Speaker 1: Scott's flung here seven hundred other You know, most people
Speaker 1: you want about the insides of seven hundred to be
Speaker 1: at the work here. I'm learning something new about my
Speaker 1: predecessor here, the morning man, Tom Brenneman, Tom and h
Speaker 1: Tom Brenneman. He really likes to stay hydrated. He has
Speaker 1: two giant Yetti mugs in here. Each one of these mugs,
Speaker 1: by the way, forty eight ounces. He has two of
Speaker 1: them ninety six ounces of fluid, and they're both empty.
Speaker 1: In a what he's in He's in here for four hours,
Speaker 1: five hours. That's a lot of liquid. Tom has a
Speaker 1: stupendous bladder. I'm going with that. Hopefully it's not all coffee,
Speaker 1: because that's a lot of coffee. Man, Almost one hundred
Speaker 1: ounces of Coffee's a lot of coffee, and in that
Speaker 1: short of sitting. Nonetheless, I ain't judging. I ain't judging.
Speaker 1: We got some news here in solving the city of
Speaker 1: Cincinnati and the battle of our security cameras. As you know,
Speaker 1: they allotted in the fall one hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for security cameras are supposed to go up, and
Speaker 1: of course, did we have security cameras know around the
Speaker 1: park where the eleven year old girl was killed on
Speaker 1: New Year's Day at Laurel Playground, and of course two
Speaker 1: years prior, same thing where told cameras will go up
Speaker 1: and they did not. And city Council is doing a
Speaker 1: deep dive on this. And joining the show this morning
Speaker 1: would be council member Mark Jeffries. Welcome, Mark, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well, Thanks Scott.
Speaker 3: Do you think one.
Speaker 1: Hundred ounces of liquid in a five hour period is excessive?
Speaker 2: I have that. Let me tell you. I wake up
Speaker 2: at before the morning, I have a bunch of coffee.
Speaker 2: My dad is Dutch. I think they're the most. They
Speaker 2: drink the most coffee of any people. So I'm a
Speaker 2: four to five cups coffee person today, so I have
Speaker 2: no problem with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but one hundred ounce that's not four or
Speaker 1: five cups, it's forty or fifty.
Speaker 2: Cups a lot. That's a lot.
Speaker 3: Damn.
Speaker 1: Let's say he's like his own. This bladder's like its
Speaker 1: own separate dunkin Donuts. For crying out loud, let's get
Speaker 1: into the security camera issue. You guys have met about this.
Speaker 1: I know folks in the West End communit leaders are
Speaker 1: a little skeptical about whether increased surveillance selects of reduced
Speaker 1: crime in the neighborhood. But at least you know I
Speaker 1: have you have eyes in the skies, you can apprehend people,
Speaker 1: maybe making people think twice about this. As you investigated
Speaker 1: and exhausted this, I think a lot of people are frustrated, going, well,
Speaker 1: we gave you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You
Speaker 1: had millions and millions that we're going to spend on
Speaker 1: public safety, and we're supposed to have cameras in and
Speaker 1: nothing happened. How can you put in a context what
Speaker 1: occurred here not just on New Year's Day, but two
Speaker 1: years previously when another young person was murdered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple things on this, Scott. So, First, the
Speaker 2: folks in the West End actually want cameras, and there's
Speaker 2: Pastor Legley Jones and African American leader. She has been
Speaker 2: leading an effort to put cameras in more areas. So
Speaker 2: people there, I don't care where you live in the
Speaker 2: safety you want in the city. You want safety, period.
Speaker 2: So we did allocate the money. What we have a
Speaker 2: commitment now from Chief Henny about two weeks ago was
Speaker 2: at least six of the twelve camera's been put up
Speaker 2: already in the West End. He put a temporary one
Speaker 2: up immediately right after the shooting. So he has those,
Speaker 2: he has a commitment to fix ninety nine total or
Speaker 2: implement ninety nine total within a month. And so I
Speaker 2: think we're about two weeks out from that and he's
Speaker 2: putting the pedal to the metal. Really appreciate his leadership
Speaker 2: to make it possible. This is like you said, it's
Speaker 2: eyes on the ground. It doesn't prevent it may not
Speaker 2: prevent the crime. It may somebody who's like, oh crap,
Speaker 2: I might get caught. They may me twice. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: they don't know where it's at. And not just the
Speaker 2: West End. We need these in Price Hill, We've had
Speaker 2: incidents in Pryce Hill. We need them around the city.
