Episode 20 - Zachary Mayor David McDavid

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

All right, Savigate Podcast number 20. We are Dave and Drew. That is Dave, writer at the Savigate. I'm Drew, attorney, St. George Councilman, etc., etc. etc. This week, another wonderful guest. We're covering the all the mayors of East Baton Rouge Parish. We got a few of them. We got a few good ones. This is one of the top, though. I agree. Yeah? Yeah. Is Wade Evans outside? No, Wade Evans is not. He's not even in the running. Banging on the door right now, trying to get in.

unknown 0:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Don't you let Zachary steal our thunder.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Zachary's got a great mayor. They don't have surf lakes on the horizon, but they got a great mayor. You don't know that. We're about to find out. We're about to. That's true. That's why we got him in here.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

We got Zachary Mayor, David McDavid Sr. Uh, I've got a hard-hitting question for you out the gate. David McDavid. He's been wanting to ask you this question for weeks. Same name twice. Any other names you thought you know that were considered for you other than David McDavid?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

No, uh my my parents, uh my father had an uncle named David McDavid uh uh from his uh you know his daddy's brother, and uh that's what they named me after. So I said if I got the name, I'm gonna name my son David McDavid. Ricky is David McDavid second, and then we he named his son David McDavid.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

So there's a third. And there's also a car dealership, a David McDavid car dealership.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yes, down in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Any relation?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Uh probably down the line it is, uh, but I have you know, we've been doing a lot of uh researching uh me and my nephew, and we'll probably come across that soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

I think I feel like you could get a hell of a deal on a car if you rolled up in there. Just brought the whole family along with you?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, I have a plan if I do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah, the manager's gonna be like, you ain't gonna believe who just walked in here. He wants to buy two trucks for him and his son.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

When I see like a name like David McDavid, I'm like, oh, this must be from the Klan McDavid. And you know, everybody back to the 1500s is David McDavid.

unknown 1:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

And some of them change their names. They go D-A-V-I-T-T, and but we do D-A-V-I-D.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Okay. All right. Easy to remember. We're gonna keep going David McDavid's.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

That's easy to remember for uh for uh yard signs for re-election. That too. If you remember the movie uh Eddie Murphy was in, name you know and name you remember. That's right. That's exactly right. Well played. Welcome to the show, Mayor. Glad you came along. We uh we have two after you, we have two more mayors in East Baton Rouge. I haven't made the show yet. The the uh first one is uh Mr. Mr. Seal Edwards, who I got confirmation yesterday is definitely coming. Okay, a lot of pressure. The the your your sister uh city to the, I guess to be to the south of you, did not respond to our request to come on. The Baker mayor did not respond to our request.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Shocked at that. He likes to uh likes to talk. That's what we thought. We thought this would be low-hanging fruit.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Darnell's coming. I'm gonna I'm gonna make a trip and personally ask him instead of emailing. He might not got the email.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

We're gonna we're going to we're going to Baker. We want to complete the, we want to get all five of them. We gotta do a car wash. We can go get a car wash while we're there.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

But the good news is that we promised Wade when we cycled through the whole list of mayors, he could come back on. So if we don't get Baker, we don't have to invite Wade back. Yeah. It's almost like it's not win-win.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

All right, mayor. So you're up for election this year.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yes, sir. Are you running? Yes, definitely running. Uh, we're already done some things to kick it off a little bit, but we're waiting for the uh uh sign up in July and we're ready to go.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Awesome. So seat breaking news right there.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, yeah. This could you could absolutely this could be this could count like eight, ten percent of the votes just to be on the Sadvocate podcast.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Now I'll tell you, in St. George, we do say say central a bunch, but Zachary was actually the school system that kicked it off and and gave us the the notion that we could be successful because look at our neighbors. So you still have a top ten school district in the state, and you're doing a lot of things from a city standpoint because your your city is growing. You're booming. Yes. So what are you got some stuff going on right now citywise uh that you're planning for the future? What do you got going on right now?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Well, right now we're adding a lot of the infrastructure in the area. We're doing a lot of road rehab, but we're we have we I hired an economic developer uh three years ago to bring them in to bring business in. We we were hurting for business, and uh we had a bad rap because we let uh neighborhood Walmart walk uh uh in early uh around 2012, 2015 area time, and it cost us with business in town. So we had to reverse that. I brought her in. We went to Atlanta, hit all the trade shows and all that there. When they went to Vegas, so we got a good thing going on. We're working with retail strategies out of uh Atlanta area, and uh they're bringing business in. So I mean we got we got Aldi has opened up, Genevieve's hibachi, which you know I love hibachi. I go to the one in Itchmans.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

So there's like Onion Volcano and Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Seven Brew Planet Fitness. We got a new Zachary Tour store uh there. Of course, Elaine had the 90 million dollar uh you know, new patient tower area there is awesome. Southern Outfitters moved uh to a dirt cheap location, opened up a big archery range in the back of the building there, which is awesome. Uh we have we met with High Neighbor, we met with Oak Point to uh bring them into Zachary, give them the maps of Zachary. We have at least five businesses looking at the Lanyak building. We also have people uh across from Walmart looking by uh Wendy's over there at the Moore property. They're looking across from uh Rouse's on 64 there at the Knight property. Rouse's has bought the whole building now. I'm gonna hopefully redo it. Uh you know, I've told Rouse's that uh between us and Morgan City, we've got one of the worst Rouse's in the area. Really? And uh it needs to be really uh straightened up there. I mean I walked in there yesterday and they got uh paper tiles along the uh uh freezer racks where I guess they're leaking.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

We're ready for them to redo it. I think they would be very, very beneficial to Zachary if they do that and maybe add some stuff in there. You you know you can go uh with uh uh a different uh parcel to the right of them there, uh different things that we can look at and and boost it up. That's where the old Kmart TGMY used to be at uh back in the days.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

God rest their souls.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah, so we're looking. We got Vinny's car wash, it should be starting in April. Uh if you look the one in Baker, I walked in there the other day, nice, clean, super nice, very good customer service, friendly there, and uh, you know, we need that there, and we're looking for that.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

So you said seven brew is open? Yes. Let me tell you what. If there's about to give a free endorsement to absolutely not, but for economic development, have you has it suffered the same lines of the other ones in Baton Rouge area? I mean, that place is like a cult. You can't get in that place in the morning. The lines are just wrapped around out the out the uh parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

It stays busy. If you you come to Zachary during the weekends, every restaurant is packed. Of course, we have 35 to 40 ball tournaments a year at our ballpark. Yes. It's around nine fields out there. It's packed. We we have a schedule that's already comes out, you know, usually in November, yeah, and it's filled up for the year uh for the ballpark.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

