March 19, 2025 • 29 mins
Carl Bates CEO of the Birmingham BBB talks about scams to watch out for following damage from severe weather, Jeffrey Toobin joins to talk about the power of the Pardon, and Valton Johnson talks about a film festival for at risk youth in Alabama.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Last weekend, we saw some severe weather moved through Alabama,
causing a lot of damage and loss of live Hello,
I'm John Mount and this is Viewpoint, Alabama on the
Alabama Radio Network. Falling storms like that, our state always
pools together and we help one another. But as much
as we like to help, sometimes there are people who
take advantage of that. Joining JT was the president of
(00:22):
the Birmingham Better Business Bureau, Carl Bates.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Carl, welcome in, Thank you for being here. Good morning,
good morning. You know, the worst thing about sometimes tragedy,
obviously the loss of property in lives sometimes is the
aftermath when everybody's hurting, you know, it's open seems it
seems to me that the floodgates of evil open up
and here come the predators trying to take advantage of
(00:44):
people's situations and jumping in there and going here. Just
sign here and I'll take care of everything for you.
Next thing, you know, you're not in really good shape.
What's going on with this?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, during these kind of storms and the aftermaths, we
see a lot of what we call stormchasers, who travel
from storm to storm following this to offer things like
roofing and clean up and other things before you've contacted
your insurance companies. And a lot of times these folks
leave the job undone or they urge you to pay
(01:15):
in cash or write them a check immediately, and you
should be very careful of that. If you've had storm damage,
there's some things you should do to really take care
of it, to make sure you handle it properly and
don't get taken with these scammers.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know, I had a situation years ago myself. It
wasn't after a storm, but it was after some pipes
Jefferson County sewage pipes broke in front of my house
and it clogged things up and it flooded my house.
All that water at Neil's path of Resistance was back
into my house. And this company showed up right in
the middle of everybody coming in. The plumbers were there,
(01:49):
the county people were there. Next thing, you know, here
comes somebody walking up. Hey, we take care of this.
We're kind of like a serve pro. But not only
do we clean up, but we'll really rebuild for you
here and if you say here, we'll get going. Come
to find out, the guy in charge of that they
had attorney General's or attorneys general in number of states
looking for them, and I'm like, man, how does this happen?
I mean, I'm usually aware of these kinds of things,
(02:11):
but anyway, and it up kind of fixed. But yeah,
you got to be how can you double check and
make sure that somebody that's a complete stranger that looks
legit is legit. Well.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Number one, you can look at our website using your
phone or your tablet at BBB dot org. And you
need to make sure these people are licensed in the
state of Alabama to do the work they're offering to do.
The other thing is you need to make sure you
pay them with a credit card, not with a check
or a debit card or cash. And you don't want
to pay before the job is done. You want you
(02:41):
want to pay if the job is done that you're
asking for. And most of us have insurance on our
home or our property. You want to make sure you've
contacted your insurance company, take a lot of photos, get
prepare a little bit for this. And if anybody offers
you a contract that you have to sign, make sure
you read the fine print. We've had multiple people who
have signed away the authorization to an attorney firm they
(03:05):
didn't even realize they were signing to to represent them,
and they still don't have a roof three years later.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Wow. I mean another thing too. Somebody told me one time, look,
get a reference from somebody you know that's used this
contractor you know, get somebody that has word of mouth
been checked out before, that's in the area, that's done working.
Oh yeah, they're legit, especially if it's if it's a
strange organization or somebody nobody can back up saying that
they're good. Probably steer clear.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, you know, references, it's a really interesting thing. I
can't tell you how many times I say did you
get references and the person says yes, And I say
did you call them and check them? And they say,
oh no, I didn't. I figured the list showed that
they did good work. If you get references, make sure
you call those folks and say did they do the
job you asked them to and.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Did they do a good job?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, don't just take the people's word for it. So
it's kind of a buyer beware thing right now. You
know you've had storm damage, it's a lot of pressure
and you want to not make a quick decision that
could cost you down the road.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
One percent, Carl, one hundred percent. So if you're you
know Larry, you got questions, check it out Better Business
Bureau in our area. Carl Bates. Thank you for being
with me. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Thanks JJ.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And welcome back to Viewpoint Alabama. I'm John Mount and
now we're joined by Jeffrey Tube and he's the author
of The Pardon The Politics of Presidential Mercy. Jeffrey, Welcome
to the show.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Hi, John.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
There is so much I want to unpack here because
the pardon has been in the news recently with Donald
Trump making some surprising pardons, and before him, right before him,
we also had the same thing happen with the family
of Joe Biden. So walk us back to how the
pardon even became a thing like the Nicks administration even earlier.
How did it start?
Speaker 6 (04:53):
Well, you know, one of the pardon is an anomaly
in the American Constitution because you know, the Constitution is
based on the concept of checks and balances, and the
pardon has no check and no balance. It is an
absolute power of the president. There's nothing Congress can do
about it. There's nothing the courts can do about it.
(05:13):
Alexander Hamilton, the great Framer, who believed in a strong executive,
was the real backer of putting in putting in pardons.
And it was and and for that reason, because it
is a close to absolute power, I feel, and one
(05:34):
reason I wrote the book is that it operates like
an X ray into the souls of presidents. You can
tell what really matters to them by how they use
the pardon power because no one can tell them what
to do. It's it's it's just their authority.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And when when we talk about this, so you say,
it goes all the way back to Hamilton. Was it
a thing before, like say in olden times in England?
I mean, where do we get the idea of a
head of state can go ahead and pardon anybody?
