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Speaker 1: It's the Ray Appleton Podcast from KMJ and kmjnow dot com. Well,

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Speaker 1: here's the voice you haven't heard in a while.

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Speaker 2: It's me Clint Olivier, straight from the halls of the

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Speaker 2: Business Federation of our beautiful Central Valley to the halls

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Speaker 2: of KMJ. I was happy to get the call today

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Speaker 2: to fill in for the great Ray Appleton.

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Speaker 1: A little bit under the weather, but I know he's listening.

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Speaker 1: Hello to you. Ray.

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Speaker 2: Get back in here tomorrow, but for today, it's just

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Speaker 2: going to be me and maybe maybe an interesting well

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Speaker 2: not because I think I'm interesting, but because we're going

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Speaker 2: to have an interesting conversation. It's a folks, it's all Epstein,

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Speaker 2: not necessarily this show, although I'm going to turn the

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Speaker 2: microphone over to you in a bit. But I mean,

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Speaker 2: that's what everybody is talking about. I think it could probably.

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Speaker 2: I think it's safe to say that it's not going away,

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Speaker 2: and it's gonna be the biggest scandal we've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: Watergate, Teapot Dome, what was it, Whitewater.

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Speaker 2: The Clinton's selling land for some scheme.

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Speaker 1: No, I mean, how far back do you want to go?

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Speaker 2: The Credit Mobil, a scandal of the grant administration.

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Speaker 1: No, this is bad.

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Speaker 2: It's very, very bad, and I don't think it's gonna

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Speaker 2: go away. We're gonna talk about that in a bit.

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Speaker 2: This thing with you watch the news. Savannah Guthrie is

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Speaker 2: she the Today Show host on on NBC. She's a

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Speaker 2: big deal. Her mom is missing. And they're spending a lot.

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Speaker 2: When I say they, I mean media is spending a

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Speaker 2: lot of time on this one.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a who done it? An eighty four

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Speaker 1: year old lad?

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Speaker 2: Just don't they don't get kidnapped for ransom. But I'm

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Speaker 2: guessing they do now. So we're going to talk about that.

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Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom's got some awful thing moving through Sacramento about

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Speaker 2: high speed rail. But there's all kinds of stuff going

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Speaker 2: on and here in the valley too, not just the big,

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Speaker 2: big stuff, but the local stuff and the nuanced stuff,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes we have to get involved. If not involved,

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Speaker 2: we're not waiving signs or donating money, but we have

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Speaker 2: to be aware of some of these nuanced local things,

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Speaker 2: because let's face it, this is the level of government

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Speaker 2: where everybody can make a difference. Your city council, your

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Speaker 2: county board of supervisors. This is where the difference is made.

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Speaker 2: This is where the change is made. We're not going

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Speaker 2: to change things the national level, nothing ever changes, But

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Speaker 2: in Kern, in Kern County, there's a change coming. And

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Speaker 2: I want to bring on a guest. I want to

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Speaker 2: bring on our first guest of the program. His name

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Speaker 2: is Russell Johnson and he happens to serve as the

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Speaker 2: treasurer for Central Valley biz Feed and he's also the

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Speaker 2: owner of Common Sense Consulting down in Bakersfield. Russell, thanks

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Speaker 2: a lot for being with us this morning.

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Speaker 3: Hey Clynn, thanks for having me on. And you know,

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Speaker 3: I got to say, as a recovering politician like myself,

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Speaker 3: and as a recovering media guy, man, you've got a

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Speaker 3: voice for radio.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you, a voice and a face for radio Russell,

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Speaker 2: thank you. And yes, it should be mentioned that Russell

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Speaker 2: is a former Bakersfield City council member in a city

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Speaker 2: where they do it responsibly and I think they make

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Speaker 2: twelve hundred bucks a year to do the job. And

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Speaker 2: that's that's about what a city council member should be making.

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Speaker 2: So hats off to you guys down there in Bakersfield.

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Speaker 2: But what we're talking about, what you're joining us to

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Speaker 2: talk about. Is it's a biggie, it's local control and

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Speaker 2: moving Kern County from being an organization that is basically

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Speaker 2: I would say, controlled, hemmed in and governed by state

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Speaker 2: law and making it a charter county, which is local

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Speaker 2: control instead, and why we need to get behind this.

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Speaker 2: So what's going on down there?