And um speaking of that, didn't y'all do the first Mardi Girl parade this year?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yes, we uh did that. We we had great, we had one of the little skirmishers of pushed and shoving, but they were on top of it. We had drones in the air, we had a command center, we had officers all in the crowds walking around. Uh there's a few things we had a meeting yesterday we got to work on, you know, uh working a little bit of trash, pick up, uh, you know, we do things with the floats and music and stuff like that and keeping the parade together. But we met yesterday, had a good meeting with the uh the organizers, and we're prepared for next year.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I heard it went well. I heard it went well.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

We had people we probably had uh due to their uh their broadcasting and their uh you know putting the word out, probably had a million viewers uh on their uh website. I mean they had more numbers they put out yesterday. I didn't get them all, they're supposed to be sending them to me, but it was overwhelming as many people had heard about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I was very surprised when I saw it come out um that Zachary didn't have Mario Prairie, and I said, Wow, that's it's crazy y'all didn't, but it was definitely time for one, and that's a huge driver for you. Yes, yes, it was very good.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Planning for the future, because you've got a bustling city, so in some cases, you gotta curtail growth in some areas because you gotta make sure infrastructure keeps up with it. Correct. Uh what is it like working with your council on planning for the city? Uh, because council members are wily. I know this. They can be difficult. Sometimes they don't know what's going on. It is, it is. Yes. Sometimes I'm difficult. This may be surprising. Well, you're an attorney. Yeah, and a council member. Yeah. They get to do both things. Uh so Zachary's had a lot of fun at council meetings. Um, how do you work with the council to keep the vision moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Well, I've shared when I took office, I shared my vision with vision with them, and I try to keep them up to date on what's going on with emails and letting them know. I set aside uh, you know, each Monday before council meetings to talk about it. Unfortunately, not many of them show up for that. Some do. Uh, you know, talk about the agenda, but also talk about what's coming up in the future. I try to let them know what's going on uh throughout the city because I think it's very important they do. And uh, you know, we're working toward the goals. I have one goal is to get to the Mississippi River. Uh we were right there at Jerry Lane's at the US 61. They said, why do you want to go to Mississippi River? We're number one river tours coming in the city there. We already sell gas to uh Georgia Pacific right there by the river, so we we could open up LP gas plants, sell to other cities, sell to other countries. We don't know. We'll have to look at that. Uh, you know, we had barge rentals to the north of us with uh East and West Visiana, where they make over a million dollars a year in barge rentals. Uh, we could put a port there with the new uh HUD 8 and um Magnus uh center coming to the north of St. Francisville that we can offload a lot of stuff right there. They don't have a port in St. Francisville, nearest port's Baton Rouge, but there's things we're looking at for the future, and I think the growth, everything. We already got uh warehouses looking to come in that area right there on US 61. We had one come in the other day uh and they went to Texas a median square foot warehouse just because of the HUD 8 stuff. And so we have a lot of movement going on on the northern inn area. We had 243 acres coming to the north of uh Jerry Lane, Chevrolet, and Dodge, and so we're uh we're we've got a lot of stuff moving through that.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Does the city limits end at 61?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yes, we're right there. We have Jerry Lane, we have a piece of property across from Jerry Lane that's in the city limits. Uh we're one property away to getting the Bennett Ski School in where we got students from all over the world come in and ski there.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Bennett's not in Zachary? No. I mean it it it it they refer to themselves as being in Zachary, but it's not in the city limits.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

One property away from getting them in and they're wanting to come in the city limits. We want to be them to be in the city limits there. They visit our stores, they visit our restaurants, they you know they're they're they're very big into Zachary. And plus they got something coming up in June called uh uh jam night, coming up June 6th.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Yep, they do uh you're right. They I never understood how many people come in to that ski school every year and the kids that the college kids and the come in for the summertime. It's unbelievable how many uh how many people are in that facility on a regular basis. Yeah. So annexing property, I love that. Yeah, that's a huge fan.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Well, we're looking at growth. We want to have good growth, and what we want to do is go to the diversion canal to the south of us there. We know Baker's marching that way because they use the same attorney we do. They're trying to come up, come up to the heck young. So uh we're trying to get the diversion canal. We want to get uh O Cynic Highway or uh as they call it, we want to get it four lane. It can be it's already got the right of way from uh groom road up. D O T D says they don't have the money, so the legislators need to find some money. We need to we need to have a third lane in there right now, would be very helpful. We have lost a few businesses right outside the city limits of Zyker because of that, but we gotta work on that. That's important with the growth coming out of South Mississippi, New Roads, Fleshani areas going south, either Exxon, LSU, Southern, Baton Rouge Community College, they come through 19 plank and old 61 and 61.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yep. So going back to the council, does everyone in the council now know what a hyperlink is?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I I think they do. Uh many discussions and uh back and forth, but uh council meetings can be uh can be comical sometimes and watch what goes on there.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

And uh I want to come to one, but we have the St. George Council meeting on the same night. I wish somehow or another we could get off of that that rhythm. We're pretty boring.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Yeah. Right now we are boring. We'll get exciting in a few years and a couple of terms from now. Yeah. But right now we're kind of boring.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

You could leave there and not interfere with the quorum, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:52

If you could make yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah, we're gonna streamline, we're streamlining too.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

We're coming to the next one where we can do the podcast during the council meeting.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

I would come on uh the first one in April, so that'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

First one in April. Hold on. Let me put that in my calendar.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Just being honest with you. We we have a uh a thing going on right now with a 593 Sports, which is a go-kart track and it's caused a lot of controversy.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

I've heard some rumors.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

We have family members talking to family members, we have friends not talking to each other, we have church members that are mad at each other.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

It's it's on the go-kart track. Yes. Is the go why is the go-kart track controversial?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

It's out in the uh rural areas, but it's close to some homes and there's some other noise. It would be They uh they brought in some big cars that probably, and I can't go into it much further because we're under a lawsuit, but uh this is getting great.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

This is great.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

So uh yeah, they brought in some big cars and made a lot of noise, and I understand people are upset, and I don't blame them. I mean I can't say much more for it.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Controversial golf cart. Okay, so first uh meeting in April, Drew.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Join me. I'll be there. Uh second meeting uh Tuesday in the month.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

I feel like we might be zoning something or nothing exciting.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

This week coming up on the 24th, we're honoring you know our two basketball teams, back-to-back state champions, so we're honoring them uh next uh next uh Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

