Episode 36: Lee Wells | Texas A&M - Film Experience & State Policy Hopes

In this episode of the Ranch and Table podcast, host Lee Wells shares insights about his documentary film 'We're Here,' which captures the recovery efforts of Texas Panhandle ranchers. Wells recounts a recent screening at Texas A&M University, where the film was well-received, offering a unique perspective on disaster recovery and policy development. The podcast delves into the frustrations of slow government assistance and bureaucratic hurdles, emphasizing the need for more efficient and effective aid programs for ranchers. Wells also discusses his upcoming plans to present the film at the Texas Capitol in Austin, hoping to inspire legislative changes. Additionally, the episode highlights the importance of community and grassroots efforts in providing timely help to those affected by disasters.

Transcript

  Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells.  Welcome back to another podcast of the ranch and table. I'm Lee Wells. Glad to be with you again today. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for taking your time. To be part of this discussion today, I want to tell you that it's brought to you by Wells Cattle Company. It's gonna be a great burger either location at our downtown location, downtown Rockwall or downtown Caddo mills Wells Cattle Company, burgers Express in Cat Mills, which is a limited menu. 

And then the full menu downtown Rockwall. Today I want to get into a, an interesting discussion. I think it's interesting. We'll see if you think it's interesting. As many people, many of I shot a documentary last year. We were working with the ranchers up in the. Texas Panhandle and in that process of work and helping send feed and hay and fencing supplies and all of that one day I realized I need to take a camera and try to get some of this.

While we can get it while it's going on, because in a few weeks, it'll look different. A few months, it'll look different. A few years, you would never see it and never be able to talk about it like this. And so we did that. We took cameras and camera crew and.  Went out and captured a lot of the landscape, but also had a lot of interviews with ranchers and people involved in the recovery efforts.

And it was a film  that you may know of called We're Here. And so that documentary has been in film festivals now for a few months. And it has another month or two to go through and see if we get picked up by the various film festivals. So far. We have not, but so far they have all been very liberal states that they're in.

And no surprise there that we haven't. And it's part of, it's part of the journey to figure out what to do and how to do it. And it's been fun and enjoyable so far. And this week I was able to be invited to the. University Texas A& M University in College Station, and it was a great time.

I, an amazing night showing the film and then the Q& A that followed. And, I felt a little out of place. I may have been the only one there without a doctorate degree or without a master's degree and pursuing a doctorate. I was surrounded by  people who were tenured professors and leaders and directors of organizations.

It was amazing. These were the people.  Who were interested for not just their own education or their own understanding of the events that happened in the panhandle, but they were watching this for  the purpose of how to  implement better policies in the future, how to do a better job recovering than we did before and how to mitigate fire  spreads.

Their perspective was so cool because they're in positions to do something great in the event that this happens again, not if it happens again, but when another  tragedy, another fire, another disaster happens. And so being able to be in that.  Group of people and then to be on the stage answering their questions was, it was pretty cool.

I'm just going to say it was a very amazing day and my two girls got to go with me. Addison and Kayla got to go and see their dad in that situation, which was cool. They took pictures for me and rode with me down and back. And it was just a, it was a lot of fun for me as a father to be able to have them with me. 

So it was a great day and I want to talk about that a little bit because  I had never experienced anything like it. I'm guessing that most people listening to the podcast today have never experienced anything like this. Maybe or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe you've got your own documentary and you're on your own journey or maybe not.

And so I wanted to share it with you.  As it was happening in my life, and maybe you find this interesting, but there on Monday night at Texas A& M, we actually had it, they hosted it at the Bush Library, which has a  state of the art presentation room. It looks almost like a almost like a press room.

And It's a smaller theater, maybe a hundred seats, something like that, with a stage and an amazing projection system, amazing sound system. I heard things through that sound system I have not heard in the production of this film with in ear, over the ear headphones, Bose, high end. Reference speakers.

