Solomon W. Kinloch Jr. Talks Mayoral Vision, Detroit Struggles, Community Solutions + More

Solomon W. Kinloch Jr. Talks Mayoral Vision, Detroit Struggles, Community Solutions + More

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his way up with Angela Yee And y'all
know it is election season, all right, and so I've
been telling everybody make sure you pay attention to who's
running for office.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Know who you want to vote for, have a plan.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
And to that point, we had Pastor Kenlock here with us,
who is running from mayor of Detroit.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yes, and you know Mary Sheffield's been here yes, a
couple of times. So this is our first like sit
down conversation. So first of all, congratulations for making it
like the way that you have, because I know when
you first announced that you were running to be mayor
of Detroit, you had to kind of jump over a
lot of people.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, seven people. It was nine people in total in
the race. And so we came through the primary one
of two.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And what was that decision like to even say I
want to announce that I'm running for mayor because it
was a big to do with the Fox Theater. But
I know that's not a decision that taken lightly.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Ever.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, I'm from Detroit and being a part of the city,
I grew up in the city where I was living
in extreme poverty on the West side of Detroit, and
I lived in a house with no running water, no
operating utilities, no front door, no back door. And so
I know what it means to live in that city

(01:22):
where people are saying the city is on the brink
of a revitalization and renaissance, but it hasn't made it
to your neighborhood, your street, or come to your house.
And so I know what that feels like. And so
that has fueled me and gave me the fire, even
as a pastor, using my platform to lift an entire
community of people and not as a pedestal to lift myself.

(01:45):
And so I got in this race because we had
a critical point. You have more than fifty one percent
of the children in the city of Detroit living in poverty.
You have so much poverty, it's at the high it
has been since twenty seventeen. Violent crime is the second
highest in Detroit in the nation. And then you talk

(02:08):
about three out of four are just struggling to keep
a roof over their head. And so this is a
critical time and we need new leadership because of the
leadership has not been working and come through for us
it's time for us to step up and stand up
and do it for ourselves.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
If you could think about some positive things that have
happened though, because Detroit has been a city, like you said,
when you think about how you grew up. But there
have been positive changes. But I feel like it has
to spread throughout from outside of the downtown midtown area
to the people who are longtime Detroiters. But what are
some things that you can say, Okay, there have been Oh, definitely.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
When you look at downtown, being in Detroit, coming from Detroit,
when you look at downtown, there have been some great
things happening. The people in the city of Detroit, including myself,
are excited about a lot of things that we see
happening in the city. We want our city to experience
a rebirth in renaissance, and so we don't have a

(03:06):
problem with all of the good. Some good things have happened.
What we're saying is that it's not good enough. We've
come far, but we still got a long ways to go.
And we want to see intentional and intense investment not
just in downtown and in midtown. We want to see
that sprinkle throughout the neighborhoods, we want the residents to

(03:27):
have access to the equity and the equality that they
experience and they're seeing in downtown Detroit.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Now, did West the entire debate that you had, and
I know you, And are you guys going to have
more conversations? Yes, before, because November fourth is when you
guys deadline for voting right first too, and Detroit in November.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Okay, that's our deadline here. So you know, I got
my early voting.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Tell everybody make sure you get out and vote early
if you have the opportunity to do that, because well.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
That's one of the things that I think a lot
of people weren't paying attention to. This was the first
election locally that you can vote forty five days before
election day avy for the mayor of the City of Detroit, Okay,
And so early voting polls are open, and so it
gives people an opportunity to start voting much earlier than