So I'm originally from Texas, and Zachary is one of those places that kind of feels like being in Texas. You know, you got the Friday night lights feeling the whole town is shutting down for the game, and then everybody spills out in the the community afterwards. And it it so having a parade makes a lot, having your own things makes a lot of sense. Uh it does.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

And we we we try to honor being a you know uh alumnus of Zachary Hyde in 1983, you know, uh we had didn't have many championships back then, but now we're starting to have a lot football, baseball, basketball, girls' basketball, golf. I mean, back in the days, the only thing you could really uh cheer about golf is John Daly played there. You know, I played ball with John Daly uh in the summertime when he was at Zachary for a couple years, and uh he was a very good athlete.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Was he as much fun then as he was in the middle of the day? Yes, he was.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Him and his brother party, and uh we kind of hung out there on Friday nights at the house and uh with him and but he could play golf, and he was a good baseball player and uh he was a good kicker.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

I remember that. Now he's just a guy he's a guy that wears some really fun pants.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So is there a is there a desire in Zachary to make your school district boundaries match your city limits boundaries?

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Well, the school district's boundaries are bigger than the city limits. Yes, and we're looking at that. We're we're talking about that uh as much as we can. I think with annexation we can do that because it goes all the way down close to where LTI is and swings back around and goes up to uh 61, all the way to Lake Jolliview, which is you go outside the parish and come back in. That's off of Highway 68. So, but right now, fire wise, we can cover it. Police wise is where the problem is because of manpower, but also infrastructure is another issue.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yeah, because that that area is EBR is allowing pretty much any project that wants to come in to do it right there. Yeah. And so that that's a problem.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yes, it is. And we we've we we try to work with EBR on that, but we unfortunately have some council persons on there that didn't agree with it, and uh, you know, it kind of hurt in the long run, but also cost them election, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

So I get it. Is the council up for re-election this year as well with you?

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Council mayor, uh chief police, school board. School board's gonna be a very important thing too with the school system. Uh, you know, we had a great school system, we still do. Everybody's learning what we're doing. Central, West Luciana's number one, other areas around the state are number one, and they're hiring away some of our superintendents are our good teachers. So we've got to get our teachers' pays up. We we've got to work on that, and uh we got to keep you know keep Zachary going where it's been. It's been always like that since I went to school because Jerry Boudreau was there. He ran a tight ship and he didn't play around. Yeah, and you could eat off the floors then, you can still eat off the floors now. There it is, that in very good shape.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Well, I mean, I guess that's a true sign of your success. Everybody's trying to steal from you. Uh, we stole from you in St. George, so thank you for for Bryant, our planning and zoning director. Did you invite him here just to beat up with him about that? Bryant is great, and we talked about that before we started this. Bryant is great.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Great guy who's very smart, intelligent, he can come well. Uh uh Bill of Assinal Associates uh recommended him uh as who we use now to do our UTC and other stuff. And uh we hate to lose him. Very smart guy who, you know, he's gonna tell you the truth and do it in a nice way. And uh, you know, we hate to lose him, but we're working on somebody else right now. We're hoping uh Bryant got to interview this guy, so we're hoping he can be successful like Brian.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

And we're gonna quit talking about Bryant because we keep building him up. He's gonna be really hard for us to keep. I need to knock him down if we're gonna go. He's gonna come here for a raise. He's okay if you like that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Mayor, did you hear the podcast? They love me. How about a 10% raise? That's what the mayor tells him.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

We're Larson Act City, it doesn't matter what he thinks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Um, we want to have, we're gonna start when we go through the mayor's list, we're gonna start having some councilmen come on the show. Yeah, nobody cares about council people. But but maybe with our help they will. Maybe. Yeah. Could you recommend the absolute most entertaining council person for us to start with? Entertaining does not mean good.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Well, I would I would recommend James Graves. He's the hyperlink man.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

The hyperlink guy. Well, we sent him an invitation, but he didn't he never opened it. Never opened an email.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

I mean, he's good.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

I mean uh He's never gonna hear this podcast, by the way. Yeah, yeah, he'll never be able to click and get to the podcast. You can invite all of them.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

They all have a difference of opinions. Uh, you know, you have a three-two vote there right now where the three on his side vote together and two on this side vote together. Like clockwork. It's it's clockwork.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Should we start with a two or the three team? Look, James, do you think if we put this on like a tape?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

So we wouldn't have to click a link to get to it. Chances he has an eight-track player in his truck. He that whole hyperlink meeting um was leaked to us, and we wrote an article about it. It was it did okay, but the people who knew knew and he saw it, and he was a good sport about it. He laughed about it.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Yeah, you got you gotta laugh about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

But I mean, I understand. But I'll tell you, you know, actually, it sparked conversation in St. George because it's like, don't assume, yeah, don't assume that anybody knows anything uh about what if you don't you know, make sure it's available every way possible so there is no issue, and we we don't want to walk into well, I didn't know about that. Well, why didn't you know about that? Well, I got locked out of my email, or or you know, I for whatever reason they just don't access it. Right. So we try to make it you know, keep it simple.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Mayor, what are your thoughts on, you know, a big topic after the 2016 flood is your uh your big developments, your neighborhoods that come up with a thousand lots, five hundred lots. What are your thoughts on that? Is that does that help communities like Zachary or does that hurt?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

