Spiro Cheriogotis Visits the Uncle Henry Show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
It says the Uncle Henry Show here on news radio
seven to ten WNTM. Thank you so much for listening
to the Uncle Henry Show. In this hour, we're talking
with Mobile mayoral candidate Spiro Cherugana Sparro. Thank you for
coming in.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's my pleasure, Uncle Henry.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Gonna learn a lot about you, I hope from me
and the listeners today on the Uncle Henry Show. Lots
of questions for you. Now, the first question I've got,
if you don't mind, if I just jump right in,
go for it. Okay, I've noticed over the years judges
seem to really like being judges. Have you noticed this.

(00:53):
I've noticed that when a judge seat is open, people
will find to the death to get that judge, that
that position, and then they'll fight, They'll fight for the
rest of the lives to keep that position. Why on
earth would you give up being a judge?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, it's a good question, and some of these campaign
days I asked myself the same question. But you know,
I will tell you it was a calling for me. Uh,
it has to be a calling to leave something so
wonderful as that judge ship. I enjoyed my job. I
am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be
a judge. But the truth is a judge is limited

(01:30):
and the impact they can have to the people in
their courtroom. You're limited to acting on matters that are
within your jurisdiction. And as a mayor, the whole city
is your jurisdiction, right. You know, if you want to
impact lives and make lives better, you have a better
opportunity to do that as a mayor. And that was
always my goal as a judge, was to put people

(01:52):
back on the right path, to get people back on
the track to being a productive, happy citizen who no
longer interferes with the other people's happy citizenship. And when
I looked at when I look at the impact that
I believe Mayor Stimpson has had on this city. But
you know, my office was downtown. I remember the day
he announced he was retiring. I was looking out on

(02:13):
downtown and I think about Saint Louis Street and what
it looks like today and some of the industry and
the growth of our industry. I think he's had a major,
huge impact on our city and I want to make
sure that keeps going. I want to make sure this
city continues to move in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
How long were you a prosecutor before you were a judge?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Right at five years, so that was straight out of
law school.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
So being a prosecutor and then becoming a judge, what
did you learn about people when you did that? Because
I've never been a prosecutor or a judge, I'm making
an assumption that it would make me a little bit
cynical because you're seeing a lot of people at their
very worst. You're seeing the worst of people. What did
you learn about people being a judge and a prosecutor?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
You definitely learn about the hard ships that people face.
And it's oftentimes that hardships lead to bad behavior. You know,
people get hopeless and they don't see a way forward without,
you know, taking from others. But I'll tell you, out
of those two jobs, the one that I learned the

(03:17):
most about people from was working in the DA's Helping
Families unit. So right out of law school, before I
got my bar results, i'd taken the test but didn't
wasn't a full lawyer yet. The DA's office hired me
to be in the Helping Families unit, and what they
did was send me to Denton Middle school before it
was a Magnet school, and it was myself and two

(03:39):
of the social workers, and we were hoping to identify
the issues with troubled kids. You know. I remember one
kid kept skipping school because he didn't have shoes that
fit and it hurt too much for him to walk
to school. But what it amounted to was me sitting
in a room full of middle the middle schoolers that
should be suspended or maybe it spelled and just me

(04:01):
and that. My two social workers had an office over
to the side, yeah, where they worked with one individual
at a time. I had twenty two, twenty three individuals
that were all in trouble for this or that, and
I just had to keep them calm and talking.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
And I did.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I kept them talking to me about their lives and
their issues, and I listened to them talk to each other,
and you know, I learned very quickly the level of
hardship that some of our children face, things that frankly
were too adult and too unimaginable for me. For these eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen year olds to be dealing with it. It's heartbreaking.

