Latest / Brian Thomas / The "Smither-vent" - Episode 141 - Iris Roley, LLC and the Cincinnati Collaborative Foundation

Transcript

The "Smither-vent" - Episode 141 - Iris Roley, LLC and the Cincinnati Collaborative Foundation · Brian Thomas

0:00
Speaker 1: See the talk station.
0:03
Speaker 2: Seven twenty two if you can you have a KCD
0:05
Speaker 2: talk station. Hey, his name come up when I was
0:07
Speaker 2: talking to Dan Reagan. Well about Thursday the Empire Uth
0:10
Speaker 2: Seminar to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth This Thursday,
0:12
Speaker 2: starting in five point thirty, be there at the Glende Elysium,
0:14
Speaker 2: because you're gonna hear from this man. Every Monday at
0:17
Speaker 2: this time we get to hear from the former Vice
0:19
Speaker 2: Mayor of the City of Cincinnati, Christopher Smith Aman with
0:21
Speaker 2: a smither Evan Christopher. It is always a pleasure to
0:23
Speaker 2: have you on the show, sir, oh.
0:26
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on. Brian, you're the man, and
0:29
Speaker 1: I of course have a lot to say today about
0:32
Speaker 1: a lot of different topics, but let me start with
0:35
Speaker 1: something that's a little sobering. It's historic and is a
0:38
Speaker 1: part of our American history, and that is what we
0:42
Speaker 1: call the Tulsa Massacre. Right This what happened one hundred
0:47
Speaker 1: and five years ago today, in nineteen twenty one. This
0:52
Speaker 1: was the Black American Wall Street of America. And what
0:57
Speaker 1: happened there is a massacre of black men and black
1:03
Speaker 1: women who had businesses and homes that were burned down
1:07
Speaker 1: today by the klu kluks Klan, a terrorist organization. A horrible,
1:14
Speaker 1: horrible event that happened in American history. And let me
1:17
Speaker 1: share with you, brother, is that a lot of Americans
1:22
Speaker 1: do not know this history. And the reason is it's
1:24
Speaker 1: not in those history books. So I'm asking everybody who's
1:29
Speaker 1: listening who wants to learn and understand all the complete
1:32
Speaker 1: American history and give a context of things that have
1:36
Speaker 1: happened in our country, some good, some bad. This is
1:40
Speaker 1: something that happened that was bad. Is look into the
1:45
Speaker 1: Tulsa massacre nineteen twenty one in Oklahoma. It was a
1:49
Speaker 1: horrible situation. It was triggered supposedly by a young black
1:54
Speaker 1: male who did something or said something to a white
1:59
Speaker 1: female American. No one knows whether that happened or not.
2:04
Speaker 1: They just know that the young man was hung and
2:07
Speaker 1: after that, lots of people, lots of clan members showed up.
2:12
Speaker 1: What was interesting in this fight is that black Americans
2:15
Speaker 1: then had guns. Uh, they did fight back there there
2:19
Speaker 1: there were shooting back and forth until they got to
2:23
Speaker 1: the business district where people kind of really didn't know
2:26
Speaker 1: what was happening. And all of those businesses and many
2:29
Speaker 1: homes were absolutely burned down in torture. It's a tragedy.
2:33
Speaker 1: There's one there is one survivor still today living and
2:39
Speaker 1: her name is Leslie Benningfield Randall. And she didn't she's
2:47
Speaker 1: probably deep into her hundreds. Yeah, she's she's a there's
2:53
Speaker 1: a sole survivor. Man, anybody that could ever get to
2:57
Speaker 1: her to interview her or look her up and figure
2:59
Speaker 1: out what happening. Because they have sued the federal government,
3:02
Speaker 1: they have sued the state. They've been looking for justice
3:06
Speaker 1: for their loved ones, justice for those business owners, justice
3:09
Speaker 1: for their property that was destroyed, and at this point
3:13
Speaker 1: there's been no justice at all for any of those
3:16
Speaker 1: These were some of the smartest accomplished black business owners
3:23
Speaker 1: in the United States of America, and that's why they
3:25
Speaker 1: called it the Wall Street, the Black American Wall Street.