I think it hurts us in a way. Uh you know, I like to see growth. Um granted, I used to be a real estate agent uh when I was a cop. That's how I got my son through law school. Uh, but uh I you know I want homes that are custom-built homes that are nice. I've been in some of these homes that uh some of the uh like uh D.R. Horton's done, where they'll take the air vent here and they got a hole right here. They don't, you know, they don't fix things, they don't finish the garages out. I don't think that looks good now. Granted, we need some affordable houses. We have that in Zachary. Uh with the flood, uh I mean everything to the east of Home Depot was four to five foot of water there. Uh I almost got water in my house uh where I live out on off 64, which I've lived in that neighborhood pretty much all my life, and it's got it was probably 10 foot from my slab. Hoping with the diversion canal, and now that we know that uh uh FEMA and all of them is doing the grubbing hubbing, the whites by you, Cypress Bayou, and batteries batteries on bayou zone relieve. Some of that is actually now. We worked on some drainage in our my neighborhood and around the areas that had flood problems, and uh hopefully that can fix it for right now. We really hadn't had no problems with the big rains we've had lately. So we're looking forward to that. We had a spot on Cypress uh Street that's more toward the 39th Street area where every time it rains, it floods, it's by that Cypress Bayou Canal. Them homes along there should have never been built, but that's before they did a lot of studies in that. There's areas in Zyker that probably didn't be built, including out toward uh Plank Road. Yeah, Oaks and Redwood Lakes is an area that was nothing but swamp water when I was a kid, you know. And uh, you know, unfortunately they got to build out there and it's uh it's it's they flooded.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, and it seems like every time, you know, it's happening in Livingston Parish, they proposed, I want to say, a 2,000 uh home development off a 4-H Club Road, and people are just enraged about, you know, that water's that water's not gonna be able to go through there anymore. It's gotta go somewhere. And it's the same, it's the same. Every time they bring it up, flooding is the number one concern. You know, people don't want the density, they don't want the extra traffic, but they really don't want to flood again because of this reckless building.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah, it is. And we had a big recent uh rain uh out there on uh a new neighborhood, Meadow View, which is off uh old City. And you know, DOTD put the pipes in, the water come rushing through there because it's coming off them homes like that and pop the pipes out. We had to go back in there and fix that. And it caused some issues uh into the Finwood neighborhood area because that's where some of the water flows. So I mean, we've got to be careful. I'm not a big fan of the uh retention ponds. I just don't like them. We've had a couple instances of involving them, but uh we've got to do, you know, we've got to do some research on all that. Yeah, that's why I think if we annex in, look at good growth, make sure we get things in there that's gonna be good for Zachary, and that's what we look for.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Don't you have some uh developments planned? Uh is it is it highway 64 south of the uh of the um the golf course community there? Um chocolate mill? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

South of there. Yeah, everything south of there is outside the city limits.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

The the parish is approved, probably over 2,300 houses in that area there. So yeah, it's tough on us. Uh there comes our school system. I'm not sure why Baker wants to come up and they want to come up to Heckyum. Maybe they can take some of the students back, which uh, you know, uh that'd be a DOJ question, you know, because of the uh the uh that's who we had to go to when we got our school systems at the Department of Justice, and uh we had everybody in the community come together and wanted that and it's been successful.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

So you'll you'll get the s you'll get the benefit of all the kids in the schools, but it won't be in Zachary. You won't get none of the benefits of the I think you will.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Uh where we're at and where we locate it, uh the things to do in Zachary. I think with yeah, you know, with the grocery stores and Walmart being right there too. Yeah. They'd have to go across uh down Levy Lane, uh I mean groom to uh uh to uh plank road to their Walmart. Ours is probably a little bit closer, maybe, but uh you know it we get a lot we get some benefits off of. It's just our schools get packed and uh we're probably at uh five thousand, if not more, in our school system. We have seven about seventeen hundred at our high school right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

So that's capacity or probably above, huh?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

It's close. I mean, we we we'll have to look at that uh down the line. And uh you know, all we got seven schools all together. Now we got two schools in that area that came on. We got the Zachary Learning Academy, which uh our former principal uh Kevin Lemoyne's over that that's at operating out of the Catholic Church right now, close to the City Hall. And we also have the Fellowship uh Christian Academy out there by the ballpark in uh in that area by Americana. So both of them are thriving, and that's gonna be interesting to see how that goes.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Yeah. So how do you get to be the mayor? Where did you come from to decide one day I'm gonna be the mayor of my hometown?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Well, I started out 18 years old. Well, let me go back. I started working in the city when I was 12 years old. We are any concrete ditch in Zachary.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

No labor laws in Zachary back then.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Back back then it was not. Uh we cleaned the ditches out, uh preparing for the uh concrete to come in. And later on I was moved to the ballparks when I was 16 years old. Uh I graduated high school in 83, and then 84 I became a full uh part-time reserve cop and a volunteer fireman. I was trying to decide on what I wanted to do. And in 20 uh when I was 22 years old in 1988, they hired me on full-time as a police officer, and I went through the ranks uh and uh you know I worked undercover for many years in Zachary, uh not Zachary, but in the Felicianas, uh up north, Livingston, uh Mississippi, and uh I'm just gonna show you a picture here right quick if I can find it.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

But not are you working at 12 in a ditch, huh? Yeah, that's that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

No, it wasn't me working as a 12 in a ditch in the right.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

You tell me that's a public works option?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Back then, uh what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 23:43

You can retire at 23.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

I mean, I didn't get I mean I didn't get retirement out of it, but it what it was was uh a summer job, and uh you know I was glad to do that. But you know, if you look at me, that's where I worked undercover back in the days.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

All right. Okay, this explains a lot because I don't see you as undercover right now. You look like you could play for Click Credence Clear Royal Revival in that picture.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

That was me undercover. I had an earring. My daddy was very upset with me. I was 22 years old.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

You went all in.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah, well, back then, you know, do rang weird. Wear earrings back then. Everybody wears them now. Back then they didn't. Uh at first I had a clip-on, kind of clip-on back in the earring, and I went and went ahead and got it appears, and you still see the whole.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

If they check your earring, they'll know you're a fraud.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

All in.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, but uh, you know, I started out that way. I worked my way through the ranks. I became the assistant chief in 2011 when uh my first partner, John Hurdy, uh, passed away. You know, he was very uh community oriented. He's the reason why I became a cop. And uh, you know, he followed us when we played ball in summer. He escorted us everywhere, football, basketball, baseball. He was just all in. And uh I had to make a decision in 2011. I decided to run for chief. Uh well, one, I ran my poll and I was sitting pretty good. And then I got close to retirement in 21-22 began people have been talking to me about mayor. Mayor Amrine was not running again, so I ran another poll and I was sitting between 35 and 42 percent weighted. And uh uh John Cuvion done my poll for me, and uh I said, I'm gonna run. And I got out and worked hard and uh became the mayor. I didn't ever thought I would be mayor. Uh now we talked about being police chief with John Hurdy, who was the chief of the time, who unfortunately passed away in 2020 uh uh 2011, and I was you know uh chief for 11 years uh during that time and uh I just I decided to run for mayor when I saw the numbers and got out there and worked hard.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

So this will be your second attempt. This is your first term?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Yes, first term, and uh, you know, uh I I served three terms uh as uh chief, two one unopposed.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Nothing wrong with that. Unopposed is the best election.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

So any uh any idea there's gonna be an opponent for you this time around?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

