April 16, 2025 • 26 mins
Mayor "Doc" Michael Rohan joined VERONICA LIVE to discuss his final sprint in his campagn to continue to serving as Mayor of Panama City. Hear what Mayor Rohan shared with me.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Veronica Live.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And I am here with my wingman, John Salik, and
I've also got Mayor Doc Rowan, and he is in
the final sprint for the finish line. He's running for
mayor again in Panama City. Want to welcome you back, Mayor.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Well, thank you, Ronica. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
I always enjoy being on your show.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You have a great show.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It has wide reach, so it's very valuable to be
on your show.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, I know it has wide reach because I've been
out of the country for three weeks. And guess what
show is trending, Mayor. It was when you came on
my show the other right before I went on this
three week adventure. You and committed former commission Judy Tinder.
Those two shows are going viral because everybody wants to
(00:48):
know you about you two. So how's it very good?
How's it going in this final sprint?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I feel that it's going great. I was down at
City Hall just yesterday was the first day of early voting,
and boy, what a crowd.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
A lot of people. Lot, yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
People are voting down there. Of course, Harrison Avenue is
a mess. Thanks to our present city manager and our
present direction, we've got it completely torn up. People are
you know, people are leaving town. As far as the
people that are the shops on Harrison Avenue, there's been
three defections just since they started this business. A lot
of talk that it's a lot of talk that it's
(01:26):
going to make the town better. But I think the
only way we're going to know is we're gonna have
to wait a year or so. And I'm not sure
it's going to make better because we're going to lose
parking spaces. But at the same time, so parking is
a little hard to get down there, but people are
coming up to the back of City Hall on Grace
and they've got the Supervisor of Elections. She's got her
tables set up at the rotunda and City Hall, and
(01:49):
like I said, yesterday was quite a crowd. I think
a lot of people, a lot of people wanted to
get out and make sure they got an early vote,
and that's what it looked like. It's not near a
crowded today. It's steady, but at the same time it
was I mean it was really almost overwhelming yesterday with
so there were people, there were lines yesterday. There's no
(02:11):
lines today.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, but people are taking advantage.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
So so doc, real quick, what's the voting dates against
everybody knows that that's really important.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, the voting dates are the fourteenth through the eighteenth,
so it's through this Friday and then it will be
on the twenty second. The interesting thing about it is
if you're in Ward one, the only place you can
vote is at City Hall, and of course you can
vote for mayor there. There's four spots, four spots that
(02:42):
are going to be open for voting on the twenty second,
but actually the only place you can go for early
voting is City Hall. So if anybody's listening to this
and they want to vote early, please come down to
City Hall because the other spots won't be open. There's
going to be something at the Park out on twenty third,
and there's going to be at Matheson and it seems
(03:03):
like there's one other place. You can find it on
the supervisor's site. But there'll be four places to vote
on the twenty second, But right now this week, the
only place you can vote is at City Hall and
a little trouble parking, but at the same time it
gets you in and gets you out down there. So
it's worth considering.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, I am still so frustrated. Hank Pickens came on
and chatted with us about Beach Drive and that seems
to be a huge concern Mayor. So you know, I
think the voters are frustrated, and that has been literally
all over Facebook. They've been blaming Commissioner Josh Street and
(03:41):
city Manager Jonathan Hayes. How one million dollars has been
spent on this damn project. So is that one of
the issues that most voters are frustrated with. I mean,
I'm so disgusted by it, and I can't even vote
in your area, but non stop people telling me there
so over that.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
That beach dry thing is a darn fiasco, and I
blame Jonathan Hayes for.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Picking it up.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It was started by Mayor Brudnicki and General McQueen. They
started it in February of twenty three, and they started
this without knowing exactly what land they had. They claimed
they were going to get the road from the Dot.
DOT never said they were going to give them the road,
and as a matter of fact, the Dot within the
last month has said they're not going to give them
(04:30):
the road. They said initially that there was going to
be lots of input from the citizens, and there has
been absolutely no input from the citizens. The only thing,
the only thing the Commission did was they had two
workshops on it, and the workshops just said do you
like plan one, two, three, or four. They didn't have
any option of do you like planning zero, which is
(04:50):
given up and quit, which is in the yeah, And
there was a there was the number of people that
actually responded even though they didn't have a choice. They
wrote in you know, item zero, we don't want this
thing to even happen. So it's and they've spent over
a million dollars on engineering and legal fees, and now
(05:13):
that the DOT is not going to give the city
the road, they're going to have to do more engineering,
and of course that will be more legal fees, so
they're going to have to do a lot more work
that they didn't really have to do. And they've only
got something like six or seven million dollars to do this,
and two very reputable contractors have said this cannot possibly
(05:36):
be done for that amount of money, so.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It'll probably be eighteen million dollars when we're all said
and done. And then there's still fire hydrants with no
water over there. Remember the yacht club burned down, and
then all the potholes that I've encountered driving around Panama City. Mayor,
and I know you know about all of this and
are just as frustrated.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
If you drive down You know my wife and she's
got a bad nick is he drive down in front
of destination of Panama City.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
City.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If if you drive.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Down there and you're not careful, you you could become
a quadriplegic. Because it is.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
No, it's the truth. It is the truth.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Because every time there's events at the Indigo, I drive
down that patch and I'm literally appalled, And I don't
know how hard.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
It is to put uh to patch holes? You know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, so I've got to ask you this because I
know you're on a tight schedule here.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, when you're political and have a talk show,
everybody reaches out to you. And there was this horrific
postcard that was just sent out and it says Mayor
Michael Rowan betrayed Conservatives for the Soros Agenda. I literally
almost puked because people were contacting me about this and
(06:55):
it said how you voted to put a woke Baltimore,
DEI Radical and of Panama City. And I'm laughing because
you came on my show and I know you all
had I think one hundred resumes, and Jonathan Hayes came
to the top, and then the other Darnell was Ingram.
