City of Lakewood Mayor, Ariel Pe

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Ariel Pei, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for taking time to behere.
Man, appreciate it.
You're busy with family.
This is Rad.
I'm really excited to actuallyhave you on.
It's pretty cool, man.
Thank you, I'm pretty excited.
This is awesome.
Yeah, this is cool.
So, to get this started really.
So everybody knows you are themayor of Lakewood, I am the
mayor of Lakewood, yeah.
Let's go.
That's pretty big, but it'sinteresting how I just met you

(00:31):
tonight.
This is really cool, but howyou and Jordan met, so I don't
know how.
You guys want to tell thatstory real quick.
Well, it's classic storyClassified.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, no, actually I was looking at some golf stuff
and so kindly found somethingthat Ariel was selling, and now
that's how we ended up having alittle small talk Talking about
what I did, and I was kind ofthrew it out there and he's like
I'm actually like the mayor ofLakewood, I'm like no way, get
out of here.
This is way too casual of aconversation.

(01:02):
I feel like I should have beenstanding up straight or
something so humble.
Wait, I didn't tell you that didI?
Yeah, straight out, not.
No, I'm embellishing it.
I was going to say no.
No, it wasn't.
Like you know, I'm a mayor.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, he wasn't.
He wasn't arrogant about it.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Not at all.
That's why, when you said it, Iwas like I felt like my
response is like no way, really,like okay and like not that
every person in a position likethat can't be cool and seem
normal.
You know what I mean Like inthat way.
But just wasn't ready for thatand so I immediately was like do
you want to come out of thepodcast?
You know, you know, I just youknow.
Anyways, it kind of worked outthat way and the launch monitor

(01:42):
I got is super rad, and now it'spublicly known that I really
appreciate it.
Yeah, they should be a sponsorof the show.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I know you too, so you two connected pretty much
because of golf.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, and you smell like surf wax out of the blue.
I don't know what it was.
You smell like surf wax.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I'm like I ran out of deodorant and I just hit the
pass with some sticky.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was looking in your truck and I was like did he
have one of those thingieshanging in?
Oh yeah, they almost smell likewax.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah.
I'm like yeah, I just naturallysmell like sticky bumps because
you serve so much baby.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, maybe I used to.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Not as much anymore.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
This is okay, let's get this straight.
Can we just call you Ari?
Is that what people call me,ari?
Man, this is cool, this bigdeal.
We've never had a mayor on here, so we really appreciate your
time off the first.
But, man, I kind of read up onyou a little bit so you're your
homegrown liquid.
Yes, sir, same here, homegrown.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Like a group and liquid.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
So I grew up off of across the street from airplane
park, delomo or Delval Park.
Okay, yeah, yeah, my parentsare still there.
Oh, good, good.
Yeah, my brother lives inLakewood.
His family, my first two homesare in Lakewood, and then I just
moved down the street over hereon Long Beach.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay, good, I'm here but yes, we grew up so you need
my number so they can allcomplain to me.
No only the complaints.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
That was my job man, it's my job, it's all good.
But so you were also.
I think I read you were thefirst.
What is it the?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
first Filipino American on Lakewood City
Council ever in the history.
Let's go.
What year was that?
What year?
Yeah, it was 2020, when I firstgot elected.
Wow, what got you into politics, man?
That's a good story.
I think politics found me.
Okay, I'm a politician, I am apublic servant, though, man, I
like that.
I'm a public servant, I'm achronic volunteer and I think

(03:26):
it's found me because of I guessyou can say like being Filipino
and being Catholic going uparound this area where it's all
about sports.
You go to church, you help, youhelp family, you help friends.
When your uncle needs to comeby, when your friends need to
help, you just help, right?
Yeah, what happened to me wasworked in corporate America.

(03:46):
I worked in the action sportssector, so I worked for Vans.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I was on Vansville marketing team for about nine
years Look at you, dude.
Yeah, nine years I worked withall the big dogs, some heavy
hitters, yeah, some heavyhitters they're the ones that
really changed the game, right,I truly believe.
But I also worked at the brandwhen it was still that brand,
that fun brand.

(04:12):
You walk into work and you justgrind, you just work and you
just don't know you're workingso much because you're having
fun, right?
And then, long story short, gotmarried and had a little one.
Yeah baby, them kids.
She's like the raddest littlehuman.
I look back and like and justlike our conversation.
Before we walked in we hadwater bowl this morning.

(04:32):
Now she's golfing and she alsoserves right, oh, she serves and
snowboards.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Oh wow, we do it all.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I left corporate America probably well, let's say
, 15 years ago.
She's 15.
I left corporate America, right, and I left Vans and I left
this huge safety net, like, andthis amazing, like brand life,
like going to school.
I went to St John Bosco andthen from there I went to Bosco.
I actually want to go toLakewood because I played Pop
Warner for Lakewood and I wantto play baseball for Lakewood.

(05:02):
Oh okay, I don't know if you, Idon't know how old you are, I'm
pretty old.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I'm 37.
You got your young bucks.
Yeah, I don't feel like that.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
I played 80s early 90s this area was pretty tough
man Like, like gang activity waspretty heavy and all the kids I
played sports with it was easyto get swayed right Because,
like the homies from Long Beach,you know, and all the Pop
Warner kids and all the PatrickHenry kids I played baseball
with, I mean, you know, and thenwe just had it.
It was so diverse but could beeasily swayed.

(05:30):
So eventually dad's like you'regoing to Bosco, I'm like what I
want some cover travel down,okay.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, man yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah.
So he's like, I'm like didn'thave an eighth grade after
because I went to St PanCrecious and then I didn't have
an eighth grade summer.
Okay, I went right intofootball, had an amazing time,
man, like I mean, the programnow is completely different and
kudos to the boys that smashedit this weekend.
Nice Smashed modern day keptthem at zero.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Modern day, modern day.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
They 28 to zero, 28, zero.
We don't even know.
I've never seen that in my life, whoa, and it was like two
tanks fighting each other.
It was just like I mean, eventhough the scores got to where,
like 14, zero, it still didn'tseem like it was a free game,
like there was work, but anyways.
So, going back from Bosco andthen had a little one, and I had

(06:22):
grown up in this area, right,you, you want to start a
clothing line, that's true.
All me and the boys did an areawith surf and ride dirt bikes.
Right, that's all we did.
And we go camp and Baja, andthen we go down up North and
then we're in Glamis, you know,doing the whole thing, and then
start a clothing line and thenbought some printing equipment

(06:46):
and then started a small brand.
Then I turned the business.
Then I figured out someonewould pay me to make their
shirts and then that was thegarage business.
So I can buy more sleds, I canbuy more surfboards and buy more
motorcycle parts, right.
And then when I left corporateAmerica, I I scaled my garage
business up so chased all likethe Procule schools and PE

(07:08):
printing T-shirts, just chasedit so I can be home and because
I traveled a lot when I was atworking for the big companies.
I mean you're gone.
I mean, don't get me wrong,working for big brands is
amazing but it's a grind.
Yeah, like you're on the road,you have inspiration tours, you
have sales meetings and you havetrade shows.
And you know trade shows,people like I remember my wife's

(07:31):
, like dude, like you're neverhome, like I mean like during
the day you didn't call me.
I'm like, yeah, because I'm atthe trade show booth from 7 am
to like 5 pm and then the beerstarts flowing at 3 and then the
dinner started at like 4.
Then then the pre-party startand then you still have athletes
you got to take care of andthose guys just want to rage
wherever we're at.
Right, it's like five daysstraight.

(07:51):
Then you go to another stateand then see it again Like go
down to Florida.
You know so was a grind andthen just scaled it up Like
anything.
You start a small business, youkind of.
You find networking circlesright, and my friend goes you
need to join the Rotary Club ofLakewood.
I'm like Rotary, not sayingcars, right, like.
And she's like not cars, ari,it's like a service organization

(08:13):
you would fit right in, andprior to that I had a couple
events.
I would feed the homeless.
I ran this program that my, mymom and dad and all my friends
did.
We'd feed like 500 people onLong Beach, delivered three
towers.
We did it for 30 years stronguntil the until the pandemic hit
right and then she was likeyou'd fit right in, I'm like all

(08:35):
right.
So I joined this club and I waslike mind blown, like it was
this.
It was service above self right.
But for me, I fit right inbecause it was part of my DNA.
I was all about volunteering.
Volunteering is not like a likea hassle.
To me, it's like something younaturally do.
Hey, go volunteer, go help,okay, good, like you don't.
It's like I didn't like have achoice, like it was just part of

(08:56):
my DNA.
So being part of thisorganization now put me with
people that had the samementality.
Right Now you're.
Now it's not just friendshelping you do things.
If now you're with like electedleaders, you're with like
municipal employees, you're withCEOs, retired educators, now
you're with like educators, youknow school districts and it's

(09:19):
like whoa.
But again, it was about serviceand that's for me when the
doors opened, okay, so I becameactive and they said, hey, you
know, we need help growing ourclub.
I'm like, all right, I'll takeon the marketing, marketing
background, right?
So I just taught a bunch of oldpeople how to use Facebook,
right.
So, just thinking me likerunning this meeting, we had

(09:40):
this old guard and this newguard, like the old generation
that was there, that wereunderstanding what the new
generation wanted to do, and itwas cool because there was not
conflict.
I was like the time where I wasbridging the two, the two age
demographics together to do thesame thing like service above
self, right.
But now let's share to theyounger generation.
But I would start meetings liketeaching okay, this is how you

(10:02):
log on Facebook.
Now, my, this thing runs Like Ihave all my old people scanning
and taking pictures andreposting and everybody's
watching.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And then being part of Rotaryjust opened more doors.
So here it goes, ymca hey,would you like to throw it on
the board?
I'm like hell, yeah, let's goNext.