Speaker 2: Eyes on the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, as I put in the context here,
Speaker 1: to me, it's not about I don't think it's going
Speaker 1: to stop someone who's hell bent on mayhem, because yeah,
Speaker 1: let's face it, these murderers, these thugs are out there.
Speaker 1: They ain't thinking twice about anybody else but themselves. And
Speaker 1: to think that they'll go, well, there's a camera there,
Speaker 1: they may second, get shooting someone saves.
Speaker 3: This is probably not gonnappen.
Speaker 1: But what it does is it gives us a better
Speaker 1: opportunity to get those people off the streets and behind
Speaker 1: bars one.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. I mean, I think people who might
Speaker 2: be stealing something might think twice yeah, yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 2: kind of who's shooting somebody? It really doesn't give give.
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 1: I mean, we got people driving like not. We had
Speaker 1: Bengals players driving like knuckleheads, two hundred miles an hour
Speaker 1: up and down the street.
Speaker 3: There's cameras all over there. They don't care about it.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if that'll do it.
Speaker 1: But again, justice for these two babies, because you know,
Speaker 1: good luck finding the person who actually fired the shots
Speaker 1: there without the help of cameras as well. So all right,
Speaker 1: does that give constituents and Mark Jefferies a little bit
Speaker 1: more peace of mind because you're going on, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you know two years ago he said put cameras, and
Speaker 1: we got money for that. We just you know, you
Speaker 1: have like five million dollars for more more security and
Speaker 1: Cincinnati bigger police budget. We just had another one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand doves for cameras and people are going, well,
Speaker 1: where's the damn cameras? How can you assuage people's fears
Speaker 1: but also give them confidence that we're actually going to
Speaker 1: move ahead and do what council said they're.
Speaker 3: Going to do.
Speaker 2: I think we kudos to Interim Chief Henny who said
Speaker 2: I will get this done in four weeks. And I
Speaker 2: think when the four weeks are up, we say, okay,
Speaker 2: have we done it? Yeah? And it's little steps like
Speaker 2: that where we build trusts that you have to do
Speaker 2: what you say you're going to do. And so about
Speaker 2: two weeks from now, we're going to be at that
Speaker 2: clock and we need to look at it and say, Okay,
Speaker 2: we implemented what we agreed that we would.
Speaker 1: I'll circle back because you know, I was speaking the
Speaker 1: money and Greg Lansman just got what over a million
Speaker 1: dollars to expand the surveillance system. So there's even more
Speaker 1: cash flowing in now.
Speaker 2: Yep, no much needed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and that's a good thing. I know, more
Speaker 1: cameras up is going to help law enforce and do
Speaker 1: their jobs. It's not going to stop a knucklehead or
Speaker 1: some a sociopath, hell bet on murdering someone and you know,
Speaker 1: spring bullets are not carrying that. One finds an eleven
Speaker 1: year old girl who's doing nothing but enjoying the first
Speaker 1: day of the new year in a park, regardless of
Speaker 1: what time of day it is. That's just it's intolerable.
Speaker 3: It's what that is. There's something else going on.
Speaker 1: I think this is interesting because the key to maybe
Speaker 1: stopping some of this crime anyway is getting them young
Speaker 1: and get them interested in other things, something to do
Speaker 1: a distraction. We've known for a while that youth football
Speaker 1: teams in Cincinnati there's been issues obviously playing at CPS
Speaker 1: fields with crime and speaking of violence and the like.
Speaker 1: But it's also extremely cost prohibitive because the team has
Speaker 1: to foot the build out and for the run of
Speaker 1: the field, but also security. In a lot of youth
Speaker 1: football teams don't have the budget, don't have the means
Speaker 1: to be able to do that stuff, and that is
Speaker 1: certainly an urban problem that you don't have in suburban
Speaker 1: rural areas. That said, though, I like the idea that
Speaker 1: the city is thinking about opening a few fields.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, look, youth football, it's,
Speaker 2: as you know, it's about teaching discipline, teamwork, resilience. It's
Speaker 2: about giving kids structure, purpose, a place to belong and
Speaker 2: the lessons the kid learns in there. It's about accountability, leadership,
Speaker 2: and that outlasts any of the games, right, and so
Speaker 2: we know that those are life lessons, and especially kids,
Speaker 2: you want to keep them out of trouble from a
Speaker 2: disadvantaged background or a family. We want to put them
Speaker 2: to a productive activity. We have dedicated baseball fields in
Speaker 2: part thanks a lot to the Reds. We have dedicated
Speaker 2: soccer fields, thanks in large part to f C Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: We don't have any dedicated youth football fields, so we
Speaker 2: asked the city to hey, look with since I wreck
Speaker 2: commission at different fields where it might be possible. We
Speaker 2: also have the police academy down in Lower Price. OK
Speaker 2: about if you have a game literally right outside of
Speaker 2: a police academy, that's as safe as he gets. So
Speaker 2: we need to identify these fields to give kids an opportunity.
