Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jamika Jefferies. So good to see you. I was thinking
about you the other night I moderated the new Haven
mayoral debate, and I was thinking, geez, this rate because
that's a hot race. Yeah, but it doesn't touch the
Hamden race. Hamden came up. The mayor of New Haven
(00:20):
referenced Handen and neighboring, you know the importance of the relationship.
I don't really see one, but he does, and it's
apparently alive and well and oh really yeah, yeah, both
places are just booming and safer than ever according to him.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, yeah, is that right.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Apparently hadn't seen my commercial.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Yeah, we're talking about you know, we're rated nationally as
one of the most unsafest cities in the country.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
More cities are safer than us.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And then when I questioned him on that, I, how
can you keep saying our streets are safer? Especially I
have to two kids out on these streets now. I'm
a nineteen year old and a twenty two year old.
They're downtown Newaven, they're in Hamden, They're all over the place,
and I don't feel that there're any shape. And I
(01:12):
asked some point blank, I said, how come you can't
acknowledge that there's a lot of crime out there. And
he's like, well, because statistically speaking, it's down from twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And it's like, well, well, then, good thing. You know,
it's not twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I guess I'll stay out of my time machine and
I won't go back to that year.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
What does that have to do with the now. We're
concerned about the now exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And for someone to make those kind of blanketed statements,
it really suggests to me that they don't have their
finger on the pulse of what the people and the
town are feeling.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Currently in our town.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And I've done poles my own individual you know, non
quintipat polling of people in town that tell me they
won't go in the Hamden Plaza when the sun goes down,
that they shop for their groceries. Two town's over, so
they're going to north Haven and because they don't feel safe.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm just hearing that the last race too, and it's
only gotten worse.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Race and Mayor Garrett, you know, she dismissed it. She
laughed at the suggestion of it. I said people were
being dramatic and it's like or honest.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean, how do you do that?
And again, these are people that are out of touch
and they're out of time. And I'm sitting here today
saying that the people of the Town of Hamden are
no longer going to be befuddled and fooled by what
they're doing. I mean, they are blatantly turning a deaf
ear and a blind eye to what the real issues are.
(02:40):
And you know what they are, and we've talked about
it ad nauseum. Okay, still don't have financial statements, still
don't have an audit completed, and quite honestly, if we
can't continue to go on in this direction, and there's
only one direction to take, and that's an upward trajectory.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And that's what Jamika Jeffries. I mean.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
When you look at the current platform, if you will,
of candidates, you have a gentleman that's running, that just
got in the race, by the way, three or four
months ago, and now he's the darling of the town.
He's been at no legislative budget council meetings. I've never
seen him at one. And that's where the town, the
heartbeat of the town, the finances of the town are discussed,
(03:20):
and you won't even bother to show up.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
The other two.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
I could count on one hand how many times I've
seen them show up. And we need a mayor that's
going to be present now, hiding in an office, behind
a desk, behind a computer. We need someone boots on
the ground, grassroots saying we've got to fix this, and
we've got to fix it now because we're hemorrhaging.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And beyond that, he was the cause of the original hemorrhage.
I mean, there's a track record there that nobody seems
to be talking about it. I mean he was Lang's
chief of staff and failed at that gig. I don't
really get. You know, at one point this race was
very crowded at a lot of fresh new blood. Yeah
you of course rising to the cream, but it was
(04:03):
fresh blood. And for whatever the reasons, he seems installed,
he feels installed.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
All you have to do is just look at the
fundraisees that that was hell the other night.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean, he was an eleventh hour, all of a
sudden out of nowhere. But he's got a track record
as he's shown that he can't do what needs to
be done already and yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Well, here's the thing. He's a very nice man. Yeah okay,
and no one can take that away from him. But
nice is not going to get us out of this
mess we're in. You know, I look at the playing
field now, and I've said this and people laugh when
I say it, But the way I visualize it is
you've got people in there that it's a dog fight. Okay,
we have and he's not the cause of it, by
(04:47):
the way, And I want to make that distinction because
you know, this dates back several administrations, the hole that
we've been dug in, right, but it was the current
Lang administration under which he served that did not fund
those pensions that got us in this problem.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And then they started borrowing against the pensions.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Okay, so we don't have enough money, so let's just
borrow the money and then not fund you know, the
teacher's pension, up fund the police pension. I mean, how
did you think you would be able to sustain that? So, yes,
that was a failed administration. This gentleman also served on
the board of vent over ten years. He chaired the
board of ED And yet we're called an alliance school system,
(05:25):
which means we're in the lower fifty percentile, okay, lower
fifty percentile of schools in the state. We rank eighty
fourth out of one hundred and twenty schools. And these
are national polls. By the way, this isn't just something
I'm coming up with. He's failed there, he's failed in
the past. So why do we give him a participation
trophy to show up and basically drive the nail in
(05:47):
the coffin?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Not on my watch?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, and you're going to have the opportunity to save
this right to them, right, there's a debate looming.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
How many participating in the debate? When is it? Where
is it? Allah?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So October fifteenth, we are going to be at Mill Library,
Miller Memorial Library, right here in the center of town.
