FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - Friday 8-02-24
to the top of the phone and the only one ready to that is a smile I never forget it. Daddy never was a cat-a-lack cat. He said something just later and said. Welcome back to the Jeff Pore show it up and talk 10065 that you're sticking around on on this Friday morning or what's looked at this Friday morning. A quick note here programming note I didn't have the forgot to mention this in the last segment on Monday's program Judy Barlow from the Easter short Republican women getting a big week playing ahead is BCA the circus is coming to town so they will have some speakers there. And then also our usual visits our usual visit with Dale Jackson WV it in. And you'll have her news and the official Wunderland event correspondent of the Jeff Pore show will be with us on Monday but joining us now on the line it is our returning champion state Senator Chris Elliott Senator good morning are you. I am doing well with a busy week here on the Gulf Coast but glad glad it's Friday. That's good to hear. Well I guess the question we're all or they've been waiting to talk to you about it. I know you're aware of it at least that the licensing stuff and what are your issues here. But this Smith Warren Keith Warren episode and him stepping down as CEO of his company and this has been y'all be kind of fighting back and forth over about occupational licensing reform. What are you making what's going on right now. Well you know Jeff this should be about the most boring topic in all of state government you know occupational licensing reform and who and how these licenses are issued and these boards are administered. But goodness gracious they have turned this into a very messy public. I think I think the Smith Yak called it a dumpster fire and they've done it on their own so they've made it exciting in and of themselves by themselves. This is this is no way a state agency should run and all the more reason the administrative functions of these these boards do not need to be handled by one private company that has all kinds of internal problems and fights and skirmishes that they decide to air on Facebook. And you know this is not the way this day should should run these boards and so you know we'll we'll try to work again next session to try to set up a professional entity that can provide the most basic of administrative functions for some of these boards that simply can't afford to hire their own staff nor should they they're not big enough to but to really save them from this kind of nonsense where websites are being turned off because somebody's pounding because they didn't get what they want or you know these extreme fees or getting close to running one board you know completely broke because of how much they're charging them it's just it's obscene it needs to stop. It's embarrassing to the state of Alabama and you know I'll make another run of trying to fix it in February. It's incredible to be and I think you and I text about this how this is just allowed to go on in that town and like I was in those hallways a little bit this last year and I still taught Stacy this I mean I know there were like some big big things playing and IVF and school choice and that's what you know the chattering class like I will really spend time on but always this what you would got your return to do there. Everybody's talking about it. It was like one of the kind of below the radar things but it was it was very persistent and a lot of it was just trying to kind of stop your effort. Tell me this though I mean like how hard is it going to be over to overcome and there's a very very staunch like opposition to what you guys were trying to do. You guys got to kind of overcome that I mean I don't even know where to start. Well look it's no secret there is an entire class of people in Montgomery that make money off of governments okay and how government operates and influencing government working for government. Whether it's you know advertising contracts or administrative contracts or you know all kinds of other things there's a whole class of people that have figured out a way to make money off of the government. And this is no different than that. The problem is these these folks that are involved in this occupational licensing administration aren't doing it well and that's how it first came up on our radar is as they come through the sunset committee and you look at the the examiners of public account reports on these these entities they're being managed poorly. They have all kinds of audit findings from mismanagement of funds mishandling of funds misappropriation of funds putting one board's you know funds funds and another board's account and then spending it can somewhere completely else in enforcing license regulations that are not allowed for in the statute so that they can gain additional revenue. It just goes on and on Jeff and so when you started digging in a little deeper you found that you had these little mom and pop shops you know set up to do nothing but make money off of the poor administration of these boards and it's not fair frankly to the board members who are just trying to serve on the auctioneers board or the landscape architect board or the electrical board or the you know what was the massage therapy board and so these folks are getting bad advice they're not being served well and then they're not serving these license these well and so it's time for us to get a handle on it but yes there's always you know there's always those legislators who look at you and so why are you messing with this why are you trying to make government run better to leave it alone it's not hurting anybody. It is hurt small businesses it's hurting the credibility of the state of Alabama let people like this hold themselves out to be you know representatives of the state of state agency and then go and act like this. I mean it just seems like a theme throughout Montgomery and I know there's like a certain class of people in that building don't want to rock the boat they just did you just we don't need to fight this fight. But like I was kind of talking about some folks this morning. Is it going to take like the governor getting involved here to kind of use the bully pulpit there and say hey guys fix this. Well look the governor the governor is certainly supportive of the reforms that I'm trying to make and she was the last session and I expect that they will be the session I'm already been in contact with her office about you know how to how to pivot a little bit and attack this a different way. The problem is we can't have certain lobbyists get in the air of one or two senators or one or two house lovers and just holding up legislation that would impact thousands probably tens of thousands of Alabama workers just to make their experience with government to not be built by people that are acting like this. It's wholly unfair so is the governor's involvement crucial yes do I hope she'll lead on this issue of course I did. It makes good sense because this nonsense that you all have been reporting on 1819 is just embarrassing and it needs to stop. There's more behind that there just there is and it shouldn't take the actions of the sunset committee feeling what they did last year with Senator Gudger's bill to completely dissolve the board of massage therapy reconstituted and house them somewhere completely different you should have to do that you should you should