I forout his name, and I remember researching both of them,
(07:18):
and yes, Darnell worked in Baltimore, but he was actually
the most qualified when you looked at his resume with
his industrial engineering degree and he had all kinds of qualifications.
And what I'm laughing about is four years prior, last
time you ran, people said you were racist, yet you
voted for a black man, and now they're saying you're
(07:39):
on the Soros team and a non partisan race. So Doc,
please explain this garbage to me, because the world's contacting
me and they're all disgusted by this stupid postcard.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And John is going to comment because he's been researching.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Oh yeah, I've been. I've been digging into who civic
knowledge is. You know, he's got some interesting connections there.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Uh well, I I looked at the qualifications and Darnell
Ingram was incredibly more qualified than Jonathan. He's the guy
besides an engineer. He's also a lawyer. Yeah, and he's
he's a registered independent.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He told me.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I went out to dinner with him when he was
here so I could talk to him a little bit.
And he grew up I either grew up in Jacksonville
or Tampa, but he if he grew up in Tampa,
his education was in Jacksonville. Well, he's a flora boy.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Jackson I remember, was one of the colleges.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And I called him trying to get him on my show,
and of course, you know, he was too. He didn't
want to because he was afraid it would jeopardize his
current job if he didn't get this one.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
That's for sure, it certainly would. But yeah, he's so
I mean, he's a Florida boy all along.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
He got an education in Florida.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I don't know if he was born down here, but
he's he has a lot of a lot of roots.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Down in Florida. And the guy, I mean, we could
have had.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
A lawyer and an engineer. We could stand a new lawyer.
We certain we certainly need a new engineer also, So
good grief, it was a it was a you know,
it was a home run for to get him and
you know, one of the other commissioners, she gave all
four all four of her votes she gave to Jonathan Hayes.
So it made it look like Jonathan Hayes was the
outstanding favor because she gave all her points, all her
(09:14):
points to Jonathan, so nobody else got any points from her.
And that made Jonathan way out in front of everybody
because he had so many points just from one person,
and that's not the way you're supposed to do it.
But the real interesting thing when we narrowed that commissioner though,
for we were looking for a city manager, and when
we narrowed that thing down to the last four people,
(09:35):
three of those last four people were black. There was
only one of them that was white. And I voted
for the black guy because I thought he was the
most qualified. But I have been accused at least twice
this go round and once before, so three times. Three
times I've been Yeah, I've been at three times. I've
been accused of being a racist, and I've been accused
(09:56):
of using inappropriate words when I'm talking to a group
of black people.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I think, you know what I'm talking.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
About, just ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
So are you telling me that Janets Lucas didn't vote
for the black guy too.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Is that?
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Is that what I'm here?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Voted?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
She voted, actually, she voted for the black female and
got a she manages ADYE Harris right now.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
She's a nice lady.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
She's not really she's not really uh up to speed
as far as being a city manager. But she's she's
a she's a good woman. But no, Jannis Lucas voted
for the black lady. And then when Jonathan Hayes had
like three votes and my guy had one vote and
the black lady had one vote, she went and switched
her vote to Jonathan Hayes. So in the end it
(10:43):
was a four to one vote with me voting against him.
But she had actually she had actually started off voting.
Donna Pinson was the other lady's name.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And it's been a while, but right go ahead, John Well, okay, well, Mayor.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
I some digging into the into who's behind this this
this card that went out with all this garbage on it,
and and it says they're paid for by Committee on
Civic Knowledge Elver in Tallahassee. So they're they're they're registered
with the state. You can dig up this information it's
all online. So I went and dug it up and
(11:19):
they're a new pack and their only contribution that so
far has been twenty thousand dollars, and that that came
from another pack, because that's the way Florida works with
the crooked backs.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
Is another pack called Florida First.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Forever gave them twenty thousand dollars funded them with twenty
thousand dollars. So I started digging into Florida First Forever
and I'm seeing contributions on here. About the time this
twenty thousand dollars went over to Uh, this civic knowledge
you have, you have Florida Peninsula Insurance Company made five
thousand dollars contribution to Florida First and then People's Trust
(11:58):
Pack made We've heard of that before, right, but made
five thousand dollars contribution. So so there's a lot of
a lot of people hiding behind other packs.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Here and stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And it turns out Florida First Forever also funded another
for one hundred thousand dollars, something called Florida Blue Dog
Progressives that is a Democrat group. So what you have
here is this pack funding. See this is a Democrat
lie against you, mayor that that's what this is. This
is this is garbage generated by by you know, and
(12:32):
they're trying to hide. See, they hide behind this web
of transferring funds between different groups and stuff. I mean,
you go look at all these contributions from packs. It's
one pack sends money to another pack, and they make
it it get they get so diffused. You can't find
out where the money really came from. And and of
course the.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
State website doesn't help you trace this stuff, but if
you're if you're determined, you can go dig it up.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
But there's a lot of insurance companies, physicians, health companies,
and I'm getting real suspicious about who's behind driving that
from our elected officials that are on on health committees,
you know over in Tallahassee.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
That maybe maybe.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Last because maybe they always had Jonathan in mind, and
then they put this guy forward so that they could
send this postcard about you, you know, two years later.
