Jonathan Pearson for Hamilton County Commissioner

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
It is your Channel nine's first warning weather forecast. It's
gonna beautiful day to day. I'd like low sixties temperatures.
That's we're gonna get sunny skies in sixty one for
the high thirty five over ninety clear skies, sunny and
sixty five tomorrow even better then over nine down to
forty four with partly thirty skies any partly sunny Game
Day Sunday with the highest seventy two forty four. Right now,
let's hear about Travis editions Chuck.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
From the UCL Tramphings Center.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Count on the expert team at you See Health Orthopedic
Sands Sports Medicine. No matter the injury, same day appointments
are available schedule online at you see health dot com.
Bothbound four to seventy one is blocked off in two
seventy five, all due to the problems on the bridge.
All the entrance rams from Southgate from Grand, from Memorial
and Bellevue all blocked off because of the closure. Southbound

(00:49):
four seventy one is blocked coming out of downtown. Chuck
Abram on fifty five krc the talk station.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
A twenty nine fifty five KRCD talk station and a
very happy Friday too.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
I hope you have some good plans for the weekend.
I'm excited about that Vets and Bruce Bus next Saturday.
I sure hope I can make it to one of
the bars anyhow. In studio, we only had a whole
hour with Adam Kahler at seven oh five. He's running
for county commissioner, and so is my next guest in studio,
Jonathan Pearson. Great to have you back. It's always good
to see you. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate time. I
appreciate you making the effort to come in. It's much

(01:23):
easier to have a conversation with someone when you're staring
a man in the face. Of course, you have motivations
for running for county commissioner, and Adam express quite a
few different ones, most notably just the whole concept of
having an alternative political voice, because if you get a
different point of view. Obviously it's run by Democrats now,

(01:43):
but we tend to have different political philosophis Republicans and Democrats,
and it seems to me that they're getting further and
further apart. But if I had to really peg generally speaking,
you know, this is not a free pass for all
people who label themselves Republicans. But I think Republicans tend
to look at politics and budgets from a fiscal responsibility
an efficiency standpoint. We want smaller government, and the government

(02:07):
that we have we want to be very efficient. That
doesn't seem to be the mindset of Democrats across the board,
and Adam was pointing that out. Listen, if I just
got or a Republican on commission, they at least have
a dissenting voice, which would raise the level of the
public's awareness that an issue is even being discussed, because
right now we got nothing.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
No, there's no transparency that I've told every news outlet
I've talked to. I said, I'll come to you every
Friday and we'll talk about what went on. I love
that because it's, first of all, we don't have any
nuclear secrets in this county, so there's nothing secret. That's
what I've never understood. There's nothing secret. You want to
know what the sheriff makes here it is. You want

(02:48):
to know what the deputies make here it is. You
want to know what the commissioners and their workers make
here it is. And I think that's been the challenge.
It was nice to see in the paper the other
day that there was a number that finally freaked out
the commissioners to say no, a billion dollars from So
we do know that there is a number out there.
It's only a billion, but it's a starting point only

(03:10):
you know, a billion here, a billion there. Eventually we'll
talk about real money.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, exactly, like a thirty five trillion dollars budget or
debt with a trillion dollar annual debt service.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
You know that.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
And I think that's the challenges from the Democrats standpoint.
They don't see tax dollars as the people's money. They
see the tax dollars as their money. So if you
actually say we're not going to raise the budget this year,
they call it the budget cut. And that's the difference
between a Republican and a Democrat. We don't see it
as a budget cut. What we see it is returning

(03:40):
money to the people, just as the tax dollars the rollback.
Why isn't that permanent? And first of all, why do
we have to put it in there to bribe you
to get some more money to build a stadium. That
always bugged me, that was a bribe, flat out bribe.
It was, and unfortunately people fell for it. And typical
of oys once once a tax is made, never comes back. Well,

(04:02):
we've got to stop this mentality. We're not bribing the
people to make them give us money. That seems ludicrous
in the first place, plus insulting. Let's do a right
budget that people go. I can agree with that.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, and similar and I keep bringing up Adam Kaylor,
but comparable positions. You know, let's go line by line.
Let's get the taxpayer and explanation, like if they're paying
ten thousand dollars a year and taxes, let's show me
exactly what percentage is going where. And then let's look
at each individual office government of course or under the