(10:22):
You know, I'm the board chairfor two years and I was the
president of Rotary Club andthen YMCA led to Chamber of
Commerce.
Okay, board chair there.
And then two years there andgrow that and build that and it
just kept going like pathways,you know, nights of Columbus.
Then it came.
Now it's in like St Joseph HighSchool.
I serve on the board Long BeachCity College Foundation Board.

(10:44):
I serve.
I serve on the regionalhospital board, bro yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
How do you keep all the badges?
I feel super lazy right now.
I was like man, I thought I wasbusy, but apparently not busy
enough I'm like the leaderlocally.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I don't have no money , man, but I'm blessed man.
I'm like and then my friendsthat are like big CFL is like,
dude, you got way too much in aplayer.
I'm like, bro, you're work fora corporation.
You know, when you work for bigcorporations, you have access
to program development.
What's my program?
How am I going to grow as aperson?
Boards meet you meet,networking circles, boom, boom,
boom.

(11:19):
Let me learn how these peopledo it and kind of bring it on.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I've definitely learned that it is.
It is all about connecting withpeople, yeah, and you want to
do well and go somewhere.
You can't do it alone.
You got to be involved.
Yeah, that's the way to getyour name out, your brand Now is
your company.
Is it in Lakewood?

Speaker 2 (11:36):
It is so.
I had a printing business thatI opened a door like I opened a
off Delamo in Woodruff.
I had it for six years.
I turned it into like this,like a mans cave slash art,
creative, nice.
Or we can print, do liveprinting, we can do run
production at the same time,host events there and we'd have

(11:59):
music festivals.
Not music festivals, we'd havelike music events and then we'd
have like car shows, fundraisers, the whole mine yard.
Delamo, delamo, woodruff.
We're right next to the liquorstore Johnny's Liquor.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
That's fine, oh man, yeah, okay, I know exactly what
you're talking about.
Sorry, you're like what is it.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
I was like for the record I don't know where that
is, it's just a local boys dog.
Yeah, that's awesome, I meanjust the whole process of
starting it up and what I findinteresting, so like when you
left like a corporate or vansright, scary just let you know
100% because what you said, thesafety net and I can only
imagine like married kid Dairykid's house.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
I got a house, got a mortgage.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
There's a ton on the line when you make a big jump
like that.
So kudos, and obviously itseems to have worked out
fantastically Still alive, well,right.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Still trucking baby.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
But when that took place, how long was it before?
You know, because it seems likeyou maybe jumped into the like
the sailing of doing the screenprinting and whatnot.
But when that point like howlong did it take before you got
into like the rotary and startedentering in towards the chain
or commerce and stuff?

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So right when I got into printing, I was printing
already.
So it wasn't like I was goingfrom being a startup business.
I already had clients because Iwas a side hustle.
It was a side hustle like Imean, make an extra like 500 so
I can get some wanks and getsome new sleds, you know, shaped
out right.
And then so I had clients.
I was just able to do thebusiness during the day now,

(13:26):
because I always had to do it atnight through emails.
So I already had the business.
But going to the rotary, thatwas just friends of friends.
I mean, you know the sayingyour network is your net worth,
like at one point in timesomeone found me just through
volunteering and then she's likedude, you need to join the club
.
I'm like, okay, so I don't.
I think it was probably aboutno more than like a less than a

(13:49):
month is what.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Okay, because how it happened is how it happened.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It was on a Sunday and then we were going to go
visit my grandma.
She was at a, at a at a home,and my wife.
We went to church.
My wife and daughter were like,hey, we're gonna take a nap at
Grandma, grandpa's house beforewe go.
I said, all right, cool, I'mgoing to the car show.
So Lakewood had a car show thatday.
So I rolled the car show bymyself just to go check it out,
because I like cars and that'sone of my favorites.

(14:14):
Yeah, you rolls and he's anight.
You know Columbus, and I ranand they had a booth, rotary had
a booth and she's like are youto join this club?
And I'm like that's wherehappened.
I went to the car show to golook at cars and she was, they
had a booth and they were justkind of marketing their booth
there.
And they go you fit ready andcome to meeting next Thursday.

(14:34):
I'm like all right, I'll bethere, Haven't left yet, wow.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Now to that, all these connections that you made.
I want to remember this,remember this correctly you
started city council first,right, no, no, you went straight
to mayor.
No, where'd you start?
I?

Speaker 2 (14:47):
started on the rotary , rotary right came board
members Right, and then I gotthe tap on the shoulder.
So as when I was the boardchair for the Chamber of
Commerce, okay, I got the tap,the mayor tapped me on the
shoulder.
Goes, hey, you need to considersomething.
So the when he told me that Iwas like whoa, the mayor just
tapped me on the shoulder.
I know, I'm just like this,just seeing him, right, yeah,

(15:09):
but we weren't like.
I mean, we're not like bro, bro, bra, right, bro, bra right.
He's like.
I said, come to my house andhave coffee.
And I'm thinking I'm like letme get on a commission, yeah,
building a skate park inLakewood, building a wave pool
on Lakewood, yeah, I get my sayyou know, tired of these old
things, I want like some coolrock climbing gyms in Lakewood.
And then he's like he justpushed, we even.

(15:30):
I don't even think we hadcoffee, not, I think about it,
just write to business.
He just shoved over this thickdeck of paper and I was like
what's this?
He goes, you need to run forcounsel.
I'm like what?
That's exactly what I said.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I would say it to you.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
I'm like me, you want me to do it.
That's the second thing I saidexactly.
Then he's like hey, this is thereason why You're from Lakewood
, your parents are from Lakewood, you grew up in Lakewood,
you're a product of thiscommunity.
You give back People at homeand you are not by telling your
story.
People are telling your storyfor you.
I was like okay, but I didn'tsee it that way, right.

(16:05):
You just have volunteer.
And then when I look back, itwas weird, because when you
serve on multiple organizationsyou look back, right.
And when he said people tellyour story I was like what,
who's telling my story?
And he first thing like yoursocial platform, right.
And then I realized certainconversations I remember vividly

(16:26):
when we had the car show, whenI was the board chair for a
chamber and I was in charge ofthe car show, we had
Congresswoman Linda Sanchezthere, speaker Emeritus, so
Emeritus Speaker Anthony Rendon.
There we had some pretty bigelected officials in the state
Congress that was there and thenall council was there.

(16:46):
So I was standing there and Igot introduced to them and I go
hey, my name is Ariel Pig, justthe board chair of Chamber of
Commerce, thanks for coming outand saying a few words.
And then they're like okay.
And then someone else would say, hey, he's well, okay, he's the
board chair there, he's on theYMCA, he does this, this, this

(17:07):
and this.
And I was like, yeah, you knowthat felt good.
Because I wasn't propagating it,I wasn't telling him, I just do
it.
It happened naturally.
It was organic and you just dothe work and people will see
right, and that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Did he convince you that night Were you like you
wanna go home and steal this fora little bit.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
No, I went home.
Mois watched a team.
I sit down next to my wifesitting right there.
I'm like, hey, what's up?
And I go.
How'd your meeting go?
She goes, I went.
Good, he wants me to run forcounsel.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
He's like what?

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Is that what you think of me, babe?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, is that what you think he's like?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
what does that mean?
She's like how are you gonnafit that in?
I'm like I don't know.
I go what do you think?
And I said to her I go hey,this is a us thing.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Oh yeah, this ain't about me, because I you go,
she's going, bro.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, you go, and then that means our lives will
be a little shifted because wehave little one, we have sports,
and you had to ask my mom anddad too.
Mom dad, I'm running forcounsel, huh.
And my parents?
There's no political, they haveno political Political action
or anything in the background,anything.
They're like conservative,they're just work Lakewood, work
hard, retire.

(18:16):
I'm good.
My parents are immigrants.
They got here, their boys wentto a good school, they're
educated.
We did our job.
We don't need to shake thesystem up.
We just wanna go on vacation,hang out and hang out with our
friends.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
And then they're just like huh, and my dad's like
looking at me, like yeah.
And then, with my marketingbackground, we just ran.
I didn't even know what thefirst thing to do was, right,
when I said, okay, I'm gonna dothis, and I told them okay, do
this.
Okay, and they go, let me knowif you need help.
I'm like I don't even know whatto ask.
Yeah, right to run, that's whatI was gonna ask you.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
How does that like?
Because when you get asked that, it's like, okay, you obviously
represent a lot of pieces ofstuff at the moment and like it
sounds like you've been in avery hardworking kind of grinder
type.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Volunteers where I am Right.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, Just whether it's volunteering, how, whatever
, trying to make everything work.
When you had that like, whatwas the like, what was that next
thought process of once, it'slike you kind of get past, like,
okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonnaactually I'm gonna do it Like
what was the first thing thatyou have to like, how do you
like, are you, do you securesome sort of popularity or
secure some sort of I mean like,obviously I know there's

(19:24):
financing and things like thatthat go into running, but like,
what was that first step?
Basically, if you kind ofremember how you felt and you
know, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
So I just sat there and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna
run for counsel.
What do I do next?
I don't know.
There's no book on this.
I think there is.
I didn't like go and search howto run a campaign because I
knew marketing, I knew strategicbranding, you know.
I knew messaging, I knew youknow you're you're like for
marketing.
It's like print, social, likeyour web platform, and then
community development right, ifyou can manage all three of

(19:55):
those and find monies for that,then you're good and you can
tell a story, right.
And but it was still it'spolitics, right.
I knew I'd zero.
The only political circle I hadwas a TV.
I don't know what he inpolitics outside of the council
that I run to at events.
Right, cause they would come tomy events, like my, like my
homeless feeding and my turkeyand my Thanksgiving day.

