I want to welcome 12th District Alder. I was get those numbers all confused. 12th District
Alder, Henry Perez is here from the city of Racine. And school teacher also, school
teacher, move close to that, Mike. I want to hear every word you have to say. And then
I don't want to miss a word. And you are the alderman for this district where the radio
station is. Yeah, absolutely. The 12th District is very interesting. It has all kinds
of different things in it. And one of the unique things, of course, is radio park right
here. And let's talk about why the streets never plowed on victory Avenue. It's never
plowed. It's they wait for the sun to melt it. But it doesn't seem to get plowed. All
the other streets around us. But victory Avenue is tough. Yeah. So I get a lot of complaints
about you. You do that all the time. I didn't miss my street. Well, we actually have a big
map. And it's available online if you look for the link from public works. And it shows
you their processes of how they pick the streets and where they will be as they start digging.
And unfortunately, with a low number of employees that we have, it takes a long time to get
everything done. And so a lot of people say, it's three o'clock. My, you know, my street
hasn't been plowed yet. I'm like, they'll get there. Maybe tomorrow, but they'll get
there. Now, I live on Main Street, not only has it plowed once, twice, three, four, five,
six times, but every time we clean the driveway out, you can hear it rumbling down the street.
Here it comes. And what really annoys me is now, there was a snow emergency until today
at three o'clock. I don't know how everybody finds out about it. I get a text message, but
there's got to be two or three jerks who parked their cars right there. And then the snow
plus got to go around it. And therefore, the snow is going to sit there because they didn't
move their car. Now, the police were out there right after three o'clock the other day
when they went to affect. And they were, I don't know, they weren't ticketing, but they must
have been calling something in. I'm not. They do it. Yeah, they try to get the owner
an opportunity to move their car before they ticket. They call them on the phone. Yeah,
or they go to the house. Well, most people, you know, live right around. They didn't
work. The cop didn't get out. And he was going to each car on Main Street behind it with
his lights on. He was there for about five minutes. And he moved on to the next car.
I don't know if he was phoning in a ticket. I don't know what he was doing, but how do
people find out when there's a snow emergency? Now, I get the garbage collection text every
week because I got to remember where the garbage comes out. But if you don't have that,
how are you supposed to know? Well, a lot of people have social media. It also comes out
on social media. What if you're not a social media fan? Now, a lot of people are. Yeah,
you got to look at your neighbors. See what they're doing. I mean, that's kind of strange
to get a ticket for something you really don't know about. One, fortunately, that's the way
the law is written. I know. I just practical way to do that is that. Well, I would, if it
was me, I would say, geez, snowstorm's coming. Maybe I'd have a find out if there's a snow
emergency. Right. And a lot of times because our lives are so complicated, we forget to anticipate
what's going on. Oh, it's no emergency. Oh, my pipe. So, and then you forget your car is
on the street. And that's one of the most important things. It's important for emergency
vehicles to be able to get through. It's important for the garbage. The garbage was actually
collected during the snow emergency. I know. They didn't add that. It was open. They opened
up at Nunez that he said, you know, so we have that on the radio. So you would have known
if you're listening. We have three cars, my son's car, my wife's car, my car. And we have
to put them in the driveway when the snow emergency and figure out who's going first.
We're going to put them in order. He's got to leave first. Yeah, we've got to put them in order.
Get them in and out. So you're running for reelection of the 12th district. How long you've been
in the other one of the 12th district? Well, I've been in Aldermen since 2013. Whoa. And the
longest serving currently. I mean, you know, people have served longer at Sandy, but I'm continually
serving since 2013. It's a great job. Who would have thunk that to fix a street, two or three blocks,
or a million dollars? It just is incredible to me. All the stuff that I've learned about how the
city operates. I've been on public works for about maybe nine of those years. And every year,
I learned something new about public works. It's just an incredible process that they take to be
able to maintain the city infrastructure. I don't want to know how the sausage is made. That's
why I don't like it. Now currently on Main Street every day, just about every day, there's a couple
of trucks that pull up. They're not city trucks, but they go down into the into the sewers in the
middle and they have two trucks at the end. And I walked up to the guys and what are you doing?