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Well, you know that's a great question. And I talk
a little bit about this. It goes back to the
birth of the British monarchy. You know, when in the
early days and we're talking, you know, after ten sixty six,
the Norman invasion of England. Once you start having an
absolute monarch, the pardon power is something that went with
(06:30):
it from the very beginning, but also as soon as
you had Parliament starting to assert its power, Parliament started
to worry about that, and the Parliament in the seventeenth
century put some restrictions on the pardon power, most importantly
(06:52):
that the King couldn't pardon anyone who had been impeached
by Parliament and that and that has also gone that
has continued into the Constitution. A president can't pardon, can't
can't end an impeachment with with the pardon, which makes sense,
(07:13):
of course, because in that case he could stop himself
from ever from being impeached simply by pardoning himself.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that kind of takes us to what happened with
Richard Nixon, or I should say, Jerry Ford. When Richard Nixon,
I remember the quote, you know, our long National Night
Mirror is over, and he pardoned Nixon, and I guess
the thinking was, well, this was such a horrible stain
on America here, we're going to go ahead and just
try and move beyond it. But that does bring up
(07:40):
some interesting ties because you know, Gerald Ford, he wasn't
elected at all, right, Nixon's vice president, Spirau Agnew had,
I guess, been removed right before Nixon was removed and
Senator Ford got moved in, and all of a sudden,
you had a situation where a guy wasn't even elected
pardon the guy who had just been impeached. Well, excuse me,
he hadn't been impeached just yet. But I think you'd
(08:00):
agree with me. It was very likely that Hadi not
stepped down, he would have been impeached.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
He certainly, he certainly would have been. And you know,
that was one reason why it was so controversial. It
was also controversial because the pardon power hadn't been used
a lot, especially in high profile cases before in nineteen
seventy four, so people were just shocked by the whole thing.
In addition, right at the time of the pardon, Nixon's
(08:30):
top aides hr Haldeman, John Erlickman, John Mitchell were all
about to go on trial for the Watergate cover up,
which had been led by Nixon himself. So there was
just this tremendous sense of unfairness that the lower level
people were being prosecuted and Nixon was being given a
(08:51):
free pass. And one of the historical debates that you know,
interested me a lot, was, you know, was there a
deal a lot of people thought, well, Nixon and Ford
made a deal. Nixon said, I will give you the
presidency if you give me the pardon.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And Jeffrey I have to say, based on my studies
of Richard Nixon, he might have been a lot of things,
but he is not a crook. I don't believe that
he did that. What do you think was there a
deal or.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
There was no deal. Gerald Ford, who was an honorable person,
would never have made that kind of deal. And he
made the pardon for good motives because he thought it
would help heal the country. I continue to believe that
the pardon was a bad idea, that it didn't heal
the country. It contributed to the impression that powerful people
(09:40):
can get away with things that ordinary people can't. But
I don't question for It's motives in issuing the pardon.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But at the same time, it would have looked unseemly
if the leader of our country, Nixon was regarded as
a good leader by a lot of people during the time.
I mean, he may some major strides in China, and
it would have looked kind of bad if a guy
who was just re elected whose popularity was on an upswing.
That's a lot of actually Trump parallels, and to me,
it would look kind of bad if we turned around
(10:12):
and we threw him in prison.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
You are capturing the nature of the debate. And one
of the interesting things about the Nixon pardon is that
the conventional wisdom has changed over the years. That you know,
it was a very negative thing for Ford. Some people
think it cost him the nineteen seventy six election to
(10:34):
Jimmy Carter. But in later years, even someone like Ted Kennedy,
who was a strong opponent of the pardon in nineteen
seventy four, in two thousand and one gave Ford a
the Profile and Courage Award at the Nixon Library and said,
I was wrong about the pardon, and you were right.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And Jeffery, hindsight, it is always twenty twenty. But I
think there's a lot of people who really wanted to
move move passed it. At least that was the sentiment
in the country in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
You're right that a lot of people believe that it
was a good thing for healing the country.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And let's fast forward to modern times, because we saw
just recently when President Biden was leaving office, he pardoned
a lot of people. He pardoned his family members, he
pardoned all sorts of people preemptively before we even knew
what he was charged with, and which was just.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Like the Nixon pardon, which was also before Nixon was
charged with anything and was an open ended, preemptive pardon.
You know, I thought the Joe Biden pardon of Hunter
was a very disappointing misuse of the pardon power. I thought,
(11:50):
you know, it lies with the Nixon pardon. It contributed
to the impression that powerful people operate under different rules
than the rest of us, and Biden's obsession with his
family again a study of his character came through with
this pardon. In a similar way, Donald Trump's transactional approach
(12:11):
to everything, you know, punishing his enemies and forgiving his friends,
I thought also led him to the mistake in January
sixth Pardons and Jeffrey.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
But we can't really say that just yet because January sixth,
there is a lot we still don't know about the
role that our federal government played in that, as well
as the role that some of the people that were
in the riots themselves played, because I think there were
some people there who were not who they claimed to be.
We'll find out, history will find out, and it's really
too soon to look. But we've really come full circle.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
This thing.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The pardon is absolute, for better or for worse. Jeffrey Tubin,
if you want to find out more about this, his
new book The Pardon, The Politics of Presidential Mercy is
on stands.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Thank you you're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs
program from the Alabama Network.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Joining us now. The Executive Director of Victims of Crime
and Leniency VOCAL is a wander Miller victim herself from
years ago, kidnapped and horrifically sexually assaulted, and has done
great things with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and also
crime Stoppers. And I got to tell you, Wanda, the
work you've been doing since then, you have really helped
(13:21):
a lot of people out and it's time once again
we get some folks in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Here.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Good morning, and welcome in.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Thanks for being here, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So I saw this House Bill forty three, brought by
state Representative Jim Hill, Republican in Moody, and I thought, Jim,
what are you doing? You're a Republican, why would you
put something forth that would allow a judge to split
the sentence of an offender who receives a sense of
thirty years or less. What's going on with us? And
how did this start? And what does it mean?
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Possibly we've been fighting this bill for several years. Represented
to Cale brought it up last year, and he brought
it back once again this year. And you know, JT
what we're here and and we've been to committee meetings,
we've had public hearings. You know, there has to be
some negotiation that goes home. But what we're looking at
here is Class A felonies, the worst of the worst
(14:14):
that the people of Alabama are facing every day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Now, why would he do this? I mean, this is
something to expect from the ACLU or a Democrat, But
he's a Republican. And in the state of Alabama, we're
pretty conservative about how we feel about criminals, especially those
that are convicted of those types of crimes class A felonies.
I mean, if you've got a sense of thirty years,
I mean, you've done something pretty bad. These are not misdemeanors.
