Patch Boyz Podcast
Friends Who Grew Up In Midland TX, Work In The Oil Industry Getting Together To Talk About Daily Topics
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Patch Boyz Podcast
Patch Boyz x Mayor Lori Blong II | EP.119 ( Mayor Lori Blong - Bonds, Transparency & Campaigning For Reelection
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We sat down with Mayor Lori Blong for a clear, line-by-line walkthrough of Midland’s next chapter: how a 100-year water plan moves from contract to pipeline, why the city used cash to end a long-running firefighter pension liability, and how lower-cost debt funded park upgrades without ballooning interest. We talk about what’s actually public, what gets redacted by law, and why “available” information isn’t always “accessible” for busy families who want answers in minutes, not hours.
We dig into the Midland Development Corporation with fresh context: $16M a year in tools, reimbursements only after jobs and capital land, and targeted design dollars that unlocked $32M from the state and shaved years off a key overpass project. On downtown, we press the Omni details—construction milestones before payments, an 800-space parking garage that serves the whole core, and the conference capacity Midland needs to keep energy conversations here rather than exporting them to other cities. We unpack tax math without spin—three straight years of rate cuts, the city’s 23% share of a typical bill, and how valuations include new properties added to the rolls. We also cover airport mineral revenues, federal strings that could tie local hands, and the principle that local assets should fund local infrastructure first.
Lori Blong Links: https://www.instagram.com/mayor.lori.blong?igsh=MWF6eGk1YTNqZW14dQ==
https://www.facebook.com/share/1FXKKRbNTN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Merch Sponsor:
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Sponsors:
Underdog Wireline Services 432-247-1033
Completion :
Horizontal / Vertical Perforating
Addressable / EB Switches
Radial Cement Bond Logging
10k & 5k PCS / Rig Lock
40-50 Ton Cranes
Pipe Recovery :
Free Point, Jet & Chemical Cuts
Temperature Logging, Back Off / Drill Pipe / Casing Tubing Well Head Shot,Coil Tubing,TCP Cutting,Well Intervention Logging / Stuck Pipe
Production:Packer / CIBP / ESP Catcher Temperature Logging
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Sponsor Shoutouts & Kickoff
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, uh just want to see out there uh hit up our sponsor, uh Underdog Wire Line. They're killing it, they're uh they're supporting us, they're doing everything they can. Uh we appreciate the offer completion, production, pipe recovery. You need a whole um perforator, you need a whole log. You give these guys a damn call. You know what I mean? They got all kinds of stuff going on from uh emergency shower trailers to cooldown trailers. Uh do what you can, give them a call at 432-247-1033. Branded 14 Hotshot Service, guys. Let's check them out, man. Don't forget about them. They're outside of Millen. You're probably seeing them running around in and out of the field, alright? They offer any type of hot shot work you need: ESP spooling, ESP tech. They even got heavy hauling with semis, guys. All right. So, you know, if you need something hauled, you need some uh ESP work done, give these guys a shout out. It's at 432-638-1755.
Meet Mayor Lori Blong
SPEAKER_03Check out the links below. Titan Sales and Services uh is one of our new sponsors. They're a relatively new company, so we want to back them up like they're backing us up. Uh they're running out of Crane, Texas, and some of the stuff that they have available is uh Russ About maintenance and construction crews, uh, trash trailers, porta potties, combo trailers, forklifts, and they're adding new services and rentals every day. Uh so give those guys a call at 432-307-1960. Hey, what's up, everybody? Patch Boys back again with a very special guest. Um our incumbent, our may current mayor, uh however you want to say it right, uh, Mayor Laurie Balang.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
SPEAKER_03Of course, of course. Uh, we had a very good conversation last time she was here. And now, of course, with the mayoral race going on, of course, it would only be proper to have the mayor in here after we had Judd, right? Uh, and get some of these questions going. But before we get started, if you want to just kind of give your your kind of your uh your own entrance to to uh this podcast, right? Just kind of tell the people uh what you're about and what you're running on and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. Well, um I am a lifelong Midlander, born and raised here in Midland, Texas, graduated from Midland High, and um moved away for about 11 years um for my college and early career, and had a couple babies before I moved back, and then one after I got back here. So have three kids. My husband Jared and I um have an oil and gas company together that we started in 2013. So if you really want to go through some sanctification, then you should work with your spouse. Yeah. It's definitely been a good thing for me. Um, and so over the the life of you know, just the time being back here since 2011, um, we've just gotten deeply involved in Midland. And I love this community and I want to be able to serve and give back. And so that's really what's motivated me to run first for city council and then for mayor, and it's what's making me want to run one more time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. And I I think during my time on city council and as mayor, I've really been a solutions-oriented, get it done kind of girl. Um, I see a problem, I want to find a solution, I want to get things solved. And so we've seen that with the firefighter pension fund, um$121 million problem that had been going on for 20 years, and we got it, we got it solved. And then I was so thankful to have the firefighters endorsement even after that. Um, so that's been a huge thing. And that, you know, bringing Costco to town and just addressing a lot of the infrastructure problems that we've had with so much investment in our infrastructure. So I'm a get-it-done kind of girl. I'm ready to solve some more problems for Midland and I'm excited for the opportunity.
SPEAKER_03All right. Wow, that was good. Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh, last time we had you here, of course, we talked a lot about the fun stuff, the zoo and what you like, and you know, the soccer fields which are going up right next door to my work, which was it was funny because I talked to some of my coworkers and they're like, if if you're gonna have her on, ask her what they're building on the edge of our site. Are they building a wall or what? It's it's funny, but it's just a little joke that we have around there.
SPEAKER_00I'll have to get back with you. I don't know.
Wins: Pension Fix, Costco, Infrastructure
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But uh, no, I mean, I think uh most of the stuff that we spoke about has now come to fruition with costs go up, everything breaking ground, uh the schools, um, everything is now coming to fruition. Um, and of course, with all that now happening, you get all the questions, right? What's next? Um uh is it is it worth it taking the next step? Is it not worth it taking the next step? I think right now, in your mind, um, I know you're talking about solving problems and everything. What comes to mind right away? Because you've been in the seat already for a while, and in your mind, there has to be something glaring there, like, I need a little bit more time to kind of take care of that. Or what in your mind sticks out?