I heard things through that sound system. I don't know that I've heard anywhere else. It was that clear. And it was just a great experience. Let me tell you who was there. These are some of the people. Some of the positions that I have on an email of people who were there and there's more I don't remember but the School of Public Health for Texas A& M director and Some of her researchers were there The Texas AgriLife Fire Services director and fire chief and assistant fire chief were there the university  Also had the it's called the USA Center for Public Health was represented the hazard and reduction hazard reduction and recovery center was there.

That's who sponsored the event and invited people to be there. And some others, I don't even remember exactly. I was taking in information as fast as I could and meeting people and they were, There were folks that were  tenured professors of other other schools and other things in the university that I really don't even know who they were, but the discussion that followed was amazing.

And I want to share some of what we discussed and some of the things, and again, it's cool to me because  These weren't just spectators. These weren't just people who were watching it to Watch it or to see it or discover it, but they had a purpose and they have A real hope for making change and creating policy and creating methods to be able to help people better in the future.

And so it's super, super amazing to me that this is even happening. And while I'm on the subject it looks like I'll be in Austin  at the Capitol.  presenting this for either a day or two later this month or early next month. And the plan is for me to have it showing three or four times during the day and having lawmakers and their staffers come in  on the slots that they can and have a short discussion and a break and then do it again.

And so do it three or four times. Each day at the Capitol auditorium right there local for them to be able to get in and get out and see it instead of having to drive across town or schedule an evening to see it. I'm hoping that we can get a good number of our lawmakers in to see this because it's something  it's one thing to create a law.

It's one thing to look at a bill, a document and read it just cold and read it. For the outcome that you want to see, or. Whether or not it's worth your vote or worth your time or, and you're just looking at it. It's another thing to have emotion tied in. An emotion that is charging your thought process.

And so I really do hope. That we can make all that happen and the right people are in that room and the emotion is hitting them with the real stories of these people who are going through these things real time. And one of the really neat things that I learned this week on Monday was.  That our fire services, our forest service fire department has requested funding for  Texas to have their own  air support, their own air  tankers trade.

I'm going blank here. Helicopters and airplanes and air support and it would be amazing for the first time ever that we would have that not have to fight with California or try to figure out how to get this the resources we need we would just have them on hand And so they're trying to get this shown In those lawmakers lives so that they can say yes to some of the help that's needed.

And then on the farming and ranching side, there's a big bill going in this year that we're really trying to get some help and some aid for ranchers. And so it would be really great for them to be able to see. I've said this before, but, and I said this Monday night. There are a lot of good people.

I know they get a hard time being politicians and all that, but I think there are a lot of good people who really want to do right in, in government. They want to say yes to the right bills. They want to say yes to the right funding. Not everyone's corrupt and evil and all of that. And it, but they don't know a lot of them are.

A lot of them are lawyers. A lot of them are doctors. A lot of them are professionals that run for office. And so maybe they've never spent a day on a ranch to understand. Maybe they've never been through some of these things that we show. And it would give them a perspective they've never had before.

Give them an education they've never had before. And that's the hope. After the film, On Monday, there was a Q and a session and the host and myself went back up and sat on the stage with mics. And the mics were shared around the  auditorium and people ask questions. And it was a lot of fun because. 

It's just great to be able to talk about all of this and to give input to folks who Might have a good chance of making something change. And so One of the final question, I think it was final question  That they asked was and I'm paraphrasing this. I don't have it recorded but from my memory and they asked the question  And this has stayed with me since it happened, but what can we research and what can we help  so, to develop so that next time  when a disaster hits like this, we can be better prepared and we can help more and we can be more hands on.

What can we research? What can we do to be better prepared? What could happen  better? And I gave them a three part answer.  And first of all, I said, we have to create better programs that are more agile in these disaster times. We gotta be able to move faster. We have to move quicker. If you follow along with my Facebook post, and I may have mentioned this on a podcast, I don't think so.