You have Rob I'm sorry I call his name Robert.
It's Jonathan Katz. He's a Republican that's running, which you know,
twenty four years old. Nice kid still lives at home
with his mom, right, not a homeowner yet, so you
(06:18):
can't really feel the pain of the pinch of the
taxes in town.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And then you have a woman named Patricia. She's Green Party.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Socialist, which I can't people have fallen off huh oh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
My goodness, what you know?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And they basically just fell on their own swords, you know.
The primary canceled a lot of folks.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Out, as it does. And then of course Sendroff.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, and then of course you know Sendroff, which again
is a part of the good old boys club, you know.
I mean when Scott Jackson called me earlier this year,
who you know is the former one of the former mayors. Yeah,
he said, Jamiica, you know, why don't you become Economic Development.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Director for Adam? And I said absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, you know, and he says, well, Adam was my
best man at my wedding.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
What best man at your wedding? Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And then you have Walter Morton, who also was chief
of staff under Lang before Sindoff came in. I mean,
it's just a big conundrum. But again I say again,
it's the band getting back together. Okay, they're they're they're
playing they want to, but we're not dancing to their tune.
The people in this town, and I'm gonna tell you
right now, voter turnout is going to be essential.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And I'm telling people you got a carpool.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You got a carpool, folks, You better ask your neighbor,
six doors to the right, six doors to the left,
in the front, in the back of you, are you
registered to vote? This election is critical and I say
election very hesitantly because at this point I feel we're
beyond election that now this is a movement. This is
people from all different walks of life. Okay, Republicans, Democrats, whites, blacks,
(07:52):
Hispanics coming together to unify this town because it's gonna
take all of us together to turn this town around.
As you can see nationwide, the climate is very divisive.
But Hamden will not be known for that. We're gonna
be known as a town that is premiere for unification,
then beautification. Then we can concentrate on revitalization. But we
(08:14):
got to get down to brass tag.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Thank you very much. But it's what we're seeing.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And someone sent me a picture of mister Sandrov's latest
fundraiser and it was again, roway, all day you had
the mayor, Okay, the current mayor was at this fundraiser,
all smiles and giggles. Okay, Susan Bisowitz, George Cabrera, all
of them in there together, and you were saying, you know,
why don't I get discouraged because it looks like the
(08:44):
fixes in because I still have hope. I still have
hope and a vision for this town that the people
will not go along with the status quo and that
they will pull the cover back on democracy hypocrisy, Okay,
because that's what this is. They want to make you think,
all right, they want to make you think that your
voice matters while they're in the back rooms making deals
with each other. But now we've got a new administration
(09:06):
coming in that's saying we want to put the people
back in power, all right. And I've been telling people, Vinny,
put me on your payroll because when you elect me,
now I work for you, and I'm going to work
for this town. If it's not good for this town,
then it's not good for me.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, and when I asked you how you don't get
to defeat it one, I'm just I'm a defeatist. I'm
easily defeated. And again wrong with Jimika Jefferies. Right now,
Outside of you just being resilient and a force in
nature on your own, you got people supporting you, and
you've got a lot of people who believe in you. Yes,
Bob Thomas being one of them. I asked him once
right out, I go, you have so much skin in
(09:43):
this game. It seems like you don't live anywhere near here.
He goes, But I've been doing business here for Xmas.
I cannot continue to do business. Yes, and the climate
in the direction that it's heading in. Because I wondered
why he had such a which was kind of silly.
Of course, if you're a business owner in a town,
you got this much in it, but but you can't
vote in it exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, your business is in it.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
That's it is it is, and that's something that you know.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
We'll have to tackle that at Goliath at some point
down the line. But any business owner in this town
is in their best interesting poses me okay, any builder
in this town, any contractor. I have forged relationships, which
is very important in this line of work, you know,
to be able to negotiate. One of my superpowers is
(10:29):
contract negotiations. I do this for a living. So people say, well, Jamika,
what are you going to do, right, I'm looking at contracts.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I deal with attorneys all day and night. Okay.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
My background is business banking, all right. That's one of
the areas that I that I was in for several years.