SPEAKER_00So that's actually what motivated me to run. There was a there was a pause there. We have accomplished so much in the last uh three years as mayor and then the three before that on council. Um, but one of the things that caused me to say, no, I need to, I need to stay and see this across the finish line is some of the water development work that we've we've had going on. Um, the Fort Stockton Holdings contract that we secured is a partnership between Abilene, San Angelo, and Midland. And that's a great project. It's really important for us, but it's not, we still have to figure out how to get the pipeline constructed and the right-of-way acquisition and some of those kinds of things. And so while we have the water contracted, and that is it's a rechargeable aquifer. So this is truly a hundred-year water solution combined with the other things that we already have. But we need to make sure we've got a we've got the right-of-way between there and Midland, and we've got a plan for the pipeline construction and making sure that we have the steps in place for that long-term project. That's a huge driver for me. Uh, another thing is we've done a lot of work over the last couple of years to find efficiencies, um, find places where we were, you know, spending too much money. Where, where were the places where we could cut? Uh, we talk a lot about Doge, you know, we've had our own Doge Midland um over the last couple of years.$116 million of cost recovery that we've been able to find. That's something that's very well documented that I can show to anybody who has questions,$116 million. And I want us to continue that effort. We're not done. We have some further efficiencies to find. And so water combined with those finding those efficiencies are really important to me. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_04What's uh and the speaking of transparency, I know that recent document's going around right now about the what Ken Paxton. How is what what is your perspective on that? Because people are saying that, you know, the city's trying to hide things. Uh I mean, that's just what I've seen online, and I'm just kind of curious what your point of view is on that.
SPEAKER_00Well the Ken Paxton letter is not related to Midland. It's related to Odessa in a couple of other cities. Um so the the the uh I think that's what you're talking about with the they're investigating Odessa and their tax increase. Is that what you're talking about?
SPEAKER_04Well, I saw one Show Let City of Midland a document and it showed uh Ken Paxton.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes. I know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_04I think it's the MDC stuff.
Water Strategy and Pipeline Plan
SPEAKER_00So there was a FOIA request, um, a public information request for some documentation. Um there were some expenditures on uh on the report that was released, and one of those was one of those expenditures was related to medical care. And that is a a protected class of information. And so we followed the law. And when I say we, let me be really clear. Public information requests go through the city attorney's office, and the city attorney's office follows the law in the way that we release that. Right. So the city attorney's office manages that from start to finish. That is not a thing that comes to counsel where we provide direction or we say nope, we don't want that to go out there. The city attorney's office provided that documentation, they released everything from our they they actually printed a report from Munis, which is our um software, um, and they printed that report, provided everything that that was responsive to the request, and then they redacted that medical procedure. Right. Um, and sent it to the attorney general's office, and that's what the law says to do.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. All right then. Yeah, I just seen that online. I was just I figured we'd probably bring that up too, because I know it's a one thing I've seen going around a lot, and people are talking about a lot about it. But you know, one thing I do think is that, you know, you as a mayor, I mean, I think you've, you know, we've we've always felt comfortable with you. I think you're very conservative when it comes to those things. Uh and I think uh I think people are just like a little nervous when it comes down to all the bonds that are going through, right? I mean, we've had the big school bond, a billion dollars. We just had that one for the Midland College. And uh I think I just wanted to know, like, do you think Midland's maybe maybe gone too far with the bonds, or do you think we should slow down? Or how is your view on that?
SPEAKER_00So I think it's a really good question, and I think it's something we need to look at. You guys know that the school district is separate from the city. Yes. And so the mayor and the city council don't get to make decisions on their bond or on call, you know, any of the other taxing entities. So we have not we we had the 2017 road bond,$100 million um for the roadway improvements. The that road bond had to be done. We had truly failing infrastructure. It wasn't just the street, it was the it was the storm drain and water and sewer underneath the street. All of those things were failing. And so that's why that was it, and voters passed it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, we have had some additional bonds for that the city council has done, certificates of obligation, which is um debt that we take on for specific projects. So one of those was the Hogan Park Golf Course. That one's going to be paid back by the fees, and I can sh sit down with you and show you whatever detail you want to get into, but I can show you how those fees pay back that debt. We've had some additional debt for our landfill. The city of Midland actually owns and operates our own landfill and does all of our own trash trucks and sanitation. Not all cities do that. Um, but you have to build on to your landfill as your population grows and as you fill up the old landfill, you got to dig a new one. And so we have to just to remain compliant with TCEQ and to be able to continue taking people's trash, we have to have more landfill. And so there was some debt there. That's also being paid back by you know, on your water bill where you have the trash collection fee, that's going to pay that back. So a lot of the debt, the one of one place where we don't have user fees that are paying that back that we've done in the last couple of years. Um, when we corrected the fire pension fund, so that was a huge$121 million problem. The solution was that the city of Midland would would either have to go out for a bond, a pension obligation bond, or we would have to come to some sort of solution where the firefighters gave up a portion of their benefit. So they get less benefit. It cost them, you know, that's part of the solution. And then the city would come in with a cash solution.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00We chose to do that. But the only way that we could have the cash to do that was we used what was allocated for the Beale Park project. So we used that cash out of you know, fifty-four million dollars of cash that was gonna go towards that project, and we decided we're gonna use this to solve this problem and we're gonna use debt to be able to pay for the Beale Park project.
SPEAKER_01Right.
Cutting Waste and Cost Recovery
SPEAKER_00We've already paid back nine million dollars of the principal on that last year because we we were able to get ahead on that. And we have we believe that that was a reasonable and prudent thing to solve a problem with the cash that we had on hand because it's way cheaper debt. The the interest is way lower to go for that kind of a bond on a park than a pension obligation bond where the fees and the taxes are way higher.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And so we looked at the cost of capital, we made a judgment call, and that's what we did.