Speaker 2: I mean, every kid deserves a access to safe, positive
Speaker 2: programs in youth football, you know, no matter where they live.
Speaker 1: I know that Spinny Field is under consideration, as is
Speaker 1: the Old Mercy site in Westwood.
Speaker 3: Do you have any other sites picked out that may
Speaker 3: be open to this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, and we were
Speaker 2: looking at that. You could probably host two games at
Speaker 2: a time. They're the other piece of it is we
Speaker 2: want a area that's secure. In other words, it's got
Speaker 2: a perimen around it, you know, so folks have to
Speaker 2: go through security and you know, and that also allows Look,
Speaker 2: these are all volunteers. All the people who do this,
Speaker 2: they volunteer their time to coach these kids. They take
Speaker 2: money out of their own pocket pay for equipment, and
Speaker 2: you know, they try to recoup some of that cost
Speaker 2: through admission tacts and parents come and that's more difficult
Speaker 2: if you have an open field. And so those are
Speaker 2: some of the criteria.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense, and you get you know
Speaker 1: a few of them anyway, and we know that there's
Speaker 1: a direct line between reducing crime powered all those things.
Speaker 1: If you can keep kids engaged in school, in doing well,
Speaker 1: or in extracur sports, they tend to not behave as
Speaker 1: badly because they're involved in those things.
Speaker 3: We know that to be a fact now.
Speaker 1: And expanding those programs you mentioned the Reds, you mentioned
Speaker 1: FC Cincinnati A the Bengals open.
Speaker 2: Have you approached them yet I have been talking to
Speaker 2: the Bengals Scott for about a year and a half.
Speaker 2: I have asked them repeatedly to invest in If you
Speaker 2: think about the Reds, it's over a million a year.
Speaker 2: I say Cincinnati's over a million a year. The Bengals
Speaker 2: did donate thirty thousand dollars in equipment. I've been pushing them, like,
Speaker 2: do split the pot for having's sakes? I know in
Speaker 2: Saint Louis they do split the pot, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean you don't have to fund anything. You literally it's
Speaker 2: all funded, half of which by the fans. And that
Speaker 2: could really help a lot of the youth sports. And
Speaker 2: so I've been pushing them. I think, you know, it
Speaker 2: should be something that they invest in. It's investing in
Speaker 2: their fan base, investing in the community, investing in these
Speaker 2: kids who a lot of whom might become future football players.
Speaker 2: So I've been encouraging that and hopefully continue to push
Speaker 2: to make that possible.
Speaker 1: Have they been receptive to hearing that or is it lipser?
Speaker 1: I mean a year and a half a long time.
Speaker 2: I have had several meetings with them, living with folks
Speaker 2: in the youth football, and they keep saying that they're
Speaker 2: looking at it. I'm hopeful that you know, I mean
Speaker 2: to the to my point, you even don't have to
Speaker 2: donate money of your own pocket split the pot. You know,
Speaker 2: you have all the games. You could probably at least
Speaker 2: get two hundred and fifty thousand plus dollars from that
Speaker 2: and then invested right back in your sports. So I'm
Speaker 2: continuing to push. I think it should be their obligation,
Speaker 2: as you know here in the city, to invest in
Speaker 2: youth football.
Speaker 3: Mark Jeffreys, are you calling out the Bengals right now?
Speaker 2: I am asking for their help to be the partner
Speaker 2: that they need to be in the community.
Speaker 1: I'd say you're calling them out, and you know what,
Speaker 1: I say, Good for you pushing on.
Speaker 2: This for a year and a half, and I believe
Speaker 2: in pushing the private but at some point, like come on, guys,
Speaker 2: everybody else does.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, they never bowed to public pressure.