I mean, this is such crap. I can't even And
that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Whoever's doing this doesn't know that the voters are ticked
and they're over at.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Doc I mean.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
Agenda.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I'm anybody that's anybody that knows, knows mayor anybody that
knows you and your wife. The last thing that you
would ever associate you with is sorrows, you.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Know, or the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I mean that when the person sent me the postcard,
they wrote w TF. And you know, so when I
got the first, the first hit on this, so I'm
just laughing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You have to be over the target.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Right, And I mean you got to go back and
remember who these people are. Okay, Greg brew Nikki is
a Democrat. Okay, he was on He's a trustee for
the Cook Whitehead Foundation. Uh you know, I mean, you
know this is nothing but a Democrat hit well and
let me and they're just disguising it, you know, And
and I hope the voters don't fall for it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, well you believe this anyone that does know you.
And then I see c Pars They they came out
and voted. They're endorsing Alan Branch, Robbie Hughes and Josh Street.
And then there's been all of this, the Deep State
cartel t shirts I've seen all over online. And and
then Jenna Halligas is always the cheerleader, you know. Now
(14:55):
she's you know, dragging this other guy around town that
she's endorsed and always trying to, you know, be the
happy one. Well, I know people listen to the show because,
like I said, the last time you were on it
went viral.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But but Doc, you know, are you going to be
able to fix these things? And I hope that you
get the right commissioners in it's time?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Oh yeah, it's time. Well we're you know, Josh Street
is managed to take two hundred thousand dollars from our
city and give it to his friends. And you know,
if that guy, if that guy can get elected, then
anybody can get elected. Because you know, this is out
in the open. It isn't a secret. He took two
hundred thousand dollars, comes to the commission and he gives
(15:34):
it to his buddies over there in Saint Andrews. So yeah,
it's and s par par put out this this piece
asking this all kinds of questions, who's our campaign manager?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
How much money? How much this?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I totally ignored them because every year they go and
they go and endorse the Democrat and these people here
though they're allegedly Republicans, you know they're really they're really Democrats.
And Alan Branch is Brude Nicki light as far as
I'm concerned. I mean, he endorsed Rudnicki heavily the first time,
and rud Nicky has already endorsed him this time. So
you know, it's it's part of the same old Democrat playbook.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Well, Mike, you know my rule number one in politics.
You want to know the truth, follow.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
The money, Okay, And and yeah, you know, Panama City
is the commission down there has been run by a
bunch of crooks for so many years it's not even funny.
And I say that as somebody that ran for Panama
City commission ward three years ago against John Pilcher because
I was so tired of what was going on, you know,
(16:34):
like like passing a pay raise at midnight during a
hurricane emergency.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
So nobody would would notice. You know that the.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Type of crooked stuff, and these people have been lining
each other's pockets for years. It's this inside business click
in downtown Panama City, you know, the Downtown Improvement Board.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
You know, it goes all the way back to them
with you know, the tax money and stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And it's just they have these wild ass dreams that
that somebody else was paying for and then the citizens
end up getting screwed. You know, we don't have a
civic center because they had this dream of this monstrosity downtown.
You know that they were going to build with moving
floors and moving seats and all kinds of stuff. You know,
(17:16):
it was going to cost one hundred million dollars and
they thought the federal government was going to pay for it.
And they screwed around and screwed around, and then and
then nothing.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
We had lost it. I mean, this is why I
get so angry. And I know Hank Pickens, you know,
he came on. He's been fighting the fight. I've heard
some of his commercials.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
On on on the radio. So so, doc, I mean,
what do people need to know? And then especially for
fire hydrants not to have water after what went down
into La this is unexcusable, right, Who cares about beach drive?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I care about somebody's house burning down.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And I used to go to the yacht club all
the time for events and that is gone poof.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So So, I mean.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The thing that's disturbing is they knew all these fire
hydrants didn't work. They've owned that, They've known this for years,
but they didn't want to tell anybody until it became
very obvious when the fire hydrate right in front of
the yacht club didn't work. So so you know, they
just they just kind of hide these things all the time.
And yeah, they if you you know, somebody said a
(18:18):
long time ago, they arrested this guy for robbing banks,
and they said, well, you know, why do you rob banks?
And he said, well, that's where the money is. And
so you can look downtown and you can say why
do the builders and developers come downtown? They do that
because that's where the money is. And they, you know,
they want they want an inside track on how they
can get how they can get the money. And you know,
(18:39):
if they pay enough commissioners off and then they'll get
the vote on the commission and then you know, then
they then they get the deal that they wanted. So
it actually becomes pretty cheap if they if they put
twenty thousand dollars for a commissioner and get somebody else
to put twenty thousand, forty thousand can probably win most
of the races. So, you know, for forty thousand bucks,
then who knows what kind of a good deal that
they get when they when they come down to the
(19:00):
city and look.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
For a deal.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, thirty five million for the Martin is appalling the
freaking crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's still closed, doc, and.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I don't have a civic center, and I worried about
all my friends, and I have a boat load that
live in the cove who I don't know if I
need to go test their fire hydrant for them.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So I've got some issues here. Why do you find that?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
And Vannie, don't forget that our water bills are going
up astronomically. I mean it's you know, the water sewer
and garbage right now is one hundred and twenty seven
dollars a month for minimum usage.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
I mean, how many people that you can approve that?
You know?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
You know that don't They don't make a lot of money.