SPEAKER_03Okay. See, it's very this is the thing about everyone, especially whenever it gets into people online and uh bringing up transparency, right? Um, that's a very good explanation. It makes very good sense. Now, the same question that we asked Judd, right? How would you make it more transparent, right? You've been you've you've been in a seat that he hasn't been, right? Correct. You have a different view of what he's talking about. Possibly Judd wants to do this online. He wants to, he he said himself it should be online and be it should be as transparent as possible, right? If you were to change anything as far as transparency, because if I were to read something online close to the explanation that you just gave, I'd be happy. I'd be happy because it made sense. Um so how would you change the whole transparency aspect of things? Because that's the big I feel like in this race, that's the big ticket item. That's what everybody is holding over, not just yours, but Judd's head as to this is where what we want, an explanation that we want, right? Of course, Judd is a CPA, he's an accountant, and he has numbers coming out the wazoo, right? But as far as an explanation, right, layman's terms, explanations, how do you deliver those? Do you have like moving forward? Would you do anything different to deliver uh basically a more transparent view of what we're doing with the finances?
Transparency, FOIA, and What’s Public
SPEAKER_00So I have said everything I just said to you, I've said in city council meetings publicly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There wasn't anything that I just said there that I haven't already said in a public meeting. Um I have said them online in various other places, and it is on the city's website. So it is online.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um so I think that the concern and and what you know what people find when they get in this role, we don't have a news media in Midland that is reporting things like that. And that's really unfortunate.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, and so figuring out how to get what I just said into the ears and the minds of people in our community. All these people, yeah, that's a challenge. And and I don't want to I don't want to undercut that or or downplay that, minimize that. That is that is the challenge. It is not because we're not trying to say it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We're trying to say it. We're, you know, the presentations that we do in our council meetings, I think they frustrate some of the same group of people. They don't want to sit through a presentation. Well, how are you going to get the information if you don't hear what we're doing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We made the decision to go out for bonds for Beale Park because those bonds had a better interest rate than the bond for the pension obligation bond. We chose the lower interest rate and we had a problem we had to solve.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We said that in a public meeting, we said it in a presentation, we've set it online. How do how else do we get it out there? And if you don't have a media organization that's willing to run it, how do you ever communicate it to people? The other thing I would say is if you if that was online and you would you actually read it realistically? Are you gonna go read what I just said online?
SPEAKER_04Maybe if I had you coming in the next week, I might but like. So that's what we mean.
SPEAKER_03Whenever, whenever I say, is there um somewhere to actually look it up, it's because I myself got lost trying to find it. Yeah, right? Because obviously we know you're coming in, we prepare, and what it truly is is for people like myself and Ricky to be able to read it and be able to regurgitate that to the listener. Because I feel like even in where we're at too, and we can be held accountable too, like what are you regurgitating to the public?
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_03If I'm not in taking the proper things to give out to the public, am I giving them lies? It's possible. It's possible, and I don't want to do that, right? Um, which is why our view of transparency is kind of like easy. Somebody laid it out for you, social media style, quick 30 seconds, stuff like that. And I know that that's something that we struggle with in media. Um, so I really do try to go out and read and find these things, but I find it difficult. Yeah, um, you typically, whenever I find something, it's when I'm looking for something else. And I wasn't looking for it, put it that way, right? I'm I'm looking for something else, uh uh maybe about you, about funding, about the bonds, about anything else, and then it kind of oh, okay, this is here's another article, or here's something else, and then I kind of stumble upon it. Yeah. Um, so it's kind of one of those things where I'm I'm glad everybody's hearing that it is available to you. Um, but just like you guys might have the problem finding it, I myself have a problem finding it. So it's not so much of an issue for you or an issue for Judd. Uh I'm just saying it's like an issue, period.
SPEAKER_01It is.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean? No, no, no. Um the the public the public kind of needs somebody to step up and give that information. I know certain sites are giving that. The only problem is I find myself having an issue uh of being Switzerland, being a middleman, right? And you have two groups, one group releases this stuff, only this stuff, and there's more information over here. This other group releases only this stuff, and I'm caught in the middle trying to make sense of the whole story. Right. Um, so that's kind of an issue.
SPEAKER_00There's there's one thing too, uh specific to there, there's a debt chart that they're circulating around. So you may have seen it where it looks like the city of Midland has over$800 million worth of debt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Bonds, Debt, and Paying It Back
SPEAKER_00That's not an accurate number. I don't know where that number came from. Um the number is really closer to 500, some odd, 550, 547, something along those lines of total debt for the city of Midland. Um, I don't know where over 800 million dollars came from, but it's not accurate. And um I can demonstrate that also through multiple different websites um that that that fact check the those sorts of things. So, you know, the there is a bond review board that put puts out the publication and it would have the correct number. I actually checked it before I came over here because I suspected that we were gonna have this conversation. But that that website has the correct number on there. And and so we need to make sure and and we all should be held accountable, right? There's I'm not I'm not pushing back against being held accountable, yeah. But let's be held accountable with facts, not with um innuendo or insinuating some sort of criminal behavior or insinuating, you know, there I've seen some stuff about credit the council members and the mayor's credit cards. We don't even have credit cards. Yeah, they don't issue us credit cards. Yeah. You know, so that's that's not even a thing. So if you go and try to pull our credit cards and you don't get anything back from the FOIA request, it's not because we hid it, it's because we don't have one. My my family pays for the things that I do. And so that's those are the kinds of things. Let's if let's fact check each other and let's let's do hold each other accountable, but let's make sure we're talking about truth, not insinuation of something.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and that's kind of why we wanted to have you on to have another point of view, you know. We don't want to just push stuff out that we don't know either. You know, and and speaking of that, how do you feel about the MDC transactions they just recently had online with uh you know them going to um all the restaurants, you know, Cowboy Prime and all that spending thousands and or MDC as a whole, how do you feel about the organization?
SPEAKER_03I mean, it uh if you want to call it uh entity more more like Yeah, let's let's take those in order because it's two separate questions.