3:29
Speaker 1: And I'll conclude by saying this to you on a
3:32
Speaker 1: personal note. My own family still today owns property in
3:36
Speaker 1: that area, and so this touches my mom because she
3:41
Speaker 1: goes there annually. Matter of fact, the family will be
3:43
Speaker 1: in Columbus this summer, and that is really true. So
3:48
Speaker 1: this is a personal touch for my mother, who is
3:51
Speaker 1: eighty seven years old and has maintained property there and
3:56
Speaker 1: our family there for all of those years still to
3:59
Speaker 1: this day, and our family gets together to deal with
4:02
Speaker 1: the commiseration of what happened there, but also that our
4:05
Speaker 1: family still owns property in that area. Well we'll bring
4:08
Speaker 1: that very furious.
4:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, And Joe Strecord just chimed into my head said,
4:12
Speaker 2: he said, there is a documentary on this on Amazon
4:16
Speaker 2: Amazon Prime or with Amazon Prime. So I'm going to
4:19
Speaker 2: make a note to myself on that and check it
4:21
Speaker 2: out when I get home, because I have Amazon Prime,
4:23
Speaker 2: but I was not aware. So it's time we raise
4:25
Speaker 2: some awareness. And that's what we have you for. Christopher.
4:27
Speaker 2: Obviously a very important chapter in history. And last time
4:30
Speaker 2: I checked the Klan, that was Democrats.
4:33
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, we should have we should have mentioned that
4:40
Speaker 1: that is really true, that it was the Dixiecrats that
4:43
Speaker 1: came through and did all of that, murdering, all of
4:47
Speaker 1: that hanging, no justice for any of those people even
4:51
Speaker 1: still to this day. But that is absolutely the truth,
4:54
Speaker 1: and it was a tragedy because these were really accomplished
4:59
Speaker 1: Black a Marria can business men and women. There's nothing
5:03
Speaker 1: like it. There's nothing that has come back like it
5:05
Speaker 1: since then from one hundred and five years ago, and
5:08
Speaker 1: for all again, I just want to conclude everybody listening right,
5:12
Speaker 1: just take the time learn about the Tulsa nineteen twenty
5:17
Speaker 1: one massacre that happened, and it will open your eyes
5:20
Speaker 1: to a lot of things. But you have to also
5:23
Speaker 1: ask yourself, why is this not a party? It was
5:25
Speaker 1: just like in a nineteen sixty seven or sixty five
5:28
Speaker 1: that certain the Tulsa in that area. They are required
5:32
Speaker 1: to have it in their history books, but it's still
5:34
Speaker 1: not a part of our American history and it really
5:36
Speaker 1: needs to be. And I committed. I just wanted to
5:39
Speaker 1: commiserate it today because it started on Memorial Day. It
5:43
Speaker 1: ended June the first today with what they call the
5:47
Speaker 1: Tulsa Massacre of nineteen twenty one. So I'm talking about
5:50
Speaker 1: it today because it was happening today one hundred and
5:53
Speaker 1: five years ago.
5:54
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing so, Christmas Smith. But we'll bring
5:56
Speaker 2: Christopher back for more. Don't go away. I want to
5:58
Speaker 2: mention Zimmer Heating and Cooling though, because they've been around there.
6:02
Speaker 2: It's seven thirty two. If if you've got KARC DE talk
6:04
Speaker 2: station trying to make it a happy on Monday, if
6:06
Speaker 2: you can. It's always happy to me because we can
6:08
Speaker 2: talk to Christopher smithm and whatever's on his mind is
6:10
Speaker 2: a okay with me. It's always important, like that last
6:12
Speaker 2: topic for me to the gate up there. Are you there, Christopher?
6:17
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm here here.
6:18
Speaker 2: I didn't know if that person in the background was
6:20
Speaker 2: you talking, you were yelling at somebody. It's somebody else.
6:25
Speaker 1: But thank you so much for giving me an opportunity
6:28
Speaker 1: to talk about the Tulsa massacre. You know, but I
6:33
Speaker 1: want to pivot to what is happening in the city
6:37
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna you'll see how I tie this together.
