FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Rep. Donna Black Givens - Jeff Poor Show - Monday 8-05-24
It's midnight in my gun. Just hear that wiffle win. See the stars out of the purple sky. We're back to the Jeff Moore Show at Epcot 10065. They're just sticking around on this Monday morning. Next slide, we will get to your text and do course 2513430106. Still to come in about 30 minutes from now from the Easter short public and women's club. Judy Barlow is going to join us here at the Fair Hope Bureau and in 11 o'clock. We do it every week. I don't know why Dale Jackson from WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama will join us. But joining us now here in the Fair Hope Bureau, very pleased to bring on my next guest. She represents Baldwin County, Central Baldwin County from Loxley. Donna Givens, a representative. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. I'm wonderful. It's always a pleasure to be with you. Hey, thanks for coming by. We do appreciate it. Oh, well, you and I have talked a little bit, I guess, since the end of the session. But how's it been? How's the off season been for you? Busy. Now is the time to meet with your constituents attend meetings, attend things that they want you to be at, which is a lot of those. And then I'm speaking to a lot of different groups. They love hearing what we did in Montgomery and they love hearing what did not pass. It just helps them to be more knowledgeable of things we deal with at the state house. Have the battle scars from gambling, Palooza, he'll get. Yes, but of course, now I'll have to say all the groups that I have spoken with. No one has asked me about it. And they know it did not pass and and regretfully, they say, but that's really not a subject. That's interesting. I mean, I feel like it's more of a phenomenon. I guess in the chamber, people are still kind of figuring that out. But it's life has gone on, it seems. Right. And I think that's where they're coming from. You know, it's not something that they are going to have the chance to vote on. And my constituents, the majority of them that I've heard from overwhelming majority was disappointed that they were not going to get the opportunity to vote. Some were not going to vote against it, but they still just wanted the opportunity to vote. Well, maybe, maybe a moot point, but I guess it'll be a few years. That's why I think we see it again. I hope it is. It's a pretty divisive sort of issue, right? And among Republicans, right? And I hope it is a while before it comes back up. I don't know that to be just because of what all it just sucks the air out of the room. A lot of bills, I think, were not able to make it to the floor. We dealt so much with gaming and there were some bills that just were not able to get passed. So I think everyone is hoping the ones that I talk to, let me say that or hoping that it's not something that we deal with next year. Yeah, I when a lot of like other priority issues get put to the back burner when this debate, and it's always been that way. But until it's ever put to rest, I mean, I guess you're going to be dealing. I mean, so it's like all my life we've been dealing with it. Right, and it's something that there is so many moving parts to it. And it does dominate session when that is a bill that we're working on. It dominates the entire session. Well, hopefully we won't be having this discussion this time of year from now, right? I hope I hope we do not for the next couple of years. Let's let's have a breather and work on other things. Well, let's talk about something accomplishment here, another baby box. Now, this was something that you really were the you took the lead on. And it's this idea, I guess, if we're going to be a pro-life state, a staunchly pro-life state, then we need to put in certain measures, put in certain things to make sure that we remain at pro-life state. Now, these baby boxes are part of that agenda, if you will. Talk a little bit about that and this newest edition. Okay, well, the newest edition, I was so pleased to hear about. And I hope we have six, well, not hope we have success because that means someone's giving up their baby. But I hope they're utilized rather than a mother taking a different approach, a different step. There was something already in place that was done years ago, our DA in Mobile did it and he and I have talked about this. And I'm thankful it was done. But so many were not utilizing the opportunity to leave a baby at the hospital. You had the baby's mother's name, you had all the information. And what's so different about the baby box bill is no one knows whose baby it is. It's just a baby that is dropped off in a secure place in a box and any time of the day or night and no one knows who the mother is, no one knows who dropped the baby off. And I think that's important to a lot of these mothers that their identity is kept safe. And so I think that is what is making these boxes being utilized and so important to those in the community that actually need this assistance. How many more, I mean, it seems like a lot of times we're seeing a new one every few weeks or so. But it kind of gives the lay of the land here. I mean, it's from the point when y'all passed this bill to now. You've had a lot of see a lot of takers. Right. And the generous donor that donated these boxes donated 10 boxes throughout the state of Alabama. And we were going with the 10 largest cities, which made the most sense. Now, Foley has requested one. And so their grant was received. I mean, they will be getting a box. So that will make 11 unless one of the cities has backed out and I'm not real sure on that, Jeff. But so there will be 10 or 11 in the state. And so that's why you keep hearing of another one being installed in another one. And we will you will hear that until there are the 10 that are placed and possibly the 11th. Also, I'm being contacted and a lot of people or some