(04:42):
And you know, to me, it is no wonder that
some people fall into the wrong path, and some young
people are surrounded by the wrong path every day of
their life.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
So what you've described this this folds into the mayor's race.
I've watched a couple of these forums. There's a lot
of discussion about interview in young people's lives and mobile
to try and have better public safety for all of us.
It sounds like there's already been an element of the
establishment here in this town trying to do that. I'd

(05:13):
never heard of the DA's office going in and talking
to middle schoolers. So is this something that what kind
of ideas do you have about that, because I know
you've heard other candidates talking about intervening in kids' life.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, it is about putting resources in young people's lives.
One thing I definitely want to do is the truth
is there are a lot of people doing those things
in our city right, but often it's in a disconnected
way that you know, one hand doesn't know what the
other hand's doing. And I really want to get our
nonprofits in the same room, our churches, our communal community

(05:46):
entities that are working towards this goal of pouring resources, mentorship,
opportunity into young people's lives. And I want to get
on the same page. When you're working together, you're going
to get further. So I think that's something the mayor
can do. A mayor has the power to convene. If
the mayor calls a meeting, a lot of people are
probably going to show up, right and we all have

(06:09):
that same goal, which is to change the future, make
the future brighter for individual children, but also the city
as a whole. Let's get on the same page. Let's
work together and make sure that we're not duplicating services,
and let's figure out where the holes in service are.
Because a lot of kids are geographically limited. You know,
they don't have a car. Oftentimes their parents don't have

(06:32):
a car. If it weren't for the school bus, they
wouldn't even be able to get to school. So we
have to meet the children where they are. Oftentimes that's
going to be centered around school. I certainly think one
thing we have to focus on is increasing after school programs,
summer programs, you know, like I do, When kids have

(06:52):
no direction and nothing to do, sometimes they fall into trouble.
So I want to give kids good, positive things to
spend their time on. One thing that I'm very interested in,
I believe in work, you know, I believe in learning
hard work. I started working at the age of nine,
just like my bride Lucy did at my family business.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you know, at nine, at nine, now were you
what does a nine year old do in the family business?
You know?

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Sweep?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Okay, that that is a good basic.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, sweep, take out trash. I helped check in. We
had a vending business, so we get daily deliveries of
cokes and chips and snacks and things like that. So
I checked the inventory sheet and make sure they gave
us what they said they gave us. But when you
look at our youth summer work programs, it's hard to

(07:40):
hire somebody that's fourteen years old. The government wants to
regulate that very well, and I guess they should. But
getting kids an opportunity to trade their time and effort
for money, I think that teaches a lesson that school
frankly doesn't. And I want to, you know, I want
to make sure that we're raising children to be self sustaining,

(08:01):
hard workers who can better their lives through effort.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Now do you have a do you have a ten
year old? Nine year old?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
So two ten year olds, the boys just turned ten
this month. Are they doing any sweeping Yeah, well, so
Jack started at we got him in under the wire
at nine. He was stocking shelves at Griers Okay in
downtown not too long ago. I think one of his
siblings may have Pilford the money that he earned that day.
So we're working on We've got an investigation going on

(08:30):
at the house.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
More life lessons, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Before we go to break. How do people find out
more about your campaign?

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, please find us at spiroufromayor dot com. We're at
SPIAU for Mayor on Instagram, Facebook.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
We're going to be back with more from Mobile mayoral
candidate Spiro chair got us when we return here on
news radio seventy ten WNTIM The Uncle Henry Show, it says,
the Uncle Henry Show. Here on news radio seven to

(09:06):
ten WNTM. News headlines coming up in ten minutes. Before
we get to the news headlines, we have more with
Mobile mayoral candidate spiroucha goddess. Now, one thing I wanted
to make sure to ask you about when I first
met you, Spiro and interviewed you, it was after you

(09:27):
were in the news. You were in the news. I
don't know if it was a couple of years ago,
we were having some crime issues in town and Mayor
Stimpson made public comments. I don't remember the comments exactly,
but something about a revolving door, that the system of
justice was failing us. They were putting people back out