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Speaker 3: So let's look at this and take a step back

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Speaker 3: and examine where we're at right in the valley, not

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Speaker 3: just current County, but in the valley. It's safe to

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Speaker 3: say Sacramento has not been good to us. Sacramento's not

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Speaker 3: been good to us with Sigma. They've not been good

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Speaker 3: to us with the regulations they're putting on our egg industry,

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Speaker 3: with the spray that they the spring regulations they came

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Speaker 3: up with, and the regulations on our on our pesticides

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Speaker 3: to help us grow crops, the water regulations they throw

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Speaker 3: down on us, the trucking regulations and make it more

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Speaker 3: expensive to deliver our fruits and vegetables toup market, the

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Speaker 3: regulations they've choked out the oil industry in California, where

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Speaker 3: seventy percent of that's produced in Kerrent County. They're just

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Speaker 3: and then the assault on business in and of itself.

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Speaker 3: So we can safely say Sacramento has not been good

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Speaker 3: to California.

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Speaker 1: Agreed, and.

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Speaker 3: The Central Valley and Sacramento's values are not our Central

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Speaker 3: Valley values. I think we can easily say that. So

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Speaker 3: current County had an opportunity. Spearheaded by Supervisor David Couch,

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Speaker 3: he brought up the concept of becoming a charter county.

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Speaker 3: So at last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors hearing, so not

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Speaker 3: this week, but last week, they voted unanimously five to zero.

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Speaker 3: The four Republicans on the board and the one Democrat

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Speaker 3: on the board voted unanimously to say, we're going to

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Speaker 3: stick with the rule, we're going to stick with local control,

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Speaker 3: and we're going to become a charter county. Now, what

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Speaker 3: they specifically did is they put on the ballot for

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Speaker 3: the June primary a question for the voters. One do

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Speaker 3: you want to become a charter county? And two if

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Speaker 3: you do. The only issue they wrapped up into that

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Speaker 3: county charter was if there's a vacancy on the Board

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Speaker 3: of supervisors, how does it get filled? Before Currently today,

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Speaker 3: if a vacancy occurs on the Board of supervisors, the

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Speaker 3: governor in any time can appoint to fill that vacancy.

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Speaker 3: Oh right, We have a situation where Sacramento politicians get

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Speaker 3: to pick who serves on the current county Board of Supervisors,

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Speaker 3: which means we get more regulation, we get more choking

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Speaker 3: of our water, we get more people that want to

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Speaker 3: do rent control, we get more people that want to

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Speaker 3: take away our valley values and implement Sacramento values.

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Speaker 2: Well, we end up with some lackey that the governor

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Speaker 2: happens to like, but nobody else likes them, knows who

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Speaker 2: they are, they haven't had to run a campaign, they

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Speaker 2: may not even be qualified some of these people, and current.

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Speaker 3: County doesn't get a voice in that process. So what

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Speaker 3: the current county border supervisors said in a five and

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Speaker 3: zero vote is they said, look, we're putting for the

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Speaker 3: borders to the side. Do you want Kerrent County side

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Speaker 3: who fills our vacant supervisorial seats or do you want Sacramento.

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Speaker 3: That's the question before voters on June second. And we're

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Speaker 3: confident that the majority of Kurrent County residents would rather

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Speaker 3: have Kurrent County set the course. And here's how they'll

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Speaker 3: do it. They'll have two options written into the charter,

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Speaker 3: the current county Border supervisors can appoint the vacancy, or

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Speaker 3: the current county Border supervisors can call a special election.

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Speaker 3: And I think in most cases the current county Border

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Speaker 3: supervisors will call for the special election. And I'll go

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Speaker 3: back and I'll give you an example from when I

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Speaker 3: was on the Bakersfield City Council, which is a charter city.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, and we had an opportunity when Rudy Sallis

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Speaker 3: got elected to State of Sily to fill a vacancy,

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Speaker 3: and that body goes to do a special election and

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Speaker 3: they have a special election to fill that seat, where

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Speaker 3: Willie Rivera then won that election to become the next

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Speaker 3: council member for that seat. I have full faith that

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Speaker 3: the current county Border supervisors in most instances will probably

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Speaker 3: hold a special election, unless there's a weird circumstance where

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Speaker 3: there's like maybe three months left in a term and

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Speaker 3: maybe they appoint for that last three months because they'll

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Speaker 3: be an election happening soon anyhow, So issues like that,

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Speaker 3: I would rather trust Kern County. Whether it's a board

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Speaker 3: of five supervisors who've been vetted by the people, right,

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Speaker 3: who have a mandated the people to serve or trust

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Speaker 3: the voters of Kern County over Sacramento.

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Speaker 1: Poya every time.