areas are wanting to raise money and get a box for their area. They're not one of the 10 largest cities, but they want a box in their area. They feel like it's needed and it will be utilized. So I look for there to just be additional boxes because people are using them. You know, it's all there. There's got to be some buy-in at the local level, right? Right. The county or the city or whatever. Government authority has to clear it, right? Right. Right. No box is put in a city without the city's approval and thereby in the first box that was put in Madison. I was at the state house in a meeting. I was not able to attend. The second box was prideful and it was a celebration. The fire departments, all their members were there, the mayor, everyone. So it has to be buy-in from the community. Your fire department has to want to do this and your mayor. And so, so far. Well, tell me this. I mean, what before baby boxes were a thing, did people just leave their babies in front of fire departments? And police at the front doors? I mean, was that ever like something? Are we always seen in the movies or whatever? But was that ever something that people actually did? Yes. Over time, they have been left. Babies have been left at police departments, just placed on the steps there or, you know, right in front of the door. So someone would see it or hear it. And as I said, hospitals had this in place, but they were not utilized. And then, of course, you find, and you've read about and probably have known of some cases where they were just left in a dumpster somewhere. So something needed to be done. And I'm thankful that we were able to get this done. Yeah, it certainly beats the leaving them in a dumpster, for sure. At least there's some options there. Well, and the cost like kind of hearing that it's not cost prohibitive for a city to do this. But sometimes you hear that with the liability and the potential legal ramifications. Talk about that. Well, what do you need? Let's say I'm in the municipality XYZ. How much of a lift is it? Okay, well, the box is donated, so that's $10,000 almost $11,000 or probably is a little over 11 now. That is of no cost to no one thanks to this generous donor here locally that paid for all of them throughout the state. So the fire department, the city has a cost of building this box in the wall. And that is part of the cost for the baby box. So you have a fireman that's on duty 24/7. Anyway, they can only go to fire departments that are manned 24/7. So there's no cost there of labor because that's already a fixed cost with the fire department. Once the baby is placed, the fireman takes it to the hospital. Okay, that's a, you know, what are we talking a little bit of gas money, a little bit of mileage there there on duty. There's no labor cost. So it's really a very minimal cost to the city or to a county to have one of these boxes. Showing by state representatives have done a give-its here on the program. Representative was talking about shift gears here. Keeping up with national politics. I'm trying. You and I are talking during the break really trying and praying about it. I guess it is kind of contrast between what goes on here in Alabama and versus these national politics. But you just can't escape it right now. It's, you know, kind of what's on everybody's mind. How you feel about November? Well, there's a little apprehension there. Of course, I'm a Trump supporter. I'm true Republican. So that's the Republican nominee. That's my man. I supported him the last time. So I'm a Trump supporter. I am praying Trump goes in office. I feel like it will be the end of our country if we elect another Democrat and especially the the candidate that they have. Right. I don't know anything about her, right? Right. And she seems to not know a lot about anything. Right. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. And I'll say this, Jeff, years ago, a dear friend of mine, Representative Steve McMillan, and I would talk almost daily. And I would be telling him things on the federal level and he would say, Don, I can't keep up with that. There's so much state. And I thought because my job was that and I thought, well, how can you not? I'm going to tell you, being in the state politics, you are focused on state and I find myself so many times saying, Remembering my conversation with Steve. Well, now I'm living it. I understand what he meant. And I did this for a living too. It's hard because Alabama is not an easy state to understand. Right. It is very tribal. Everybody's different. I mean, I'm sure Florida is like really hard, but it's easier to say Mississippi. You just kind of don't want to know about these states. But like Alabama, it took me 20 years to figure it out. And it's just I've lived all over the state from Huntsville down here with Auburn. I know like the state pretty well, but like seeing how it all fits together is it did just take some time. I have had so many people say this. When you're like me, you've lived here all your life. You really don't know any different, but people that are well established in this state, but did not come from Alabama. Not born and raised here. They tell me that over and over again. And they even say Baltimore County is so different than other counties that they've dealt with in the state. What's this? I mean, people in Baltimore County tend to forget they're in Alabama sometimes and what happens in Montgomery matters. Now, what happens over in New Orleans or Pensacola or Biloxi, but Montgomery, we're still in Alabama. Right. You know, you can't think of yourself as regionally. And it just doesn't really work that way. And that's what you find. No, you find people and maybe that's what to do with the media markets or whatever, but you find people. It seems like a little more unplug from the Montgomery scene. Right. Now, that's true. That's very true. And when I did governmental affairs in my former job, my former life, I