Speaker 1: They do they want to do, and that's that's the team.
Speaker 1: You can't tell them what they want to do with
Speaker 1: their own money. But but hold on just a second.
Speaker 1: We know that Charlie Frank and the Red's Community Fund,
Speaker 1: I think it's the platinum standard in Major League baseball.
Speaker 1: I've talked to Charlie and he's going. He goes to
Speaker 1: other cities. I ran him in the airport I think
Speaker 1: last year, and he was off to Boston to consult
Speaker 1: them on how to expand their community involvement. And so
Speaker 1: the Red's Community Fund that the mission there is to
Speaker 1: raise all this money to build youth urban the Urban Acabinet,
Speaker 1: all these youth fields and everything else, and they're involved
Speaker 1: FC and Jeff Birding saw this and said, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's a great thing to reinvest in our community because
Speaker 1: they get a lot of heat because they're expanding in
Speaker 1: the West End. You know, there's the Brian Garry's the
Speaker 1: world that they're screaming about, you know, gentrification and running
Speaker 1: poor people out of the neighborhoods. All want and good,
Speaker 1: but you know, there's no tax base. They're bringing the
Speaker 1: tax money back in is going to pay dividends. And
Speaker 1: then of course when you do things like this where
Speaker 1: you have you know, urban but also suburban soccer leagues.
Speaker 1: You know, you soccer in the area surrounding Cincinnati's massive
Speaker 1: and FC partnering and opening those fields and getting training
Speaker 1: programs together for young people pays dividends not just for
Speaker 1: the community and the kids, but also for the team
Speaker 1: itself because you have built in fans and then at
Speaker 1: some point the Reds and FC hopefully have young people
Speaker 1: that wind up playing soccer or baseball and wind up
Speaker 1: playing for the hometown team. That's a great story. So
Speaker 1: those teams are doing it. The Bengals are not. And
Speaker 1: the question would be it can't possibly be because of money.
Speaker 1: It's not a money issue. I wouldn't think, or maybe
Speaker 1: it is, but those two programs I mentioned pay for themselves,
Speaker 1: so they're almost They're self funded, is what they are.
Speaker 1: And it's good for the brand, it's good for the team,
Speaker 1: it's good for the community. Our other two major leagues
Speaker 1: sports are doing it.
Speaker 3: The Bengals won't one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: You said it better than I could, Scott. I mean, look,
Speaker 2: at minimum, they should be doing something like book the
Speaker 2: pot that doesn't cost them a penny a penny out
Speaker 2: of their pockets. At minimum. I think it should be
Speaker 2: something that can more to what FC Cincinnati and the
Speaker 2: Reds do. And you know, I've been pushing on that
Speaker 2: and you know will continue to push on it because
Speaker 2: I think it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 3: Mark Jefferies.
Speaker 1: You know the other thing too, is we just built
Speaker 1: agreed to a taxpayer expense to redo pay Course Stadium.
Speaker 1: It's going to cost Hamlin County commissioners approved what four
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy million dollars for renovation, and that's about
Speaker 1: seventy four percent the Bengals, the NFL, and the hook
Speaker 1: for twenty six percent. Hamlin County is going to pick
Speaker 1: up seventy four percent. It's a lot better than the
Speaker 1: deal we had last time around the nineties. But when
Speaker 1: you look at other stadia around the NFL, that's not
Speaker 1: even I mean, there's some stadiums that are forty or
Speaker 1: percent or more funded by the team, not the Bengals.
Speaker 1: So they're taking money from Hamlin County and taxpayers. You
Speaker 1: think maybe a little kickback, if you want to call
Speaker 1: it that, to the kids, to the youth, to maybe
Speaker 1: build a couple of football fields. I don't know, what's
Speaker 1: that going to cost? A million dollars out of three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars out of the billions at
Speaker 1: the Bengals raake in seems like it's not that high
Speaker 1: a bar for them to jump over. We're talking I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, FC is doing it and MLS money, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: is nothing compared to NFL money, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at minimums got they should commit to
Speaker 2: five hundred thousand, which would help operating costs for that's
Speaker 2: like equipment for these kids. We need to make sure
Speaker 2: these kids are the right equipment right. You know, if
Speaker 2: you have a helmet that doesn't sit, you know, can
Speaker 2: get a concussion. And these are little pee week kids,
Speaker 2: you know, five six, seven years old. We've got to
Speaker 2: make sure that the kids are safe, they have the
Speaker 2: right equipment, we have coaches for them, all those security,
Speaker 2: operating costs and build in the fields. I think they
Speaker 2: should commit to funding at least happening million, which is
Speaker 2: not it's a drop in the bucket. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 2: what even what the Reds or FC does, but it's
Speaker 2: definitely progress. And if we can get them to commit
Speaker 2: to that, I think, you know, our kids and they
Speaker 2: would be better offward.
