FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - Friday 10-11-24
He asked me how I bought it, I told him I'm already dead, it just smiles, I'll never forget it. Daddy never was, a Cadillac cat, he said something, just glitter and shine. He told us that I love it. Welcome back to the Japore Show. And if I'm talking about '06/'5, thank you for staying with us on this – Let's listen to this Friday morning, something I've been neglecting to do it when I'm supposed to. But coming up on Monday's show real quick, Jennifer Fiddler, my state rep, will be with us. And Del Jackson, the one guest who will be named later, but sorry, another oversight. It looks like three days in a row. I forgot to do the programming note. So anyway, that's for your consumption there. Joining us now, we do this every Friday about this time. He is our returning champion state senator, Chris Elliott, senator. Good morning, are you? I am doing great the great day in Baldwin County. Yeah, so Rubik cutting down at the new facility there. Tell us a little bit about it. Ben Baldwin Preparatory Academy, so finally cut the ribbon on that. It has been active since the beginning of the year with kids enrolled in that school, but just an amazing combination of private industry working with education folks to cut through the red tape and the Edutrat bureaucracy, to do this novel thing called preparing kids students to actually enter the workforce and get a job and get one right out of the school. And so just an impressive concept. You know, again, education folks with the Baldwin County School system really thinking outside the box in conjunction with industry folks and the leadership of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance that really lost in just coming up with the solution. And then a show in it that folks like Will Ainsworth and Arthur Orr and others and part of the workforce package was a new diploma that will allow these folks to graduate from high school with actual fields to go straight to work. It's just very, very impressive. That's good to hear. You know, it's just a, I guess with Baldwin County and a very unique economy, but your education system is able to kind of sit the tone for the rest of the state, I think. Well, that's exactly right. And it's one of the things I talked with Senator Orr of course, who's the education budget chairman and Senator Chesting, who's the head policy chairman of the Senate. And I told him, you know, and again, Governor Ainsworth, who's been very, very supportive. But I've told him time and time again, look, we're not asking for you to fund this, which is not something they're used to hearing, right? Just take this concept and go repeat it around the state because it will be the thing that keeps Alabama growing. The economic development questions we get are not about our great business environment. They're about our workforce. And if we can point to facilities like this that are churning kids out, we're ready to work. You know, the sky is the limit from an economic development standpoint. And then from a private standpoint, these kids are ready to start their own businesses. A lot of them are coming out with a two-year college degree. Maybe in business administration or, you know, something along those lines and an HVAC certificate. And so they're ready to start their own small businesses. They'll have no debt and college debt and they'll just be ready to go. It's really set back to the business. Let's get into this. Well, there's two of these we've got to get on. And I will start out, A-D-V-A, the back and forth between that board, the governor. I don't know if you were able to hear Pete Raim, or if you even heard Todd Stacey on this show talking about it. Todd thinks that you guys in the legislature are just going to overhaul this entire thing. And I don't know if maybe that's wishful thinking or maybe it isn't. It seems like a heavy lift at minimum to just rehaul this agency. What do you think is going to happen there? Your assessment is probably correct. I mean, we are going to look at boards in general, but this is not necessarily an occupational board part from it. This is different. I would not surprise me to see the governor try to push the legislation that gave those appointments to that board directly to her without recommendations from different veterans groups. That will have huge, I think, pushback from those veterans groups in particular districts, which would make it as you point out a very heavy lift. But the whole thing just surprises me. It really does for the governor to get this personally involved in something like this is odd, I think. But I will tell you what she is, you know, call it hard-headed or call it strong or, you know, persistent or whatever you want to call it. But once she gets something in her mind, she usually follows through no matter what the battlefield looks like afterwards. I mean, to me, we'll just talk about the politics. Now, she's a little lame-duck governor. There's no, like, real downside. She has a sweat, so she's going to lose her next election or something. But the brand, ADVA, whatever's going on with end of bureaucracy or whatever. I mean, the people are known entities throughout the state, I think, that serve in that capacity. However, it's just the governor versus veterans doesn't seem like a very wise storyline to even dabble in. Well, it's odd and it's nuanced to have to get in and figure out what really went on here. Was there really anything, you know, any long doing going on? And it's something you have to spend a lot of time in there, even research deployment opinion and just kind of wonder, is there not something better to be, you know, focused on here? And, you know, I think all of this stems around an ethics complaint and, you know, it's just the same way. And you just wonder why, with all the other things, recreating ball and preparatory again to be statewide, you know, and really moving the deal while we're spending, you know, the governor's precious time on something like this. How much of it is, like, mental health versus VA? I mean, that's what it looks like to me, the state agencies, that is. And I don't know what, you know, the motivations are. You've heard of, I'm sure, Senator, about contractors and all of that and the fight over money, but it does, it looks like a turf war to me that we see throughout government on a regular basis. It is, and it's always for, I mean, and I guess that's what makes this so unremarkable to me is, you know, it's not anything new, one agency wanting money over another agency. This is not, again, this is not remarkable and I don't think it arises to the level of, because it is the day in, day out, appropriations fight. And this happens between every agency, every day, and I just don't under, I don't, I'm not following why this has risen to gotten so personal that it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Let's move on from that, you break it up a little, by the way, but the other thing that's come up, this, you and I are talking about it off air, and I don't, I mean, I kind of have an idea where you are on it, but the legal ads and newspapers and I'll not telling us that, you know, a mistake, what was a seemingly a harmless mistake, but it wasn't harmless in the end, just an omission of an ad. And based on the way our state bid laws are and legal notices and requirements, cost of state, at least according to Alnot, $1.76 billion. But I mean, you can see where it would change bids, and especially now where you got to move on these projects, or you're going to get called in that supply chain, or even labor or a crunch. But what do you think of this? Is this a turning