Yeah, it's time to talk politics and I really politics city stuff and county stuff. I just remembered
that our guest is not only the 13th district alder for the city of Racine,
it's also the county board supervisor for district two. Those districts overlap,
are there any, um, Renee Kelly is here. Didn't they overlap at all? A little bit, yes. So my
county district is actually it spans over four different automatic districts and actually mine
is the smallest slice of the pie. Um, and then I have, um, district, uh, automatic district, uh,
Alderland, Alder Davis, and I believe, um, it was, uh, Alder Jones's old district. So Townsend.
So how do you keep everything straight in your head? I mean, I got enough to do with just one radio station.
How do you keep all these straight in your noggin? It's, it's a lot, but you know,
and then on top of this, you work for the village of Union Grove. I do. Yes. Oh, I couldn't,
I couldn't keep it straight. I can't keep this place straight in the morning. You know,
you're gonna keep all that space. All right. So what's the difference between county government and
city government? Oh, that's a lot because if everything overlapped and they do overlap with all,
what does the county do that the city can and vice versa? Uh, the county offers a lot more services.
So they're, you know, like the joint, um, dispatch center, you know, you have the sheriff's office,
you have the health and human services. Um, so there's a lot more resources and, and, you know,
I was glad that I actually, um, you know, stepped up and took that position because, you know,
there was a lot of resources and things available that I wasn't aware of, uh, you know,
just sitting in my city seat because you're just a little bit more, um, micro, um, level at the city
and, you know, the county's a little more macro. So if that's a good analogy for you,
I had to count executive here and you didn't explain that well either.
It is confusing to people. Who do you, who do you complain to? All right. I got a pothole.
Do I play the complaint of the county and complain to the city? Uh, so, um, if it's something that's
like a county road, then I would send it to the, uh, public works, um, you know, for their streets
department. If it's a city road and it's like in another automatic district and that's not mine,
um, I'll usually notify the aldermen and then, you know, whatever department the issue is in
or try to give them some resources to help them with their issue. Well, I live on Main Street,
AKA the Great Lakes Dragway. Yes. I don't know if this is just new to cars, but they got this new
noise on the mufflers and they're like sputtering the up. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, coming
out and loud. Yeah, I know. And it's annoying, especially when it's at one o'clock in the morning,
it's annoying is unfortunately a bedroom window is near Main Street, so I can hear it and they
just don't care. I see them drag racing on the street. Do you think, um, if we remove the stoplights
and put stop signs in the place of that, it would help. I'll tell you why I don't trust stop signs,
because we have a stop sign right here at Victory Avenue in front of this radio station on the corner.
And I go out every half hour to get some fresh air. It's below the stop sign.
I don't care, especially if it's like 530 in the morning, they don't care.
I said, we can't. It's early. No one's here. Right. Some people make an attempt to,
I see the break lights, but they don't stop at all. I said, but it's gonna right through it.
And it's not a four-way stop. So do I think stop signs it up? No, it's not gonna.
I see people doing that at the lights too. So, so yesterday,
matter of fact, on my way home from the county building, I was like, oh my gosh,
these people are like full-on running the red light. I just, you know, so I always tell
like my son's a new driver. And I told them, hey, son, I'm not worried about you. I'm worried
about people on the road. So yeah. And I passed a red light the other day, but I had no choice.
I was coming to work. It was 520 in the morning. And it went through two cycles. And it wasn't
giving me the green light. And then it started to, and I, it's not gonna go again. I mean,
I got a movie. I got eight cars behind me. So I went slow. They were no other cars.
I was 520 in the morning. And I went slowly through it. And I looked in the review mirror.
He went through a third cycle without turning green. And I figured, now I'm going to get
out there. An old points bullet. Excuse me. We got an off-point bulletin for this Chevy out
on the street. He's passing a red light. And that's what I thought was going to happen. I'm like,
all day, am I looking around me to see anybody? That's what I would start inching my car up.