So I'm coming in as a person that's not looking
at this from a political gain perspective, like most of
my counterparts. I'm looking at a town gain perspective. How
do we bring in viable, lucrative businesses, How do we
tap into qui which, by the way, I was on
(11:02):
that campus twice last week.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
The information I received was incredible.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Do you know they have free healthcare that's available to
the people in the town, free legal services that Quinnipiac
can offer to the residents in this town.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, why exactly? You don't know it.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
A majority of the sixty four to sixty five thousand
people in town don't know this as well. So we
have to do a better job of forging these amazing relationships.
These treasure chests that are sitting right in our backyard
with a seven hundred million dollar endowment. All right, they're
sitting They're like the golden goose that's playing eggs and
(11:37):
the town can't take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, that's interesting too, because so many times they make
news for being a bad neighbor, or they're bad neighbor
and hamming, you know, parties on this street, the off
campus apartment. They get the negative press as far as
being a Hamden you know entity, and yet here you
are like, well here's what they let's so we'll look
(12:00):
at what they offer exactly. That's very interesting because we
always get the negative stuff as far as qu is now, and.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It's all about perspective and in my view, you know,
we need somebody with a vision.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That's the thing.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
When they handed us a check the other day for
five hundred thousand dollars, quodypiac did, do you know what
that was for? It was for the overtime that our
police worked trying to police their campus. You know when
I say to that, when me and the head laison
between the community and university had coffee several months ago,
she said, Jamiica our police security team, because it's really
(12:36):
not a force, if you will, their license to carry,
but they can't make arrest. She said, how great would
it be for Hamden Police to certify them, get them
trained where they can actually make arrest. It doesn't add
to the town's financial burden because we can forge the
two forces together, just like Yale does with the New
Haven police department. I mean, guys, this is not rocket science.
(13:00):
This is just people getting together formulating fantastic ideas to
help increase our public safety. Because here's the other thing, Benny,
we can't bring in the types of businesses that we
want to bring in if the businesses can't get insured
because they don't, it's not safe, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
So there's many maths.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
It's basic math. And I'm here saying to you all
that I have all of the contexts. I bumped into
Ned Lamont having lunch and I walked up to him
and I said, sir, it's a truth, true story.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And what did he say, jumping Jehosah fast his arm
with you pizza?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yes, So we're in Porter Finos and I walk up
to him and I say, listen, my name is Jamika Jefferies,
and I'm running from mayor in the town of Hamden,
and once i'm elected, I would love to talk with
you about how you can help our town, uh in
some of this financial conundrum that we find ourselves in.
And he says, well, young lady, I wish you the best,
you know, but I can't do anything, uh, you know,
effectively until you become mayor.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But he didn't say no, right, he didn't say no.
But guess what else. Listen, we have so many different people.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Right. Paul Robertson, who's the chief Deputy Economic Development Director
for the State of Connecticut. I had meetings with him,
and he says, Jamika, once you're elected, I want to
walk Dickxwell with you to look at how we can
beautify and revitalize that area down there with new facades,
new street scapes, making the spaces walkable. There's Moneys out there.
So here's the other thing for people to say, Well, Jamika,
(14:37):
what's your plan?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Hey? Guess what?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
The first plan of action, all right is UH to
get a forensic audit done so we can see where
the money is, where it's going, and then we can
make calculated decisions on how we're going to start to
turn this town around.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, what you've been saying from the get go and
is another given in my opinion. Let's talk about the
fundraiser coming up to because if I'm not mistaken, it's
which less than a we away. Right the next Wednesday,
October eighth, at Port Afinos. Speaking of which, from four
to six pm, we want people to show up support
Jamika Jefferies.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
One hundred dollars minimum donation per person absolutely. Yes, we
need the support. Lovely that port Afinos has opened its
doors for this very important race.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, and you've got the vision. That's what's necessary. I
got a good one for you. It's about vision, not
d vision. Because she's with her sister. I guess has
a score a point with her sister. I think it's
a good one. We'll see you on Wednesday at Portafinos.
I'll make sure I bang the drum on that as
we get closer and closer. I love you, I'm a fan.
(15:42):
I wait again, I do business here. I want you in.
It's Jamika, Jefferies and Great Senior all again.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We reign late. Will be right back.