(20:15):
They would come to my events.
Oh, okay, like yeah, yeah.
Clown dude, and I'm like exactly, I didn't know, I'm just doing
my thing, right, like with myfriends and family and kids are
teaching kids like this big howto use a knife and de-boned a
turkey.
But again, and then, a goodfriend, they referred me to

(20:35):
another friend of his and he wasa political.
He was a political likecampaign manager, right.
And then I sat with him andhe's like, okay, let's do this.
And then I guess, how does thisall work?
How does people get paid?
What do you gotta do?
You gotta raise money?
Who to ask?
I got, I never asked for money.
I haven't.
Yeah, dude, that's tough dude,or sorry, I mean I never asked

(20:56):
for money, like no, like that'snot my jam, right, you need to
like start putting a listtogether.
And I'm like, where do I start?
Right.
And then, but he got me tounderstand this, the whole like
broad scope of what has tohappen, messaging.
But I think for him he goesit's easy for me to tell your

(21:17):
story.
The problem is I can't grabeverything because you have so
much shit, don't wanna I'llquick-hust.
Yeah, you're fine we have somuch shit going on, I can't grab
everything.
I can tell your story, that'sthe thing versus somebody that's
hey, I'm gonna run and theyhave to start making stuff up.
They couldn't grab everythingthat I was doing because I was I
was I was full tilt going, justhaving fun doing what I do.

(21:39):
And then we ran a campaign, weraised money because I had to
ask people and had a kickoffparty and had people talk and do
the wine and dying thing andlike I mean, campaign parties or
kickoffs are like two hours max, dude, it's perfect.
Dude, they're not like drawnout parties, right, right, okay.
And then we raised money, wewon and that in that 2020

(22:00):
election there was seven of usrunning for two seats.
Wow, so I was the second topvote-getter my first time.
I was probably like around Iwanna say a thousand votes under
the incumbent that's been oncouncil for almost eight, nine
years.
That's excellent to know.

(22:21):
Yeah, I was like a like lessaround a thousand and a little
bit more shy, and I was likecause there was a gap between us
two and then everybody else.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah.
So when you go you you got citycouncil.
Now when you, how tough was itbetween the two going for mayor
and city council?
Was there a big difference?
No, but pretty much the same.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
You just like copy and paste type of thing, but you
.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Hey, I'm going for mayor.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
No.
So Lakewood, the mayor shipgets transferred, transitioned,
so you have to get on counciland when you're on council, your
council term is four years andthen the mayor gets handed to
you once, once in your four yearterm.
So you get handed it.
So basically, we make decisionsbased on the five of us.
But I'm right now on the face,I get it.

(23:04):
Okay, that's how it happens inLakewood.
But Long Beach and LA, they'reelected, they're elected mayors,
right, that's why they get paid.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
The big bucks.
Dude, you are just going for it.
My man, Somebody wanna hit onactually ask you.
You said your parents areimmigrants.
Yeah, what's that story?
How do?

Speaker 2 (23:19):
they come over here, okay, and where are they from?
Okay, so my parents are fromthe Philippines, okay, my
father's an engineer and mymother is a nurse, obviously
cause she's Filipino.
So so you guys are probablyyoung, but my, yeah.
So my father was recruited tocome to work here in the US

(23:39):
because it was an engineer,really, and then they needed
nurses.
So he came to work, for he gotrecruited by Firestone, which is
now the Citadel Right, and thenhe worked for another firm and
retired there for after, like.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
What year was that Were?

Speaker 2 (23:52):
you born, here you were born here?

Speaker 1 (23:52):
I was born here, yeah .

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Okay, so your first generation, first generation,
yeah, so I was born in CulverCity but grew up in Cherry Cove.
Okay, you know Cherry Cove, ohyeah, oh yeah, I was one of the.
We were one of the firstFilipino families in Cherry Cove
.
Look at what the heck dude,dude.
I got here.
I got called out on that dude.
Yeah, I would imagine, becausemy first election.
So I'm campaigning right.
And let me tell you a story.
It's funny I'm campaigning andI sit down with the guy Dick

(24:17):
Brown that owns Glory Days.
Oh my God he's an OG Lakewoodguy.
Right, yeah, yeah, Over thereViking Way.
No, this one's off Delamo andWoodruff.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Oh, okay, no, Carson and Woodruff.
Yeah, yeah, I know, Charlie.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Cross Street from YMCA.
And then he's like, hey, yougrew up in Cherry Cove, right?
And I said, yes, sir, we werejust like talking cause you know
, like support, can I put a signin front of your place?
He's like do you know theYoungblood family?
And I was like whoa.
I said, yes, sir, I do.
So Youngblood family was anAfrican American family I grew

(24:50):
up with in Cherry Cove.
I went to military school withcause all of us live in Cherry
Cove.
We went to either Bret Hart orwe went to military school,
which was in Signal Hill back inthe days.
And he's like I said, yes, sir,I do.
I do know the Youngblood familyand the Williams family.
He's like, okay, you're an OGLakewood guy too.
I was like, oh God, oh, that'sa wrap.
What a small world, dude.
I was like whoa, like yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, that's awesome.
The story of the process, ofhow you got to where you're at,
is pretty amazing, man, and Ijust want to say cause you said
something about it earlier andyou're talking about you know,
you're like being Filipino andkind of just a family culture of
like you help each other outlike no questions asked, it just
it wasn't even like a thoughtprocess to do things and how you

(25:33):
parlay that into volunteer workand it's just you just do it.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
I just like my wife's Filipino and so seeing some of
the cultural stuff of the familyit's like anytime anything.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
So when you said that , I was like yeah, they'll like
drop the hat you go Good, badand indifferent it's just you
just do it, you just do it yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
And it's like and I think that's a unique trait and
it's interesting to see, causeobviously I've met a ton of
politicians and that kind ofstuff.
But having that background, tome, that makes so much more
sense.
As far as having the volunteerbase right, you just kind of get
involved, do your thing andwhether it's for money, charity,
whatever, you're just like, hey, like I'm here, I'm here to

(26:14):
help, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
And I could see how that made you very likable and,
in that way, right and obviouslyyou probably can you know
towards your success of this sofar.
And, dude, that's awesome.
And my next question is howlong are your terms and are you
gonna run?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Hello, is that too weird?
Is that a weird?

Speaker 1 (26:34):
question.
No, it's nowhere no.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'm gonna go into it right now.
Don't wanna talk about it.
You said you're shaping boards.
No, no, no, I'm not shapingboards.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
He's just buying them , baby, I'm buying them dude.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I got no time to shape dude, I think you and I
have an addiction.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's called surfboards and I've weighed too
many.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
My shaper has my dims down bro.
I'm like yo, I need a fish fora big boy Dude.
I was knocking out in like twoweeks.
I'm good, yeah, yeah, yeah, so,yes, I am.
So my four years is up in March.
I am running for reelection asthe mayor in March 2024.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
All right man.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
I am not and I'm going against the incumbent
because we are now our city isnow going in districts, so part
of the city is in districtsright now.
One, two and fives in districtsand there's three and four and
myself and an incumbent arerunning for three and there's a
new council person coming out offour, so I got some work to do.

(27:29):
I'm going against a guy that'sbeen in the game for 12 years.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Oh, wow, I would don't worry about that.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, honestly, man, I just when I hear that kind of
stuff I'm just like, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, it's more of the reason for you to run.
Absolutely, man.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
And I don't wanna be too negative about politicians
because you know.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
No, there's some good ones out there.
There are some good ones.
There's some good people outthere, yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
But that's what I'm saying.
It's like there's people thathave been able to make careers
of being this person or thisrepresentative that maybe aren't
you know maybe doing what theirconstituents think they should
be doing yeah and I think likeit's refreshing meeting someone
like yourself.
Thank, you because it makes mefeel like I'm like good, good,
you know what?
There aren't.
There's grinders.
Do you that care and that youknow are doing it because they

(28:11):
have the.
The passion is there to do thework, not to just be the face.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Not to take a photo.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah right, cuz, like you're saying you know, hey,
you're right, You're running ahomeless food outreach.
How many politicians so for themeet and greet and go, enjoy
your meal, and then they're, youknow, like couple minutes here
and all I gotta go.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
I got a thing you know, we know what you.
But there's also the politicsthat came in.
I even other politicians Duh,are this there like?
I'm like, oh wow, you're anelected leader.
It's like, yeah, you've beencoming to the same for five
years.
I didn't know who he was.
I thought you're kidding myaunt's friend.
No thanks for coming out.
You know I Mean I guess proofsin the pudding right nowadays,

(28:49):
right, cuz I mean there's somuch noise and marketing.
You know and and and, just justknow that there's some good
people out there, like I haveand I've come across a lot of.
That's why I'm not Jaded bythis industry.
Let's call it an industry,let's call it a game.
I'm not jaded because I don't.
I can go to sleep at night.
You know, when I first gotelected, I asked I'll say his
name out right now.
You know, america speaker,anything rending of the assembly

(29:12):
.
He told me when asked for hisendorsement, he goes, just make
the decision based on yourvalues, your morals, you know.
You know your heart made rightdecision, stick to it and you're
good.
Bro, you can go to sleep,alright, cool you know, so don't
read the comments.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, I was like to ever read the comments.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Because haters hate and that's, that's what it is
keyboard assassins everywhere.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Right, and everyone you know.
The keyboard assassins areprobably in their basement and
their underwear.
Just like, let's go, let's justrally.
I'm like bro, like over it.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
I always envision them in their underwear too.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Which is the latest that you said that.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Frumpy person.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
You seem like a man of faith, which I am Catholic.
Yeah, that's all good.
I have my own faith.
Yeah, same, and it has thatalso been a big driver.
And the things that you'redoing, decisions you're making,
because, let's be real, rightYou're, you are the face of
liquid, right, you're the mayor.
That's that's a big undertakingthat's gonna change your life,
which I'm sure it has.
Yeah, so I'm sure you've had tolean on certain things to get

(30:15):
you through Certain toughmoments or times being mayor,
city council because that's alot to take on, including your
family.
You need to be a presenthusband, Yep, father, yep.
You take care of yourself, allon top of being the mayor.
Like, how's that allencompassed for you?
Because you seem like you gotyour with it, which is great.
How do you handle all that?

