>> This is January 22nd, 2022.
And this is an interview today
with Commissioner Jerica Richardson.
And I'm Tom Scott.
This is the KSU oral history project.
Let's start Commissioner Richardson with your background.
I know you're from New Orleans and could you talk
some about growing up
there and what your parents did for a living.
I understand you came from a large family.
Maybe you can tell us about some of your ancestors or
whatever you would like about
your family and who had influence on you.
>> Absolutely. I'm a child of a lot of American history.
I guess you can say.
I was born in Charity Hospital downtown New Orleans.
My mother was still in school.
My father was still in school,
and he played basketball at UNO,
University of New Orleans.
That's where they met. And they
were runaway lovers to a certain extent.
But they set up a family.
And when I was about three years old,
we actually moved to North Carolina.
My father became a coach at Western Carolina University.
And at about seven or so,
he actually moved here in Cobb County.
So I was here when the Olympic Torch passed in '96.
Went to Kincaid Elementary.
>> You were seven years old when the Torch passed in '96?
>> I know. We also
lived in Alpharetta at one point as well.
When we were looking for a place.
But about a year and a half later,
we moved back to New Orleans.
That where my father,
he had a few different jobs.
My mother had a job as
a front desk receptionist at a company,
and my father he coached basketball,
and then he also
wound up being the Assistant Secretary of Labor.
In Louisiana.
>> For Louisiana?
>> Yeah. That was his perspective on politics.
But we didn't really talk that much about it.
After that, he went
becoming the head coach for a basketball team in Qatar.
We stayed in New Orleans.
>> Did you go [inaudible]?
>> Well, he went overseas for
eight months and coached and had an incredible season,
but it was just too hard for him
to be overseas away from his family.
And so he moved back to New Orleans.
And I'm truncating the story to just
tell you on what my parents occupations were.
>> By the way you have
some connections with our former President Betty Siegel,
because she came from Western Carolina to Kennesaw.
She'd been Dean of Education and something else there.
But also while she was at Kennesaw,
I think they tried to recruit her as
President of University of New Orleans,
but she withdrew her name,
but she was one of the fine of
us for the presidency there one day.
>> That will keep that in mind so
that I can bring that up in conversation.
To the Western Carolina story,
I had my little cheerleader outfit,
a little four year old runing up and down the court,
cheering on the basketball team.
And as I grew up,
I played basketball myself
because it was a passion in the family.
>> You say you played basket?
>> I did. That didn't come until middle school.
I trained with my father.
>> So you play through high school?
>> I did. I played through high school.
>> Didn't play on the job detector?
>> No, I did not. I stopped playing my senior year.
I'm sure I did.
>> You were probably a point guard?
>> I was actually on the block.
>> You were?
>> Yeah. You couldn't
rebound over me. I was going to fight.
>> So you were taller than everybody?
>> At one point, I was taller than everybody,
but I was certainly scrappier than everyone,
when it came to catching
the rebounds, I'm going to fly in the air.
>> Now you father you say he
was an assistant at Western Carolina,
and then when he came back to New Orleans.
>> He was an assistant there as well.
> At university? Well.
>> And then went to Qatar and got a chance to
be the head, man in charge.
>> But he didn't want to stay there?
>> It was just too much for him.
I remember at that time,
the Internet was happening.
And we have the dial up,
if you remember the little sound.
Everyone remembers that sound.
But we had the webcam
and he would come on
the webcam and it would be
because of the time difference.
And we would all huddle around the computer and he did.
How is it going? My parents have held different roles,
community was always big.
Specifically, you referenced me
having a large family. Very true.
I don't think there was a time when we
didn't have someone else living
in the house while I was growing up,
whether it was a cousin or something
or a close family friend.
I can say I grew up in a two bedroom apartment.
I had my two brothers and a guest.
And we were all stay in one room
and then my parents were in the other.
>> Oh, my goodness. Were these little brothers?
>> We're all five years apart.
Everyone was in a different stage, I guess.
But it was really great,
and a lot of valuable lessons in that,
certainly. Those are my parents.