(09:47):
on the streets and it was a revolving door of justice.
And you you were on Fox ten. You may have
been on the other TV stations as well, but I
remember the story from Fox ten about you publicly disagree
with him. Do you remember going up against Sandy Stimpson
and how did you end up getting his endorsement after

(10:08):
you publicly were opposing him in that?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, and I do remember that very well. I remember
the morning I watched a news conference where we had
the Director of Public Safety at the time, the new
chief of police at the time, and Mayor Stimpson, and
there was an uptick in violence in the city at
that time. If you look back, there was an uptick
in violence nationally at that time. It was coming out

(10:35):
of COVID and really the message was the judges aren't
working hard enough, they're not having enough court And you know,
for me personally, I took offense to that because I
hoped to come up with a system that allowed district
court to not miss a beat during COVID. We had
to do that. We had to make sure we weren't
overburdening the jail. The jail was having difficulties. But you know,

(10:58):
in district court, if you're as to tomorrow, you have
to see a judge within three days of that arrest period.
There's no you know, there's no exception for COVID. And
I helped to come up with that system. And while
other courts around the state, other courts in our courthouse
remained backlog, District Court didn't have a backlog. After about

(11:18):
October of twenty twenty, we were back on track. And
the message was because judges weren't having enough court, there
were more people committing violence. I found that to be false.
I found that to ignore all the contributing factors that
lead to crime. That was during a time of defund
the police and so there was there were a lot

(11:40):
of things going on in the country, and I felt
like that was unfair. You don't blame, you know, the
catcher for a wild pitch. Right in the end, the
court system is the backstop all the things that happened
before that the court can't affect It can only affect
things once it gets them in its purview. And so
I disagreed publicly. You know, we had a new police

(12:00):
and frankly, I don't think there's much progress to be
made by blame, by laying blame and finger pointing. I
think what the main thrust of my message at that
time was, when's the last time that the chief of
police and the mayor and the sheriff and the judges
got in the same room to at least discuss the

(12:21):
issues we were all facing because the court had an
impossible task at that time. We were still in COVID,
and I know our judges didn't want to bring force
jurors to come down to the building to potentially expose
them to COVID and thus death. You know, we were weighing,
we were balancing that along with the needs and our
duties under the law. And so when's the last time

(12:44):
we talked, when's the last time we got together? When's
the last time we all want mobile to be a
safer place? Why are we pointing fingers at each other
and working against each other? And you know, when you ask,
you know, how do we go from that point? Which
was scary for a young Joe to call out maybe
the last popular guy in town.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, you were, and I remember when I interviewed. I
interviewed you at Greer Saint Louis Market after right after
that occurred, and you you you were talking about constitutional
rights and making sure that everybody's rights were observed in court,
that type of thing. Well, how did you get you
got from a public disagreement that ended up in the
news to now you have his endorsement. Now did you

(13:24):
did you ask him? Did he come to you? How
did that work for the endorsement?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Well, going back to that time, to Mayor Stimpson's credit,
you know, he's a forward looking guy. He wants to
get people on the same page and working in the
same direction. So that disagreement led to us having lunch,
and it led to us sitting down and having discussions,
and it actually led to having the meetings I had proposed.

(13:48):
And he's the one that put those together. I didn't
put those together. He and I worked together to turn
a negative into a positive. Uh. Since that time, the
public safety public, you know, public servants have been getting
together to discuss some of the issues, all above board
things that police can speak to judges about without violating

(14:11):
any cannons. But we got on the same page. And
if you look at that same time period. I know
some people will take credit for the downturn in time,
but if you look from twenty two to twenty three
to twenty four, it has been a precipitous drop in
just about every category of crime. Shootings, gunshot wound assaults.
Those remain far too high for my taste, and that's

(14:33):
certainly what I want to look at going forward. But
that positive relationship was built over years of having these meetings.
I was serving as the presiding district judge, so I
was a part of those meetings. And when it came
time for Mayor Stimpson to announce his retirement, it was
a surprise to me as much as anyone. And frankly,
you know, I felt like the Good Lord put it