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Oh man, it's you.
Just, you just take it on right.
You know, yeah, faith is huge.
You know I'm Catholic.
We go to church Sundays and getmy 45 minutes to kind of like
Slow it down a little bit.
But I think too, on top of like, let's talk about church, right
, it's, it's one of those placeswhere it's always gonna be
there and you can always kind ofgo back and kind of like

(30:55):
Reflect, right, and thensometimes you can take yourself
out of this world we're in andjust reflect and listen to the
stories and how it happened, howthey did it Okay, cool.
But on top of that, my circleshave been really real.
I'm blessed with really goodcircles, good people.
Home.
I can be me still and not haveto worry about like.
So important anti-liquid like Imean, like I grew up in liquid

(31:20):
man, people like don'tunderstand how diverse Liquid
has always been.
I get it like in the 50s andthe 40s and when the housing
came here and redlining.
But I grew up culturallydiverse, right.
I had my mom open-door policy,everybody eating my mom's

(31:40):
culture, food, every nationality, everybody you know like eating
the crazy stuff like the pigs,blood foods, you know the oxtail
, and then mom's like oh hey,they're coming over, they want
the barbecue or they want the.
You know it's like it's stufflike that growing up and like
people don't realize that.
But going to like back, to likefaith, faith has always been

(32:03):
there, right, because you justkind of it allows you to.
I think for me it allows me toslow it down, like sometimes,
okay, let me go through theprayers.
It's kind of like it's likewhen you before you're gonna go
shred right, yeah, you got astretch.
Oh, yeah, man.
So like do you count?
What do you?

Speaker 1 (32:17):
do.
Oh, you know what I do thisevery time.
So I've been surfing sozateyeah group here at Lakewood
boards, longboarding mid-length,and I always put I don't lay
the board down, I kind of standit up on its rail, okay, and I
squat down, I just kind of moveside and I take a deep breath.
Look, I stand up, stretch down.
I do the same way every time.
Okay, take a deep breath.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
gone, see, I pray, I love it, dude because if I Lay
back, twist my back and sitthere, if I do the hell Mary,
yeah, then that's count on thatside and I do another hell Mary
on the other side.
And you're giving time, right,you're not like a one, you know,
and you're got use it to likestretch, yeah, like a grab.
Stretching my like my lowerback, upper back or my arms.

(32:58):
Kaylee means to accounting.
I easy prey, that's cool, it'skind of weird.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
No that's a good routine.
Yeah, two birds out with onestone.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
It's very time-efficient yeah we've talked
.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
We talked about surfing here all the time.
For me it's, it's.
You know, in our line of workwe need to diffuse.
So when I get off duty, you seethere mountain bike and trail
running.
I go surf, ice-sky dive for funand paragliding all this.
I do a lot of ridiculous stuff.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
But yeah, we're involved.
We do a lot jack-of-all-tradesmasters, and that's right.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
But the surfing it to me.
It does sound weird to peoplewho don't serve, but I always
say it is a very spiritual thing, it's, it's the.
The ocean is healing in so manyways, man, because you get to
go out, you get that cold waterdip right splashing the face,
the first wave.
But you have to focus so muchin your timing and balance and
working on you know, hangingfive, whatever you're gonna do
on your board.
Yeah, you're focused in.

(33:50):
Yeah, and I'm always smiling.
Yeah, as soon as I get on thatwave, you know you're all in it.
So I leave the ocean every timebetter than when I came, you
know.
So, being the water and beingout there, it's, it's a great
experience.
I try to tell people like youjust got to surf, go surf,
that's your wave, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
You're preaching like I think too, on top of that
there's a process Leaving, likeleaving here, and then you have
that time to think, yeah, beforeyou get there.
And then when you have aprocess coming, when you're done
, like what, you go grab coffee,you get something, eat, you
stop right, can you buysomething?
But like there's a process oflike, like decompressing from
Having fun, right, and it justkind of like lower.

(34:26):
Yeah, trust me, you'repreaching the car.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Oh, it's good you said you taught her serves right
, yeah, she does she, sir.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
So I also am a lot an avid longboarder in the
midlinks.
Now, yeah, she serves, and butit's tough because we have
sports, we have water polo andshe's.
She loves snowboarding, but Ican't have her ruin her wrist,
man, and then she's not gonnathrow the the polo ball right.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
So I'm like, oh, yeah , you can wear wrist guards
underneath, but it looks I wasthinking about that.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
I used to.
We used to ditch.
I'd have her ditch school inelementary.
I love it.
We just got dumped on.
Let's go, don't worry, mom'snot gonna get mad.
You're such a red boy backbefore by three o'clock Do.
We'll get like 10 runs in, 15runs in locally and come back.
We're good.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, so okay.
So being in politics kind oflike you are, you know reality
is you're liked, and then youhave people who don't like you
absolutely, you know.
So you're trying to figure thatout.
You want to.
Let's be real, right, there'speople who are faith and there's
people weren't, which that'sfine.
You believe what you want, butwe're gonna always make the best
decision right for the people.
I mean, how's that been tryingto make decisions knowing like,

(35:35):
okay, someone's not gonna behappy with this decision, but it
is what it is.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
So, going back to values and morals, right, like,
obviously it's values and moralsof yourself.
And then the decisions I makeis based on my community.
Yeah, like, I think of like,like you guys, like group of my
community, like my parents arestill alive and they're in the
community.
Yeah, right, my little ones inthe community, how does she get
to be a kid still and enjoybeing a cool human and still be

(36:00):
a kid?
And my parents, they're Kim,their age.
I'm not built this community.
How do I have the rightprogramming for that, right?
So when you look back at it,it's more of like, make a
decision based on that of likethe people, like okay, don't
want to raise taxes, you know wedon't need a tax measure
because you're just taking moremoney away, but you know what?
Then I look back we haven'traised taxes in 20 years, right.

(36:23):
You look at CPI and inflation,like, okay, exactly, and it
costs more to do, constructionwould cost more and everything
stuck on the Boat's.
Like, okay, like, how do I now?
How do I navigate verbally tothis?
I mean, there's so much goingon, right?

Speaker 1 (36:36):
now, yeah, you guys is industry.
Yeah, I mean that you bring upsuch a good point, right,
because we're middle-class, weall are.
Our crew field is stillmiddle-class.
We live in middle-classcommunities, right, and you
bring up a great point when itcomes to inflation right now.
Right, and we hear it a lot too.
All the raising taxes, again,they're just taking our money.
You're hitting the you know,the middle-class hard.
But it's like have you reallyread into everything?

(36:58):
You know?
I'm saying like, do a littlemore homework, don't just read
the headline, because you'retrying to make a decision as
best as a community.
Sometimes it's gonna be a hardone, you know, and you got to do
what's best, and people areyou're taking more money from us
.
You're like, well, here's whyyou know it's not what you think
.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
But yeah, no, going back to that.
Yes, it's.
It's one of those things whereyou just I just make like it's
navigating conversations.
Going back to that it's becauseIf they understand why, then
it's sometimes they just theinformation they get is really
minimal.
Yeah and then then you share itlike the breadth of the
information and it's like okay,it makes sense.

(37:33):
Yeah, I remember when I gotelected the first time but this
guy was like just anti me, likehe didn't even know who I was.
Right, I go, let's have coffee.
And I was like I told my wifelike bro, like you want to have
coffee, this dude.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
I don't know who he is.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I'm like.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
I don't know he was busting my chops.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
He was hitting me hard.
I'm like, okay, let's havecoffee.
So I meet this guy, coffeeright and I go, he's like the
first thing you said you don'tlike, I don't like anything
rending.
Well, let's bleep his name out.
I don't like the assemblyspeaker that you guys are
talking to or you guys talk toin the city that represents us.
I was like, okay, why don't youtell me why?

(38:12):
And then I'll call him and I'lltell him.
He's like what?
That's my job for you to tellme why you don't like other
things doing, and I'm gonna tellhim.
Then he's like, oh yeah, I'mlike Then he was kind of taking
a back right and I go, okay,that's my job, my job, you're my
boss, like I.
People say you made it to thetop.
I said I made it to the bottom.
Take that pyramid and flip itupside down, because I got

(38:35):
80,000 people that are tellingme what to do now.
Right there, my boss, you livein Lakewood, you're my boss,
your brother, your family are mybosses.
They need to tell me what'sgoing on so I can fix it.
Yeah so we sit and have any.
We get to that.
That that first question.
His second question was likeWell, you're gonna raise taxes,
you're gonna pass a measure inLakewood.
I'm like okay, okay, the lasttime we raised taxes was 20

(38:56):
years ago.
How long you lived here?
I lived here 25 years.
Like bro, I've been here 50, 50years, bro, yeah.
And he looks at me is likereally, I'm like yeah, 50 years,
dude, I can tell you anythingabout the city, how it's turned,
how it's changed.
He's like, yeah, I go, you're abusiness owner, I'm a business
owner.
Do you like working past fiveo'clock and missing time with

(39:16):
your family's?
Like no, well, you know,everything's gone up in price.
Cost of a good soul have goneup, cpi's got, inflation's gone
up.
Yep, something has to budge.
Yeah and he's like, yeah, giveme five signs.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
You know what that?
That's how it's done, right?
We've said this.
I've said so many times on here.
It's almost like sometimes itjust takes you that simple
conversation.
Is it gonna be a littleintimidating at first?
Oh yeah, yeah, but I mean whathappened to the days where why
can't I come to you and talk toyou?
And if we agree to agree, cool.
If we agree to disagree, cool.
Maybe I'll learn something fromwhat you're educating me on.

