From North Florence to City Hall: The Journey of Councilman Chaquez McCall

In this episode of Embrace the Great Podcast, host Shawn and co-host Dominique sit down with Councilman Chaquez McCall, the youngest elected official in Florence’s history. McCall shares his path from growing up in North Florence to becoming an attorney and city leader, the challenges and victories along the way, and his passion for youth programs, community growth, and infrastructure improvements. With candid stories, practical advice, and a look at what’s ahead for the city, this conversation is a blend of inspiration, insight, and hometown pride.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Welcome to this week's episode of Embrace the Great Podcast with your host Sean Ellaby. Got my boy Dominique Muldrow and we also have a special guest in here today, Councilman Shaquiz McCall. Thank you, thank you. Yes, we start off every week, man. I always ask my boy, what's on your mind? What's on your mind? Not a whole lot, man. Just getting prepared. I feel like I'm about to go to college. I know we've been talking about it for the past two, three episodes, but it's getting closer to that time, man. So... That's about it, man. What's the deal with you? Ain't nothing much, man. Excited. Like you said, getting ready for college is my fourth or fifth time going around. Getting prepared, that's always the hard part. My kids laugh because I normally got a little attitude that day because I be ready to move. They want to talk and play, and I be ready to get stuff up and down stairs. And for whatever reason, I don't know y'all colleges. They got elevators on their dorms. But whatever reason, move in, they don't work like they supposed to. So I didn't have my battle with stairs and I ain't looking really, not really looking forward to it, but at the same time, looking to see the excitement and, you know, send my boy off. Yeah, that's dope, man. But like you say, we got a special guest here, Mr. Shaquiz McCall, man. How you been feeling? Been doing well, man. Doing well, man. Pleasure to be here, man. Thanks for having me. I don't consider myself a special guest. I'm just a pull-up friend, man. Just let me get on the mic with you. We gonna get into some things that make you realize why you special, man. Sometimes you got to hear about yourself to realize the things you've done. But before we get into that, man, I got a segment. I'm gonna break it up today, man. It's called Pick Six. Basically, you pick an either or according to what you like. I'm going to throw them at you rapidly. I got six of them for you. All right? All right. All right. No AC or no heat? No heat. I can put some blankets on. There you go. All right. Slightly late or super early? I know your answer. Always late. All right. Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich. Phil Jackson. Triangle. Yes, sir. All right. Stacey Adams or Steve Madden? Stacey Adams. All right. Movies or series? I'm a series guy. I'm a series guy now. All right. All right. So I'm going to direct them at my boy Sean. Which one you got? No AC, no heat. I don't got no heat in my car right now. No AC in my car right now. I can go no AC. Dude. And look, I lifeguard. I was out there all summer. I can deal with it. All right. Slightly late or super early? I know your answer to it. I'd rather be slightly late. All right. I think I asked you this. Phil or Greg Popovich? If I had to compare coaching, I would go Phil. But again, I'm high, high, high on Greg Popovich. All right. Stacey Adams or Steve Madden? Give me Steve Madden. All right. Movies or series? Series as well. All right. Well, that's our first segment of Pick 6. I'm going to circle back around and I got six more for y'all later. But like we said, man, we got Shaquiz McCall here, man. Definitely an honor for you to be here, man. Just a few things for those out there listening about Mr. McCall. attended Francis Mary University at North Carolina Central School of Law. Quez, this is something I didn't know about you, man. The youngest member ever elected into a governing body in the city of Florence, man. That's big time. That's why we embrace the great. Yes, sir. Owner and managing attorney for McCall Law. Like I said, 2020 elected to Florence City Council, serves as the chairman, finance committee, and judicial review. I always struggle with that judicial word. Member of American Association of of Justice, South Association of Justice, the South Carolina Bar, graduate of the South Carolina Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government. So a lot of big things for you, man. I want to start, man, just talk about your journey leading up to those accomplishments and accolades. Yeah, well, it's not really a... It's always a journey, I will say, but it's more so of, you know, I just... Just doing God's will, man, to be honest with you, man. Sometimes you forget you're on a journey, you know, as you're going on. But, you know, I'm just a scrappy kid from North Florence. And, you know, just I feel like nothing special about me in a sense. Just more so of, am I going out? You hear me? Yeah, you're good. Yeah, you're good. It's my microphone. I'm sorry. Yeah, but I feel like nothing special about me or anything. It's just that I capitalize on the opportunities I have, you know. Although it may seem in a sense that I had a lot of opportunities, I didn't, but I just made sure I capitalized on them. So again, if you listen to this podcast and you're that young kid on the north side of town or on the west side or the east side of town of Florence, just know that if you stick your, if you keep your mind on it, man, anything is possible in the world. And see, I'm laughing hearing him as a grown man, Quez. I remember Quez from the Boys and Girls Club. Right, right, right. When I'm lifeguarding him and my little brother, the first two at the pool about every morning, every afternoon when they were free time for public swim. But just kind of giving flowers while you're here, man. Thank you. Being the youngest ever to be a city councilman, an elected official. What, and this is me, I know I'm probably off topic on Dominique's question, but what... have been your biggest challenges with that? The biggest thing is delayed gratitude. I would say that is, you know, growing up, a lot of my friends, they didn't go to college and things of that nature. And I did the other route, in a sense. And, you know, they... you know, had, you know, had a nicer car. They already moved into the homes and things like that. And I was the, you know, I had to lay gratifications for everything, man. So it was challenging in a sense of where, you know, I'm kind of feeling like I wasn't accomplishing much. Right. Until you, you know, you look at it in its totality, you realize, you know, that, you know, it's been a pretty good journey for us. So, you know. Yeah. Sometimes you got to take that step back, man. Or like I said earlier, you kind of got to look at your list of accomplishments or hear them from somebody else because, you know, you just putting your head down and working basically. And something that Sean touched on, it was actually one of my questions and you, and you led into a quiz. You know, you mentioned, you know, a lot of your friends weren't, didn't go to college and, and those things. And, you know, from what I do know about you, you may have started off on that path as far as probably not being a college student in your early years. Just talk about what kind of, got you to turn over that leaf as far as, you know, going on to that path. So, um, and I skipped over all of this and I guess I go back, but, um, to be honest with you, it's sometimes some, as sometimes in a young man's life, um, you're going to have that inflection point of where like, all right, this is the crossroad here. I got mine early. Mine was, I was on the basketball team and I got kicked out, kicked off the