I wish I was crazy.
Crazy people don't worry about any of this stuff.
Don't you see crazy people?
They enjoy their lives so much more than we do.
There's a guy in my neighborhood,
spray paints his car,
all these different colors,
fills the inside up with empty Coke bottles.
He drives in there,
he climbs in there and drives around.
His head looks like a hairy prize inside a gumball machine.
What's on his calendar?
I bet it's a lot more fun than yours.
You wake up in the morning,
I gotta go to the bank.
He's like, I need more Coke bottles from my rocket chip.
Busy, busy day.
I get those guys.
I really do because they basically look around at life
and they're like,
all right, look, life is a game.
I obviously have no chance of winning this game.
I quit.
You get dressed up and go to work every day?
I put peanut butter on my lips and talk to squirrels.
When I was younger,
I used to see the crazy guy outside
and open robe and slippers yelling at the sky.
You know, I used to think,
how the hell does that happen?
Now I'm like, I can see it.
Right?
Because I walk around my own place that way.
The only difference between us,
I haven't gone outside yet.
And I think we're all just three really bad days in a robe
from taking it outside.
Three miserable days.
Lose your lover,
lose your money.
Third day wouldn't even take much.
Just a little geoderant on the outside of your shirt.
Baboon!
When this soul starts getting me down
and people are just too much for me to fail.
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
and all my cares gets drifted right into space.
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
and all my cares gets drifted right into space.
All the room is peaceful as can be.
And there's a world below can bother me.
Let me tell you now,
when I come home feeling tired and sleepy,
I go up with the air to express and sweet.
I get away from the hustling crowd
and all that preparation noise
down in the street.
All the room be old in place I'd know.
Where you guess I?
It's seven away to WRJ and Radio.
I'm Don Rosen,
want to thank for joining us here this morning.
We got some rain on tap today.
Highs near 37,
who would have thunk it when it was minus 11 the other day.
Plotty lows around 34,
tonight 38,
the high tomorrow with rain likely.
And get this next week in the mid 40s.
Yikes.
Right now it's cloudy and 35 degrees
and our second candidate for the fourth district,
automatic district, Dave Mac is here.
And I want to thank you for coming in
and schlepping in on this beautiful day today.
Actually, it's better because yesterday my guest
had a slide on her belly income in the building,
because it was so slippery,
even with salt on the sidewalk yesterday.
How was it in front of your house yesterday?
Pretty bad.
Yeah, it was pretty slick.
I was not what I was expecting when I left the house,
but I guess there were some issues there
with buses and all that other stuff.
I didn't get my newspaper.
I'm sure.
You're in the newspaper.
Yeah, but I'm sure it's because the roads were
as bad as they were.
And I went out a little bit later.
I think I went out about 930 and it was a little slick,
but not as bad.
I guess is what it was earlier.
Now, you're running for the fourth automatic district.
Now, you were an ultimate once before.
Which district were you in?
I was the ultimate of the fifth district.
I didn't move the district moves.
What's going on here?
Can I ask you something?
What is with these redistricting stuff
across this state?
I don't see anybody else having this problem.
Every time a party gets into office,
they want to redistrict.
Why do we do that?
What's the purpose of redistricting moving things around?
Well, every 10 years,
the lines need to be drawn in the based on,
they're based on population.
Population shift.
You know, if the city's population shrinks,
all the districts have to be an equal size.
And so that's why they change.
At the, at the local level for all demanding districts,
they're not based on partisan politics or anything like that.
They're based simply on making sure that each district is
equally divided so that you don't have one district that has
10,000 people in it.
And the other district has 300 people in it.
It has to be equally divided.
And so because of shifting populations and things like that,
sometimes the boundaries move.
When I got on the city council in 2011,
my district went all the way to high street.
And then a year later, it was time to redistrict.
And that move, that line moved to the north.
And the fourth district came a little farther north.
My district went less south than it had.
And then I found out a couple years ago
that all of a sudden I was in the fourth district.
And the fourth district's gone way up, you know,
past school street.
And so it's kind of nice.
So because I have, you know, my neighborhood and,
and extension, but I, I keep the zoo and Lakeview Park
to try and you end down roles in it.