(14:39):
And you're right, sometimes you got to plead bargain to
get the guy in jail as opposed to going to
trial and maybe having him escape and walk completely. But
so when you talk about a split sentence, what does
that actually mean.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
What Representative Hill has shared with us is that he
feels very strongly that the judge should have control over
the defendant or the convicted person, rather than that person
being under the control of the albuma board of pardons
and pros. And I believe that what's behind this bill
is that we're trying to eliminate the pro board, And
(15:13):
you know, that's a fight that victims don't deserve to
be in the middle of. Right, What this sentence is
going to mean is that a judge.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Will have the ability.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
To split that sentence and tell that defendant that I'm
going to sentence you to thirty but you're going to
have a ten year base to serve. You're going to
walk out the door of that prison at ten years.
No prole board, no, no victim weighing in on what
the crime's done to them, No, you know, no inclusion
(15:44):
of law enforcement or the public or anyone else to say, hey,
what this person did was really bad and we want
them to serve that thirty year sentence that will be done.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, where's common sense in this discussion, mister Jim Hill.
I don't understand how you could even open up the
are for the possibility of this happening. You're right the judges,
you're wanting them to have their leeway. But the question
is why.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
We've pretty much been standing alone.
Speaker 7 (16:09):
I hope to be able to talk to Steve Marshall's
office today to see where they're at on this bill,
because it's going to go to the floor. And I'm
going to tell you, JT. I talked to a mother
last week, and you know, we don't you know, our
focus what it is and will always be what victims
have gone through, where they're at now, and what they're
(16:30):
going to deal with the rest of their lives because
of something that someone else did to them.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And I had a mother call.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
Me a couple of weeks ago and she said, Miss Miller,
what you're telling me is that my son's life is
worth ten years.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's discussing.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
And I said, yes, ma'am, if this bill passes, it's
going to be worth ten years. And her reply to
me was this in very much common sense. So the
young man that killed my son was twenty two years old.
He could walk out of prison at thirty two. Look,
and my son will know will forever be gone.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
You know, No, I'm not in favor of that at
all whatsoever. And I can't imagine most people would be
in favor of that. You know, there are earthly consequences.
Forgiveness is one thing, but you've got to have consequences
for your actions. And if you're a violent criminal of
murder and kidnapping and rape and you know, bigger crimes
like that, then you know, Sorry, split sends. I don't
(17:29):
like it. So what can people do listening to help
not let this thing go through down there? Montgomery?
Speaker 7 (17:36):
Well, the one thing that I would ask your listeners
to do is to reach out to their senator and
to let them know how they feel about this split
sentence bill.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
House Bill forty three.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
It's going to probably hit the floor this week, and
we just need senators to know that people in the communities.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Are not in favor of this. Yeah, we need to
if we're.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
Looking for another tool, we need to sit down and
find a different way, because what we're doing is we're
taking another break out of that wall and we're going
soft on crime. Yeah, instead of being tough on crime. Well,
and that's not a good thing.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I want to stay in touch with you and see
how this goes. Wanda. Let's catch up later in the week.
If something happens in the meantime, you know, reach out
to me and we'll stay on top of this. I'm
gonna get Steve Marshall on to talk about it as
well and spread the word that this house built forty
three does not need, you know, to be put in
place here. This is just awful. Well, Wanda, thank you
so much. I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you for
(18:33):
being with me.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
Thank you, j T. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Joining us now. Valton Johnson, who is one talented guy,
but he is also tied to the Magic City two
o five Youth Film Festival. Valtin, welcome in.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
How about that voice right there. You might recognize it
the voice of Horizon Wireless years ago. That's right. So
you're you're a jack of all trades. You do a
lot of things in Birmingham, a businessman, a preacher, a
great voice, guy and just a fun to be around.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
You're very kind. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, tell us about the Magic City two of five
Youth Film Festival. Not to be confused with a sidewalk
that's a difference. But this involves young.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
People, absolutely does so for the last three years, and
in fact, March twenty fourth through the twenty eighth, we
will start our fourth annual Dundrel Heights Youth Film Camp, Okay,
and that's where we bring students into the YEMCA Youth
Center downtown and we teach them all things film, screenwriting, acting, voiceover, ballet,
poetry and things of that nature. And this year we
(19:31):
will have a stunt acting class, so we have a
stunt actor coming from Atlanta to teach our students stunt acting.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
This opened to kids all all around Alabama, right absolutely,
and kids come in from out of town. I would
imagine this.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
They do from Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, all over the place.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
How do people get involved with that? If somebody's listening,
they want their kids going well, they like that.
Speaker 8 (19:52):
They can call two zero five three seven zero seven
eight zero five two zero five three seven zero seven
eight zero five.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Is there a website?
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Yes, there is a TRIPLEW dot Cinematic Creations dot Agency
and all the information is there where you can register
your child and it's from grades three through twelve.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Talk to me about the Magic City two of five
Youth Film Festival.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
Well, the camps dovetail into the festival. This is our
first year inaugural Magic City two of five Youth Filmfestival,
and we're asking all youth from grades four through twelve
to create their own film five minutes short. It's what
we call nice and we have the genres outlined on
the website, primarily because we didn't want anything to be offensive. Drugs,
(20:37):
games and sex and violence and things of that nature.
So you can go to youthfilmfest dot org and get
all the genres in the dates in which we'll have
the event, which will be June twenty ninth in the
Birmingham Business District. All films that are submitted will be
curated through eighth grades will have a category because we
(20:58):
didn't want the fourth grades compete with twelfth graders because
the maturation is different, and the ninth through twelfth grade
would have a session.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So when is the deadline to get their short films?
Speaker 8 (21:10):
In April thirty thirtieth, I believe it, okay, well thirtieth,
all right, and it will be It's also on the
website as well. And I will tell you this. There
is a admission fee or submission fee for the film,
but I'm going to abate that now. Right now, we're
going to counsel. You're having to pay to submit your film,
because typically when you submit a film to a festival,
(21:32):
you have to pay to get a submitted. Don't worry
about the costs. Moms and dads, aunties and uncles, grandma
and grandpa. Your children can submit their film for free.