team and sent to alternative school, man. And I remember I was, you know, during that time, that was real low, man, real, real low on life. And, and I was just looking around and I was like, man, man, I'm going to be in jail. I'm going to really be in prison. I had this math teacher, Mr. James, at alternative school. None of the kids in alternative school could answer any of the questions. They were so far behind. I knew all the answers. At some point in time, he pulled me aside. He's like, man, you have no business being here. I said to myself, you know what? I'm going to take his word at it, man. I'm just going to start applying myself and Why was it I turned to school? Man, I kind of grew up in a sense, man. I was 15, 16 years old. But by the time I came back, I was a lot more mature when I came back to middle high school, man. And at that point, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to college. And so. So and that's one thing, because, you know, I'm in the school system and you see a lot of kids. Of course, they grow up with a group of kids, their friends. And they're doing some things, but like you said, you, you realize, like you said, you said in class, knowing the answers to those questions or whatever, you just didn't want to probably answer them based off what they might think of you or whatever the case may be. I was smart. I was smart, but I was funny. And I always wanted to be like, that was my, I don't know if that's my coping mechanism or what, but I'm gonna make somebody laugh. And it was, I was the class disruptor. That's what I was going to do. I was going to disrupt class. And that's what I did for a long time, man, until I realized, until I got back. I'm like, you know what, man, I want to prove to myself that I, it's actually, you know, One quick story, man. My last day at alternative school was... So when you go to the restroom when I turned to school, as a guy, smoking a bathroom, all kinds of stuff. So in order for you to go to the restroom... a male teacher had to walk behind you to the bathroom and literally stand behind you and make sure you're not smoking weed or drinking. It's bad. Like prison. Yeah, definitely. Prison, 100% all day. This is when I was there at the time. I'm in the bathroom and this guy, I can't remember his name, he's behind me. He said something smart. I can't remember what he said. I was like, man, this is my last day, man. I got to do all this. You know how I heard that? You be back here. I took that personally. I took that personally. I took that personally. I took it personally and I was making my mission to not come back. I don't think I got back. I don't think I ever got a write up or nothing like that, man. I was, I was focused, man. At that point I had something to aim for. I knew I can possibly get in college and I kind of not necessarily aim for it, but I just didn't go at alternative school. And so I didn't go back. Yeah. Now, I know you're similar, Boys and Girls Club, man. Tell me what that means to you. Man, that's, my kids at the boys, my kids, although we live in West Florence now, I make sure they go to the Boys and Girls Club because it was the foundation for me, man. It was, I was the oldest, well, I was, my mom had me at 14 years old. So, he had me real, real young. And so, she didn't have kids till, I think my, she didn't have my next to Kim's, like, nine or 10 years later. So I was kind of in a sense, like the only child. Right. All right. And so the boys and girls club, although we were all bad, it gave me a sense of brotherhood in a sense. And, and you had, you know, people like Mr. Mike there, Mr. Brown, Sean, you know, it's, although like, You don't see it then. There were great male role models, great father figures for a lot of kids who did not have father figures at all in that community, man. So it's near and dear to my heart, man. I learned to swim. A lot of kids, a lot of kids cannot swim. I learned to swim at the Boys and Girls Club pool. Right. I think it's called, what, 50 cents to get in there? 50 cents, yeah. You and Justin was there earlier. So, so talk about, like you said, about the Boys and Girls Club. You know, we can fast forward a little bit to today. We'll kind of go back and forth. I know there are certain groups like GLAB Legacies. I know Jason Brown has J&J Leadership. You know, now in your role as a councilman, are there any other type of programs like, you know, Boys and Girls Club and those that, you know, we can kind of guide our young males to that, you know, kind of give them that same leadership that you may not have had or they may not have had? No. And that's why what you all are doing with GLAB is so, so incredible. Like, there is for black men... Black boys. Nothing. Nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing. So every time it comes up for a budget and y'all, y'all, your name on the list to get some money, I'm pushing for it because it's nothing. And so what y'all doing is special, man. So don't ever feel as if, you know, feel slighted by anything like that, man. But there is no other programs. y'all are it. You know, you and Jay, the Jay Academy, I'm messing the name up. Jay and Jay Leadership. Something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so, I mean, I think what you all are doing is great, man. And so kudos to y'all, you know, definitely. But yeah, there's no organizations. It's not maybe a one I may be missing, but it's not many. Right. And so with that and, you know, helping the boys and one of the things that, you know, being to the councilman, I'm going to kind of slide this in here as a suggestion. And it's not a lot. It happened with the Boys and Girls Club. Again, help saved my life. The Teen Center. When I say the Teen Center, they had a team program on the summers from 7 to 11 every night. And I think that was like huge because it kept us playing basketball, shooting pool, whatever the case may be. But it kept us off the street doing the dumb stuff. But it also gave us something positive to look forward to. I wouldn't have made the basketball team if I wouldn't have had that team program to work on my game every summer. But do you think there's anything that can be put in play from the city? And I know most of the things they have open closes at 5 o'clock. But a lot of times the teams are not going home at five o'clock. So what can we as a city do to try to have a building or something? I know we got youth sports program, but my thing was, and the reason I started G-Lab, everybody doesn't play sports. And so are we missing out on the kids that are not playing sports? You know, with the sports community, everybody kind of get behind the athletes, which is, you know, well and good. I would never take any away from that. But can we add to some of the other ones that may not be of interest? Athletic ability. Yeah. And listen, I want to give... I think the biggest thing is, though, with government, especially on the city level, is the lack of information that people know. Right. Right. And it's not... an indictment on the city, per se, because they're putting thousands and thousands of dollars trying to market it. Right. People don't want to hear nothing about the city. Right. It's boring, you know. They only typically talk about it when it's bad. When something bad happens, yep. But the city of Florence, man, I'm not, because I'm on city council, but they're doing a lot. Like, Victoria Nash and what she's doing with that program, man, is phenomenal. So, right now, they do have the Barnes Street Center. And it's a teen center. Right. Right? They... implemented midnight basketball. They do the sleepovers and stuff of that nature, man. They do all of that stuff. It's just more so of, we have to, I mean, as council members and as leaders of the community, all of us, we have to do more of getting the word out to the people, man, because participation is not always high, right? It's