Two treasures within the three treasures within the fourth
district if, if I so win, I always enjoyed being the
alderman that had the zoo in my district,
had Lakeview Park in my district.
The parade kicks off in my district.
And so it's, if I win, it will be an exciting two years
to get back into it and get involved.
And get more involved in the daily aspects of city government.
And I have never left the community.
I've always maintained my presence with the cultural aspects.
You know, I've been involved with the fourth-fest board since 2011
when I got off the city council.
I joined the fourth-fest board.
And so every parade is, as you know,
because you have a front row seat for the parade every year.
You know, I'm zipping up and down the parade route.
And your golf cart?
Yeah, in my golf cart.
I had a chance to service the fourth-fest board president
for two years, which under my leadership,
we were able to accomplish quite a bit.
We rebranded.
We did a couple other just neat things.
Introduced some new fundraisers.
And so I've enjoyed being on that board.
You know, in the past, I've been involved with the Boy Scouts
with Leadership Proceed, which I'm still involved with
for a long time.
I was involved in the Union Summer Festival in Milwaukee,
which was a cultural festival.
You do have Native American background, right?
My grandfather was born on the White Earth Indian Reservation.
I was thinking about this the other day.
I never had a chance to meet him.
He died of lung cancer.
But here was a man that came off the reservation,
looking for better opportunities for himself.
My grandmother here.
He had family in the Racine and Kenosha area.
So it was a logical place for him to settle,
got a job working in a foundry.
And I wonder what he would think, you know,
that his grandson was on our city council
and had was able to achieve, you know, some nominal success.
Now, back up to the redistricting.
Did the populations ship that much in Racine?
Well, see, I don't know what the maps look like
or what the districts look like beforehand.
There's a couple of other variations
that they have to take an account.
Because remember, I remember when we went through the process
after I first got on the council
and there were, you had to balance the county districts.
Also, they all have to fit together
like a jigsaw puzzle.
And so there were several different variables
that played into it in each district
had to fit into this larger district.
Now, we're going to go over some of your resume here
because we have the full hour to talk to you.
Now, you were also, well, let me go through the beginning.
Are you from here originally Racine?
I was born and raised in Racine until I was about 10.
Went to just did a girl school K through three.
Then my parents put me at sacred heart for a year.
And then they bought a little hobby farm
in the town of Summers across from Pets,
adjacent to Hawthorne Hallow.
And so I grew up on this little hobby farm,
had the run of 60 acres as a youngster
which just never was inside the house,
would leave the house in the morning,
would head out to the woods,
and had these adventures,
you know, just exploring.
And then when I took the job
in Racine County in 1990,
I was looking for a house either in Kenosha on the north side
or in Racine.
And we found a beautiful cream city brick house
on the north side of the city of Racine.
And we've been here for 34 years.
It's kind of a local yoga.
It's basically board and race.
And then my family was still here.
My grandmother lived on the north side.
So Racine has always been home.
So a hobby farm,
that would be like somebody,
it's not a real farm,
but somebody who wants to grow a couple of vegetables
and...
My dad had seven and a half acres.
There was four acres in Alfalfa.
And he had a couple horses.
And then over the years,
he had a couple goats.
He had some chickens at times.
I mean, nothing really big,
but some are three times a year
where you were cutting and bailing,
hey, and...
I don't picture you as Farmer Gray out there.
Yeah.
Not one of my...
Not one of my favorite times of the year.
Alfalfa bails are very heavy.
They're very scratchy.
Your arms are all scratched up by the end of the day
because these things are heavy and scratchy.
Well, you know, when I grew up on Long Island,
back in the 40s and 50s and 30s,
it was all farmland out there on Long Island.
And when I was growing up as a kid there,
there was one farm left in NASA County,
it was in Belmore.
And my father was good friends with Guido Foglia,
who owned the farm.
And who used to go down there,
just around the harvest,
whenever it was growing there,
I'm not quite sure what it was growing,
was taller than I was.
So it wasn't really big.
And they used to have this giant thing
for their entire family,
these tables outside, set up,
and they used to harvest whatever they would
and they used to cook it right there.
Plus, they didn't have animals there.