I haven't heard anybody. Uh my camp is ready, we're prepared. I have a good uh campaign manager, Ryan Cross, uh, who helps me. And uh, you know, he he works hard and I have people around me. I have a good crew of uh workers we call Blitz the Neighborhoods. What we do is um we hit it every neighborhood, hawk farmhouse, hen house, dog house, trailer park, we can hit. We walk everything in Zachary. And we can't talk to everybody because Zachary's big, but we try to put you know a card on the door. Everybody, pretty much everybody has ring door cameras now. They go and see you been there. Yeah, yeah. They know that you're out here working hard. And they they know. They know I've been involved in the city way before I was a I don't call myself a politician, but people do. Way before that I've been involved in the city, you know, of course to John Hurdy. We coach ball there, we coach basketball there, we've been involved, and we do so much to get back to our city.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

You're kissing every hand and shaking every baby.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Yes, we go everywhere. I mean, we don't miss a spot in Zachary. We hit them. You know, if I'm allowed to go in some of the uh nursing homes and uh, you know, places like that, Oakwood and Lodge.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Hot bed of voters, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

I go in there. You know, if they let me in there, I go in there. If not, they let me come in there and speak.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

And you're a Republican. Correct. So you don't have to go to the cemeteries to get voters.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

No, I don't go by there. I mean, yes, my dad's there.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

You would, but you don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

No, I don't have to. But uh, you know, I I I get a voter's list, I analyze it, I know where everybody lives in Zachary. You know, some people move here, but sure, you know, last time I ran for mayor, I had a few people around town that I didn't realize moved around in Zachary, and uh I grew up went to school with. I mean, it's about connections and and fellowships.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

It really is.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

And you know, you grow up with these people, and uh, you know, be involved in the community, not when you're a politician, but when you're just a regular Joe. Yeah, people want to see that, and they see that in that and they see me everywhere. They know I'm here and there. You know, I help cook, we do fish fries, we do cookings, we travel all over the country to cook, you know, other uh states that have flooding, like we went to Kerrville, we went to North Carolina, and we do give back. Our fire department is very good with that. They cook every Friday night for the football team, uh, you know, pre-game meals. I mean, we do a lot to give back, and that's what we continue doing now.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Well, I mean, it's a small town, and what I know about growing up in a small town is if you did something, everyone knows about it five minutes before you did it. So uh if you knew about it, if you did something wrong along the way, this advocate would already run an article on it. We'd all know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Oh, yeah, I was probably a little mischievous coming up and in school too. And Drew was too. That's what makes me unique. Well, I mean he won his election.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Had to move to a different state. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

I mean, people know, I mean, it makes it unique. And I guess that's what made me a good cop and detective, and uh, you know, I knew a lot of things and and understand it, and uh I do a lot of research on all that.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Do do you have a website or Facebook page of people who want to learn more about you who are undecided about the you know the Yeah, I have two of them.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

I've got you know, David McDavid from Mayor and also have my own personal uh uh Facebook page, David McDavid, and uh both of them connected. Uh and I also have an Instagram page I put stuff out there on and uh Okay. Yeah, I I got I put everything I can in there. I try to highlight the city as much as I can. It's not about me, it's about the people.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

You do a good you do a good job. Um the only difficulty I have is I don't know if it's you or your son who's like David McDavid did this. I'm like, that's the brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

And that's why we call him Ricky. That's since grandma gave him that nickname. And I remember the first time he was offered a job as a lawyer, he he he sent it to me, he said, Dad, I I need to tell him that my name's not Ricky McDavid, it's really David McDavid Jr. So it was Lonnie Miles, the the former judge and Zach. So they had to change the uh contract up. But yeah, you know, uh it he he he has his own a Ricky, but everybody knows my you know my pictures and all that.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

And uh yeah, but if you have two McDavid McDavids out there working for the city, you take all the credit as the mayoral candidate. Yeah, well, that's a lot of pressure.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

McDavid did three fish fries today. The same name as your dad. Your dad's the mayor. That's a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

It is, and it can be tough, but also, you know, I get a lot of his mail at my office because they're about a block from me. So his mail comes in, so what I do is I go over into it and he has a little bill there for him. He has a little snack bar, give me a couple snacks and say, Well, you're delivering your mail today. I take a few snacks. But that's a running joke with him, I do with him. But yeah, I do have sometimes take the mail to him. Or I open it up by accident. Oh, it's not. That's not mine. That's exactly right. Yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Well, it's it's a exactly really is. It's a wonderful small town. You know, that I guess that would be the concern is making sure you always retain that small town feel while while growing smart.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

It is, and you know, like I say, we we've got a lot going on. And and to get back, you look at our fire department, we talked about that earlier, they're number one fire rating in the city limits that saves money. They do the outskirts of the city limits to fire district one, and they have a three rating, they're waiting on it. I think it's gonna be a two-rating as soon as the thing comes up comes out this uh another month or two. Uh, you know, they they do so much there. We keep it small town. We're trying to, we had a two-hour meeting yesterday about with downtown strategies, trying to get our downtown walkable. We're working on that right now with crosswalks and sidewalks, but we want to bring stuff downtown. Yeah. We're looking at that. We already have a lot of stuff downtown already. Uh, you know, with the dog parade, Mardi Gras Dog Parade, uh concerts downtown, different things we do then. We have uh the Zachary Farmers Market each Saturday down there that draws a bunch of people. We have the Bunny Hop coming up uh this weekend on the 21st down there. It's a 5K put on by the Rotary Club. Uh we have a lot of events downtown and a lot of things going on, but we're trying to get that downtown feel and keep it small there. Uh, you know, and uh we got some things we gotta look at downtown. The old police department, well, we don't do it, the old police department, well, we don't do it yet. You know, we're looking at all that, but we, you know, it's it's coming along real good.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Is mayor a part-time job in Zachary, technically?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

No, it's full-time. I stay busy every day. I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Well, I know you do. I just didn't know if the job, you know, it's one of those things where they say, oh, it's a part-time job, and then you're like, it's full-time.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

I mean, right now we're working on the budget, so uh I'll go back in. We'll have each department head come in. We work on the budget. We give them a copy of their budget, what they spent so far. They give us their wish list, we go through the you know the numbers and look at it. We're looking at pay raises up in the pay scales in each department because some police departments around the area are going up, so we need to retain our police officers here. We're working on that. We went up two years ago on that. Our firemen, our utilities, public works. But the good thing about Zachary, let me say this. Since 1988, Zachary, everybody in Zachary, whether it's utilities, fire, police, have gotten a pay raise every year since 1988. Wow. Wow. I mean, that's that's huge, and that's what we try to continue the momentum going. And uh we look at if it's three percent to eleven percent, we try to make sure we we we take care of our people there.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Let me ask you a question. Does Wade Evans have a key card to your office? Could he get in there if you weren't there?

