Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
Building Detroit's Future: The Quest for Quality City Appointments with Maurice Weeks
This week, Donna and Orlando sat down with Maurice Weeks of Detroit City Appointments Project (DCAP) to discuss their collaborative effort to scout, vet, and recommend effective and diverse candidates for service in Detroit's city government.
The Detroit City Appointments Project is working to find candidates who are committed to the public good. The project works with organizations from around the city, state and country, to cultivate a robust list of candidates for over 100 mayor appointed or mayor nominated positions. Additionally, DCAP works to inform agendas for key agencies, leveraging the power of organized people throughout the city.
To learn more about the Detroit City Appointments Project, click here.
FOR HOT TAKES:
MICHIGAN BALLOT INITIATIVE AIMS TO REVEAL 'DARK MONEY' DONORS BEHIND POLITICAL ADS
Up next, maurice Weeks of Detroit City Appointments Project joins Authentically Detroit to discuss their collaborative effort to scout, vet and recommend effective and diverse candidates for service in Detroit's city government. But first this week's hot takes from us in Bridge, michigan. The city claps back at the Detroit Free Press Sunday story about Detroit's state of democracy and Michigan Ballot Initiative aims to reveal dark money donors behind political ads. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs, the MASH Detroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at MassDetroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-331-3485. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's start the world. Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit, broadcasting live from Detroit's Eastside at the Stoudemire inside of the Eastside Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey.
Speaker 2:And I'm Donna Givens-Davidson.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Happy Election Week, everyone. We are recording this episode on the eve of the primary election where Detroiters will decide, among other things, which two candidates continue in the running to becoming Detroit's next mayor. That sounded like the Tyra Bakes line from America's Next Top Model. Congratulations, you're still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model. In honor of the election, we've invited Maurice Weeks of the Detroit City Appointments Project on to discuss their collaborative efforts to scout, vet and recommend candidates in Detroit who are committed to the public good.
Speaker 3:Maurice, I think this is the first time or the second time?
Speaker 2:I think it's the first time.
Speaker 1:Oh, we didn't have you on when you were on the reparations task force. No.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the.
Speaker 1:Authentically Detroit podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like you're already a friend to the show, because both Donna and I love you and adore you.
Speaker 3:We're so happy to have you on, thank you, thank you, yeah, happy to be here and I feel like longtime listener, first time caller type thing. First time caller type thing Because I love the podcast. So, yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That means a lot to us. So right now, detroit has the worst air quality in the nation, and so with that, donna, I'm going to ask you how. I ask you every single week how are you doing? You breathing all right? Yeah, I am.
Speaker 2:You know, actually I have interns this summer from our summer youth employment program and four of them and three of them were with us today, and actually I'm a junior team leader and another intern from Michigan State we went on a tour of Detroit on the east side and it was great because they showed me their community and I showed them and we had talks about what was going on inside of neighborhoods. We ended up at the Dequindre Cut and then at the Riverwalk. It was great. We, you know, walked through the Dequindre Cut for a while and you know I've been struggling with my knee and it was closed.
Speaker 1:Well, I always say Detroit hates Mondays.
Speaker 2:Nothing is open on Monday, so not only was the ice cream closed, I said, okay, we'll get ice cream somewhere else. We ended up going to Cold Stone in Greektown.
Speaker 1:And then, okay, if you've been to.
Speaker 2:Greektown. Well, if you can get it in there. Oh my goodness, that was a mess. But even the you know, the vending machines for pop and juice, even those are broken. I was like, well, this is a fail. So we ended up walking back. And then we went there, but while standing at the Riverwalk just looking across the canyon, you could see the smog. It was crazy. I didn't feel different, my breathing was fine, I wasn't walking quickly enough and I don't know if I'm in a sensitive group. I like to think of myself as not being, but whatever, I think I'm fine, but I'm concerned about air quality for so many people.
Speaker 1:One of my staffers was having a hard time. They put it in our Slack channel around like breathing, so you know, of course I put a message like be careful, everybody. It's the worst in the nation today. Maurice, how's the day finding you, how you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. I'm coming off of a weekend with my little four-year-old's birthday party. So I had 25 four-year-olds at my house on Saturday, oh God no.
Speaker 2:So I slept most of Sunday as you may imagine, run that back by me. 25 four-year-olds.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's like 100, you know. No, it felt like about 300 four-year-olds, right, like the difference between five and 10 and 50 and 1,000. You're just outnumbered, no matter what?
Speaker 2:How many adults?
Speaker 3:Everyone brought their adult for the most part. A couple of adults brought multiple kids, every kid bought their adult. And you know, kids only eat hot dogs, so we made probably about 70 hot dogs or something like that. It was wild, but happy birthday to my son.
Speaker 2:What's his name?
Speaker 3:Charlie.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday, Charlie Love that name.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was cute. It was cute, it was a cute little party. I love that name.
Speaker 1:Charlie, I like that. Donna, you also had a fun weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was amazing. Actually, we had our annual meeting at Open House and so many great things right, great turnout. It was set up beautifully, the staff did a great job and we had a performer from our community, jimmy Garner, who just got out there, who is just called Jimbo. I think that's what it is just called, jimbo. He did a great job, got the crowd involved, is he still?
Speaker 1:from Detroit. I must have missed something.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, he was he was good, he was good.
Speaker 1:I got to look this up.
Speaker 2:Yes, listen, he's a young budding. I saw this on Facebook. His mom is a near and dear community partner and she actually works in our summer youth program. I saw this. I was like, okay, we need him to do this. It was intergenerational, right. So we had him perform and he's, I think, 26 years old. And then we had two students from Michigan State who actually spoke, and one of them the interesting thing is his mother is friends with Kalisha. They went to high school together and I was like, oh, my goodness, it's such a small world because he has not lived in Detroit for most of his life. His mom has been in higher ed and he's moved around anyway, so that was great. But then we had the panel of five black men who moderated by none other than Orlando Bailey, and Orlando is not going to have your typical discussion. No, he's like what are your vulnerabilities and how do?