It was an animal farm,
but it was the last farm that's gone now.
It's housing now.
But I remember going to that farm
and I said,
you know, that's interesting.
A farm right here,
and that farm from where I live was gone now.
They don't have those anymore.
So you went to school.
What did you do when you came out of high school?
Well, I went to Carthage College
and took me three and a half years ago
through there because of class overloads
and taking summer school.
And so I started out as a political science major.
I wanted to go to law school,
at least that's what I thought I did.
I wanted to do.
And then I had my political science classes all in
by my junior, start of my junior year.
Instead of taking electives,
I figured out at Carthage
that there were classes within my major
that counted towards electives.
So all my buddies were being steered to math classes
and history classes and all that.
I'm strategically looking at,
okay, what can I get double credit for?
Hold it right there.
We're talking to Dave Mac,
Older Manic Fourth District,
Older Manic candidate for your vote.
We'll talk to more about Dave.
We got him in college now.
He didn't leave yet.
He's still there.
719 WRJ on a civic media station.
All down radio refreshed.
Don't move.
Nah.
Don't see the tears just let me grieve
In private cause each time I see you
I'll break down and cry
You won't go mad
Stop, you won't go mad
Stop, you won't go mad
I just can't get over losing you
And so if I see you, you're broken in blue
Won't go mad
Won't go mad
Foolish pride
That's all that I have left
So let me heart
The tears at the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Won't go mad
Stop, you won't go mad
Stop, you won't go mad
Stop, you won't go mad
This is Chatty with Dave there for a minute about the SC Johnson
Golden Rondale Theatre at the 1964 World's Fair
And I was at it at the 1960 World's Fair
I went in to see the movie they were showing in there
All these places showed movies like the General Motors
Provellion had a thing called Future Rama
I remember you sat in this little thing that took on a ride through the future
If you see it today it was kind of really
Pokey because they had little models set up
He just went through the way the models were
And they were like things flying through the air on strings
It was really Pokey
Kind of like going through some of the exhibits at Disney World
Yeah, envisioning the future
And the people move over and it's so 1960ish
Well, I told his story on the air yesterday
I think it was yesterday the day before
I went to the World's Fair so many times
And one time my parents were with us
And they went to the restroom
And my brother and I were looking at the bone booths they had there
Touched on phones, push buttons
And nobody had ever seen those before
They were debuted at the World's Fair
AT&T had them all over
Actually it wasn't gold AT&T
It was gold the bell system back then
Bell system had them all set up
And my dad came out and said can I make a phone call on those dad
Can I call a gland? Can I call somebody?
And he said don't worry about it
You never going to see those phones
They're just here at the World's Fair
They will never have them in our homes
Of course my father a great seer of the future
Said this is he let us play with it
But we wouldn't let us make a phone call on it
But well growing up I remember you had to pay extra for
Touched on
Yes
And so then I
And then people were able to buy their own phones instead of leasing them
So I bought a touchtone phone
But it had a little switch on the back
That it was either pulse
Or touchtone
And because we didn't pay for the touchtone service
It was on pulse
So we got to push the buttons
But it was did it did it
You know type of type of thing
But we were talking about college
And so I went to Carthage
I get my political science major in
By my junior year
All my buddies now are starting to take classes in their major
What do I do?
So I declare myself a business major
So I can take classes with my buddies
And then I realize
Well, there's some classes within my business major that count towards my
The basics that I needed
For example, I needed two math classes
Will accounting one and two counted towards those math classes
So here I am, I'm getting all those basics out of the way
Core classes that you're supposed to take your
Freshman in sophomore year
And I'm getting them done through the classes
So by the end of my senior year
I now have a political science major
I have a business major
And one of the professors there
Who happened to be a county board supervisor in Racine Gunderson and was his name
He says, David
If you take one more class
The combination of your business class
And your political science becomes public management
So I graduated in three and a half years, three majors
Political science, business administration, and public management
So I graduate from college
And I'm an event in Kenosha
It's June of 1988
And I'm talking to Tommy Thompson and he was in a good mood
And he said, Dave, what are you doing?
