Scott's flung here seven hundred other You know, most people you want about the insides of seven hundred to be at the work here. I'm learning something new about my predecessor here, the morning man, Tom Brenneman, Tom and h Tom Brenneman. He really likes to stay hydrated. He has two giant Yetti mugs in here. Each one of these mugs, by the way, forty eight ounces. He has two of them ninety six ounces of fluid, and they're both empty. In a what he's in He's in here for four hours,
five hours. That's a lot of liquid. Tom has a stupendous bladder. I'm going with that. Hopefully it's not all coffee, because that's a lot of coffee. Man, Almost one hundred ounces of Coffee's a lot of coffee, and in that short of sitting. Nonetheless, I ain't judging. I ain't judging. We got some news here in solving the city of
Cincinnati and the battle of our security cameras. As you know, they allotted in the fall one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for security cameras are supposed to go up, and of course, did we have security cameras know around the park where the eleven year old girl was killed on New Year's Day at Laurel Playground, and of course two years prior, same thing where told cameras will go up and they did not. And city Council is doing a deep dive on this. And joining the show this morning
would be council member Mark Jeffries. Welcome, Mark, how are you.
I'm doing well, Thanks Scott.
Do you think one.
Hundred ounces of liquid in a five hour period is excessive?
I have that. Let me tell you. I wake up at before the morning, I have a bunch of coffee. My dad is Dutch. I think they're the most. They drink the most coffee of any people. So I'm a four to five cups coffee person today, so I have no problem with that.
But yeah, but one hundred ounce that's not four or five cups, it's forty or fifty.
Cups a lot. That's a lot.
Damn.
Let's say he's like his own. This bladder's like its own separate dunkin Donuts. For crying out loud, let's get into the security camera issue. You guys have met about this. I know folks in the West End communit leaders are a little skeptical about whether increased surveillance selects of reduced crime in the neighborhood. But at least you know I have you have eyes in the skies, you can apprehend people,
maybe making people think twice about this. As you investigated and exhausted this, I think a lot of people are frustrated, going, well, we gave you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You had millions and millions that we're going to spend on public safety, and we're supposed to have cameras in and nothing happened. How can you put in a context what occurred here not just on New Year's Day, but two years previously when another young person was murdered.
Yeah, a couple things on this, Scott. So, First, the folks in the West End actually want cameras, and there's Pastor Legley Jones and African American leader. She has been leading an effort to put cameras in more areas. So people there, I don't care where you live in the safety you want in the city. You want safety, period. So we did allocate the money. What we have a commitment now from Chief Henny about two weeks ago was at least six of the twelve camera's been put up
already in the West End. He put a temporary one up immediately right after the shooting. So he has those, he has a commitment to fix ninety nine total or implement ninety nine total within a month. And so I think we're about two weeks out from that and he's putting the pedal to the metal. Really appreciate his leadership to make it possible. This is like you said, it's eyes on the ground. It doesn't prevent it may not prevent the crime. It may somebody who's like, oh crap,
I might get caught. They may me twice. Yeah, so they don't know where it's at. And not just the West End. We need these in Price Hill, We've had incidents in Pryce Hill. We need them around the city. Eyes on the ground.
Yeah, And you know, as I put in the context here, to me, it's not about I don't think it's going to stop someone who's hell bent on mayhem, because yeah, let's face it, these murderers, these thugs are out there. They ain't thinking twice about anybody else but themselves. And to think that they'll go, well, there's a camera there, they may second, get shooting someone saves.
This is probably not gonnappen.
But what it does is it gives us a better opportunity to get those people off the streets and behind bars one.
One hundred percent. I mean, I think people who might be stealing something might think twice yeah, yeah, yeah, that kind of who's shooting somebody? It really doesn't give give.
Not at all.
I mean, we got people driving like not. We had Bengals players driving like knuckleheads, two hundred miles an hour up and down the street.
There's cameras all over there. They don't care about it. So I don't know if that'll do it.
But again, justice for these two babies, because you know, good luck finding the person who actually fired the shots there without the help of cameras as well. So all right, does that give constituents and Mark Jefferies a little bit more peace of mind because you're going on, wait a minute, you know two years ago he said put cameras, and we got money for that. We just you know, you have like five million dollars for more more security and
Cincinnati bigger police budget. We just had another one hundred and fifty thousand doves for cameras and people are going, well, where's the damn cameras? How can you assuage people's fears but also give them confidence that we're actually going to move ahead and do what council said they're.
Going to do.
I think we kudos to Interim Chief Henny who said I will get this done in four weeks. And I think when the four weeks are up, we say, okay, have we done it? Yeah? And it's little steps like that where we build trusts that you have to do what you say you're going to do. And so about two weeks from now, we're going to be at that clock and we need to look at it and say, Okay, we implemented what we agreed that we would.
I'll circle back because you know, I was speaking the money and Greg Lansman just got what over a million dollars to expand the surveillance system. So there's even more cash flowing in now.