(39:55):
Maybe you'll learn somethingfrom me that you'll get educated
on.
You can take that back tosomebody else.
But it's almost like so muchhas changed the point of it's
like if you don't believe what Ibelieve, it's just boom, boom,
you're a piece of this, you'rethat?
You're kind of it's like whoa,whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let's know this is abouttalking right, have a
conversation.
I love that you did that.
That's huge.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
I think that's like the breakdown of kind of where
society though is a little bitand I don't mean that like I'm
not singling any group oranything out, but I'm just
saying like that, like whatyou're saying the ability for
like, let's say, if you're gonnado a town hall meeting, right
and someone's gonna stand up,and if you know, if you ever
turn on your local channel andwatch, there's always characters

(40:36):
.
I think it's a safe way to saythat.
I think it's fun to show up.
That can or can't be, but like,instead of being the one on the
like watching the screen if youdisagree with something, or
even if you have a questionabout something, you know, I
mean, at the end of the day,like that, you gotta get past
the awkwardness, you gotta getpast that uncomfortable feeling
and you know, if you have aproblem, speak up, say something

(40:58):
, and you know, and on the otherend of it, like dude, you're
trying to 80,000 you represent,okay, so there's gonna be a
couple of people that are alwaysgonna be pissed because and
your family, I'm sure there'sone person that shows up to a
holiday, at least one.
Yeah, I was like just maybe, Imean depending, you know that's
that pissed off at everythingperson.

(41:18):
You know they happen to exist,you know, and I think that's
really cool of having that.
You know, I hate to use thetransparency word because I
don't like these buzz wordssometimes, but having that is
very important.
And being approachable let'suse that instead.
I like that.
But having the ability to beapproachable constantly, I mean,
we'll pay dividends for you,I'm sure, long term, but that's

(41:41):
what hopefully people that arerepresenting the groups in these
cities are.
You know, and all the way upright, that you hope for that.
Now, at the end of the day,you're not gonna be able to call
up, you know, our governor andsay I don't like this.
That was going on, you know, ormaybe you can, but you know, I
think it starts at the locallevel and being able to do that
I think is cool and that's agood story.

(42:03):
Man, like you know, because I'msure that guy was probably
coming in that conversation like, oh, I'm gonna get him.
He was coming in hot.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
I'm gonna get him.
I know exactly what to say.
You know we're gonna raisetaxes.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
you're like no shit dude.
No one likes paying more money.
Okay, that's a dumb statement.
Of course, I don't wanna do iteither, but we gotta pay for
shit it affects me too.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
I gotta pay for taxes , totally, you know.
But yeah, it's.
I mean going back to ourconversation with the governor.
Right, I was in Sacramento acouple weeks ago and there's
these issues we have withbroadband and the digital divide
and digital inequity, right,yeah, what I've learned in this
game of politics, it's the artof compromise and it's having
the conversation.
It's kind of like you know,endorsing the higher elected

(42:43):
leaders.
You know they're calling me toendorse them and I told them
straight out like, yeah, I'mgonna endorse you.
I don't agree with half theshit you say, right Makes me mad
, but you give me a lot of moneyfor my city so I can do this,
this and this and I like that.
I can text you and you respond.
It's about the conversation,because they got a tough game
too, and like with we're ingovernor's office and we didn't
go in there pumping our fists,man, we just came in there.

(43:03):
We had a strong conversation.
We held United on one of theother organizations that I lead,
almost so, in Southeast LA, youknow.
We came together and we kind oflike told them like, hey, you
can't take this money away fromus.
We left a mark and it was good,but again it was more of the
conversation piece.
Right, because it is the art ofcompromise and sometimes

(43:24):
there's so much information outthere.
Right, because I neverunderstood, like, how these
elected leaders knew so much.
What I'm learning now is themore you get involved, the more
you get to learn.
And then the ones that don'tknow or assume or like, say I
have an answer for homelessness.
That's huh.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
I would immediately stop listening.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
I mean especially you guys as a sector of business.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Man, you see it all the time, man, I'm like, you see
it all the time.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
No, you're stop.
You know you cannot solve that.
Yeah, no one can right now.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
And I think that's like, you know, like going
forward just with, and hopefullythere's, I think, a larger
change of that politicalrepresentation approach.
You know, at least I'm hopingbecause I feel like, at the end
of the day, like there's peoplethat you know they're interested
in politics, then there'speople that get pissed off at
politics, and then there'speople that never question

(44:20):
politics, which I findfascinating, but there's all
these different types of folkswith how that goes.
And it's like, at the end of theday, I think, having someone
that you can like, not justaccepting the position that
they're in and being like, oh, Itrust this random person to
make all the best interest forme, but having someone that
really represents that, you know, and again, like we don't have

(44:42):
to get all super political,because there's always going to
be, you know, differences andideologies and whatnot.
But at the end of the day, Ifeel like, even if someone was,
you know, represented my areathat I didn't agree with, how
they present themselves, howthey carry themselves, how
they're, you know, not just likeI mean what I'm saying, that I
don't, you know, like the oldschool politician student tie

(45:03):
and we're going to end this andblah, blah, blah.
You know, because, like dude,it's hard to do, it's hard to
say that, and then ask for, likeyou're saying, ask for a
measure, raise Right.
And then, as the citizen of thearea, I'm looking around going,
damn dude, my taxes went up andI don't see new roads, I don't
see this, I don't see that.
So that creates that you knowkind of term, I don't know
tumultuous, tumultuous.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Does that say, that Termulges Like Sam too?
Is that an?

Speaker 3 (45:26):
appropriate binocular .

Speaker 1 (45:28):
OK.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Tumultuous Tremultuous, Anyway, makes me
sound like I have a speechimpediment.
But either way, what I'mgetting at is that it's good to
have that as the platform of howyou represent yourself and in
that process, in the politiciangame.
I think that's what I hope tosee on a larger base, and there
are good people that have theability to do that.

(45:51):
But it's being able to like, doit and have you believe it.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
You know what I mean Versus like it's just like a car
salesman or like you know, thatkind of Anyway, it goes back to
proofs in the pudding right andI'll share, because you
mentioned a story about beinglike the politician.
So when I got elected the firstone I got elected someone said
do not change who you are, likeyour personality, or nothing.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Accurate yes.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
And it was like there's times for me to be
suited and booted Like and I'mall about seats.
Next I got a tailor and I love.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Dude, you're, I think .
Your photo, your mayor photo isin a bow tie, right?
Yeah, fantastic, I love it.
Thank you, it looks great,thank you.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
But like I do a lot of talks to like a lot of local
high schools and I remember Iwas at I think it was it was
Mayfair High School.
I did a talk there like threeweeks ago and I did like eight
periods, right, and then themoderator were like OK, we're
going to have the mayor come inand they're just expecting some
dude in like a suit to just kindof like just send all this

(46:54):
information out to them, right,and I was in my joggers and my
Nikes, you know, a T-shirt and ahat and they're just like, and
I sat from the crowd, they'relike whoa, you know, even I was
at Lakewood High School lastweek, right To their leadership
class, and I was there and againI showed up in a Hawaiian shirt

(47:15):
and because I wanted to showthat these kids, because I need
to figure who I mean I've onlybeen in this game for like less
than four years I need to figurewho the next round of leaders
are.
So I can Very good, so I cankind of like be like mom and dad
and chill and know that there'ssome kid thinking out there
that he wants to do like a skatepark.
He wants to, and I don't likethe word change, I like the word
evolve.
Right, like that.

(47:35):
We evolve like.
My job is not to change mycounsel.
My job is to make sure I bringmy lens to the table right,
whether it's looking atsomething different, and I have
my ideas get shot down all thetime.
But they heard it and they'renot anti my ideas.
It just doesn't make any sensefinancially, or how do we do
this?
Where's the space?
I said, ok, that's cool, that'sfair, right, and that's the job
, right.

(47:55):
And now I'm looking for, like Itry to get these younger kids.
Like you know, I got to be in asuit all day.
If you want to rock a blazer ina suit all day, cool for you.
But I'm not.
I'm going to run around in myvans.
I tell these kids you're lucky,I'm wearing socks today,
because, no, we don't wear socksin my vans, right?
Because?
And they're like what I'm like,dude, yeah.
And then, and what I did to is,instead of like, telling them

(48:17):
information, I change it to themethod of inquiry.
I let them, I just start offlike I walk in, yell it up in
the mayor of Lakewood, ari Pay,the first Filipino-American.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
And then they're like OK, and then I say, ask me a
question.
And it always happens right outof the gates, random, like
Conakari, lot 677, lincolnContinental airbag on Supremes.
And then they're like whichfavorite color?
Cobalt, blue, candy with alittle pearl?
They're like, and then theyasked me like you know?
Like how much money make I'm alocal elected leader.
I don't make much, you know.

(48:49):
But they asked me.
And then they get deeper, right, they said, ok, so what was
your?
What was a thing that turnedyou to get in the politics?
And I tell them that story.
And then it's.
I change it to method ofinquiry versus telling them the
story, because then they'regoing to fall asleep, they're
going to be on their phones andthat's whack.
I don't kids on their phone.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
You're getting engaged.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Yeah, really.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
We're getting engaged , yeah, that's super important,
because that's what I was goingto ask you is, like you know,
from your point of view, we seethis all the time.
We hear people OK, we're partof a union, right, so voting all
that stuff, right.
You're going to hear peoplesquawk, yeah, and it's like, ok,
well then, what are you goingto do about it?
Oh well, I ain't got the time.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
You know this is an ass counter.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, it's like, oh, I ain't got the time, I can't do
that, but how do we get youngerpeople involved with
volunteering and government andrunning for office, because that
is a big ripe, I would say.
At least I hear from people Iknow just around and also in
work is oh, you know,politicians, just old people up
there all the time, and that'sanother all older people being
up there, but you hear that allthe time.

