FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - Friday 9-06-24
(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the JetPor show with a 4.0 6.5. I hate your stay with us, I forgot to do this in the last segment, I was so short, but programming no Monday, be back at the home base. We got a state representative, Jennifer Fiddler, and some guy named Dale Jackson and one guest to be named later. Joining us now, we do it about this time, every Friday, we're bringing on our returning champion, state Senator Chris Elliott. Senator, good morning, how are you? - I am doing great, it's always good to talk to you on Fridays, I know the end is near when I get to talk to you, so it's a good feeling. - And it is, I won't deny that. - So, I guess we'll start off with this, and we'll talk about it a little bit with Todd Stacey. The, it's almost like a soap opera saga or something between this veteran's affairs situation. I know about the Department of Mental Health. They've been fighting over the opioid settlement on no, I'm like kind of aware of what's going on there, but Governor coming out really hard yesterday. I mean, I had seen her swinging that hard since she got rid of her early childhood education secretary with this, with their announcement about the, you know, her call for resignations and removing a member of the board there. What do you make of it? - Yeah, that was, that was top rope stuff. I got it called yesterday from the Governor's Senate liaison just kind of giving us a heads up that that was, that was coming. I think called right what I was, as I was getting into Montgomery yesterday. And, and you know, look on others been some friction there between a mental health commissioner, obviously, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. And, and I think this is one of those instances where both of them are trying to occupy the same space, right, they're trying to compete for the limited resources that are there. And in this case, the opioid settlement money, and they certainly compete for, you know, have competed for other funding. Every state agency does that, right? Yeah, you know, when it comes to the general fund or the education trust fund. And so, I don't think that's unusual. It just got pretty heated and, and the Governor's, you know, certainly chosen size there. That's her prerogative. And she's, she's, she's hit it pretty hard and heavy. I'm not, you know, I'm not up to speed on all of the different, you know, the different allegations she's made, neither have I necessarily researched them, but she's, she's, when she decides she wants to kick you off the committee or fire somebody, she does it and I know that from experience. As I say, you speak in there from your own personal experience there, aren't you? Well, you know, when we, we, we kind of broke up over the, the ITN Bridge project and that $6 total and she didn't, she didn't like that. And, and so she, you know, had appointed me to the HRP2 committee and then, took me off to the HRP2 committee, which again, it's her prerogative, she's a Governor. And, and so I'm, you know, I'm comfortable with my position and where I came down on a $6 total and don't, don't, you know, would, would do the exact same thing again. But, but she's certainly, you know, the, the Department of Veterans Affairs director, executive director, commissioner has certainly gained her ire and, and, you know, here it comes, and it was very interesting that he decided not to take her suggestion to resign. And so it'll be, it'll be very curious to see how that plays out because if I'm, if I've got it correct, I think there's a board that actually governs that and appoints, you know, the, the director there. And so you'll have to see how that plays out. - Well, I'll tell you what though. And I mean, this is just another one of those, wow, another board, another commission, another unelected bureaucracy. I guess it's answerable to the Governor indirectly because she appoints the board. But it, it just, these is kind of extra governmental, litities, they did not, it's not a good run for them right now. - There's a lot of those around and whether it's executive directors, executive secretaries or commissioners that they're running a lot of the executive branch, you know, day to day and then are accountable at least by some measure back to some elected official. And, and I think that's kind of what we're seeing right now is that there's a path at least back to an elected official who's answerable to the people. And so, yeah, you, you get to Montgomery and all those big white buildings, there's a bunch of, there's a bunch of bureaucrats just pedaling away to, do the bureaucrat thing up there and, and all the boards and commissions and, and things that, you know, make the, the, the wheels of government go. - It's, it's just a strange set of circumstances. I mean, well, we were just, we were just dealing with like a, like an ethics, you know, complaint and it was dismissed. And, I mean, this is, this is a, just, just from my, and then I know I got kind of a different eye on this things, but it's a, it's a real big mess here. Why, why, why is it this like, this is like, and then it wouldn't be, it's, it's sad because like it's a veteran sort of thing that we're supposed to, you know, kind of put on a pedestal that would hold it in high regard. And look at this, look at what's going on here. - Well, I think the