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Speaker 2: Fifty five KRC the talk station. Seven oh six. Here
Speaker 2: at fifty five kr CD Talk Station. I'm very happy
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Speaker 2: dot com. Get your podcasts, get the books and the
Speaker 2: authors I interview like yesterday's Captain Elkanna Cohen with the
Speaker 2: book October seventh. He's a captain with the Israeli Defense Force.
Speaker 2: And the conversation I'm getting ready to have right now
Speaker 2: Jonathan Pearson. He's running for Hamilton County Commissioner and he
Speaker 2: is running against Alicia Reath. Jonathan, Welcome to the fifty
Speaker 2: five KRSE Morning Shows. Nice to have you on today.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Brian. I appreciate he's giving me time.
Speaker 2: Happy too. And I guess I'm a little befuddled. I
Speaker 2: don't I can't find you anywhere online except that you
Speaker 2: are running for Hamilton County Commissioner. The Hamilton County Republican
Speaker 2: Party website doesn't have any profile information. I can't find
Speaker 2: a website. Do you have a website that people can
Speaker 2: go to?
Speaker 1: Hey, don't have a website. I'll have to check with
Speaker 1: the for the County down the event. I am using
Speaker 1: it through the Hamilington County Party website in that one,
Speaker 1: I need to make sure that I have that clarified. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I my page that I didn't get that rectified.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just because when I click on Hamilton Kunty
Speaker 2: Republicanparty dot org site for you, they have you listed
Speaker 2: as an endorsed candidate. But when I click on about
Speaker 2: the informations is candidate's qualifications for office seeking slash background
Speaker 2: and experience just as under development. So there's no substance
Speaker 2: of information there, So maybe we can get some out today.
Speaker 2: What are your qualifications for office seeking? Jonathan? Your background,
Speaker 2: part of town you from? Why are you run for
Speaker 2: Hamilton County Commissioner? To dive through all that today, Well.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm from the Fairfax area. I live in Facts
Speaker 1: and you know, the short version of why I'm running is,
Speaker 1: I'm just tired of what we're seeing. I moved here
Speaker 1: in eighty four from Springfield, Ohio and other great city
Speaker 1: as you can see in the current news. But I
Speaker 1: was just tired of what's going on. We used to
Speaker 1: be affordable. It isn't. I don't know what happened to
Speaker 1: this county. We went from being a modest taxes modest
Speaker 1: home prices to seven point eight sales tax to property
Speaker 1: taxes that you and I both know are both crazy
Speaker 1: right now. But my background is that I had run
Speaker 1: golf courses and then started running private estates and up
Speaker 1: in Indian Hill we subdivided a private estate that I
Speaker 1: worked for. Was a property manager and became the site
Speaker 1: foreman for that. And after we subdivided that, I became
Speaker 1: my own businessman because I decided I wanted to run
Speaker 1: my own company and started taking care of some of
Speaker 1: these very expensive properties. Got to meet a lot of
Speaker 1: different people that both famous not famous, but got used
Speaker 1: to working with a lot of people, a lot of
Speaker 1: different things, and working for an immense amount of money property,
Speaker 1: so should I say, And it made me understand how
Speaker 1: to manage that kind of money, sure, and that was
Speaker 1: something that I enjoyed doing.
Speaker 2: Understood business experience is important, I believe because it's real
Speaker 2: world experience.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing that I was that you know, what
Speaker 1: I learned is how you communicate with people and get
Speaker 1: people to understand what you're trying to do and you
Speaker 1: understand what they try to do and you're not sitting
Speaker 1: there arguing with them, because that's really what started this
Speaker 1: whole thing. Back last summer, if you remember, there was
Speaker 1: a meeting with the Convention Center and Alicia Reese came
Speaker 1: out saying that it was you know, racist, and it
Speaker 1: was you know, like pac Man Jones, And I was like,
Speaker 1: what did that have to do with anything? It was
Speaker 1: just a racious trope that didn't need to be said.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of money on the table
Speaker 1: the Convention Center at one hundred and twenty million. When
Speaker 1: they're arguing that point, obviously people get a little testy,
Speaker 1: and either she doesn't know that or the fact that
Speaker 1: she just wanted to make a racist trope. And that
Speaker 1: offended me as a Hamlet County resident. It offended me
Speaker 1: because I'm expecting my elected officials to just handle the
Speaker 1: fact that when you're dealing with a lot of money,
Speaker 1: people get a little tested. I've had that happen in
Speaker 1: my own business, people like, hey, wait a minute, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the words they say aren't exactly kind. He just
Speaker 1: learned to deal with it. You don't sit there and
Speaker 1: go make a big statement and you know, Splanner somebody else.