(04:34):
commissioner's you know control or within their reach, and look
at each one and see, you know, the world's a
different place. And he mentioned artificial intelligence can be used
as streamline processes, you know, maybe pair back some of
the employees in the county or otherwise give them something
more fit, more, something better to do that would cheer
them up. But I know there's waste. Oh, you know

(04:57):
there's waste. Well, here's what I always say.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
If there's a lack of transparency, you have to question
why I don't care who we're talking about. You know,
if there's a lack of transparency and the communications of
a parent to a child, let's even go that mundane.
But especially when you're talking to government to the people,
you have to be a little concerned when there's a
lack of transparency. You just have to be because why,

(05:20):
it's it's not their money, it's it's our money. It's
the people's money that people have a right to know.
And so Adam and I are in the same page.
We're on the exact same page and looking at that budget,
we're on the exact same page about letting people know
where that money's going so that there's not a question.
And our goal is to set up in such a
way that it's going to be really hard to do

(05:41):
something stupid with the money.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
I love that. I love it.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
And of course, with your open door policy and your
promise to the press that you'll show up every week
explaining what has gone on the preceding week, that that
is a unique idea that has not been embraced by
someone in politics before. It just seems that no one
is ever willing to do that or all Alternatively, if
it is happening, there's no local reporter there to even
hear what you're saying, and I think that may be

(06:06):
more of a problem.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
It's a position that's paid well at the very least,
if you're being paid by the people, you should probably
talk to the people.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
What's a complicated prosle concept, Jonathan Pearson. If you want
information about Jonathan where he stands on issues, go to
Hamilton County Republican Party dot org and he's got his
own page right there Jonathan Pearson twenty twenty four. Should
be really easy to find it, or alternatively, do what
I did. Jonathan Pearson, j jo n A Thha and

(06:35):
Pearson's typing that a county commissioner. It'll pop right up
on your search engine. We'll continue with Jonathan. It's Ay
thirty five here, stay right around at fifty five KCD
talk station fifty.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Five car the talk station. Have you heard about this guy,
Donald Rainwater.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Here's your Channel nine first morning weather forecast. Pretty nice
day to day, plenty of sun, high sixty one, clear
of a night down to thirty five each tomorrow with
the highest sixty five. Get us some clouds over Saturday
night and drop to forty four partly sunny day on Sunday,
maybe a shower chance anyhow, and I have seventy two
forty four degrees right now.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Let's get an update from Chuck. What's going on brother from.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
The UCLP Traffics Center down on the expert team at
you See Health Orthopedix sand Sports Medicine. No matter the injury,
same day appointments are available schedule online at you see
health dot com. Northbound fourth seventy one and southbound fourth
seventy one are both blocked off at the bridge thanks
to an overnight fire underneath the bridge. They've blocked off
the traffic on northbound four seventy one at two seventy five.

(07:38):
That's making for a slow go over to the Double
A Highway inbound seventy four. They just cleared their reck
at seventy five. Chuck Ingramom fifty five KRC the talk station.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Hey, thirty eight fifty five kr CD Talk station, A
very happy Friday to you. Don't forget fifty five kr
SEA dot com. Get your uh iHeart Media f so
you can stream the audio and check out the podcast
anytime you want. Really valuable information from Dave Hatter This
Morning Tech Friday, as is always the case, full hour
with Adam Kahler running for Commissioner. We had Matt Damaris
on the Vets and Bruce Love that Organization, and Jonathan

(08:11):
Pearson in studio. He's also running for Commissioner on a solid,
open door, open book platform because he wants to know
the information and as a taxpayer, you should too, or
at least if you want it, you should be able
to get it. You know, you were talking about that
they refuse to provide information. They're not open with the books.
Where do the money go? Specifically? They talk in platitudes

(08:33):
and generalities about where the money is being spent, but
not you know, specifically. You don't reminded me of all
these House committees looking for information, and they preside over
and are responsible to the American voter for what Department
of Justice, the FBI, any of the lettered agencies does,

(08:53):
and those agencies basically raise a metaphorical, if not real,
middle finger to the request for information from the people
who were in charge and responsible for looking out for us.
It's kind of a it's a uniquely bizarre, yet it
widely embraced concept.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
That well, I think part of The problem is that
we see on the left that they're driven by emotion,
and so you speak from emotion first, and you don't
always write that stuff down, at least not accurately.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Let's say it that way. You vote money the same way.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
You just go, oh, let's take care of this problem,
without considering how much that problem costs. And so you
just say yes to these things, and then when somebody
ask you, why did you do this?