Maybe I like set it off or something. Well, eight cars behind me. And I can see they're getting
impatient because they're moving a little forward. Like, come on, let's go already. And there
are other cars that follow me for the red light. What are you going to do? Right. I mean, you
can't sit there forever. So anyway, let's talk about some of the things you have on your list
here, because I don't want to enough with enough with my loud cars and people passing staff
signs. Let's talk about alternate side of the street parking because I know it doesn't feel like
it today. It does, but winter's coming. Correct. When it's 81 degrees outside, the winter's not
coming this year. Right. So alternate street parking is not just for the winter, just for the people
that have this misconception. So it's always important to read the fine print when you're looking
things up online. It is all year round on main street of this by me. And so it is depends on
the day of the week. But it's more enforced, obviously, during the snow season. And then if we
have an emergency, you know, snow situation, then, you know, you have to park accordingly. But
I think the problem and a lot of the complaints I'm getting is, well, I got a ticket. And I'm like,
well, where you parked on that right the wrong side of the street, you know, is my first question.
But I think people got complacent because during COVID, a lot of the things weren't being enforced.
And then we had lost 71 officers in 21. So we didn't have the staffing level to enforce those
things. So now that we have the staff in order to do that, people are like, oh my gosh, I'm getting
tickets. All of the sudden, well, you would have been getting it all along, but the enforcement
component wasn't there. So the rule hasn't changed. Alternate street parking is enforced all year
round, especially on the weekdays, not during the snow season. So all that information can be found
on the city website. And also helps. And this is on your thing to hear the street sweepers because
they need to off the street on that side to sweep the streets or they got to go around you.
And it just makes a job more difficult. Yes. And so I have complaints that people
say that their street isn't being in sweep. So I guess that goes to what the point you just made
is are the people alternate street parking so they can get through. And I watch, I see the street
sweeper multiple times a week. So I know it's there on my travels, whether I'm taking my daughter
to school or I'm heading to work. I can see the lines where they've been. So I know that they're
out in my district. I've driven around in the morning in my area just to prove the point that I know
that they're out there. Now as far as street sweeping the alleys, I don't think they do that
anymore, but that's more of a technical question for DPW because I've gotten that question as well.
But they are out there. It's just, are you awake at the time? They're sweeping.
And what word is written on every truck? Every single look at your eyes opened up on that one.
You know, that means you're trying to think. Stay back.
The word Elgin. Elgin. Because they're made in Elgin, Illinois. And one of our
renouncers here is from Elgin, Illinois. And he's a proud, he loves street sweepers because
that was the big industry making Elgin street sweepers. And next time you see a truck,
you'll see the word Elgin. Okay. I will take a look at four. Okay. See you come here and
you think you're not going to learn anything in this interview. And you're leaving with this
vast knowledge. That's right. And we have a double barrel shot here this morning. We've got not
only a county board supervised from district two. We've got a recene alder from district 13.
Ooh, 13. I don't like that number. Could you change it? It's like, it's like in building
Zim in Haton. They don't have a 13 floor. They do that for a reason. All right. It's district
13 alder Renee Kelly is here. Do you want to be? You county board supervisor Renee Kelly or
older Kelly or the matter? Just Renee. That's good enough. Well, what a cheery person you are.
That's good because I'm not. So early this morning. Yeah. I'm kind of a carmudgeon.
Now, we were to talk about the light poles in town. And you told me something. I didn't know that
somewhere owned by the city, somewhere owned by we energies. I didn't know that. Yes.
Now, I noticed they're putting up new poles lately because I see these giant buckets going up
in the sky, which I would never in. I don't care if they offer me the king's ransom. I wouldn't go
up in those buckets. These guys are holding the pole steady. They're putting the wires up there.
No, thank you. Yeah, right. So what's that? What's going on with the poles? Now, you say it's this
time of year we start noticing problems. Yeah, because it's dark earlier. So I actually put out
on my Facebook page a while back and I try to kind of bring that unearth that post and put it up
and pin it on my page for the city and county. So we have energies and city poles. So when people
start noticing that, I start getting emails and calls regarding that. When I'm driving around,
I also try to pick up on the location and report them myself. But people can actually self-report
these. So if you see a city pole, which would be metal or concrete based, you can go on the city's
website and report that outage. If it is a we energies pole, which is a wooden pole, which actually
has a little metal number tag on it, you can actually go on the we energies and self-report that.
Or you could just call your aldermen if you miss them and, you know, tell them that you're light
pole. So my older man's David and Mac. No, I love you. Yeah. Hey, Mac, get down here.