a government type of entity thing. And it's not, you know, to me, like you said, the boys club, you know, when they had a midnight basketball, we there, you know, It was more on a private level. And so I guess when it's on the private side, it's nonprofit side. I think you have more participation. But when it's government, man, I don't know what it is. I don't know. Should we do a study on it or something? I don't know. But when it's government involved, it's not as well attended as other. And that kind of goes to a point that I was going to bring up, man, because in our communities where we're from, when we hear government, we don't think of Shaquiz McCall. We don't think of Terry Alexander. We don't think of people that comes from that. You know, so do you think that has something to do with just people like yourself that are in those powers? I agree. I think because this is new. The position we're in in Florence is new. So I got, someone told me the other day, oh, what y'all gonna do? Y'all ain't doing nothing. I'm like, man, what's this thing about? We only had a a majority black council now. This is the fifth year now. Before that, 100 plus years, it wasn't. So the new mindset of who my true representation is, is kind of new. It's new, you know, in a sense to where people always think, oh, y'all do this on that side of town, but y'all ain't doing this on that side of town. But I'm telling you now, I'm at the table and we're trying to push stuff as much as we can. So, and not to cut you off, Sean, how do people get behind you and the people that are in power to kind of help get the word out and, you know, push different agendas and make sure it's throughout the city of Florence and not just, you know, the west side, south side, whatever. Yeah. It's more on, now that's apart from us, from a city leader standpoint. We have to get the information out. That was something I had on my to-do list for years. It's just tough to do it. But this year, I started doing a McCall Minute. It's kind of a new thing I'm doing, trying to get information out to the community as much as I can. Within a minute or less, because I know government stuff is boring, but we have to do more in getting information out. And that's about how long you've got to get somebody's attention these days. A real man is going to be like 30 seconds, 15 seconds. And that's what I wanted to get you to touch on because I actually found out a few things about the city looking at that on TikTok. Yeah. You know, about the, the expanding of the recreation facilities and all that type of thing. So that's definitely, I guess that's a way to start, man. Hit them with the social media. Yeah. So, so just the opportunity that off the top of your head, I know you may not know everything in front of you, but what are some good things that are going on within the city? What are some great things that are going on? Um, what I would say is, um, Well, first off, we got the, I know that one of the last of the call, not the last one, maybe the first one we're talking about. We passed a bond. And bond is basically we can borrow money. Right, right, right, right. We able to, it's like$15.7 million. We're going to get a new basketball arena for the basketball center, for Pearlmore Basketball Center. We're going to, we wanted to get a new football arena. but we're going to have it out there at, um, the sports complex with a baseball and the track and field is, but we didn't own the land and it was charging too much money. So it was cheaper for us to just redo the fields. We got to upgrade. Okay. Uh-huh. So we're going to get new turf and, and better lighting and a new, and rearranging the parking out there at, you know what I saw? They, it's like they building a street in the back off of, uh, it's off of freedom. Is that for that? I think they're clearing that area. No, that's a different project. Okay. Okay. And the third thing is tennis. Like tennis is probably, I would probably say the most, this is all sports tourism, right? So when you're bonding it, you got to show how much revenue you're going to bring in. And basically it's off of how much we anticipate making in hospitality dollars. Hospitality dollars is heads and beds at the hotel. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, heads and beds and the hotels. And so, yeah, so basically it's a calculation. But the most money comes from tenants, unfortunately. Not unfortunately, no, fortunately it comes from tenants. And so when they ask for it, we typically try to keep them, you know, keep it rolling because they're bringing in the most dollars. But we have to, at the same time, expand our other facilities too, so. Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing. It's a lot more. I mean, I can go in too deep. You want to talk about the great things going on? One of the things we talk about, we want to make sure we embrace the great stuff going on. We got enough negativity going on in the world. So you can say, okay, these are the good things coming down. One of the things I know that was coming down, talk to the city manager, and it's already in place. It's putting like a lot of cameras up throughout the city to make sure we kind of look at all these issues. teenage shootings. You know, that's one of the things that kind of was big on me. And that's one of the things kind of sparked G lab. How can I get my kids out of this? And you know, my sons and their friends and everybody else involved, what can we do to do something positive to keep them away? Yeah. So the flock cameras, man, Florence, we got, we got a lot. I think once we get our next trunch, it's going to, yeah. So let's separate them. So it's not live. Right. So they get, so the drones is what's going on. What's this new. So let's back up. So it's two types. The first was the flock cameras. So I'm a proponent of the flock cameras because it's like, it's stolen, it catches stolen vehicles, basically. Or people will... Yeah, basically stolen vehicles. Right. My mom's car got stolen and she called me. I'm like, my mom, I ain't the police. What's it do? So she called the police, right? And they saw her car leaving from Florence, from Florence to Darlington and back from Darlington into Florence. And it was able to find it in West Florence or whatever. So, yeah, it works. It's working tremendous. They've got so many people from stolen cars and, you know, all it does is reading the tags. All right. And then they're able to track the car. You know, it's not like Once you pass one camera, there's other cameras like stationed in other ways. They know which way it's going. So that's one. But the second one is the drones. And so that's what's going to get you. Literally, they call somebody today. They stopped the meeting we had today and said, we just got somebody on a drone. So the drone is on top of the city center. And when someone calls 911, it might take the officer three minutes to get there or five minutes to get there. Right, right, right. It'll take that drone about 60 seconds. Okay. Okay. So what it's doing is it's going to, when someone calls, hey, there's a... There's a shooting on, I don't know, on Oakland. Oh, that's it, on Hoffmeyer Road. There you go. I don't have it up. There you go, Hoffmeyer Road. Shooting on Hoffmeyer Road. The drone. The drone get there within like 50 seconds or so. Well, maybe 90 seconds for Hoffmeyer. But it gets there and all it does is hover around and collects information. I got you. And so by the time the police get there, they're quicker than the police. It can kind of get more information. So, if people running and stuff, see who left the area or whatever. Yeah. Somebody, somebody was literally, it was a high speed chase. Somebody got out the car and was running and they found him today because you can't outrun that drone. There you go. I had in the sky. Yeah. I had in the sky. Don't lie. So, um, one thing I want to go back a little bit. Um, we said that you were the youngest, uh, elected, uh, official to a governing body. Um, so what? 26 years old. Okay. So, um, what led you to that at such a young age? Yeah. So what I would say was I always had a political, I had a political book since Barack Obama. I ain't gonna lie to you right now. You know, with the biggest, I would say like service guy I've ever seen in my community was my pastor, Reverend Bacchus, old pastor at Monument Baptist Church in North Florence. But then I saw Barack Obama at a young age and I'm like, man, you know what, maybe I can, I can be the president, but you know, I can get in politics. So, I went to, so I had the bug bug when I was in Francis, at Francis Marion. I joined the Young Democrats and I created the Young Democrats at Francis Marion University. And from that, I worked on some campaigns. I worked on, I'm getting too nervous to tell me. This is kind of- No, no, no. This is up my alley. All right. So I worked for the Colbert, you ever heard of the Colbert Show? The late night show, Colbert? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. His sister ran for Congress in Charleston. Okay. And so I was the campus coordinator for her campaign. So I kind of got a little bugged. She lost, of course. I'm a Democrat in South Carolina. She lost. Right, right. Then Vince Shaheen ran for governor in 2014. I was on that campaign. Lost again. And I kind of got out of it in a sense. But then... And so 2016 is coming up and not, sorry, 2015 is here. And I'm at an inflection point of, do I go to law school or at this time, 2015, 2016 is a presidential year. Correct. So you had Hillary Clinton who was supposed to be like the foregone president. Of course, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders came down and both of them offer me jobs, um, work on their campaigns. And I like, nah, I'm doing politics, went to law school. Um, and, that was a whole nother story, the whole law school story, but went to law school. When I got back, I was not in politics at all. I was out. I was just trying to, you know, work and, you know, make some money. And then I came, when I came home, it was kind of, you know, it was kind of, Florence was kind of at a little Renaissance era at this point, you know, downtown was doing well, you know, the economy was doing good. And it came to me, you know, I came back home, right? I want other people to, you know, go to college, right? And come back home, right? Come back to Florence. Florence is not a bad place. It's like it has nothing to do with Florence. But I came home. I wanted to encourage other people to come home. So there was a seat to open up. Octavia Winsblake, who was, I think, the first black at large in the entire city. She decided not to run. She did 12 years. And so I had that bug again, man. And I decided to run. That was 20. She decided, I think, in 2019. And so early 2020. In the 2019, beginning of 2020, I announced that I was going to run for city council. Gotcha. Yeah. It was rough, but we did it. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah. So just thinking, I know you say South Carolina Democrat won't win. And I got my own, I've done my own research on some stuff. Okay. You know, and this is the funny part. I do not want to be a politician. Let me put that first and foremost, because I've been asked several times. No, I don't want to run for anything. Cause again, I trust the people that are in office first and foremost. Right. But what do you think are some things that can happen to turn the status, the state of South Carolina blue? Well, I think in actuality, the problem is the state is like, we're so far red only because they got all the seats on a statewide level. Right. And this is, if I get, if I'm nerding you out, slow me down. Okay.

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Um,

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Most Republicans are not, not most Republicans, a lot of the people who say they're Republicans are not Republicans. They're actually Democrats, but they realize that at this point, it's too, it's not enough, it's not enough of name recognition on the Democratic side for them to actually think they can win. So a lot of people who they say are not actually Republicans, just voting. They're just doing it in their party. Exactly, exactly. So what you're having basically is, well, the Democratic Party is like the Black Party in a sense, right? But you have a lot of white people who are Democrats who are just saying they are Republicans to get elected. But I do think what we have to do on the Democratic Party is we have to focus on people. Don't get into the egos. Don't get into this anti-Trump, anti-this. Focus on people, right? And issues that people care about. And then that's how you change it. Not all this, you know, this... non-practical stuff and oh he doing this we should do that like no what do people want that we should what we should focus on and i think we do that collectively not over it's not an overnight thing but we do it collectively i think at some point it'll change but yeah but see i look at it a little different i think it's a targeting thing and i say targeting because i'm just being looking at some maps before um i noticed that most of the eastern side of south carolina votes blue When I say Eastern Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Florence, all of them, you look at a majority, Democrats normally win those areas. Columbia even, believe it or not, Columbia. But when you get to the upstate, when you get past, well, we got a lot of rural areas, one. But then once you get past the upstate, past Columbia, that whole side of the state is red. So my, again, if I was targeting, if I was looking at some things, what can we do in the Spartanburg, Greenville, that area to increase Get the Democratic vote out. Yeah. I think it's on the people. It's not like an economic thing. Yeah, yeah. I would say you have to... They view the world different than we view the world. It's just how it is, right? I mean, I think, you know, they view the world differently. I just think we have to, in a sense, target ourselves and target, I think, younger generation. I think some of those older generations, man, they're probably tougher to change in a sense at this point, man. The older you get, man, the more stubborn you get and you don't want to change your mind. But I say target younger folks. One issue we do got, I think one small point, I think the city of Myrtle Beach might be democratic, but the county of Horry County is tremendously conservative. And what's happening is you're having a lot of retirees from up north coming down and living here, right? So it's, I'm talking about it's, Five to one, Sean. Five to one. And that's what I'm like, they're like core MAGA, like hard MAGA, like, yeah, like, yeah. Big Republican. So in your being, going back to, you know, you being the youngest, I'm elected official and, you know, me knowing where you came from, you being a black male, how tough is it in your position first to You know, when you have to sit at the table with a Republican or an older white male and things of that nature, how tough is it or what kind of stereotypes would, you know, you might face? Well, the first thing is this, though. So I got to think about when I came in in 2020, I came in doing the height. So when I came in, it was the height of the George Floyd movement. the height of it, right? I'll have to say, you know, I'm going to get to your point, but I came in during three major crises in our nation's history. When I came to serve in 2020, it was the biggest health crisis since, yeah, the pandemic was big, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, and the biggest political movement, I don't know, since for a long time, you know, way bigger than Rodney King. George Floyd was Worldwide. Worldwide. Yeah. So when I came in, I remember