point in this whole discussion about the way we do our legal advertising in the state? Well, I think it is, and look, to get the legislature to move on something, you oftentimes have to have more than just a good government argument, right? It almost, it has to be a problem, you have to show that it's a problem, and oftentimes you have to show that you're either losing money on it or stand up, gang some significant efficiency. And so I think what happens here is not anything new. It's just shining a light on the fact that these arcane methods of advertising for legal notices and bidletings are fraught with problems as well, and that we need to update the way we do those things. The small independents, the weaklies that are hanging on still printing things, good for them, I think, provide a valuable service. But it is very much the way we're doing things now, and have been since the '60s is very much a subsidy for these small weekly papers, I'm just calling what it is. It's not an efficient way to distribute information. It's not an efficient way to get the legal notice requirements for public works contracts. And the only reason it stays is because it supports these small local papers. It subsidizes these small local papers. And we've been in cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year, millions. And then when there's a mistake, costs even more millions. And so it's past time to look at this again, and I think these examples just provide the catalyst, if you will, to demonstrate what can happen to taxpayers when these things go wrong. Well, what would be alternative be? And I can only imagine this. And this was when Andrew Sorrell first tried to do this, and he got shredded. But it was like, well, not everybody has access to the internet. We can't make it an internet-based entity. Okay, fair enough. But I want to sit here. I bet you a lot of places in the state, Senator, don't have access to a print newspaper. I mean, I just think there's more readily available internet than there are print newspapers, to be honest. Well, look, everybody's got access to the internet. It may not be fast, and it may be on your phone, but there's not anybody walking around that doesn't, if they wanted, have access to some internet. And certainly not somebody who's reading legal notices or bid documents, you know, for an Audi project. That argument just doesn't hold water in my mind anymore. At the end of the day, you probably are looking at some statewide database that effectively provides the public notice, right? But we don't end up with a snack, like we had in Corda, but effectively provide the notices that need to be out there. And does so in a fraction of the cost, because what you see too often is the small independent out there, realizing they're the only game in town. And they're the only place this notice can be run, and so they jack up their costs to basically hold the government hostage in providing these notices that are required by statute. It's just a silly way to continue to do things we need to evolve with the times, and we need to make sure we end up in a spot where we're not beholding on some of these small independents getting it right. And then when they screw up, getting the taxpayer getting left holding the bill and costing billions. Yeah, and I, you know, the other part of this, Senator, and these people, the Alabama Press Association, I mean, you talk about turf wars and just really the hill to die on. That's what this is going to be. If you guys decide you want to change this, I mean, I don't know how much stroke they have, though, anymore. I think what do you got to write a mean op-ed into Monroe County Journal? And that's going to, like, really turn the tide against, I don't know, Greg Albright or whoever Thomas Jackson or whoever is representing that up there. I mean, I just, I don't, I don't know that they are quite as where they once were. I guess there's some publications, one that I work for that does have some stroke, but I think as a whole in the state, that fear that they were going to come after you. If you touch this money, it may just kind of be more of a dare I say a paper tiger. Sorry, you know, you, you know, you look at the land yap and the Gulf Coast News and all of those folks are great publications and they provide a great service. And, and I think that you would be successful. There's just a declining readership in the delivery format that they use, right? It's just how things change. And I think that instead of making the argument, don't take our government subsidy away from us, figure out how to be a better part of the solution and change with the times and understand that the way we deliver, you know, information has changed. Both of those publications that we've talked about have online presence and all of that is, all of that is them realizing that not everybody reads all sorts of, you know, newsprint anymore. They read on the internet. They read on the phones. They read on social media. You know, in business, you evolve or you die. It's, it's not complicated, but, but to make the argument that we need to maintain a very expensive public subsidy for these folks to continue to do things the way they've been doing. And again, ineffectively sometimes, and a great cost to the taxpayer, they did a bad argument to make and not one that I think will be successful long term. What do you think the mood is at the State House or something like this? It's hard to tell. Now, your, your colleague Sam Gavan seems to be kind of in line with you. I don't know. Like, I guess this guy, this guy may have been the sponsor of the bill and, you know, with Andrew Sorrell, that's not has its own issue, but that you get something done, you get something in the hopper like this. What do you think the reception will be? Well, look, you know, there are members that have great relationships with their small independents, and they want to protect those folks. And again, I don't have anything against any of those entities. But I do think that when you're able to point, as we are here, to specific instances where, where ineffectiveness on the papers, the half has led to multi million dollar errors that have cost taxpayers. Millions of dollars, I think that the attitude to change a little bit and really shine a light, not only on the lack of efficiency, but the cost when there's a screw up. And so I think you put the two of those together and you turn members a little bit better than just making an efficiency argument a lot. Yeah, I agree with that. I just, like I said, there's a lot of different people in the chamber now. How many people really rely, it's a good mix, right? There are, there are districts where the newspaper and like Billy Beasley District or something. I mean, it's still kind of, that's, that's to go to source, but like in Mobile or in Birmingham, especially like you're going to the Hoover Sun anymore. I don't think so. Well, I mean, you take a great publication like the Trussville Tribune, right? And our friend Scott Butler, I mean, you know, they do a fantastic job and, and that is all well and good. But, you know, again, I think we need to, I think we need to encourage them to change with the times. Our buddy, our buddy Scott Butler doesn't, he's not eligible to run those legal ads, so he doesn't even get the government subsidy. Well, he's, he's your, he's your template out there if you're listening. Senator, we got to leave it there. I do appreciate your times. Enjoy this weather this weekend and we'll talk to you in next week. Thanks again, Jeff. Have a great weekend. You too. Stay Senator to Chris Elliott. We'll be right back. This is Fib Talk, 106-5. ♪ Long time before ♪