SPEAKER_00Um MDC as an entity uh ring brings in basically sixteen million dollars in on a good year, sixteen million dollars of revenue. And so there's a board of people that help make recommendations of where those sixteen million dollars are spent, and then ultimately it comes to city council for final approval. Sixteen million dollars is a lot of money, but the total city budget is almost half a billion dollars. So we're getting wrapped around the axle over sixteen million dollars, which we should, we should pay attention, and I'm not minimizing that at all, but you also have to place that in its larger context of what the city council and and what what all we're stewarding half a billion dollars a year in total total budget. So that is that's something that I want to put in in perspective. The MDC this year, with that sixteen million dollars, we've changed it to now 35% at minimum, gets allocated of that sixteen million dollars every year back into infrastructure projects, and more than that in some years. That's something that's been a priority for me that I've instituted you know since I've been on council and as mayor. With that, this year, we put money into the design plans for the Todd Drive overpass and for the signalized intersection that's gonna go 158. Okay. Those two projects. We put in a couple million dollars for the design plans and all that. With that couple million dollar investment, the city, the city received back from the state of Texas from Text Dot$32 million because we did those design plans, and so Text Dot's gonna come build it for us.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00$32 million that we brought back into this community with that two million dollar investment, and we supercharged that project five to six years faster than we would have gotten it otherwise. I think that's a good use of money. You know, we doubled our money.$16 million of revenue, we made a couple million dollars investment, and we brought in$32 million. Those are the kinds of things that are important to me. The MDC also, since I've been on council and as mayor, we now have a process where we don't prepay any of these groups that we're doing a deal with. So they have to bring jobs, they have to bring their capital investment into our community, and then the incentive happens after they've delivered. We're not letting, we're not giving them something that they're not already demonstrating their success in our community. So those are those are reimbursements after they've already demonstrated their success. That's not how it's always been done, right? But that's important to me. You got to put your money where your mouth is first, and then we will help with some of those things. But let me also back up and say I don't really love incentives to start with. If I were, you know, queen for a day and making all the decisions, I wouldn't I wouldn't even do incentives. I would let the free market work. But the reality in the state of Texas is we do have incentives that the city and economic development corporations can put forward. And if we're gonna say in Midland we're not gonna use any of these incentive packages, we're hamstringing ourselves. And those companies are gonna go to a city where they do incentives. And so we're competing with Lubbock and you know, Abilene and Odessa and you know, inner, inner any name here, any of these growing communities that are doing good stuff, they have incentive structures that they're using for their economic development. We have to play the game with the rules that we've been given in the state of Texas. And that is something that, you know, it it's not really what I prefer, yeah, but it's the way that the rules are written right now.
SPEAKER_01Right.
MDC: Role, Oversight, and Incentives
SPEAKER_00Right. So to go back to your question about um some of the expenditures, you know, there's a couple of them that I I would not defend. Um I do think that some of them are are high. But overall, you know, when we have site selector groups that are coming in from the state level, or some of them are national site selectors. So a site selector is a um think about I don't know what to relate it to, almost like a realtor. But they're these are people that are they have a business and they're looking for a place to take their business extreme.
SPEAKER_03So it's a franchise deal.
SPEAKER_00Well, sometimes, but but they're not, you know, let's say that you own uh you own Costco and you are interested in bringing Costco to Midland, or you're looking just for the next place to expand in the state of Texas. A site selector may come to our community and look around and have conversations. It's the same thing if you're doing an oil and gas deal, or you're, you know, whatever, whatever it is that you're trying to do, you're gonna sit down and you're gonna have dinner and you're gonna talk through it. And is do I like these people? Do I want to do a deal with them? Do I think I can actually get a deal done? That's what a lot of those dinners are. Are, you know, people having a conversation to say, can we get a deal done here? Do we want to work with each other? Um, and I think some of that is necessary. I think that we can evaluate and and take some of those different expenditures on a case-by-case basis, and we we might not find all of them to be worthwhile. But as a concept, we do have to be able to have dinners where we sit down and talk about things.
SPEAKER_04It's kind of like a sales meeting or a salesman for an oil filled company.
SPEAKER_03It's very understandable. I think honestly, uh when whenever we talk about stuff like that, because the same thing happens um at my company, at Ricky's company, the oil business and the oil people out there, blue-collar workers, whatever you want to call, they understand this. This is an understandable uh way of putting things. The only thing I would say, and and I don't know if you would agree, it looks like that the answers that they're searching for are answers simply uh answered through itemization. Is that something that you think uh MDC would ever think about doing is itemizing any of those expenditures? Because it's very different when you see a number, and I see a four thousand dollar number, right? And all it says is all it says is whatever Joe Blow restaurant, right? That's all it says. It's very different when you have an itemized sheet that says 10 different entrees or something of that nature, and that's why the main number is what the main number is, right? We may go out in a group of four, we may grow out go out in a group of 15. There's a huge difference in those things. So I don't know if that's I don't know how closely um you as mayor or the city council work with MDC. I have no idea how that works, honestly. And uh I don't know if you care to share how closely that works or how you guys are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so so we are um working with them on some projects and then some projects they're pursuing, and then they bring them to us. Nothing nothing goes to a completed um approved state without coming through the city council, but there's a lot of pre-work that goes into it. We don't attend all of those site selector meetings, we don't attend all of the you know tire-kicking meetings, basically, where these folks are coming to town and trying to decide if they want to relocate their business here. We attend as they come closer to, okay, we're close to getting a deal done, they're often they're gonna reach out to us and say, okay, mayor, can you and another council member come to this and and talk to these folks and let them get a feel for our local city leadership? And so I'll attend some of those things occasionally. Um there's a lot of you know, phone calls where one of those board members will reach out and say, Hey, we're talking about this. Do y'all have an appetite for that? Or we like we don't want to do all this work as the MDC board and then realize y'all are not in favor of this. So there's some of those kind of phone calls. So that's kind of the way that it works in terms of what city council and the mayor have with the MDC. But the MDC is its own, as we've said, entity. So they're they're doing their work knowing that they don't ultimately get approval until they bring it back to us.
SPEAKER_03Right. Okay, okay. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_04That's not you know, is it is another one thing I wanted to ask too is like uh is it hard, like is it a lot for you? Like because people come to you, they look at you for everything. Like we're over here, you know, we're heading you up for something that you know like that. And it's like, what has that been like for you this past term for you? I mean, you know what I mean? Like, is it hard? Is it stressful? What is it like for you?
Site Selectors, Dinners, and Deliverables
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SPEAKER_04Hustle hat go, guys. Don't forget about it. You know, their uh sponsor notes or a merch sponsor, uh man, we're proud of it. They got the best stuff, the greatest gear, dude. I love all of it. So uh, you know, if you're watching our videos, uh you're gonna see it. If you're watching our clips, you're gonna see it. So uh, you know, check them out. They got nice hat, shirts, button ups, long sleeves, outerwear, decal accessories. Man, they even got cowboy gear. How Texas is that, dude? So check them out. Don't forget, man, it's at Teha'shatco.com if you're looking for it. And uh you can't figure it out, look at the description on the bottom. We'll have the links.