Speaker 5 (09:36):
How much did you spend?

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Honestly, I do believe there are many people on the
left who honestly can't answer that question truthfully because they
don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Well, you could probably say the same thing on the right,
because if we ask for it, and it's a commission
governed by all Democrats, then the right's not going to
get the information.

Speaker 4 (09:52):
You know. Yeah, that's a great challenge, and that's why
we're sitting here in this kind of staring at the
wall moment, and everybody's going and then when something stupid
does happen, which we've seen of late, there's just a
rewrite of what actually happened.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
That and of course a lost opportunity to get ahead
of the problem. Right, having an open conversation about the
best practice for solving the problem or even identifying if
whatever it is that's brought up is a problem in
the first place. Yeah, I mean, we all love our parks,
but if they ask for a levee, is it just
simply you know, we're gonna, oh my god, if we
don't pass the levee, the parks are going to close

(10:26):
down at.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
This way double the library levee. And they didn't even
need it.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, I know, but you can get.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Your if you work there, you can get a sex
change and for free.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
Now apparently so sex change simps.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
There's a library where at Sims Township on Enyard. It's
in Hamilton County, and it's perfectly fine. The building is beautiful.
They're going to knock it down and build a new
one and move it back. And you know why they're
knocking down a perfectly good, beautiful building. They say there's
not enough parking right there. And I thought to myself,

(11:01):
there is a huge front yard. It's just like, you know,
a third acre of grass pave it. What is that
going to run the esthetics of the library Because you
have parking all around the library as opposed to just
on the left hand side. I just heard that yesterday.
I couldn't believe it, but that's going to be millions
of dollars.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
But when tax dollars are involved, unfortunately, people don't see
the number. They just see the idea and say, let's
do it.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
All right, let's pivot over to something that is very controversial,
considering we got that shaft the first time around, the
pay Course stadium lease and the obligations under the lease,
which is going to expire unless the Bengals exercise their
right to extend it, which they can do multiple times.
So we're either going to get a brand new lease
deal or that one's going to be extended and will

(11:49):
still be subject to the original terms of conditions which
obligate the taxpayers of Hamilton County to make some improvements.
Last bill I heard was one point three or two
billion dollars.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Billion was just for the upgrades around it. That didn't
include the roof that you know.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Oh, that the dome is is, that's that's gone.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, that was going to be a total and two
point three billion if you put the dome over it.
So we're not getting it done.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
But the challenge that we face in all of this
is one of those things is having some luxury apartment
or offices so the Bengals can have their own separate
office building outside of that building.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
That's see, and I would argue that's not part of
the stadium upgrades.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
That's well, you can see. There's a lot of things
I look at and go, wait a minute. Because the
Bengals play ten games a year, great for them, it's
great for the community when they play the games here
and they come in great. But that's ten out of
three hundred and sixty five days. What's going on with
the stadium the other three hundred and fifty five days?
Why does the county not control it the other three

(12:46):
hundred and fifty five days. We gave away the farm
on that first lease, right, and so mine is simple.
Let's go back and remember and remind everybody that the
county owns the stadium. We call it pay Corps Bengal Stadium,
but it's the county. It's Hampling Counties Stadium. We build it,

(13:06):
we own it.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
And so I think we had to share the royalties
with the Brown family with the.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Paid Corps naming.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
We need to remember, you know whose it is, and
you know there's nothing wrong with leasing something to a
private entity.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
We do that.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
In many cases, government and private unities do work together.
But the fact that we act as if we have
no control. We can't say anything because they get to
pick when the dates are that something comes in and
uses it. And so we miss all these opportunities because
we can't use a stadium because we effectively we gave
control away to the family. And I don't understand that.