Speaker 2:you address your vulnerabilities I love that it was a way of pulling things out of men that really, really showing the fullness of what some of our great black men are in our community. I love that you did such a great job. Thank you, fran, and I just loved hearing from them. You know, and everybody did. And then you know, keemalum Village had their drummers and dancers.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yes, the drum circle was amazing.
Speaker 2:Right, we had a fashion show from people in our sewing class.
Speaker 1:They made their showings.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was so amazing. We had, you know, some of our vendors were in some of our arts and crafts classes it was truly full, all hands on deck. We were having, we had wildflower seed bombs, we were giving away Just a lot of great stuff and some ribs that we were, you know, in the parking lot. Oh, my goodness, the food and the strawberries. It was yeah, free strawberries walked in with it was a great.
Speaker 3:I should have just brought the kids there. You should have just brought the kids you should have.
Speaker 1:They would have had a blast there were kids running around, there's this dad. He had two young kids with him. You know who I'm talking about, donna, and you know he's doing his best, uh, to parent these, these two young little babies is he?
Speaker 1:yes, oh man. But at one point he just was like, okay, I'm gonna just let them go and see what happens. And the community showed these babies so much like they're just walking around, they're going back and forth to the garbage can? It's just like it was. It was, it really was an intergenerational collision of love. Uh, from from top to bottom 40 years, the 40th annual meeting of east side community network.
Speaker 1:You guys have a lot to be proud of. Congratulations really. Really proud um of the From top to bottom 40 years. The 40th annual meeting of Eastside Community Network. You guys have a lot to be proud of, congratulations really.
Speaker 2:Really proud of the people here in our community right.
Speaker 2:Because we have a great community and it showed and you know it was a long program, I thought people were going to leave. A lot of people stayed. I have to tell you that Mark Owens came to me. He says this is the best annual meeting we've ever had, and it was after the panel with the men. We don't always celebrate each other as men and women in our community and we've got to do a better job of remembering that we love each other. And so I really felt like that was the feeling I had, one of love and just mutuality.
Speaker 1:Remembering that we love each other. That's a good one. All right, y'all. It's time for Hot Takes, where we run down some of the week's top headlines in the city of Detroit.
Speaker 1:For Hot Takes, the city claps back at the Detroit Free Press Sunday story about the state of Detroit's democracy. So on Sunday, as is custom, the newspapers try to release, you know, a big story, whether it's a series, whether it's an editorial column, whether it is an op-ed. And so the editorial page of the Free Press released a story Detroit's comeback left some behind and now they're not voting. It's technically an opinion piece. It's in the editorial page. Everybody knows that. Nancy Kaffer is the director of the Free Press editorial page.
Speaker 1:And what this article revealed are the results of a study back 20 years as to why Detroiters are not showing up in municipal elections but are still holding strong in presidential elections. And the free press sought to go to the precincts the voting precincts with the lowest voter turnout and ask them why. And you got a litany of answers right. You got folks saying things like well, the city has come back, but that comeback hasn't reached my neighborhood. We love that the city demolished these homes, duggan, and it's appreciative of the job that he has done and is doing and will vote in tomorrow's primary. You have people who said they're not voting because it doesn't matter. They come, they lie and they never make good on the promises.
Speaker 1:And so it was a wide cadre of responses and they even talked to Janice Winfrey, who is the city of Detroit's city clerk, who administers the municipal elections, and the director of the Department of Elections turnout, because there is no incentive for candidates to go in precincts with low voter turnout because it won't. They feel like it won't yield the results that they want it to yield. And Daniel Baxter even said he was like you know, the notion is that people on the East side don't vote, but the East side votes and y'all have to come and engage us and speak our language. This is the director of the department of elections that they have on record. But somehow I don't understand why the city of detroit saw this as a dig and I'm inferring this as a dig and whoever manages their social media got on social media and clapped back at the Detroit Free Press article and said Nancy Kaffer wrote a column today claiming Detroit democracy is in crisis because the city averages 20% turnout in municipal elections. She made it sound terrible only by omitting comparable municipal turnouts in the suburbs oakland county turnout in the november 2023 election bloomfield hills 19.
Speaker 1:Clarkston 19. Hazel park 11. Madison heights 15, while lake 11. Wixom 19. Everyone fell below detroit's turnout numbers, as do communities all across michigan in their municipal elections is. Is anyone at the Detroit Free Press editing the editor?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Donna, what say you?
Speaker 2:Oh, I was furious when I read that. I think a lot of people were furious at the same time. I just started off by just saying this is a sad response from the city, and so I have so many thoughts Because she didn't even come after them like that.
Speaker 1:Well, she didn't.
Speaker 2:But you know, a hit dog hollers right, because it wasn't just Nancy.
Speaker 1:A wounded dog will holler.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing. Well, I'm saying hit dog, because she hit them where it hurts right, I hear you.
Speaker 2:Because she talked about the fact that people feel neglected in some neighborhoods, and this is a mayor who has insisted there are no two Detroits, while also visibly touting his strategic neighborhood plan, which, you know, concentrates resources in several Detroits and a lot of Detroit residents don't get the benefit of being Detroit residents or city services like other communities do.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I believe it was Janice Winfrey pointed out and it's hard for me to even believe I'm quoting her in this story because we can be so critical. Right, I'm serious, but one of the things she pointed out was that candidates come and they ask for precinct maps, and they ask for the top 50 to 100 precincts and there are 500. So one-tenth to whatever the math is. Let me get started. One-twentieth of the precincts are looked at by candidates as being relevant because they don't have time and resources to cover every precinct, but the consequence is that people aren't being represented. Now, if you know me and you know Orlando, we've been talking about this for some time We've been griping about this, this is not new.
Speaker 2:We have a Black Detroit Democracy Project that is designed to try to listen to unheard voices and to understand there's a correlation between feeling like your elected officials don't care about you and voting like your elected officials don't care about you, and voting If you don't feel like it makes a difference, why vote? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't feel like it, and then a lot of us tend to chastise those people as being irresponsible and blame them for a broken political system. I think trying to compare city of Detroit voting to suburban community voting is disingenuous. I don't believe that the person who posted that could name the mayors of those municipalities that they showed up or any of the city council people from those municipalities that they mentioned. Right, nobody knows who they are. They're ceremonial for the most part.