I like this, yes, because what I'm noticing is that
our children are doing things on TikTok. Why don't we
create an avenue and some space for them to do
it professionally.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's a great idea than you think. How long is
the class has been going on that you, you know, teach.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
Yeah, so that's a great question. The film camps have
been going on for three years and.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
They're going good. I would imagine absolutely.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
This is our fourth annual coming up next week March
twenty fourth.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Man, I tell you this is fantastic. Well, thank you,
thank you. When it gets closer, I want to have
you back. You talk about how the camp's going, and yeah,
maybe bringing a couple of kids.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
I could do that. I can do that. And in fact,
I will say this our camps, we generally have someone
from the Tyler Perry Show to come in and teach acting.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Oh so you got pros.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Yes, So in June we will have some of the
actors come and make presentations.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Will you bring Tyler in here with you too? Well,
I will try I will try well. Valven once again
the website real quick for folks to find out more
about it.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
Youthfilmfest dot org is the Youth Film Festival, and Cinematic
Creations dot agency is the youth camp.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Very good, Valvin Johnson, great to see.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Me joining us once again. The president of the Alabama
Policy Institute, Stephanie Smith, is back to take a look
at some of the salaries around our Department of Education
here in Alabama and also the potential of what President
Trump's I guess demolishment of the Federals you know, school
system is going to do to us here in Alabama. Stephanie,
(23:15):
welcome back in Thanks for being here.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Good morning, JT. Glad to be back on.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I tell you I got in the wrong business here.
I should have gone to be a superintendent and where
Eric Mackey making about three hundred and eight thousand dollars. Now,
I get not bad if he can get the gig,
and I understand he what's a what eighty thousand dollars
year raised?
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yeah, he's asking for a fifty five percent raise. Wow,
that's that's one of those things. You know, a lot
of people ask me pretty regularly why I think public
policy is so important, and this is one of those things,
because what happens is the system creates this push toward retirement.
(23:52):
The strategy is get your salary as high as you
possibly can right before you leave or retire, and then
you're pension is off of your highest years. Yes, and
so that's why you see people kind of at the
end of their career pushing for fifty sixty seventy percent
raises so that they can get their pensions up. But
(24:13):
what's missing in a lot of these conversations is that
these are taxpayer dollars. These these are people who are
making minimum wage or checking us out at Walmart paying
for the salaries of people making three hundred and four
hundred thousand dollars a year on our dime.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, and it's public information as well, you can look
it up anywhere. They are state employees. My brother in
law is actually superintendent of Tuscaloosa City Schools. He's not
making three hundred and eight thousand dollars, I'll take you that,
but you know, they all do well. In fact, there's
a lot of people in our Alabama State Department of
Education who are making you know, six figures and it's
(24:49):
not uncommon. So when you're kind of looking at this, Stephanie,
and you're kind of like an Elon musk Doze looking
into how much money we're spending here in our government.
And when you look at these numbers, do you anticipate
that this could change with what's happening our national Department
of Education and all the cleaning up and wasteful spending
(25:10):
that's going on.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because what's happening in DC
is creating a hyper focus on what is happening in
state budgets, which from my perspective is fantastic. So, you know,
we launched the outdose program that we've talked about last December,
and this report is something from that. You know the
fact that two hundred and nineteen State Department of Education
(25:33):
employees zero of which are in a classroom or have
interaction with children, are making over one hundred thousand dollars
a year. There are questions there, and so you know,
you have the federal Department of Education being slashed in half.
Those aren't school teachers, you know that are getting the
pink slip. Those are middle managers and administrators of which
(25:55):
we need. But the question is, you know, are we
spending our money wisely as especially on the education side,
and is having so many administrators really benefiting children and
teachers frankly in the classrooms because that money is just
not getting to them.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Now, who approves this? Is it our legislature that approves
these salaries?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
So the Department of Education is actually governed by the
state Board of Education. So the voters vote for the
state Board of Education members, and then they in turn
hire the superintendent of schools, and then the superintendent of
schools hires underneath him. So there's several layers of bureaucracy there,
(26:35):
and then that repeats itself in every city, in every
county that has.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
A school system.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Now, again, you need administrators, You need people to set
the tone, You need somebody to be in charge. So
don't hear me wrong, But I think that when most
people pay their income tax or pay their taxes in
the state of Alabama, when it goes to public education,
they're not trying to pad the administrative function and they
(27:00):
want that money to go to classrooms, to supplies, to
put more teachers in the classrooms. And you know, we
had just have a bloating of administrative costs and also
just these exorbitant salaries that are way out of the
main street from normal Alabamians.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, our tax dollars go into Montgomery and somebody down
there is in charge of saying, Okay, here's what we're
going to allocate for the education budget. And I would
assume that all these numbers were talking about are part
of the education budget. Correct, yes, okay, yes, Now with
that said, is there not pressure from the voters in
Alabama to kind of you know, hey, hey, hey, little
heavy there on the top end. With this money that's
(27:38):
going on, why not redirected? So if they brought you
in and Stephanie are sitting at the conference table there
and you're being asked, how would you change things? And
where are the you know, the salaries, you know, where
can they be to be more in line of what
voters would approve and agree to. What would you do
first to kind of get the ship righted back up
(27:59):
where you think it needs to be.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I would do exactly what they're what Elon Musk and
President Trump are doing in DC, which is I would
first do an analysis of the Department of Education, see
what they're actually doing, what they're accomplishing, and see if
there's the possibility of you know, slighting slicing that thing
in half. You know, the fact that they have so
(28:21):
many employees in Montgomery and then also across the state
with very few results is something that taxpayers should ask
that question. There should be accountability to the taxpayers for
every single one of those dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
How much, say does Governor Ivy have to you know,
say that she can get that to be done.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Well, she's the chair of the school board by virtue
of position, so she can lead in that area. And then,
as you mentioned rightly, so all of these, all of these,
all of this money, all this taxpayer money is allocated
by the legislature, so they can't spend a dollar on
anything in any classroom. And then all the way up
(29:01):
the chain to Eric Mackie without that allocation from those
education budgets, and so we have education budget chairs and
every single legislator votes for the education budget, and so
there should be a microscope, you know, taken to exactly
where that money is going and making sure that the
money is filtering down to actually educating our kids because
(29:24):
that's what the education dollars are meant for.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Well, it's great to catch up with you. Keep up
the good work, and we'll stay on top of this
and follow through and see where it ends up as
the session, you know, moves forward. Here, President of the
Alabama Policy And Stephanie Spient, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Stephanie, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
JJ you've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs
program from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on
Viewpoint Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management,
or advertisers of this station.