6:40
Speaker 1: So you know, there's a thirty million dollar depth. That
6:43
Speaker 1: thirty million dollar deficit, let's say it's thirty one, twenty nine,
6:47
Speaker 1: thirty two million, whatever it is, it's big. And so
6:51
Speaker 1: I'm a small business owner. There are a lot of
6:53
Speaker 1: small business owners that are out there, okay, And we're
6:58
Speaker 1: watching city hall settle a case right after the election
7:02
Speaker 1: eight point one million dollars for the people that were
7:06
Speaker 1: downtown rioting. They then give a point one million to
7:11
Speaker 1: some music mint venue. Right right after the election, they
7:16
Speaker 1: sign a contract with mssus Irish Rowley for six hundred
7:20
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars right, and small business owners out
7:24
Speaker 1: here which make up and drive the majority of the
7:27
Speaker 1: tax receipts for the City of Cincinnati. It's not the
7:30
Speaker 1: major corporations. There's all these small businesses collectively that we
7:34
Speaker 1: send our taxes in. We get frustrated when we see
7:38
Speaker 1: the City of Cincinnati from the outside looks like they're
7:41
Speaker 1: just wasting our money, our taxpayers dollars. And so the
7:45
Speaker 1: item report into what's happening with this contract. There are
7:50
Speaker 1: many facets to it, right, and I don't know the
7:53
Speaker 1: facts because I haven't looked at her the balance sheet.
7:56
Speaker 1: I have looked at the receipts that have been submitted.
8:00
Speaker 1: The I team is raising questions about things. Here's what
8:03
Speaker 1: we do know. We know that the reporting of the
8:06
Speaker 1: information to the city has not been accurate, meaning either
8:11
Speaker 1: not being not providing the information, or the information isn't queer,
8:15
Speaker 1: it's not accurate. And so we have to get to
8:18
Speaker 1: the bottom of all of this with the contract to
8:21
Speaker 1: understand if your children are working and you say that
8:25
Speaker 1: that's legal, the city says that's legal because this is
8:28
Speaker 1: a contractor it might be unethical, but they say it's legal.
8:32
Speaker 1: We at least get to see the pay run, meaning
8:36
Speaker 1: how many hours, what day did you work, where were
8:40
Speaker 1: you when you worked it? And then this is what
8:42
Speaker 1: I paid you. Meaning what's frustrating is we don't have
8:47
Speaker 1: the transparency that is needed in the contract for you
8:50
Speaker 1: and I and every citizen out here who's paying taxes.
8:54
Speaker 1: And to those people who think that this conversation is
8:57
Speaker 1: racist because someone is asking questions about taxpayer dollars, that
9:03
Speaker 1: is absolutely absurd. Meaning once you start taking money from
9:07
Speaker 1: the government, right and you become that entity, nonprofit or
9:13
Speaker 1: that individual person, you are accountable to the taxpayers of
9:18
Speaker 1: that city, or that state or that federal government. That's
9:23
Speaker 1: what's missing. And so when the questions are being asked
9:25
Speaker 1: and people get defensive, these aren't private dollars. These are
9:29
Speaker 1: public dollars that are being passed to a private person.
9:33
Speaker 1: And we have the right to know what is ROI,
9:37
Speaker 1: which is the bigger picture. We have a right to
9:40
Speaker 1: know who's getting paid. All the employees that are getting paid,
9:44
Speaker 1: we get to know, like the questions of how much
9:47
Speaker 1: why they got paid. If you're paying somebody sixty dollars
9:50
Speaker 1: an hour, we get to know why you're paying somebody
9:52
Speaker 1: sixty dollars an hour? What are those qualifications? That's what's
9:55
Speaker 1: so frustrating that the people involved, when you go out
9:59
Speaker 1: on social media, they immediately ran to their corner of race.
10:03
Speaker 1: This is about talking about a black American. She's a
10:08
Speaker 1: great person. I'm not questioning whether missus Irish Rollie has
10:12
Speaker 1: done wonderful things for the city and for the region.
10:15
Speaker 1: That's not the conversation. The conversation is if we passed
10:19
Speaker 1: over a million dollars to this entity, what did we
10:23
Speaker 1: get for it? Who's getting paid and provide the documentation
10:27
Speaker 1: to the city and why does that raise so many
10:30
Speaker 1: eyebrows On the other.
