FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - Friday 10-04-24
[Music] Welcome back to the Jet Force Show with FM Talk, 10065. Thanks for sticking around on what's left of this Friday morning, joining us now on the line, we do this every Friday, our returning champion, State Senator Chris Elliot of Josephine, Senator, good morning, how are you? I am doing well, good to be with you and glad to be back in South Alabama after several trips to Montgomery this week. Let's talk about contract review, a couple story lines there, anything we need to know. Yeah, you know, Senator Dan Roberts, from Mountain Brook Cheers at Committee, and Chris Pringle and Dan Roberts and I are usually the guys there each and every time to look over these contracts, and this statute basically says that the contracts that the executive branch agencies sign for services has to come through this panel for if you will, this committee to look at them and see 30 questions about them, the legislature provides them oversight, if you will, we can delay the execution of those contracts up to 45 days while we look at that, and boy, did we do that yesterday, there were every single solitary contract that the Board of Education, the State Board of Education brought, was listed as a sole source contract, as in this is the only vendor that can provide it, we didn't even try to RFP it, request for proposal, send it out for bit, and the RFP process exists, so we can have some competition to get the best deal for tax payers, anytime we see sole source contracts like that, we have lots of questions about them and why they're sole source, and while, you know, certainly legal to have a sole source contract is certainly discouraged as well, and yesterday we took a step to hold absolutely every one of those contracts, and did that for a number of other boards and agencies as well, just trying to make sure we're getting the best bang for the buck for the tax payers. The frustration is though, at 45 days or whatever, I mean, they just go right on a hit, they just slow, well, it's like a speed bump almost. It is, and it is a frustration, I mean, this isn't exactly the branch agency, and what we're trying to do here is provide some oversight, the governor signs a ton of contracts, you can only imagine, and so what we're doing is screening some of those for her, sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she doesn't, but we're trying to put a little red flag on him and say, hey, governor, you know, I look at this, and of course she has her representatives in the room while we're going through and asking some of those questions, and by and large, I've seen that the governor's office is certainly respectful of what the legislature's asking and respects to work on that committee. Yeah, well, just in general, though, philosophically, like, you know, we think the legislature sort of is like Congress, and even Congress said they're, I mean, I think their oversight role is way exaggerated. I mean, you're an oversight committee chairman, you're on Fox News a lot, if you're Republican, are on everywhere else, if you're a Democrat, and there's not much they could do either, but like, you always hear this, I heard, so Quinn Hill, you're the other day, like talking about the VA saga, and how the legislature needs to exercise this role of oversight or whatever, but you don't really have this, the legislature does not have like the oversight like we think like even Congress does with subpoena power and whatnot. You're correct. I mean, it is it is a limited role, and that to some extent is by design. I mean, the executive branch has the authority of executing the functions of government and there's a lot of it, and I think it's reasonable to say, you know, the governor or even the administration is oftentimes not aware of all of the bureaucracy that is just churning day in and day out. And so what we try to do on that committee is to is to provide limited and you're correct limited oversight and to keep the bureaucracy in check and to keep it honest, because it is all too often just easy to say, oh, we'd like to surrender and they do a good job and it's only a this, you know, much, you know, increase and we'll just rock and roll and see if we can get it through committing and just move on and get it signed and keep going. And that's just that's what we need to be more we need to be more efficient than that. There's no question about it. But I will say where the authority does come in, but I think Congress and in the state legislature at the end of the day, we set the budgets and if you get an agency that's non-compliant, they can feel it in their budget. And and if they're not doing something that we want them to do, we can change the law and how they, you know, how they promulgate rules, whether or not they have to get through the rule making process, they're all kinds of different things. I've had two issues this summer alone. Jeff, where I've encouraged a rule change or relooking at a rule. It hasn't occurred. I've sent over draft legislation and low and ball agency has changed its mind and decided to look at it in a different way. And so those are those are the tools we have in our toolbox. They're limited and oftentimes they can be seen as punitive, but they're powerful nonetheless. Yeah. But how to do you say, well, okay, well, you're not going to do what we tell you to or cut your budget or are we were changing the law and then the governor who is over that agency that seems to be playing fast and loose is going to sign it into law, right? I mean, they they play games here. And that's, I think that's a frustration, at least for me personally, but probably a lot of my listeners is just how these agencies have so much power and it sees unelected bureaucrats. Well, like it or not, I have found myself in a position where