Yep, no much needed.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a good thing. I know, more cameras up is going to help law enforce and do their jobs. It's not going to stop a knucklehead or some a sociopath, hell bet on murdering someone and you know, spring bullets are not carrying that. One finds an eleven year old girl who's doing nothing but enjoying the first day of the new year in a park, regardless of what time of day it is. That's just it's intolerable.
It's what that is. There's something else going on.
I think this is interesting because the key to maybe stopping some of this crime anyway is getting them young and get them interested in other things, something to do a distraction. We've known for a while that youth football teams in Cincinnati there's been issues obviously playing at CPS fields with crime and speaking of violence and the like. But it's also extremely cost prohibitive because the team has to foot the build out and for the run of
the field, but also security. In a lot of youth football teams don't have the budget, don't have the means to be able to do that stuff, and that is certainly an urban problem that you don't have in suburban rural areas. That said, though, I like the idea that the city is thinking about opening a few fields.
Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, look, youth football, it's, as you know, it's about teaching discipline, teamwork, resilience. It's about giving kids structure, purpose, a place to belong and the lessons the kid learns in there. It's about accountability, leadership, and that outlasts any of the games, right, and so we know that those are life lessons, and especially kids, you want to keep them out of trouble from a disadvantaged background or a family. We want to put them
to a productive activity. We have dedicated baseball fields in part thanks a lot to the Reds. We have dedicated soccer fields, thanks in large part to f C Cincinnati. We don't have any dedicated youth football fields, so we asked the city to hey, look with since I wreck commission at different fields where it might be possible. We also have the police academy down in Lower Price. OK about if you have a game literally right outside of
a police academy, that's as safe as he gets. So we need to identify these fields to give kids an opportunity. I mean, every kid deserves a access to safe, positive programs in youth football, you know, no matter where they live.
I know that Spinny Field is under consideration, as is the Old Mercy site in Westwood.
Do you have any other sites picked out that may be open to this.
Yeah, that's one the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, and we were looking at that. You could probably host two games at a time. They're the other piece of it is we want a area that's secure. In other words, it's got a perimen around it, you know, so folks have to go through security and you know, and that also allows Look, these are all volunteers. All the people who do this,
they volunteer their time to coach these kids. They take money out of their own pocket pay for equipment, and you know, they try to recoup some of that cost through admission tacts and parents come and that's more difficult if you have an open field. And so those are some of the criteria.
Yeah, no, that makes sense, and you get you know a few of them anyway, and we know that there's a direct line between reducing crime powered all those things. If you can keep kids engaged in school, in doing well, or in extracur sports, they tend to not behave as badly because they're involved in those things.
We know that to be a fact now.
And expanding those programs you mentioned the Reds, you mentioned FC Cincinnati A the Bengals open.
Have you approached them yet I have been talking to the Bengals Scott for about a year and a half. I have asked them repeatedly to invest in If you think about the Reds, it's over a million a year. I say Cincinnati's over a million a year. The Bengals did donate thirty thousand dollars in equipment. I've been pushing them, like, do split the pot for having's sakes? I know in Saint Louis they do split the pot, you know, I mean you don't have to fund anything. You literally it's
all funded, half of which by the fans. And that could really help a lot of the youth sports. And so I've been pushing them. I think, you know, it should be something that they invest in. It's investing in their fan base, investing in the community, investing in these kids who a lot of whom might become future football players. So I've been encouraging that and hopefully continue to push to make that possible.
Have they been receptive to hearing that or is it lipser? I mean a year and a half a long time.
I have had several meetings with them, living with folks in the youth football, and they keep saying that they're looking at it. I'm hopeful that you know, I mean to the to my point, you even don't have to donate money of your own pocket split the pot. You know, you have all the games. You could probably at least get two hundred and fifty thousand plus dollars from that and then invested right back in your sports. So I'm
continuing to push. I think it should be their obligation, as you know here in the city, to invest in youth football.
Mark Jeffreys, are you calling out the Bengals right now?
I am asking for their help to be the partner that they need to be in the community.
I'd say you're calling them out, and you know what, I say, Good for you pushing on.
This for a year and a half, and I believe in pushing the private but at some point, like come on, guys, everybody else does.
And the thing is, they never bowed to public pressure. They do they want to do, and that's that's the team. You can't tell them what they want to do with their own money. But but hold on just a second. We know that Charlie Frank and the Red's Community Fund, I think it's the platinum standard in Major League baseball. I've talked to Charlie and he's going. He goes to other cities. I ran him in the airport I think last year, and he was off to Boston to consult
them on how to expand their community involvement. And so the Red's Community Fund that the mission there is to raise all this money to build youth urban the Urban Acabinet, all these youth fields and everything else, and they're involved FC and Jeff Birding saw this and said, you know what, that's a great thing to reinvest in our community because they get a lot of heat because they're expanding in
the West End. You know, there's the Brian Garry's the world that they're screaming about, you know, gentrification and running poor people out of the neighborhoods. All want and good, but you know, there's no tax base. They're bringing the tax money back in is going to pay dividends. And then of course when you do things like this where you have you know, urban but also suburban soccer leagues.