Jamika Jefferies. So good to see you. I was thinking
about you the other night I moderated the new Haven
mayoral debate, and I was thinking, geez, this rate because
that's a hot race. Yeah, but it doesn't touch the
Hamden race. Hamden came up. The mayor of New Haven
(00:20):
referenced Handen and neighboring, you know the importance of the relationship.
I don't really see one, but he does, and it's
apparently alive and well and oh really yeah, yeah, both
places are just booming and safer than ever according to him.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, yeah, is that right.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Apparently hadn't seen my commercial.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Yeah, we're talking about you know, we're rated nationally as
one of the most unsafest cities in the country.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
More cities are safer than us.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And then when I questioned him on that, I, how
can you keep saying our streets are safer? Especially I
have to two kids out on these streets now. I'm
a nineteen year old and a twenty two year old.
They're downtown Newaven, they're in Hamden, They're all over the place,
and I don't feel that there're any shape. And I
(01:12):
asked some point blank, I said, how come you can't
acknowledge that there's a lot of crime out there. And
he's like, well, because statistically speaking, it's down from twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And it's like, well, well, then, good thing. You know,
it's not twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I guess I'll stay out of my time machine and
I won't go back to that year.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
What does that have to do with the now. We're
concerned about the now exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And for someone to make those kind of blanketed statements,
it really suggests to me that they don't have their
finger on the pulse of what the people and the
town are feeling.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Currently in our town.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And I've done poles my own individual you know, non
quintipat polling of people in town that tell me they
won't go in the Hamden Plaza when the sun goes down,
that they shop for their groceries. Two town's over, so
they're going to north Haven and because they don't feel safe.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm just hearing that the last race too, and it's
only gotten worse.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's gotten worse.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Race and Mayor Garrett, you know, she dismissed it. She
laughed at the suggestion of it. I said people were
being dramatic and it's like or honest.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean, how do you do that?
And again, these are people that are out of touch
and they're out of time. And I'm sitting here today
saying that the people of the Town of Hamden are
no longer going to be befuddled and fooled by what
they're doing. I mean, they are blatantly turning a deaf
ear and a blind eye to what the real issues are.
(02:40):
And you know what they are, and we've talked about
it ad nauseum. Okay, still don't have financial statements, still
don't have an audit completed, and quite honestly, if we
can't continue to go on in this direction, and there's
only one direction to take, and that's an upward trajectory.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
And that's what Jamika Jeffries. I mean.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
When you look at the current platform, if you will,
of candidates, you have a gentleman that's running, that just
got in the race, by the way, three or four
months ago, and now he's the darling of the town.
He's been at no legislative budget council meetings. I've never
seen him at one. And that's where the town, the
heartbeat of the town, the finances of the town are discussed,
(03:20):
and you won't even bother to show up.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
The other two.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
I could count on one hand how many times I've
seen them show up. And we need a mayor that's
going to be present now, hiding in an office, behind
a desk, behind a computer. We need someone boots on
the ground, grassroots saying we've got to fix this, and
we've got to fix it now because we're hemorrhaging.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And beyond that, he was the cause of the original hemorrhage.
I mean, there's a track record there that nobody seems
to be talking about it. I mean he was Lang's
chief of staff and failed at that gig. I don't
really get. You know, at one point this race was
very crowded at a lot of fresh new blood. Yeah
you of course rising to the cream, but it was
(04:03):
fresh blood. And for whatever the reasons, he seems installed,
he feels installed.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
All you have to do is just look at the
fundraisees that that was hell the other night.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I mean, he was an eleventh hour, all of a
sudden out of nowhere. But he's got a track record
as he's shown that he can't do what needs to
be done already and yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Well, here's the thing. He's a very nice man. Yeah okay,
and no one can take that away from him. But
nice is not going to get us out of this
mess we're in. You know, I look at the playing
field now, and I've said this and people laugh when
I say it, But the way I visualize it is
you've got people in there that it's a dog fight. Okay,
we have and he's not the cause of it, by
(04:47):
the way, And I want to make that distinction because
you know, this dates back several administrations, the hole that
we've been dug in, right, but it was the current
Lang administration under which he served that did not fund
those pensions that got us in this problem.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And then they started borrowing against the pensions.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Okay, so we don't have enough money, so let's just
borrow the money and then not fund you know, the
teacher's pension, up fund the police pension. I mean, how
did you think you would be able to sustain that? So, yes,
that was a failed administration. This gentleman also served on
the board of vent over ten years. He chaired the
board of ED And yet we're called an alliance school system,
(05:25):
which means we're in the lower fifty percentile, okay, lower
fifty percentile of schools in the state. We rank eighty
fourth out of one hundred and twenty schools. And these
are national polls. By the way, this isn't just something
I'm coming up with. He's failed there, he's failed in
the past. So why do we give him a participation
trophy to show up and basically drive the nail in
(05:47):
the coffin?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Not on my watch?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, and you're going to have the opportunity to save
this right to them, right, there's a debate looming.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
How many participating in the debate? When is it? Where
is it? Allah?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So October fifteenth, we are going to be at Mill Library,
Miller Memorial Library, right here in the center of town.
