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Sweet. I want to be up
for a baby in yo yoga. I'm

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that I'm bad of the bowl,
bad of the bold, bad the bowl.

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I thought the Cunningham a little bit
of a flat has developed involving the

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funding how many rooms to have in
the new hotel next to the Duke Energy

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Convention Center. And Alicia Reese,
who's been a city council member, of

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vice mayor, a state legislator and
now the county commissioner, is crossing the

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horns with some and we want to
go right to the source of this to

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see what's going on. And Alicia
Reese, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham

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Show. And Alicia, can you
tell the American people what happened between you

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and those who want to build this
new hotel next to the convention Center.

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Well, Willie, thanks for having
me back on. You know. I'm

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I said when I ran and since
I've been down there, that we're going

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to fight for the taxpayers. And
you know, and it's been so resistance,

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you know, when we ever,
whatever, we stand up and what

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has happened, As you know,
I was also the deputy director of Tourism,

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so I booked conventions and brought conventions
and some of the toughest times,

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so I kind of know what they're
asking for. But the Millennium Hotel was

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down before I got elected, and
it was fifty five million dollars in debt

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to take it down, and the
taxpayers were told, we're going to replace

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it with a headquarter hotel that will
be able to draw more conventions. So

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we lost eight hundred rooms, and
so we gotta get eight hundred rooms in

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order for us to just be even
for what we've been doing. And there

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was a lot of talk about the
hotel when we had the World Cup.

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We would trying to chase the World
Cup. But when the World Cup said

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is not coming anymore, all of
a sudden, the hotel is kind of

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on the back burner, and the
expansion to the Convention Center has been on

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the front bird. And I've been
asking the questions because they're talking about two

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hundred million dollars for the convention Center, and I said, well, if

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it's expanded, I've got a few
questions, and I've got some questions about

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the hotel, And every time I
bring up these questions, it's been this

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attitude. Now I don't know what
what's happening. You know how things were

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going before I got there. But
what I'm seeing is that people are coming

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in to the county and they want
a rubber stamp. If you ask a

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question, they get angry and it
gets downright disrespectful. And what I'm saying

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is that there will be as the
president of the boarder commission, there will

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be respect for the taxpayers, and
there will be accountability. And so I

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don't care what other I mean,
evenutes first, it's not forward to guess

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that I wouldn't want them to disrespect
Doomas, Commissioner Doomas or Commissioner dree House.

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This type of attitude and behave is
unacceptable. And I've told Jeff A.

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Luto, who is our spokesperson for
the county. I don't know what

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message he's given back, but he
should not be allowing that when someone comes

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to the county and they ask if
for taxpayer of money, and he puts

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a meeting together and has me each
of us and we have to meet separately.

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But I'm in meeting with him and
we've got this type of behavior.

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I asked them simple questions, how
much additional exhibits square footage will we get

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for two hundred million dollars. I
got four different answers by the same person.

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Well yeah, hold on, Lesha, are you are you blaming Jeff

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a ludo the county minister Steve Leeper
of three CDC. Let's put the cheese

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on the cracker who is not performing
as you consider appropriate. I want the

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cheese on the cracker. I know
you do well. The meeting was set

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up by our administrator to meet with
this elite for a three CDC. And

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let me say it's nothing personal because
I voted for us to even form three

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CDC over what twenty plus years ago, But it's gotten out of hands when

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I see they're owning all the properties
them and the port authority. And then

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when you look at these projects,
we're using taxpayers loopholes, taxpayers incentives,

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abatements and at the end of the
day, they don't even pay property taxes.

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And we're at a time right now, Willie. As you know,

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people got those letters not because of
county, but because the state has said

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you got to reevaluate a state law. As people in these evaluations are going

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to go up. People got a
letter in one hand and on the other

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hand you got headline saying a billion
dollars or of development getting ready to happen.

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Now, Now, Alicia, on
that point right at the question,

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on that point right there that you
referenced pac Man Jones for the first time

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ever, there's three female else and
two African American women on the county commissioner

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and you're being told, you're saying, know your role and shut your mouth.