(49:46):
So it's like OK, so how do weget the younger generations to
get involved, to see what youhave done and other officials
and be like, hey, we can do thisat a younger age.
We can make a difference, wecan be involved with the
community and go farther than wethought.
How do we like?
My question is like how do wedo that?
I?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
just expose them.
So, so, going start.
I'm going to do a heavy, heavyplug right now.
Is that cool?
Go for it, all, right.
So I had this conversation withmy ASM, my assistant city
manager, probably about theright, after less than seven
months in when I was on council.
I go, hey.
So I was a product of not goingthrough the commission system.

(50:27):
I went from chronic volunteerboard chair, president of like
five or six differentorganizations, skipped that part
, ran an election, got oncouncil, right.
The normal path would be highschool, student, government,
civics, asb.
Oh, make your way around, geton a commission, serve on a

(50:47):
commission, then get in right tocouncil would be the normal.
But in Lakewood ourcommissioners are so old that
they didn't want to get to thenext level, which is OK, right.
So I go.
We got to figure something out,so I go.
How do we get these kids to beexposed to something?
But will we do this?
I don't want just like youryouth in government man, Like
that.
Just it's just like being on aleather piece of hide for hours

(51:12):
and then it's not cool or fun,like.
But how do we blend thistogether?
Right, so I told them OK, I'llgo find the money and then we'll
figure it out, and then we'llfigure out the curriculum.
But what I do want I told myPaul about training my assistant
city manager.
I go, hey, I want them to beexposed to profit, nonprofit,
public sector, private sectorand then everything that falls

(51:34):
between that.
Let's figure it out.
Because all these other likeacademies or in other local
cities, they do more of like thepublic policy side of things,
which is cool.
But I want to blend, becausethe reason why is I want to
expose them but also let themshare and learn other things too
, because if it's always publicpolicy and municipal level, it's

(51:54):
like OK, ok, ok, ok, but likethere has to be like nonverbal
communication, there has to belike DI, you know, like
especially with, you know, race,equity and inclusion, and there
has to be like something cool.
So what we did was I went toSupervisor Han man.
I go, hey, I need 10 grand tolaunch a program.
Straight up straight up, dude,straight up.

(52:15):
This is the lake.
We didn't even have acurriculum built, but we had the
shell right, yeah, and then wehad to fill it in backwards, so
in, and now let's fast forwardthree years.
It took us a year and a half towrite the curriculum, my staff
and then we launched this thingcalled the Lakewood Leadership
Academy and it wasn't for highschool kids, it was for like

(52:36):
older, like, like, like your age, demographic, 20 to like 50.
And it was more of like the wayI looked at.
It was more like acertification right, because you
guys are applying for a job,you guys are neck and neck.
Oh, this guy went through theLakewood Leadership Academy,
which has diversity and equitytraining and nonverbal
communication.
Oh, you know, they had they.

(52:57):
They went through team buildingright, conversations and it
just gives you a step ahead.
But the speakers were key, likewe did.
Like History of Lakewood, I hadthe family, a good friend,
steve Van Doran, the family thatstarted the Vans company, shoe
company.
Yeah, he came down and he spoketo the crew and he gave them
books and he talked about how tobuild teams and what their
families did in the brand right,and everything that encompassed

(53:20):
that and inspired this wholeroom and I have a room full of.
There was, I think, 42 thatoriginally signed up and I think
37 just graduated the firstcohort of a nine month program
and there was a buy-in becauseif it's free then some people
won't show up, right.
We made a pay to shop andeverybody showed up.

(53:41):
I think a couple of people,like a couple of girls, got
pregnant.
They were like on theirpregnancy, yeah.
But we had a diverse amount oflike age demographic, from YMCA
to some guys that work for thestate, some guys work for the
city.
They just wanted to learn more.
But we had, like my buddies,brandon Ball from Starch
Creative we used to work at Vanstogether but now he does all

(54:01):
the merchandising for all thebig brands like Red Bull and
Vans and Adidas, right.
And then we had like nonverbalcommunication, just the ray of
things and this core just justbounded together.
They're all different, but nowthey started like volunteering
together.
Some of them started anotherlike leadership, women's and

(54:22):
leadership academy.
They started strictly forwomen's and then and they're all
still connected and that's likeI think the I don't want to say
the word groom, but more oflike the like stirring the pot.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
So, yeah, stirring the pot you're teaching about
you're also it's like thatsuccession planning.
We hear that all the time.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Who's like.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
We need to know who's going to be next in line, that
we can show how to do this, butin a great way, like you're
doing.
I mean, that's huge, man.
You brought together thesepeople.
Yeah, they pay, but they came,now they're starting their own
group.
I mean that's huge.
Now you're creating community.
Yes, now you know that you, weneed community.
Right, that's what we're madethat way.
We got to be around people andnow you're showing them.

(54:59):
Hey, here's how we do it.
Here's, you know, here's how tobe involved.
If I can do it, you can do it.
And that's honestly how itbecame a firefighter.
I never thought I could do it.
I was a terrible student.
I was not good at school.
Yeah, I was just horrible.
But I ended up doing theExplorer program.
You know that's thing that itshows you as a kid.
Ok, we're going to get youinvolved.
It's paramilitary.
You need to cut your hair.

(55:19):
We need to see your gradereport.
So I started getting my gradesup, working harder.
Teach you how to work as ateammate.
You know they taught us how totalk confidently with people,
because in our line of work,we're called to anyone's house.
It doesn't matter if youworship Satan, god, atheist,
whether you're gay, straight,black, white, indian, it doesn't
matter.
We serve you with respect.
You could be the richest personor you could be the poorest

(55:41):
person.
We're going to help you.
You know, and it taught me somuch confidence.
You know working as a team, sowhat you're doing is huge.
Because that's always myquestion what are we doing to
get good leaders in young, startthem young, get them in here,
start working and hopefully comeon City Council one day, be a
mayor and then, who knows, gohire?

Speaker 2 (56:00):
And that's why I purposely like.
Like the joke between my ourexecutive assistant is like is
it that Lakewood casual or is italready casual?
Serious because it depends onmy audience.
Right, because you know, ifthere's an older immigrant I'll
adjust, you know, but I want thekids to see.
Like you know, like I can dothat too.
I had someone approach me to agolf tournament.

(56:21):
We're playing a golf tournament.
He's like bro, one of us is upthere, man.
He's like this, I'm like you,just straight out, dude.
He's like that straight out,Like one of us is up there, like
it's like this is attainable.
Or when I did that the talk atLakewood High School, like these
kids were just engaged and thenno one walked up and shook my
hand on what they did.
They go, yo, and they gave methe like.

(56:42):
They didn't have to comeacknowledge me.
I knew I got to them when theywere just gave me the, the piece
like, or they weren't like thisto me.
I'm like Matt was more than justhey, hi, hello, can I have your
business card?
He just gave me the chest pumpand the fist.
I was like yo, like that wascool man.
So it's stuff like that, right,Like I wanna I show up because,
like, like my little one, like,okay, she's been born into this

(57:02):
, this, this, this giving lifeRight and like, and she's going
to be fine.
But like what about everybodyelse?
Cause I have this networkingstructure.
It's so expansive.
That's why I share it.
Cause what?
Let me use myself?
Yeah, you must have sharedNever, ever already have fun,
right.
Rising's tides raises all ships, man, oh, my man.
Absolutely I win, we all win,man, it's like, that's just the

(57:22):
way it goes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
That's cool to hear, like I mean just the like the
attainability of the success inthis, this line of service,
right, I think that it's youknow, like I don't know.
Like, like what you're sayingearlier, when you're like when
someone asked you about that,you're like I, whether you never
thought about doing it or howdo I even get to that point, or

(57:45):
like start the process in it,and I think having that
representation is very important, you know, cause I don't know,
like if you would.
I mean, obviously now maybeI've learned things as I've
gotten a little bit older, itjust.
But going back to when I was inmy early twenties, like if you
said, hey, we're gonna get inpolitics, you'd be like, dude, I
didn't go to college, I am not,you know, from an affluent

(58:07):
family.
Like you know all this kind ofstuff of what I thought had to
be a thing to get involved inthat way.
So you know, by starting up theprogram, and like you know
whether it's or at an academy,or just the certification or
even how you want to label it,but like that's super rad to
hear and you know, hopefully,listening to if you're younger

(58:28):
and you're involved and you'repassionate, dude, get involved.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Yeah, like a leisure academy.
I mean it's for everybody justto kind of like get a check, but
it's like we want it to be funtoo right, and have engaging
speakers, cause when I worked inthe industry, man, we had some
rad speakers and there's nothingbetter than walking away from
like a keynote.
You're like whoa.
I remember I'll tell you rightnow what happened.
Why I got in the action sportssector was I was at Long Beach

(58:52):
State with my business law classand this had his presenter.
Come in, right, white dudecomes in, slick back, slick back
hair, look like a veteran,white t-shirt, blue jeans, had
his cons on and he was talkingabout business law class.
I'm like, what's he gonna talkabout business law?
He was the dude that launchedRoxy, presented the brand, the
concept of Roxy throughBillabong and then went from

(59:15):
there and he showed us theirfirst, their lookbook.
Right, dude, their firstlookbook was shot at like La
Fonda, k30.
I'm like, no, that's La Fonda,right there, that's red.
I was like, dude, I know LaFonda, I go, is that La Fonda?
I was like, yep, you know LaFonda over there by K30?
Yes, sir, that's red, yeah.
So I was like, okay, I'mgetting in this game.