a lot of those agencies and the boards and everybody else looks at me and goes, Oh, gosh, here comes that elite guy. You know, but what you know, it's such a pain. You know, I got to, I got to go explain this to him or I've got to try to, I may as well head this off. That's the position I don't mind being in it because I'm as as unexciting as it is, I am a good government and efficient government champion. And I stay on them. And so, you know, you see things where we have, in fact, and they're limited, but cut the budget for some some folks. And we see instances where we have filed legislation or threatened to file legislation, change across this and then get the compliance or or that we're seeking. And so those are those are certainly tools we can use and have you. Now everybody doesn't operate that well, a way as you well know. And my colleagues don't operate that well, but that way. But but sometimes being seen as the guy that is willing to do that is enough to affect the change you need to without actually having to do it. Well, I mean, worse, they are at minimum, they're well, crap. You're right. Here comes that elite guy. We better go call the our higher gun go to lobbyists until to get ready. Here comes here comes trouble. And then well, this is what we saw guys all session. I'm telling you, I'd be in the hallways and we would there would be everybody sitting in the media sitting there, hair on fire over gambling or something. And the talk in the hallways would be like, it would be you and the occupational licensing stuff, or it would be, oh, man, they're going to make a start labeling seafood or I mean, you just like there's a times would be a disconnect from what was really what seemed to be the most important thing. And when the state would get in place and try to make some changes and do something, like all of a sudden that becomes like all hands on deck, it's really remarkable to watch. Well, it is and you're pushing back against that bureaucracy and it doesn't like it. And so what does it do? It goes and then hires lobbyists to that. And you got to love it. The ability for the bureaucracy to hire its own lobbyists. That is crazy, right? Guys, think about this. They are the government, your tax dollars goes and they find like, and there's some elite caliber lobbyists in Montgomery that you and I couldn't hire, right? And this is what they do. They go and hire these big names and they just they they really work to essentially work leadership, but they're pounding on your door. You watch it. It is remarkable that your tax dollars are being used to lobby government. It's it's it's defensive. There's no other way to put it in. It is hard. There's it is hard. And you saw that last year, you know, it's good. Good government is hard. The, you know, insatiable creep of bureaucracy to have more money, more power, more authority is hard to overcome, especially when they're spending the taxpayer dollar to advocate on their own, the bureaucracy's own, you know, behalf. And it's just it's one of those things that just takes constant pressure. But we're making headway. I mean, I'm not I'm not upset about it. I'm actually pretty encouraged. You watch the actions of contractors, you committee that is constantly pushing back on these folks. You look at the actions of the sunset committee under the directions that Andrew Wilbarfoot and Martin Wilcox, and they've got some banging members, Bubba Underwood, Keith Kelly, that are just, you know, on the, you know, on these folks paying attention to how well these these these boards are running or not running and are really staying on. You see a lot of drama about that. And that's not fun, exciting, sexy stuff. It's just good government, but they're they're making progress. And you see, you see contracts changing and administrative functions of boards moving to different places and the executive director is getting fired, terminated. I mean, there's there's a lot moving. There's a lot going on. There's headway. Yeah, they're not totally just dismissive of the legislature, but about it had to be two years ago to be the middle of COVID. So probably longer than that. When do you remember the effort and maybe you were a part of it to get to give the legislature the ability to call itself in the session? Yeah. And just how people lost, especially the executive branch lost their damn minds. Pots Dacey and I got into it on air about that about and this is his belief. And I don't, I mean, I see it just the opposite that the legislature has so much power. And the legislature is the all powerful branch of government. And this would just totally undermine the balance of power. If you gave the Alabama legislature the ability to call itself into power, or I mean, into session. And that's not true at all. The only thing that you guys have that gives you, I think, I mean, obviously the traditional power to persevering and all that, but you're able to override a gubernatorial veto with a simple majority. I mean, that's that's it. Right. What you say, guys, generally, what you guys in the legislature generally goes. However, back to this, though, like, I don't think it's, I mean, the balance is what the balance is. But I don't think that calling yourself into session or anything would give you any undue advantage. I mean, the governor still is where things really happened. I certainly would agree with that. And I was part of that effort, especially as it related to COVID and shutdowns and things of that nature. I think the important thing to realize that as that bill matriculated and moved through the process, there was a huge hurdle to get over in the number of legislators that had to agree that we didn't come back into session. It was going to be for an emergency in order to reach that threshold. And so it's not like, hey, we decided we want to