But they would share with me.
They were always honest with what was going on
in their lives as I was growing up.
And we joke, we grew up together to
a certain degree because they were
still in college when they had me.
>> So you're the oldest child?
>> I am.
>> Now why would I not have thought that anyway?
>> My father, he would tell stories about when
he would go on the road and I
remember he was talking about a Mississippi game
where they had people with torches walking
on side of the bus and they didn't want
them to play at the Colosseum there.
>> We're talking the '90s or when he was growing?
>> It was in the mid '80s.
>> And they were walking around the torches in the '80s.
>> They didn't want you to go to play on the court.
My mom, when she was in high school,
her senior prom was still segregated, black white prom.
And I remember they
joke around with what
happened when they integrated the schools.
And that's why in that area of New Orleans.
>> New Orleans was very early, wasn't for integration?
>> Sure. You had New Orleans,
then you have the River Road.
So if you ever go down there and you
hear Schexnayder and Sorapuru that's my family name.
So family names are really important in New Orleans.
But the River Road,
there are a lot of Sorapurus and Schexnayders.
Probably if you knock on the door,
they're related to me in some fashion.
>> What's the name?
>> Schexnayder.
>> Scheknayder?
>> Schex.
>> How do you spell that?
>> It's S-C-H-E-X.
>> S-C-H-E-S.
>> No. S-C-H-E-X.
>> E-X?
>> N-A-Y-D-E-R. Schexnayder.
Y-D-E-R.
>> Where did that name come from?
>> That's Dutch.
>> Okay.
>> And then Sorapuru is French Canadian.
>> How do you spell that?
>> S-O-R-A-P-U-R-U, I think?
That's my mama's maiden name.
>> Okay.
>> My mother actually,
she was adopted by her uncle.
But she was young.
I think it was finalized when she was
three or they told her when she was three.
So she grew up with nine brothers and sisters.
So she was the youngest of 10.
And so that's the large family side.
I'll get to my father's family, but on my mom's side,
[LAUGHTER]
I think I have 300 or so.
I have about 100 or so third cousins.
>> Okay.
>> That I'm close with. Like the reason
is that I'm close with them.
And within my generation are about 40 of us.
Because all of the children had three children or so,
2-3 children or more.
Some of would have more. [LAUGHTER]
>> If we've got Dutch and we've got French Canadian,
where do the African-Americans fit into the family?
>> So that's the thing about being a Black person.
Its you know more about all of
your other origin than you do about your African origin.
>> Really?
>> So I'm Cherokee,
I'm Zeno-Indian.
I am French Canadian.
I am Dutch to a certain degree,
a little bit of German, Cuban and Black.
>> So you knew everything about diversity
at the time you were one year old.
>> That is what comprised it.
And you wonder because my mother is very fair skin.
That side of when you think about
passing and the light skin versus dark skin and W.
Dubois and all of the different studies that
came after that and who escalated to
power in terms of they tend to be lighter shade and how
that discrepancy started with who could read and who
couldn't read and who was allowed to and who wasn't.
>> Sure.
>> You can find all the history in my family.
And that's why I became very intimate for me.
That part of the journey is very intimate
for me and knowing to
jump forward here when people talk about
privileges, and white privilege.
It's like, yes, it is a thing,
but it doesn't mean that your life was easy.
It just means, I have good mental health privilege.
There are certain privileges that come along with that,
that have nothing to do with anything I
did or nothing to do with anything I was given.
It has everything to do with how others
perceive me and what they expect from me.
>> Right.
>> I have light skin people privilege.
And so the question is,
what do you do with privilege is you
use it as a platform to understand and
extend your privileges so
that others don't have lower expectations.
>> So brown stick around blacks,
stand back whites, all right?
>> To not have that, but yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
But yeah, it's,
how do you build those types of bridges and how do
you make sure that
everyone is represented in the conversation.
Because once you have
that knowledge that you have that privilege,
that's where you have the choice to say,
what am I going to do with it?
Back to my family, fair shade.
So I always say that side, they're
the descendants of the rape slaves.