Speaker 2:They do have some influence over some minor things around the quality of life inside those communities, but city managers run those cities. Whoever becomes your mayor, your city manager is going to be in charge of executing the will of the government in those communities. In Detroit, a strong mayor city, the mayor is CEO, and if people in this community do not influence the decisions and actions of the CEO of the city and the city council representatives, who are supposed to be a check on the actions of the CEO of the city, and the city council representatives, who are supposed to be a check on the power of the CEO. Then those people don't get factored into decision making. You would not have, I don't believe, strategic neighborhoods in the city of Detroit if everybody from every neighborhood voted and had input into that, because one of the biggest complaints we've heard is what about us?
Speaker 2:I've been to city council evening meetings where people have lined up saying when is it coming to my block, when are you coming to my community? And people have these politics of austerity. Well, there's just not enough money to go around. There's not enough money to go around. And the next week you're reading the paper about a $50 million tax break to some downtown project and it's like where do we get this money?
Speaker 2:and the next week you're reading the paper about a $50 million tax break to some downtown project and it's like where do we get this money? And so to think that people are not smart enough to read the news and correlate you telling them there's not enough money to fix their sidewalks, remove their dead trees, invest in new housing in their community. There's not enough money for policing. There's not enough police officers you need to hire more police. But if you're on the Riverwalk, you can find all the police you need. Well, how about we get some of the police on the Riverwalk to go into the communities?
Speaker 3:that are actually tripping over it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I think you know. Go to a Beyonce concert downtown if she ever comes back to Detroit and see where the police are. We have them. We're not deploying them equitably, and I think that's what we're hearing from residents. And so it is thin-skinned government, it's leadership that's not wanting to be accountable for the harm that is caused by some of the policies. And as I was taking the teens out, I pointed out there's give and takes in every policy. Right, you have to acknowledge that some things are improved in some neighborhoods because of the policies. Here we were driving through parts of the east side, over there by kerchville and um little village, and now it's not little village.
Speaker 2:It's got a new name. You know when we, when we conquer things, we got to rename them.
Speaker 3:So it's not East Village anymore. All new bars, coffee shops, it's not even that.
Speaker 2:It's all of these houses.
Speaker 1:Where is Martha Coates and Dolores Orr?
Speaker 2:They're probably living next door.
Speaker 1:Listen, it's pretty over there now it is really nice, it is really pretty.
Speaker 2:There's so much new housing over there I did not know about until today, and you can always tell who the gentrifiers are because their brick is they. They have siding. It looks like Birmingham or Ann Arbor on the east side of Detroit and the good thing is that that means that everybody's properties are elevated, is so much better tended. It's a better way of life until you get pushed out. It's a better way of life until your children can't afford to stay there. There's consequences for these decisions and good leaders are willing to accept the responsibility for the consequences of their detritus. We don't have great political leaders in the United States because everybody seems to want to reject the consequence or being blamed for the things that they cause.
Speaker 1:They want to spin it. Maurice, you got an opinion on it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I just don't understand the response from the city at all. Honestly, like if I were in city government and I saw an article about Detroiters not voting, my response would be you're right, we should get more Detroiters to vote. Why would it be anything other than that? Why? I truly don't understand the motivation of of. I mean, this article is not an aggressive attack at all. It's entirely fact based. At one point, janice again I can't believe I'm quoting Janice Winfrey, but at one point she said like is it a problem?
Speaker 2:Yes, is it factual?
Speaker 3:Yes, a problem? Yes, is it factual? Yes, so I mean, I don't even understand the response. If I were mayor, or if I were even a candidate for mayor right now, I would say you know what? This is a problem and we have to work on in this election and the next election. How do we get more Detroiters to the polls to participate in our democracy?
Speaker 2:And this is why the appointment project is so important, because we will be recommending to whoever becomes the next mayor, people to fill some of those slots who are so connected to the community. Hopefully that their response is going to be empathetic, caring and accountable.
Speaker 3:That's exactly the point. Yeah, that's exactly the point.
Speaker 1:All right, y'all. Well, there's certainly more to be discussed on that, you know. I think the the pointing out and the naming of a journalist in that adversarial way feels very Trumpy and it is very, very dangerous. And I, you know, every journalist in Detroit knows who John Roach is. John Roach has every journalist journalist's number in the city of Detroit when he feels free to call us, text us, yell at us, rebuff what we have to say.
Speaker 2:I think that Was it John Roach who posted that?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but John Roach is the mayor's spokesperson and we know that the mayor's office controls the city of Detroit, socials. And I know that Vicki Thomas is over comms. I forget her specific title, but I think she's the comms director. I'm hoping that in the future they would do better.
Speaker 2:I think they need to apologize actually.
Speaker 1:At the least I would say.
Speaker 2:Especially apologize. We're living at a time where free press is literally being attacked when journalists are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is sun setting and people are acting like this is normal.
Speaker 1:Sorry, please continue.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, we're in so much trauma right now and the worst thing you want to do is adopt the bully behavior. I'm going to be honest with you. For a long time, the mindset around you know. You know. Remember when, whenever you talk about two Detroits, this current mayor says oh, that's divisive. The denial of the living conditions of some people is a longstanding problem with this mayor. I might even say that Duggan has his own track record of just simply denying reality. You can't talk about Black Lives Matter. You can't really say black in Detroit the way you want to say it, because we have a mayor who considers speech about black people to be divisive.
Speaker 2:I remember when people were putting Black Lives Matter street murals all over the nation and in our city. We put power to the people and that's great because I believe the people should have power power to the people. But I noted that it was not Black Lives Matter, because we will not support that under this administration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, michigan Ballot Initiative aims to reveal dark money donors behind political ads. This is by Simon Schuster at Bridge, michigan. A potential ballot proposal to change Michigan's campaign finance law could upend political giving and advertising in the state, hamstringing prolific political donors and revealing major sources of dark money spending. On the 2026 ballot that would ban regulated utilities and state government contractors, along with their senior employees, from making contributions to state candidates and a broad array of other political spending. But the proposal would also go further, requiring any outside spending group make an even tangential reference to a candidate or ballot issue to report their spending totals and donors to the state in the months leading up to an election. At least 11 other states require donor transparency for so-called issue advertisements that have evaded disclosure rules in other parts of the country, but Michigan would be the first political battleground to do so. But Michigan would be the first political battleground to do so. We're doing everything we can to close those loopholes, san McBride, the Michigan State Director of Clean Water Action, said in an interview. I think that this will be a major step toward building a better and more transparent government in Michigan.