How can they afford that? And it's going up very quickly,
you know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's going up. It's going it's going up nine percent
every year, and it's going to go up that way
for five years and five years it started this year,
it'll be fifty percent higher than it was.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
You know, that's in something I can.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
I can't imagine two hundred dollars water and sewer and garbae. Okay,
we're we're going to get the money for that money, and.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The water tastes like crap.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I want to I'm going to put that on a record,
having just been in the Netherlands for three weeks where
it tasted lovely coming out of the sink.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So so, Doc, why do you fight so hard? Uh?
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And then why do you need these other commissioners to
get elected with you? Because we need some change and
to have a marina closed for seven years is or
almost a is unsatisfactory in my book.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, it's one of the few things that could have
made some money for the city. We could have got
that done a long time ago. We'd be making a
million bucks a year on that down there. So it's
you know, it's insane. The only way we can do
better is to get two other people elected, because it
takes three votes.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And that's why.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Demetrius and ed Young these are outstanding people and if
we can get them elected, it'll be great. We'll be
able to do something for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, I know this show is going to go viral
because the other one's been going viral for three weeks.
What else do you want the voters to know, Doc,
Because I think you're You've always been an honest, you know,
god fearing man that has loved human the world and
work so hard, and you've been working so hard for
Panama City.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What do you want folks to know?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I want them to know that I'm a retired surgeon
and I don't have any dog in this fight except
I want to make things good for everybody in the city.
I want to take care of all the wards in
the city and give everybody the most that we can
give them, not just downtown. You know, my opponent's got
all his business downtown. He's getting deals with tax breaks downtown,
which is good. You know, it's good for him, but
(21:36):
it's at the same time that's not good for everybody
in the city. So I want people to understand that
I will be honest and I will I will do
whatever it takes to make everything just right for as
many people as we can, and I'll do what's right
for the citizens for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
John, Do you have a final question.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Yeah, I'm hoping Mike Mayor that that is just salvageable.
I mean, are we getting so far into debt and
stuff that that there's going to be a big crash
with the budget and that type stuff. If we don't
elect a new commission with commissioners that are willing to
take on these hard problems.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah, I think personally, at the end of this fiscal year,
we're gonna we're gonna have about a thousand dollars in
the bank or something like that, and we're not gonna
have a lot of money. So if any disasters occur,
we'll really be in trouble.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
The city clerk has cautioned us that if we if
if we don't get our spending in order to state
could come in and take us over. And somebody told
me the other day that it might be a good
idea if the state did take us over. I really
don't I really don't know, but I know that you know,
we're we're another friend from this county commission. He said,
(22:46):
you know, as bad as it is over there, y'all
are going to have to raise taxes. And nobody wants
to raise taxes, but if we're down to just about
nothing at the end of the year, we're.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Probably going to have to raise taxes. So, uh, there's.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Got to be some changes, and uh, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I don't know if we can get them or not.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So so when it comes to it. I mean, what
poll does the city manager have versus the commissioners, because
I just I just feel like we're this lost cause
in Panama City. And everybody that I know that chats
with me about Panama City, I mean, they're they're they're
so frustrated Mayor because you know, they don't know how
(23:24):
to change it, especially if you don't get the right
commissioners on there. You know, does does the city manager
have more weight than the commission.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
The city manager has all the city manager in charge,
he's got one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
If three of us didn't like what he was doing,
we could tell him something different.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
But at the same time, as long as.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
He's got three people, uh, three cheerleaders for what he's doing,
he can do what he wants. And that's that's what's
going on right now. I red why Jonathan Hayes wants
that path along Beach Drive. He didn't have to do it,
and actually two commissioners, Granger and Lucas, they and vote
for it. This came on after they came on board,
so you know, I guess they really like the idea
(24:06):
of paving the coast of Florida and taking land away
from people that have rightfully purchased it.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Well, I'm frustrated. Straight did any final thoughts there, because
I know you have to run off to a meeting.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
No, I just would ask the citizens to please vote
for me.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I think I can.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I can definitely keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully
i'll get I'll get some more support. I have a
good friend that's a builder, and to say how bad
it is, he says he won't build in Panama City
because he's got too many regulations, too many expenses, too
many of this, too many of that. So we've got
to We've got to do a lot better here. We
have a beautiful town, but we're we're sort of running
(24:46):
it into the ground.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
So are we going to get a Doze committee anytime soon? Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
I hope. So I'm all about that.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
I've I've had some nasty letters to me telling me
don't do a doge.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But I think a doge would be perfect.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
It sounds like it really needed, right.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, I would get them to have I mean, they'll
evaluate you. You don't have to do what they say,
but at least we would know where our strength and
our weaknesses are. So I think it'd be a tremendous idea.
I mean, good grief, the smartest guy in the world's
going to come look your you know, look your city over.
What more could you ask for?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Well, there you go. Well God bless you talk.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And I know you're fighting hard and you really are
fighting for the citizens of Panama City. And we need
I mean, I want Panama City to be the best
you know, planet city on the city on the planet.
And so I hope you get commissioners to come get
elected and help you clean up the city.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your sport. Always
appreciate good conservatives. I'll appreciate any opinions. But obviously the
crazy left is not where we.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Need to be. We need to be, uh, you know,
we need to be.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
The conservative people that pay our many, pay our taxes
and expend expend expect not to have a bunch of
crazy expenditure, like like buying this. We bought a parking
lot in Saint Andrews. We don't we don't need a
darn parking lot.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Yeah, we need to fix the fire hydrants, not not
waste all this funny.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I mean, so Mayor tonight, when you called George Soros.
Let him know we need.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
The fire hydrant six.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, that's a that's a great one. Maybe somebody's getting
paid by.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Sorows, but it's not me. I wouldn't take a nickel.