And the guy's name was Willie Jones. And he's very nice. He said, I'll explain what I'm doing.
And he said, we go down there and we examine all the pipes. And we're doing maintenance on him.
And if they're good enough, we don't have to dig up the streets. So that's what we're doing.
So if they're able to do their maintenance job on there, they don't have to dig up the streets,
which is great. He said, I said, well, I have a clay pipe coming out from my house.
These are all clay pipes. The whole city's clay pipes here, except there were some wooden ones
that used to be on six streets. He didn't know about that. But he said, they're down there every day,
doing maintenance on them and just making sure that they're in good shape. And then we have to dig
up all of Main Street. Yeah. So what they do is they locate the sewer hole and then they run a
camera. And that's how they look at it. Well, he went down there. Yeah. Well, once you run the
camera and you see something suspicious and you go down there and you check it out. But the guys
that we have working that it's amazing that a whole city like this has so much clay and wouldn't
pipes that are still workable. It's amazing. The craftsmanship that they had many years ago.
Yeah. I know. What if all wooden pipes? Yeah. I mean, I'd never heard of that before. And then
when they dug up parts of six trees, I saw, whoa, wooden, but you got to think back to when they
were put in. This is an old city. Yeah. It's not, you know, not a fresh city. Even when you dig up
cities like New York City, you find stuff down. They said, that's what they're still using.
But you know, if it works, it works. Yeah. Well, I changed it if it's working, right?
Yeah. I know it's not your district, but they're really doing a number on spring street now.
They're chopping down everybody's trees on the north side of the street. I think they're
moving everything all the poll. They could be there. I think they're extending the street.
Whoa. And so as they extend the street, they have to take people's yards. Sometimes it's like
eight or nine feet. Yeah. I think the road's going to run right from there front porch. You know,
they're going to step out and get your feet run over. Yeah. Somebody on spring street. Well,
most of us, we only have a little section of spring street. The rest is Mount Pleasant
or Keldonia. It's not ours. Yeah. I took the Melissa Caprile in Couscizae County board supervisor.
And then I can talk to her about spring because that's really a county street. And I start
screaming about her. What I do scream about when we had David Mackin here, the manhole covers.
They're like three inches below the street. And you hit them baboom. You know,
see the breath bus to kidney or an axle on the car. I was going to say that the axle would be my
biggest worry. I don't know why they're so low. Well, they didn't used to be. But as the
ground settles, it expands. There is. But again, we're looking at budgets. We're looking at ways
to make it work. And sometimes what's available, sometimes we'll sign a contract. It'll come through
public works, which I'm the vice chair of. And we look at the, when we're going to do this,
we're signing, you know, a million dollars towards it or three, five million, six million dollars.
Oh, three years from now. That's how it scheduled down the road. So I get a lot of people
to complain to me. And they say, why no? Henry, well, now it's when we could put it on the calendar.
And when people were available and they bid on it. And that was the, the intent. So it's not always,
hey, we signed off on it today. They start tomorrow. It never works. I know it takes years.
It's still that bridge, not the main street bridge, but the state street bridge.
I mean, they've been barrels on there for a long time. The mayor said, well, it's not
our bridge. It's really the US government's bridge. And they've got to deal with it. We can't,
so the barrels have been out there. And they don't annoy me. But, you know, those barrels that,
it's like going through the slalom on Spring Street when you go down there. I mean, when it was
snowing, I can't imagine knowing what, what's raining on there. Yeah, where do you go? Because the
the arrows appointed opposite, but it's supposed to go through it to mess. Or guess this hour is
12th district alder and reparez. You've been doing this a long time and you're running for
reelection again. Well, you know, I just get confused with these elections. I showed up last month
at the school where I vote. And my wife says, you know, I don't think they've been
those signs out here. So we tried the door. It didn't open. And so I called the city and they
said, yeah, it's a red apple school. There's something. I said, but I vote here all the time,
wherever it was. And they said, no, I said, today's election day, but it turns out
it was because I guess they didn't have any opponents or whatever. And so I was rolled down
there and you know, nothing. Nobody was there. That's right. That was my first thought. You
know, why is nobody here? Where are the election signs? There's nothing here. So, so when is the
next election day? Oh, it's during the spring break for the kids. So it's in April 1st.