commissioner is, is well respected. He's certainly well respected in South Alabama. And I think the governor certainly feels that something very untoward went on in order to, you know, to, to do what she's done and take the actions she's, she's done. But I know the commissioners, again, very well respected and certainly within the veterans community here in, in South Alabama. So we'll have to, you know, have to dig into what the governor's, you know, issues are there. But, but look, our, our ethics, I mean, if this, if ethics is truly the, the, the thing that, that, that really was the straw that broken camel's back and these ethics complaints, our ethics law is, is screwed up. I mean, make it, make it stricter if you want to just get it straightened out because you found Mr. Davis in this position where, you know, there was some alleged ethics complaint commissioner Davis felt like he had to, he had to, because of the ethics statute, report this to the ethics commission, who then like almost threw it out immediately and like, what are you doing? And, and so it's, it's just odd when you have somebody at that level read that statute and feel like, Oh, hey, I got to go report this. I'm required by a statute to report this and, and end up in this, you know, in this situation, this being the outcome. So, you know, we, we need to look at, at the mess that is the ethics law that was rushed through back in, in 2010 and see if we can fix that. Joy, by state Senator Chris Elliott, he held a program senator, the other crazy sort of off-season controversy, our pharmacy board, another one of your pet peeves. There was a Birmingham TV news segment about it in, you know, Cynthia Gold, a reporter up this way, went and she, you know, went to their offices and then showed that how much money they were collecting and that, that there's something that's, that's really, I mean, at least based on the reporting that's really off there, isn't there? There, there is. And, and you would be surprised, most, most of your listeners would be surprised to see just how many of these types of boards exist and how much money they take in and how they spend that money and just to be clear, it's your money, right? You're the small business person, you're the cosmetologist and massage therapist, the electrician, the contractor, right, you know, whatever, but there's a huge sum of money that is just aggregated in Montgomery to operate these boards and oftentimes that, that large S, it doesn't get, you know, doesn't get distributed back or used for the benefit of, of the, the operation, but rather, or for the licensees, but rather for the operation of the, the board itself. And so you see these offices that are pretty darn fancy, you see executive director salaries that are, I don't know, up there with cabinet level officials or more and in the pharmacy board case, you see, you know, really salary and per diem for board members that vastly exceeds any other board in the state, and so it's a, it's, it's, it's one of those things that the legislature has finally started to dig into and look at and that's why you see all this pressure around there because you see a little sunshine on, on these, these types of boards, they don't like it, they don't like it or the darn, but you start putting this out there for other people to look at and they go, you know, oh, it's just a very hard to stand on it, very hard to stand on it. Well, I also had to talk Stacy about this and you and I probably, if I'm not mistaken, spoke about this, it is the chatter in the hallways in the state house. It wasn't school choice. It wasn't like the ESG ban. It wasn't some kind of voter ID law or whatever was Alan was pushing through or it wasn't even gambling a lot of times. You know what it was? It was about maintaining the status quo here with this, the system we have in place and kind of keeping you and Gudger on the sidelines and trying to beat that bill. I mean, so many people, only more people than I would have imagined. We're just, we're just, we're just playing to a sunny day here. We're just trying to keep this from happening. Because they're on the tent, right? I mean, it's not complicated. They're, they're, they're making money off of the system as it exists. If we make it more efficient, if we streamline boards, if we streamline the administration that administrative functions of the board, if we pull back the curtain and show the large S, if we, if we explain to the people of the state of Alabama that the lobbyists are really actually running these boards under contract and, and, and our acting as state agencies, the lobbyists have taken over the administration of the state, then, then it's, it's kind of crumble. And, and so, yeah, it's a, you know, scratch my back, scratch your back type of system and everybody come get what you can get while you can get it at the trough. But you pull back the curtain and you take a look and it's just indefensible. I mean, who, who would have ever thought it was okay for registered lobbyists to run state agencies? Like at the same time, they're lobbying. Who would ever thought it was okay for a board to go spend licensee money on a lobbyist to then lobby the legislature to not make changes to the underlying statute for the board? Just craziness. And, and so, you know, a lot of us in the sunset committee is doing great work on that contractor used to great work on that to try to see if