You have Rob I'm sorry I call his name Robert.
It's Jonathan Katz. He's a Republican that's running, which you know,
twenty four years old. Nice kid still lives at home
with his mom, right, not a homeowner yet, so you
(06:18):
can't really feel the pain of the pinch of the
taxes in town.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And then you have a woman named Patricia. She's Green Party.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Socialist, which I can't people have fallen off huh oh.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
My goodness, what you know?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And they basically just fell on their own swords, you know.
The primary canceled a lot of folks.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Out, as it does. And then of course Sendroff.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, and then of course you know Sendroff, which again
is a part of the good old boys club, you know.
I mean when Scott Jackson called me earlier this year,
who you know is the former one of the former mayors. Yeah,
he said, Jamiica, you know, why don't you become Economic Development.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Director for Adam? And I said absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, you know, and he says, well, Adam was my
best man at my wedding.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
What best man at your wedding? Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And then you have Walter Morton, who also was chief
of staff under Lang before Sindoff came in. I mean,
it's just a big conundrum. But again I say again,
it's the band getting back together. Okay, they're they're they're
playing they want to, but we're not dancing to their tune.
The people in this town, and I'm gonna tell you
right now, voter turnout is going to be essential.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And I'm telling people you got a carpool.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You got a carpool, folks, You better ask your neighbor,
six doors to the right, six doors to the left,
in the front, in the back of you, are you
registered to vote? This election is critical and I say
election very hesitantly because at this point I feel we're
beyond election that now this is a movement. This is
people from all different walks of life. Okay, Republicans, Democrats, whites, blacks,
(07:52):
Hispanics coming together to unify this town because it's gonna
take all of us together to turn this town around.
As you can see nationwide, the climate is very divisive.
But Hamden will not be known for that. We're gonna
be known as a town that is premiere for unification,
then beautification. Then we can concentrate on revitalization. But we
(08:14):
got to get down to brass tag.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Thank you very much. But it's what we're seeing.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And someone sent me a picture of mister Sandrov's latest
fundraiser and it was again, roway, all day you had
the mayor, Okay, the current mayor was at this fundraiser,
all smiles and giggles. Okay, Susan Bisowitz, George Cabrera, all
of them in there together, and you were saying, you know,
why don't I get discouraged because it looks like the
(08:44):
fixes in because I still have hope. I still have
hope and a vision for this town that the people
will not go along with the status quo and that
they will pull the cover back on democracy hypocrisy, Okay,
because that's what this is. They want to make you think,
all right, they want to make you think that your
voice matters while they're in the back rooms making deals
with each other. But now we've got a new administration
(09:06):
coming in that's saying we want to put the people
back in power, all right. And I've been telling people, Vinny,
put me on your payroll because when you elect me,
now I work for you, and I'm going to work
for this town. If it's not good for this town,
then it's not good for me.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, and when I asked you how you don't get
to defeat it one, I'm just I'm a defeatist. I'm
easily defeated. And again wrong with Jimika Jefferies. Right now,
Outside of you just being resilient and a force in
nature on your own, you got people supporting you, and
you've got a lot of people who believe in you. Yes,
Bob Thomas being one of them. I asked him once
right out, I go, you have so much skin in
(09:43):
this game. It seems like you don't live anywhere near here.
He goes, But I've been doing business here for Xmas.
I cannot continue to do business. Yes, and the climate
in the direction that it's heading in. Because I wondered
why he had such a which was kind of silly.
Of course, if you're a business owner in a town,
you got this much in it, but but you can't
vote in it exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, your business is in it.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
That's it is it is, and that's something that you know.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
We'll have to tackle that at Goliath at some point
down the line. But any business owner in this town
is in their best interesting poses me okay, any builder
in this town, any contractor. I have forged relationships, which
is very important in this line of work, you know,
to be able to negotiate. One of my superpowers is
(10:29):
contract negotiations. I do this for a living. So people say, well, Jamika,
what are you going to do, right, I'm looking at contracts.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I deal with attorneys all day and night. Okay.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
My background is business banking, all right. That's one of
the areas that I that I was in for several years.