do something, you know, Brincy bank here and all of us, you know, need a trip to Montgomery or something like that, not far from it. It was going to have to be some sort of serious emergency that was going to require the legislature to come back into session. And frankly, an instance where the governor didn't want to call us back into session, which was probably, you know, it was going to be one of the reasons we needed to come back into session because the governor wasn't doing something that needed to be done. And so that process really needed to go through, but you're correct. The governor did not like that. And and then of course, the lobbying, the lobbying entity, you see that that professional political last year didn't like it. Well, and now that we've sort of like had a time for like emotions to cool off and we're not as, you know, wrapped up in the COVID stuff, I mean, that was, that was really kind of like, I was a perilous time because there was just, and things are still the way they are. Well, I mean, we made some subtle changes, right? But that the executive branch would have so much power and not have any oversight. Well, what if you have Senator, a Robert Bentley situation, where the legislature's not in session. And it's not in session for the until the next year. And there's just something wrong going on in the governor's office. And you can't call you. I mean, is this the way other states, I mean, when y'all were trying to do this, did you look at other states and get the legislature do things? Are you just stuck with a potential corrupt governor until the next session? Yeah, we certainly looked at other states that there, you know, and everybody does it differently. No question about it. Then there are some states with the capacity to do that. What you find is really a different level of urgency, you know, when there's a problem versus when there's not a problem, right? There's not a problem right now. Everything's functioning, you know, fairly well, there's not a crisis. And so, you know, we've got joint, you know, interim committees that are going to meeting throughout the throughout the offseason, if you will. But there's no urgency to get that done right now. And so you don't see it getting pushed. However, obviously, when there was COVID or when you had a Bentley situation or something like that, you know, there was there was certainly more urgency to get in and take care of it. Look, during COVID, we abandoned our principles. No question about it. The government put people out of business. The government locked people up. The government, you know, forced our children out of school. It was, I can't think of churches, you know, close beaches, people's private property discoveries. And you can't go in your front yard because it happens to be at the beach. It's probably one of the healthiest places to be. There are some ludicrous decisions that were made out of fear and because we abandoned our principles. And those are the types of situations that would and the week where we should and we need the ability to call ourselves back in the session. Well, I mean, I know we're beating up the governor again as sometimes we do during this segment, but there was sort of this. This seems to be the case, even for some of your colleagues and probably even you at some point, but they, they just can't wait till the legislature calls it signing dies and goes out of session. It's like, in some ways, you watch this and it's just like trying to run down the clock, right? They're just, they're just on pins and needles until the clock runs out and those guys go home and we can, we can get a breather here. Now, like last session, you just felt it was like, Oh God, they're going to pass a stupid gambling bill. This cannot ensue enough. But like, that's how it is usually always for a lot of what you see in my government. I think you and I have even talked about this before. They are just trying to run down the clock and get out of town. That's true. And it is because oftentimes they like to stay as quote. They don't like folks like me up there causing the ruckus or looking under rocks or trying to figure out, you know, hey, somebody, you know, somebody, you know, get in a contract they shouldn't get or is just the most efficient way to do things. I don't like that. They won't be left alone and continue to do their little thing. So they don't, they don't like us being there. I'll tell you one thing though, if we end up in a situation where Kamala Harris gets elected president, we're going to need to have a special session on immigration. That's going to have need to happen in November and not that. Oh, elaborate on that real quick. I mean, I think I think we need if she if she gets elected president, we need to get moving quickly on a special session to deal with this immigration because it's not going to get, it's not going to get any better. We're talking revisiting HB 56, right? We're talking, we're talking a slew of six, eight, 10 different pieces of legislation that have broad support about the House and the Senate to to get ahead of some of the continued missteps of the Biden Harris administration on on on immigration policy. And listen, I hope it's all phenomenal. I hope we never have to be that. I hope president Trump gets elected here inside of a month. And you know, and I could spend November worried about Thanksgiving and traveling to buy involves. But but if not, I'll be I'll be the first one saying we need to get into a special session. We're ready to go. Center Wells, appreciate your time. We'll talk again soon. Thanks so much for having me, Jeff. We're your weekend. State Senator Chris Elliott there. We'll be right back. This is F.M. Talk with O six, five. But honey, now and don't make my browns. Don't make my browns. Don't make my browns. Don't make my browns.