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Speaker 2: So okay, So the next question is uh and and

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Speaker 2: just so everyone knows, the the biz FED Advocacy Committee

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Speaker 2: voted unanimously yesterday yes to support this ballot measure which

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Speaker 2: is going to be coming forward down in Kern. Uh.

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Speaker 2: It goes now to the full board for to be ratified.

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Speaker 2: But never mind that, the question is can this pass?

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Speaker 2: Will it pass? I mean, are are you going to

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Speaker 2: be involved with this campaign? Have you done some polling?

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Speaker 2: And what are the odds that that people are going

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Speaker 2: to approve or reject it?

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Speaker 3: So a great question, clink. I think this is for one,

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Speaker 3: it's too new. It just got put voted on last week.

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Speaker 3: Hasn't even been assigned an initiative letter. So in Kern

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Speaker 3: County typically when we have initiatives, they'll be like major K,

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Speaker 3: major L major X y Z. Right, we don't even

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Speaker 3: have a letter yet. That probably will not occur until

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Speaker 3: some time around March first to March sixth, so we

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Speaker 3: expect that to happen at that date. I am organizing

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Speaker 3: the local coalition on behalf of some of my clients

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Speaker 3: and behalf of a pack that I have called Common

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Speaker 3: since Kerr County, which is a small donor local pack

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Speaker 3: which advocates on local issues, and we're going to be

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Speaker 3: heavily involved in raising money for this county charter. We're

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Speaker 3: walking hand in hand with the Board of Supervisors that

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Speaker 3: voted five zero to put this on the ballot, Supervisor Couch.

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Speaker 3: We'll be working closely with him, who's the one who

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Speaker 3: was really pushing this, to make sure that we get

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Speaker 3: home rule and that Kern County gets to decide who

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Speaker 3: represents current county and not Sacramento politicians.

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Speaker 2: Is there a website or is there anything yet? I

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Speaker 2: realize that you're on this thing's hot off the presses

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Speaker 2: and you've come on Camja to talk about it right

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Speaker 2: off the presses. Is there any infrastructure up yet where

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Speaker 2: people can get information or do you want to come

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Speaker 2: back in a few weeks and tell us once it

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Speaker 2: all gets ready?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's way too early for all that we're in

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Speaker 3: the infrastructure development stage. This wasn't even an item that

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Speaker 3: was going to be on the ballot until last Tuesday,

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Speaker 3: So I think in about a couple of weeks we'll

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Speaker 3: have a website where folks can help support this effort,

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Speaker 3: and they can help support home rule, they can help

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Speaker 3: support our local egg industry, they can help support our

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Speaker 3: support our local jobs, and they can ensure that local

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Speaker 3: people get a local voice and who represents us on

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Speaker 3: the current county boarder supervisors. So I would love to

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Speaker 3: come back in a couple of weeks, share that information

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Speaker 3: and be able to help spread this message because it's

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Speaker 3: going to take huge education effort because a lot of

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Speaker 3: people don't understand what a charter county is and what

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Speaker 3: it can do. I mean, think about it from this perspective.

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Speaker 3: If people might not even know that the governor gets

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Speaker 3: to a point in a vacancy, right, and if people

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Speaker 3: don't even understand that, how are they going to understand

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Speaker 3: that this needs to occur. So there's gonna be huge

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Speaker 3: education effort that's going to go along with this. But

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Speaker 3: we're confident that most people would rather have a current county,

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Speaker 3: current county folks deciding who gets to represent them, as

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Speaker 3: opposed to Sacramento politicians deciding who gets to represent kurrent

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Speaker 3: county at the on the border Supervisors.

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Speaker 2: Well, Russell, I'll tell you I've known you and worked

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Speaker 2: with you for many years and it's you're preaching to

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Speaker 2: the converted here and we appreciate it and obviously with

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Speaker 2: biz FED will help you get the word out. Russell Johnson,

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Speaker 2: owner of Common Sense Consulting, former Bakersfield City Council member.

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Speaker 2: He's involved in a lot of stuff and he's always

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Speaker 2: on the right side. So Russell, thanks a lot for

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Speaker 2: joining us this afternoon.

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Speaker 3: Clan, thanks for the time.

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Speaker 2: All right, that was Russell Johnson coming up. On the

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Speaker 2: other side of this, we're gonna get into it. I've

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Speaker 2: been dying to talk about it. It's not a happy topic,

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Speaker 2: but let's do it. On the other side of this,

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Speaker 2: it's Clint Infrarey on News Talk five eighty one oh

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Speaker 2: five nine KMJ