Like I, I, I, I complained to him a lot and also Melissa Cabrilla and I complained to a lot. Now,
I'll complain to you about the manhole covers. Oh, yeah. There is one on Main Street before you get
to, um, it's between high and gold. I think that's where it is. She's running it down.
And high and gold on Main Street. Now, my wife and I are going to go out with a tape measure
when there's no traffic. And we're going to see how deep below this street this manhole is. When I
hit it, I can swear the axles break. My next door neighbor complains to me the other day,
next time you go one of those older people in there, I want you to tell them about that manhole
cover. It's a, it's a killer. It's an an axel killer. It must be about two inches or more
below the street level. Now we're going out there with a tape measure and I'm going to film it
and take pictures. I want to, I want to know what that is because actually we had this discussion
in our leadership meeting at work yesterday. And they were talking about some of the manhole
covers and street areas that they were, you know, redoing. And the water guy was telling us about,
you know, how they were technical stuff that was way above my pay grade. You know, it was like,
oh, we got to take the ring and do this and that. And so I was like, oh, I got to ask him about
these manhole covers and we're seeing, you know, it was on the back of my mind. I was with this
chronic complainer the other day. He works for the WR Jam. Well, I mentioned his name in the
morning. It is a chronic complainer. But you know, and I don't think about it until I hit it and
bubble and it feels like the, the axles going to break on the car. And it's been like that for
a long time. Ever since they redid the street, I don't know how it gets so. And there was some
that are below a little bit. And you hit a little, but this one is really bad. And it's right in
the way of your tires. Now you can avoid it. And that means you're going into the right lane or
you're going across the WLL line. You can do that and maybe take the chance and not going to
have a head on collision or you can hit the manhole cover. The one that I that I remember most
frequently is Northwestern Avenue. So if you're heading towards like into town, it's on that
in that right hand lane there. So I always avoid it. And that's why I like I don't want to hit it
because it does that. It's a huge impact. It's like to turn. Yeah. And it feels like, oh my goodness,
the whole act. So just I'm going to crashing into a building any second now. Oh my god. What is going
on with the construction of this town? It's crazy, isn't it? I mean, it's all across America.
Construction is everywhere. And they would say there's two seasons winter and construction.
That's it. Yeah, it took me. So I also serve on the oh my goodness.
There's seen zoo board. So yeah, because it's been closed there for a while.
So yeah, so it took me from West Racine to the north side, no lie, with all of the different
areas that are all chopped up, not just that area. It took me 20 minutes to get to that meeting.
I was like, no, no, can't go this way. I got to take this G tour around, you know, and so
you got to take Erie all the way up to Augusta, then Augusta, you got to go to the English,
yeah, make a lap, go back to Erie. It was so crazy. I got there. I was like sweating profusely.
I'm like, I was like, do you know what it took for me to get to the street? It's so crazy.
I know. And yet I don't see anybody working at these construction sites.
I see barrels everywhere. I don't see a human being doing anything.
Right. We're, look at our eyes open. Where are these people? They put the barrels at,
but I never see anybody working. Right. I can't wait till Green Bay Road is done.
I'm, I want to wait till Main Street's done. Because when I go, when I take Main Street up to
three mile before, I got to go all around the mulberry bush. I said, damn, I'm zigzagging my way
up to the, up to the post office. Yeah. And if you don't know if you're not on the north side,
I'm not on the north side anymore often. It's confusing. You don't know where to go.
I'm like, I don't even know how to get there. There's no road map.
Well, I was saying you have one year, you're up in the upper peninsula. How do I get up here?
What? Did I make a, did I make a wrong turn? Did I miss something?
I just talked about, we got about two minutes yet. It's talking real about the budget.
Now the budgets going, the process going on with the county now. What is it going to be
with the city next week? So I deal with three municipal budgets. Oh, I do. Yeah. I just presented our,
our, or budget at Union Grove on Monday to the Finance Committee. Monday, this next week,
I'll be presenting to the full board. And then on the county side, last night was the county
executives budget presentation. And then our budget meetings start next Tuesday for three nights
in a row. And then the following week, the city budget starts. So it's a large juggling act to
try to juggle it all and try to figure it all out. Each one is totally unique from the other.
Union Grove's numbers are a lot smaller, obviously. The city's numbers are much larger,
but then you look at the county and the numbers are even substantially larger. So it's,
I know what to look for, though, that being that I've been in it. And so I know that a lot of
the county board supervisors last night after the meeting were like, I saw you over there.