I wouldn't take a nickel from that at all.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
All Right, Well, God bless you and thanks for joining
for Live Mayor. Thanks
Welcome to Veronica Live.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And I am here with my wingman, John Salik, and
I've also got Mayor Doc Rowan, and he is in
the final sprint for the finish line. He's running for
mayor again in Panama City. Want to welcome you back, Mayor.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Well, thank you, Ronica. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
I always enjoy being on your show.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You have a great show.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It has wide reach, so it's very valuable to be
on your show.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, I know it has wide reach because I've been
out of the country for three weeks. And guess what
show is trending, Mayor. It was when you came on
my show the other right before I went on this
three week adventure. You and committed former commission Judy Tinder.
Those two shows are going viral because everybody wants to
(00:48):
know you about you two. So how's it very good?
How's it going in this final sprint?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I feel that it's going great. I was down at
City Hall just yesterday was the first day of early voting,
and boy, what a crowd.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
A lot of people. Lot, yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
People are voting down there. Of course, Harrison Avenue is
a mess. Thanks to our present city manager and our
present direction, we've got it completely torn up. People are
you know, people are leaving town. As far as the
people that are the shops on Harrison Avenue, there's been
three defections just since they started this business. A lot
of talk that it's a lot of talk that it's
(01:26):
going to make the town better. But I think the
only way we're going to know is we're gonna have
to wait a year or so. And I'm not sure
it's going to make better because we're going to lose
parking spaces. But at the same time, so parking is
a little hard to get down there, but people are
coming up to the back of City Hall on Grace
and they've got the Supervisor of Elections. She's got her
tables set up at the rotunda and City Hall, and
(01:49):
like I said, yesterday was quite a crowd. I think
a lot of people, a lot of people wanted to
get out and make sure they got an early vote,
and that's what it looked like. It's not near a
crowded today. It's steady, but at the same time it
was I mean it was really almost overwhelming yesterday with
so there were people, there were lines yesterday. There's no
(02:11):
lines today.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, but people are taking advantage.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
So so doc, real quick, what's the voting dates against
everybody knows that that's really important.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah, the voting dates are the fourteenth through the eighteenth,
so it's through this Friday and then it will be
on the twenty second. The interesting thing about it is
if you're in Ward one, the only place you can
vote is at City Hall, and of course you can
vote for mayor there. There's four spots, four spots that
(02:42):
are going to be open for voting on the twenty second,
but actually the only place you can go for early
voting is City Hall. So if anybody's listening to this
and they want to vote early, please come down to
City Hall because the other spots won't be open. There's
going to be something at the Park out on twenty third,
and there's going to be at Matheson and it seems
(03:03):
like there's one other place. You can find it on
the supervisor's site. But there'll be four places to vote
on the twenty second, But right now this week, the
only place you can vote is at City Hall and
a little trouble parking, but at the same time it
gets you in and gets you out down there. So
it's worth considering.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, I am still so frustrated. Hank Pickens came on
and chatted with us about Beach Drive and that seems
to be a huge concern Mayor. So you know, I
think the voters are frustrated, and that has been literally
all over Facebook. They've been blaming Commissioner Josh Street and
(03:41):
city Manager Jonathan Hayes. How one million dollars has been
spent on this damn project. So is that one of
the issues that most voters are frustrated with. I mean,
I'm so disgusted by it, and I can't even vote
in your area, but non stop people telling me there
so over that.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
That beach dry thing is a darn fiasco, and I
blame Jonathan Hayes for.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Picking it up.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
It was started by Mayor Brudnicki and General McQueen. They
started it in February of twenty three, and they started
this without knowing exactly what land they had. They claimed
they were going to get the road from the Dot.
DOT never said they were going to give them the road,
and as a matter of fact, the Dot within the
last month has said they're not going to give them
(04:30):
the road. They said initially that there was going to
be lots of input from the citizens, and there has
been absolutely no input from the citizens. The only thing,
the only thing the Commission did was they had two
workshops on it, and the workshops just said do you
like plan one, two, three, or four. They didn't have
any option of do you like planning zero, which is
(04:50):
given up and quit, which is in the yeah, And
there was a there was the number of people that
actually responded even though they didn't have a choice. They
wrote in you know, item zero, we don't want this
thing to even happen. So it's and they've spent over
a million dollars on engineering and legal fees, and now
(05:13):
that the DOT is not going to give the city
the road, they're going to have to do more engineering,
and of course that will be more legal fees, so
they're going to have to do a lot more work
that they didn't really have to do. And they've only
got something like six or seven million dollars to do this,
and two very reputable contractors have said this cannot possibly
(05:36):
be done for that amount of money, so.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It'll probably be eighteen million dollars when we're all said
and done. And then there's still fire hydrants with no
water over there. Remember the yacht club burned down, and
then all the potholes that I've encountered driving around Panama City. Mayor,
and I know you know about all of this and
are just as frustrated.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
If you drive down You know my wife and she's
got a bad nick is he drive down in front
of destination of Panama City.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
City.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If if you drive.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Down there and you're not careful, you you could become
a quadriplegic. Because it is.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
No, it's the truth. It is the truth.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Because every time there's events at the Indigo, I drive
down that patch and I'm literally appalled, And I don't
know how hard.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
It is to put uh to patch holes? You know.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, so I've got to ask you this because I
know you're on a tight schedule here.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, when you're political and have a talk show,
everybody reaches out to you. And there was this horrific
postcard that was just sent out and it says Mayor
Michael Rowan betrayed Conservatives for the Soros Agenda. I literally
almost puked because people were contacting me about this and
(06:55):
it said how you voted to put a woke Baltimore,
DEI Radical and of Panama City. And I'm laughing because
you came on my show and I know you all
had I think one hundred resumes, and Jonathan Hayes came
to the top, and then the other Darnell was Ingram.