Speaker 1:Mcbride has so far acted as a spokesperson for the coalition backing the ballot initiative, which also includes Voters, not Politicians. Michigan Economic Justice Coalition, progress Michigan and the Michigan League of Conservation. Voters Organizers will need to collect ballot signatures from 356,958 registered voters within 180 days to qualify for the 2026 ballot. If they do, the proposal is expected to face significant and organized opposition. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce, one of the state's most powerful business interest groups, has blasted the new initiative, including the proposed bans on utility and contractor donations, as a broad attack on free speech rights. I have a lot to say about this, donna. What?
Speaker 2:say you. Well, first of all, I'm a proud member of the Board of Voters, not Politicians, and I'm really excited about this proposal. Secondly, I'm a board member of 482 Forward and I was in Lansing with the Invest in Michigan Kids Ballot Initiative, trying to convince the Michigan Board of Canvassers to accept the new language they proposed. And I just can't even tell you the Michigan Chamber of Commerce is on the wrong side of history. Repeatedly the lies and the distortions, and these are fights. I really look forward to fighting with them.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be out there helping to collect signatures and I'm going to be out there trying to figure out how to correct the narrative that somehow spending money is speech okay, and that would suggest that if you have a whole lot of money, your speech counts a whole lot more than mine. We all can speak, but spending money is not and should not be free speech and we should know who's contributing to campaigns. I posted something on Facebook yesterday acknowledging that when you're running for office in high money campaigns in this capitalist economy, you sometimes accept money from unsafe resources. We just have to be really honest about that, because I've been reviewing all of the campaign finance reports for all of the candidates and I can't say that I'm loving anybody's campaign finance report. If I'm being honest with you, the more that we can do to help build transparency, and not even on the campaign finance reports but also in the dark money ads where nobody's name gets attached to it. The person is not showing up at the campaign committee report but they're spending money to support them.
Speaker 2:You know that's a concern If you look at with this mayoral race. I think I read an article a few weeks ago that, for example, kenlock's campaign he's not purchasing television advertising. There are supporters of his dark money groups purchasing television advertising on his behalf and I think that's wrong. I think you should have to spend your own money to promote yourself. I think in terms of regulated utilities, you can't be a monopoly and also be treated like a corporation in free enterprise.
Speaker 1:If you know DTE wants to engage in free enterprise, then we should allow or their PACs, because they do it through their PACs or their.
Speaker 2:PACs, but I'm just saying that they should not be able to function in that way if they also have it's a public monopoly. What it means is I remember I got a survey not long ago from DTE and they said would you recommend DTE to anybody else? And I just laughed because what was? The recommendation and I talked to somebody who works at DTE and she says well, and I said we've asked them to take this off of the survey, but they leave it on here in the decision-making of the legislature, of the Michigan Public Service Commission, in regulating DTE without fearing a consequence.
Speaker 2:Actually, I think political spending by corporations should be limited a whole lot more than that. But that's all I have to say.
Speaker 3:I think DTE and utility companies generally sort of play both sides of the fence and act like government agencies when they want to evade the type of regulation that corporations get the little regulation that corporations get and then want to act like corporations when they want to actually influence politics, and I think that this is their opposition to this is a really great example of that. And we're not talking about like $20, $30 in dark money is the other really important thing. These are extremely wealthy individuals who are trying to tip the scales, often from outside of the state, who want to be hidden. You talk about a hit dog will holler. Why don't you want your name out there? If you care so passionately, If your speech is so loud that you want to do a X, Y, Z, why don't you want your name out there?
Speaker 2:I think the same reason that those people who work for ICE are now wearing masks Right, exactly.
Speaker 3:Exactly yeah, yeah you know.
Speaker 1:I think what was interesting too is that I think a reporter from Bridge Michigan asked Mayor Duggan if he becomes governor, is this something that he will support? Mayor Duggan, if he becomes governor, is this something that he will support? And he actually said that he would. Donna Davis, davidson and you know that was surprising to me but also a welcome answer.
Speaker 1:But I just remember vividly the campaign that was unleashed for Proposal N right and we didn't know who was funding those ads right for that blight bond proposal. Or when the charter revision came up for a vote and it was probably the most radical charter revision in modern history in the city of Detroit. And all of a sudden, sudden, I remember these television ads and uh mailers coming to everybody in the city of Detroit to vote down this charter revision.
Speaker 3:Um and so and the only information you see is paid for by people, for people, or something like that.
Speaker 1:We cannot act like that. Uh, these dark money groups do not act on the behalf of the political interests of folks who are seeking power, or folks who are in power, or that Mike Duggan has not leveraged dark money to achieve his ends. That's why I found that answer interesting.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting because I don't know anybody who runs for governor who does not run on a promise of transparency, only to become more opaque once they get in office. You know they always run for that because that's a selling campaign point.
Speaker 1:Governor Whitmer, same thing, she is not. You know, the state is exempt, state government, did y'all know state government is exempt?
Speaker 2:from freedom? Yes, absolutely. And she's done nothing to change that, and that's not going to happen, because power does not give up power without a fight.
Speaker 2:And the reality is that people who run for these offices, you know really they cherish their power and nobody cherishes power and nobody's really better at power than Mike Duggan. He is like the best power monger that I know, and so I think it's disingenuous. But I think he can start right now and he can start disclosing all of the dark money that's supporting him and his run for governor. And agree, he's going to run a transparent campaign. Don't tell me what you're going to do. Do it, and then I'll believe you.
Speaker 1:We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back with Maurice Weeks to talk about the city of Detroit's appointment projects. We'll be right back. Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stoudemire, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff. To help get your idea off of the ground, just visit authenticallydetcom and send a request through the contact page. All right, welcome back to Authentically Detroit everybody.