(14:55):
on my heart to pursue that, to see where that went.
And so he didn't come to me with the end hoorsement.
He certainly didn't ask me for anything in exchange for
that endorsement. I hear that rumor out there that I'm
supposed to keep all of his people in these things,
but so are you. Will you be You know, I
do think. I think if you agree that the city

(15:15):
is heading in the right direction, there's value in continuity.
When you have one hundred and sixty one hundred and
eighty active projects in your city, turning that entire staff
over completely on day one, we'll set the city back.
It will slow our momentum, and I have no interest
in slow in our momentum. Do I think there will
be changes eventually? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, And it's not

(15:39):
in an effort for me to put my stamp on things.
Is to make sure that we have the best people
doing the best job we possibly can. And with an
organization with twenty one hundred employees, there's going to be changes.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Well, you talked about stats, crime stats going down year
to year to year, but there's still a perception in
town about crime because of public people being shot and
parking lots and grocery store parking lots and things like that.
So how do you battle that? How do you battle
that perception when the numbers are going down but people

(16:11):
still feel like they can't go to the gas station
after dark?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, you know, I look at shooting into occupied homes
as a judge. One thing I did to try and combat.
That is, if you were charged with a commission of
an offense that involved a weapon a gun, I'll put
you on house arrest if I had to give you
a bond, which oftentimes I didn't give those people bonds
because they were already in trouble, there was some reason

(16:35):
not to. But if you were getting a bond, you
were going to be on house arrest, electronic monitoring. You
weren't going to go anywhere but homeschool and work right
other than to see the doctor and your lawyer. You
had to be a home and you had a curfew
even to do those things. I saw that have a
great effect. When you're talking about the shooting crimes in

(16:55):
our city, the hard truth is is the vast majority
of them I would estimate eighty percent are committed by
fourteen to twenty four year olds. Fourteen to twenty four
year old young men before they've reached the age of
mental maturity are out there shooting at the park, you know, shooting,
shooting randomly. And when I think when people think that

(17:17):
mobile has a crime problem, that's exactly what they're thinking of.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
They are they are, hey, we're gonna have to take
a time out. When we come back, we'll continue with
this and talk about that and many other things. As
we continue with Spiro, Chair of Goddess, mayoral candidate here.
Coming up, we've got news headlines, traffic and news from
Fox ten and from Fox Radio, National News, and then
more with Spirit Chair of Goddess here on News Radio

(17:40):
seven ten WNTM, The Uncle Henry Show. Thank you, it says,
The Uncle Henry Show. Here on news radio seven ten WNTM.
We're talking with mobile mayoral candidate Spiro, Chair of Goddess.
What is the most amusing way you've heard your last

(18:04):
name mispronounced? What is your favorite mispronunciation of your last name?

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Question? Great question. It wasn't to me. It was my
grandfather had the same name, speak chair got us and
he was a businessman his whole life, and he had
someone coming in to call on him, I think a
salesman and he was asking for mister Jerry Octopus and
I love that one. I might have to start using
that one as alias, but Jerry Octopus is definitely my favorite.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
And that will be something that I will not forget
for the future. Now, when we went to break in
the last segment, you were talking about when mobilions think
about crime, which is a big topic in the mayor's race,
they think of gun violence between or just violence of
any kind between people the age between fourteen and twenty
four years old. So is there We've already talked earlier

(18:54):
this hour about trying to get all the different efforts
to try to help you on the same page. What
else can we do?