(04:14):
they used to be able to.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, that's important to me because anything could happen the
day of and I would much rather feel like I
got it out of the way. There's a pressure, I know,
the day of. They don't schedule a meeting up here
for me after work. I'm like, I don't even know
if I'm going to make it home, so I'm like,
I have to make sure that I do that ahead
of time. So yeah, So I watched that entire debate,
and I know there were some things that you wanted
to clarify.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Afterward. There was a.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Headline that the National Guard that you were in support
or would work alongside the National Guard if they were
to come to Detroit. And I did watch and see
what you said. So I want you to clarify what
you said on that.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Stage, now, Yeah, and you know, to be perfectly honest
with you, that's the garbage of politics when you start
talking about miscommunication and missing information. I have always stated,
even before the debate and even that day, that I
am never for national Guards being on the street of

(05:12):
an urban city policing the city. That was on the
record multiple times and interviews before the debate, and on
the night of debate, the question was asked of me
about federal resources which we were talking about outside of
National Guard policing the streets of Detroit. We were talking

(05:32):
about what already happens in the city of Detroit, like
one Detroit initiative where the FBI, the ATF, and other
law enforcement agencies partner with the Wayne County Prosecutor and
partner with the police department in order to strategize ways
to bring crime down. We just came from a period
this summer where it was a bloody summer in the

(05:56):
city of Detroit, and we need collaboration. We don't need
people police on our streets ever, but what we do
need is partnerships in order to make sure that we
holistically and comprehensively dealing with crimes.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
When you think about partnerships, what does that look like
to you? Like, what are some of the initiatives or
plans that you feel like could be great partnerships to
help bring well.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
You know, the real solution or resolve the crime is
to deal with poverty. And that's the first thing we
got to get a handle on. We have to admit
that poverty is a real problem and it has to
be dealt with intensely and intentionally and not that can
kick down the road. When I look at the table,

(06:41):
when I look at city council, city council is the
legislative body. They create legislation, they create departments, the mayor
administrates it, and the mayor executes it, and so anything
that the city needs to make a priority and agenda,
the city council has that power to do right now.

(07:03):
And when you start boasting and bragging institutional leadership say well,
we've done a lot in the city of Detroit. We've
done a lot in the city Detroit, and we built
a billion dollars of affordable housing. The question becomes, what
outside experts have we brought in to objectively measure that.
What Congress have congressional hearings in order to hear from

(07:24):
the constituents in order to make sure that the metrics
are measuring up, that it's really helping the people that
are supposed to get the results. And so we have
to do a better job of making sure that what
we say we're doing are we actually doing What we
would do to intensely deal with poverty is first of all,
we got to start early. I would start with Children

(07:47):
Trust Fund, making sure that every baby born in the
City of Detroit receives a seed investment, and then that
investment will increase every year until they get to the
age of eighteen. They'll be able to use that money
to open up a business. They'll be able to use
that money to go to vocational school or the college,
buy a house, or invest in their community. We also

(08:07):
have to make sure that we open up vocational opportunities.
We have high pay competitive industries in the city of Detroit.
Why are we waiting so late in order to give
our residents, our children access to those opportunities. We can
start those opportunities right now. We can partner with ongoing
continuous learning opportunities with collegess and vocation and skilled trades

(08:31):
program in order to give our residents an opportunity to participate.
We can open up the faith based community opportunities. We
did it at Triumph Church. We created something called Kiss
College on Saturday and from eight o'clock in the morning
to five o'clock in the afternoon, they got breakfast, lunch,
and dinner. But they were able to take over forty

(08:53):
different mentoring programs, stem classes, other opportunities, and we gave
them incentives. Because we're going to spend money to get
children who get into trouble out of trouble, why not
be proactive and invest in them and making sure that
we keep them from getting in trouble.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, I think you had said one thousand dollars a year.
Was that the number you did put a number on it, right, Yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Started, we were seen we would start the seed offering
of one thousand dollars and then every year we will
partner with private and public in order to seed into
that every year until they got to the age of eighteen,
as long as they continuously stayed in the city of Detroit.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Oh, okay, as long as you stay in the city
of Detroit.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
And now I want to ask you about this because
watching that debate, and I know these debates, we're in
New York in the middle of a fierce election right now.
You know it's been really intense. But for yourself on
that stage, because I know a lot of people. You
have forty thousand people who attend chiumph touches, right, and

(09:54):
for you to be on that.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Stat they know, they're don't to all come at the
same site. Yeah you know how they do. They don't
come all on the same sig.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
But you do have forty thousand, And I do want
to say it is something that I feel like with
the city. There's a lot of people who look at
you as a leader for what to do, but then
they also may not necessarily want to see you as
the mayor, And I see a lot of that in
the comments where it's like, you know, he's great as
our pastor, but I don't know that I want to
see him in this political position.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
How do you respond to that?