SPEAKER_00So realistically, I put in 40 to 60 hours a week on city related things, things that I would not be doing if I were not in this role. And for your context, I get paid$75 a month, which I then donate. So I this is a volunteer job that I work 40 to 60 hours a week at, and I recognize that that's insane. Um, I think my husband would be the first person to say that's insane.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh or maybe my my 12 year old son, actually. I think he he would be the first to say.
SPEAKER_03There's a combination for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. They're the they don't and I think Midlanders have that question. There's people that are like, why would you work this hard? Why would you bring Raise this much money for a campaign, you know, why would you do all of this for a volunteer position? And the I it's not a fancy answer and it's not a line. I really do love this community. And I do believe that if we don't have good people who are willing to put in the work, then we're gonna look up and we're gonna be Midland, Texas in 1986 instead of Midland, Texas in 2025. And I was here in 1986. I don't want to go back to that, right? And so it it's I'm thankful to have a husband and a family that is able to support and sustain the the pace and the schedule. Um and so I'm gonna step forward and do it one more time. But it is it has been costly. Um it has cost us money. You know, a lot of the I have to go to DC and Austin because we don't believe in taxpayer supported um lobbying here in Midland. So we don't we don't hire a lobbyist for a lot of the things that we do. And so that means that the mayor and the city council have to go and have conversations with our elected representatives, either in DC or Austin. And a lot of that m comes out of my pocket. Um and so I it is it has cost me time, it has cost me money, and it has cost me some, you know, just the nonsense that is happening on social media, the the reputational risk of of people saying whatever they want to say. And um that that's just a part of the gig, and I know that, but it I don't want to portray it as though it's not costly. It is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, I was curious about that. Cause I mean, well, you know, I I did see that that one video went viral of you walking out of the console. Well, do you have anything to say about that?
SPEAKER_00I mean, maybe your side of the daughter is at the Naval Academy, and um she was completing her first year of the Naval Academy, and they have something called the Herndon Climb, which is this ceremonial or it's it's they climb this obelisk, and once they climb that, then they're they're a plebe no more. They're they've they've graduated from their first year. Wow. And it's this huge achievement, and I wanted to be there for my daughter to be able to see that and support her. Um it's the Naval Academy's been intense and she's done really good work. And so in that meeting, repeatedly throughout the meeting, I said, I'm going to have to leave at this time to catch my flight to get to Annapolis, Maryland, so that I can be there with my daughter. And I did what I said, and I left when I said I was going to leave, and I went to see my daughter.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think I mean and I had sat there and taken it on the chin for a minute.
SPEAKER_03No, yeah, we believe me.
SPEAKER_00For a long time before I had to get up and leave. And I didn't leave because I was mad. I left because I needed to make it to see my daughter.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And that's the main reason why we ask is because so much is made with you know videos that get put out, right? So much is made of uh 30-second clip, right?
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_03And uh so definitely here we want to give the equal opportunity for everybody to defend themselves, man. And uh, I don't know about everybody else, but in my house, family comes first. Um, so yeah, I I probably wouldn't have been as nice about it. So uh considering, considering uh what you were going to do, um, I think uh I think you were more than uh uh within your your your uh right.
The Job’s Cost: Time, Money, Family
SPEAKER_00Well, and and to provide a little additional framework, you know, a lot of those folks that have you know made hay with this on social media, I had meetings with them in person before and after that. Like don't act like I didn't listen to you. I I've met with you and sat and heard your concerns and have taken those into consideration. I'm not, you know, I want to engage with people and understand and I I'm not walking out when people are trying to talk to me. I'm I'm giving 40 to 60 hours of my week, sometimes more, to be able to be there for people and to to do a good job at this. It is I want to do it with excellence because of my own integrity. Yeah, and but I also am I'm not gonna not be there for my kids.
SPEAKER_03Not yet.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Thank you very much for clearing that up. I'm sure that people are gonna appreciate it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04One thing about speaking about kids, I mean, I did one thing I will uh you know applaud you on is that when they try to do that kid drag show downtown, or not downtown, but over there uh that one that selfie place, whatever, um, and I did know that they were unhappy that you didn't help them, and that made me feel good because I did not like that. And I think a lot of people like us are from here and we won't want this town to turn to something else. So, you know, I do applaud you on that because that made it did make me feel good about it, you know. I think everybody got no matter where you stand at politically right now on that. I mean, at least here if you're like conservative, you're always gonna, I mean, we all stood behind that part, you know what I'm saying? So I do appreciate you doing that, and I haven't forgotten that I was gonna bring that up because that's one thing I did ask uh, you know, when we had on um the former of Judd Judd, yeah, and uh or talking to him and um they mentioned him like I don't want that stuff around and he said he didn't, and I know I do know you don't like that.
SPEAKER_00I don't like that stuff either. And when something that you're coming up um here in in a couple of meetings for on city council, we're gonna be voting on an ordinance that further secures our kids in this community. Um so we're bringing an ordinance forward that requires registered sex offenders to live a certain distance away from schools, from daycares and from playgrounds and parks. We need to make sure that kids are protected in this community. And there's a lot of cities in the state of Texas that already have ordinances like that. Midland has never done that. And it's a priority for me to make sure we are keeping kids safe in Midland. Um, and and so you're gonna see that coming forward. And we've got some other things in the works where we're making sure that we can ensure the safety of kids. And uh a safe town for kids is a safe town for all of us. We all need that. Absolutely. And so um, you know, we've hired 33 new police officers since I've been in my role. And so I'm proud of some of those things. This is we're taking it really seriously and doing everything we can. That doesn't mean that the crime rate is zero, right? But we're bringing the crime rate down. We still have stuff to deal with. Um, but 33 new police officers, a crime rate reduction for violent crime of over 10%. Yeah, those are those are real numbers, real statistics that we can point to and say, yeah, we're moving this in the right direction. And it's because we love this community.
SPEAKER_04And so that's one thing too. Uh I I think a lot of sometimes I see like people who are not from here come here and they want to change Midland. But do you feel like you want to change Midland but keep Midland the same? Or what would you how would you be on that part?