So is that a primary? No, that's the actual election. That's the actual election.
The actual election. And that's the one you're in. That's one I mean, you do have an opponent.
I do. Okay, so so that so you're running for the 12th district of an opponent. Okay,
all the even numbers are up now, right? Correct. Even numbers on even years. Yeah, numbers on
on years. Okay. It's an easy to remember. It's like the old gasoline days during the 70s when
they're running out of gas on even licensed blade numbers. Sure. Everybody's swapping plates when
they needed gas and so forth. Okay, so let's talk about the committees you're on. And right now,
you're on which committee? Right now I'm the vice chair of the Public Works and Services Committee.
Public Works involves sewers. Sewers. Yeah. And then it has to do with infrastructure. Yeah.
Theoretically, Public Works is the most powerful committee because we pay the bills.
So we approve construction. We pay the bills. And so sometimes our agendas are really full.
We anticipate how the city is going to change the other infrastructure. And that's what goes
through our committee most of the time. Well, a lot of people don't understand this, but the work
of city council happens in committee. A lot of people have listened to us during council meetings.
Henry, you guys didn't discuss this. You didn't vote on this. That's because we did it during
committee. And the committee is when we decide what we want. And then we send it to council
for final approval. And if someone on the council doesn't like our decision, then that's when we
debate it. Okay. And the committee meetings are not open to the public. They are. Okay. All
committee meetings are open to the public. But you actually know what they are. Yeah. You have to
know what they are. It's posted on Facebook and on social media as well as YouTube. And you can
actually watch every meeting on YouTube. So, um, um, uh, cart 20, everything you have,
cart 25, I don't have that anymore. We don't, we, that was a big mess. We got it approved several
times and we didn't have the right equipment or I look good to make it. We even have the money
to do it. But somehow it never happened. And we switched to, uh, social media at that point.
Yeah, it needs to be, but I want to watch the NBA finals. Oh, this is real tight at the boxer
in the fight with everyone and watch cart 25. Anyway, uh, so give me some of the committees you used
to be on over here. Yeah. I've been on every committee, uh, so far, like I said, I started in 2013.
So I've been on the public works most of my career and I've been on, uh, finance and personnel.
And I've been on, um, public safety. I've also been on the community development committee.
I asked a lot of questions. So, yeah, it took me out of there. After a while. And I've been on
the traffic commission. I've been on the cemetery commission. Now, what's a cemetery commission?
Well, we approved the pricing for the, um, the funeral spots, you know, the holes, uh, the
stuff is we have in Racine. We run two cemeteries. The city does. Graceland. Yes.
Graceland is one of them. And we have the best, yeah, we have the best prices for your plot
and the whole county. So if you're ever interested in need a plot, Racine, city,
Racine, we have room. We'll make room for you. We'll make room for you. So here's something I found
that interesting. Where my parents are buried. My grandfather was in the, uh, he drove a
hers for like 40 years. He bought these plots for $25 a piece on Long Island. $25 a piece. Now
they're about $15 to $1800 a piece. So there's one leftover. There's a big family plot,
10 plots, and there's a, I won't go into the reason, but there's one leftover.
So I went to the, after went to my mom and dad's funeral, I went to the office there and I say,
can I sell it? She looked up the records. Yeah, you can sell it for $25. I said, but they're worth
about 15,000. They are today, but the law says you can only sell it for what you paid for it.
And that's in Wisconsin as well. Really? Because when I was at the, I went to Union Grove cemetery,
and I was talking to the funeral guy, and he said, yes, you can, you, because they don't want land
speculators buying up the cemetery and raising prices. So she said, do not sell it for $25. Keep
it for your family. Put it bench there or just a marker or some sort, but it's not worth
selling it for $25. That is quite cheap. Interloper in there. Yeah, it's 15,000 today,
but I was not aware of that till she told me, but in Wisconsin, it's the same law. Well,
seven terrors are actually parks by definition. So they are run under our parks division.