I forout his name, and I remember researching both of them,
(07:18):
and yes, Darnell worked in Baltimore, but he was actually
the most qualified when you looked at his resume with
his industrial engineering degree and he had all kinds of qualifications.
And what I'm laughing about is four years prior, last
time you ran, people said you were racist, yet you
voted for a black man, and now they're saying you're
(07:39):
on the Soros team and a non partisan race. So Doc,
please explain this garbage to me, because the world's contacting
me and they're all disgusted by this stupid postcard.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And John is going to comment because he's been researching.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Oh yeah, I've been. I've been digging into who civic
knowledge is. You know, he's got some interesting connections there.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Uh well, I I looked at the qualifications and Darnell
Ingram was incredibly more qualified than Jonathan. He's the guy
besides an engineer. He's also a lawyer. Yeah, and he's
he's a registered independent.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He told me.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I went out to dinner with him when he was
here so I could talk to him a little bit.
And he grew up I either grew up in Jacksonville
or Tampa, but he if he grew up in Tampa,
his education was in Jacksonville. Well, he's a flora boy.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Jackson I remember, was one of the colleges.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And I called him trying to get him on my show,
and of course, you know, he was too. He didn't
want to because he was afraid it would jeopardize his
current job if he didn't get this one.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
That's for sure, it certainly would. But yeah, he's so
I mean, he's a Florida boy all along.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
He got an education in Florida.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I don't know if he was born down here, but
he's he has a lot of a lot of roots.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Down in Florida. And the guy, I mean, we could
have had.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
A lawyer and an engineer. We could stand a new lawyer.
We certain we certainly need a new engineer also, So
good grief, it was a it was a you know,
it was a home run for to get him and
you know, one of the other commissioners, she gave all
four all four of her votes she gave to Jonathan Hayes.
So it made it look like Jonathan Hayes was the
outstanding favor because she gave all her points, all her
(09:14):
points to Jonathan, so nobody else got any points from her.
And that made Jonathan way out in front of everybody
because he had so many points just from one person,
and that's not the way you're supposed to do it.
But the real interesting thing when we narrowed that commissioner though,
for we were looking for a city manager, and when
we narrowed that thing down to the last four people,
(09:35):
three of those last four people were black. There was
only one of them that was white. And I voted
for the black guy because I thought he was the
most qualified. But I have been accused at least twice
this go round and once before, so three times. Three
times I've been Yeah, I've been at three times. I've
been accused of being a racist, and I've been accused
(09:56):
of using inappropriate words when I'm talking to a group
of black people.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I think, you know what I'm talking.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
About, just ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
So are you telling me that Janets Lucas didn't vote
for the black guy too.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Is that?
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Is that what I'm here?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Voted?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
She voted, actually, she voted for the black female and
got a she manages ADYE Harris right now.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
She's a nice lady.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
She's not really she's not really uh up to speed
as far as being a city manager. But she's she's
a she's a good woman. But no, Jannis Lucas voted
for the black lady. And then when Jonathan Hayes had
like three votes and my guy had one vote and
the black lady had one vote, she went and switched
her vote to Jonathan Hayes. So in the end it
(10:43):
was a four to one vote with me voting against him.
But she had actually she had actually started off voting.
Donna Pinson was the other lady's name.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And it's been a while, but right go ahead, John Well, okay, well, Mayor.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
I some digging into the into who's behind this this
this card that went out with all this garbage on it,
and and it says they're paid for by Committee on
Civic Knowledge Elver in Tallahassee. So they're they're they're registered
with the state. You can dig up this information it's
all online. So I went and dug it up and
(11:19):
they're a new pack and their only contribution that so
far has been twenty thousand dollars, and that that came
from another pack, because that's the way Florida works with
the crooked backs.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
Is another pack called Florida First.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Forever gave them twenty thousand dollars funded them with twenty
thousand dollars. So I started digging into Florida First Forever
and I'm seeing contributions on here. About the time this
twenty thousand dollars went over to Uh, this civic knowledge
you have, you have Florida Peninsula Insurance Company made five
thousand dollars contribution to Florida First and then People's Trust
(11:58):
Pack made We've heard of that before, right, but made
five thousand dollars contribution. So so there's a lot of
a lot of people hiding behind other packs.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Here and stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
And it turns out Florida First Forever also funded another
for one hundred thousand dollars, something called Florida Blue Dog
Progressives that is a Democrat group. So what you have
here is this pack funding. See this is a Democrat
lie against you, mayor that that's what this is. This
is this is garbage generated by by you know, and
(12:32):
they're trying to hide. See, they hide behind this web
of transferring funds between different groups and stuff. I mean,
you go look at all these contributions from packs. It's
one pack sends money to another pack, and they make
it it get they get so diffused. You can't find
out where the money really came from. And and of
course the.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
State website doesn't help you trace this stuff, but if
you're if you're determined, you can go dig it up.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
But there's a lot of insurance companies, physicians, health companies,
and I'm getting real suspicious about who's behind driving that
from our elected officials that are on on health committees,
you know over in Tallahassee.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
That maybe maybe.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Last because maybe they always had Jonathan in mind, and
then they put this guy forward so that they could
send this postcard about you, you know, two years later.