SPEAKER_00 32:14

No, he don't. Uh you know, did he ask for one? I put a picture up. No, he hadn't asked for one. He's not allowed in the building. I I told him Secretary, just tell him to wait outside. No, he doesn't have a key card. I don't have one to city parish neither, but I can get in there.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Oh, you can if you just hang out with Wade, you can get in.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

A couple of ways to get in there.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

But I mean, I have a good relationship with Sid Edwards, and I, you know, I can go in there and talk to him, but I don't need a key card.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Make sure he doesn't give you a card, boy. The the council will come after you. Well, look at it.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

I I heard the mayors are now meeting occasionally in the parish to to work on collective goals. Is that something that didn't happen for a long time?

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Uh I don't think so. Uh I mean the fact that we're on the Breck Commission now, which is we got a lot going on to help Breck out right now. Plus, we all serve on the East Batteries Communication Board, which handles 911 for stuff like that. And it's it's been I think it's been very good to have us all work together and we're kind of on the same page. And you know, we might not always not agree, but we work for a solution.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Have you ever thought about adopting Baker? Just taking it, just saying, Listen, Baker can't be. We're just gonna adopt Baker, we're gonna make it Zachary South. We've decided to annex Baker, annex Baker. Which part, all of it.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

I mean, Baker's got some stuff going on. I mean he got the Benny's in. That Benny's is a good deal for Baker. You got uh Groom Rose being redone, Levy Lane's being redone right now. He's getting some stuff in there. Uh, you know, I hope it'll help him there. Uh, you know, Baker was kind of their school system's kind of at the bottom right now, and hoping that'll bring some more people in and bring the school system back up. At one time they had the best school system in the sports. Did they? Oh, yeah, Baker was good, dominant back then. Hokey guy John. Uh you had uh uh some good teams back then.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Don Lemon came from Baker. Don Lemon? Uh as I understand it, yeah. He don't he he he says baton is because he don't want to be associated with Baker. But if the mayor came on this podcast, Lemon would probably change.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Well, apparently, if if if Mayor Waits doesn't want to come on this advocate, then Mayor McDavid's gonna keep doing all the press for Baker.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Yeah, that's true. If the make if the Baker mayor comes on the podcast, it will change things for the city. They did.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

I mean, that was the politest way of saying we have no intention of annexing Baker ever was by giving a sales pitch for Baker.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

It's great, come on in. They keep trying to pitch it to us, but we're like, yeah, we're a little fool, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:23

You know these 2,000 house neighborhoods, Baker. Have you thought about it? You can ask you.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

I think they would get more money from the school system for them.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Yeah, so yeah, bring them on in. It's gonna be the start of something big right here. Yeah, let's let's uh deconsolidate the government. Let's see. Zachary South. Zachary South. That's right. New Zachary. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

But uh, yeah, we're looking to uh expand.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

We want to do things to yeah, you got plenty of room to the north and east and west.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Oh, big time, and that's what we're working on right now. And uh we're you know, we just uh gotta move that way.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Well, that's a so that's the beauty of where we are as a parish. The future we have in front of us is we've got these thriving suburbs, again, that have wonderful school systems with a third independent school district coming in St. George. And so if you want to relocate your business and you want a small town feel and you want an award-winning school district you don't have to pay for, Zachary's open for business.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Yes, we are. And we we, you know, since I took office, that was our goal to be open for business, to bring new business in here. You know, if you're not growing, you're dying. That's the way we look at it, and that's why we strive every day to bring business in. We meet with everybody. My schedule stays full, meeting with people about different things with Zachary, trying to sell Zachary, and uh, you know, that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Yeah, love it. Well, thank you so much, uh, Mayor David McDavid, Sr.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Yes. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be on it. Also, thank you for my cup. I really appreciate that. I had that in my office. If you look in my office, it's right there, and uh I keep it right there behind me when I use it.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

100% of all guests not named Wade Evans come on the show solely for a Savaging cup.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

That is the only reason anyone comes on the show. You need to carry it around with you. You can get a lot of perks around Baton Ridge with that cup.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yeah, and plus I follow y'all's website, and I I get uh it gives me a good laugh every day, some of the stuff y'all do and come up with, and I think it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Now we're invited to the first meeting in April.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

We are coming to that meeting. You heard that, Dustin Yates? You will not have your mayor perks on there.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

We're gonna be in the house early because it's gonna be a packed house. Oh, it's we're getting there early. You know, uh it starts at 6 30, so I might get there because we've got a limit because of the fire marshal, but it's gonna be a packed house.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Do you have like some VIP seats you can hold for us? We have to live stream it.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

We'll live stream our I got an area you can live stream out of. Yeah, we it is live streamed, but we have a company there. Uh but we have a side room. We we can set you up with some oh man.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

We're in. Good, good. Thank you so much. St. George City Council meeting Helen Zachary. Glad you came out to join us.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Thank you so much. Y'all it's been an honor. Well, we got a few things this week, uh, Drew. Um one of our uh one of our biggest articles uh this week, which which spun off a Savic article. I'm sure you saw it, is that Ruth Chris is uh banning hats and requiring uh better dress attire at their restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

So I want to tell you this because I I saw it, I saw the article, and and not only did I see it, my wife saw it, and she was upset about it. Like she was highly offended by your fishing. More offended than she was about us doing the podcast? No, no, she can't be more offended than than the podcaster. But on that same in that same vein, she was very upset about your fishing shirt. Does she have a fishing shirt? Is that no, are my father-in-law. That's like his exclusive. I mean, when I talk about that's what he wears, his if he goes to a formal event, he's got a nicer fishing shirt. A nicer fish ironed. No, he's got the one with the American flag on the back of it. That's the one he's gonna wear for the formal stuff. So and he goes to Ruth Chris a lot. So she was very upset, and I was like, Don't worry, he won't find it. It's on the internet. Well, um, we got um Lambest.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

People get upset about that. We had a lot of people send us some pretty mean uh PMs. We'll we won't read them on the air.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Well, can I tell you this is something that I feel in the polarized world that we live in, that the dress code is a universal thing. Uh all races hate the dress code. Dress code. Yeah. Because you know, you see a hat and and and and white guys like hats, black guys like hats. You know, there's some folks that like the tank top. That's my personal restaurant pet peeve is guys in tank tops.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Agreed. I feel my personal feelings are, and I've I was forced to um dig in a little deeper how I actually felt about it. It's it's Ruth Chris, and is if you have a shirt with a collar on, you know, I I feel like I feel like that should be fine. But um, unfortunately, a lot of people dug in and started hating on Ruth Chris. Oh, there's things for mediocre. I'm like, you know, this is really fake. This is this is it it's partially true, but the one of the restaurant servers chimed in and said that the Baton Rouge location would not be observing this dress code. I don't know if that was pre-Savic article or post. Welcome to Free Baton Rouge, but as you like. Yeah, it did. It did like a million views, it got widespread. We had a lot of pros, a lot of cons, but it got a lot of laughs.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