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Well, I tell people one of the things that I
was tutored and taught as a child that any people
that forget their history is destined to repeat it. Or
when we think about our struggle and our fight, it
has always been inclusive of the black preacher and the

(10:45):
black church. Somewhere along the way, we've forgotten that the
church is not just a place, and a preacher is
not just a personality that massage our miserable spots on
Sunday so that we can engage in motion release. We
have a responsibility, as doctor King tutor and taught us
to use our platform for social, political, financial, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

(11:09):
And what benefit is it to us to be leveraging
just spiritually and theologically on Sunday and watch the world
decay on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I come from
a history Detroit has always had ministers and pastors sitting
at the city council table participating in politics. I'm not

(11:29):
the first pastor that has got into it, and so
what has happened is that is an argument of the opponent,
That is chatter of people who are surrogates and supporters.
At the end of the day, that was the argument
they used when I got in the race. There's no
way in the world that Detroit do just wanted to
see a pastor where out of nine people, they made

(11:51):
me one of those people. And a primary does not
do the same thing a general do. Primary says and
it gives the opportunity from the voters to say, we
have one or two people that we want to see
advance to the general, and the general decides who becomes
the next mayor. And I believe that argument from some
of those surrogates and supporters of other people. Don't realize

(12:15):
that it don't work because they gave me an opportunity
to get to the general and now the decision will
be made by the voters.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
How what have you learned from this, because this is
way different than things you've had to do in the past.
And I know I've watched other elections. I remember other
people running for office who are really nice people educated,
you know, extremely intelligent, greatest intentions, but when it comes
to politics, there's a lot of mudslinging that happens, and

(12:46):
it does get people out of character. What are some
things you've learned about yourself during this process?

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Well, I believe that environment not only build character, I
believe it reveals whether or not you got any and
through this process. This process is an extension of the
work that I've always have been doing because I don't
believe that we're on a playground. I know that we're

(13:12):
on a battle ground. I knew when I got into
this that people in politics people want to say politics
is dirty. I don't believe politics is dirty. I believe
sometimes the people we allow to get in politics and
we electing politics make it dirty. I was hopefully optimistic
but not surprised at the level of toxicity that came

(13:35):
as a result of being in this campaign, because I
believe that we as a people can do more together.
And doctor King told us that you can disagree without
being verbally and violently disagreeable. You can't change other people.
But one of the things that I hold true to

(13:55):
is but you can dictate and determine how you're going
to respond.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
If I was.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
An institutional politician like so many others, the dirt and
the toxicity from my camp would be so intense. But
because I'm still a man of faith, I live by
this principle. The founder of my faith was a man

(14:20):
that came to save the world, and they hung him
up on a cross and they crucify him. Now, if
they gonna do that to him, how much less do
I expect that they would try to do to me,
just trying to help my community and help the world.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know, so you were at the No King's rally
as well. What was that experience like for you?