I mean, this is such crap. I can't even And
that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Whoever's doing this doesn't know that the voters are ticked
and they're over at.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Doc I mean.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
Agenda.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I'm anybody that's anybody that knows, knows mayor anybody that
knows you and your wife. The last thing that you
would ever associate you with is sorrows, you.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Know, or the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I mean that when the person sent me the postcard,
they wrote w TF. And you know, so when I
got the first, the first hit on this, so I'm
just laughing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You have to be over the target.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Right, And I mean you got to go back and
remember who these people are. Okay, Greg brew Nikki is
a Democrat. Okay, he was on He's a trustee for
the Cook Whitehead Foundation. Uh you know, I mean, you
know this is nothing but a Democrat hit well and
let me and they're just disguising it, you know, And
and I hope the voters don't fall for it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, well you believe this anyone that does know you.
And then I see c Pars They they came out
and voted. They're endorsing Alan Branch, Robbie Hughes and Josh Street.
And then there's been all of this, the Deep State
cartel t shirts I've seen all over online. And and
then Jenna Halligas is always the cheerleader, you know. Now
(14:55):
she's you know, dragging this other guy around town that
she's endorsed and always trying to, you know, be the
happy one. Well, I know people listen to the show because,
like I said, the last time you were on it
went viral.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But but Doc, you know, are you going to be
able to fix these things? And I hope that you
get the right commissioners in it's time?
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Oh yeah, it's time. Well we're you know, Josh Street
is managed to take two hundred thousand dollars from our
city and give it to his friends. And you know,
if that guy, if that guy can get elected, then
anybody can get elected. Because you know, this is out
in the open. It isn't a secret. He took two
hundred thousand dollars, comes to the commission and he gives
(15:34):
it to his buddies over there in Saint Andrews. So yeah,
it's and s par par put out this this piece
asking this all kinds of questions, who's our campaign manager?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
How much money? How much this?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I totally ignored them because every year they go and
they go and endorse the Democrat and these people here
though they're allegedly Republicans, you know they're really they're really Democrats.
And Alan Branch is Brude Nicki light as far as
I'm concerned. I mean, he endorsed Rudnicki heavily the first time,
and rud Nicky has already endorsed him this time. So
you know, it's it's part of the same old Democrat playbook.
Speaker 6 (16:11):
Well, Mike, you know my rule number one in politics.
You want to know the truth, follow.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
The money, Okay, And and yeah, you know, Panama City
is the commission down there has been run by a
bunch of crooks for so many years it's not even funny.
And I say that as somebody that ran for Panama
City commission ward three years ago against John Pilcher because
I was so tired of what was going on, you know,
(16:34):
like like passing a pay raise at midnight during a
hurricane emergency.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
So nobody would would notice. You know that the.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Type of crooked stuff, and these people have been lining
each other's pockets for years. It's this inside business click
in downtown Panama City, you know, the Downtown Improvement Board.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
You know, it goes all the way back to them
with you know, the tax money and stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And it's just they have these wild ass dreams that
that somebody else was paying for and then the citizens
end up getting screwed. You know, we don't have a
civic center because they had this dream of this monstrosity downtown.
You know that they were going to build with moving
floors and moving seats and all kinds of stuff. You know,
(17:16):
it was going to cost one hundred million dollars and
they thought the federal government was going to pay for it.
And they screwed around and screwed around, and then and
then nothing.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
We had lost it. I mean, this is why I
get so angry. And I know Hank Pickens, you know,
he came on. He's been fighting the fight. I've heard
some of his commercials.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
On on on the radio. So so, doc, I mean,
what do people need to know? And then especially for
fire hydrants not to have water after what went down
into La this is unexcusable, right, Who cares about beach drive?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I care about somebody's house burning down.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And I used to go to the yacht club all
the time for events and that is gone poof.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So So, I mean.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The thing that's disturbing is they knew all these fire
hydrants didn't work. They've owned that, They've known this for years,
but they didn't want to tell anybody until it became
very obvious when the fire hydrate right in front of
the yacht club didn't work. So so you know, they
just they just kind of hide these things all the time.
And yeah, they if you you know, somebody said a
(18:18):
long time ago, they arrested this guy for robbing banks,
and they said, well, you know, why do you rob banks?
And he said, well, that's where the money is. And
so you can look downtown and you can say why
do the builders and developers come downtown? They do that
because that's where the money is. And they, you know,
they want they want an inside track on how they
can get how they can get the money. And you know,
(18:39):
if they pay enough commissioners off and then they'll get
the vote on the commission and then you know, then
they then they get the deal that they wanted. So
it actually becomes pretty cheap if they if they put
twenty thousand dollars for a commissioner and get somebody else
to put twenty thousand, forty thousand can probably win most
of the races. So, you know, for forty thousand bucks,
then who knows what kind of a good deal that
they get when they when they come down to the
(19:00):
city and look.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
For a deal.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, thirty five million for the Martin is appalling the
freaking crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's still closed, doc, and.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I don't have a civic center, and I worried about
all my friends, and I have a boat load that
live in the cove who I don't know if I
need to go test their fire hydrant for them.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So I've got some issues here. Why do you find that?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
And Vannie, don't forget that our water bills are going
up astronomically. I mean it's you know, the water sewer
and garbage right now is one hundred and twenty seven
dollars a month for minimum usage.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
I mean, how many people that you can approve that?
You know?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
You know that don't They don't make a lot of money.
How can they afford that? And it's going up very quickly,
you know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's going up. It's going it's going up nine percent
every year, and it's going to go up that way
for five years and five years it started this year,
it'll be fifty percent higher than it was.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
You know, that's in something I can.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
I can't imagine two hundred dollars water and sewer and garbae. Okay,
we're we're going to get the money for that money, and.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The water tastes like crap.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I want to I'm going to put that on a record,
having just been in the Netherlands for three weeks where
it tasted lovely coming out of the sink.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So so, Doc, why do you fight so hard? Uh?