I had a friend of mine's. He, I don't get no names. I had a friend of mine's. He always said the story. He's like, man, man, they scared of you. I'm like, for what? He said, man, I was downtown one night. I was going to, I think maybe jazz. My wife was going to jazz on Dargham. And him and this guy was sitting down at dinner. And you know, at town hall, there's this glass. You can see people walking by. And so as I'm walking by, I'm speaking to my friend. I'm like, hey, what's up? And he said he was doing dinner with this guy. He was like, you know him? Oh man, like we're scared. And so that perception that a lot of people had, like I was going to be like a radical like this, flip over the tables. Totally not me. Totally not me. Not me. And so I had to deal with the angry people. black male perspective. There you go, yeah. It comes in the territory. Yeah. But I think, you know, the more people understand and people meet me, you know, that's totally not my style. Right. So, but, you know, so again, it came with that. It came with the Joyce Ford movement. It came with the stereotype of a young black man and being an angry young black man who just, you know, out of control or, you know, whatever that perspective they have of us. But, so yeah, but it's been interesting though, I think, but over time it has changed Now that I've been doing it for five years now, they know I'm not. And that's something, first of all, I don't know. I don't have an ego. I don't ego trip. I don't care if somebody is older than me, younger than me, whatever. I can say some things I admire. And the time that I've known you, the one thing I've admired about you is you are yourself. When it's time to get down to business, it's time to get down to business. I feel like I haven't seen that side, but if you have to get... Turned into a hostile black-ass dude, you would get there. But it's funny because I tell both of my boys, I got two boys, I tell both of them, you know, get in, learn what you can. You know, it's good being black. the young black male that can sit and have the same conversation that a 50, 60 year old white male could have. And you're in those same rooms. Don't change who you are. Still be that person. Yeah. But just know any level of conversation that is needed to have you, you can have it. And that was something that I always admired, uh, of you from afar, man. So I just wanted to let you know that. It was time to first start it, man. Now they was trying me now. And so if you go back to 2021, look at the articles. Oh, every month they got me like, I'm like, I'm arguing. I'm not arguing. I'm just, They arguing at me. I'm saying my point back, man. I just got basically. Yeah, exactly. So, and so it was kind of, it took them a back a while. And so I learned how to, you know, how to play, you know, I learned how, you know, all right. And Cameron, we good. Yeah. We go to executive session and you know what time it is, but it's, it's all cool though, man. But I, I just understand you got to know how to play the game, you know, like Jay Cole say, play the game to change the game, man. So, you know, it is what it is, man. And, you know, just seek the growth from what you know, you know? There you go. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about your quiz. The person, I know you're talking about the council person and you know, we are, that's always going to be, you know, we led by job titles. I always laugh with people. The first question people ask, what do you do for a living? You know? So when they ask that question, I always, I got, I laughed at somebody. They asked that question for the reason that the, determine how much respect they're going to show you. Yeah. And I always hated that question. Cause I, you know, I, I, it depends on who asked me the question, how I answer that question. Cause I know you got a lot, you do a lot of things. So, Talk about quiz, the husband and the father. Like what are some of your parenting victories? What are some challenges you have with parenting, with all the things you have going on with your persona? And I say persona, your job life, how's home life and what's that like? Yeah, well, it's life, you know? I would say, man, I'm blessed and fortunate, man, to where I was able to marry my high school sweetheart. And so we've been together 15 years now. 15 years now. 2010? Yeah, 15 years. She listen to this, man. Oh, God. What's up? Shout out to love. I might get in trouble. Shout out to the wife. I might get in trouble. But yeah, but she been with me through the beginning, man. Through the beginning, all the way through, man. But yeah, man, I've been blessed to have my high school sweetheart with me. Got three kids, Amaya, Shaquez II. and Deuce, and Ava, she's my baby, but she's nine, so I gotta see, I talked to her like she's still a baby, and they hate it, oh my gosh, they hate it, but I mean, it's, you know, it's unique for me, man, because I get to, I make it, my mission is to just to be a part of their lives, you know. But being in politics and a lawyer, it makes it tough on time management, you know. And we're in that area now where my kids are 12, 10, and 9, where I, like literally today, we're trying to schedule, like my daughter had to get out of cheer practice at 6, had to take my son to football practice by 6, and my youngest daughter went home work, so it was all trying to, you know, plus be here at 6, so I had to call people to do this and that, and so like we're in that era now where it's it's constant. We're constantly busy, man. Like we're like, it's realistically on a Monday through Friday. It's, like a nonstop for us. So make time definitely on the, on the, you know, in the afternoons and the weekends to make sure we spend time with each other. So look, I laugh cause I can relate. You know, I look at it, listen to the age of your kids. I met my high school sweetheart as well. We actually grow, grew up with our kids, you know, cause it's like, I got it right now, 20 years old, 18 and 17. But my oldest is between the one and a couple of weeks. So again, it's one of those, okay, now it's like a transition to how to, transition them out of the house and start their young adult life and still be supportive at the same time, letting them go live and make their own mistakes. So, you know, just having to balance schedules and everything else, I'm just... Father to father. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Father to father. It doesn't get easier. It's tough. The only time you're going to get released now is when they get old enough to get their license. Like, you're probably going to push for the first one to get their license. I can't wait. I'm talking to a rat now. What kind of car you want? Daddy going to get it up front. The only drawback, though, is the insurance. Oh, yeah, yeah. You got to figure that part out. So what's the way you mentioned about the kids and your family? What's the way you... especially with being in the title that you, what's the way you juggle your social life? Just hanging out with your boys, that sort of thing. Yeah. So tonight is the night is normally Wednesday. So the days is Wednesday. It's kind of like my, I tell my wife all the time, like, you know, that one day, uh, Being with the fellas, man. That is therapy, man. You know, so typically Wednesday nights, I'm normally, you know, hanging out Wednesday after work, you know, between like between 6 and 8, 39-ish, whatever. That's kind of how the night goes. It's a little me time. So, and I think I'm blessed enough to have friends that like with all the titles you have with me coaching basketball. And I hate the titles, man. I don't want to hear about basketball. basketball yeah when i'm hanging with the boy i mean we might have a quick little conversation how the team going that sort of thing so are your friends sort of conscious of look we ain't talking about what what happened you know