there's a way to get this under control. Let's go to require like one big fix, right? Or are you gonna try to do it incrementally? What do you think? You know, I think I introduced a 500 plus page bill last session and everybody checked on it understandably. And Jeff, that was the incremental fix, right? That was, that was probably a third of the boards that were out there. But, but then so it'll have to be an incremental fix. And, and I think that what you and others have done in the media to try to keep this pretty boring topic in the in the forefront is, is helpful. People are starting to pay attention. Other members that this isn't their focus. They got other things they're focused on are starting to look at this and see this for the problem that it is. And this is just good government, right? It's one of those things we need to make this government more efficient. It is taking money out of small business people's pockets. It is, you know, waste fraud and abuse oftentimes. And we need to fix it. It's embarrassing is what it is. When you hear this and people see these reports, it's like, well, it's just, that's just Alabama being Alabama. And, you know, yeah, you guys in the legislature, the way it's viewed is like you just you're just part of it. You're part of the system that allows for something like this to go on. Well, to some extent, that's fair. That's a fair criticism. And there are those of us in the legislature and I would put myself in action that are frustrating that we can't get something like this fixed, right? I certainly have been pushing hard for years to try to work on a solution for this. But it does take me, you know, convincing other legislators that this is something we need to focus on. And so I'll continue to try to do that. And hopefully one of these days, you know, myself and other like-minded people, you've got Senator Gavan, Senator Barfoot, Senator Kelly, Senator Gudger, you mentioned, of course, you know, looking at this hard center waiver, of course, and seeing the, you know, the abuse that's happening, and so they're pushing on that, you've got Representative Boba Underwood, Representative Wilcox, Representative Pringle, who pushed on this as well, we just got to convince all our other colleagues to come along. And, and really upset them, you know, the class of people that, that, that, you know, occupy the halls in Montgomery. Senator, just a few more minutes here. And I want to, I guess, I know a lot of lawmakers, it's not necessarily happening down our way. What do you, are you hearing about this like these Haitian refugees being busted around the state? Is that showing up on your radar? Yeah, I've certainly heard about it, and I've read it, and I can certainly understand, we've got immigration problems involving county as well. Ours are not, you know, arriving by bus for one particular entity, you know, one particular employee or industry. But we certainly, we certainly have a lot more illegal immigrants involved in county than we used to have. And, and it's really causing serious problems in our school system. You know, you, you have the kids of these immigrants, some of whom are, frankly, our own company, they're really changing the dynamics in our school system. You, you've had, you know, 10 times as many English learners, English language learners and school systems that are, you know, sitting oftentimes after a couple of years for the same tests our kids are sitting for. And, you know, how can you expect them to perform on those tests when they can't speak English or they're, you know, they're just new to English. And so it's changing scores and things like that. That's all a direct result of the Biden Harris Board and Porter policies and the disaster that Kamala Harris has made of our, our southern border. And we're feeling it at home. Well, and here's where I guess it becomes a problem. I mean, like, we may be flush with cash right now in the education budget. And I think that's going to change real quick. But you got to hire these teachers that are bilingual that especially it's not just Spanish. It's Creole French, right? So what are you doing? Yeah, it's not just that. And this is, you know, kind of these endodialics coming out of the mountains of Central America and stuff like that. I mean, it's not, it's not just like, Hey, we need Spanish teacher, you know, it's not that anymore. And it's, and you see the movement within the education budget committees to look at providing additional funding, additional tax funding to school systems to deal with English language learners. And so the short answer is, you know, the impacts of the the Biden Harris, you know, border policies are absolutely costing more Alabamians tax dollars to try to educate children that aren't from here and aren't here illegally. And so that that obviously gets under masculine and others. But they're here and we're required by federal law to, you know, have them in school. And we can either teach them or they can drag our scores down into the toilet. And and again, I don't blame the kid. I want, frankly, I want to help the kid, but it has just gotten to the point where so many that it's hard, really hard to handle it all. Senator, we'll leave it there. We always appreciate your time. We'll do this again next week. Sounds great. Just have a great weekend. Stay Senator Chris Elliott there. We'll be right back. This is FM Talk with us six five.