 So I'm here with Alison Wright who's that commissioner of district four. And so you're running for re-election. I am. I am. I am not finished. I think we have a lot of projects going right now with this current team. I'm really excited about the current team that we have with the mayor and commission. Um, you know, I've only had like a year and a half with Kelly as the mayor. Um, so that's really quite new to me. And I think our team is getting, we're, we're working well together. We're dynamic and productive with the different inputs from everybody. But, um, so I want to continue, well, I've got this year to continue, but I want four more years so that we can finish some of the big stuff that we've started for the community. Okay, great. And, um, so what do you feel is your biggest accomplishment during your last term as commissioner? Oh my gosh, my biggest accomplishment last term. Well, I think it would be the, um, the anti-discrimination stuff. I think that that was in that last four years. So when the UGA students called me and they said, we're having some discrimination issues downtown, I was naive. I said, okay, I want more details to, so I understand what you're talking about. Why don't you get your group? This was an unorganized group. This was an SGA and, um, I met them over at the Tate Center and I said, well, why don't you get your group to put together some details? Maybe what they might remember of these incidents, where it happened. And when I got the 17 page letter, I mean content and the details that were very clear, they knew when, where, what had happened. I was, I was floored. I was embarrassed by my naivety that things like that were still happening or end in our town. So, um, when I got that, I shared it with the other commissioners. One of them said, oh, I've had that for three weeks, that information or which surprised me. But I came to that meeting, uh, pretty shaken from it and probably was one of my strongest, I don't say a whole lot at the end of the meetings. But that one, I was like, we've got to do something. We've got to do something now. And so that started a whole lot of the anti-discrimination the resolution came about from that that we had done quickly and then the other things that we have put together for reporting discrimination. We've only had one successful penalty for a bar for it. So we still need to finish and refine the reporting process because things are still happening downtown that shouldn't be whether it's for the service industry or the patrons. We want to make sure that everybody's treated equally, fairly not being discriminated against. And this kind of turned it to a whole office of inclusion and the inclusion office. We've all supported that. And again, we've got a good team right now. And so her work is also helping. And that came from a task force recommendation from what Mayor Denson put in place. And then so we have that office of inclusion, which or looking she's working hard and will come forward with things that we're all eager to learn from. But we don't have to wait for that to improve reporting. I have an idea that we could have a kiosk downtown that would allow people to maybe input a specific situation that happened, maybe even have images that go with it. Because when these things are happening downtown, not everybody wants to go to the police and talk about it. But you can get it out, get it reported so that the follow up could be maybe the next day when it's clear to talk to an authority about it. So what do you feel is either your biggest mistake as commission or maybe the commission has a whole biggest mistake like something you didn't agree with that they did? Well, I like that you said my mistake or our mistake because we do work as a team and I'm not real big on what I did. I think the biggest mistakes that are made that I've made, they're not necessarily like when you make the same mistake twice. So I'm not perfect human. And if I make a mistake, I try to not make that same mistake again, sort of thing. I think that recently some stuff coming out of committee dealing with education and training for staff in alcohol establishments. It got out of committee as a report because we want to cut public input, but it didn't hit the airwaves that way. It came out with a red and black article that we were doing it. And luckily we have checks and balances and it didn't make it to the agenda because when Kelly read it in the agenda setting meeting with Russell as the mayor pro tem and the manager and team that they also felt it needed more time back in committee. So that was a mistake of it coming out of committee with it. Half baked, maybe, maybe half baked. But then we also I was also doing it to get public input. But so there's that mistake and to not do it again. And then to also make sure that when we're in committee talking about it, we get the people we need to talk to about it, that it affects and their input. So if you're reelected, what would your top priorities be for your next term? So first of all, I'm glad that T Sploss and Sploss are over with because that has taken a lot of our time on the last couple of years. But public safety and well-being is kind of the big topic and within that is affordable housing and with the well-being is also the discrimination things. So continuing to work on discrimination, continuing to work on affordable housing with transforming to make sure we have quality affordable housing like we're doing in the North Athens redevelopment address. Right now Clark Gardens is a neighborhood in my district and they have been bought and they're going to be renovated and become better quality. Well, those residents there that I've connected with and I'm now trying to connect with the manager of the new project right now is not the time to relocate. So I want to help them with the relocation and the timing of that. And then that's an example of quality affordable housing to Parkview and Townview are also neighborhoods in my district that are affordable, but maybe not quality. And so work on that as well as I would like to get rid of the outdated no more than two individuals that are related in single family. But to do that, we need to address the problem that happens with that. And that's loud and unruly houses. And that is also been assigned to LRC. So I can see where that could also rise up as a more relevant assignment now so that if we have a mechanism in place for people to report a bad neighbor, then we can address that and that people don't need to that people need to cluster together right now more than ever. People might need to merge households to be able to afford what's going on with the unemployment right now. Issues. So anyway, I think that that's those kind of work hand in hand for those two topics. Yeah, about the budget and everything that's going on right now. So like the first draft that the manager put forward was like very optimistic. I thought I thought so, too, the big rocks that we had. Yeah, so I think that you saw how we felt about that. I didn't think it was a good time to be adding new positions. Although I because it is public safety, I am looking forward to what can come together to help us retain and recruit for the police department. The new chief is helping things. We have 20 recruits, which evidently that are in training now. And we haven't had that many in a long time. Usually we were having we were losing 20 officers at a time. So if we get them trained and then the package to keep them is there without them coming in, making more than who their mentor is or mentee mentee in there, that's salary compression. So that's some of the things that we want to work on, making sure that the veteran police officers are also getting the salary they deserve for years of service as well as experience, because they're the ones that are helping in our community with the community policing strategies. This is kind of a more abstract question, but do you feel this election