10:32
Speaker 2: Side, it's a legitimate question and also raisess Wait a second,
10:36
Speaker 2: anybody receiving this kind of money, any entity getting money,
10:40
Speaker 2: regardless of who's running it or what color skin they
10:42
Speaker 2: happen to be. We need accountability so our taxpayer dollars
10:46
Speaker 2: have been followed, and more fundamentally, that the money that's
10:49
Speaker 2: gone out to accomplish something that that's something has at
10:52
Speaker 2: least been accomplished or steps have been done to accomplish
10:55
Speaker 2: whatever goal they're being paid for. If you don't have
10:57
Speaker 2: any oversight over that component. You have a complete breakdown
11:00
Speaker 2: here that you know, Christopher Smithman as a person of color,
11:05
Speaker 2: you are you must be tired of hearing these allegations
11:08
Speaker 2: of racism, because you know what, when real racism exists
11:10
Speaker 2: in the world, no one is gonna believe it when
11:13
Speaker 2: someone starts trying to point it out. The boy who
11:15
Speaker 2: cried wolf, don't go away more with Christopher Smithman. After
11:18
Speaker 2: I mentioned Gregory Lester, the Tree health surgeon, still got
11:21
Speaker 2: those little deep talk station seven thirty nine. Here at
11:28
Speaker 2: fifty five Krosny talk station, Christopher Smithman's on the phone.
11:31
Speaker 2: You were talking about the Irish early contract. The item
11:33
Speaker 2: did blow the lid off of some of the problems
11:35
Speaker 2: we have on this. Todd Zenz or Citizen Watchdog, who's
11:37
Speaker 2: been following this as well, to your point in the
11:40
Speaker 2: last segment, listen to some of the he wrote up
11:43
Speaker 2: us whole series of questions which anybody following Citizen Washdog
11:46
Speaker 2: on Facebook can read for themselves. But up point number four,
11:50
Speaker 2: as Zinzer points out, Christopher, the contracts required subcontract or
11:55
Speaker 2: approval request to be submitted prior to the commencement of work.
11:58
Speaker 2: Now that would be her sons who are subcontractors beneath
12:01
Speaker 2: Iris Roley. They were retained to do some work on
12:03
Speaker 2: Government Square. That would also include her husband, who owns
12:05
Speaker 2: a printing company, who apparently was paid to print some
12:08
Speaker 2: T shirts up for folks to be identifiable, and their
12:11
Speaker 2: work for the work on Government Square. Anyway, Censer says
12:14
Speaker 2: that was not followed the request, and the city stated
12:18
Speaker 2: that it waived the requirements. Todd asks properly, how is
12:23
Speaker 2: the waiver done? Who approved the waiver? Also, the city
12:26
Speaker 2: spokesperson responded to a question about payments to subcontractors. She
12:30
Speaker 2: said that, quote, we would not maintain that information close quote.
12:36
Speaker 2: In fact, the contract requires that reports of all payments
12:38
Speaker 2: to subcontractors be filed with the city on the fifteenth
12:41
Speaker 2: day of each month. Interesting absence of documentation, Chris three,
12:45
Speaker 2: you can't find out what's going out the door.
12:46
Speaker 1: Even Yeah, that's a problem. Let me just give one
12:50
Speaker 1: little know. Jesse Rowley, which is mister Jesse really missus
12:55
Speaker 1: Rollie's husband. I've used their business to solid business. I've
12:59
Speaker 1: used it. It had to be fifteen twenty years ago.
13:01
Speaker 1: But that's not the point, right, No, no, no, I
13:04
Speaker 1: just want to highlight that that is a legitimate business.
13:07
Speaker 1: The point is what Todd Zenzer is highlighting is that
13:11
Speaker 1: they're not following the process whatever that is outlined, and
13:15
Speaker 1: why aren't they following that process? And when they go
13:17
Speaker 1: outside of it, who is allowing that to happen? Like
13:21
Speaker 1: who's saying what government official? Is it the mayor? Is
13:24
Speaker 1: it the board of trustees or is it the city
13:26
Speaker 1: managers arbitrarily going hey, this soul contractor you don't have
13:32
Speaker 1: to follow any of the rules. You just report to
13:34
Speaker 1: me and you don't even have to give us invoices.
13:37
Speaker 1: And that's why things are so hairy right now. And
13:39
Speaker 1: what also made it not look good is the signing
13:42
Speaker 1: of the contract right after the election, right because we
13:45
Speaker 1: know if you talk to Corey Bowman, who was running
13:49
Speaker 1: for mayor, he would tell you that MSUs Rowley would
13:52
Speaker 1: show up to some of his political events and ask
13:55
Speaker 1: him very loud questions. They didn't have to be sensical questions.
14:00
Speaker 1: But there she was in exercising her first amendment right
14:05
Speaker 1: fighting for the current mayor. That to me was a
14:08
Speaker 1: concerning thing during the election, and so right after the election,
14:11
Speaker 1: the city manager signing this contract to me is problematic.