what's going on in the city type of thing exactly but it's we the people come to me like that's why i very rarely i hate walmart i hate target my wife knows it man like oh because man yeah people it's so awkward man like They're always trying to get free legal advice, which I'm going to give you. That's the thing. I'm going to give you the free legal advice. I'm going to give it to you. You could call my office and be like, you're the lawyer, right? Yes, man. So when I'm out with the fellas, man, we ain't on that type of time. We're trying to keep it regular, man. We all got our own situations, man. That's a good debrief, man. A real good debrief on a Wednesday night. Yeah. So sort of kick back and kind of, you know, let your hair down, so to speak. A little bit. Definitely need that, man. And that's how I think that that what keeps us as well. I know me as a as a as a male, just kind of. okay, I can decompress. I can get away. Yeah. Because a lot of times we don't have people to go to outside of our friends or whatever, as far as what's going on on a job. So is there anybody, you know, older or even if it's your parents that you kind of go to in time, you know, outside of your wife? Cause I'm sure you guys talk a lot. Yeah. So I'm in, I'm in two older professions. Right. So the profession as a councilman is definitely older. Like the average age is probably 20, 65, right? Yeah, probably older than that. Like, I go to these conferences, man, it's mostly older people, right? And in the legal profession, same thing, older profession, right? And that's older and whiter in the legal profession. But I do have older friends, of course, right? Outside of my high school friends, we still close. But, you know, on a professional level or, you know, a little bit more professional, My friends, they're in the same type of area we in. We kind of have the same problems, in a sense. There you go. Same struggles. Not too many people... can relate to some of the issues that we have. So it's easier for us to get together. Like, all right. Yeah. Okay. I know what you're going through, man. Right. Absolutely. Wife, you might not understand, but I understand. So, and that's a big thing, man. Like I said, it's, it's good to be in those positions, those titles, but you know, like you said, you still going to jazz on dog and you're still going to leave. Yeah. Cause you know, that's what keeps you sane. So that, that's definitely, that's definitely dope, man. So, and, and again, where's the person, what do you do to kick back? And just, again, you say your me time, I know you tell me to go out, but what is it like if you can do one or two things just for quids, if it's for a week, a day, or what would that be? So a couple of things is I hate wasting time, right? So I don't binge watch. I used to love binge watching, man, but I feel so guilty when I binge watch. Oh my God, I got to get caught up in it. But last night, I was playing Madden last night. So I'll play video games, but sometimes I'll get in my times where I just want to just relax. I'll play video games, man, and basketball Those are the two things that I definitely permanently do. So every Sunday, not every Sunday, back up. I'm trying to get it back up to where I'm the commissioner. As I used to be back in, it's called me the commissioner on Isla Jones Park in North Florence on Sundays. You know, I got to get the lead together, man. So we're trying to get everything back together now, man. A little bit of kinks in there, you know, a little bit of kinks. Everybody's a little older now. Come on, come on, come on out there, man. You had something else? Because I was going to ask something to piggyback off what he just said. Keep going, keep going. Kind of going back, what are some other things? I know we talked about, you know, as far as the recreation facilities. What are some other things in Florence that, you know, like that league on the park? What are some other things that you may have brewing, so to speak? On the rec side, on the rec side, not much on the rec side. That's it. That was it. Those three things. The issue we have as a city, man, I hate to get into your side, man, is infrastructure, right? Literally today, on a Wednesday from nine o'clock this morning to literally like 5.15, we were going over the amount of money we got to pay to fix the infrastructure in Florence. So that's like roads, the water system, the stormwater system, the sewer. And we're talking almost a billion, more than a billion dollars, I think, if you add on the two. And another thing, another issue I won't mention on the podcast, but over a billion dollars, man. And it's a city, right? Right. And only roughly brains in, you know, we have$140 million budget, but it's about a billion dollars in, in problems, you know? So it's a lot to manage when you, you know, you're short, you know, I'm one, I'm only bringing in one 10th of revenue. I mean, as I put, if I had to put, the entire city of Florence budget on these problems, there's only 10%. I can only address 10%. So it can take me 10 years to be able to... And that's no police. That's no police. That's no fire. That's no parks and recs. That's no nothing. So it's just letting you know kind of how serious of a situation we're in. But I mean, it's good because... The city is growing, right? I think the city is growing. I've been in the PD area where people typically leave. For Florence to still be growing is a good thing, man. But yeah, we're working on infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure right now, making sure that we update our utility system. We plan for growth. That's the biggest thing. Like Florence is going, we got, I think it's over 5,000 homes still permitted, you know, get built. Maybe a little bit less now because someone's getting built. So Florence is about to have this inflection point, man. We got to be, as leaders, we have to be making sure we're making the right decisions and also making sure we're getting the word out to the people about what we're doing. And I don't know if there's something you could touch on. This is a personal question. What's going on with the battery plant? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Trump, Simply. I mean, I can't explain it differently than that. With the electric car. Election got consequences. I figured that, yeah. So I'm going to try to condense it for you, right? So if I nerd you out, let me know because this is my area. Do your thing. All right. So Biden passed the inflation reduction. Inflation reduction. And it was trying to encourage the EV market to come, not to China, but to come to China. South Carolina. Or it's coming to Florence. That's how I saw Florence. She meant America. That's for Biden in America. Right, right, right. Well, it was, you know, billion dollar projects here, here, here, here, here. Florence is able to get one, right? Big time. And so, Trump's getting office and, you know, they're like, well, Biden did it. We ain't want it no more. Right. So, not thinking about the billion dollars that, no, it was a billion dollar investment they already put in the dirt, right? It's a billion dollars in the ground right now. The building is up. It is up, yeah. And you go inside, they got, it's plenty of equipment now, right? Right. But what happened was, so in the bill, in the bill, the big, beautiful bill, everybody talking about that big, beautiful bill, they took it out, right? But, I give Tim Scott some credit. Tim Scott got it worked, put it back in there. Okay. But the finance team who's, because they paused it before Tim Scott put it back in. They paused it because initially when the draft passed the House, when it passed the House, then the Senate, then the President signed it. Okay, when the House passed it, then that's when the finance, the finance team who was financing this, hold on, wait a minute now. Y'all projections of making this amount of money and we financing this was based off of y'all receiving these tax credits. Well, y'all about to lose these tax credits. Hold on, we ain't about to be putting no more money in this project and y'all losing the tax credits. Right? So, Tim Scott ended up getting it Give him some credit for something. He ends up getting it. I give him credit. He puts it back in. I guess his team, too. They get it back in there. And so we're hopeful. I think it's still going to happen. And I think in all indications that it is, we got to wink, wink, like, all right, y'all still continue to build a utility line out there, continue to build a road and stuff out there. But we won't have a final decision probably to the end of this year. They got to do some restructuring because... They're saying it was a Chinese plant. Really, it's a Japanese plant. It's some Chinese investors. Back to Trump. It's