Speaker 1: So that was really what offended me. I thought, we
Speaker 1: need people that can deal with that. Feels a little
Speaker 1: bit better. But more importantly, we have some serious negotiation
Speaker 1: dollars coming up.
Speaker 2: Yesterday, I guess the stadium deal.
Speaker 1: Well, the stadium deal. I mean, you saw those numbers yesterday,
Speaker 1: A little, a little stiff one.
Speaker 2: Point five bill for improvements, Jonathan, you can build a.
Speaker 1: That's the budget for the county. Yeah, we're we're taking
Speaker 1: think about this. We say, you know what, Hamlin County,
Speaker 1: Let's take the entire budgets for our county and slap
Speaker 1: it on one area. That sounds like a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, before I privately owned business, effectively.
Speaker 1: For a privately owned business, because in my business, I've
Speaker 1: never had the county buy me a single piece of equipment.
Speaker 1: They've never bought any of my trucks, they've never bought
Speaker 1: any of my mowers. They've never bought any of my
Speaker 1: hand tools, none of my power tools, none of that.
Speaker 1: So based on that logic, how much are we supposed
Speaker 1: to buy for somebody else? Good point, that's really what
Speaker 1: the question comes down to, you know, put some skin
Speaker 1: into games.
Speaker 2: I certainly viewed as defensive myself, but then again, I
Speaker 2: thought the building of the stadium for half a billion
Speaker 2: dollars was ridiculous and shouldn't have been the taxpayer expenditure either.
Speaker 2: But when you have the threat of the Bengals pulling
Speaker 2: the plug and leaving town, I suppose it's more important
Speaker 2: to be in NFL football town than it is to
Speaker 2: you know, take a look at what the where the
Speaker 2: money's going and why the taxpayers are being asked to
Speaker 2: keep it. But that's all been done and over with
Speaker 2: water under the bridge. But now they're asking for more
Speaker 2: and a hell of a lot more. So that's something
Speaker 2: you're going to have to struggle with. And so where
Speaker 2: what is your position? Okay, Jonathan Pearson County Commissioner, the
Speaker 2: issue comes before you. What's your response to this request? Recognizing,
Speaker 2: of course, than under the current lease agreement, we do
Speaker 2: have contractual obligations. So what do you do as a commissioner?
Speaker 1: Well, as we both know that that was a horrible
Speaker 1: deal from the beginning, So that's that's our first problem.
Speaker 1: But you're right, we have to deal with it because
Speaker 1: there it is. But mind's simple, you know, I think
Speaker 1: from the you know, the reality is that we started
Speaker 1: in the hole, you know, so I'd like to see
Speaker 1: the Brown family step up. You know, they can't claim
Speaker 1: they're poor because they do revenue sharing and when they
Speaker 1: bought the Bingals outright from the Sawyer family, they suddenly
Speaker 1: had two hundred million in the cage to do the deal.
Speaker 1: So it's not like they're lacking in money. And I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not trying to say that we need to
Speaker 1: sit there and just say, hey, let's let's oviscerate the deal,
Speaker 1: because we made it and we have to honor it.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think a business needs
Speaker 1: to step up and be that business for themselves, and
Speaker 1: so I would like to see a lot more skin
Speaker 1: in the game from their sides and then take an
Speaker 1: honest look at it and see what it does. Does
Speaker 1: it does the other things that they're talking about actually
Speaker 1: have value to the county residents as it helped the
Speaker 1: downtown area. Those type of things. Are they public use
Speaker 1: areas that we can all look at and go, okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense or is it strictly Bengal only oriented
Speaker 1: stuff exactly?
Speaker 2: And that's that new corporate office facility they're building in
Speaker 2: front of the new practice stadium that they're built, or
Speaker 2: a practice field they're building, and to the best of
Speaker 2: my knowledge, none of which benefits us generally speaking, unless,
Speaker 2: of course, they're going to make an argument that, well,
Speaker 2: everybody that works there is paying tax dollars into the
Speaker 2: kind of the coffers of the city. But I'm not
Speaker 2: quite sure that cuts it for the rest of the
Speaker 2: Hamilton County voters.
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't because we lost Hilltop and the process
Speaker 1: of putting up some big inflatable balloons so they can practice.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm finding that the
Speaker 1: Bengals are here. I have a problem with the fact
Speaker 1: that we kicked out a well established business. Yeah, to
Speaker 1: do that that did not benefit the Hamlin County residents
Speaker 1: by getting rid of a very large employer and taxpayer.