would just get so excited about things. And that's what I wanted to talk about. And there was not a large group of people that wanted to engage with me on politics and Montgomery. Imagine having a radio show here. It does not, you know, exactly. So, so now I'm seeing it from being part of Montgomery helping in the sausage making. Right. So, but I have had a lot more people that were interested that asked me things. Yesterday, a lady in church stopped me and wanted to know how to get in touch with me. And I, of course, gave her my number and she was so interested in the November election and wanted to know what she could do. How could she help? So people, I think, due to what's going on in Washington, D.C. are a lot more engaged than perhaps they've ever been. Well, this is this like I grew up at Shelby County and my family was always like hyper engaged in national politics. But just not can't even tell you who your state senator was or whatever. And I don't know how true that is. I suspect it's pretty universally true, though. And I just I wonder if we'll ever be in a place where that trend goes back to maybe what it used to be because I think probably both pre cable news era that people were way more engaged in the state level of politics. I think you're right. But look how much has changed since covid and we did not go back. So I think because of where we are now, I don't see us going back. Now, that's just my humble opinion because it's like once you cross the line, does it ever go back? I'm learning that with covid. Everybody says pre covid post covid and it's like we so many things have changed that we never went back to. You know, because of covid, so I'm thinking this possibly to be the same thing. Let's get a quick break in here. We got Donna Gibbons, one more segment coming up. Stay tuned. And this is the Jeff Moore show it. If we talk one oh six five. A couple of guys in first class on a flight from New York to Los Angeles, kind of making small talk, killing time, flirting with the flight. Oh, can this really be the end of the distance out of movie with the mental spoons again. We're back to the Jeff Moore show it. If I talk one oh six five. Thanks for staying with us on this Monday morning. Still have our Fred Donna Gibbons here with us for a few more minutes. Judy Barlow coming up in the next segment. So stay tuned for that representative. What do you think next year is going to look like? I think it's going to be much much more chill if the word. I know the subdued in 2025. But what do you think? What's the big? What's going to be the big issue? What do you look at that? I really don't know what the big issue is going to be at this point. I know a lot of people are working to get some bills that were not addressed last session. They some of them have dropped them already and they're going to, you know, try again this year. So I think some of it is will be cleaning up what did not make it last year and see if it's something we can work with and something we can pass. We really don't know what the hot button issues will be. Not this early. I don't take another run at ethics probably. I would think the Simpson bill or somebody will carry an ethics bill. We said gambling is probably off the table, but like you got so much done in 24. A lot of the hot button red meat stuff's already been done. So, you know, and you got it done like early, which is unusual. You've been watching this game for a while. That's usually like the last day after the BIR is done and all of that and you get those kinds of things, which got them out of the way early this year. We did. We hit the ground running and now I will say the speaker told us at the very first day of session, it was going to be very different. And because there was such a large class of freshmen the first year, he took it easy and explained things. It was amazing how much work he put into it, explaining and showing the freshmen the way. If it had been one or two freshmen, that would have been totally different. But since we had such a large class of freshmen, he really went out of his way and walked us through things. Second year, it was game on. You know, you've had your your training. Let's go through. I'll say that I'll say this about speaker a little bit. I haven't known him for a while. And most I disagree with some of the things he does policy wise, but like as far as like running that chamber and getting it like fun, but so much like more efficient than it ever was under speaker. But gotcha, which granted coming out of Hubbard. It was just a different leadership style. But you really see his thumbprint on the on the body now. Absolutely. And I think he's very well respected from my personal viewpoint, you know, I have a lot of respect for him. But so the gloves are off. There's no more baby steps. We're in the real game. So I look for us to start the session wide open just like we did last year, but I'm just I agree with you. I think there'll be some ethics bills that will work on. But just like we were not expecting the F last year and then all of a sudden it's there. It's a hot button issue and it's got to be dealt with immediately. So you don't know what's going to pop up like that. Well, that's still not 100% resolved. Yeah, there's got to be a lot more there. Right. There's a committee now working on that. And so of course that will come back up. You know, I know that we're expecting that. And I too, like you, I'm not anticipating the gambling to come up this session. Although I did speak with a senator at a conference. I was at and he said, oh, yeah, the Senate will carry it this year. So that remains to be seen. I just don't know that representative. We appreciate you coming by this morning. Let's talk again soon, but I appreciate it. Always my pleasure. Thank you. Donnie Evans, ladies and gentlemen, joining us here at the Fair Hope Bureau. Stay tuned. This is Jeff for show it. I've been talking about 065. [MUSIC]