Viral Walkout Context and Media Clips
SPEAKER_00I want to keep the values of Midland the same. I want this to be a family-friendly place for the future. Um, and I think it has been, you know, I've been blessed to be here and and be raised in that culture. And we've got, you know, whether you're, you know, it doesn't matter what part of town you're in in Midland, Texas, we care about family here. And so I want that to continue to be the case and I want uh families to grow and thrive, but I do want us to reinvest back into ourselves. Um, you know, we still have some water pipelines, like just water, sewer, and storm drainage in certain parts of town that were built in the 50s, y'all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have to invest back into our community. That's conservative. It is a conservative thing to invest back into the assets that we own and make sure that they're they're gonna be successful for the long haul. We cannot just pull back and refuse to spend money on investing in ourselves and then look up and it's all crumbling. We have to make sure that we're taking care of business, we're we're doing the maintenance that is necessary, and that we're providing well for families.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And uh, you know, go ahead, I'm sorry. No, go ahead, go ahead. Um, you know, speaking of investment back in the city, that is that uh the thing that just happened where they found mineral rights underneath the airport. Is that is that something where they think the money will go back to the city? I think uh I've seen some doc uh some articles on it, but I haven't really read too much in it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so those minerals, the city purchased those minerals in 1942. And so the taxpayers of Midland own them. And in 2012, under the Obama administration, there was a law passed that allows airports to restrict city-owned minerals to the airport. Well, you guys know how much how much oil can be produced under Midland Air Park. I mean, that's that is a lot of money coming from those as as those minerals are developed out over time. We're talking about several hundred million dollars worth of revenue. Midland Air Park does not need that. Our airport system does not need that. But we have other things in our community that do need that. And I believe it's a federal overreach for them to tell us how we have to spend our dollars when that's a that's an asset that the taxpayers of Midland bought in 1942. We own it and we get to decide how we're gonna spend it. And so I believe that those dollars need to go back into our infrastructure for water and for some of these improvements that we need to make around town. And then I think anything that is you know over and above that needs to go in a stabilization fund. Um, something that we can have, like a rainy day fund when we have a crisis that we need to address. Those dollars need to be, you know, ours to allocate to the right project.
SPEAKER_03I agree.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I thought that was wild when I saw that.
SPEAKER_03I was like, Yeah, I just I just read that. I thought it was so fresh. I was like, I'm not gonna ask about that because it's so new. Well, it just came out, but I'm sure you've known about it for a while.
Protecting Kids: Safety Ordinances
SPEAKER_00And and I've I've seen some nonsense about, you know, leave it to the city council to not realize we did know it. It's you know, the problem is not that we didn't know, the problem is that there was a law passed in 2012 that ties our hands. Yeah, we need to be able to make sure now. Another thing for the the drilling that's going on over there next to Midland Air Park, that so those that is not just Midland Air Park minerals. There's thousands of homeowners and other city-owned revenue under a couple of parks and other places. So some of that revenue is already coming back to the city, and it's definitely going back to the homeowners that own the minerals under their house. Yeah. So we're just talking the the part that's being disputed here is just what is directly underneath Midland Air Park.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Yeah. Because I know those some of those are my minerals over there, too. So we have mad problems. But no, I think uh I think uh uh you've expanded uh above and beyond the stuff that we obviously wanted to talk about. Um one glaring thing, obviously, from the discussion that we had with uh Judd uh was the Omni, right? Um what are your thoughts on the Omni? Um are you a hundred a hundred percent backing that uh project? Do you have issues with it? I know you said that it's all about what it's gonna bring to us before they see any money back from us. Um what do you expect them to bring to this community?
Crime Reduction and Police Hiring
SPEAKER_00So the Omni project is one of these projects that they don't get paid until they deliver on the product. So they have benchmarks that they have to meet at certain percentage completed, then we release some of the payment. And another percentage completed, we release more of the payment. That contract is public. So if you have any desire to read it, there we the transparency is there. Go read the contract, it's there. Um, but the you know, when I look at what I expect from that, 800 pub parking spaces. Some of those are going to be public, some of them are gonna be for the for the hotel and other but eight hundred new parking spaces that we need in downtown. If you've attended something, you know, the Fourth of July celebration or chalk the block or Midland Mary Lights, those are really important things to the culture and the community of Midland, and we need places for people to be able to park down there. That's that's a huge portion of what the MDC funds are going towards. That's not something that my opponent's talking about. We're we're funding a parking garage. Um and we're funding more than that, but we're funding largely a an 800-space parking garage. That's important. Um I do believe that the Omni Hotel is really important to our community because we need to have um we need to have quality spaces to hold conferences. Um in my lifetime, we've gone from holding all of these huge conferences here in our community and we've lost some of those because we don't have a quality hotel for people to stay in. And when I say that's that's not fair, we have quality hotels. We don't have full service hotels that can host these large-scale conventions. Yeah. Um the the Double Tree is no longer able to, they I don't think they even have a double tree flag anymore. You know, they're no longer able to do that. So we've had the Permian Energy Dialogues is one that I always cite. They came here for a while, they no longer come to Midland for the Permian Energy Dialogues. They've had it in Santa Fe, they've had it in other communities because we don't have a place to host them. We're losing revenue and we're losing the the oil and gas centric focus. I mean, we're the center of the Permian. The permanent Permian energy dialogues need to be happening in Midland, Texas. But we've got to have a place to host them. And so our convention center is great. But if you don't have a place for people to stay when they come to that convention, then you're you're gonna miss out on it. We've already got a lot of the different groups that that have, you know, large oil companies here, they want a certain number of room nights booked up in advance. Like they want to pre-book that for the year so that they can speak for that. This is something that our community, our business community really needs. But also, I believe it's gonna it's gonna be great for all of us. We can go down there and have dinner or you know, book a room and take our kids down there for a birthday party. Or, you know what? I mean, I grew up doing that at the one of the hotels on Wall Street whenever I was a kid. You know, we we are gonna be able to use that, have staycations and other things. There's gonna be a um spa. So you can go book spa services there at the Omni. There's there's gonna be a lot of amenities there, but they have to deliver on that project before any money is go it goes over to them. There's we're not prepaying for it.