But I may have that there was  a six month delay  in the fencing.  Rebuilding reimbursement program with the federal government and  some of these ranchers were calling me saying, Lee, we've put our life savings, literally our CDs our savings, our  retirement money, we've pulled our retirement money out to rebuild these fences so that we can get back to operational and move our cattle back onto our ranches and we haven't seen a dime and they submitted in April full bills  and here we are in the fall and they still in the winter and they still hadn't gotten anything back.

And so one guy said, Lee, this is harder than the fire on me. He said the fire was tough. His hardest thing ever lived there. He said, but I think this is harder. He said, I don't have the money to get into winter. He said, I don't have the money to pay for. pay for the feed and the hay that I need for my cattle and my horses because I put all this money in good faith that the program was gonna come back through for me and it's been six months and I haven't seen a dime I Got on the phone with their  State rep and his office.

And I said, Hey guys what's the deal? This isn't the way we need to be treat recovering ranchers that have just been through the worst fire in the history of Texas. And the next day they start. Seeing checks, they turn the screen around and the checks start going into being written and mailed.

And so it was great that we were able to help them. We should never have had to. So my first answer to the question is what can we do better next time is, number one, we can actually be a little better at doing things faster and when we say we will, so that we can help people.  and not create more of a problem than what they're going through already. 

And then number two, I said we got to create an easier path for these programs. I'm telling you some of the paperwork that's required. I talked to several ranchers out there. So we're not even doing some of these programs. We're not even asking for the free money because they want so much documentation.

They want so many different pieces of information. It would take us a week to get all that together and. And you got to remember, these aren't, these are ranchers. These are, they're not dumb. They're very intelligent men and women, but they're not bookkeepers. They're not CPAs. They're not grant writers. 

They're not, they're just regular people who know more about cattle than. Then most people in the world more about horse training and more about Nutrition and all the grasses and all the seasons and what fertilizers and when and all the stuff that they know But we're asking them to do Clerical work they've never done before and they're doing some of it the best they can they it's not making It's not and it's just not worth it.

So we have to not only Have better programs that, that, that  can move a little easier and do a little bit better. But then secondly, we gotta be easier on these guys. I even said it Monday night.  We build the government builds things so airtight because they're afraid someone's going to take advantage or they're afraid of giving someone 100 more than they should have that they build these walls and these ideas, these forms and these requirements so harsh.

Nobody can fill them out. Nobody wants to fill them out. Nobody wants to deal with it. And I said, then I said, you know what, let's just go after the people that are taking advantage of this and put them in jail, fine them, take all their money back, if you find that someone's cheating the system and open this thing up to where.

The good, honest, hardworking people can go get what they need when they need it. And then if someone takes advantage of that, if someone steals or gets more than they should take care of them, deal with the quarter of a percent of everyone, instead of dealing with everyone as if they're criminals are out to get something that they shouldn't.

And then number three, we've got to help. in  more areas than we help in now. So I'll give you an example.  There's a FSA farm service agency. That's a federal place. That's a federal, the USA office, USDA office, and  they have a fence rebuilding program for these fires, disasters when they happen, and I believe it's 75%. 

Payback. So you spend a hundred percent of the money  and they give you 75% of that back. So you pay 25%, they pay 75%. And it's a good program. Maybe they should pay a hundred percent really, but it's the way it works and it's fine. As long as they don't take six months to pay the guys back. 

But here's the deal.  What about the other things that are destroyed? What about your wells? What about, cattle loss? What about your barns? And so sometimes we are thankful for the help that comes in.  But then I think that we need to open up the scope a little broader and say there's more that needs help and attention than Just fencing in this example, so I think we need to be a little  More open minded and broader in what we are doing again people are so afraid of someone getting something they shouldn't that they shut everything down and no one gets anything because That's the way the government operates.

And so  I want to I did some research on one of the programs and this is real near and dear to my heart because We raised money to send and hay and help out to the ranchers. And so I was saying at the time, between five and seven days, we can have that money allocated and in the field.  Every time you give if you give a thousand dollars today to help us by next week on this day it'll be in the ranch.