Speaker 2: Excellent point, you know, Jonathan Pearson. I forgot about that,
Speaker 2: but it's a great point. Let's pause from it down.
Speaker 1: We make money in this county, we don't. I'll have
Speaker 1: to keep adding taxes. Let's add businesses.
Speaker 2: Hey, there's the thought, Jonathan Bierce that hold on, We're
Speaker 2: gonna take a break right now. We'll come back with
Speaker 2: Jonathan running against Alisha Reese. You have choices this November.
Speaker 2: Let's make spart Ones. He has been endorsed by their
Speaker 2: Hamilton kind of Republican party. We'll get more from Jonathan
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Speaker 1: Com fifty five KRC.
Speaker 2: We're just ours. Here's your CHANNELINE weather forecast. It's going
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Speaker 3: ingramok fifty five KRC The talk station.
Speaker 2: Seven twenty year fifty five KRST Talk station. Bryan Thoma's
Speaker 2: talking with Jonathan Pearson, running for Hamilton County Commission against
Speaker 2: Alicia Reese. All right, Jonathan, here's a quick question for you.
Speaker 2: Started off and ask you know why you're running. Everything's
Speaker 2: gotten sadam expensive in Hamilton County. No one can deny
Speaker 2: that it's obviously a problem that's pervasive in our country.
Speaker 2: But when you look at the surrounding counties and you
Speaker 2: look at where people choose to do business, they tend
Speaker 2: to lean more Butler Warren in Claremont than Hamilton anymore.
Speaker 2: How do you level the playing field? How do you
Speaker 2: make Hamilton as attractive as apparently Butler Warren in Claremont
Speaker 2: County seem to be, And what do you think their
Speaker 2: draw is over Hamilton County.
Speaker 1: Well, the one thing that we've got to do is,
Speaker 1: as you know in the Commission's office, we can't change
Speaker 1: the tax walls. But there's nothing like a bully pulpit
Speaker 1: they get the conversation started. I mean, I'll use the
Speaker 1: sales tax alone. We added that stupid point eight percent
Speaker 1: for the busses, and you know they're also full. When
Speaker 1: you drive around town, you see the bus is completely
Speaker 1: full being used and everything else. Because obviously that money
Speaker 1: was needed, not to mention they got a sixty two
Speaker 1: million dollar grant from the government last year too, on
Speaker 1: top of that tax, if you didn't know that. And
Speaker 1: so we're we have all this extra sales tax that's
Speaker 1: going in there, and it makes people think, geez, my
Speaker 1: product's going to be that much more expensive if I
Speaker 1: sell it within my area. Here's a crazy thing about
Speaker 1: sales tax. I can go to Claremont County buy all
Speaker 1: my new appliances for my kitchen, and the money I'll
Speaker 1: save on sales tax will deliver them to my house.
Speaker 1: That's just stupid. We need to start reconsidering certain things.
Speaker 1: Hamlin County has a lot of very nice residents, so
Speaker 1: they vote yes on two any things, and that's the challenge.
Speaker 1: We've got to get people to rethink they're taxing themselves.
Speaker 1: As for the appropriation are the moneys for the property taxes,
Speaker 1: that can be done by having a county auditor. Tom
Speaker 1: Brinkman is running for that that actually looks at the
Speaker 1: true value of homes instead of saying what's the maximum.
Speaker 1: We can run this too. I know there's a constitutional
Speaker 1: reality that we have to evaluate homes, but the Constitution
Speaker 1: of Ohio does not mandate that you maximize every single
Speaker 1: penny and start squeezing people out. And that is one
Speaker 1: of the big things that I think people find is
Speaker 1: that just the tax structure alone is a little tough.
Speaker 1: When you have your home in a community and suddenly
Speaker 1: your taxes are up an extra thousand dollars. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they didn't go up in Warren County in Butler County,
Speaker 1: but not to the same proportions because per land value,
Speaker 1: Hamlet County does have expensive land comparatively, and so the
Speaker 1: property taxes will be a little bit higher. But we
Speaker 1: don't need to start taxing to that extreme. And I
Speaker 1: say that with great understanding because I live in the
Speaker 1: Merrimont School District which is one of the highest tax
Speaker 1: areas in the region.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And so believe me, my tax bill tells me you
Speaker 1: live in the Marrimont School district. And I think that
Speaker 1: those are the things that we can work on from
Speaker 1: the bully pulp that, so to speak. There the practical
Speaker 1: matter is first and foremost. Just because a dollar comes
Speaker 1: to the door doesn't mean we need to spend it,
Speaker 1: and we don't need to you know, look at everything
Speaker 1: and say oh, that's a good project, this, let's do that,
Speaker 1: and those type of things. The first thing that Adam
Speaker 1: and I would like to do is to take a
Speaker 1: look at that budget and say what's redundant, get rid
Speaker 1: of those immediately, What do we not need to spend
Speaker 1: money on, or are we spending too much money on?