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Now we know what to do here
and you don't have a particularly important

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position. Is that the message you're
receiving from from Steve Leeper and three CDC,

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know your role and shut your mouth. Well, you know me,

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Willie, You're not gonna tell me
know my role to shut my mouth.

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I've elected by two hundred and twelve
thousand, three hundred and sixty three people

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who told me to come down and
represent them. But it does seem like

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it's been a climate of rubber.
Stantley get to the county and as you

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know, I've been fighting against it. And on one end of our administrator

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sends a letter to us saying that
we got a forty million dollars gap,

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which you know, as you know, I'm gonna be sitting but at thirty

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percent rebate again for the homeowners just
in time to say we can't do it.

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Yeah. But then on the other
side, you you come in and

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you let it outsider who has not
been elected come into our county. Uh

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talk any kind of way. We
ask questions, KA can't ask no questions,

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get real nasty and you know,
we're not gonna do business like that.

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And that's what I told Jeff Ludo
and he sat there, but you

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know, we has to sit a
message and if he didn't send it,

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I had to sit. We're not
gonna do that. We're standing up for

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the taxpayers. We're going to ask
the questions. You can't answer the questions

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that we can't move forward. How
do we move forward with two hundred million

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dollars and we don't know how much
exhibit space? How do we move forward

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with a hotel? You're telling us
eight hundred rooms, but then you did

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but you applied for a grant for
only six hundred and seventy five rooms.

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And when I ask you about it, you know it gets ugly and that

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has to stop. We can't.
We can't business like that. It's disrespectful

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to the taxpayers of Hamilton County.
Do you think race and gender play a

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part. Well, what I can
say is that, you know what the

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thing that I said, that type
of behavior, if that was done and

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it was you know, an African
American in the room behaving like that,

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uh, you know, there would
have there would have been a different response.

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And we've got to have had this
game by one set of rules.

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I'm elected by all the county uh
taxpayers who voted for me, and we've

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got to have some respect. And
I was very disappointed in that. So

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you're not going to be a rubber
stamp for three CDC. I'm out of

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rubber stamp for anybody. And I
have a I have a concern that there's

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a monopoly happening, uh and at
the taxpayers are funding it. You've got

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two or three entities that's got control
of all the property. I said,

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what happened to the private folks that
used to invest. We've got all these

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entities that are unelected that don't have
to pay taxes, don't pay property taxes.

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And then Grima over there, her
house is going up and she can't

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hardly afford to pay the taxes because
she's paying for all these uh, all

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these other things that don't that don't
pay taxes, they got government loopholes and

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those kind of things, and so
when I bring those up, you know,

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it was almost like the audacity of
you to be questioning us, and

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I'm asking, you know, we
got to change that. I'm not going

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to tolerate. Of course, the
big deal is going to be the Bengals

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and that lease, which is up
in about two years. I can't believe

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thirty years have gone by. A
thirty years ago, you were probably still

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in high school or grade school.
Thirty years have gone by, and I'm

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thinking, you know, what does
this portend difficulty with the Bengal lease.

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If the commissioners are perceived to be
simply a rubber stamp, well we cannot

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be see as a rubber staff.
We have an obligation for the taxpayers who

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put us there to try to get
the best deal for the taxpayers. And

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I just want to make sure that
this doesn't become a pattern of activity.

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We were busting up, this pattern, were not known come running down to

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the county and acting that way and
think that we're gonna just turn over the

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bank, We're gonna just open up. I even asked the question. I

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said, we were in the bank
and this behavior happened, what would have

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happened at the bank, they would
have called security. You know, this

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is not the way that we sit
down and do these type of deals.

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Now we understand things get heated and
those kinds of things, but the total

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disrespect. And that's why I said, I said to the administrator and I

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was disappointed because he invited me to
the meeting and to have this type of

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behavior is unacceptable. And as we
go into these other negotiations, I think

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we need to be clear. I
don't care if the commissioner is for it

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or against it. Neither one of
not one of the commissioners, whether it's

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Doomas, whether it's Three House,
whether it's Reese. It should not be

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tolerated. We might disagree on the
issue, we might vote a different way,

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but you know, come on now, we're going to ask questions.

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At least I know I. How's
the negotiations? At least your Reese?