14:14
Speaker 1: If we had a functioning city council, but the chair
14:18
Speaker 1: of budgeting Finance. And by the way, i am the
14:20
Speaker 1: former vice mayor of the city, and I've served on most,
14:24
Speaker 1: if not every committee that the City of Cincinnati has
14:26
Speaker 1: ever had. And so if we were serving right now
14:29
Speaker 1: and you had a functioning council, the chair of Budget
14:33
Speaker 1: and Finance would say, let's bring in the contractor. Let's
14:36
Speaker 1: bring in the city manager and ask them some questions
14:40
Speaker 1: at least to bring the contract into compliance at a
14:43
Speaker 1: bare minimum, But then ask the questions about whether you're
14:47
Speaker 1: is it really true that you've hired your your sons
14:50
Speaker 1: to work for you? And if you have, what are
14:52
Speaker 1: they doing for you? What are the hours, where are
14:55
Speaker 1: they working, what are the time whatever it is So
14:58
Speaker 1: that everybody in the city has a picture of how
15:01
Speaker 1: their dollars are being spent. You just can't keep running
15:04
Speaker 1: behind all. This is a ten ninety nine contractor, and
15:07
Speaker 1: therefore this person it doesn't have to follow any of
15:10
Speaker 1: the rules of the city, the state, or the federal government.
15:13
Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense.
15:14
Speaker 2: It doesn't in rules that quite often are in place
15:17
Speaker 2: to make sure that we get the best return on
15:19
Speaker 2: our taxpayer dollar investment. For example, I am not criticizing
15:22
Speaker 2: Iris Rolli's printing company, her husband's printing company. Was anybody
15:26
Speaker 2: else given the opportunity to do the work? Is there
15:29
Speaker 2: another printing company out there who could do equal, if
15:31
Speaker 2: not better work, or maybe equal work for less money.
15:35
Speaker 2: There's a thought. Same thing goes with their sons. Are
15:37
Speaker 2: they qualified to do the work that they were doing
15:40
Speaker 2: on Government Square? Apparently, since we don't know what the
15:42
Speaker 2: work is they were doing on Government Square, we don't
15:44
Speaker 2: know whether they were qualified to do it in the
15:46
Speaker 2: first place. But was that an open position that was posted.
15:48
Speaker 2: Because she's a subcontractor, she doesn't have to go through
15:51
Speaker 2: normal channels and post open jaw job openings. I mean,
15:55
Speaker 2: this is why it's also screwed up, because there's no
15:58
Speaker 2: accountability and only gets to do whatever she wants. And
16:02
Speaker 2: of course it does look unethical for her to be
16:06
Speaker 2: hiring a bunch of family members to do work, right.
16:09
Speaker 1: Right, I agree? And let me also say that it's
16:13
Speaker 1: this ties right into mayor the mayor's public conversation about
16:17
Speaker 1: raising our taxes in November, meaning the boldness of him
16:20
Speaker 1: to say, now we want to raise taxes when we
16:23
Speaker 1: are not confident that the money that you currently have,
16:27
Speaker 1: that you're managing it properly. So I just can't see
16:30
Speaker 1: him raising our income tax and citizens in Cincinnati across
16:33
Speaker 1: our fifty two neighborhood say, yeah, let's go ahead and
16:35
Speaker 1: do that. Our property taxes are too high. I already
16:39
Speaker 1: think the income tax is too high, and there is
16:41
Speaker 1: no way that someone would support that. But it's the
16:44
Speaker 1: boldness of it. And let me just pivot here, because
16:46
Speaker 1: all of this is connected to the team takeovers. Maybe
16:50
Speaker 1: when we come.
16:50
Speaker 2: Back, yeah, let's want to let's do that to that.
16:54
Speaker 1: But this is this is all connected as this weather
16:57
Speaker 1: warms up and we know we're going to have some
17:00
Speaker 1: of that behavior that we're seeing nationally play out right
17:03
Speaker 1: here in the city of Cincinnati.
17:04
Speaker 2: Christopher Smithman will connect the dots on that one. Don't
17:07
Speaker 2: be eight fifty about their CD talk station. Christopher Smithman
17:10
Speaker 2: join the smith Event. We're gonna get the money, buddy,
17:13
Speaker 2: Brian James at the top of the art, news and
17:15
Speaker 2: concerns about the national dead percolating and growing for legitimate reasons. Christopher,
17:19
Speaker 2: you were going to explain how you connect all this
17:21
Speaker 2: with the street team takeovers.
17:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, what we have now are these team takeovers that
17:28
Speaker 1: we're seeing across the country. And I spoke about it
17:30
Speaker 1: last week. The difference was we were going through a
17:33
Speaker 1: real rainy season and a very cool season, and now
17:36
Speaker 1: we're moving into a warm season, and we know that
17:40
Speaker 1: things are going to change. We know that unfortunately, crime
17:43
Speaker 1: ticks up the warmer it gets, the weather turns nice.
17:46
Speaker 1: People are out and they're interacting. And my fear is
17:49
Speaker 1: that yet again that this council and this mayor have
17:53
Speaker 1: not put together a plan. And miss missus Irish Rollie
17:57
Speaker 1: is a part of that plan, meaning we're paying a
18:00
Speaker 1: lot of money to have people do a lot of things.
18:03
Speaker 1: But the question is what are they doing? What is
18:05
Speaker 1: that comprehensive plan? And so if all of a sudden
18:08
Speaker 1: the students got out last week from Cincinnati Public and
18:11
Speaker 1: now there are free today, right meaning free meaning they're
18:14
Speaker 1: not going to school, we now need to know what
18:18
Speaker 1: is that curfew, what is that plan? What is going
18:20
Speaker 1: to happen? And if we see what happened at the
18:22
Speaker 1: opening day parade, if we see what happened for example
18:25
Speaker 1: in Price Hill at Price Hill Chili, the team takeover
18:28
Speaker 1: that happened there, that we know that these things are
18:31
Speaker 1: going to happen. And where not just where are the parents,
18:35
Speaker 1: but where is city hall on holding those parents accountable
18:38
Speaker 1: if they don't know where their twelve or thirteen or
18:41
Speaker 1: fourteen year old is at twelve midnight, two o'clock in
18:44
Speaker 1: the morning, nine o'clock at night downtown in our door
18:48
Speaker 1: on the banks with a gun, are not having a gun?
18:51
Speaker 1: No matter what. I want our officers to be empowered,
18:55
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas, to walk up and be able to ask questions.
18:58
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a young person. It's twelve o'clock at night.
19:01
Speaker 1: I know what our curfew is. I get to ask you,
19:05
Speaker 1: where are you? Where's your identification? And that is not racist.
19:09
Speaker 1: It is okay for our officers to engage in proactive
19:13
Speaker 1: policing in this city. And if we don't do it,
19:16
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas, the teams are going to start running our
19:19
Speaker 1: city like you see them running parts of Detroit, like
19:22
Speaker 1: you see them running running parts of la like you
19:25
Speaker 1: see them running parts of whatever liberal city you want
19:28
Speaker 1: to see in America. And I want to tie this
19:31
Speaker 1: directly to the gubernatorial race in Ohio when I am
19:34
Speaker 1: clearly supporting the vek Ramaswami because this is that last stand.
19:40
Speaker 1: I don't want to wake up and our state of
19:43
Speaker 1: Ohio is now run by Democrats. Meaning if we've got
19:45
Speaker 1: the Democrats running the state, they're running every county, they're
19:48
Speaker 1: running every city government. That will be the end of Ohio.
19:52
Speaker 1: And that is not an exaggeration. We've got to have
19:55
Speaker 1: somebody in some administration at the top that says no.
20:00
Speaker 1: So this is where we're drawing a line in the sand.
20:03
Speaker 1: We're not going to tolerate this level of violence. We're
20:05
Speaker 1: going to demand higher and better education for our children.
20:08
Speaker 1: We're gonna make jobs as a top priority, whatever, We're
20:12
Speaker 1: gonna try to lower taxes. All of those things is
20:15
Speaker 1: what I want to hear coming from the state. I
20:17
Speaker 1: am so concerned that this race is even close, and
20:21
Speaker 1: it is directly tied to what we see these team takeovers,
20:24
Speaker 1: whether they're happening in Cincinnati, whether they're happening in Columbus,
20:27
Speaker 1: whether they're happening in Toledo, or whether they're happening in
20:30
Speaker 1: Cleveland as examples. We must have a zero tolerance Brian Thomas,
20:35
Speaker 1: making sure that every parent out here knows where their
20:39
Speaker 1: children are. And we the government and we the people
20:42
Speaker 1: are not responsible for your teenager. You're supposed to know
20:46
Speaker 1: where that teenager is. And we should be able to
20:48
Speaker 1: hold a parent accountable if we do not, if they're
20:51
Speaker 1: not handling their business.