Really large department. Yeah. Wow. See a live and learn. Yeah. Every day. Okay. So talk
about who's in your 12th district here beside Radio Park. We are. We have quite a diverse
situation here in the 12th district. I'll tell you what, we have two pizza joints. We have
two schools. We have a liquor store. We have one, two, three, four food places. We have one,
two, three, four, five, six churches. And especially commissions where we have our carnival,
our Greek carnival, that's in the 12th district. We have a couple of bars. We have one, two,
four banks. We have Panera. We have Wendy's. We have. That's all in the 12th district. Yeah.
Panera bread. Panera is the farthest west. I go. Yeah. I want you to go across to the
car repair place. That's not mine anymore. Once you step over the parking lot line. Yeah. Is that
your territory? Okay. We have a unis, which has excellent breakfast, Charlie's cheese steaks.
We have three pharmacies. Good value. Walgreens and bright star. We have discount tire and
fire stone. We have a metro foam place. We have two gas stations. We have dry cleaners. We have
a couple of game stores, sanctum games and legendary comics. And Castle Lane is actually the end
of my district. Castle Lane is. Now if you're bowling on lane three or in your district,
if you go to lane five, you're out of your district. Right. Right. And Henshield Park, which is
what we have the police memorial. I've had the privilege and say, um, redistrict me to be the
alderman for Henshield Park. And I've had the opportunity to speak at the police memorial
during police memorial day, those types. And to me, it's very important because I've had
as a former police officer over 20 years, I've had at least six of my friends die in line of duty.
So it's always very emotional for me. And yet I want to support our police officers as much as I can.
Now you were a school teacher as well. I am. I teach a special education six,
seventh and eighth grade dual language over adjusted middle school. I was telling you before
one of the years that that's a bad age. Yes. That's very. That's 13. That's a tough age.
But the body's changing. The mind's changing. And they think they know everything. Girls and
boys are important. Schooling is at the last and that's a tough age. We have very tough age.
Well, this gets out now in the remaining minute here. Tell us why you should be voted for for
re-election. Well, I come with a broad range of experience. And I've served the community well
over the years. And it's important to have the experience. I've been on the board of directors
of several colleges, the KIA, the hospitality center. So I bring a lot of experience to the
position. And I'm a small business owner. So I understand that aspect of it as well. And when
you look at the totality of the circumstances, and it's like a technical police term,
the totality of the circumstances, you see that I am highly qualified. And I come in with that
designation to be an older. And the broad experience I have having been on every committee,
even having been on the county's human development committee, human services board. It comes to the
point when you compare, you obviously see that I'm better qualified, still willing to serve. And I
don't I vote with the mayor sometimes and sometimes I don't because I try to use my judgment
with what the people in my community say and common sense. So a lot of people say, well,
you don't vote with the mayor. Well, not if it's a bad idea. And they say, well, you vote with
the mayor. Yeah, it's a good idea. I'm going to vote with the mayor. What does that have to do
with a party politics? And that's a big issue that keeps coming up as I campaign. Well, what party?
How does that? I said, no, this is there are no parties in city council. It's independent for
everybody. But we have to vote with our conscious. We have to vote with what we see the future of
the city holding. And that commitment we make to make a casino place where you can thrive,
where you can live, where you can play and enjoy what we have. We have a great community here.
I moved here from Miami. I love it here. So it's a huge day. Do you love it yesterday?
Well, it was challenging. We were in love with us yesterday while the people of Miami or Sydney
are sipping my ties poolside. Yeah. And you were out there shoveling ice and slush.
That's nothing or actually broke in the process. So it's a repair that needs to be done.
You have to worry about that in Miami. Did you? No. But we had a lot of rain and flooding in Miami.
So where is a hurricane? And so when is election day again? April 7th.
April 7th. That's a final election. Not the primary. That was already passed. If there were more
than two people on the ballot, then there was a primary. Now April 7th, the actual election.
Good luck, my friend. Hey, thank you. Brother, appreciate it very much.
Okay, very good, man. Thank you very much.