provide a very simple clearing house you know entity that can provide basic administrative services for these very simple boards so that they don't have to go out and engage folks like this because that's their only option. Join my state senator Chris Elliott here on the program but senator and I don't know how serious this was when this discussion came up and but they're toward the end of the session. When a couple of your bills I know you've refiled them with the archives in history but it was just like well this was a sacrificial because you wouldn't play ball on gambling. This is strange but I mean was that really what happened there that you didn't get it did they get time in the in the house or whatever because there's a sort of a give and take. Yeah I mean I think it's fair to say that's exactly what happened and that's not always the case sometimes you truly do just run out of time but those bills all had single digit numbers or most of them did a single digit numbers and they were you know ready for house action within the first a couple of weeks of the session and so the fact that they weren't able to you know to move through the house was I think a lot you know based a lot on gambling and individual members you know position on gambling now hopefully we won't have that for the remainder of the quadrennium because we won't have this gambling conversation anymore that ends up getting in the way of good pieces of legislation good conservative pieces of legislation that Republicans in both chambers would otherwise be in support of and so you know any you know sometimes that back and forth is expected it was unfortunate that it was as clear cut as it was you know last session that you know clearly it was held up because of gambling and positions and discussions about gambling and it really kind of hardens my resolve to make sure we don't have any more gambling conversation because otherwise you get good pieces of legislation called up in your did it give the Smith Warrens out there like a lifeline or anything because here's what I think like especially where we sit right here now on August 2nd and we're watching all this kind of drama unfolded it really is drama where you have like the Mary partners having it out on Facebook or something weird like that but now I would say you have more of a license to do a little bit more with this issue and really kind of read the world of these opportunists well I think you're right and look there's two phases really to any type of complex legislation like this that impacts you know something that an existing problem and then to propose a solution and then to affect that change and in one step one has got to be you've got to draw attention to the problem and be able to clearly articulate what the problem is and and frankly get members to see and appreciate and understand that yes this is a problem and I think that over the last frankly two years and and now with even more of this messiness unfolding along with the continued very good work of the examiner public accounts and their work to demonstrate and independently articulate what the problems with these boards are that members are really starting to see yes this is a mess this is a problem and and yes we need to fix it it was not something that was on everybody's radar before I still had members towards the end of last session and if this really an issue that I think they're all seeing yes this is really an issue and so now of course the time is right to go ahead and propose a solution to that issue and and affect that change and get it done it's not surprising that it's taken this long to get it done but but I think this is the year to go ahead and accomplish that goal was still amazing to be that there are people looking I mean how hard you have to or how unaware or really just out of it you have to be to like see this situation no it's not really fair and on the up and up and and and just let it continue to linger and for whatever reason that seems like there's enough people that are just like okay yeah but we'll fight that battle another day or whatever but but I mean this has been a long standing thing in this town I've been hearing about occupational license reform in Alabama government for at least the last decade of that longer you're correct and the Alabama policy institute has been hot on it for well over a decade Senator March worked on this when the Republicans first took over in 2010 and did a lot of streamlining and state government they just weren't able to get to this so you know make no mistake this is a heavy lift this is a big attempt to try to get you know bring this to heal and get this in line for the small businesses that you know that that serve in these occupations and fly these trains and and so it is a challenge you do the fight but you know that's not something I've ever backed down from and not something I intended to back down from here this is a problem in government it needs to get sick and we will continue to work on it and until it gets fixed and I've got good partners in the house that understand this as well and and we're going to move forward with it along with the governor support get it across the finish line last question on this drama tell me this what are the hagups here is what do you do like if you do away with the system you try to overhaul it and I think you mentioned you put it kind of in the realm of the Secretary of State but they have pushed back hard what I mean is is that part of the problem here why this isn't moving number one but number two I mean is it would you still go in that direction or is there another alternative here yeah I was really disappointed in the Secretary's debate not not taking the opportunity to really streamline government and make it work a whole lot better but you know that's that's kind of water under the bridge opportunity to really bolster some conservative bona fides there but you know I think that what the governor's office has proposed to set up a just an office under the Department of Workforce and Labor that handles you know the basic paperwork for you know these occupational license and transactions check there's not a hair's worth of difference between a processing a landscape architect license and processing a auctioneer's license I mean it's a couple of checkboxes and move on and so the same clerks in the same office with the famed stapler can do that and they don't need to go out and hire these individual you know companies out there that are kind of doing this on the side you know for you know for a you know for a fee when they can get that same service in a much more efficient manner and professional manner and one that will be done uniformly by you know a state employee with oversight and the resources they need to do this and it will be more cost effective you know to do it that way and most importantly you will not have your website going dark in the middle of the night because somebody questioned how much your contract was going to be and you sure won't have this messy Facebook drama you know between spouses going on in the background on Facebook Senator got to leave it there but we always appreciate your time let's talk again soon Sounds great y'all all have a great weekend go to the truck parade tomorrow on the water yeah oh we should have talked about that but we're out of time say Senator Chris Elliott we'll be right back this is the Jet Force show on FM Talk 10065 (upbeat music) (upbeat music)