is more about big issues like social justice and climate change or maybe more about smaller issues like basic government services and amenities or just generally keeping a certain of your constituents and keeping them informed? So we don't get to split those up, Chris. So I do have the work order thing down pat, as far as taking in the input that our constituents come to us about or that I observe to turn in with your more long constituent services side. So that's emails with Jean, the services. My district has pretty good services, but I do want to support the other districts while we're working towards making mandatory proof that you have garbage and recycling services sort of thing. So if we have private haulers, we need to make sure everybody has one because when you're in the service district, you have to pay for it. And I think we're naive to think that people aren't littering or dumping their trash when they don't have service. And maybe we could get to where people could share the service. Some areas, some neighborhoods like your street, there's more roll. There's hardly enough curbside room for all the roll carts that you need. And it could be that, especially maybe seniors could maybe neighbors could share a roll cart because they wouldn't even have enough to fill one and but they have to pay. So if we can continue to look at the creativity, just like we're doing now with the resilience package, we're looking at creative ways to solve problems. But if we keep those creative problem solving strategies going, and I think we're going to need to back to what you're saying, the budget. Because, yeah. OK, so my next question is about taxes. Just asking everyone how they feel about taxes. So do you think our local government is adequately funded right now? And if not, how would you change that? And are there some taxes that you like or dislike more than others? Well, as a homeowner, I pay property taxes. Not everybody pays property taxes, but I also have a very good understanding from being an elected official since 05 from the school board to hear how it's used. And if I'm part of using the public funds from property taxes, I guess I might feel a little bit better about paying them than somebody who maybe isn't as involved. People who don't send their kids to our public schools, maybe, you know, that's a big chunk of what they're paying for, but they're not using the services. So making sure people are satisfied with the services that they are getting from property tax revenues. Now, the other revenues, you know, Hotel Motel is my favorite to diversify and use in creative ways. I think we've done a better job about that. We've got our commitment to the classic center and what's going on there to go with the splost package. But those numbers, you know, one penny brings in two. Before now, one penny would bring in two million dollars was what we were averaging in splost. So I got that from East Bloss because I'm on the citizen oversight for that monthly reports. But the numbers that are now going to be happening until we get to the other side of this pandemic, we have to work around that. That being said, we're likely going to need to reevaluate, speaking of budgets, the T-splost and splost project list. Again, what we thought four months ago should be the project to do right away. I hope and I'm advocating that we have a work session to to address the community needs and possible. I think we'll need to reprioritize because those those pennies are coming in and they have to go to projects that are on the list that the voters voted for. But I don't know that we voted on specific order. Yeah, I didn't know that the commission got to vote on the order, but I guess you have somebody has to vote on that. It's finally our turn. I mean, you know, we did the part about allocating funds for the judicial center and things like that. And we did go ahead and get the bonds at a very low rate for starting things. But again, reshuffling that it could be that the affordable housing needs to happen sooner. So why should voters choose you over your opponent? Well, first of all, I've been elected. How many times now this will be my seventh and I've only had an opponent once and now it's twice. And I want to thank Michael Stapore for putting his name in the hat because I'm so busy doing commission work and studying research that look at us. You know, I'm having to summarize my thoughts. I'm having to explain myself and a campaign will make you do that. But I didn't say why they should vote for me. You're right. I was just talking about why. So, well, I think experience is the main thing that I can capture with this comparison if somebody's comparing Michael Stapore. And I'll let him speak for himself. I don't know much about him, but when you do your interview with him, then folks will also hear these same questions and the answers to those. And I think my connectivity in the community I've got, I came here as a working, a single young professional, been as the young married without children, married with children, went through the whole school district. So, and the connectivity you get with children is priceless. And then my sons, Lucas and Shoal, the connectivity I still have with them and their friends and Shoals at UGA now and Lucas is in the service industry. So my connectivity to that kind of work versus the kind of work I do, I've got that and everything in between that I think it's gonna serve me and the community because I'm accessible to both sides of stories, which I think helps us make a better solution. Is there anything that you'd like to talk about that we didn't get a chance to cover? What did I have down here? I said, well, I think I wanted to highlight the resilience package and how we're using the prosperity, I call it the resilience package because it's the prosperity package money that we're starting off with that. And I think that the priority that we are set with with the resolution on making sure people aren't being displaced or disturbed. We're talking about sheltering in place. We don't need people to then also have concerns about losing their shelter and improving shelter. We're doing. I heard at the last meeting that the invictions were sort of. They're on hold. On hold until they're married. The judges did that. The judges have done a lot. There's details about people who are in jail that are within a certain time of being released. Let's go ahead and release. And this is also where that thing is about people shouldn't be in trouble when more than two unrelated people are in a household because right now somebody is released, needs to go home to a home base that might have a nuclear family where people have clustered together. I don't think we're enforcing that ordinance right now, but it is out there. And I did have four young men in district four that got, they were told they had to leave. And in my last term, he was just horrified. He goes, I didn't do anything wrong. And I said, what was the landlord that did the wrong thing? By taking four of you in when it was not allowed. And code enforcement allowed him to finish the semester. But still. And so I think there's work to be done on that respect with, I think the number is 30% of the single family residents are owner-occupied. That leaves a whole lot of rental houses. A whole lot of rental houses. So making sure the houses are quality and meet and are giving people the kind of environment we want. And I think our neighborhoods are good for people with children. And sometimes, you know, there might be two young families, maybe two single moms that wanna join their families just to help each other. Or maybe three, or who knows what? And that's another reason why I think that that ordinance, we can get rid of that. And then the resilience package that we're working on. And I think, Chris, we've covered everything else. I think so. Awesome, well, thanks for doing this with me. All right, cool. Thanks for having me. Or coming.