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, youth work programs, things to pour into the youth
at a young age to get them on the right track.
But from a police and standpoint, I think we have
to look at how we utilize our police force. Uh,
if we agree that this is the biggest crime issue
in our city, I think we need a very targeted approach.
From a policing standpoint, the truth is is young people
who are engaged and are gang affiliated. Uh they're not hiding,

(19:26):
you know, they're on Instagram. They're they're showing what they
are doing. And the truth is, our intelligence is pretty good.
We know who these individuals are for the most part,
and we need to focus on them. We need a
you know, we need a gang task force that is
actively going out there and uh, you know, disrupting their
activities in every way we can uh. I'd love to

(19:48):
try and provide pathways out of that life for some
of these young people. Hey, if you want to go
to Bishop State and get a welding certificate and get
to work and get in the workforce, I want to
help you with that. But a lot of people will
tell me where I could take that offer and put
it so, you know, so then I want to be
able to promise them that they'll no longer operate in
the shadows, that we will bring the full weight and

(20:10):
force of the Mobile Police Department and our partner agencies
upon them, and that I'm not going to rest until
I put them behind bars. If they're committed to using
violence to further their mission, well I'm committed to putting
them behind bars. So hopefully they can see the error
in their ways. Hopefully they can live to gain some
wisdom and leave this life behind. The truth is, as

(20:33):
a prosecutor and a judge, I saw people go to
prison for shootings and assaults and worse, and many of them,
you know, get out in ten in fifteen years, and
they don't go back. They get to an age of
mental maturity, they understand risk, danger and consequence, and they
don't want to go back to prison, so they age

(20:54):
out and they do start to build a life for themselves.
I'd like to make help that happen before prison, but
I'm certainly willing to put people there if they're committed
to hurting others. Right.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
One of my favorite topics of all time that I
can't get the rest of the city interested in one
of my favorite topics. But I love talking about potholes
and infrastructure. I think it's great economic development. I think
you attract people in economic development if you have wonderful
streets and sidewalks and drainage and all that kind of stuff.
Any way to improve that, if.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
You're mayor absolutely absolutely, I'm thrilled to hear certain things
that are happening in public works. You know, litter. Litter
is something that drives me crazy, and it is the
image that people hold in their mind of your city.
It's the first thing they see. And we got to
get better on litter. We have to get better on potholes.

(21:45):
I'd like to get better at making sure the manhole
covers aren't such a depression that they almost knock.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Your tire off the car.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
We have to get better at doing some of the
little things right. I had thought about carrying some pothole
repair in the back of my truck and fixing potholes
as part of this campaign. Then I kind of realized,
maybe I get in a little trouble for doing that
and holding up traffic. But I'm not really authorized to
do that. But as mayor, I will be and I'd

(22:13):
like to see a return to a pothole repair crew.
We we have gone back to what they call hand crews,
hand tool crews. I think I'm getting that wrong, but
they're going around and making sure that our water inlet
points on our drainage system are free from debris, bitter

(22:34):
and also just vegetation. We got some real big drainage
issues in our city and they're they're even worse now
than they have been. We're having more critical failures, more flooding.
My house flooded because my street got flooded and my
yard couldn't drain and all the water came into my
back doors. And that's never happened before. And that's happening

(22:56):
around the city. And you know, one of the things
that keeps me up at night is, you know, we
live in a land where big storms are possible, absolutely
and you know, I don't want to talk about them
too much to jinx us, but we've got to make
sure our drainage system is working at optimal levels. I
went out the other day and found one drainage system
near some Marti grass float barns, and there is a

(23:19):
six foot tall island built up in one of them.
There were two alligators a whole you know, ecological system
happening in their fish. I think I saw somebody's beta
fish that might have got flushed a little or wow, okay,
it was very you know, beautifully colored. But you know
that means that our drainage ditches are not operating at

(23:40):
maximum capacity. If they have that level of sedimentation, we've
got to really put our foot on the gas to
get those cleaned out. We can't have our city underwater,
and when you're at zero feet above sea level, that's
a possibility. Always. We used to have pumping stations. We've
given those away for some and many years ago. I

(24:01):
think we need some pumping stations, like every other city
at zero feet above sea level has, so that we
can cut them on when needed. But potholes, smooth and
out roads. I don't make promises. I can't keep in
the other night at a forum, I did promise to
find a way to fix that area of airport, that
beginning of airport where it hits old Government, that is