Speaker 3 (14:38):
It was a continuation to remind us that this country
is not a totalitarianism. We don't reserve government and politics
to aristocrats and bureaucrats. This government was built by the
people for the people, to benefit good and deliver services

(15:02):
to people. And we need to get back to that.
We need to stop believing that people are entitled to
these seats and only the privilege to and few should
sit in d seats of power. I like what Edie
Gaul says that professor at Princeton University when he says
on the title of this book, we have to become
the type of leaders that we're looking for, and we

(15:23):
got to hold our leaders accountable that we put in place.
And so being there that day was just a reminder
that all of us got a responsibility to make this
country hold true to what it promised, that every man
has an unabable right to pursue happiness in his own
individual way.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, we are in the middle of this government
shut down. We don't know when it's going to end.
How have you seen Detroit affected by this shutdown so far?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Well, you know, whenever you start talking about resources and
a community that has already been stretched thin, it doesn't
make it any easier when you got employees that have
got to find a way to make it do what
to do without having the resources that is accustomed to.

(16:10):
And so it's just a microcosm of what we're going
to continue to have to continue to do for each other,
look out for each other, because we see it happening
all across the board. Long before the shut down, we
saw resources being pulled back from the state level, from
the city level, and so we're going to have to
continue to do what we've been doing in the past, collaborating,

(16:33):
and that's what I've spent twenty seven years doing doing COVID.
When we didn't know how our children were going to
continue to learn, we stepped up and went out and
bought ten thousand laptops, thousands of laptops and distributed to
the community. We went up to Mike's Fresh Market in
Detroit on seven Mile in Libanois and we went out

(16:54):
and said, hey, man, when you put in your order,
put in an order so we can feed thousands of
families on a weekly basis. And so when someone says,
why why would a preacher get into this because we're
not seeing the people in the seat doing what they
should be doing. Because if they were, I wouldn't have
to get in it. I would continue to do what
I have been doing, supporting the people that were already

(17:16):
on the field.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
I want to ask you this too. I always wonder
this when people are running for office. There are certain
people that you were cool with and then you see
them maybe they're supporting another candidate, and you know, everybody
has their yes, So how does that affect relationships moving forward?
I've always wondered that because sometimes you could have the
best you know, thinking like, okay, this person is definitely

(17:37):
in my corner. But then when it comes time to
say who is it that I'm supporting, and who am
I going to go out and say this is who
I'm endorsing and it's not you. How does that affect
things moving forward?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, there's a political creole that I heard as a child.
No permanent in it, no permanent and so if you
walk into it like that, you understand. But the other
part of that is that in the life of Joseph,
one of the biblical characters that you know, I've studied,
it's a reminder to us that many times you don't

(18:12):
mean as much to other people as you think you do.
And when you come to that realization, you don't take
it personal. At the end of the day, I don't
do good expecting that the person I did good too
to do good back to me. I do good because
good is just a good and a godly thing to do.

(18:33):
And so when you go through life from that perspective,
you understand that you don't move based upon what you
believe you're gonna get in return. You do it because
it's the right thing to do. And as long as
I hold true to that, whatever happens in this race.
We'll still be able to move past it because all
of us hopefully want to see the exactly the lives

(18:55):
of the people in that city get better.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Right, you know?

Speaker 1 (18:58):
And I'm also thinking about being in this situation. There's
a lot of things that get brought up. There's a
lot of big headlines, and I know you must feel
like you want to address things, like I saw something
about this AMC movie theater that was purchased, So I
want you to just let us know, like what's going
on with that theater that was supposed to be you.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well, well, what you have is and a lot of
that is just garbage, okay, and just flat out lies.
The Triumph Church is more than one hundred years of age,
and we over the years have made multiple purchases. And
so when you purchase a building from a land contract perspective,
when we initially purchased it and then we later because

(19:42):
initially we put it down a tremendous down payment, we
later financed the balance of that building after we have
paid much of it down, So we financed a balance
of that. We created a holding company which I do
not own, which I'm just the resident agent of, just
like the church I'm a resident agent of the church,

(20:02):
and that's just the person that files, is responsible for
filing and annual reports at the end of the day.
That's the mere extent of it at the end of day.
And you do that in order to make sure that
you protect the church and you protect a liability. It's
a two hundred thousand square foot building on more than
twenty acres, and so it's just an entity to restrict liabilities.