So I'm coming in as a person that's not looking
at this from a political gain perspective, like most of
my counterparts. I'm looking at a town gain perspective. How
do we bring in viable, lucrative businesses, How do we
tap into qui which, by the way, I was on
(11:02):
that campus twice last week.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
The information I received was incredible.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Do you know they have free healthcare that's available to
the people in the town, free legal services that Quinnipiac
can offer to the residents in this town.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, why exactly? You don't know it.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
A majority of the sixty four to sixty five thousand
people in town don't know this as well. So we
have to do a better job of forging these amazing relationships.
These treasure chests that are sitting right in our backyard
with a seven hundred million dollar endowment. All right, they're
sitting They're like the golden goose that's playing eggs and
(11:37):
the town can't take advantage of it.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, that's interesting too, because so many times they make
news for being a bad neighbor, or they're bad neighbor
and hamming, you know, parties on this street, the off
campus apartment. They get the negative press as far as
being a Hamden you know entity, and yet here you
are like, well here's what they let's so we'll look
(12:00):
at what they offer exactly. That's very interesting because we
always get the negative stuff as far as qu is now, and.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It's all about perspective and in my view, you know,
we need somebody with a vision.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That's the thing.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
When they handed us a check the other day for
five hundred thousand dollars, quodypiac did, do you know what
that was for? It was for the overtime that our
police worked trying to police their campus. You know when
I say to that, when me and the head laison
between the community and university had coffee several months ago,
she said, Jamiica our police security team, because it's really
(12:36):
not a force, if you will, their license to carry,
but they can't make arrest. She said, how great would
it be for Hamden Police to certify them, get them
trained where they can actually make arrest. It doesn't add
to the town's financial burden because we can forge the
two forces together, just like Yale does with the New
Haven police department. I mean, guys, this is not rocket science.
(13:00):
This is just people getting together formulating fantastic ideas to
help increase our public safety. Because here's the other thing, Benny,
we can't bring in the types of businesses that we
want to bring in if the businesses can't get insured
because they don't, it's not safe, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
So there's many maths.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
It's basic math. And I'm here saying to you all
that I have all of the contexts. I bumped into
Ned Lamont having lunch and I walked up to him
and I said, sir, it's a truth, true story.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And what did he say, jumping Jehosah fast his arm
with you pizza?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yes, So we're in Porter Finos and I walk up
to him and I say, listen, my name is Jamika Jefferies,
and I'm running from mayor in the town of Hamden,
and once i'm elected, I would love to talk with
you about how you can help our town, uh in
some of this financial conundrum that we find ourselves in.
And he says, well, young lady, I wish you the best,
you know, but I can't do anything, uh, you know,
effectively until you become mayor.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But he didn't say no, right, he didn't say no.
But guess what else. Listen, we have so many different people.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Right. Paul Robertson, who's the chief Deputy Economic Development Director
for the State of Connecticut. I had meetings with him,
and he says, Jamika, once you're elected, I want to
walk Dickxwell with you to look at how we can
beautify and revitalize that area down there with new facades,
new street scapes, making the spaces walkable. There's Moneys out there.
So here's the other thing for people to say, Well, Jamika,
(14:37):
what's your plan?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Hey? Guess what?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
The first plan of action, all right is UH to
get a forensic audit done so we can see where
the money is, where it's going, and then we can
make calculated decisions on how we're going to start to
turn this town around.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, what you've been saying from the get go and
is another given in my opinion. Let's talk about the
fundraiser coming up to because if I'm not mistaken, it's
which less than a we away. Right the next Wednesday,
October eighth, at Port Afinos. Speaking of which, from four
to six pm, we want people to show up support
Jamika Jefferies.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
One hundred dollars minimum donation per person absolutely. Yes, we
need the support. Lovely that port Afinos has opened its
doors for this very important race.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, and you've got the vision. That's what's necessary. I
got a good one for you. It's about vision, not
d vision. Because she's with her sister. I guess has
a score a point with her sister. I think it's
a good one. We'll see you on Wednesday at Portafinos.
I'll make sure I bang the drum on that as
we get closer and closer. I love you, I'm a fan.
(15:42):
I wait again, I do business here. I want you in.
It's Jamika, Jefferies and Great Senior all again.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
We reign late. Will be right back.
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