Hamden's JAMEKA JEFFERIES Returns

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tamika Jefferies back on with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Good morning, good morning, and thank you for having me again.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Now when did I first have you on that are
our first shot? It was it was a little bit
of a while ago, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It was months ago, two.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Months now at that time, Jamika, how many people were
in the race. And that's I mean, this is I
said it the other day. You heard it. I know
because I saw some I saw some kind some shots
people were taking at me. I don't think it's lost.
I'd be Jamika, and you know, I'm a fan of yours,
but some people were taking shots at me on Facebook,

(00:34):
and I would look at who liked it, and I'm like, oh,
Alato seemed to like this shot. That was just taking out.
Oh there's Jamika likes this shot too. You know, I
had to be I asked all the questions that were
sent to me. Some of the stuff was really so
intricate and you really need to live in town to know.
I couldn't engage if the answer, uh, you know, this

(00:59):
community center on a toxic you know, on a toxic sit.
It's a pretty complicated, uh issue, and townies know about
was lost on me. So I asked the question to
get the answer. Some people are like, he's going too
easy on her. And I saw two likes and I'm like,
it's Alan Jamiica they're liking this comment.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, here's the thing. I think the biggest issue was
when the when the conversation got started, it was kind
of like they she came on giggling, you know, like, yes, right,
it was. It was comical and what we're experiencing here
in hand and there's nothing funny, yeah, you know, there's nothing.
And it was a flippant kind of dismissive laugh, you know.

(01:41):
And we don't appreciate it because I for one, got
in a house on Monday at a private kind of gathering.
People in town from the first district, a district all
gathered at this house to talk about what was important
to them, that was important to special interest. And that's
the issue we take the me When people are elected

(02:02):
as public service, they're supposed to do what serve the public.
This shouldn't be about some big, large agenda. This should
be about what's bet for the town and what's set
for the townspeople. And we're not seeing it. I mean,
since we spoke last more drama has ensued, and I
don't know if you heard about it, but she took

(02:24):
it upon herself to just hire a new finance director
when the legislative Council explicitly asked to let us interview
them first. We want to vet this person, whoever they are.
Not only did she hire them, but she also gave
them fifteen thousand dollars more than what we budgeted for

(02:44):
in the town.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
So that's position yeah. And it's interesting because a lot
of the answers you have to understand, and that's probably
on me. The tone of the interview, the way it started.
I had only met her in person thirty seconds prior
to us going on the air. You say hello, you know,
you try to break a little bit of ice. I
knew she was. She was coming into a studio and

(03:06):
meeting a guy who had made wise cracks in the pad.
That could be very tense. And I've taken her to
task before too. I see Hamden just following new Haven,
and I'm born and raised in new Haven. I don't
want to see Hamden become another new Haven. The fact
of the matter is it kind of already is. And
I said as much. But it brought her on and
tried to make her comfortable, which I think actually benefits

(03:30):
Hamden voters because listen to the answers. Listen, don't worry
about the manner in which they were asked. Listen. Listen
to the answers and you'll get like all the meat.
And one thing that was interesting to me Jamika was
it's defertile. Well in the town charter, the town charter
says this, you know, new Haven, there's no according to

(03:52):
any town charter. Uh So it was interesting how how
much fell on this isn't the way this like you
just brought up right there, we're supposed to have a
say in this. You were you didn't do this the
right way? Why do you think there you go? Why
do you think that defiance is there? And I would
bring up words like defiance too, and she came across

(04:15):
to me as I'm doing everything like not necessarily the
right way, but in a way that I can get
away with like that, Yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
She get it on the head, any.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Just shrugging her shoulders like they can say whatever they want.
I mean, that's it. Yeah, you called it right.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I mean, when did we go from a democracy to
a dictatorship? Okay, and so when I understand in that
sound government center, the environment is so toxic, you know
you can't And as you've seen recently when miss Dally
Laurie God blessed her thirty five years on the job,
parks and reg put on aid administrative leaves all right,
and the person that she was accusing of the hardship

(04:57):
is still getting to work. You know, how fair is that.
I mean, again, we're seeing all these different dynamics and
it's not working in her favor. And he talked about
a crowded playing field. I don't see a crowded playing field.
I see me, I see me on the radio. I
see me chouting and talking and champion the people. You know,

(05:18):
these guys, you know, just because of course lines up
to get in the race. You know, if you don't
get out the stock, he's stuck at the gate. Everybody
else is running. So I don't see any competition anything
but the end road for the people.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
To that point, it's interesting because, like I said, if you,
if we're him to residents, just pay attention, you know,
listen to that clip. Don't worry about you know, my
silly tone or whatever. You listen to the answer when
when I say, like, damn, that's that's a lot of
people running. Doesn't that make you does not make you
feel like kind of bad? Her response, it's right there