(24:23):
maybe the roughest stretch of road in this entire town.
I'm going to get after it.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
That is for an infrastructure fan like me, that is
wonderful to hear. Now, we've talked about crime and people
are not feeling safe in the city. We talked about infrastructure.
What are people telling you that they want from a
new mayor, Because you're out there talking to people every day,
what are you hearing other than crime and infrastructure.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, I mean those are two big ones. We can't
ignore those. But looking for ways to improve our educational
outcomes is something I hear often, and you know, I
think we need to be real that education and college
is not the only way to success. I believe in education,
but we have to recognize that the trades, working with

(25:08):
your hands is a real avenue to success. Another thing
people want to talk more about is more opportunities, personal
opportunities in town. That means attracting more industry, more business.
I think the airport opening is going to help us
attract a lot more white collar business if you will.
It's if I'm trying to attract a regional headquarters and

(25:29):
a corporate headquarters to our city. The ability to be
on the tarmac and in a downtown boardroom in ten
fifteen minutes versus an hour or more is a huge attractor.
People want more nightlife.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
People want more nightlife, more nightlife. People want more things
to do. That's what I hear a lot of I
hear a lot of people that want Befest to come back.
I'm interested in that.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
So people want more to do. Now, see the old
timer like me, Mobile looks like there's so much to do,
But you're of a different generation. Y'all want more to
do right.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Well, you know, I think there's a lots to do
with Mobile, I promise you on this campaign trail, I'm
finding a lot of things to do.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Well. The new arena solves some of that because you're
looking for more to do. And when the new arena
comes in and that other development plan for downtail Mobile,
there'll be more.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, I hope. So I think. So, you know, for
the first time since led Zeppelin was touring, we're going
to be able to attract top tier acts in our
country right here to Mobile. I think that's a big deal.
I think that arena is really going to change downtown
in the city for many years to come. I really
want to take a hard look at our riverfront. You know,

(26:39):
we are a city on the water. We are a
city surrounded by water, and it's hard to tell sometimes true.
In order to really activate that waterfront, I think there's
some road changes that need to happen. It's hard to
get across Water Street without feeling like your lice in danger.
I've seen some plans really shrink Water Street, make it

(27:02):
more walkable, and if a tourist someone visiting can just
wander around downtown Mobile and happen to find themselves on
the waterfront, hopefully at a brand new, beautiful hotel development
that's going to the north of the Convention Center, and
then even further down through Riverside Park, Cooper Riverside down
to the Marine Museum.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
All right, we're gonna take a time out and then
have remaining moments here with Mobile mayoral candidate Spiro Was
it Jerry? Jerry Octopus? Jerry back with more in a
moment on the Unk Lanry Show. Hey, If this is

(27:45):
Uncle Henry. I'm on vacation this week. We're about to
finish up our interview with Mobile mayoral candidate Spiro Cheri Goddis.
Yesterday we had a good visit with Mobile mayoral candidate
Paul Prime. Now I would like to interview all the
mayoral candidates. So far, I've not heard back from Connie

(28:07):
Hudson or Barbara Drummond of sent emails to their campaigns.
So if you're involved with the Barbara Drummond campaign or
the Connie Hudson campaign, or you'd like to be on
the Elklanber Show and talk to my listeners, please get
in touch with me. I promise I will not bite
during the interviews or even give dirty looks. Email address

(28:28):
Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia dot com. That's Uncle Henry at
iHeartMedia dot com. And very seriously, I would like to
give all candidates equal time and let them get their
messages out to the voters so people can make their
minds up. Again, the email address Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia
dot com to get your candidate on the Uncle Henry Show.