Last weekend, we saw some severe weather moved through Alabama,
causing a lot of damage and loss of live Hello,
I'm John Mount and this is Viewpoint, Alabama on the
Alabama Radio Network. Falling storms like that, our state always
pools together and we help one another. But as much
as we like to help, sometimes there are people who
take advantage of that. Joining JT was the president of
(00:22):
the Birmingham Better Business Bureau, Carl Bates.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Carl, welcome in, Thank you for being here. Good morning,
good morning. You know, the worst thing about sometimes tragedy,
obviously the loss of property in lives sometimes is the
aftermath when everybody's hurting, you know, it's open seems it
seems to me that the floodgates of evil open up
and here come the predators trying to take advantage of
(00:44):
people's situations and jumping in there and going here. Just
sign here and I'll take care of everything for you.
Next thing, you know, you're not in really good shape.
What's going on with this?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, during these kind of storms and the aftermaths, we
see a lot of what we call stormchasers, who travel
from storm to storm following this to offer things like
roofing and clean up and other things before you've contacted
your insurance companies. And a lot of times these folks
leave the job undone or they urge you to pay
(01:15):
in cash or write them a check immediately, and you
should be very careful of that. If you've had storm damage,
there's some things you should do to really take care
of it, to make sure you handle it properly and
don't get taken with these scammers.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know, I had a situation years ago myself. It
wasn't after a storm, but it was after some pipes
Jefferson County sewage pipes broke in front of my house
and it clogged things up and it flooded my house.
All that water at Neil's path of Resistance was back
into my house. And this company showed up right in
the middle of everybody coming in. The plumbers were there,
(01:49):
the county people were there. Next thing, you know, here
comes somebody walking up. Hey, we take care of this.
We're kind of like a serve pro. But not only
do we clean up, but we'll really rebuild for you
here and if you say here, we'll get going. Come
to find out, the guy in charge of that they
had attorney General's or attorneys general in number of states
looking for them, and I'm like, man, how does this happen?
I mean, I'm usually aware of these kinds of things,
(02:11):
but anyway, and it up kind of fixed. But yeah,
you got to be how can you double check and
make sure that somebody that's a complete stranger that looks
legit is legit. Well.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Number one, you can look at our website using your
phone or your tablet at BBB dot org. And you
need to make sure these people are licensed in the
state of Alabama to do the work they're offering to do.
The other thing is you need to make sure you
pay them with a credit card, not with a check
or a debit card or cash. And you don't want
to pay before the job is done. You want you
(02:41):
want to pay if the job is done that you're
asking for. And most of us have insurance on our
home or our property. You want to make sure you've
contacted your insurance company, take a lot of photos, get
prepare a little bit for this. And if anybody offers
you a contract that you have to sign, make sure
you read the fine print. We've had multiple people who
have signed away the authorization to an attorney firm they
(03:05):
didn't even realize they were signing to to represent them,
and they still don't have a roof three years later.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Wow. I mean another thing too. Somebody told me one time, look,
get a reference from somebody you know that's used this
contractor you know, get somebody that has word of mouth
been checked out before, that's in the area, that's done working.
Oh yeah, they're legit, especially if it's if it's a
strange organization or somebody nobody can back up saying that
they're good. Probably steer clear.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, you know, references, it's a really interesting thing. I
can't tell you how many times I say did you
get references and the person says yes, And I say
did you call them and check them? And they say,
oh no, I didn't. I figured the list showed that
they did good work. If you get references, make sure
you call those folks and say did they do the
job you asked them to and.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Did they do a good job?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, don't just take the people's word for it. So
it's kind of a buyer beware thing right now. You
know you've had storm damage, it's a lot of pressure
and you want to not make a quick decision that
could cost you down the road.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
One percent, Carl, one hundred percent. So if you're you
know Larry, you got questions, check it out Better Business
Bureau in our area. Carl Bates. Thank you for being
with me. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Thanks JJ.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And welcome back to Viewpoint Alabama. I'm John Mount and
now we're joined by Jeffrey Tube and he's the author
of The Pardon The Politics of Presidential Mercy. Jeffrey, Welcome
to the show.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Hi, John.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
There is so much I want to unpack here because
the pardon has been in the news recently with Donald
Trump making some surprising pardons, and before him, right before him,
we also had the same thing happen with the family
of Joe Biden. So walk us back to how the
pardon even became a thing like the Nicks administration even earlier.
How did it start?
Speaker 6 (04:53):
Well, you know, one of the pardon is an anomaly
in the American Constitution because you know, the Constitution is
based on the concept of checks and balances, and the
pardon has no check and no balance. It is an
absolute power of the president. There's nothing Congress can do
about it. There's nothing the courts can do about it.
(05:13):
Alexander Hamilton, the great Framer, who believed in a strong executive,
was the real backer of putting in putting in pardons.
And it was and and for that reason, because it
is a close to absolute power, I feel, and one
(05:34):
reason I wrote the book is that it operates like
an X ray into the souls of presidents. You can
tell what really matters to them by how they use
the pardon power because no one can tell them what
to do. It's it's it's just their authority.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And when when we talk about this, so you say,
it goes all the way back to Hamilton. Was it
a thing before, like say in olden times in England?
I mean, where do we get the idea of a
head of state can go ahead and pardon anybody?
Speaker 6 (06:07):
Well, you know that's a great question. And I talk
a little bit about this. It goes back to the
birth of the British monarchy. You know, when in the
early days and we're talking, you know, after ten sixty six,
the Norman invasion of England. Once you start having an
absolute monarch, the pardon power is something that went with
(06:30):
it from the very beginning, but also as soon as
you had Parliament starting to assert its power, Parliament started
to worry about that, and the Parliament in the seventeenth
century put some restrictions on the pardon power, most importantly
(06:52):
that the King couldn't pardon anyone who had been impeached
by Parliament and that and that has also gone that
has continued into the Constitution. A president can't pardon, can't
can't end an impeachment with with the pardon, which makes sense,
(07:13):
of course, because in that case he could stop himself
from ever from being impeached simply by pardoning himself.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And that kind of takes us to what happened with
Richard Nixon, or I should say, Jerry Ford. When Richard Nixon,
I remember the quote, you know, our long National Night
Mirror is over, and he pardoned Nixon, and I guess
the thinking was, well, this was such a horrible stain
on America here, we're going to go ahead and just
try and move beyond it. But that does bring up
(07:40):
some interesting ties because you know, Gerald Ford, he wasn't
elected at all, right, Nixon's vice president, Spirau Agnew had,
I guess, been removed right before Nixon was removed and
Senator Ford got moved in, and all of a sudden,
you had a situation where a guy wasn't even elected
pardon the guy who had just been impeached. Well, excuse me,
he hadn't been impeached just yet. But I think you'd
(08:00):
agree with me. It was very likely that Hadi not
stepped down, he would have been impeached.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
He certainly, he certainly would have been. And you know,
that was one reason why it was so controversial. It
was also controversial because the pardon power hadn't been used
a lot, especially in high profile cases before in nineteen
seventy four, so people were just shocked by the whole thing.