(13:41):
I have to admit I'm I'm a little jaded by
that because I've said before without sounding wrong to a
lot of people, but not one brick at the PNG
Towers downtown was bought by the county. So I think
that we need to start to reconsider what is it
we're actually doing here. And I think that this gets
into back if sports is always emotional, it is to fans.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
I mean, let's be honest.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
As a fan, there isn't a logic while we're a
fan this this year, the Bengals are not giving us
a reason to be a fan. Yet, why are people fans?
It's emotional, nothing wrong with that, but we have to
stop for a moment in that emotion and set aside, lodge,
you know, step into logic and go Okay, let's look
at this, Let's look at this reasonable, Let's look at
this honestly and say, Okay, we're leasing this to an

(14:26):
NFL team which is worth billions, and we get very
little in return percentage wise, What exactly is wrong with this?

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, and moving away from the emotional angle of sports,
take emotion out of it, and consider any project where
you're asking the taxpayers to front the bill the money
and played back then it was what twenty five years
ago was four hundred and fifty million dollars, and that
obviously today would be more like two billion or three
billion the way they're building these stadiums these days. But

(14:55):
if you took it outside of the realm of sports
and just say, well, we're going to spend three billion
dollars in taxpayer money on any one facility that will
only be used ten times a year, and you would
be Everybody would look at you. You would act like
you were just backcrap insane. We'll pause. Would be one
more back with Jonathan Pearson for kent Ellen County Commissioner.

(15:18):
It's a forty six right now, stay right here at
fifty five KRC DE talk Station, fifty five KRC dot
Com eight at fifty five kr C the talk station Happy.

Speaker 6 (15:34):
Friday, Geezes, say.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
It out loud, Joey.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
In spite of the chaos, political division, insanity, s it
can be a wonderful world, just depends on where you're looking.
And that's an Bruice proved that with Matt Damaris earlier on.
We were going to have a wonderful time next Saturday.
Everybody's invited to join any of the one of the
breweries we're going to be stopping off at, so make
sure you check it all out aty five care Sea
dot com. And in the meantime, we've got Jonathan Pearson
in house talking Hamilton kind of issues. So we dealt

(16:16):
sort of kind of with the pay Course stadium. The lease,
which is I think right now being discussed and negotiated
with the current commissioner made up.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
I mean, at least there is a level of understanding
even in the current mix of like maybe we shouldn't
be given the farm away.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, And I guess the least though that limits the
use and availability of the stadium to whatever conditions in
terms of Brown Family decides. Back to your point on
that giant facility only be used about ten times a year.
It's the idea that it also requires these upgrades. It's like,

(16:56):
keep it up with the Joneses. I mean, honestly, I know,
Riverfront Stadium wasn't the greatest place to sit. It was cold.
I was there for the Freezer Bowl. I left it
halftime like a sane person should have. But you know
it worked. There was a football field, there were bathrooms,
not the nicest ones in the world, but you know
what it functioned. This is a currently functioning stadium. I mean,

(17:20):
I'd seen the grand scheme of things. Twenty five years old.
Isn't that long. Can you imagine if we upgraded every
building after twenty five years and added all new amenities,
literally every building, what the overall costs would be? And
then you have to step back, as commissioner, is it
even really necessary? So I know the contract says it is,
and the contract already says we as taxpayers have to

(17:43):
pay for it at least a certain percentage, but there's
no is it necessary component going on in there?

Speaker 4 (17:49):
Well, I think a level of Again, this gets us
back to the emotion. In sports, we get more caught
up in the emotion than we do logic and so
we look at things saying it has to be pretty,
has to be this, it has to be that, And.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Does the average fan give a rip about how the
locker room looks?

Speaker 4 (18:06):
Well, how many of us remember going to a football
game a deal at Old Knippart when you know, if
you tripped, you were four hundred steps down on the field,
if you were up at the top.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Especially if you were slinging that Schnopps bag.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
You know, well, you know when they charge you a
buck to get in the game and the quarter for beer. Yeah,
a lot of people had a hard time navigating steps.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
I went there in the eighties.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
So yes, I did too. That's right.

Speaker 4 (18:28):
I'm laughing about it because how many of us sat
there and go, gosh, this game would be so much
nicer if the stadium was nicer.