(20:27):
The other thing is that when we initially purchased that
construction was one hundred to two hundred dollars of square foot.
Now construction is four to five hundred dollars square foot.
So through this process, when you start a one way,
you start exploring other opportunities. And right now we've had

(20:48):
the building under contract for major development and right now
I'm entertaining five developments for that particular property, and so
that property is still the property and the possession of
the triump Church community.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Did you anticipate all of this, like digging into everything?
I mean, I know it in politics when people run
for office, this is what happens, but when you're in it,
it's a little different than before.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Well, it's amazing to me how people just lie and
it's amazing to me. And when people say stuff coming up,
we only talking about one guy is doing this, one
guy who came to our camp and we wouldn't do
this to our opponent.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So he went to Okay, so I saw that story too,
Robert Davis.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, they said, yeah, this is the same person. Everything
that you say coming up is Robert.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Davis and I he said he was planning to sue
as well.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, he'll see a lawyer. He's suing multiple people. He
has a history of suing at the end of the day.
But that instance, at the end of the day. I mean,
anybody that's got a filing fee can sue at the
end of the days.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
I always say one thing about being in business and
being successful, get ready for some lawsuits.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
I remember my first lawsuit. I was devastated. Now it's
just a.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, we have to make sure just because people and
our community have to always remember just because people say
something don't mean it's true. And you have someone here
that is frivolous with its claims at the end of
the day, and social media gives people an opportunity and
platforms to say stuff sometimes that is not just flat

(22:25):
out true. I've had twenty seven years of honoring the
people in that city with character and integrity, and they
shot all of this, even doing the primary and the
people can see past the smoke in the mirrors and
know who's been with them all the time.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
You know, you've been doing this work, the Lord's work,
since you were fourteen years old. Talk to me about
those early beginnings, because I can't imagine being fourteen and
knowing what I wanted to do with my life.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Well, I've always had people around me who supported me.
I came up in a church that celebrated who we
were as a people and as a community, and I
got a sense very early that my life wasn't just
live for me. My life was called for a greater
purpose and a greater intent, and it was to be

(23:17):
used to be a benefit and a blessing to the world.
And that wasn't going to come with comfort and convenience.
It was sometimes going to come with much criticism. But
despite the criticism, we have a calling to continue to
make sure that we lift up our fellow man. And
so just being around people is what motivates me to

(23:39):
make sure we're creating those kind of environments for our
children in a community, because when we put our children
in the right environments, they don't just survive, they learn
how to thrive. They don't just fly the sowred. And
so I'm just paying it forward. I'm just doing for
other people what somebody was able to do for me.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Now could say this is what needs to happen the
first thirty days when the new mayor takes office. What
are some of the first things that you would say
have got to be the priorities.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Well, we want to make sure that we have the
continuity of services, making sure that people know just because
leadership change, that the quality of their services should not change.
They should not go down, they should go up. And
that's nine one one calls an answered, trash is being
picked up, lights are kept on. So those continuity of

(24:29):
services should take place. The second thing is we have
to create a homelessness strikeforce. We have to be intentional
about homelessness in the city of Detroit. That can has
been kicked down the road too long. The other thing
we need to do is make sure we do an evaluation,
a valuation evaluation of our leadership to make sure that

(24:55):
they understand that there needs to be metrics in place,
and what are they going to do different, what strategies
are they going to use in order to make sure
they're delivering services for the people at the level that
the citizens of Detroit deserve. We need to make sure
we reaching out to Lansing, we reaching out going to Washington,
making sure that were having conversations about where we can

(25:17):
collaborate and where we can work together in order to
improve the lives of our people in the city of Detroit.
And then we need to make sure that we have
the right team in place. And with that team, we
want to make sure that we bringing together because the
mayor not only can cast vision communicate it, he can