It'll be on a ranch somewhere and I can tell you where. And we were very agile. We were very.  nimble when it came to being able to help people. And so we were taking funds in and within four or five days, that feed was sitting out there being fed or being distributed to where it needed to be.  One of the things that's frustrating is,  all I heard at the time was give to the Texas star fund.

And that's something that the ag commissioner put together and it took personal funds. And they said they were going to give it all back out to the ranchers. That's what they were saying is give to the star fund and we'll give this to the ranchers. So they took in, I think 800, 000 in a couple months, three months, say 800, 000. 

And at the time there was no way to access it. I was following this very closely  and I watched and waited for the application to come out. And finally it came out and I was telling these guys, Hey, the Star Fund is available, to go get some cash money on some of these receipts.  That form was ridiculous.

Number one the application process. They, they're gonna make it hard. They're gonna make it difficult. They're gonna make it frustrating  'cause that's what they do.  So I'm looking at it.  And I'm thinking they, they've brought, with 800, 000.  And they're promising to give back to the ranchers.

And I start reading on the program. I'm not going to get any. I'm not in a disaster. I'm not worried about it. But I'm helping educate these men and women that are in the midst of rebuilding. I'm trying to help them understand what's out there. And here's a couple of key points that I noticed about the Star Fund. 

Number one,  you can only apply once every 24 months. You got a disaster,  you get one shot at applying for help.  Number two, you have to have physical receipts that are not tied to any other government money or any other help. Okay, and then the third was you had to get it done within, I think it was 90 days or something of the disaster of the release date.

And I could be wrong on that time frame. It's been a while since I looked at it. I looked at that original information that came out.  So they put a time limit on it. They put a restriction on it of two years for applying again. And, it's crazy to me, but the it's an 80 20 payback on those receipts  and the max you can get is 8, 000.

So if you spend 10, 000 on your repairs for your ranch,  they'll give you 8, 000 back on physical receipts  every two years. So once per disaster because then it closes funding. I look today and the funding has been closed for a while on the wildfire stuff. You can't get any money on that.  And so anybody that was holding receipts waiting for, getting a bundle of receipts as many as they can up to 10, 000  because you only get to apply every two years. 

You got to get within that time frame. Again, what I'm saying is everything is so restrictive.  And you know what, if that was government money that was out of a budget somewhere.  I might say, okay, okay, fine.  But here's the kicker. That was all donated money. That wasn't government money. That was all individual donations  given to that fund. 

Here we are the, that program's over for the wildfires.  There's now 1. 2, I believe, million  as of.  June or July, somewhere in there. I can't get a real good number, but from what I've, what they bragged about along the way is on the internet. And so you have more money,  catch this with me. You got more money sitting there than you did when everyone was pouring funds in. 

Either you got a lot of big donations  or you're not giving very much money out.  That's the two options you got. Either someone dumped a big bunch of money after that 800, 000  and  you got a big donation after you gave it all away, or  you haven't given much of it away.  And I'm pretty well connected in the heart of that burn area. 

The Pampa area is the heart of it. Out to Canadian, up to, down to Sunette, up, up to Perryton, I'm pretty well connected in all of that area, and I talked to some people this last week that said they have not known of anyone  who has received any help  from those programs. 

My point is this,  you take individual donations from individual people, and you say you're going to give it all to the ranchers.  But you make it so hard for people to get it  That number one they won't even apply because you've made too many hoops to jump through or number two You've made it such a low payout It's not worth it.

Can I tell you on a big operation ten thousand dollars is really not that impressive I know that may sound funny to someone driving down the road  And you've got an eight to five job, and you've got a budget at the house and and it may sound funny for me to say it like that. But can I tell you 10, 000 in the operation that I run is not a lot of money.