20:52
Speaker 2: Well, you know, just to hear this in recognizing, you know,
20:56
Speaker 2: as a parent who loves his children, that we need
21:01
Speaker 2: to bring about law enforcement in the law and the
21:03
Speaker 2: prosecutor's office to hold parents accountable because they don't care
21:08
Speaker 2: enough to know where their kids are. I mean, talk
21:11
Speaker 2: about a sorry state of affairs.
21:15
Speaker 1: It's where our family structures are on tour in America.
21:18
Speaker 1: And let me share with you people who travel here,
21:22
Speaker 1: immigrants who travel here, and they're watching this and they're
21:25
Speaker 1: trying to come in. They see it. They understand they
21:28
Speaker 1: see the breakdown in the American family because their families
21:31
Speaker 1: are intact. The bottom line for everybody to understand is
21:34
Speaker 1: this is not the job of our government. Our job
21:37
Speaker 1: is to enforce the laws, not to babysit people's children.
21:41
Speaker 1: And so city Hall has this mindset of we want
21:44
Speaker 1: to defund the police. The police are bad. Ice is
21:47
Speaker 1: bad anything related to the government. Our judges are letting
21:51
Speaker 1: bad people out with very low bonds or bonds even
21:55
Speaker 1: when they have a gun. The reality is we must
21:59
Speaker 1: I'm going back to the zak Ramaswami. We must elect
22:02
Speaker 1: him as the next governor. And my last point is,
22:06
Speaker 1: this is why we rolled out that petition, Brian Thomas,
22:08
Speaker 1: because we also have a city manager that fired the
22:12
Speaker 1: police chief, fired the fire chief, and those decisions. The
22:16
Speaker 1: fire chief's decision is coming in June. Most likely we're
22:19
Speaker 1: going to know right here where Chief Washington stands. This
22:22
Speaker 1: is the city's last stand, their last appeal. They're either
22:26
Speaker 1: going to have to settle the case or put twelve
22:28
Speaker 1: in the box. They don't want twelve in the box,
22:30
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas, because the lower court has already told him,
22:34
Speaker 1: you brought me a blank sheet of paper. I am
22:36
Speaker 1: not exaggerating to the public. There was no reason to
22:39
Speaker 1: fire Chief Washington. There was no cause of why the
22:43
Speaker 1: city manager did it. And that is the creation of
22:46
Speaker 1: our petition and why we're out here petitioning our government
22:49
Speaker 1: saying come and sign the petition so that we get accountability.
22:53
Speaker 2: In our government and specifics.
22:55
Speaker 1: Really the bottom line of it.
22:56
Speaker 2: And Christopher's petition will require seven council members to be
23:00
Speaker 2: responsible for the hiring and firing decisions. I got that right.
23:04
Speaker 1: Christopher, you got it right. Okay, you've got it right, brother,
23:06
Speaker 1: And it was wild to hear the mayor say, man,
23:09
Speaker 1: this petition is going to make things more political. Talk about.
23:13
Speaker 1: What we just found out from Chief Fiji is that
23:16
Speaker 1: the mayor has been in the room for every one
23:19
Speaker 1: of these decisions, denying the ning Governor Mike DeWine to
23:23
Speaker 1: bring his assets in here to help remediate crime. The
23:27
Speaker 1: mayor is at the table, Irish Rowley is at the table.
23:31
Speaker 1: There are some other members of council that are at
23:33
Speaker 1: the table. The bottom line is that politics are already here.
23:37
Speaker 1: What we want is a board of trustees called City
23:40
Speaker 1: Council to be able to say, hey, city Manager, why
23:42
Speaker 1: are you deciding to fire the fire chief? Because if
23:45
Speaker 1: that simple question was asked, we would not be where
23:49
Speaker 1: we are right now. We would not be facing a
23:51
Speaker 1: five to ten million dollar settlement to Chief Washington or
23:55
Speaker 1: a five or ten million dollar settlement to Chief Fiji.
23:58
Speaker 1: That's why we have the petition, That's why it exists.