Speaker 1: Actually look at the budget instead of just saying, oh,
Speaker 1: the administrator said this is okay, and not actually look
Speaker 1: at it. I mean, that's what the commissioners are elected for,
Speaker 1: to actually look at the budget. I'm not convicted that
Speaker 1: that's happening, that there's a true understanding what they're looking at.
Speaker 2: Well, the silence think that the silence from the Commissioner's office,
Speaker 2: generally speaking, is deafening. I rarely read anything about what
Speaker 2: the commissioners are doing and how they're approaching things. And
Speaker 2: there's a lot coming up, Like again, going back to
Speaker 2: the stadium deal, the least needs to be renegotiated. This
Speaker 2: one point twenty five billion dollar request for improvements needs
Speaker 2: to be dealt with, and I know the sheriff's departments
Speaker 2: down on numbers that has to be dealt with. I
Speaker 2: just don't hear anything about where they are on any
Speaker 2: given issue.
Speaker 1: In the sheriff's office. Look at the sheriff's office, the
Speaker 1: largest single budget the commissioners deal with. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: have a sheriff that I'm not sure if she knows
Speaker 1: what she's doing because she has her car stolen, a
Speaker 1: gun that is in her car. You would think that
Speaker 1: the commissioners would have something to say about that, since
Speaker 1: they're the one that appropriate the money too the sheriff's department. Nope,
Speaker 1: not a word from them. And then other things are gone.
Speaker 1: They're they're closing part of jail because they just don't
Speaker 1: have enough deputies. They're leaving the sheriff's office. And this
Speaker 1: is something that should concern the commissioners, not just the sheriff,
Speaker 1: but should concern the commissioners along with all county residents.
Speaker 1: This is an issue that we don't talk about in
Speaker 1: mine is complete transparency. You want to walk through the
Speaker 1: building or walk into my office and take a look
Speaker 1: at what the deputies make, I'll show you. I won't
Speaker 1: show you what individual deputies make, but I'll show you
Speaker 1: what the overall budget for all the deputies is. I
Speaker 1: have no problem as an elected official. You want to
Speaker 1: know exactly to the pinny what I make. Here's what
Speaker 1: I make. Transparency, and you know, I'm happy to stay
Speaker 1: in front of a camera or stand with you know,
Speaker 1: sit down with you once a week, just to let
Speaker 1: people know what's going on. It's their money. It's not
Speaker 1: my money to go, oh good, I have a new
Speaker 1: money in my checking account. That's not the way the
Speaker 1: game's played, and I think people forget that. As elected officials,
Speaker 1: we see that, especially unfortunately in the Democratic side, more
Speaker 1: than we do the Republican side. But I think that
Speaker 1: that's the great danger that we're seeing right now is
Speaker 1: those type of things make people not desires to be here.
Speaker 1: What happens is more and more businesses slowly pull out,
Speaker 1: and as those businesses pull out, people pull out. The
Speaker 1: more people you have in this fair county, and the
Speaker 1: more businesses you have in this county by giving a
Speaker 1: reasonable tax structure, suddenly we don't need new taxes. We
Speaker 1: just need more people and more businesses. Were actually making
Speaker 1: more taxes than we need.
Speaker 2: Sounds so simple to do, Jonathan Pearson.
Speaker 1: It is that that's how you work in your own home.
Speaker 1: You're saying, Hey, I don't need a brand new car
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: Right right now, I'm with it. Yes, if we ran
Speaker 2: the government like we run our households, generally speaking, we
Speaker 2: would all be in a much better place, Jonathan Pearson.
Speaker 2: As soon as you get the website up, or you
Speaker 2: get more information, get her over to the Hamilton County
Speaker 2: site so people know where to connect with you and
Speaker 2: learn more. You're welcome here on the fifty five Carson
Speaker 2: Morning Show. I like what you're saying, Jonathan, and I'll
Speaker 2: look forward to talking with you again, and if you
Speaker 2: get elected, I will take you up on the opportunity
Speaker 2: to speak with you on a regular basis about county
Speaker 2: issues since no one seems to be doing it. Good
Speaker 2: luck to both, Good luck to you and Adam Kaylor.
Speaker 2: Thanks listeners for tuning in on that, and Jonathan, we'll
Speaker 2: talk again soon. I'm sure have a great weekend seven
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