In addition, right at the time of the pardon, Nixon's
(08:30):
top aides hr Haldeman, John Erlickman, John Mitchell were all
about to go on trial for the Watergate cover up,
which had been led by Nixon himself. So there was
just this tremendous sense of unfairness that the lower level
people were being prosecuted and Nixon was being given a
(08:51):
free pass. And one of the historical debates that you know,
interested me a lot, was, you know, was there a
deal a lot of people thought, well, Nixon and Ford
made a deal. Nixon said, I will give you the
presidency if you give me the pardon.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And Jeffrey I have to say, based on my studies
of Richard Nixon, he might have been a lot of things,
but he is not a crook. I don't believe that
he did that. What do you think was there a
deal or.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
There was no deal. Gerald Ford, who was an honorable person,
would never have made that kind of deal. And he
made the pardon for good motives because he thought it
would help heal the country. I continue to believe that
the pardon was a bad idea, that it didn't heal
the country. It contributed to the impression that powerful people
(09:40):
can get away with things that ordinary people can't. But
I don't question for It's motives in issuing the pardon.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But at the same time, it would have looked unseemly
if the leader of our country, Nixon was regarded as
a good leader by a lot of people during the time.
I mean, he may some major strides in China, and
it would have looked kind of bad if a guy
who was just re elected whose popularity was on an upswing.
That's a lot of actually Trump parallels, and to me,
it would look kind of bad if we turned around
(10:12):
and we threw him in prison.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
You are capturing the nature of the debate. And one
of the interesting things about the Nixon pardon is that
the conventional wisdom has changed over the years. That you know,
it was a very negative thing for Ford. Some people
think it cost him the nineteen seventy six election to
(10:34):
Jimmy Carter. But in later years, even someone like Ted Kennedy,
who was a strong opponent of the pardon in nineteen
seventy four, in two thousand and one gave Ford a
the Profile and Courage Award at the Nixon Library and said,
I was wrong about the pardon, and you were right.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And Jeffery, hindsight, it is always twenty twenty. But I
think there's a lot of people who really wanted to
move move passed it. At least that was the sentiment
in the country in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
You're right that a lot of people believe that it
was a good thing for healing the country.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
And let's fast forward to modern times, because we saw
just recently when President Biden was leaving office, he pardoned
a lot of people. He pardoned his family members, he
pardoned all sorts of people preemptively before we even knew
what he was charged with, and which was just.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Like the Nixon pardon, which was also before Nixon was
charged with anything and was an open ended, preemptive pardon.
You know, I thought the Joe Biden pardon of Hunter
was a very disappointing misuse of the pardon power. I thought,
(11:50):
you know, it lies with the Nixon pardon. It contributed
to the impression that powerful people operate under different rules
than the rest of us, and Biden's obsession with his
family again a study of his character came through with
this pardon. In a similar way, Donald Trump's transactional approach
(12:11):
to everything, you know, punishing his enemies and forgiving his friends,
I thought also led him to the mistake in January
sixth Pardons and Jeffrey.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
But we can't really say that just yet because January sixth,
there is a lot we still don't know about the
role that our federal government played in that, as well
as the role that some of the people that were
in the riots themselves played, because I think there were
some people there who were not who they claimed to be.
We'll find out, history will find out, and it's really
too soon to look. But we've really come full circle.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
This thing.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The pardon is absolute, for better or for worse. Jeffrey Tubin,
if you want to find out more about this, his
new book The Pardon, The Politics of Presidential Mercy is
on stands.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Thank you you're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs
program from the Alabama Network.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Joining us now. The Executive Director of Victims of Crime
and Leniency VOCAL is a wander Miller victim herself from
years ago, kidnapped and horrifically sexually assaulted, and has done
great things with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and also
crime Stoppers. And I got to tell you, Wanda, the
work you've been doing since then, you have really helped
(13:21):
a lot of people out and it's time once again
we get some folks in the right direction.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Here.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Good morning, and welcome in.
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Thanks for being here, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So I saw this House Bill forty three, brought by
state Representative Jim Hill, Republican in Moody, and I thought, Jim,
what are you doing? You're a Republican, why would you
put something forth that would allow a judge to split
the sentence of an offender who receives a sense of
thirty years or less. What's going on with us? And
how did this start? And what does it mean?
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Possibly we've been fighting this bill for several years. Represented
to Cale brought it up last year, and he brought
it back once again this year. And you know, JT
what we're here and and we've been to committee meetings,
we've had public hearings. You know, there has to be
some negotiation that goes home. But what we're looking at
here is Class A felonies, the worst of the worst
(14:14):
that the people of Alabama are facing every day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Now, why would he do this? I mean, this is
something to expect from the ACLU or a Democrat, But
he's a Republican. And in the state of Alabama, we're
pretty conservative about how we feel about criminals, especially those
that are convicted of those types of crimes class A felonies.
I mean, if you've got a sense of thirty years,
I mean, you've done something pretty bad. These are not misdemeanors.
(14:39):
And you're right, sometimes you got to plead bargain to
get the guy in jail as opposed to going to
trial and maybe having him escape and walk completely. But
so when you talk about a split sentence, what does
that actually mean.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
What Representative Hill has shared with us is that he
feels very strongly that the judge should have control over
the defendant or the convicted person, rather than that person
being under the control of the albuma board of pardons
and pros. And I believe that what's behind this bill
is that we're trying to eliminate the pro board, And
(15:13):
you know, that's a fight that victims don't deserve to
be in the middle of. Right, What this sentence is
going to mean is that a judge.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Will have the ability.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
To split that sentence and tell that defendant that I'm
going to sentence you to thirty but you're going to
have a ten year base to serve. You're going to
walk out the door of that prison at ten years.