Speaker 1:The Detroit City Appointments Project, dcap, is a collaborative effort to scout, vet and recommend effective and diverse candidates for service into Detroit city government who are committed to the public good. The project works with organizations from around the city, state and country to cultivate a robust list of candidates for over 100 mayor-appointed or mayor-nominated positions. Additionally, dcap works to inform agendas for key agencies, leveraging the power of organized people throughout the city. Frontline elections and community campaigns are critical to pushing forward policy and local government. But the ability to implement and enact those policies goes beyond the initial win and is a result of who is actually in city government. The ability to actually achieve any of these goals set forth and won in campaigns shows that personnel is policy. For years, supporters of good representative government infrastructure have found themselves in an uphill battle, competing with those forces who want to limit their voice. Personnel is not just policy. It's the ability to enact a vision of good government that delivers for residents.
Speaker 1:Maurice Weeks is here to talk about DCAP. First off, maurice, we know who you are, but our listeners are just now getting the opportunity to meet you. Tell us who you are. How would you?
Speaker 3:describe yourself. So I'm a longtime organizer. I've been organizing since, oh God, since high school, basically, when?
Speaker 2:did you go to high school?
Speaker 3:I actually went to high school on the East Coast. So I grew up in Newark, new Jersey, so I went to high school on the East Coast and, yeah, then moved to Detroit after college and after organizing in a bunch of different cities around the country during the foreclosure crisis and during movement for black lives and lots of things like that and in that time period founded the Action Center on Race and the Economy, or ACRE, which is a national organization that works on racial and economic justice issues, and then just have been really involved with organizations in the city that do organizing work as well. So was a board member at 482 Forward for quite some time and worked closely with Detroit Action, the Detroit People's platform and lots of other groups in the city. So, yeah, long-time organizer and really, really excited to be launching this project in the city.
Speaker 2:So tell us the genesis of this project and then who's part of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So this really grew out of it, out of something that I did at the national level too. So this was in front of what we thought was going to be a president Clinton administration. Um, there was a group of progressive organizations at the national level who were like all right, we don't really like the candidate, we don't think the candidate is the most progressive person in the world in the slightest. So how do we influence this presidential administration without pretending like we're going to turn Hillary Clinton into, you know, bernie Sanders, because that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3:So we started recruiting some people that we could then push sort of on the margins to get into office. So, even if she wouldn't decide to lower mortgage rates for certain people or something like that, maybe the person that she puts in HUD would decide that thing. Obviously, we never got the opportunity because Hillary did not win at all, but we rebooted that project ahead of the 2020 election and ran it for the Biden administration and it was very, very successful. Actually, we got several people appointed to the Department of Labor, the director of the CFPB, lots of people at USDA all these important positions that you wouldn't necessarily immediately think to, but in a thing like a federal government, they actually have a tremendous amount of power. It's not Joe Biden or Donald Trump who's sitting there being like which drugs are allowed to be found in Roundup, or something like that. That is someone else, yet that's really, really, really important.
Speaker 2:So this is like the Federalist Society, but for justice. Yeah, you can think of it like that.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, when we started this project, we wanted to be a counterbalance, really at the federal level, but at both levels we want to be a counterbalance.
Speaker 2:It's important to have that, absolutely it is like you know, I always think that the right out-organizes us. Yeah, they are so thought they organize their thinking, their campaigns, and we're kind of like well, just choose good people.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. Yeah, We'll say, oh, this is the kind of person that we're wanting you know, and then Blackstone will come in. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I hear people from the right say that the left out organizes them it. Trump is president, so let's have that conversation.
Speaker 2:And we have been moving to the right for the past 40 years.
Speaker 1:So somebody's doing a better job of getting the narratives out there and organizing.
Speaker 2:You know their think tanks are more disciplined and more connected to electoral politics. The Federalist Society exists and they have been working on some of the same campaign issues for 40, actually since the New Deal. That's right, there's been people who've been trying to unravel the New Deal since forever, and so I think that this is a really good take, because we know that whoever gets elected mayor, there's going to be people who are lobbyists and others who are going to be pushing their Confederates into these positions.
Speaker 3:I mean already are. So that's the other thing. This is what the right does already. I mean they will organize under Republican, democratic. They don't care what your administration is, because they're representatives of corporations and other really powerful entities. So they're already active. They're already super active in trying to get names of people and positioning people to be in different roles. They're already super active in trying to get names of people and positioning people to be in different roles. So you know, in some way I hate to frame it like this, but in some ways we are constantly playing catch up to these folks who have a level of access that you know, everyday sort of progressives and leftists don't yet have.
Speaker 3:Well, we don't demand it, that's right. We don't demand it, that's exactly right. And so we can't get mad at people.
Speaker 2:We can get mad at people, because a lot of these are horrible people, but also we have to actually make a shared and very concrete demand. We do a lot of asking what are you going to do for our communities? They do a lot of telling I need you to do this for my community, and so I think I'm not trying to be like them because, again, I don't think they're great people, but I think the organizing aspects of it, I think the intentionality and always reacting but also being proactive. So I admire the fact that not only you've done this at a national level, but you've succeeded at a national level.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And you know, one thing I think that's really important is, like you know, these are hard jobs being being the mayor, obviously, being the president, being an executive of anything even a little organization is a very difficult job.
Speaker 3:So when you get into office, you're looking for help. The next mayor who gets into office is going to have to hire hundreds of people. I've hired maybe 35, 40 people in my life and I don't ever want to hire a single person ever again. It's really, really hard to do. And someone's going to come with a list of hey, you should put this person in this position, this person in this position, and if we don't also have that list, that list is just going to one is just going to be taken.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me how it all came together in the city of Detroit? I mean, who are is. Can you tell me how it all came together in the city of Detroit? I mean, who are is there, or housing revitalization, and not really directly with the mayor himself. So of course, this makes perfect sense. So groups, I mean I got to shout out Detroit People's Platform as one in particular. Who's? You know, they're super focused on all of the departments within the city, specifically the ones that touch on economic development and housing and revitalization, and they and Detroit Action and Michigan United and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, 482 Forward, were all really critical in helping to launch this effort and set some of the criteria and ways that we're looking for candidates and set some of the criteria and ways that we're looking for candidates. And you know, once we get past tomorrow as we're recording tomorrow election day, we'll be key in actually pushing some of the candidates to hire our folks.