Speaker 5 (18:35):
Well, none of us thought that.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Thought it was fun.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
It was. It was fun, And I think that's it's
the infamous.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
You know, football is made to be played in mud football,
you know, that type of mentality and and a.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Sort of rug it outdoors. The attitude like if you
you if you go to the freezer ball you stick
it out, you're a real man, or you sucked it up.
In the name of the fans, and I was there
for the whole thing. So but I think that's the problem.
We went past that nostalgic This is fun, you know.
I feel the bite the weather, I feel the mud
in my face type of thing too.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
Oh, this is a sanitized game. It's clean. We've got
to have everything prim and proper.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
The seats need to be solved, all the walkways need
to be perfectly this and that.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
The beers need to be twelve thirty dollars a pop.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
I think we forgot to look at it from a
logic standpoint again, you know, I know, because see I
always remind people that the Commissioner's office is the most
boring important job in the county, and the boring part
is the logic side. We have to stick to logic.
There is not a motion in money, and that's the problem.
We put a motion of money and then we start
doing stupid things with it.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
And let's finally depart and talk a little before we depart,
rather talk about I have no idea. I haven't heard
anything written about it for a while. The whole situation
between the county and the city in terms of the
sewer systems and the uh, well, thatsent degree.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
And all that.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
You know, we didn't have a choice, we had those
systems have to be split. So Northern Kentucky's going through
the same pain that we're going through, just a little
less dollars, but same exact problem.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
And I will not argue that people basements are being
flooded with sewage.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Obviously it needs to be fixed.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yeah, Well, when you have metro sewer says you know,
here's a thousand bucks fix your basement, but they do
it to the same family ten twenty times. At a
certain point you have to say, maybe there's a problem
in the sewer system. So there was a problem in
the sewer system. The challenge is how do you put
in a storm drain next to a sanitary's sewer system

(20:24):
without completely disrupting every single neighborhood involved. And so from
a practical standpoint, that's almost impossible. Yeah, from a money standpoint,
it costs a fortune. And the problem is in that fortune,
how much of that is being well managed? And I
honestly don't know those numbers to tell you how well
they are being managed. And that's one of the things
I've said, and my thing I would I would sit

(20:46):
down with those in the charge of this every single week.
I would talk to the subcontractors at least every week,
if not every other week. And people say that's a
lot of work. Again, the commissioners are paid, I help.

Speaker 6 (20:58):
Well.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
I wish we'd remind pe people they're paid showing up
at a ribbon cutting and showing up an other things.
I don't care, you know, as I told tell people,
I said, I got married when I was handsome enough
to attract my wife. It doesn't matter anymore. She thinks
I'm still handsome. My kids think I am too. I
don't need to impress anybody with my good looks because
I don't have them anymore. So I can get away
with not going to ribbon cutting, but I can still

(21:21):
show up to talk to the contractors. And that is
what we're paid for as commissioners, is to do the job.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Imagine that logic and reason and a man worth voting
for Jonathan Pearson.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
You got Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Up until Tuesday, you can early vote, cash your vote
for Jonathan and.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Let's have a better path. Andy.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Obviously, if you and Adam Kaylor both got elected into
hammil Can commissioners, the level of transparency I see. I
think is guaranteed you're both on the same page. You're
both fiscally responsible, and you both know there's money that
can be found and saved through a thoughtful, thorough analysis.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Jonathan, I wish you the best of luck.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
I can't thank you enough for showing up today and
talking to my listenership about these important matters.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
If you didn't get a chance to listen tech Friday
with Dave Hatter, I mentioned Adam Keayler who's institute for
an hour seven oh five with that podcast fifty five
krs dot com. That's in Bruce. You got the the
bus cruising around next Saturday. The bus is full, but
you can join the festivities at one of the three
breweries that they'll be stopping Tough in special effort to
get Vietnam veterans there. So please if you can participate

(22:23):
and have a fun time doing it, smile on your
face and a beer hoisted in the name of veterans,
and of course my conversation here with Jonathan Pearson Monday
with the Smither event and of course money Monday.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
I hope you have an absolutely wonderful weekend and don't
go away because lend Beck will be right.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Up your twenty twenty four election headquarters.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
Every voter should be asking whether America can survive four
more years.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Of fifty five KRC, the talk station.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
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