That's the origin there.
And you have this huge,
beautiful rainbow [LAUGHTER] of
different shades and different likes
and everything when you think about
American immigration and all of
the different groups that were involved,
that is what we are an expression of as a heritage.
But certainly, the slave houses are still back there.
You can go see them,
the plantations are tourist attractions.
And my papa,
so that's where on my mom's side,
by blood, he's my, like, great uncle,
but by family,
as far as I know as far as my mom knows she was
never treated any differently when it came to
her adoption as papa.
And growing up, he would work in the fields.
And he had to wear jeans in the fields.
And he remembers the day he didn't have to anymore.
He vowed he would never ever ever wear
jeans again until the day he died, which was not.
He actually passed away
when I was walking across the stage
to get one of my awards at Georgia Tech my senior year.
But the day he died,
he did not wear jeans. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, good for him.
>> Again. He was always in dress pants.
And his family, they had actually,
his parents had started a school
down there so that Black children could read.
He had a school.
Wasn't allowed.
He became, I believe,
assistant superintendent for
that area towards the end of his life.
Just trailblazers.
And mama, she helped keep the family together, 10 kids.
[LAUGHTER] And all of
the craziness that goes along with that.
I don't think he went past sixth grade. Well, no, he did.
There was a span because I also know,
I think he went to Southern for college,
but he had a really big impact on
my life just between World War II.
That towards the end of his life,
he had pretty strong dementia.
And I remember sitting with him.
We were just kind of talking and he would
tell the same stories in baseball.
At one point, he couldn't really remember who I was.
But it was Thanksgiving and I
went around and gave him a kiss,
hey papa and he says, Pretty girl.
I said, okay.
I said you went to Tech.
You finished in a tech, right?
I said, why did he said [inaudible] from Georgia Tech
and a hell of an engineer and I
said, why do you know that?
[LAUGHTER] Why?
And he said, well,
when I was in Germany during World War II,
I was at one of the radio switch stations.
And all the guys there,
all the guys in the crew were Georgia Tech grads,
and they would sing that song,
and that was the finest group of men I'd
ever met in my life.
He said so, that's one thing I won't forget.
And so I took that because
I had to give a speech at Tech actually
because we had his funeral and I had
a speech that was scheduled around the same time.
And so I went to flying back to
Atlanta so I could fly back in time to go there,
but the speech I gave was all about what he said
that you never know who sees you.
But everywhere you go,
this is the pride you should carry.
I said, My grandfather couldn't remember my name.
But he remembered the Georgia Tech.
[LAUGHTER] And it meant a lot more for me in that moment.
And that's honestly, when I look
at my ancestors who pass,
that is how they live.
It's through their stories,
it's through me carrying
that legacy because so many people.
I was their greatest dream.
>> Yeah.
>> So that's the part.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Tell me about Hurricane Katrina
and how that affected your family.
>> I can tell you about Hurricane Katrina.
There are even more stories on
my father's side because he's
Tuskegee Alabama side. Either way.
But yes, all those things just,
feed who I am today.
But for Hurricane Katrina,
so we're a jump in. A lot of years there.
I'll tell you the story
starting the day before sixth grade.
>> And you would be about 16,
15, 16 at the time?
>> I was about 16 at the time,
but day before sixth grade is relevant to the story.
So crazy storm,
crazy thunderstorm. I was scared.
I go to my mom and I said,
I'm never going to make it to
middle school because it's day before.
So we're going to die tonight.
She said, Jerika shut up and go to sleep.
And when I woke up,
it was gorgeous outside.
And I said, well, how did that happen?
And so every year,
I would ask that question and I want to
reading a lot about
the weather and meteorological studies
and watch the weather channel.
You would think I was obsessed with the weather channel.
And every science fair project I did,
I would ask a question that I
wanted solved and come up with something
to demonstrate the solution to my thing but
I would never like to refer to other studies.
So anyway, fast forward.
I'm now 16.
And we have a science fair again,
and I get inspired with
a new question so I run
a test and the test was just beautiful.
The R value was zero.