Especially if I lost all my fences. Especially if I lost half or some big number of cattle. Or if I lost my barns. 10, 000 is a joke.  It's a joke.  And to stay back and say,  on national news,  they even had the 4 6's spokesperson I saw them on one of the major news channels, I don't know if it was  CBS or one of, I was watching all the newscasts, I was up on all of this when it was happening, and they said, donate, if you want to donate to the Star Fund, Texas Star Fund is where you want to give, it's safe.

You won't get scammed. And that's true. Uh, but here I am turning money around in five to seven days putting it on the ground out there. And I'm hearing,  don't give to individuals, give to the Star Fund. Okay, fair enough.  But then,  there was no Star Fund application  for a long time, couple of months. 

And then when you do get the application, it's a joke.  It's an absolute joke.  And so my point, and I told that story, I told that story Monday night.  And my point to them is we have to do better  at,  especially taking personal funds from people that not tax dollars, which actually tax dollars are our personal funds too.

If we want to be real honest with it, I want you to give my personal tax money out to where it's needed. If it's needed,  They're not say you are and they're not. And in donations absolutely need to go out. 100 percent of those donations that came in during that fire time need to be found out into a place into that fire zone. 

Not sitting back  getting an interest bump  in your coffers in Austin.  I'm absolutely ticked. 

Then there were other groups and I don't want to call names. I won't, I'm not going to call names right now because I don't have proof and facts,  but there were some that we worked with  who took money  that was supposed to come to us For this project the money that we were pushing out to those ranchers, I had people that wanted to give it to us, to help put it on the ground.

They believed in us, and they couldn't do it because they had to push it through other charities and other groups out in West Texas. And again, from my information, none of those ranchers have received a dime from anyone. 

In most cases, They only have received help  from us, 

from me,  from you, from those that helped us out here.  We ended up sending about a third, just over a third of a million dollars  out to the West Texas area, to the fire zone. 

And in the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of money.  And for ranchers to tell me, Lee.  The only help that we've received  other than the FSA fencing  funds  And other hay that showed up and other feed that showed up  Was from you 

That ought not be  So  We have to do better  at unblocking funds that are going out into  the places that need the help when they need the help. And so I am looking forward to, if you're  a Christian, you pray,  would you say a prayer for me that in the next few weeks, when I go to Austin,  I can affect change in the people one on one and through this film. 

With people who can really do something  to open up funds, open up programs, listen to people who actually have been in the trenches and know what they're talking about. I'm not just talking about me. There's a lot of folks. I can connect that came straight out of the trenches and the panhandle straight into Austin and help them understand what is needed for real. 

If you're a praying person, I'm asking for prayer.  Because I feel like we need to do better with the money that we have, that we are stewards of in the government. And especially those that were hand given by donations. It's just, it's embarrassing  that our Ag Commissioner hasn't done a better job.  And I know him, I have his phone number in my phone, I could call him right now. 

It won't do any good.  Maybe he'll see this. Someone will send it to him and he'll call me  and give me an update. Tell me I'm wrong.  Be fine with me.  I hope I am wrong.  I wish that I could get a report. They, I don't know how to get a report  of how much money. They don't want to tell you how much money's left when they got more money in the coffers now than they did during the time everyone was given.

Our money dried up.  Here's the way it works. Our money dried up pretty quick when the fires were put out.  Those fires went out, it took 20 days to put the fire out,  but as soon as those fires went out and we were moving and rolling all those resources, it didn't take very many days  before  those funds dried up completely.

And for  donations, and For the Texas Star Fund to have more money in it right now than it did during that time, it only tells me that they didn't give it out.  And they set the threshold so low  that most of those guys, it's a joke. It's just a joke to even go through the trouble of doing it. So we have to do a better job.

And  we have to do more  through these frustrations. than just being frustrated and throwing your hands up and saying the government's worthless. They don't care. Nobody cares. Nobody cares about. Me or that what we're going through. I don't know that's true. I just believe that people are Misinformed or they're completely ignorant when it comes to these kinds of things.