(28:48):
Now let's finish up our final moments here with candidate
Spiro cherigattis Uncle Henry's show. News headlines coming up in
ten minutes before we get there, we have mobile mayoral

(29:11):
candidate spiritchair Goddess. Now, you are the youngest candidate, and
I know you've noticed. Has it? Has it been really
noticeable to you that you're the youngest candidate.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
You know, I was pretty young when I ran for Judge.
It's I'm used to it at this point. I hope
my youth. I'm forty two. On my knees pop when
I get out of bed, so I don't feel that young,
but my beard certainly getting gray. But I hope it
provides an opportunity for me to serve this city for
a long time, to provide some continuity of service some So,

(29:48):
you know, we've got a lot of issues in our
city that are going to take time to fix, and
I want to be able to lay those plans out
and stick to them and see those things completed. When
you talk about drainage and our roads, love that nature
are going to take time, So I hope I have
the runway to make sure they get fixed well.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
In one of the mayoral forums, you told the Crown
that you're forty two and that you hoped to work
in Mobile for the next forty year.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, forty years, I said, thirty two forty God willing.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Okay, okay, all right, thirty to forty all right, So
you really are seeing yourself as long term working on
this city.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
You know, I've never really wanted to retire. I maybe
dial it back a little bit as I can get
a little older, but you know, having a purpose gives
your reason to wake up in the morning and be
excited to get things done. And yeah, I'd love to
see Mobile finally reach its full potential. That is my goal.
We've been a land of perpetual potential long enough. We've

(30:52):
got the economic base, the financial footing. Is a city
to really go out and attack and achieve that potential.
And I want to see it under fruition. I want
to be a part of that. So, yes, that is
my goal. Thirty forty years.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Okay. If somebody wants to know more about you, find
out more about you, where should they go online to
learn about you?

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, you can find us at excuse me, spiroufromayor dot com,
and you can find us on all the social media Instagram, Facebook,
We're at spirou for mayor generally, if you are in
alabamaa type in Spiro you can find.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Me, Okay, and you're gonna be I'm gonna guess that
you're gonna be out and about a lot between now
and election day. So, but there will be opportunities if
people want to meet you face to face, they can
do it.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Please. Yeah, We've got two great opportunities for that. This
weekend Friday from four to six, we will be at
the Greers there on Dolphin Street.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
But this will air next Thursday. Shoot, okay, so we
can't be I'll edit this and make it pretty okay.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Let's see next Thursday. Yeah. So we have a lot
of forums coming up, certainly, please come to those. Attend those.
You'll hear from all the candidates, and we always take
time to speak to the public afterwards. So please, you know,
come with your questions, come with your concerns. Come to
get a sign. You know, we'd love to get you
a signed get you plugged into our campaign. We're going

(32:15):
to be out knocking doors every weekend, all weekend till
August twenty sixth, for sure.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Hey, we're almost out of time. Here was when you
decided to run? Did you have to sell the idea
to the wife. I mean, was the family all in
on this or or did they wish you'd stay a judge.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah. It was a great conversation with Lucy. I said, hey, honey,
you know I'm feeling called. I feel like I need
to consider this and she said hmm. I said, hmm,
that's all I get. But it was a good hum
and we talked about it. And even though I had
to leave a good job and a good some would
say great retirement behind, she sees the value and having

(33:00):
a good mayor. I think a mayor affects your life
more than probably any other leader aside from a city councilman,
on your daily life. And she's seen what has happened
in Mobile and she wants to see that continue. And
she said, you know, she thought I was the man
for the job. So here I am all right again.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Your website is what.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Is spirofromayor dot com. Find us with that same name
on the socials.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
All right, Spiro Chergatis, thank you for coming in and
talking on the UNC Lenry show.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
My pleasure, Uncle Henry, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
I am going to do something that is a little odd,
a little off, and I have a purpose for it.
Be a little different with Jesse Kelly.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
But here's why I'm doing something I haven't done before
this period of time.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
It's one of the most critically important parts of American history,
really of America's future. Step out of your comfort zone
and step into the future. I believe our future will
depend on what happens now. See Kelly Show weeknights at
seven on News Radio seven ten WNTM.