I said, well, I'm looking for a job governor
And he says, well, I'll give you a job
And I kind of chuckled
And the next day I get a phone call from his scheduling secretary
And we have a couple of positions available
And finally they settled on one that was based out of Walker Shop
And I ended up spending a lot of time in Madison too with it
But it was working with a fledgling new program called the emergency planning community
And right to no act, Upgra for short
And so I worked for the state for a year and a half helping to implement that brand new program
I wrote the first comprehensive planning guidance for this emergency management
This is emergency management but working with one niche program
And in 1990 the director and received suddenly resigned
And I applied for the job there as I was told over 20 applicants and I ended up beating them out
I was 23, 24 years old at the time
Probably the youngest department had that the county had
And I built a program that garnered state and national recognition over the years
So and that's how you got started isn't it?
That's how I got started in government
Yep, Tommy Thompson, huh?
Tommy Thompson
Yeah
Okay well that's great
Which would explain why when I used to do political commentary here on WRGN
Who did we have call in?
Tommy Thompson would call in
And yeah I'd get a hold on and say Tommy would you when you come on the program on election night
He says Dave, that'd be great
I have a picture with him at the salmonorama here is there
And also he's my Tommy Thompson story
So we're broadcasting from a train, a new Amtrak route
And so we actually brought the radio station on there to broadcast
And I had all the equipment set up on this table where we were sitting
And I get up for a second and the woman is sitting down there
And I said I need to sit down there can you please get up he said well that's my wife
And she's not feeling well now
I just told Tommy the governor's wife to get up
I said well she just moves over just a little bit
So I can sit down in front of the equipment
But there's a picture of him talking to me when I'm sitting down at that table
And telling his wife to get up
It's one of those moments that maybe I should have just let it go
My daughter and I were on the front page of the journal times years ago
He brought county government on the road
Or state government on the road
And he would do this every year, pick a different part of the state
And so I'm holding my daughter
And I'm standing there and he's looking at me
And boom, hit the front page of the paper
Look at you
So now I'm worried because I'm working for county executive Dennis Cornwall
Holy cool
And like he's going to be upset with me
His picture should be on the front page of the paper
Not mine
Hold that one
So I keep it right there
We're talking to David Mackie
He's the candidate for the fourth automatic district
We're going to get his thoughts on services crime homeless
A whole bunch of topics coming up here at WRJN Radio
729 home down to radio refreshed
This is your civic media station and we're seeing WRJN Radio
Ux mic
I've been crying
Because I'm lonely for you
For you, smiles have all turned to tears
But tears won't wash away the fear
That you never ever got a tear
To ease the fire that within you bends
It keeps me crying baby for you
He's me crying baby for you
So won't you hurry? Come on boy, see your thought
735 at WRGN Radio, quick some news headlines
See the stories that Super Tig Wattles
Our news director is watching in the news center
Through at the day 4, it's here at WRGN
Who apartments in Racine
Where members of the sheriff's metro drug unit
Serbs some warrants this week
Local police along with federal agencies
Assisted in the drug bust
At two units of the Wagon Lofts
Departments on 8th street yesterday
A statement says a significant amount of drugs were found
Along with guns and cash
Then we're taken into custody in various charges
Related to drug trafficking and possession
There's no update on the search for a person
That fired shots near a major mountain pleasant shopping center
It was about 4 yesterday when police in the village
Got a call about a shooting near the dollar tree
Near JC Penny and the shops at Prairie Ridge
A suspect vehicle was being sought by police
With a social media statement
From investigators saying there was no danger to the area
They're working on learning more about what happened
Regency Maul and Racine is set to undergo a significant transformation of the coming days
Last week the city council approved a conditional use permit
Where it's redevelopment with crews starting in February to tear down the eastern part of the structure of woodmins
And 300 apartments are coming to that site
The land is expected to be cleared by mid-summer
With a 2025 opening date for the new grocery store
An attempt was made yesterday to get all kids into school in Racine
But the ice impacted that plan
Some Racine parents are expressing frustration after the school bus failed to get their kids to class
The bus company ended up having to return some kids to the bus stop due to the hazardous road conditions
Some parents didn't know their kids were dropped off early
While first student acknowledges that at its communication early in the day could have been improved
The bus business sites unsafe roads as the reason for not getting all the kids to school
And finally graduates of area technical schools will receive assured admission to UW-Mawaki
The new effort is for those who complete their associate's degree at Waukeshau County Tech College
Marine Park Technical College, Gateway Technical College, or Milwaukee Area Technical College
Officials say they now will have credits to transfer seamlessly to the UWM for their bachelor's degree
Some of the stories we're watching in our new center this morning was Stuart J. Wattles
He'll keep you on top of that in more news about the day here at WRJ and radio
David Mack is here, David's running for the 4th Aldermanic District
My days are being announced or are coming to an end real quickly
4th Aldermanic District and he's our second candidate we're interviewing here
Let's talk about some of the things and we'll get back to more of the bio later
But I want to get these in here
Services in Racine, how are we doing here in the 4th District?