Speaker 3: Now it's good for the community too.
Speaker 1: You can't force someone to spend money on something that
Speaker 1: I want to, but the option is because they are terrible.
Speaker 1: Considering we just approved another contentious stadium deal and the
Speaker 1: team is terrible. You think you'd want to do something
Speaker 1: to make me lift your image up, unless, of course
Speaker 1: you don't care, and then that would mesh of course
Speaker 1: with things like not taking the snow off the seats
Speaker 1: during a playoff game and everything else that's going on
Speaker 1: down there. So I don't know what drum they beat
Speaker 1: beat the beat of the drum they listened to is
Speaker 1: you got me? And much smarter people than myself have
Speaker 1: tried to answer that question and failed. So I look
Speaker 1: at this as going the Bengals. I think calling them
Speaker 1: out is a good thing. Have you talked to it
Speaker 1: all to the county commissioners because the deal was struck
Speaker 1: not by the city but the county relative to funding
Speaker 1: the stadium with taxpayer money. Is this something the county
Speaker 1: and the city can partner with to try and get
Speaker 1: the Bengals to maybe cooperate a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have. I know that the county there's still
Speaker 2: a community benefits agreement that they're negotiating with the Bengals.
Speaker 2: So I'm not in not pervy on what those negotiations,
Speaker 2: but I have encouraged this be a part of that,
Speaker 2: and so hopefully as part of that community benefits. Agree
Speaker 2: as the county's negotiating with them, I have encouraged investment
Speaker 2: in youth football in particular, it could be a part
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: Do you need a contract to do this? I mean,
Speaker 3: may hear go?
Speaker 1: Okay, the negotiating a deal and the community impact all
Speaker 1: this stuff. Should they just do it because it's the
Speaker 1: right thing to do.
Speaker 2: Oh, of course, Scott. But you know it's not happening.
Speaker 2: So you know some things that are happening. My you know,
Speaker 2: when I was seventeen years of P and G, like,
Speaker 2: my belief is you he's only a private You try
Speaker 2: to encourge them in doing that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and now you're going to publicly shame them. So
Speaker 3: and sometimes that works.
Speaker 2: You know when you're not you're not doing it, then
Speaker 2: come on, let's let's let's push on all angles.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, te here's a council member, Mark Jefferies,
Speaker 1: really putting it out there for us, a smarting Mark.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time. And also I agree one hundred
Speaker 1: percent with your sentiments here. You can't force someone to
Speaker 1: spend money. But you know the Reds do this, FC
Speaker 1: does this. Why the hell aren't the Bengals stepping up
Speaker 1: and helping out with these youths football fields, and it's
Speaker 1: good for the brand, it's good for the city, it's
Speaker 1: good for everybody, especially when you get, you know, hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars to redo pay Course Stadium and
Speaker 1: the product sucks.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thanks again, I appreciate it. Scott all right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: all the best man there you go. Are you blown
Speaker 3: away by this?
Speaker 1: Maybe not surprised, but the fact that he's been working
Speaker 1: for a year and a half behind the scenes to
Speaker 1: maybe get the Bengals to help build some football fields,
Speaker 1: I mean two or three football fields. You look at
Speaker 1: how many baseball fields the Reds Community Fund has redone,
Speaker 1: It's countless, and not just in Cincinnati but around the
Speaker 1: whole region as well as Kentucky and Indiana. Plus the
Speaker 1: other programs you know, knuts All, the field of Dreachy.
Speaker 1: You've got all these programs that they do, and that
Speaker 1: is the platinum standard. I mean, the Reds can do it,
Speaker 1: FC can do it. Why aren't the Bengals doing it?
Speaker 1: Are you surprised by this? I don't think I am.
Speaker 1: In the context of what we're talking about five three, seven,
Speaker 1: four nine, seven thousand, quick time out more to follow
Speaker 1: Sloany seven hundred wlwt