(25:37):
convene the table. And what I'll do is convene a
table of business leaders, residents, unions, philanthropy and create an
office of Philanthropy where we come together and the community
participates in the reimagining of what their community looks like.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
All right, we like that, you know.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I wanted to also talk to you more about what
has been done. What do you think about how would
you rate Mike Duggan as the mayor of Detroit and
the work that he's done.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Well, I'll be honest with you Mike Duggan doesn't need
me to service as pr person.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Now, I just want to know what you think of
as a lifetime detroitter.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
You know, just how do you think he did.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Mike Duggan has done some good things as it relates
to downtown and the financial stability of the city of Detroit.
What I would have liked to see is that to
be more inclusive and more intentional in a way that

(26:40):
pulled not just a sect of the city in it,
but a holistic approach and a comprehensive approach that made
more of the residents of the city feel a part
of it.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
How do you feel about the balance of outside investors
coming in and people who actually are from the city
and have been there having the opportunity also to become
home own.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Well, we got it, and that's one of the areas
we have to do a better job at. We have
to make sure that when we're talking about contracts and procurement.
We got to make sure that when we talk about
development that the same resources that we give big businesses downtown.
No one is mad about what they see happening downtown.

(27:24):
What people are frustrated and upset about is that they
haven't seen that spillover those same resources, those same access,
those tax incentives, those tax captures, those abatements, those credits.
They haven't seen that accessible to the rest of the city.
We got thirty eight thousand small businesses in the city

(27:45):
of Detroit. Just think about if those businesses got access
to those resources. Just think about if we incentivize those
businesses hiring one person a piece and giving them tax
credits and incentives in order to do that would be
one of the largest job quotes we've seen in recent times.
And so those are the kind of things that we

(28:06):
want to do to make sure Detroit is working in
a way where it's a city that benefits all. We
need to build a Detroit that works for not just some,
but works for everybody.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
They have been constantly talking about how the new millionaires
are the plumbers, the HVAC people, the electricians. I've always
felt like Detroit has so much work that still needs
to be done. Like you said, outside that, I was like,
if I was there full time, I would be like
a general contractor. That's what I always say, because there

(28:37):
is so much opportunity. When I look at things that
are there and I think it's such an amazing place
for people to be able to thrive.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
And we have to make sure that our citizens are
given the opportunity to be prepared for when the development
come that they can participate and not have developments happen
in the city of Detroit and they say whether they
can't find quality individuals to do the work. We got
to do a better job of making sure that before

(29:07):
these opportunities are in the ground, that our people are
positioned and they are able to take advantage of them.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yes, there's nothing like finding somebody good and reliable exactly
to get some work done. They will get a billion referrals,
all right, exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Firstly for me, so I want to go back to
the debate.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Now, one thing that was said during the debate is
we need more than rhetoric, we need action, right, And
you and Mary Sheffield had a back and forth about
basically you were in a position to have done things
just like she's in a position to have, you know,
twelve years in city council.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Yeah. Yeah, But the difference is I'm not an elected official.
I was not elected president of the City Council, and
I didn't have a three billion dollar budget to get
it done. What I did was I did it without
nobody asking me to do it. I did it because
it needed to be done. When you elect somebody, you

(30:00):
elect somebody to do a job. And when you have
been elected to do a job, they elected her to
administrate the budget at the end of the day, and
leadership cannot be rubber stamping. When Mike Duggan comes over
and hand you a budget, if you know that poverty
is going up, if you know that the majority of

(30:23):
the children in the city are in poverty, and if
you don't know, that's negligence. And if you do know,
that's intentional to know that that is going on in
the city. And a budget is sent over to you
and you see that the prioritization of the budget is
not addressing any of that. That's the opportunity as a

(30:45):
leader to have checks and balances in order to leverage
that in order to say we need to do some reprioritization.
For twelve years to see that going on and you
say it has not been enough, has not been done,
You've been given opportunity sitting at the table to be

(31:05):
the checking balances of the people in order to do that,
and so anything that you know city councils say that
they want to do they got the power to do
it right now. They got the power to create and
give the mayor the responsibility to administer and to execute.
And when you've had twelve years and you failed at that,