The minute you got your book, you're like, hi, lighters, sticky notes. You'd like numbers.
Oh, yeah. I love it. Yeah. So you're like, when I do my checkbook, if I'm two pennies away
from balancing it, I got to find those two pennies. I mean, I can't, I'm not going to sleep at night.
And I'll get up in the middle of the night. I was like, what are you turning on the light for?
I kind of find that two cents. I got to do it now. I'm not going to sleep. And it's usually
something I was sloppy and you couldn't read my writing. That's it. Instead of a, you know,
nine, I wrote a seven, then it was just sloppy. So I'll find the two cents. But I got to find it.
Correct. And because, you know, math makes perfect sense. There's no, you know,
people say, well, it doesn't make sense. Math makes perfect sense because numbers don't lie.
Correct. I mean, they do what they do. So one of the misconceptions, you know, that I've learned
about government is the staff assembles the budget, right? And then it's approved by
whomever the head is, a county executive or the mayor or whom or the village administrator.
And then it goes to the board or the council or, you know, whichever entity you're in. And at
that point, it's our budget, right? So we determine what happens to that budget. We can amend certain
things, you know, this is a suggestion. So it's not, you know, the mayor's budget. It's not the
county executive. They, they formulate that. They put a lot of work into it. And I know that because
of the months, it took me to put my own budget together. And so I don't take that lightly. I know
that there's a lot of work and time invested into that. But at the end of the day, if things don't
look right and there's too much in there, I call it too much fat, you know, it's our job to,
you know, right size the ship and make sure that things are, you know, being done correctly. And
we're not raising taxes for or service fees or whatever it is that's embedded in there. I
would like to see all budgets go back to pre pandemic levels. And, you know, if you look at things
over a five year period, you can see that all three, you know, budgets that I've kind of touch
have substantially increased. So, you know, how do we, how do we get back to that? What do we
need to do? That's the bigger question. Do you find time to watch Dateline reruns on TV when you're
doing all this? Don't have cables. Yeah, Dateline design lights are on a regular TV. I am amused by
like the police dog videos, the Malinois videos, you know, things like that. I'm a nerd. I like
the AI videos. I think they're funny. The talk of the two dogs in front of the microphone
stalking away. I like those too. Yeah. Thank you. You're a great smile. Renee Kelly is here with us.
She is not only an alder for the city of Racine in the 13th district. It's also a supervisor for
the county and district number two. Before she leaves, Renee Kelly, I want you to tell us about October
because this is important. I didn't want to miss on this. Absolutely. So October is breast cancer
awareness month. So, to me, that's really important. I have my mom and my aunt who both went through
breast cancer and recently I was diagnosed with breast cancer as well. So it's really important
to get those checks. I know I come across women that haven't gone in a couple years and that's
so concerning to me. So, it is so important to get your routine checks and just to, you know,
make sure that, you know, everything is good. Yeah. And I told you my mother had breast cancer and
they thought this was it. I was 1968. She lived until 20, I think, 2020. They've come so far.
Even just over, you know, I mean, it's, it's always, they're always evolving, always finding new
things, even in the last couple of years, even this year. I mean, it's just an amazing thing that
they're always finding, you know, new ways to combat it. So, you know, it's going to be amazing.
Not during our lifetime, but sometime way in the future, it's going to be like, oh, really,
you got breast cancer in here. Take, here's take these two pills. You know, it'll be fine by
morning. Oh, isn't that going to be great? You know, that's going to happen someday.
It wouldn't that be nice. I mean, if you go back 150 years and they say, we'll be riding around
on four wheels with a cousin, what are you talking about? The horse, that's what you got to worry
about. Yeah. No, you'll be fine. Yeah. I see a good thing. I see a long line. Oh, I'm good.
Besides the budget, we need you to do the job. We're going to get through this budget.
You're going to get through the budget. Don't worry about it. Thank you very much. All right. So,
October is breast cancer awareness month. Yes. And get your check your checkups. And by the way,
guys can get breast cancer too. It is correct. Yes. They don't think about that. They can't. It's
not as prevalent as, you know, women, but as women, but they carry yourself. All right. Thank you.
Don't go anywhere. Okay.
