not sustainable. Okay, Here
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida, when our governor adopted some
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: of the policies that he's adopted, the NAACP said, uh,
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: you know, supported a ban on historically black college and
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: universities coming into our state to do business with national conferences.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Uh coming into our state to do business. And because
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: I represent the number one tourist destination in North America,
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: I knew that that would not really benefit my constituents
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: in tourism. You know, ninety plus percent of the people
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: who work in the industry, they are black and brown people.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: And if our tourism in Florida goes elsewhere, we potentially
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: put people out of work who they are fighting for
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: to have a seat at the table. And so sometimes
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: what you see is when these narratives come about, they're
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: motivated by different reasons. Sometimes it's geography. There are other states,
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: there are other regions that would love to have the
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: economy that Florida enjoys, And sometimes decisions are made, sometimes
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: very short sighted and not looking at the long long
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: term goal because quite frankly, if Florida's economy, uh, if
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: these football players are higher education institutions, uh, suddenly, uh,
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: you know, stop having black athletes. What you're going to
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: have is you'll have segregated institutions. And some of our
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: largest uh institutions, higher education institutions in this state are
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: public institutions. The University of Florida, Uh, the University of
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: Central Florida is the largest right here in Orlando by
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: student by the enrollment Florida State University where I went, Well,
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: you just decimated some of those institutions if uh these
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: players decided to go somewhere else. Couple with the ni
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: L and the professional uh payments that these athletes who
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: are supposedly uh not yet professionals, you know, the money
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: is there. I think that it's not sustainable long term,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: and we could introvertently hurt people who you don't intend
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: to hurt by the response. So we'll have to see.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: That's that's kind of my position as governor. I would
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: do everything that I could to keep our economic training,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: to keep business coming in, to keep our universities a
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: focus on educating and get out of the cultural wards
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: and the politics, the banning of the books, all of
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: that is just dividing us along racial lines. And so
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: but I understand where they are because the actions that
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: our state has taken is the visit and so that's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: the pushback that the NAACP finds themselves in today.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Well, when you're in Orlando, that's Gator country, is it not.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: It must be tough for seminoals.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: No, this this is uh, it's probably as many seminoles
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: as there are gators here.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: Well that's good because the go to Gainesville's and you
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: want to do that, Yeah for that, but uh, but
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 5: we we have our fair share here because the University
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: of Central Florida is the largest, uh public institution in
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 5: the state of Florida.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: You've watched that school go from literally a commuter to
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: your school right to what it is today.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: It's this is kind of like night country around Central Florida. Uh,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: you know, their support that's probably yeah, you know, so
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: uh you know with space exploration, commercial space space exploration
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: being what it is that's taking off. You know, NASA's
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: has a substantial number of this employ Whill graduates from
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: the University of Central Florida.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Uh, Mayor deamis good to meet you. I look forward
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: to talking with you down the road. If if you
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: make it to the next round, I look forward to it.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: All right, my friends all thank you sir.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: Mm hmmm mm hmm