(59:36):
Yeah, so I think that's whatgot me into the action sports
sector, was that?
But dude, he just rolled in, hewasn't suited and booted.
He came in like the industryyou guys know the industry right
Like, and I tell people allthis all the time, like I'm
hoping my city starts, it'sstarting to not loosen up, but
like even being a municipal, Imean people spend like eight

(59:56):
hours a day there, man, likelet's have fun.
Like you know, I mean it hasn'thappened yet.
I'm like you can bring your dogin and let's pull the rugs out,
have cement, right.
And like, have this energylevel there that they just want
to go to work?
Because I remember being atVans and like, oh, you haven't
been on vacation in two years.
You need to go on vacation,right, you need to like
decompress, or hey, you've beenon the road for like the last

(01:00:18):
two week and a half.
Go home for a couple of days,we'll figure it out, come back
and let's go.
You know, like giving you thatbalance, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
So I was gonna say the balance that's the key, it's
finding it both.
Obviously, working hard andbeing involved with what you're
doing is very important, but sois you know, even the reference.
I'm talking about surfing,where you reset and growing the
community within the process ofwhat you're trying to do, or
team building.
Right, you gotta do that.
I mean, who was it talkingabout?
Someone on here was talkingabout the company stance, like

(01:00:48):
the socks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
I said it's a.
It kind of reminded me of likewhat I envisioned working for
Google might be like and purelybased on that movie with Owen
Wilson, because it just seemedfun.
But talking about like thebreak rooms had a mini pipe in
it, you know, and they had likelittle putt-putt golf or
whatever, Just to be able tounwind or maybe even create that
kind of fun atmosphere whileyou're trying to work hard, you

(01:01:12):
know.
And, dude, I mean actually I'mjust going to drop that.
My next question are you doinga wave pool?
We?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
don't have any room in Lakewood for that.
What I'm really pushing, I'llsay it straight out, man, I'm
pushing for a pump track, allwheel-encompassing pump track.
Right, because now it's not soskate-centric, even though and
then maybe the pump track willhave a skate section, but all
wheel-encompassing your scooters, your bikes, whatever can roll

(01:01:41):
it.
You know, like the one up inSan Marcos, exactly like that.
So I want a pump track and thenlet's kind of go, because
everybody has skate parks, yougo to a skate park, you go to a
skate park, no one has a pumptrack.
I want a pump track, please, bigone.
We're working on it, I'mworking on it, but there's a
couple of capital improvementprojects that has to go first.
I know, and we're going overlike a general 20-year master
plan for the city of Lakewood,for the park systems, and you

(01:02:04):
better believe my inputs.
Like I want to make sure welike everything from you know,
like the how do we call it?
It's not the word, I don't knowif I can say, it's like the
inclusive or exclusive.
Like they don't say the worddisabled anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
No, Inclusive, inclusive, inclusive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
So like, like, like, like, like at the parks and like
pump track, like for everybodyin Lakewood, because you know
Lakewood it's.
We're not about Cubsports andLakewood we all play Cubsports
because we got introduced.
Lakewood was built to be like,be affordable for families to
play all sports.
Yes, so it's subsidized.
Like, you can play flagfootball, you can do hula, you
can do gymnastics and it's notgoing to break the bank.

(01:02:47):
So I grew up doing flagfootball dude yeah.
And it's not, and it's not goingto break the bank.
That wasn't what Lakewood'sabout.
But like I get heat all thetime from all the Pop Warner
presidents like, well, we needmore football fields, I'm like,
wow, where are?
You going to build it, bro.
We're here to expose flagfootball in hopes of playing Pop
Warner, right.
Right, we're not here to runPop Warner programs because it's

(01:03:08):
a little next level, right?
So it's one of those thingswhere yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
So what about speaking of like land?
Okay, so right next to CityHall, it's across the street
from I want to say it's smartand final and there's like Home
Depot.
You know that big dirt lot inthe corner.
Yeah, clark and Dalama.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Is anything going to happen?
That's been that way since Iwas a kid, since I can remember.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Something's going to happen there, okay.
I mean, if we're going to go onthe record, off the record, so
what we're doing, what'shappening right now, like the
state's pounding the shit out ofus.
I'm putting housing right, no,housing's not going to go there,
okay.
So they're pounding the shit onhousing.
So we have to look at theparcels in Lakewood and see how
we're going to accommodate thesenumbers.

(01:03:49):
And every city's gettingpounded on and they're getting
these ridiculous numbers.
So we're trying to find a waywhere we can kind of meet in the
middle.
So the Lakewood Mall and likeother malls, like Cerritos,
downey or Stonewood and Cerritos, they're going to change.
There's going to be blended use, right, it's going to be
housing on top and then mall onthe bottom, okay.
So we're going to structure itright.
Like let's get a cool littledowntown.

(01:04:11):
Like I want to cross betweenwhat they do in Europe, asia,
lbx, what they do at the Lynxover there in El Segundo.
I want to mix between all that.
So we have things for, like togo to the brewery and the
parents hang out to buy a fire,the kids go out, but I want
outdoors, I don't want justbuildings and retail.
So that's going to change.

(01:04:32):
So we, strategically, are tryingto figure out what we can do in
that property to complementwhat's going to go on there.
Why are we going to put onrestaurants here?
If there's going to berestaurants there, why are we
going to put you know?
So we're trying to find ways tocomplement what's going to go
down in the future, versusmaking a quick.
You know, that's like a fiveyear plan or more.
I probably take a 10 year plan.
10 year plan, yeah, it's goingto be cool, because if I'm here,

(01:04:53):
I'm still here.
I have my input.
It's not going to be justbuildings and walls, it's going
to be cool.
Shit, man.
I'll tell you what I don't wantno cool shit.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
There's one thing I like at the Lakewood Mall, and
that's the bowling alley.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
That place is packed all the time you have to reserve
.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
So sender one.
Yes, so you know.
There's a rock climbingfacility coming to Lakewood
right.
Get out of here.
Really, it's where the officedepot is.
Okay, office Mac.
So across the street they'repart of the same umbrella.
It's like, dude.
They're just gone to the secondlevel.
They're building a rockclimbing there now.
Kevin.
Hart's putting a restaurant onLakewood.
Oh, what Get out of here?

(01:05:28):
Oh, kevin Hart, he's putting arestaurant on Lakewood.
There's some good movement onthe retail sector.
But just know, lakewood ispretty much built out.
It's 94% residential, okaycommunity based and 6%
commercial.
So our commercial tax dollarscomes from that whole area, plus
a lot of the sales tax increasethat we did in 2020.

(01:05:51):
We capture all online sales too.
Oh wow, which really helped alot.
You guys, you guys don't evenknow like Well, because
everything's almost online now.
Well, yeah, but before thebusiness model was okay we're
going to capture it by zip codesand it goes to up here, then
they disperse it.
And so what we did was wepassed a measure, it passed and
we captured it.
If it's bought in Lakewood, itstays, the tax stays in Lakewood

(01:06:13):
, versus buying it somewherethen having to pick it up in
Lakewood.
So we captured all of that.
So we did that right out of thegate.
So it's been very healthy forus.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Our healthy is very financially stable, say man,
that sounds like there's a goodfuture ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Yeah, lakewood's good , our leadership and I've
learned from the ones before meand the ones now.
Right, there's two guys onthere that are just super smart,
that have been in the game along time and I just haven't
soaked in all their thinking,their information, because at
one point in time they handeddown and then I got to hand it
down right.
So it's very challenging.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
Is there a downtown Lakewood area?
Like as far as like a Like, ifyou were to say hey, it's
Saturday night, let's go outhere.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
I mean, there's the mall, there's restaurants and
stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:06:59):
Like there used to be flood workers.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
I mean it used to be I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
It's not a bad question.
I'll tell you why.
Because Lakewood was rated themost boring, I think, years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
The rate of the most boring city in the Southeast LA
County.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
But you know why the metric was based on bars and
clubs.
Unless you're going to go toour dive bars unless you're
playing in the dart of Reagan.
What do you call it?
The travel circle?
It's not happening.
But you know, I mean this isexactly what happened at KTLA
when they called me and I waslike, okay, yes, we're not,
that's our metrics, right.
Okay, I get it, we're the mostboring city.

(01:07:35):
But come to our parks.
We've got 11 parks.
You know what?
Take 20 minutes or an hour byyour lunch and go sit at a park
and tell me how you feel afteryou sit at one of our parks.
Drive down our roads.
Our roads are beautiful.
I mean, we have retail.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
Yeah, when I was going with that wasn't a slam to
the area.
What I mean by where I wasgoing with that is that having
the envision of maybere-outfitting the mall where you
start and I don't think youwould call it a taxpayer but
like you have residential overcommercial or retail and you
start to bring that in I meanthere's a lot of examples of
cities that do that that bydoing that increases one the

(01:08:15):
appeal right, You're going toget more people coming into
those areas, whether they'rerestaurants or a place to hang
or I don't know.
It's like, for some reason, adueling piano bar came into my
head, which is no which.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
I happen to like yeah .

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
But you know what I mean.
But I just mean like havingthat style of attraction with
that.
I think it's part of theevolution process of the area,
because self-sustaining with a96% residential of people that
may have been there for morethan 30 years, right, how are
you going to grow as a cityfinancially?
I mean, whatever it's a topic,right?

(01:08:48):
Yeah, yeah, and being able torein in the money to put towards
stuff for the city, for thenext generations, for the kids
growing up here, to sustainthose parks or have cooler
things at those parks, I thinkthat's a neat idea and hopefully
that takes.
I don't know, did you say thatwas going to happen?

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Yeah.
So it's going to happeneverywhere.
So it's blended use.
You guys see it, you're goingto see retail and then housing
on top.
My mom and dad have this bighouse in Lakewood and it's like
they live by the mall.
They're like, okay, we don'tneed this big house, I need you
to build something up there.
I want to go to church still, Iwant to see the senior center,
I want to see my friends.
I still want to be in Lakewood.