No prole board, no, no victim weighing in on what
the crime's done to them, No, you know, no inclusion
(15:44):
of law enforcement or the public or anyone else to say, hey,
what this person did was really bad and we want
them to serve that thirty year sentence that will be done.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, where's common sense in this discussion, mister Jim Hill.
I don't understand how you could even open up the
are for the possibility of this happening. You're right the judges,
you're wanting them to have their leeway. But the question
is why.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
We've pretty much been standing alone.
Speaker 7 (16:09):
I hope to be able to talk to Steve Marshall's
office today to see where they're at on this bill,
because it's going to go to the floor. And I'm
going to tell you, JT. I talked to a mother
last week, and you know, we don't you know, our
focus what it is and will always be what victims
have gone through, where they're at now, and what they're
(16:30):
going to deal with the rest of their lives because
of something that someone else did to them.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And I had a mother call.
Speaker 7 (16:36):
Me a couple of weeks ago and she said, Miss Miller,
what you're telling me is that my son's life is
worth ten years.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's discussing.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
And I said, yes, ma'am, if this bill passes, it's
going to be worth ten years. And her reply to
me was this in very much common sense. So the
young man that killed my son was twenty two years old.
He could walk out of prison at thirty two. Look,
and my son will know will forever be gone.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
You know, No, I'm not in favor of that at
all whatsoever. And I can't imagine most people would be
in favor of that. You know, there are earthly consequences.
Forgiveness is one thing, but you've got to have consequences
for your actions. And if you're a violent criminal of
murder and kidnapping and rape and you know, bigger crimes
like that, then you know, Sorry, split sends. I don't
(17:29):
like it. So what can people do listening to help
not let this thing go through down there? Montgomery?
Speaker 7 (17:36):
Well, the one thing that I would ask your listeners
to do is to reach out to their senator and
to let them know how they feel about this split
sentence bill.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
House Bill forty three.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
It's going to probably hit the floor this week, and
we just need senators to know that people in the communities.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Are not in favor of this. Yeah, we need to
if we're.
Speaker 7 (17:57):
Looking for another tool, we need to sit down and
find a different way, because what we're doing is we're
taking another break out of that wall and we're going
soft on crime. Yeah, instead of being tough on crime. Well,
and that's not a good thing.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I want to stay in touch with you and see
how this goes. Wanda. Let's catch up later in the week.
If something happens in the meantime, you know, reach out
to me and we'll stay on top of this. I'm
gonna get Steve Marshall on to talk about it as
well and spread the word that this house built forty
three does not need, you know, to be put in
place here. This is just awful. Well, Wanda, thank you
so much. I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you for
(18:33):
being with me.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
Thank you, j T. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Joining us now. Valton Johnson, who is one talented guy,
but he is also tied to the Magic City two
o five Youth Film Festival. Valtin, welcome in.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
How about that voice right there. You might recognize it
the voice of Horizon Wireless years ago. That's right. So
you're you're a jack of all trades. You do a
lot of things in Birmingham, a businessman, a preacher, a
great voice, guy and just a fun to be around.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
You're very kind. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, tell us about the Magic City two of five
Youth Film Festival. Not to be confused with a sidewalk
that's a difference. But this involves young.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
People, absolutely does so for the last three years, and
in fact, March twenty fourth through the twenty eighth, we
will start our fourth annual Dundrel Heights Youth Film Camp, Okay,
and that's where we bring students into the YEMCA Youth
Center downtown and we teach them all things film, screenwriting, acting, voiceover, ballet,
poetry and things of that nature. And this year we
(19:31):
will have a stunt acting class, so we have a
stunt actor coming from Atlanta to teach our students stunt acting.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
This opened to kids all all around Alabama, right absolutely,
and kids come in from out of town. I would
imagine this.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
They do from Tuscaloosa, Greensboro, all over the place.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
How do people get involved with that? If somebody's listening,
they want their kids going well, they like that.
Speaker 8 (19:52):
They can call two zero five three seven zero seven
eight zero five two zero five three seven zero seven
eight zero five.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Is there a website?
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Yes, there is a TRIPLEW dot Cinematic Creations dot Agency
and all the information is there where you can register
your child and it's from grades three through twelve.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Talk to me about the Magic City two of five
Youth Film Festival.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
Well, the camps dovetail into the festival. This is our
first year inaugural Magic City two of five Youth Filmfestival,
and we're asking all youth from grades four through twelve
to create their own film five minutes short. It's what
we call nice and we have the genres outlined on
the website, primarily because we didn't want anything to be offensive. Drugs,
(20:37):
games and sex and violence and things of that nature.
So you can go to youthfilmfest dot org and get
all the genres in the dates in which we'll have
the event, which will be June twenty ninth in the
Birmingham Business District. All films that are submitted will be
curated through eighth grades will have a category because we
(20:58):
didn't want the fourth grades compete with twelfth graders because
the maturation is different, and the ninth through twelfth grade
would have a session.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So when is the deadline to get their short films?
Speaker 8 (21:10):
In April thirty thirtieth, I believe it, okay, well thirtieth,
all right, and it will be It's also on the
website as well. And I will tell you this. There
is a admission fee or submission fee for the film,
but I'm going to abate that now. Right now, we're
going to counsel. You're having to pay to submit your film,
because typically when you submit a film to a festival,
(21:32):
you have to pay to get a submitted. Don't worry
about the costs. Moms and dads, aunties and uncles, grandma
and grandpa. Your children can submit their film for free.
I like this, yes, because what I'm noticing is that
our children are doing things on TikTok. Why don't we
create an avenue and some space for them to do
it professionally.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's a great idea than you think. How long is
the class has been going on that you, you know, teach.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
Yeah, so that's a great question. The film camps have
been going on for three years and.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
They're going good. I would imagine absolutely.