(05:53):
to hear it was, it's great for me.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yes you heard it.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, sure. I was sitting here going to figure out
why it didn't hurt her feelings that so many people
were running against her. And then I even asked her
what one woman asked me to say, a woman who's
like a few of those are plants because they'll split votes.
Just the way she went, she was dismissive of that,
and I can understand that because that's kind of a

(06:18):
conspiratorial belief. But I asked it.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah, yeah, well that's politics that it's fine.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well that's it, Jia. You know, I don't even know
why you would want to get into it. Obviously it's
for love of town. Because politics is a dirty game.
Let me ask you this, and again we're I'm with
Jamika Jeffries. The website is go Jamika Jeffries dot com.
Check her out. It's time to sleep to wake the
Sleeping Giant. You know, I love that tagline. So I

(06:44):
started here because it came away from Monday, like look
I mean, if so many people are or maybe I'm
only hearing from the angry ones. You got all these options,
it should be a no brainer. But a voter turnout,
I think in the country in general, it's always been
kind of depressing to me. But I'm like, here, you
guys go, you know you've got all these choices. Then

(07:04):
I started hearing from people like, she's got is it
is it? It's not Shady Glenn? Is it shady? Get Glenn?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Is not the party?

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Do I have it wrong? Spring Glen? You think?

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I know?

Speaker 1 (07:16):
I drive by it every morning i'm away and my
cousin used to live there. Everybody's like, she's got spring
Glenn sewn up? What's tell me what that's all about?
What is that enough to secure a victory having one
part of town?

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Well, listen, they're very they're very voter friendly, like they
get out to the polls. And I've been spending a
lot of time in spring Land, and I got to
tell you, she doesn't have it all sewed up. People
are people, all right? People care about their bottom line
at the end of the day. You know, this is about, uh,
what's best for me and my family, not being some

(07:49):
loyalists to some ideology, you know, to some person or
some party. And this is what I'm saying. It's it
has to be people over party. It has to be
you know, I sat in that meeting on Monday, and
a woman was sitting there because I'm a widow. Okay,
I have a fixed income and I'm one of the
people who's going to have to pay three hundred dollars

(08:10):
more a month. All right, So these are the types
of things I'm fighting for. And just so you have
a little backstory to Vinnie, because a lot of people,
I want to reintroduce myself to the audience. They know
who I am.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, taken away.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Because you said something very important, like why would you
even do this? Yes, I am a real estate broker
by profession and that's a specialized license, by the way,
it's not just being a realtor. I have my own
broker's firm with agents and we sell commercial and residential
home souse. That gives me a specialized knowledge into the
market into economic development. So in sales, I've been in

(08:46):
sales for close to thirty years and I've sold business
to business, you know, professionals for the last thirty years.
In terms of like Fortune five hundred companies, Fortune one
hundred companies, and I've won a war for my work.
Sometimes they would put me in the worst territories to
sell and I still would be number one in those markets.

(09:07):
So I'm used to being the underdogs. I'm used to
having that, you know, start from the bottom and win.
And one of the things that I want to do
for this town is takes us from where we're heading
to where I see the future, where we can go.
I sit on the commission for the town right now,
the Community Development Citizens Advisory Commission, so we vote on

(09:29):
the block fund grants that come into town. And I
got to tell you it's unfortunate, and this is the
problem I have. The money that comes in from the
state and effect very rarely reaches the community if it's
supposed to serve. So imagine people give us money to
do a job with the money, a specific job, not
take stiphens and salaries out of the American Rescue Plan

(09:49):
Act fund, but actually getting the money to the people
that need to be rescued. That's what I'm stampioning. That's
what I'm advocating. So this is why you hear the
passion of my voice, Benny, I have the proven tr
and now I'm saying to the people of this town,
we cannot afford to let the next four years look
like the last four years, and we have to get
her out.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
And Yeah, that ticks me off because you just brought
up the very thing I do. You know, I like
to think I do the best job I can every day.
That's the one part of our interview on Monday that
I kicked myself over because I see that in every
town and I do a million stories like that. It's like,
wait a minute, I don't understand that money was allotted

(10:29):
for one specific thing. How come you can't just decide
it's going somewhere else. I've done a million stories like that,
and I kind of didn't catch it at the time.
It was upon playing back because so many people were
coming after me and you are clicking like on all
of their comments.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
No, I love you.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
But when I listen back, I'm like, geez, that's something
that I pounce on a lot. Did I miss that
I asked about. I don't know if it was ARPA
or not, but it's like, wait a minute, So you're
deciding to use pandemic funds any willing, really wit and
I don't know how I let it was a puck

(11:10):
that got past the goalie. You know, That's all I
can say, sort of hear you bring it up. I
just want everyone listening to and you to know. I
feel like that's a problem in every town, which is
why when Bob Stefanowski was running for governor and he
campaigned on I think every town needs an audit in
that way, I fully support that, you know, I think