So think about where we are as a society. Like, this is a restaurant that probably in its early infancy required a coat. And there was no debate. 100%. There is a coat. If you did not have one, no one were not going in. They probably even they have probably had a closet where they lent you one. They may had a spare coat in the back from somebody who had left one previously, so you'd wear some awkward you know, and and I have to say, I am not a I I'm a casual dresser.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

I don't I don't dress, you know, in suits, but I do enjoy going to a place where I know there's gonna be people that are nice dressed, and I hate to see someone coming in a tank top with their hat on backwards with some some slides and some socks and you know, some basketball shorts when I'm sitting next to them. Nothing against them personally, but in that atmosphere, I just feel like you should you should conform.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

I think that's the difference, right? Like I'm thinking of that as a place that I don't get to go very often. Right. That when I do get to go, I'm probably on date night with the wife, and we're gonna make a night of it, and you're just so stressed about making sure this one evening out goes right, yep, that you don't want yeah, like to my point, I don't like tank top guy. I don't want his arm pair on hair like flopping in the wind while I'm trying to eat my my iceberg lettuce. Right.$14 salad, you want to make sure people uh are covered, you know? Now there are people that here are gonna hear this, they're gonna make fun of me for this, because back in the day, pre-lawyer day, when I was just a lowly radio person, I had a habit of dressing like a hobo for work. I absolutely wore a swimsuit and a tank top to work one day.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Who cares what the DJ's wearing?

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Well, apparently the boss did, because I changed the dress code. They changed the rule to that. And so, you know, it's a tale of two me's, but the me right now says, ah, you know, I think it depends on what it is. Do I want uh flip-flops and tank tops? No. Do I think you need to wear a tuxedo? No.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

And I'm sure I'm sure Roos kind of just got laxed about it and like, okay, you know, the guys wearing a dress shirt, no big deal, no coat, no top. Then it worse and worse, people were just like testing it out. And I we've I've been in there the the last time I was in there's been a couple years, and there were people who look like they just came from tennis practice in there, and I mean they had tennis shirts on with a with a collar.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Let's dial that back a notch before we attack the tennis people.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

We we dress nice, nice tennis clothes, nonetheless, but um yeah, I thought it was pretty funny. A lot of people love uh Roos Chris should probably pay me for that article because it it got I agree, it got a million views.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

What happens is the people that hate the dress code are then gonna meet in the streets for the protest. People who are pro-dress code and say, No, no, no, it's a nicer place, you dress up. You don't like this, you can go to insert your least favorite place here.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Well, one of the uh one of the commentators try to try to start a protest, and they said, Everybody put on your best fishing shirt and go to Ruth Crystal. I'm like, I don't think that's really gonna piss them off, but you know, go for it. If you want to fill the place up by eating your food.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

Yeah, we taught you a lesson. Yeah, yeah. I did not tell my father-in-law because he'd be pissed.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Yeah, so next up, um, so what's up with these reflectors and restriping? Uh, DOTD says they figured out what happened to all the reflectors on the interstate. They disappeared in the snowstorm last year. Did we have like a snow uh plow go through back the road?

SPEAKER_02 42:40

I would tell you, I I have actually heard this from DOTD themselves. Uh, that is correct. Some of the salting and of the roadways and things like that, uh, the freeze uh effect really did rip those things out of the ground and make them go away.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

So is that their lead into so now when we get the new reflectors and stripes, we're gonna try to get some weatherproof ones. We're gonna get better. It's an extra, it's an extra thousand dollars per reflector. No more TMU reflectors for DOTV, only the best. That's right. So we're uh we're about to spend 40 mil re-striping and re-re uh reflecting the interstates in Louisiana. I think it's 1.8 or something in just Baton Rouge, which I submitted a bit that I could do it for 500 grand. I can I can do better than that. Yeah, and I I don't need I wouldn't need six studies on the uh Hold on a minute. Let me go form a company. I can do that real quick. Yeah, yeah. Um so I wouldn't need to do any studies, you know.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

No, no, no consultants on uh reflector impacts on traffic conditions. Apparently we need to do some studies on reflector impact of snowpocalypse.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Yeah. Yeah. Forty million to re stripe and re reflect million. Are we getting what are we getting some federal money for that project? I'm thinking that's probably six million actual, you know, striping and reflecting. Yeah. And the other thirty Seven men is probably just I don't know wherever it ends up. Consulting studies.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

In the bucket that's known as other.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

Yeah, the other bucket.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

You know, this is another part where the north makes fun of us. Like, really? You have a problem with your reflectors and striping because of a little snow. Because of weather. Yeah. Yeah, we literally do this every day in the winter. Yeah. You do think to get the weatherproof reflectors, you know. Yeah, weatherproof. So Louisiana. Go to Amazon, get you some reflectors, get you a pack of six, get out there and get it done. You know, we had a neighborhood in St. George, I'm gonna tell you a true story. And they wanted speed bumps really bad. And there's a whole process, it's very lengthy, it's not a lot of fun. I understand, but you can't go to Amazon and buy the speed bumps and drill them in yourselves. And they did. Did they actually was that the neighborhood off Coursey? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Are they still there? They bought speed bumps on Amazon. Yes. They're still there. Well, I mean, it's work in progress. Even after the snow?

SPEAKER_01 44:59

The Amazon bumps survive the snow. Amazon speed bumps. Shout out to Amazon. They do sell everything. Yeah. Did they show up the same day? I don't know. Wow. Wow. We have an attorney who is facing felony charges for bringing contraband into a lane hunt. Boy, those prisons have been in the news a time. It's a lane hunt.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Have you ever noticed that? It's always a lane hunt. They're either having someone die or contraband every day. One guard had multiple children with the inmate while he was incarcerated. I saw that. No wonder he doesn't want to get out. Things are going fine. Yeah, why I mean why not? Three meals a day, roof over my head, have more sex every week. Get more booty in prison than out.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yes. But from females on them. So uh so Drew, I'll have you know that uh this hunter, Hunter Thomas, was the attorney. And uh his name actually appears on the 19th JDC Public Defenders list.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Oh well did a little digging to find out if maybe you know the the public defender's office, woefully underpaid for the uh the thankless job they have to do providing the constitutionally required defense to our indigent citizens. Yeah. And you know, and the in the process of making those student loans are aren't cheap for law school, I'm told. And uh yeah, you gotta make ends, mate, right? So sometimes you gotta funnel in a dime bag.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

So uh yeah, innocent till proven guilty, but they say he he we he was uh introducing a uh a jar with a green leafy substance. Maybe maybe someone in there like rosemary or uh, you know, uh who knows?