So I really do hope that I can affect some change in Austin  Whenever we get when I get there  You know, I want to say one more thing And I said this Monday night. I feel like  a lot of times our federal office is filled with people who've lost their passion for the people that they serve.  My, my gripe, my complaint with my local USDA office, and they're good people. 

They're good people. They've just been doing this a long time.  I think they get frustrated and they're bogged down in the fact that there's so many regulations and so many forms and there's so many signatures and so many receipts and proof to get anything done. They're worn out and tired. They don't they almost don't care either.

They're, I called them, I called our USDA office in Hunt County, whenever when we were working so hard to help the people in the Panhandle. I said, what are y'all doing? And they said, we don't have any directives to help them. I said, I don't care about that, what are you doing? What are you doing, ma'am?

That, it's not my job.  Fair enough.  Not my job either. But here we are, sending a third of a million dollars out there to them to help them in product, in, in feed, and hey, we're saving cattle, we're saving lives, we're saving ranches, and it's your job to do that and you don't care because it's not your directive.

Nothing's come down from above to tell us what to do.  It's frustrating  and something has to change  in the way that we handle our ranchers and our farmers because we're losing too many of them each day  for us to keep doing it the way we're doing it.  I get a little newsletter every month, I think it is, and it's just general information.

It's  political, blah, blah, blah. And here's some programs and most of the programs, you don't even know what they mean. They're so bureaucratically written. You're like this, and this, and I don't know what those words even mean. And I'm in the business. And  you get frustrated because that's going to be, that's going to be seven pages of an application.

That's going to be a 14 page application  or whatever it is. We need to do better. We need to simplify this process. These people know who the ranchers are in their areas. These offices know the ranches, they know the guys that need the help, but they won't tell you it's available, you have to come ask. 

Or they'll mention it in the newsletter and feel like they're doing their job.  I feel like we need to do a better job.  Even through these frustrations, I believe  that through those things can come good if we do it right. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump off of that. And. Leave you with the fact that I'm hoping to be in Austin in a few weeks and sharing our film with them and I'm really hopeful that some good will come of it and I'll keep you posted on that.

It was a great time speaking with those at Texas A& M. It was an honor to go. Out there to be there to talk to them and just a really cool experience. And so I'm hoping for more and more of those things. I'll keep you posted on the next showing of the film. We're getting a lot of interest in people wanting to see it.

And we want to show it again out here in our area, in the Dallas area. So we're going to do that. And I'm caring less and less about the film festival circuit. And I don't know if we'll get any traction with any of them or not. So I'm just going to start showing it here in this area again.

And if you want to see it, let me know. We'll put something together. I think there's a lot of fire departments out here that would like to see it. I was talking to some firemen today and they would they would definitely want to see the film. So we're going to do some of those things. So keep connected with me and we'll get it done.

I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for being here. I know this is a little different of an episode, but  I really wanted to share what happened and bring you in on that experience and and let you know about it and then of course the future here of what might could. If you don't have my book, you should get it and read it.

And had someone the other day say do you have it on tape yet? Or do you, did you record it yet for audio? And I'm like, no, I haven't had time to do that. And they're like when you do, let me know. And I said, look, man, if I could write it,  you can read it. That's the truth. If I could write the book. 

Anybody ought to be able to read the book and it doesn't take long. Somebody, I let someone, someone told me the other day they read it in one day, read it one evening. I'm like good thing I'm a simple man. And it was a simple book to read. If you don't have the book, get it. Amazon has it barnesandnoble.

com target walmart. com. Amazon, of course I'm missing some, but it's available. You can go by the restaurant and get it if you're local and pick it up there. And so I appreciate you listening today was brought to you by Wells cattle company. Come by and see us rock wall, cattle mills. And I appreciate all the support.

Appreciate you listening. And I'm Lee Wells on the ranch and table podcast until next time we say adios, farewell, goodbye, good luck.