Speaker 2:That's great. A couple of things you remember when, first of all, with bankruptcy and emergency management, a lot of people lost their jobs who lived in the city of Detroit Yep, and emergency management A lot of people lost their jobs who lived in the city of Detroit and then a mayor was elected who believed that the way to replace people was to bring smart people from out east and ignore and negate the intelligence and capacity of people locally. And so we saw, especially at first, outsiders really controlling so much of what was happening in our city, and I think you pointed out that you know there's so many things that have to happen. You have to ramp up and hire a lot of people really quickly. What kind of relationship building do you have to do with the incoming mayor to be listened to? Because you can have a list.
Speaker 2:That's right, and that list gets ignored, that's so good.
Speaker 1:That was one of my questions.
Speaker 3:No, that's exactly right, and you know that's the thing that kind of keeps me up at night is you know how do we get in the room? Luckily, the folks who are in our coalition, no matter who the mayor is, are really going to be critical in getting them over the finish line.
Speaker 2:There's some people in your coalition who prefer to stand outside and throw rocks than to get inside the room.
Speaker 3:That is absolutely true.
Speaker 2:We need people throwing rocks. I'm not going to say rock throwing, I'm not necessarily against that there's an importance of roles.
Speaker 1:I think, we have to have a healthy respect for roles that are different, but the role of the person who gets in that room has to be very, very unique.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that going to be?
Speaker 3:you Well.
Speaker 2:I mean you have the personality. I think you have the kind of persons that you're easy to talk to yeah.
Speaker 3:So at the federal, the same thing happened at the federal level, right? So I was running this organization, acre, and we were the rock throwers, right, we were the ones releasing reports, and Blackstone gave this much money to Governor blah blah, blah blah, and that's why he's blah, blah blah. You know, we were the ones who were yelling. So when it came to all right Biden's actually forming a transition team, there was no way in, you know what, that I was going to be invited into the room to help be on the transition team, was going to be invited into the room to help be on the transition team. We don't have that same. You know, I don't have that same reputation locally of being the person who's constantly throwing rocks although I do throw my fair share of them.
Speaker 3:I've been present. So, yeah, I think you know some combination of me and a few other folks in our coalition who you know, based on who the mayoral candidates are going to be, have really really good relationships and solid enough relationships that we don't want to be pushovers. We don't want to be someone who's like I'm going to get in the room and just be a yes man, but also you don't want to be so angry that you don't get in the room at all.
Speaker 1:Can you talk about the vetting process for candidates that are within your, your DCAP database? It almost sounds like a appointee talent agency. Shout out to Marlo Stoudemire who champion like Detroit, got talent we here. Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we, that's right. I mean, that's such an important thing. Just to underline, like we, there's so much talent in this city. I love this city with all my heart and there's some of the most talented people I've ever met, and we have incredible universities and things in the region that have just left us with really, really qualified folks A lot of things that other cities don't have.
Speaker 3:So what we're looking at is, you know one, what are sort of the sheer qualifications for the job? So the absolute worst thing would be to put someone in who's super, super passionate but can't actually do the job, doesn't actually know how to do the job, doesn't have the level of expertise. So I care a lot about transit. I really do. It's like one of my main issues, one of the first things I organized around. I don't really understand transit policy. It's never been something that I've worked on. So I shouldn't be the Department of Transportation director, because that would be about two weeks of chaos and then I would be fired and we'd get some other person from Miami or somewhere to come in and fill my seat. So we want someone who actually has some deep level of expertise so they can actually do the job. That's one and, like I said, we have loads of those people, so that's not a problem.
Speaker 3:Two, we want folks who are really committed to the common good in Detroit, and the way that we define that is are you more on the side of corporations and developers? Is your instinct to say, oh, how do we economically boost the city by bringing in Amazon or some other thing? Or are you thinking about your neighbors? Are you thinking about folks who are in neighborhoods that have been neglected throughout the city? That's also critically, critically important for us. And then three are you committed to working with groups throughout the amount of time that you're going to be in city government? So some people call that co-governance.
Speaker 3:So I don't want to just send you off and then we're behind the scenes praying and praying and praying that you make the right decision. We want to help you. We both want success here. We want you to be successful inside and we want success outside as well. So will you stay in contact? Are you the type of person who has community organizations and organizing forward in your brain, willing to stay in contact with other folks who have been appointed and the groups that put you into this position?
Speaker 2:You know, one of my questions for positions like transit is also how do you measure success right and what are your values? What do you think transit should look like? Because you have people who stay in touch. You have people who are committed to doing good things. You have people who stay in touch. You have people who are committed to doing good things and their idea is to expand the queue line and, you know, upgrade the people mover and throw in a few new buses. I don't hear a lot of people running for office who have a vision for making bus transportation functional in our city.
Speaker 3:I think that's totally right.
Speaker 2:I think that's totally right.
Speaker 1:And you're just saying functional. You ain't even asking for a world-class transit system, you just, you're like, I just want it to be functional.
Speaker 2:Can the buses run on time? Can we be able to know when the buses are coming?
Speaker 3:Can we get routes to cover the whole city and can we get dedicated bus lines.
Speaker 2:Can we have mini transit?
Speaker 1:Can I tell y'all a story about the bus today? So y'all know, my office is at Tech Town, right, and so the Tech Town parking lot is at Amsterdam and Cass right, and so I have to leave Tech Town to go to the parking lot. I am on Cass, getting ready to cross the street. I'm on Amsterdam getting ready to cross Cass, on the'm on amsterdam, getting ready to cross cast on the intersection. I'm headed east right to cross the street. There's a four-way stop right. Uh, the bus is stopped. I proceed to go because I have the right of way. Do you know? When I got to the middle of the street, the bus decided that it was going to zoom past me, the. But I could have gotten hit by a, but no, it's. It's crazy. I was so angry. I took a photo of the bus and everything, and you can see that it's always stopped. That bus should not, and so I'm like who are they hiring?
Speaker 2:and what is the vetting?