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Yeah, I'm just saying now, if your career path and you're thinking, I'm gonna get higher education, I'm gonna go to school for a long time. We'll say you went to school for at least seven years to get this law degree. And the next day you're like, Man, you know what I really should be doing? Now, my criminal clients who have come to me or I'm forced to represent one way or the other, I think they've got a good idea. And that's for me to smuggle drugs to them in now.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Oh, hold on a second. It said a green leafy substance. It's very possible he has a vegan client in jail, and you just can't get the quality of produce in jail. This could have been a jar full of spinach.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

Okay, okay. Go on that route. What if one of his clients in jail had a nasty sunburn from a fun day in the yard? Right. And this is aloe vera.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Aloe vera, yeah. Aloe vera. But they arrested him for. You probably can't bring aloe vera. It's still considered contraband. You think there's a list of leafy green things you can and can't bring? Honestly, if you're in prison, isn't everything contraband? I would say spinach and aloe vera would probably not be contraband. I'm not sure what you could really do with those.

unknown 47:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Hey, hey, man.

unknown 47:33

Man.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

I'm not saying you couldn't roll it and smoke it.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

I really, I really need some spinach.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

You know. My client's a vegan, Your Honor. I'm a public defender. I, you know, I took an oath to do everything to help my client.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

I heard in New Orleans that the ACE office requires them to bring contraband to the prison. Yeah, if you want the job. If you want the job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Uh so for the second year, Breck Board could see more shakeups.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

What do you know about this, Andrew? More legislation about the Breck Board. This time they want to add some more members to it. Because these feel like they're not getting adequate representation in some areas. And what areas would those be? Uh, areas that got a lot of parks, actually.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

We need a board for parks anyway. You the guy guys that go out there and cut the grass, change the picnic tables when they rot. You know, in the old method, they weren't cutting the grass at all. Okay. So we need a board to get them cut for a head.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

I used to get pictures all the time, and I'm gonna name drop David DeLucci. Would text photos to me and it'd be like, tell me where the baseball is. And it was so overgrown on a baseball field that literally he would drop a ball and you couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Oh, yeah, that's overgrown.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

So I, you know, look, uh I got my own theories on the the Breck situation, and and frankly, uh, I think it's time to just the the bill that should have been introduced was the bill that would break it up and let each city take their park and their tax dollars and their take literally take their ball and go home.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yeah. Oddly enough, the next story Breck plans to close some parks around Baton Rouge, selling the land for various amounts, which I thought was a very interesting uh phrase to use in Helllife. Various amounts. Various amounts. Aren't you supposed to auction off this parking lot? As a park for you.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Well, they they they go through an appraisal process and they set that value. I don't know if they're required to auction it or not, but it sounds like probably movables, probably movables, maybe not land. So it seems like that would be the way to do it. You know, the the thing with the parks and and what they do with this is they study it and they go, hey, you know, we actually have a park around the corner that does the same thing. And we're having to maintain two parks that are virtually the same in the same area, serving the same customers. Yeah, yeah. And if we're not getting enough people out there on the swing set, then we probably need to do something else. We could probably get a good deal on a park. I mean, Jesus, can we not build another library there? Oh, we don't have the money. We're short. We only we're down to 140 mil. Is that area not ripe for another community center? Yeah, something. I mean, hey, can Daryl bring us side by side down there and pick up the trash?

SPEAKER_01 50:07

Yeah, so they're gonna sell some parks off, which is I think that's a good move, right? Less less uh land to maintain. That's right. Yeah, don't maintain it.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

I mean Miss Janet is doing a lot of good. I like I like the way Miss Janet's. Well, I mean, uh she is doing a great job of taking a look at everything, every facet of that operation. And then when she finds out something that's not working like it's supposed to, and I think you know a little bit about that. Something. Uh then she's taking a look at that as well. So I think that's the idea. You should never rest. If you get tax dollars, she'd always be looking at can I do it better, more efficiently, cheaper? Can I provide the same service for less? Can I provide better service for what we're paying? I mean, if you're not doing that, then what are you doing all day?

SPEAKER_01 50:51

How about this next story? Livingston deputies, man who stole 21 catalytic converters arrested at Mall of Louisiana.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Catalytic converters.

SPEAKER_01 50:59

I thought that was old. I thought people weren't stealing those anymore. Didn't they crack down on that?

SPEAKER_02 51:03

I mean, I just if that's the you may as well just be smuggling contraband into a prison at that point. Yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna get eventually. I mean, there's so many cameras in today's world. Yeah, you I don't know. I mean I wonder if I wonder if he was more shaken up about people knowing he was at the mall of Louisiana. You know what he's thinking. Thanks to Governor Landry, we may be getting rid of these inspection stickers and no one's gonna know if you got a catalytic converter or not. That's that could be Landry's uh ulterior motive here. No, if you're at the uh they're selling these for scrap, right? That's what you do with catalytic converters. They absolutely do.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

If you're going to sell those for scrap, I mean you're telling me the guy who's buying them doesn't go, hey, why you why you got 35 catalytic converters for he knows, but he's selling them on the cheap and selling them, he's buying them on the cheap and selling them on the high, so he's getting paid. So like everybody in the catalytic converter food chain is well aware of what they're doing. And I believe, I believe they changed some things about scrap buyers, have to collect ID, license plate stuff. So that slowed it down, but this guy just must not read the news. He obviously doesn't keep up with the times because he was at the mall. He was at a mall. Dude. Hard picking at the mall. I heard he told the detective listen, listen, I'll take the wrap, I'll even confess, just don't say I was at the mall.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Meanwhile, he was anybody finds out I was at the mall. He was harassed by one guy who wanted to straighten his hair, one guy wanted him to put some cream on to smooth his skin. One guy sold him some jewelry that's clearly not real.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

I got kicked out the gang if they found I was at the mall. Tell them I was uh down the street at a Perkins row or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 52:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

That's right. I'm a town center. Now, just uh for everyone out there, the mall is not in St. George, so this does not add to the crime. Did not do it. St. George's was clearly Baton Rouge. Yep, we didn't we don't steal a Catalan's in St.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

George.