You know, you soccer in the area surrounding Cincinnati's massive and FC partnering and opening those fields and getting training programs together for young people pays dividends not just for the community and the kids, but also for the team itself because you have built in fans and then at some point the Reds and FC hopefully have young people that wind up playing soccer or baseball and wind up playing for the hometown team. That's a great story. So
those teams are doing it. The Bengals are not. And the question would be it can't possibly be because of money. It's not a money issue. I wouldn't think, or maybe it is, but those two programs I mentioned pay for themselves, so they're almost They're self funded, is what they are. And it's good for the brand, it's good for the team, it's good for the community. Our other two major leagues sports are doing it.
The Bengals won't one hundred percent.
You said it better than I could, Scott. I mean, look, at minimum, they should be doing something like book the pot that doesn't cost them a penny a penny out of their pockets. At minimum. I think it should be something that can more to what FC Cincinnati and the Reds do. And you know, I've been pushing on that and you know will continue to push on it because I think it's the right thing to do.
Mark Jefferies.
You know the other thing too, is we just built agreed to a taxpayer expense to redo pay Course Stadium. It's going to cost Hamlin County commissioners approved what four hundred and seventy million dollars for renovation, and that's about seventy four percent the Bengals, the NFL, and the hook for twenty six percent. Hamlin County is going to pick up seventy four percent. It's a lot better than the
deal we had last time around the nineties. But when you look at other stadia around the NFL, that's not even I mean, there's some stadiums that are forty or percent or more funded by the team, not the Bengals. So they're taking money from Hamlin County and taxpayers. You think maybe a little kickback, if you want to call it that, to the kids, to the youth, to maybe build a couple of football fields. I don't know, what's
that going to cost? A million dollars out of three hundred and fifty million dollars out of the billions at the Bengals raake in seems like it's not that high a bar for them to jump over. We're talking I mean, you know, FC is doing it and MLS money, I'm sorry, is nothing compared to NFL money, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, I think at minimums got they should commit to five hundred thousand, which would help operating costs for that's like equipment for these kids. We need to make sure these kids are the right equipment right. You know, if you have a helmet that doesn't sit, you know, can get a concussion. And these are little pee week kids, you know, five six, seven years old. We've got to make sure that the kids are safe, they have the right equipment, we have coaches for them, all those security,
operating costs and build in the fields. I think they should commit to funding at least happening million, which is not it's a drop in the bucket. Yeah, it's not what even what the Reds or FC does, but it's definitely progress. And if we can get them to commit to that, I think, you know, our kids and they would be better offward.
Now it's good for the community too.
You can't force someone to spend money on something that I want to, but the option is because they are terrible. Considering we just approved another contentious stadium deal and the team is terrible. You think you'd want to do something to make me lift your image up, unless, of course you don't care, and then that would mesh of course with things like not taking the snow off the seats during a playoff game and everything else that's going on
down there. So I don't know what drum they beat beat the beat of the drum they listened to is you got me? And much smarter people than myself have tried to answer that question and failed. So I look at this as going the Bengals. I think calling them out is a good thing. Have you talked to it all to the county commissioners because the deal was struck not by the city but the county relative to funding
the stadium with taxpayer money. Is this something the county and the city can partner with to try and get the Bengals to maybe cooperate a little bit better.
Yeah, I have. I know that the county there's still a community benefits agreement that they're negotiating with the Bengals. So I'm not in not pervy on what those negotiations, but I have encouraged this be a part of that, and so hopefully as part of that community benefits. Agree as the county's negotiating with them, I have encouraged investment in youth football in particular, it could be a part of them.
Do you need a contract to do this? I mean, may hear go?
Okay, the negotiating a deal and the community impact all this stuff. Should they just do it because it's the right thing to do.
Oh, of course, Scott. But you know it's not happening. So you know some things that are happening. My you know, when I was seventeen years of P and G, like, my belief is you he's only a private You try to encourge them in doing that.
Yeah, and now you're going to publicly shame them. So and sometimes that works.
You know when you're not you're not doing it, then come on, let's let's let's push on all angles.
Yeah all right, te here's a council member, Mark Jefferies, really putting it out there for us, a smarting Mark. I appreciate the time. And also I agree one hundred percent with your sentiments here. You can't force someone to spend money. But you know the Reds do this, FC
does this. Why the hell aren't the Bengals stepping up and helping out with these youths football fields, and it's good for the brand, it's good for the city, it's good for everybody, especially when you get, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to redo pay Course Stadium and the product sucks.
I appreciate it. Thanks again, I appreciate it. Scott all right, Yeah, all the best man there you go. Are you blown away by this?
Maybe not surprised, but the fact that he's been working for a year and a half behind the scenes to maybe get the Bengals to help build some football fields, I mean two or three football fields. You look at how many baseball fields the Reds Community Fund has redone, It's countless, and not just in Cincinnati but around the whole region as well as Kentucky and Indiana. Plus the other programs you know, knuts All, the field of Dreachy. You've got all these programs that they do, and that
is the platinum standard. I mean, the Reds can do it, FC can do it. Why aren't the Bengals doing it? Are you surprised by this? I don't think I am. In the context of what we're talking about five three, seven, four nine, seven thousand, quick time out more to follow Sloany seven hundred wlwt