(11:31):
it does. I don't think you can just take money
that's allotted. You know, you filled out paperwork, you said
this is what all right, Well we don't need it anymore,
so I'll spend it over here and I'll build. You know,
I don't support that. So you're bringing up the one
area where I was really kicking myself. But I'm glad
that you are.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, but you're human, Vinny, and guess what, you admit it,
your mistakes and a lot of times we just want people.
We know people aren't perfect. We know that this currentstration,
you know, in the mayor, she inherited this mess, right,
the pension problem, this dates that's well before her, so
she's not responsible for that. But what we're saying you
have a responsibility now that you're in office to control

(12:14):
the controllables. You can control whether your staff gets a
fifteen percent rate in the midst of a fistful fiasco.
You can control all right, whether you're going to add
new positions and make us a tent city in the
midst of us being economically talented. You can control all right,
where the police go. You can control the things, and

(12:35):
you won't.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
I was, I was on top of that. The tone
was nice, but I was like, I don't understand why
the police, because that still does baffle Mejamika. I'm mart
every day, and and I did acknowledge that we do
stuff with us there every year. I've got a lot
of history with him. To Mark, I don't get why
we can't have a squad car there. I don't get

(12:57):
why the guy's got to go out of pocket for
a secure scurity guard. And I did ask that. The
answer was strange to me, but I wanted to move
on to other questions because it has come well, you
know he wants to because she said something too. In
addition to the security guards, he'll even pay for the
police to come by. And I thought that's an odd thing.

(13:18):
Did I get that right? That's in there? So I
mean I posted all of it. I found that strange too.
At the outset, Jamika, I tried to get to you
last time. Let's so let's circle around when you were
first on? How many people were in the race when
you were first on? And I'll ask you a two parter,
second part being I want to ask you the same

(13:39):
thing I asked her. Do you does it bother you?
That after you threw your hat in the ring? Still
came more like are you bothered by that?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Too?

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Like?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
No, I mean I I will to answer your first question.
There was three of us all right when it first started.
And then very oddly enough, I was at a mission
or meeting on that Saturday where all the commissioners in
town got together and someone that I know is a
very close friend of hers comes to me and my
husband over to our table and he goes, are you ready?

(14:12):
And I'm like, well ready for what? Yeah? I'm always ready.
I stay ready so I don't have to get ready.
He's like, no, no, no, are you ready? And so
I was like, okay, that's a weird question. That Monday,
another person put their hat in the ring. The following day,
another person. Two weeks later, another person. So I said, oh,
this must have been the poly trickery the man was

(14:32):
signed to prep me for you know what I mean.
But guess what, I'm not bothered. I don't care. And
just like I told another radio show, I have not
been focused on who I'm running against because I'm so
focused on who I'm running for, and that's the people
of the town of Hands and who need their voices,
art who need transparency. We are calling for responsibility, and

(14:52):
we're calling from accountability from an administration that has ignored
us for the last four years.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, you just hit another one right on the head too.
It was a sweetness in your voice when you're like,
and I told another radio show, like you're cheating on
me or what I want him to get all the
coverage that it gets. I'm well aware of my man Chaz,
who I've known for a long time, being an animal
and that's all great. The only difference being it's a

(15:18):
good thing, but it's also a tough thing for me.
Is I've got skin in the game in the sense
that Hamden's my second home. I've worked here since nineteen
ninety six. That's my car, I leave in the parking lot,
I shop here, we do stuff with us here. So
on the one hand, I play a little bit nice.
But on the other hand, I'm worried as hell. So yeah,

(15:40):
you know, so that's just me being legitimate. So it
got to be a little bit nicer. I appreciate the
fact when people are like, oh, you got to be
like so he was an animal, It's like, well, he's
got a little bit, he got a little bit of distance.
He's able to be. But you do any show, you
can't get your voice heard wherever. But it's Hamden who's
got to come out right Jimmika. I mean, at the

(16:01):
end of the day, it's hammed in residents who get
I don't get to vote chances, we get to vote.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Right right, It's true. And uh, you know, I'm calling
for anybody that has the same form of passion that
I have for my slate. I'm looking for council people.
I'm looking for a full slate, like I need to
clean house, so to speak. You know, I got, I
got my desk, stand, my my broom. I'm ready to
go in there. And yes, we have to have a
forensic audit. There's no way we're going to be able

(16:30):
to really put together a budget and so we know
exactly what the income is and what the expenses are.
We need to know what's coming in and more importantly,
where it's going. Right now, we don't have a clear
idea as to any of those questions.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Tremendous stuff. Next time, I want you in studio like
she was, live in studio, not on the phone. Yeah,
i'd love us. Let's let's do an hour in studio
with Jamika Jefferies Well,