Well, you know we can always do better. Racine is a community with a lot of potential
And I've lived here all my life, I've chosen to move back to Racine when I took a job working for Racine County in 1990
My wife and I have lived on the North side for 34 years, raised our family here, we have our grandchildren here
And we could have moved at any time, there was nothing holding us to Racine
And you hear a lot of people that talk about oh I can't wait to leave Racine
There's nothing to do in Racine
I love it here
And I agree, this is my community of choice, I love Racine, we have a lot of potential
You and I both live a couple blocks off the lake, we can hear in the morning the waves hitting the rocks
And we can hear the monkeys at the zoo
And you're the lion roar
The lion's roar
You know, when I took walks with a dog in the morning, here are these lions roaring out there
And so, you know, we have a lot of great things in this community
We have beautiful homes, our historic homes, our historic downtown
But yet we also have problems we need to address, we have issues out there
One is I think the property tax burden is too high on the average family
We need to find a way that we can maintain adequate services
While also not overburdening the property taxpayer with that
And so that's a huge challenge out there
One of the problems that we had this past year, last couple of years has been balancing the budget with those COVID relief funds
And at some point what they've done is they've created a structural deficit
So at some point the city is either going to have to make major cuts
Or they're going to have to make come up with revenue to replace those COVID funds
Either way, it's not going to be painless
And so what we need is we need leadership that's willing to make the tough decisions
To look at everything, to weigh the benefits versus the risks and whatnot
And I've been in that position, we used to, I said on the community development block grant committee when I was an alderman
We would have, I'm exaggerating here, maybe $5 million in requests but we only had $1 million worth of federal funds
To be able to hand out to worthy organizations
And it was always a difficult process to look at all these community organizations
And then try to determine what is the needs of the community right now
And how do we best address that and what is the best use to those, those dollars
And we need alderman with experience that are willing to make the tough decisions
To set aside personal agendas and feelings and be able to look at objectively
What are we trying to accomplish, what needs to be accomplished, and what's the best way to do that
Lakeview Park is in your district there
And I know I've seen signs all over Main Street, let Lakeview Park be Lakeview Park
What's the story with Lakeview Park?
At some point the mayor allowed a developer to work up a proposal to put housing on Lakeview Park
And when the neighbors, myself included, found out what was going on, we were in an uproar
I remember writing a letter to the editor saying, you know, we need to leave Lakeview Park alone
This is what we should do instead. For example, when I was on the zoo board
And as an alderman, the community center wasn't adequately used
And I had proposed that the zoo take over the community center
And they could maintain it and do the upgrades to it and use as an educational center
This would allow the zoo to provide more programming
And also, when they do provide programming like that, they're able to charge for those programs
And it would allow them also to generate additional income or revenue which they need in order to meet operating expenses
So unfortunately that never got off the ground
And then we ended up having a fire there at Lakeview and now the community center's gone
But it would have made sense to have the zoo take that over
Because the city wasn't using the community center, it was sitting there empty
But it's a park that's in need of upgrades
It's a beautiful park with a beautiful view
What I'd like to see, I'd like to spearhead a drive that would create a community designed park
That's inclusive that children with physical needs would be able to utilize it just like able-bodied kids
This is right across in the zoo
It's right across in the zoo
I think we used the parking lot from Lakeview Park to park to go to the zoo
And there's no parking lot because they paved or they sided over the parking lot
And did they really?