Speaker 8 (22:05):
This is our fourth annual coming up next week March
twenty fourth.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Man, I tell you this is fantastic. Well, thank you,
thank you. When it gets closer, I want to have
you back. You talk about how the camp's going, and yeah,
maybe bringing a couple of kids.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
I could do that. I can do that. And in fact,
I will say this our camps, we generally have someone
from the Tyler Perry Show to come in and teach acting.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Oh so you got pros.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Yes, So in June we will have some of the
actors come and make presentations.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Will you bring Tyler in here with you too? Well,
I will try I will try well. Valven once again
the website real quick for folks to find out more
about it.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
Youthfilmfest dot org is the Youth Film Festival, and Cinematic
Creations dot agency is the youth camp.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Very good, Valvin Johnson, great to see.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Me joining us once again. The president of the Alabama
Policy Institute, Stephanie Smith, is back to take a look
at some of the salaries around our Department of Education
here in Alabama and also the potential of what President
Trump's I guess demolishment of the Federals you know, school
system is going to do to us here in Alabama. Stephanie,
(23:15):
welcome back in Thanks for being here.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Good morning, JT. Glad to be back on.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I tell you I got in the wrong business here.
I should have gone to be a superintendent and where
Eric Mackey making about three hundred and eight thousand dollars. Now,
I get not bad if he can get the gig,
and I understand he what's a what eighty thousand dollars
year raised?
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yeah, he's asking for a fifty five percent raise. Wow,
that's that's one of those things. You know, a lot
of people ask me pretty regularly why I think public
policy is so important, and this is one of those things,
because what happens is the system creates this push toward retirement.
(23:52):
The strategy is get your salary as high as you
possibly can right before you leave or retire, and then
you're pension is off of your highest years. Yes, and
so that's why you see people kind of at the
end of their career pushing for fifty sixty seventy percent
raises so that they can get their pensions up. But
(24:13):
what's missing in a lot of these conversations is that
these are taxpayer dollars. These these are people who are
making minimum wage or checking us out at Walmart paying
for the salaries of people making three hundred and four
hundred thousand dollars a year on our dime.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, and it's public information as well, you can look
it up anywhere. They are state employees. My brother in
law is actually superintendent of Tuscaloosa City Schools. He's not
making three hundred and eight thousand dollars, I'll take you that,
but you know, they all do well. In fact, there's
a lot of people in our Alabama State Department of
Education who are making you know, six figures and it's
(24:49):
not uncommon. So when you're kind of looking at this, Stephanie,
and you're kind of like an Elon musk Doze looking
into how much money we're spending here in our government.
And when you look at these numbers, do you anticipate
that this could change with what's happening our national Department
of Education and all the cleaning up and wasteful spending
(25:10):
that's going on.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because what's happening in DC
is creating a hyper focus on what is happening in
state budgets, which from my perspective is fantastic. So, you know,
we launched the outdose program that we've talked about last December,
and this report is something from that. You know the
fact that two hundred and nineteen State Department of Education
(25:33):
employees zero of which are in a classroom or have
interaction with children, are making over one hundred thousand dollars
a year. There are questions there, and so you know,
you have the federal Department of Education being slashed in half.
Those aren't school teachers, you know that are getting the
pink slip. Those are middle managers and administrators of which
(25:55):
we need. But the question is, you know, are we
spending our money wisely as especially on the education side,
and is having so many administrators really benefiting children and
teachers frankly in the classrooms because that money is just
not getting to them.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Now, who approves this? Is it our legislature that approves
these salaries?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
So the Department of Education is actually governed by the
state Board of Education. So the voters vote for the
state Board of Education members, and then they in turn
hire the superintendent of schools, and then the superintendent of
schools hires underneath him. So there's several layers of bureaucracy there,
(26:35):
and then that repeats itself in every city, in every
county that has.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
A school system.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Now, again, you need administrators, You need people to set
the tone, You need somebody to be in charge. So
don't hear me wrong, But I think that when most
people pay their income tax or pay their taxes in
the state of Alabama, when it goes to public education,
they're not trying to pad the administrative function and they
(27:00):
want that money to go to classrooms, to supplies, to
put more teachers in the classrooms. And you know, we
had just have a bloating of administrative costs and also
just these exorbitant salaries that are way out of the
main street from normal Alabamians.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Well, our tax dollars go into Montgomery and somebody down
there is in charge of saying, Okay, here's what we're
going to allocate for the education budget. And I would
assume that all these numbers were talking about are part
of the education budget. Correct, yes, okay, yes, Now with
that said, is there not pressure from the voters in
Alabama to kind of you know, hey, hey, hey, little
heavy there on the top end. With this money that's
(27:38):
going on, why not redirected? So if they brought you
in and Stephanie are sitting at the conference table there
and you're being asked, how would you change things? And
where are the you know, the salaries, you know, where
can they be to be more in line of what
voters would approve and agree to. What would you do
first to kind of get the ship righted back up
(27:59):
where you think it needs to be.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
I would do exactly what they're what Elon Musk and
President Trump are doing in DC, which is I would
first do an analysis of the Department of Education, see
what they're actually doing, what they're accomplishing, and see if
there's the possibility of you know, slighting slicing that thing
in half. You know, the fact that they have so
(28:21):
many employees in Montgomery and then also across the state
with very few results is something that taxpayers should ask
that question. There should be accountability to the taxpayers for
every single one of those dollars.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
How much, say does Governor Ivy have to you know,
say that she can get that to be done.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Well, she's the chair of the school board by virtue
of position, so she can lead in that area. And then,
as you mentioned rightly, so all of these, all of these,
all of this money, all this taxpayer money is allocated
by the legislature, so they can't spend a dollar on
anything in any classroom. And then all the way up
(29:01):
the chain to Eric Mackie without that allocation from those
education budgets, and so we have education budget chairs and
every single legislator votes for the education budget, and so
there should be a microscope, you know, taken to exactly
where that money is going and making sure that the
money is filtering down to actually educating our kids because
(29:24):
that's what the education dollars are meant for.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Well, it's great to catch up with you. Keep up
the good work, and we'll stay on top of this
and follow through and see where it ends up as
the session, you know, moves forward. Here, President of the
Alabama Policy And Stephanie Spient, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Stephanie, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
JJ you've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs
program from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on
Viewpoint Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management,
or advertisers of this station.
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