SPEAKER_04Right. Okay. Do you feel like some like do you feel like uh I mean I like the way downtown looks. I think uh, you know, it's it's really nice, you know, especially because when we grew up, it was just skaters and hoodles down here, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we actually visit downtown now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, coffee shop, right? What was that place?
Growth Without Losing Midland’s Values
SPEAKER_03Oh, I can't remember. But I love that place. I never went to downtown. Uh I'll be quite honest. I've I've been here my entire life, and uh I never used to go downtown at all. Of course, not in my adulthood um and having meetings and whatnot, and you go downtown to the Cancun Grill or whatever. Um, then I hit downtown. But now the it we're very much appreciative of what's happened downtown, especially for my kids, for his kids, the stuff, the movies and the park stuff, like all that stuff is appreciated. Um, and I think moving forward with the soccer fields and everything, we do understand where Midland is going, where you're going, and the city council's going with uh building all these things. Um, and we're definitely for a lot of those things. And I know a lot of the listeners and I know a lot of the people in Midland are for these things. The only thing that we the only thing that I hear and that I gather is that they don't want to stray too far. That's what I hear. They don't want to stray too far, and I think some of those worries are definitely value based. Um so I think it's very good that you do answer some of the stuff about our values and and keeping some conservative values in Midland for sure. And I know you answered some of that with uh the questions that that Ricky got. So um just that's one of the things that I always hear. So I don't know if that's something you answer like on a on a in any of these city council meetings whenever they bring stuff up, do you answer anything as clearly as you've answered here today? I haven't been to any of them. I'm guilty, and most of the people out there haven't been to them. So they're they're just as guilty as me, right? But do you feel like you do need to answer or have more of those questions asked so that you can answer on that side of things?
SPEAKER_00So so the city council meetings um are governed by state law, how we run those. So when there's an item that we're voting on, I do talk just like this about a lot of those issues.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, we chose this kind of debt instead of that one because this was a better interest rate. Definitely talk about all that kind of stuff. Talk about my goals and my vision, you know, Midland Mary Lights. This is why we need Midland Mary lights, because we want this to be a place that our kids want to come back here for Christmas. And, you know, we want this to be a place that has that kind of of programming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Totally talking about that during all of those items. We have presentations where we try to talk about this, where you know people can get more information about our community. And and I get feedback on those all the time. Gosh, I didn't know some of this stuff. Thank you for sharing it. Um, the part where it is hard is that the true public comment period that has been much discussed on social media.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Um state law governs the fact that we are not able to respond to that. So our response is limited to agreeing to put something on an agenda for a future date, or if there's something factual that we need to state, then we can say that. But anything else beyond that, we're in trouble. And so I'm very limited in how I can respond to public comment. Um, I do get control over where it is in the meeting and some of those things. The reason that it is at the end after is because they're, you know, we have 40 some odd items on our agenda. Each of those represents a family or a business that is having to take off work to be there to take care of their business. Yeah. You know, to get their approval on their permit or to get their zone change that they need for whatever they're doing. I want to take care of those people's business. Those people are taxpayers and Midland residents too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so I want to take care of those people's business and get them back on their way before we get to the public comment period that is more just an open mic time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so I want you to have your open mic time. I'm not shutting you down, but I we need to take care of business first and then we'll get to the open mic moment. And um, so that's why it's in the order that it is.
SPEAKER_03Man, I think I think we're gonna have to do a quarterly Patch Boys episode or something, you know?
Airport Minerals, Federal Limits, Local Needs
SPEAKER_00I would love for you guys to run some of this stuff because I don't have a good way to get this out there in in some of those conversations.
SPEAKER_03No, and it's very enlightening. Like a lot of the stuff that we that you want answered, I feel like people just want it answered a certain way. And when you are kind of your hands are kind of tied and you have to answer only specific things because of rules or whatever, it's very difficult for you to kind of uh speak freely and and people to hear your voice, your actual voice, and what you feel and how you feel about things. So I think, yeah, I think this is great, man. I uh Ricky. Yeah, I mean, I I think it's a great conversation.
SPEAKER_04I think we kind of just wanted to touch a lot of things that I think that uh people want to know answers on. I think that's a lot that's going around, you know. Um I think all what scares us, like I said earlier, just the bonds and stuff like that. I think it's just it's just a lot of money we see, right?
SPEAKER_03And scary numbers, right?
SPEAKER_04And then we see kind of like our mortgages go up a little bit with taxes, and it's like uh, you know, people don't want to pay more than they have to, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, and so the make sure the numbers are accurate. Some of what you're seeing about our debt numbers are not true. It's not over 800 million, it's five hundred and something million, which is still a lot of money. I'm not saying that it's not, but it's it's what you're being fed is not all true. Yeah. Um, so make sure you you fact check that stuff. But then the other part of that is you know, we actually have lowered the tax rate three years in a row since I've been mayor. And so this year with property valuations, and let's be clear, the property valuations are that includes new properties that we added to the tax rolls, like a new business that wasn't there last year. Right. So they're gonna be on there. Or, you know, you made renovation, you know, you added on 50% to your house or whatever. All of those go into the property valuation too. So that's not just property tax increases, you know, to the to the people that live in those homes. That's that's the total growth of our community. So all of that included like even if we take away any properties added to the community with the reduction in our property tax rate this time, the average homeowner would have only paid seven dollars more this year.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Seven dollars for the city portion. Now, the city portion is only 23% of your total tax bill. So when you look at your mortgage and it looks like your taxes went up, ask the question, you got to dig a little deeper. Is that the city property taxes or is that other taxing entities? Is that the county? Is that the hospital? Is that the school district? Is that the college? Right, or is it the city? And and dig into it because this year,$7 was the change for people whose property taxes went up. A lot of people's property taxes did not go up this year, their valuations didn't go up. Um, we just had a lot of stuff added to the tax rules.
SPEAKER_04Well, I mean, that's good to know. Absolutely. And that's stuff like us that we think of. And you know, we work for a living like a lot of people who do listen to this podcast do. And I think we're just asking questions that we kind of, you know, we don't have all day to be looking up politics and stuff. Absolutely. And honestly, I do think people should be more involved in local politics, right? Because it's such a big decision locally, and you don't want to elect somebody that that doesn't believe what you believe in, right? Do you feel like I mean, like, do you feel like if somebody did run for something here, district, school board, whatever, city council, I mean, but like, would you would you tell people if this person was not what they say they are? Because I feel like we've had some people run that are not conservative, not Republican, yet they try to act like they're Republican just to get votes.