24:00
Speaker 1: And all of this is connected the contract with Missus
24:03
Speaker 1: Irish Rowley, the lack of accountability there them spending money
24:07
Speaker 1: over here to settle cases with people that were downtown
24:09
Speaker 1: rioting or the eight million they did for the music venue.
24:13
Speaker 1: Rational citizens in Cincinnati don't understand this stuff.
24:17
Speaker 2: No, but you know, if counsel was required to engage
24:20
Speaker 2: on this, and most notedly in the case of Chief Washington,
24:23
Speaker 2: at least one of them would have raised their hands
24:25
Speaker 2: and say, do we have a reason to fire the chief?
24:30
Speaker 2: The answer would have been no, in which case they
24:32
Speaker 2: could have gotten seven votes to fire them. Right, yeah, exactly,
24:36
Speaker 2: And that one question would have saved these city taxpayers
24:39
Speaker 2: a lot of money, because you know they're going to
24:40
Speaker 2: write a big check out of money.
24:42
Speaker 1: Chris, do you think that our good friend Jim Keefer,
24:45
Speaker 1: if he were on council would not have raised his
24:47
Speaker 1: hand west side Jim and would have said, can you
24:50
Speaker 1: explain to me why you're terminating the fire chief city manager?
24:55
Speaker 1: He would have asked that basic question. What we're lacking
24:58
Speaker 1: down there? Are just just electing normal, rational people with
25:03
Speaker 1: common sense. I would vote for Jim Keefer her city
25:06
Speaker 1: council and I'm gonna let you know, brother, we've got
25:08
Speaker 1: it in this next election. In a year, we've got
25:11
Speaker 1: to come back to this. My name will not be
25:13
Speaker 1: on the ballot, but we've got to come back there
25:16
Speaker 1: and make sure that we get somebody on city council
25:20
Speaker 1: that is willing to ask them basic questions about transparency.
25:23
Speaker 1: We just can't go another two years like this.
25:25
Speaker 2: Well speculate I will, but I would think even Kramerton
25:28
Speaker 2: would have raised his hand and asked that simple question.
25:30
Speaker 2: He seems to be reasonable along some levels, Christopher. Is
25:33
Speaker 2: your petitions to sign still still at Jim and Jackson
25:35
Speaker 2: the River? I mean, I guess where might my city
25:38
Speaker 2: residents find that petition?
25:40
Speaker 1: They can come to Jim and Jacks Tuesday through Sunday
25:44
Speaker 1: to sign it. They can go to Dave Backer Auto
25:47
Speaker 1: on the west side. They can stept Jim Keefer on
25:50
Speaker 1: west side. Jim he has a petition, And there'll be
25:53
Speaker 1: a lot of different people each Each time I come on,
25:56
Speaker 1: I'll identify another person in your community that people on
25:59
Speaker 1: the sailor have the petition. They'll be circulating there. So
26:03
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people that will have that petition.
26:05
Speaker 1: It just takes time to get two or three hundred
26:08
Speaker 1: petitions in people's hands to collect the signatures. At the
26:11
Speaker 1: end of the day, Please citizens think about this when
26:15
Speaker 1: it gets on the November ballot, because We already know
26:17
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party is going to tell you not to
26:19
Speaker 1: vote for it. Just like they told you to vote
26:22
Speaker 1: to sell our railroad. They're going to tell you not
26:25
Speaker 1: to vote for this transparency legislation that we're petitioning the government.
26:30
Speaker 1: So don't get your pink slip or your blue sheet,
26:32
Speaker 1: whatever it is and it says vote no on this.
26:35
Speaker 1: You should be voting yes to make sure the city
26:37
Speaker 1: manager has accountability in the termination of our top two
26:42
Speaker 1: people in the city, our executives, police chief and fire chief.
26:46
Speaker 1: Thanks Brian Thomas. I'll see you next week, brother.
26:48
Speaker 2: Look see you on Thursday for the Empower Youth Suminar
26:50
Speaker 2: at Glendell Glassiem five thirty. We're all going to be
26:54
Speaker 2: either to celebrate two hundred and fifty years of America.
26:56
Speaker 2: And here's some great speeches, including Christopher Smith and we'll
26:58
Speaker 2: talk soon. Christopher. Have a great day and thanks for
27:01
Speaker 2: your passion. Don't go away Monday money Brian James. Right
27:04
Speaker 2: off the top of the our news, we.
27:06
Speaker 1: Put the app in happening. All voters must show