Speaker 1:process. This dude looked me slap dab in the eye. I had to find a number to call for a complaint. My DDOT complaint number is 16410. They will call me back within seven to 10 business days. Because take that driver off of the road. We're hearing about bus accidents, people being killed, bikers, all of this craziness. And you are supposed to be at a complete stop and you decide, when a pedestrian is in the middle of the freaking street, that you're going to go to the other side. I could not believe it.
Speaker 3:In any job, in any profession, there's going to be some folks who are, you know, who are not meeting the standard. I don't think that that's the majority of bus drivers in the city, thankfully, I hope not it's been in the news.
Speaker 3:And it does bring up a really important point, though, I think, about how our transit system works, which is, you know, we don't have buses that are running on time. We don't have enough buses on our routes. The buses are overpopulated on some routes. They don't go to certain parts of the city. So imagine you're a bus driver now. You're supposed to be on a route that's 15 minutes late. There's 100 people on your bus. You're rushing to try and get to the next place because that bus is needed for the next thing. You know it starts to pile up and creates this problem of bus safety, and we've seen that in other cities as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think we don't pay our bus drivers enough and we don't pay them enough. Absolutely we can't attract and keep them. We don't have. You know, tenure Buses can be unsafe. But a couple other things. I'm glad you brought up Cass Avenue because one of my pet peeves is those stupid bike lanes on Cass Avenue that make it impossible for the buses to fit into the lane. You can't get out of your car if a bus is driving by. It feels very dangerous. It's too narrow.
Speaker 1:Somebody should have had the vision to understand that we could put you know, recommending a planning and development director as well, I think transit I think you know bus lanes, so you're recommending a planning and development director as well, I think transit and transit, yeah, I think you know we have all of these.
Speaker 2:you know we're riding around and a lot of the young people are very opposed to, you know, bike lanes for a lot of reasons, but I'm like, what if we had dedicated bus lanes?
Speaker 3:Yeah, what if we had stop signs? Which other cities?
Speaker 2:have Exactly, that's so much less expensive than you know rail cars. But people, rail cars are, I guess, cooler, but if you had a dedicated bus lane and you had the bus that was sort of coordinated with stoplights so that as the bus is approaching the stoplight changes.
Speaker 1:Like the queue line.
Speaker 2:Like the queue line does we know how to do it. Buses are actually more efficient on Woodward because of the queue line. Yeah, buses are actually more efficient on Woodward because of the queue line. There are definitely transponders that can be on buses that can communicate with technology to let people know when the bus is going to be. We did a bus project a few years ago.
Speaker 1:I was here.
Speaker 2:And Orlando was here. He was helping to lead the bus project. D-dot came here and they told us everything like you have to go to Rite Aid or CVS to buy bus passes but here's a good thing, you don't have to do that anymore, because all the Rite Aids and CVS are closed right, so you wouldn't be able to get a bus pass.
Speaker 3:If you can find a Rite Aid right and a lot of CVS's are closed right, yeah because the one on Jefferson.
Speaker 2:so but anyway, we learned that. But we get out there and we're going to ride the bus and we decided we're going to go east, right, we're going to take the bus going towards you know Grosse Pointe, because on Mack Avenue we have a plan, a project on Mack, and we walked outside our doors and watched that bus on Mack Avenue arrive five minutes early and the next bus was going to be 20 minutes from now. I'm as worried about an early bus as late bus. Why wouldn't the early bus wait?
Speaker 3:It's a system that's not functioning. I mean, that really is a system that's not functioning well. So and you know there's this is again an example of like why I'm passionate about this issue. I shouldn't necessarily be the person because I don't know why the system is not functioning well. I actually don't want to solve the problem of why the system's not functioning well, but there are people who are transit experts, who live within the city, who ride the bus I was going to say bus riders know what's wrong.
Speaker 2:Bus riders know what needs to be done.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Cunningham Bus riders know where.
Speaker 2:yes, and I think that we have to have that kind of lived experience. I think also you know I'm not an expert, but I've read a lot about how to improve public transit and I think, even in the selection committee of all of these jobs, having people who are knowledgeable enough to know what some best practices are. Not that we as a selection committee I'm saying we, like, I'm going to be on it, but I want to help. But to make sure You're on it, you're invited selection committee.
Speaker 3:I'm saying we, like I'm going to be on it, but I want to help. But to make sure You're on it, you're invited, all right, I'm holding you to it.
Speaker 2:But I think that we want to make sure that we've read up and we've done our homework so that we can make sure that we're not buying into false promises or solutions that don't make sense. A lot of what we see in city government is new ideas that have been disproven, like ShotSpotter or things like that, and it's like let's do our research and have people who bring research with them. I love the idea of doing that.
Speaker 1:This is so exciting.
Speaker 2:It is. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:I mean some of the roles we're thinking about, just to give a shape of it is you know, there are things like the Director of Planning and Development, the Department of Neighborhoods, department of Economic.
Speaker 1:Development, if this new mayor keeps it.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly, the Director of Construction and Demolition, housing and Revitalization, general Services, department of Transportation, the Health Department, water and Sewage, I mean all of these are. And then that's not even to say the financial offices, which I'm like a particular nerd about. But the CFO and the assessor and the budget director, like these are incredible.
Speaker 2:Corporation counsel Orlando Rays is a really good point, though, because you have the city charter and you have charter mandated positions. That's right and you have a mayor who's created a whole lot of positions that are outside the city charter.
Speaker 2:And I'd like to go back to the basics, like, do we really need all of these things? You know, we also had a jobs and economy team. Why do we need a jobs economy team? Well, also we have a Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. Well, also, we have a planning director, and then you have the group executive over the planning and HRD.
Speaker 2:I think that we have created a very top heavy government with a whole lot of people, and perhaps some of that money that we're spending on all this personnel could be released into the community. As people are looking at saving money. Maybe we could look at that.
Speaker 1:So what, I wonder about is it's going to tighten.