When they tore down the community center
You have, since my dog died, since my dog had to be put to sleep
I don't take the walks down there like I used to
But we used to walk all the way down there to the zoo as to say to the dog
If you're not nice, do that lying?
Be careful that lie and may grab you
We also have a beach right down there, a zoo beach
And that parking lot was used by people that were going to the beach
So they sided over now, okay, I didn't know where that was
Let's talk about the homeless
Because Dewey's closed down
Right
And from what I heard, I didn't speak to the owner personally from the scuttle but I heard
That's one of the reasons because there's a homeless center on his block
And I guess it was getting too crowded to them
And he decided he was going to retire and didn't want to deal with it anymore
So when I go to the library, up on the steps by Memorial Hall
When I go up there, a lot of homeless people up there
And they're cursing, they're screaming
They don't scare me but I notice some people are nervous with them
Because they're yelling at them
They're just yelling at people going into the library
And there's nothing you really do about it
So how do we solve this problem?
We definitely have a problem downtown
There's a couple of different issues
It's not a homeless center that is being operated out of the church
But they're providing meals through the day
Right
So homeless people are congregating
And they're causing issues for some of the downtown businesses
And one of the things that I don't know if people talk about it that much is
And I'm not stereotyping and I'm not typecasting
But a lot of times with the homeless population
There's mental health issues
That's part of the reason why they're homeless
And so we have Halo, which is doing a great job
But it's not large enough to accommodate the problem we have in our scene
We have the issue over with the old YMCA downtown
Where it's being overrun by the homeless population
That is...
What's being done with that by the way?
The city worked out something with the Y
And they're going to end up raising it, tearing it down
Which is it should have been done years ago
Somebody should have stepped in
The Y shouldn't have let it get to the point that it did, but it happened
And so that will move the problem
Where I'm not sure
But we need to...
We need to be a little bit more strategic
Halo's the experts out there and dealing with the problem
And I don't know if having a feeding site
Right downtown, you know, in the middle of the business district
Is the right way to go
I'd see some of the people who have partake in that service
I see them on the corner, because I passed by they were lying
Far from there
But I never gave it much thought
Until I heard the problem with Dewey's
And then all of a sudden I said, wow, you're right
I never noticed it was much of a problem, but it is a problem
And it's always going to be a problem
Because there are people who are homeless
There are people...
And again, I don't know their situations, but there are people with mental problems
And they've got to go somewhere
Right
You've got to have them somewhere
And they have to go where services are
People can't tend for themselves, fend for themselves
They have to partake in city services
So I don't know what the answer would be
You know, I know it's not what they're doing
That in Texas, busing them all over the country
I know that's not the answer
Because you're just moving the problem
Right
You know, Texas is moving into somebody's neighborhood in Washington DC
So I know that's not the answer
When we come back from the break, we want to talk about the big sea
Crime
All right
And that's everywhere in America
And nobody wants it in their town
And I keep telling people if there was a place in America where there was no crime
Everybody would live there
And I got news for you
Crime would move there
If there was nothing there
So we're going to be talking about that in just a moment
Real quickly here, just want to remind people
Coping with a serious illness can be overwhelming where to turn for help
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Covered by Medicare and many other community-based private insurance plans
When seeking hospice care as for hospice alliance, the award-winning community-based non-profit that gives back to education, services and grief support
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That's hospicealiance.org
We're having a conversation with David Mackie's running for the primary in the fourth automatic district
Which is what February 20th?
I believe so
February 20th, okay
The last time I said February 16th, I don't know why it was written down and it wasn't
February 20th, it's a primary for Canada that's running
David's the second one we're talking to
More David Mack coming up at just a moment
It's 749 at WRJN Radio
Home town radio refreshed as civic media station
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your head
If you're going to San Francisco
You're going to meet some gentle way
All those who come to San Francisco
Summer time will be your opening night
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their head
All across the nation
In 752 at WRJN Radio
David Mackie's here he's going for the fourth automatic district
He's in the primary, he's one of four candidates vying for that automatic job
They call them alders now, they don't call them aldermen or older people
An older is a tree
Is it really, I didn't know that
I'm a traditionalist
You're an older man
Okay, I'm running for aldermen
But I talk to people, are you mean older?