Omni Hotel: Parking, Conventions, Contracts
SPEAKER_00So my stance for my race is I'm gonna keep my head down and run my own race and I'm not gonna trash talk anybody. And I've tried really hard to stick to that. That's that's my own core value. That's what I try to teach my kids. You you play your game in the on the football field, you play your game, you know, on the basketball court, and I've tried to train my kids that way, and that's the way that I try to run my own campaign. Um, and so probably not. I think that I think that Midlanders are smart. I think that Midlanders do their homework and they're going to be able to see candidates for what they are. Um it is not my job to to trash talk about anything. It's my job to run my race, to to tell the truth about the things, about the data that I have, and make sure that people have that information.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I was just curious because I mean, I feel like sometimes if people don't believe what I believe, I would I was like, I just feel like we should know, right? Like I think. Yeah, and I think uh and it's and it's hard to sometimes you don't know. Like if you don't you don't look it up, you just see uh R beside them and you uh check, you know what I'm saying, or mark you, whatever the heck. But uh that's what I was kind of curious about.
SPEAKER_00You need to you need to do your homework as a voter, and you we need groups like you guys, you know, we need patch boys and we need other groups to be able to say, hey, let's shine a light on this. Are they really what they say they are? Um we need people that are willing to do that. But I don't I don't think that Midlanders like you know, politicians trash talking each other.
SPEAKER_04I don't think they do that, but I do think they don't like uh being lied to, right? Like if somebody's gonna lie and say they're something and they're not, I think we take big offense to that, you know. And I think we've seen it in a lot of recent elections. I don't want to name anybody, but I think we've seen it and we've noticed it. And uh we got involved, actually. Yeah, we got involved in a couple just because of it. But I just wanted to be uh I just wanted to ask you that question, you know. And like you you deciding to run for uh mayor again, like was that a hard decision for you, or like did you just like say I'm gonna do it already? You already knew you were gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00No, I I really had to think through it. I mean, I've already said it cost me a lot. My husband and I work for a living too. And um, you know, I he we own our company, and so I'm able to do my work for that company in between things, and you know, and he covers for me, and we have staff that are able to to do that, but but we work hard, and my husband is busting his tail to be able to afford me the opportunity to serve in this role. And so the decision to do it again was not something that I took lightly. I did struggle with it, but ultimately I want to give three more years to be able to do good things for Midland.
SPEAKER_03Oh, well, shout out to him for giving you that opportunity.
SPEAKER_04Jared, right?
SPEAKER_00Jared, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I saw him on the least row commute with Ray. Uh yeah. Yeah, that was a good one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's a he's a really, really solid man, and I'm so thankful for his support. You know, he's he's not out in the limelight um a lot, but he he does a really good job of supporting me and our family and leading. I mean, um we have pretty traditional gender roles in our family, and he is by far the leader of our home. And I'm really thankful to have him in the role that he's in and and the just the way that he leads.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's beautiful. That's kind of how we are too, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. That's a that's a beautiful thing, and it's it's very it's very um eye-opening to hear someone in your position say those things, man. So shout out to Jared, man, the patch boys. Appreciate you, brother. Yeah, I know it was a great uh it is, it is.
SPEAKER_04But uh, you know, I just want to say thank you. You know, I know um I know you uh it's it's good to see you come out, you know, and and even after we had on uh you know uh Judd, I don't know why I keep forgetting Jud. You're good, man. Yeah, but uh, you know, it was Judd Campbell, and it was uh good that you still came on and you, you know, because honestly, that's what we want to do. We're gonna give people both sides of the story, hear both of it, and uh, you know, for you to put yourself in somewhere like that, you didn't know where what we were gonna come at you with, you know, and uh so I think it's good.
SPEAKER_03It's been it's been very uh I would say honorable and good conversations with uh with him and with you as well. And I think that you guys are very having a very honorable race, which is very commendable, uh, because we see politics what it is today on a national scale, and it's uh man, it's it's it's tough out there. Yeah, um, so yeah, we want to thank you so much for your time. And I think uh we probably will be involved all the way up to the debate and everything, and hopefully putting as much stuff out. And the debate is uh tomorrow.
SPEAKER_04Tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03Okay, there you go. Okay, I knew it was really close. I just had not looked at the date again. Early voting's the 20th.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. Early voting is the 20th through the uh 31st of October, and election days on the 4th.
SPEAKER_03Election days on the 4th. So y'all get out there and vote. Um, really, this is uh we we're giving y'all as much information as we possibly can so that you guys can go out there and exercise your right to vote. So do it. Uh would you like to say anything before we end?
SPEAKER_00Um I just want to say thank you to you guys. I do appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come on and um and asking really candid questions. I think it's important for us to be able to have these kinds of conversations, and we don't have a lot of forums to do that in Midland where people can really access information. So thank you for the forum that you provide here and for just the integrity with which you do it. I I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you again for those words, Deb. And uh we appreciate you coming. I'm like I said, man, it's been it's been really great hearing your side and everything.
Downtown Renewal and Community Use
SPEAKER_03So absolutely. And I just want to say uh thank God he allowed us to uh have this conversation here today with Laurie Blong and thank her for her time and you guys get out there and exercise your right to vote. That's right. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by Underdog Wireline. Um, these guys handle everything in Wireline. We've been talking about them every week, and we mean everything we say. We appreciate their support. And if you need anything in Wireline Works, you give them a call at 432-288-0395. Brandon 14 Hotshot Services LLC. Uh they offer Hotshot Work, ESP spooling, ESP Technician Service, and Heavy Holland Sandmice. Currently, um, you can give them a call at 432-638-1755, another local company backing us up, so back them up. Titan Sales and Services uh is one of our new sponsors. They're a relatively new company, so we want to back them up like they're backing us up. Uh they're running out of crane, Texas, and some of the stuff that they have available is uh Russ About maintenance and construction crews, uh, trash trailers, porta potties, combo trailers, forklifts, and they're adding new services and rentals every day. Uh so give those guys a call at four three two three oh seven nineteen sixty. If you need anything, uh I know their pricing is gonna be competitive. Uh help them out. Thank you.