Speaker 2:It is. It should tighten, but it not only should it tighten, but why do we have a Department of Neighborhoods, putting city managers in every neighborhood, in councils?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you have city council in every neighborhood and then you have community development organizations trying to fight for our lives, because the money that could be spent supporting our work is being spent on really political functionaries, because a lot of these people don't know how to develop a community. What they know how to do is push the mayor's message into the community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a lot. I mean so much of that is. There's two ways that that's going to come up. That I'm really looking forward to is one is when the mayor actually starts to design their office Like any executive coming in, they're going to. You know, the group executive thing. That's Mike Duggan's strange brain who created that management structure of group executives. That's not something that's mandated by the charter. A lot of other cities don't have that. I think it's a weird way to do it. Apparently, it works.
Speaker 2:It apparently works for him Well the reason it works for him is because he wants to exert maximum control.
Speaker 3:I think that that's right.
Speaker 2:And so when you maximize control of the mayor, then what you do is you concentrate the power in the hands of a few people, and they all speak to you. None of whom have to be approved by city council.
Speaker 2:So, the planning director has to be approved by city council, but that group executive who supports, who oversees the planning director, does not. And if you look at it, the other thing the mayor has done is the mayor has put staff members on all of these public private entities throughout the city so that the planning and development director and the group executive for planning and development sits on the DEGC board.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, and so if you're on the board and the board hires the director. You control everything, these quasi-governmental entities, in ways that has never been the case in the city of Detroit. Yeah so how do you do you see having conversations about some of that, about reorganizing and giving input into what that may look like?
Speaker 3:So for this one, I'll just say this is the first time we're doing this and hopefully the first of many times we're doing this. We really think this is an important thing to continue to engage in in the city and also there's a capacity you know requirement to do some of the things that we're talking about here. I really wish that we did have the capacity to do some more recommendations of specific design of what a city government could and should look like. For a couple of reasons we haven't done that and some of that is actually we want to keep our, you know, financially we are nonpartisan and that's really really nonpartisan and candidate agnostic and that's really important for us just based on the tax status that we have, it makes a lot of sense to be nonpartisan and candidate agnostic, I agree with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it gets a little bit fuzzy when you start to giving someone a list of names is one thing. It starts to get a little fuzzy when you're like and this is how I want you to set up your specific office.
Speaker 2:That's not quite what I mean. What I mean is that we encourage the, you know, more less we encourage the consolidation of roles or things like that. I don't know. I had a thought about what that means Like.
Speaker 2:These are some principles that we think make sense as you are redesigning your government, and the principles don't have to be that detailed. But if you're going to have a quasi-governmental entity, then let it be a quasi-governmental entity. When you stack it with your staff, what you've done is you've defeated the intent of the creation of this quasi-governmental entity, because you control everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that has to be you.
Speaker 3:I know Someone needs to do that.
Speaker 2:That could just be me putting together my position paper, whoever it is, because I think really—.
Speaker 3:I'll help you with that on the side, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, I'll help you, you help me, but I think that there's got to be this idea that you're giving people not just jobs, but you're giving them the authority to do their jobs, based on their professional knowledge and credentials, and you're not micromanaging them. And that's true whether you're running a nonprofit, like I do, whether you're running a business or whether you're running the city.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:One of the things I think is that we have wasteful spending because of this need for control that actually harms the government as opposed to enhancing it, and then you have all these job positions and it's inefficient, and so, as you're looking to cut your budget, maybe you can keep on helping people do things if you just have fewer staff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, as Orlando was saying, I think very soon there's going to be no choice for who comes into office of cutting your budget. I mean, this is another reason why I think that this is a really important time to start this.
Speaker 2:We don't want them to cut services as a result of this shrinking budget. If you can cut your staff and try to maximize the provision of services to the community, then you're doing a better job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we think that it's hard. I mean, part of my thinking is it's harder to cut services when you have folks who are not going to. You know, when their boss comes to them and say we have to save X, y, z dollars, the first thing they're you know they're going to say is not let's close this park. I mean for, for, as an example, I mean we're hiring folks who are going to be or we're suggesting folks who would be in charge of parks and rec. We don't want people whose first instinct to save money is let's shut down parks in this neighborhood, this neighborhood, this neighborhood, this neighborhood, right, like there are other ways that we want the suggestions that float up to the mayor to be people centric and not corporation centric, and I think that that's a huge piece.
Speaker 2:I agree with that.
Speaker 1:We can have this conversation with you all day, but unfortunately we are out of time. Maurice Weeks, thank you so much for joining us to talk about the Detroit City Appointments Project. Will you come back? Absolutely, whenever you invite me, I'm back, perfect, perfect. If you have topics that you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials on Facebook, instagram and X, or you can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmailcom. All right, it is time for shout-outs. Donna, you got any shout-outs?
Speaker 2:Oh my God, everybody who supported us this Saturday. Shout-out to them, but I want to really the community. I have to give a special shout-out to Jimmy Garner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was so good.
Speaker 2:Just called Jimbo. He did such a great job and the message and the wording and everything like that no foul language really representing Detroit. And I thought he did a great job representing young people in our community and I saw people who were my age and older just as excited as young people. So shout out to the young talent in our community.
Speaker 3:I love it, Maurice do you have any shout out? I'm going to shout out my son who just turned four this weekend Charlie. Charlie with the 24 four-year-old friends and all of his friends who forever changed my backyard. But yeah, I can't even believe that I'm the parent of a four-year-old. So shout out to my cute, smart and too smart for his own good son, charlie.
Speaker 1:I like to shout out the folks at WDIV Local 4 for having me on Flashpoint on Sunday. I will be doing live election coverage, primary election night on Local 4, beginning at 10 pm, so be sure to tune in. And I also like to shout out the citizenry of Texas, but also the citizenry from around the country, who really are collectively pushing back on the redistricting maps that are coming out of Texas. The redistricting maps that are coming out of Texas that just, I mean the clear cut case of gerrymandering on part of pressure put on by the president of the United States. And I think that this strategy is going to hit all of the states and I think we have to, we have to be prepared and we have to keep telling that story. So fight on y'all, keep fighting, fight the power. Power to the people. Thank you all so much for listening. Remember to love telling that story. So fight on y'all, keep fighting, fight the power. Power to the people. Thank you all so much for listening. Remember to love on your neighbor. Outro Music.