I guess so
Let's talk about the big sea crime
This is something that you'll never get away from
There's no place in America to get away from it
And it's here, it's in Racine
I don't consider it a lot
But it's got its crime
What do we do about that?
You can't stop it
Do we, and I don't want to defund the police
I think we should have more cops around
Right
So how do we handle this?
It's an age old problem
And some of it's based on perception
Some of it's based on reality
And sometimes perception becomes reality
And if people think that you have a high crime problem
Even if you can prove to them you don't
You know, in their mind crime is a problem
And we had a big issue with the police department
A year ago we had a police chief who was from a different community
Who still spent a good amount of time in that community
And the morale of the police department was awful
You had cops jumping ship
And joining the sheriff's department
And that didn't used to happen
It was the other way around
You know, deputies would leave the sheriff's department
And go to the municipal police departments
But you know, Racine County Sheriff's Office
Has benefited greatly by hiring former Racine police officers
And then the chief decided to retire
And they have a new chief in there
He is active in the community
The morale has changed over at the police department
And hopefully we're going to stop seeing that revolving door
Hopefully we're going to see more cooperation with outline departments
Task force and other things like that
Working hopefully closer with the sheriff's department
To address issues like the drug problem
And gain problems within the community
And hopefully we retain our officers
And we can build up our police force
And remember when I was on the council
And I had the former police chief
Spent around the ropes because he was complaining that
Even though we gave him 199 officers
He wasn't filling them
And he had excuses why he wasn't filling them
And I looked at him and said, Chief, either you want those officers or you don't
And if you can't hire him
Let's get him out of the budget
Now I didn't want to cut police officers
That wasn't the intent
But it was putting his feet to the fire and saying listen
We authorize this much
This police strength
You need to hire those officers
And same thing
Hopefully we're seeing a turnaround in the police department
With the morale, with everything else
We'll get up to full street strength
Working cooperatively with the outlying departments on joint issues
And we can tackle and address issues like
Gain problems, the drug problems, and other issues out there
In the last few minutes you're just talking to our listeners direct and ask for their vote
Well, I would appreciate your vote
I have experienced leadership
I have 34 years of experience within this community
I worked and retired from Racine County where I built a program that gained state and national recognition
It was honored at the White House for a program we implemented here
I've been active in the community on nonprofit boards and committees, commissions
And my wife and I have made this a community of choice
And we love Racine
And I've rolled up my sleeves in the past
To do the heavy lifting
And I'm continuing to do that
And ready and willing to roll up my sleeves
Tackle the issues that we have within the city
With experience leadership
I'm going to hit the ground running
And I'm going to be able to adequately represent you
And be your voice on the city council
I was asked people, why would you want to get involved in this?
Excuse me, because half the people aren't going to like you
For no matter what reason
And every time you go to a restaurant
But you've been to every restaurant in Racine
I believe you hold the Guinness record for being at every restaurant in Racine
Why would you want to put up with that?
Being bothered in restaurants, being bothered in supermarkets
People coming up and saying, you know, the pothole in front of my house
I think you should fix that pothole over there
And what about this traffic there on my street
That they put a tree up the tree fell down
I wanted to be replaced
Why would you want to deal with this stuff?
You know, it really comes down to you
You can complain about the issues out there
Or you can be part of the solution
And I'm involved with leadership or seen
And we've instilled them within our graduates
And I graduated from the first program
Community trusty ship
And I want to build a community
I want to plant trees that I know I'll never sit under
But my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren will
And so it's about community service
It's about being a part of the solution
Not being a part of the problem
And of course, the primary is February 20th
Correct
And there were four candidates down there
David Mack is one of them
And go vote
You know, I still have people vote
I mean, if you don't vote, don't complain
Right?
Exactly, Jane Jacobson, who I worked for
She was county executive said
The world is run by those who show up
Oh, that's good
Am I tattooed that on my own?
Yeah
Very good, thank you, David Mack
You're a good friend
And also a good luck on the in the primaries
He had 758 of WRJN radio coming up tomorrow
We're back again
Six o'clock and never stops
So we'll see you then, okay?
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Earl Ingram coming up next
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