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Trump

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all day, man. 100% Trump. Election got consequences. Election got consequences. People always say, why I got to vote for her? If you live in Florence, this EV plant was going to fundamentally change the city of Florida. Big time. Big time. When they start building the houses, that's when I'm like, okay, here we go. Yeah, all on that side. Yeah, we built a place. That's what I saw. All on that side, all on the east side. New streets and everything. Wilson was going to change because all those new constructions. I know we got Dominique here. I'm a tiger. You're a tiger. I got you, I got you, I got you. But Wilson was probably going to become a 5A school, man, with all the new houses. And I think it still is at this point. It's a lot of construction on that side of town. But because Trump was elected- It's all on him. All on him. If you were in Florence County, that is the direct downfall of that plan right now. It's a great effect on us. Yeah, 100%. But I think they're going to re-scroll it, though, to still have it going, but it's going to be sometime in this year we'll get a final decision on it. That's right. That's dope, man. Sorry to nerd you out, but that's kind of... No, that's a lot of information. This is a question we talked about last week and we used to talk about amongst each other, but How has your childhood affected your adult outlook on life? Yeah, so that's my worldview, man. And I always thought that my worldview was the majority worldview, but it's not. Think about it, man. As black men, we're what, 6% of the entire population? 5, 6%? Yeah. And, you know, so then out of that 5%, you know, how many of that 5% grew up in an impoverished neighborhood, right? That's probably 2%, right? You know? And so... my mindset is my worldview or how I view the world is how you was raised. And I'm only 2%. I'm 2% of the entire population. So, but I think that, that diversity of thought is what's needed in, in, all of these boardrooms, all of these decision-making type of type of thing, because, because without it, you, that just 2% of where I come from, you know, what my mind said, my worldview is I never get hurt. I never get hurt, man. So that's why I'm real big on diversity, but yeah, but I'm, I'm born and raised in North Florence, man. And I keep saying that, but that's, that's who I am. And I said, that didn't change, you know, it hasn't changed who I am, but, um, And I take those life experiences with me to where I'm at. Hey, look, as a fellow young man from North Florence, started off on Bradford Street, the Sparta Heights, and just saw the growth from the people. And I say that one of the best things about Florence, and I would say to anybody, is the people of Florence. Like you come here and I got people, you know, like you, I left. Stay in another area for nine years, move back and try to bring some ideas, try to bring some certain stuff and bring a different mindset and work at it. Because, again, Florence is a great place with great people with so much opportunity. But we got so many people to talk down to it again because their worldview is so limited. They don't know how to get out their own way. Well, I think they think that. their way is the way. Correct. Without listening. And I think you have to listen to what other people have to say. And you could be right, but each person has their own perspective, their own mindset based on how they live, man. And so, again, you just, you got to have diversity, man. And look, I talk about the diversity. I work, you know, my major job is in banking compliance officers. So when I go to these conferences, Normally, I can probably call in the room, and I'm talking about national conferences. There's not many of us there as far as, like you say, the 2%. We're probably less than that because I go places. If I see five, I'm happy. I'm not saying that. I don't even have to go talk to them, but if I just see them, okay, we got representation, but it's a lonely world. I've been at my job now for the last 12 years, and I've been the only brother there, you know what I'm saying, outside of a janitor. I haven't seen a lot of compliance, but that's... It's different. Again, it's different. It's not something that everybody on everybody's cup of tea, but you know, like I said, it pays the bills. That's what I'm on. That's what it's all about. You're on the corporate side, man. You're on the corporate side. Yeah, but also taking the opportunity to learn. Like I say, and Linwood, I always go back to what Linwood Edwards, one of his lines that I always remember is, you got two types of education, the one they give you and the one you give yourself. And the one you give yourself is the most important. So I look at my job as education. I'm learning the banking system. I'm learning how things work with banks, how to get approved for loans, how businesses operate, how, you know, different things going on so that I can turn around and explain it to others who may not know. I like to take the complex and make it simple. So, and again, I think if we get in those spaces, I think we can dominate in a lot of areas. Cause even where I work at now, I feel like there's some areas we can improve, but you know, majority rules and when you, the absolute minority, you know, some things make sense. And in certain ones you can see, They may not like it now, but later on they may use it because it makes sense to them later on. And it's like crazy to me. But again, I'm not the owner of the bank. I don't make the decisions outside of compliance. But other than that, you know, you, you learn to, you learn, I would say I learned to pick and choose my battles. Definitely. Definitely. That's, that's, that's definitely a life lesson that needs to be every, you don't have to fight every time, man. You know, you do not have to fight. And you know what? I had to learn that. I had to learn that, man. When I got on council, uh, Oh, man, I thought I'm ready to roll them up. It's not like, all right, you got the votes. Why do you need to argue? All right, have fun. Okay. But that's when I see a young brother like you, man, anything I can do to help. You know, I do it before I begin whispering. Yeah, man, watch this. Oh, man, do this or do that. But it's one of those I want to continue to see you do great. And I'm always big on not just you. The ones behind you. I know you're going to have a protege or two here or there, but also, you know, could that keep the continuity going? And it can grow to something else. I always call it planting seeds. When you plant the right seeds, no telling how they grow. And to your point, you're right on time with that one. My last question for you is how, like you said, you were the youngest elected official. How or what is a way maybe somebody is looking to you know, get in your position. What is a message that you may have for the young adults or is there anything, a mentoring program or anything that they can follow, kind