(31:25):
I don't know a job you can fail at twelve
years and then go on and get a promotion from it.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
I mean, I would say anybody would say it's never
enough right when we can say enough has not been done,
you know, that is always like, look, we've made some strides,
but it's still not enough.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
If yeah, but angel look at Angela, look at this.
We're talking about the majority of the kids. I just
sat in your green room and saw the paper here.
That's why New Yorkers, despite all of the rhetoric of
the media and stuff going on, that's why they are
definitive about we want something different. When you looking at

(32:04):
you know, kids, the majority of a kid in city
and poverty, you can't we can't do victory laps talking
about what we achieve. No matter what we've done, it
ain't work. And so if you see what you're doing
has not worked, at some point, you got to be
open and receptive to do something different. The best idea is,

(32:27):
it appears to me, are the ones that they've already had,
because if they had better ones, they would have achieved them.
And so at this point we got to be open
to trying something different, something new. And out of the
two of us, I'm the only one that has been
a CEO, I'm the only one that is head up

(32:48):
for organization. I'm the only one that has had to
build organization, that has had to administrate programs and budgets
and staff, recruit and train. And if I can do
that with a church that had less than one hundred
people and mammothan mofed that organization and to more than

(33:09):
forty thousand families across the metropolitan area, if I can
do that with a church, just give me an opportunity
to show you what I can do with an entire city.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Well, listen.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
And one of the things y'all talked about was that
you guys aren't in charge of the education system, but
there are things that you can do. Yes, Okay, So
when you think about those things that can be done,
and I know we talked first about the one thousand
dollars grant, but when it comes to the education system.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
What do you see a way.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
That the mayor can help boost Like you said, the
kids are below the education level that they should be at.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
What are some things that can happen.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Well, one of the things that the Kinlock Plan and
promise will deliver is a chief educational officer. The residents
in the city of Detroit have already decided that they
don't want to observe theiruthority of a school board. They
want an elected school board, and they want the elected
school board a point a superintendent. So, although it's not

(34:07):
the mayor's job, it's still the mayor's responsibility because you
cannot have a city that come back and a school
district don't come back with them. And so one of
the things that we would do is a point a
person because we have to deal with the social ills
that's crippling our children from showing up to a classroom
and able to learn before they get there. I know

(34:30):
what that feel like. I know the embarrassment and the
shame that comes with showing up in a classroom when
you ain't got decent clothes to put on, or either
underclosed to put on, when you got holes and the
soles of your shoes and you ain't had no food.
They have to have the resources they need to thrive,
and so what we would do is have a person

(34:51):
that would leverage the city's resources and relationships in order
to make sure that they're getting all of those tools
and those essensions that they need before they show up.
They can't show up and they live in a food
desert and no grocery stores in the neighborhood, they can't
show up, and they don't have access to mental health

(35:12):
professionals in order to help them and their families. They
can't show up if they can't make it to school
safe because they are living in crime infested areas and
along their route. They can't make it to school, if
they don't have adequate and reliable transportation, and so there's

(35:35):
so many things. They can't make it. If they don't
have housing, they can't make it, if their family don't
have resources. So what the Chief Educational Officer would do
would be not just wait until they get to the school.
They will make sure that we're making sure that intentional
programs are put in place to give them the comprehensive

(35:56):
assistance and their family comprehensive assistance they need so that
they can show up in a way that they can
win every time.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
All right, Well, listen again, people can vote now, right they.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yes, they can vote. They can vote right now. They
can vote for Solomon Kinlock right now.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Well, Pastor Kenlock, it was a good sit down. Thank
you for coming by.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
It's my honor to be here with you.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
And spending some time with us. Today. We'll be keeping
our eye on everything that's been going on.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
I appreciate you. Thank you for the invitation.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Of course, it's our pleasure. All right, it's way up