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How's the negotiations going? A little? Bertie told me the Bengals lace is

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not going well? Is that correct? I wouldn't say it's not going well.

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We are just really getting getting going
on it. We are gonna have

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a meeting the Administrator is now putting
some dates for us to have the meetings

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so that we can articulate some of
the things that we'd like to see as

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we move forward. I've been very
clear on those things. I want to

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diversify the funding model. I want
the NFL to put some skin in the

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game. I want the state to
put some skin in the game, just

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like they did in Tennessee and other
places. And then you know, we've

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got to both places. That's thirty
three percent is the going rate of the

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taxpayers investment with us, it's ninety
six percent. So we've we've got we've

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got to negotiate some things. But
I wouldn't say it's not going well because

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it hasn't really gotten going because I've
asked the administrator to let's start, you

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know, pulling things together so we
can move with a calendar, and everybody

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agreed to the calendar and we can
start moving forward. Of our goal is

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in every negotiation, I go in
sing, how can we get a win

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win? But we can't have a
win win. If you think you gonna

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come in and bang the table and
stand up and you know, start getting

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disrespectful, We're not gonna It's not
gonna go, well, we got to

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vote, come in and saying,
listen, we might disagree, but it's

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gonna be respect on both sides because
I'm gonna be sending up for the taxpayer.

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I'm not sending up, Alicia Rees. I'm standing up for the taxpayers.

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And that's what i was elected to
do. Now, Alicia, as

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far as your reference to pack Men
and Jones, are you saying that Steve

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Leeper actor like pac Man Jones or
are you saying you want to be treated

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details Now, I'm saying that when
African Americans come in and they have that

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type of behavior, it would not
have been tolerated if the role was reverse.

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And I'm saying we're gonna play it
by one set of rules. It

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was gonna be respectful. And I
was disappointed that that that went that direction,

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and I was invited to a meeting
by the administrator and it went that

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direction. I'm saying, we're not
going that way. Did the other did

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the other two commissioners feel the same
as you feel that the entire commission was

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shown that disrespect or just you,
well, we can't talk to each other.

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You know the rules. You know
the rules. You can't talk to

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each other. So they were not
in that particular meeting, but I made

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it clear on the floor. The
reason I wanted to make it clear was

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if they were not just this time
or any time, I would not support

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anyone talking to them and being them
being disrespected, even if we disagreed on

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the issue. I wanted that to
be clear. So you want to send

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the message there's new sheriff in town, Well we got a new sheriff mcguffy.

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I'm not the Sarah, but what
I am saying that the days of

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rubber staffing, the days of coming
in here and don't not being questions and

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acting like you're too good to be
questioned, the days of putting a taxpayers

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to the back, is we're putting
the taxpayers to the front. And it's

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very important, Willie, with everything
going on, because if we don't ask

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the questions and we go forward with
all this stuff. They're talking about a

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billion dollars of development, a lot
of it with taxpayer incentives and taxpayer loopholes.

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Then when we start talking about thirty
sent to rebate to the taxpayer on

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their property taxes, then they start
saying they they're broke. They start saying

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we don't have the administrator start saying
we don't have any money. We got

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these letters in the mail where the
property tax may go up. And I'm

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telling you, I'm looking at everything
as fight like hell for the homeowners who

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are bearing the most of the brunt
of these type of deals. Now you're

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making too much sense. But get
my best to your dad Steve and telling

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me raised a good girl. Thanks
Willie. We go keep fighting. I

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call it respect for the taxpayers.
You sound like a Wretha. Rspect.

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Find out what it means to me. Rspect. I can. I can

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hear your mother singing that song right
now. D I said, is to

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say, bring me my theme songs, bring it to me. Where's Alicia?

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I loved in my life and I
got a boogie? All right U

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Alicia Reese, thank you for filling
in the blanks. Thank you very much.

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Thank you, will and Alicia Reece. Let's continue with more. There

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it is and we'll see what happens. Know your role and shut your mouth

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as an attitude that's going to work
anymore with this commission on news radio seven

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hundred w l Dow. At First
Financial Bank, we have four point seven

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five percent apy on money market accounts
and high rates on CDs