of follow your path to get into politics or whatever the case may be? What I would say is this, man. Or even law. Yeah. What I would say is this, because I look at myself just as a problem solver. I'm a lawyer, councilman thing. I'm a problem solver. I just solve problems. But to the people who are looking at getting in this space. You don't need a permission to do anything. If you want to change your neighborhood, change your neighborhood. If you want to change your block, change your block. If you want to change anything, it's up to you. No one's coming to save you. It's up to you, man. I encourage the youth behind me, man, that's looking to get involved. It's like you as... I think Barack Obama said that, you are who you've been waiting for, basically. And the change starts with you, but you got to get up and do the work. You got to get up and do the work. And don't let the work, how they say it? Get up on a... Hop on to work and let the word hop on you. I'm a real big proponent of that, man. I get up early. I go to sleep early. But I'm on it and I'm working early, man. And so I'm up before a lot of people, you know, are even out and about, man. But just, you know, just in a sense, backing up on that again, just don't wait for nobody to give you permission to do. Be great. There you go. Do what you got to do, man. You know who you are, man. Just fulfill that mission that God has for you, man, and continue to blossom. Yes, sir. Continue to be yourself. All right. You got anything else before I get into my pick six? No, I ain't got nothing else, man. Okay. Go ahead with your pick six. All right. Well, another quick six for you. You may have to think about it a little bit, man, but just based off of you. Let's see. What are we going to start with? In high school, you mentioned you played basketball. What song were you- I still got it now. Okay. What song were you listening to on the way to a game? What was T.I.? Not T.I. What was it? T.I. Bring him up, bring him up. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm laughing at the song that came out. Bring him up, bring him up. Yeah, yeah. All right. You got one, Sean? Yeah. A song I listen to DMX all day. What song? You can pick any song. What specific? Well, one specific song I go to when I need that. On Friday night. Get at me, dog. Okay. Okay. All right. Get at me, dog. All right. If you could start on a TV show, maybe insert yourself as a main character, take a character's place, which one would it be? And what would your role be? On a TV show? Yeah. Throwback TV show, current, whatever. I would say this, though. I'm a political animal, man. I'm not going to watch House of Cards. Yes. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank Underwood. Frank, yeah. Oh, Frank. I'm an animal. I'm an animal, man. Yeah, Frank Underwood on House of Cards. Okay. You got one? I'm not. I think he was. Nah, I'll pass. I'll pass. Look, my PT answer would be Damon Wayans on My Wife and Kids, but probably Ghost on Power. Okay, okay. Ooh, okay, that's a good one. I would. Trying to sling some dope, man. The business side, the business side, the business side. I got you. No, but the duality, man. And look, look, I'll say that. You look, I'm 90% good. I'm 90% good. But you know, when people are shocked, they hear 10% bad. Like, look, I got 90% like 80% bad. Do what's necessary. Do what's necessary. Correct. And look, Ghost had a good conscience. You know, he tried to do right. I think I would be, I always wanted an older brother. I would, Probably either the Wayans or the Cosby show. So I like to, I would like to play it on one of them. Yeah. I say Damien Wayans and my wife and kids, that'd have been my probably one, but the nice answer, but the true Sean answer probably goes. All right. What's your favorite time of day? Morning time, early morning time between the, 4.30 and 5.15. You up there? Yeah, I'm on, yeah. Well, you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you lived in the same neighborhood with me, I did you to see y'all out walking. Stock market up on that five, right? Stock market. I'm rocking and rolling, man. You got one? The best time of the day for me? Lunchtime. I do what I want when I want. I'm going to quote Ray Charles. See, the nighttime is the right time. All right. If you had your own talk show, who would be your first guest? My first guest would be Barack Obama. Barack Obama, my first guest. You got one? My first guest would likely be LeBron James. Okay. My son be listening to it all day. He love LeBron James. That's a father, man. I look at the father side. That's where I talk to him. Your favorite wrestler of all time. My favorite wrestler of all time. I got two. Oh, you lit up. Oh, yeah. That's my son. You still

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watch wrestling?

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No, no, no. Okay. Go ahead. I realize this fake bot feel great. I was like, this is ridiculous. It took all my money. Now, my favorite wrestler, man. Wrestler was Goldberg, WCW. But my favorite entertainer. was Scott Hall. I'm not lying. Scott Hall. Yeah, Razor Ramon. Razor Ramon. Razor Ramon. Razor Ramon. I'm thinking about Scott, the Steiner brother. Scott Hall. Yeah, Razor Rock, Scott Hall. Yeah, I go to Rock and probably Stone Cold. Back in the day, back in the day, back in the day, it would have been Ultimate Warrior. Ultimate Warrior. WCW would have been Sting or Lex Luger. Sting made me realize white dudes can be cool, man. And then Undertaker, man, it was just... I think I have a... not the name. I think I have a side of the undertaker to where sometimes I just don't like to say a damn thing. Give you a look, you know, that sort of thing. All right. So last one, what, um, and this kind of goes into everything we talked about. What are you most excited about for the remainder of the year?

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Um,

SPEAKER_00: 56:48

Gamecock football. I'm ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm ready for this year, man. I think, man, we got Sellers, Lord Sellers, man. I think he's hyped up, but I think, man, he got it. He got the instinct, man, that killer instinct in him. I think this year, man, that's what I'm afraid of. We know he got it. I just hope, you know, something may happen as far as with the team or, you know, the team don't live up to it. I'm not a South Carolina fan. I'm a Florida State fan, but I'm I lived in Columbia for 10 years, man. My boy is about to start there Saturday. hometown kid. I got to go with him. I converted three years ago when my daughter went there. I think I'm most excited, man. My daughter graduates from college in December, so the rest of the year, that's what I'm excited about. Good stuff, man. From USC, where she at? USC. She's finishing up at USC. She had a job interview today. That's dope, man. Anything you want to add, any shout-outs, anything like that you want to throw out there before we sign off? I would say, man, just thank y'all for having me, man. It's great, man. I would like to say, man, continue what y'all doing, man. Like having that outlet and avenue for, for, for, uh, for, for black men is, is always important, man. I think we don't speak up enough. And so what y'all, what you all are doing, man, goes a long way, man. Give y'all y'all flowers while y'all here, man. Cause y'all are real good. true community game changers, man, and continue what y'all doing. And, you know, I'm here if y'all need anything else from me. Okay. Yeah, man, we call this therapy. Yeah. Yeah. Embracing the great man. I'm looking for a suit line coming from you soon, man. Stay sharp. I get to. Hey, man. Hey, when they come ask, when they ask to retain, I got a little new. All right. I'm cautious. I'm joking, but it's all fine. All right, man. We appreciate you, big dog. All right, man. We out the show. All right. Take care, fellas. Yep.