(01:09:26):
So it's one of those thingswhere we're going to reconfigure
.
We're in conversations rightnow with the owners, but
Lakewood Mall was the very firstmall on the West Coast.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Oh, I didn't know that the Maesers Group.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Yes, it was an outdoor mall.
We turned the indoor and thenwe've had really great
conversations with them thisyear on conversations on what we
they're going to want something.
We're going to want somethingdifferent and it's coming to the
terms of what it's going to beLike.
You know, because there'sthings I need to be figured out,
like logistics, like the Dalamoand Clark, like we can't

(01:10:01):
Parking the gas station.
The gas station needs to be.
Things like that need to bereconfigured.
It has to be done.
But to me it's like I want thecool factor too.
So we will have a downtown.
I guarantee you we will.
As long as I'm alive, there'sgoing to be a downtown.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Don't worry, I'll be there because I love going
bowling over there.
It's so much fun, dude.
Honestly, it's got killer pizza.
I was surprised.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
I'm a huge bowler.
Which is like super nerdy tosay it out loud and that's on
tape.
But I'm actually.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
What's his name on the Dodgers?
A bowler or two?
Mookie Mookie.
Yeah, he's like really good.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
He has like a handful of like perfect games.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Yeah, yeah, well, they didn't do so well, well,
we're going to wrap this up, but, dude, one last thing I want to
ask you here what is going tobe your future in politics?
Where do you want to go?
Do you want to go higher?

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
I am at the local level right now and as like have
I've taken, my steps have beennot, I've walked every through.
I've walked through every opendoor Got you.
So if there's a calling and itmakes sense, I'm in.
I'm not saying no to thatbecause I truly believe like I

(01:11:11):
got.
I mean.
I mean there's a lot going onin general in like local
politics, even in the upperechelon, but am I the person
that will be fit there, right?
So?
But if the door opens, I'mgoing to walk through it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Why not?
She got my vote.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
Like, why not?
Like you know, like, like, likeI told, when I chose to go down
this elected official being anelected leader like it's I said
to my wife.
The doors cracked open.
The question is, are we goingto walk through it?
I don't want to be the dudethat's like oh man, we should
have woulda coulda.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Yeah, fuck that dude I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
It's like you're going to go or you're not going
to go and you're going to getpounding on if you don't go now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
Oh, yeah, oh, I say that all the time.
Yeah, hesitation kills you.
Yeah, I snap many boards thatway during the winter.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Yeah, you could hold on your tail for so long before
you got to go.
Man Like let's go Is that alongboard reference?

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
I would have no idea.
No, I remember teachingShortboard exclusive.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
No there was somebody I was like look, you can't
hesitate, like you need to,especially like I always say
don't, because I have mywinterboards right, it always
gets a lot more hollow here.
I tell people like when you goout in the winter like, dude,
you can't hesitate, you got toown it, you got to go and you
got to power down.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
It is what it is, man Hesitation will get you it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Put me in the hospital, dude.
Yeah, it swelled up my spinalcord, my neck.
I couldn't feel my hands andstuff.
Wife dial was like a 12, 14foot day.
I don't even Dude.
I got like I think I had twowaves.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
I don't even do that.
No more man.
That sounds cool, though.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
No, I know my, it was wild, it was wild.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
My barometer has actually shrunk.
I know, fun and not fun, right,right, I can still take out my
tri-fins or my quads still, butI've been in the mid-lengths
lately.
But funny story, right, I'llshare this publicly, I don't
care.
So Hillary's coming, right,yeah, hillary came and the swell
came and it was mac and it wasjust building up until Sunday,

(01:13:02):
right, right.
So I went out a week prior andI was like, okay, cool, this is
good, I can handle it.
Then, probably like four daysout, it was still mellow and
then I just got busy and then Iwent to three events on Sunday.
That Sunday that Hillary wascoming in to the wedge.
And I get home I tell my littleone dude, go on cameras right

(01:13:23):
now.
Dude, the wedge is starting tomac.
It's like no way, let's go.
I was like it's raining mywife's on the couch.
She's like no, you're the mayor, there's flooding going on.
No, you got to stay home, wecan't go anywhere, right?
And then I look up my littleone.
I'm like, man, go get yourwrinkle, let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Let's get out of here we're going.

Speaker 2 (01:13:48):
You're more than welcome to go with us.
Put our rain gear on, like, putour stuff on, and we went.
And it was just mac-ing dude.
Right when the black ball ended, dude, the shoreboarders were
frothing to get in the water.
Right when the black balllifted, dude, they get in the
water.
And we were there when that kiddid that somersault that one
clip that everybody posted.

(01:14:09):
We were there.
That's rad Dude.
It just lined up and he got to20, then 25.
I'm like dude.
It's mac.
My little one's never seenwaves that big.
That's huge, like in her face.
It's like dad, like dude.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
It was like my wife's , just like oh, I can see that
the biggest I've wiped out was16 feet and I got held under for
two waves.
It was radical.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
You'll find them on the shore just cheering everyone
on.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
I don't mess with anyone.
I don't, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
I'm like it goes from being a fun day to like.
I'm generally concerned aboutmy well being.
Yeah, it's like it's a lot ofwater moving around.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
It's powerful, you know.
But once you know your brahmer,you're good.
Because we just came back fromCosta Rica.
Oh see, nice, we saw PlayaGrande over there by the state.
We didn't set the ripjack inthis time.
We stayed there three years ago, four years ago, and we stayed
at the Elmangar we're going tohave to all go surf man Down
there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
I'll let my dad he's 82.
He still surfs down there.
Bolsa, the old guys.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
Yeah, what station he's at 16.5.
Oh, he's the cool crew.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Yeah, he's the old the hipsters.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
I'm at 21.
Yeah, 21.
Now I do 21 and 25.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
That's right.
Yeah, I'm at the North, yeah,just because I like kind of
surfing to myself and have funout of any people in the crowd.
But what to go, and so peopleknow can people get involved
with the Thanksgiving, thefeeding that you do, what's it
called?

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
We don't do that anymore.
I had to stop that right at thepandemic and I was going to
shift it towards, like a lot ofthe seniors in the area, because
I realized, but I just, I thinkat that point in time, the lens
I didn't understand how thelens of being elected leader was
and I went people say, hey, doyou just do that just because
you want to get elected?
But if you know, I was doing it30 years prior.

(01:15:45):
So we stopped in the pandemic,we stopped.
But definitely there's so muchto get involved in the city of
Lakewood.
I would definitely highlyrecommend there's 20, not 20, I
think 25 nonprofit organizations.
You can get involved WorthRotary, suroptimus, like Meals
on Wheels, there's so many like.
There's like the library,there's like millions of them

(01:16:07):
and there's things to do and Ithink we still have that
community base here.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
Absolutely.
What's your Instagram?
Do you have Instagram people?
I have Instagram, yeah.
Do you want to ask you?

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
questions about Lakewood.
Yeah, I want to ask you aquestion about Lakewood, let me.
Let me Just know.
If it's about city business,it's going to go to staff.
So it's Ari Pay, lakewood CityCouncil.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
Okay, At Ari Pay City Council.
Yeah, okay, awesome dude,people get you on there.
Ari, thanks so much for comingto podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I want to keep going.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
but I'm like, yeah, we're at our time.
Yeah, we want to have you backon here.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Also, if there's anything that comes up that you
need help election stuff,whatever it may be, or outreach.
Yeah, campaign.
Hit us up, dude.
We want to help out.
We'd love to be involved.
You're a great dude.
You're one of us.
Thank you, Appreciate that,dude.
I just appreciate who you areman, what you're doing yeah,
give back to community as longas you have but also how you're
getting involved with theyounger generations to bring
them up.
That's huge.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
I mean, dude, that's it's worth it's weight in gold
man.
Yeah, you're making adifference.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Yeah, I'm so.
I'm glad we crossed paths.
I know it's crazy yeah.
It's super cool and honestly,really, you know, to be honest,
before the started I was kind oflike I don't know Cool, not
cool.
It's like if we're going to belike super polished talker, like
politically kind of thing, youknow, you never know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
And.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
I think it's a true like refreshing situation.
Hopefully people that eitherfollow you or you gain some
people out of this to be likehey, he's a real dude you know,
for good, bad and indifferent,you know, and I think there's a
lot of respect that carries withthat.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Yeah, it's fun.
I'm really glad we got to dothis and yeah, I would love to
go surfing.
I've been telling this guywe're going to go surfing, for

(01:17:43):
about it's been like a year,maybe, apparently, when you have
, you know other things a bigtime my time.
Yeah, the third one's on theway, man.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Oh yeah, so it's to get real for him.
Get really real.
So I just figure I'm good,right, yeah, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
We're super blessed and I'm excited and a little
nervous, but more excited sogood man.
Yeah, that's anyways, this isabout me, but thank you so much.
Yeah, thank you guys,appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Yeah, it's refreshing , dude.
And just to give you a fun fact, I used to work for the city of
Lakewood Park and Rec.
I was a terrible employee whowas your boss?
Valerie Frost.
I can't remember it was so long.
It was like 20 years ago.
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
I was a whole, I was like 17,.
I was a terrible employee.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
So Valerie Frost was probably there when you were
there and she is now the bigkahuna there, the big proctor,
oh really what?

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
There was a guy out there, I can't remember.
You used to have totally Fridaynight, you know there Do they
still do that?
I think they do.
Yeah, oh, wow, yeah, I was just.
I was just throwing it outthere.
I worked for Lakewood.
I was not.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
I'm just you're learning your grow?
Yeah, exactly right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:42):
Everyone can change dude.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, learn from mymistakes, people.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Show up to work when you're supposed to be there,
yeah, but hey, we do a.
Let's Go on three.
So we're going to do that rightnow.
Again, thank you so much, ariel.
Ari, mayor of Lakewood, you'rethe man, dude.
Seriously appreciate you a lot,dude.
All right, let's do this.
One, two, three.
Let's go Bye everybody.
Thank you so much for listeningin.

(01:19:08):
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(01:19:30):
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