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And then why do you need these other commissioners to
get elected with you? Because we need some change and
to have a marina closed for seven years is or
almost a is unsatisfactory in my book.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, it's one of the few things that could have
made some money for the city. We could have got
that done a long time ago. We'd be making a
million bucks a year on that down there. So it's
you know, it's insane. The only way we can do
better is to get two other people elected, because it
takes three votes.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And that's why.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Demetrius and ed Young these are outstanding people and if
we can get them elected, it'll be great. We'll be
able to do something for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Well, I know this show is going to go viral
because the other one's been going viral for three weeks.
What else do you want the voters to know, Doc,
Because I think you're You've always been an honest, you know,
god fearing man that has loved human the world and
work so hard, and you've been working so hard for
Panama City.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What do you want folks to know?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
I want them to know that I'm a retired surgeon
and I don't have any dog in this fight except
I want to make things good for everybody in the city.
I want to take care of all the wards in
the city and give everybody the most that we can
give them, not just downtown. You know, my opponent's got
all his business downtown. He's getting deals with tax breaks downtown,
which is good. You know, it's good for him, but
(21:36):
it's at the same time that's not good for everybody
in the city. So I want people to understand that
I will be honest and I will I will do
whatever it takes to make everything just right for as
many people as we can, and I'll do what's right
for the citizens for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
John, Do you have a final question.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Yeah, I'm hoping Mike Mayor that that is just salvageable.
I mean, are we getting so far into debt and
stuff that that there's going to be a big crash
with the budget and that type stuff. If we don't
elect a new commission with commissioners that are willing to
take on these hard problems.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Yeah, I think personally, at the end of this fiscal year,
we're gonna we're gonna have about a thousand dollars in
the bank or something like that, and we're not gonna
have a lot of money. So if any disasters occur,
we'll really be in trouble.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
The city clerk has cautioned us that if we if
if we don't get our spending in order to state
could come in and take us over. And somebody told
me the other day that it might be a good
idea if the state did take us over. I really
don't I really don't know, but I know that you know,
we're we're another friend from this county commission. He said,
(22:46):
you know, as bad as it is over there, y'all
are going to have to raise taxes. And nobody wants
to raise taxes, but if we're down to just about
nothing at the end of the year, we're.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Probably going to have to raise taxes. So, uh, there's.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Got to be some changes, and uh, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I don't know if we can get them or not.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So so when it comes to it. I mean, what
poll does the city manager have versus the commissioners, because
I just I just feel like we're this lost cause
in Panama City. And everybody that I know that chats
with me about Panama City, I mean, they're they're they're
so frustrated Mayor because you know, they don't know how
(23:24):
to change it, especially if you don't get the right
commissioners on there. You know, does does the city manager
have more weight than the commission.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
The city manager has all the city manager in charge,
he's got one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
If three of us didn't like what he was doing,
we could tell him something different.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
But at the same time, as long as.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
He's got three people, uh, three cheerleaders for what he's doing,
he can do what he wants. And that's that's what's
going on right now. I red why Jonathan Hayes wants
that path along Beach Drive. He didn't have to do it,
and actually two commissioners, Granger and Lucas, they and vote
for it. This came on after they came on board,
so you know, I guess they really like the idea
(24:06):
of paving the coast of Florida and taking land away
from people that have rightfully purchased it.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Well, I'm frustrated. Straight did any final thoughts there, because
I know you have to run off to a meeting.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
No, I just would ask the citizens to please vote
for me.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I think I can.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
I can definitely keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully
i'll get I'll get some more support. I have a
good friend that's a builder, and to say how bad
it is, he says he won't build in Panama City
because he's got too many regulations, too many expenses, too
many of this, too many of that. So we've got
to We've got to do a lot better here. We
have a beautiful town, but we're we're sort of running
(24:46):
it into the ground.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
So are we going to get a Doze committee anytime soon? Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
I hope. So I'm all about that.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
I've I've had some nasty letters to me telling me
don't do a doge.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But I think a doge would be perfect.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
It sounds like it really needed, right.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, I would get them to have I mean, they'll
evaluate you. You don't have to do what they say,
but at least we would know where our strength and
our weaknesses are. So I think it'd be a tremendous idea.
I mean, good grief, the smartest guy in the world's
going to come look your you know, look your city over.
What more could you ask for?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Well, there you go. Well God bless you talk.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And I know you're fighting hard and you really are
fighting for the citizens of Panama City. And we need
I mean, I want Panama City to be the best
you know, planet city on the city on the planet.
And so I hope you get commissioners to come get
elected and help you clean up the city.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your sport. Always
appreciate good conservatives. I'll appreciate any opinions. But obviously the
crazy left is not where we.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Need to be. We need to be, uh, you know,
we need to be.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
The conservative people that pay our many, pay our taxes
and expend expend expect not to have a bunch of
crazy expenditure, like like buying this. We bought a parking
lot in Saint Andrews. We don't we don't need a
darn parking lot.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Yeah, we need to fix the fire hydrants, not not
waste all this funny.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I mean, so Mayor tonight, when you called George Soros.
Let him know we need.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
The fire hydrant six.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, that's a that's a great one. Maybe somebody's getting
paid by.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Sorows, but it's not me. I wouldn't take a nickel.
I wouldn't take a nickel from that at all.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
All Right, Well, God bless you and thanks for joining
for Live Mayor. Thanks
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