It was just the lines like direct relationship.
I was really confused because I'm like,
you're supposed to have variance when
you have just some tap water,
some cups in a microwave that you're using as
your test equipment but it wasn't.
It was beautiful.
And so I was procrastinator,
didn't want to do my bibliography in time,
waited until the last day
and rushed to try to put it together.
Well, I couldn't find anything that confirmed my results.
I couldn't find anything to back it up.
So I went to my teacher I said,
what do I do because I tried,
but I can't find anything to confirm what I found.
I can't find another study like this.
>> Maybe that's one is unique.
>> She said, cite yourself.
Cite your previous iterations. I said, okay.
So I coined this thing called hygro theory,
which was a theory where I could predict
whether really accurately based upon this theory,
based upon that trend.
And I also figured
if it were correct, then hypothetically,
I could build this invention that would actually
reduce the potency of storms,
meaning a hurricane Cat 5 might be Hurricane Cat 2.
A severe thunderstorm might just be a heavy rainstorm.
It would slow down the pace and it would
cover more area in which rain would fall,
but you have less volume in a specific area,
which means flash floods might not
even have to be an issue.
It's like, well, this is exciting.
And the way that I could design
the invention would be that it
wouldn't require a human in the loop,
and I could use biological inspiration
to actually build it where it would reduce
the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
And at this time, Algor was
pretty big, the climate change.
And my philosophy around politics,
which actually came about during
9/11 when the towers fell,
that was my thrust in.
But I knew that
government can either create red tape or cut red tape.
They can do that. And so I wrote a letter.
I wrote a letter to Senator Lander
and Congressman Jefferson.
Congressman Jefferson became infamous
but I wrote a letter to both of them.
And I also wrote a letter to the news,
the local news agency.
>> And you're 11 or 16?
>> I was 16.
>> Oh 16.
>> I wrote a letter to Liz Reyes at
the local news because I had
also just finished writing a book as well.
And so I remember we were watching the BET awards.
And I had a cell phone. It rang.
And I answered the phone.
Hi, this is Liz Reyes.
Is this Jerica Richardson?
I said, this is she.
And who would like to interview you, can you come down.
So went and did
an interview on the local news about this.
And so there's actually footage of me.
They asked, talk about
the research and I talk about the book.
And Michael Hill was the one doing the interview.
He's up in New York now,
but he said, why should we care about this?
And I looked at the picture,
the background where they have all the buildings to sit,
well you don't want a storm to come and destroy all this.
You'll want all this still here.
And he said, I guess so.
And so I left there,
but he said just hold on
because the producers are coming down.
So they came down and talked to me.
They said, you're great on camera.
Do you want to tell the weather for us?
I was like, "Y'all are kidding, right?"
I'm like 60, I think I'm good at this,
but I'm not an expert by any objective means.
And I said, no. Well,
why don't you come back in and meet with
our meteorologist and if he
likes you, you've got the job.
So I had that interview coming up and
I remember I was coming home from school or whatever.
Now we're T-4 on Hurricane Katrina.
>> But you could have prevented hurricane Katrina.
>> T-4 on Hurricane Katrina.
This was maybe a week after my interview on TV.
My mom says I got a call today.
So she said I spoke with Congressman Jefferson.
What he said was,
I'm reading your daughter's letter and this sounds great.
I would love to help her because I
was asking for a lot of things in my letter.
I said, I want good equipment
because tap water cups
in a microwave ain't going to get us there.
And I want someone who has a PhD in
chemistry and biology and
environmental sciences because I have none.
I need grant money because you need to pay for it.
He said I'm reading and so he's going through the list.
He says, great money,
we can take care of that.
Professor's cool.
The location,
I can make a call at Tulane and we can
set up a space for you to do the research.
He said there's one thing she didn't ask for
though, a patent attorney.
She needs one of those too.
And so I'm over the move.
My mom's telling me about this conversation.
So then I had
a crazy week that week because I had just
started several clubs at the school.
I had done all my homework two weeks in advance.
And so I hadn't had a chance to
indulge in my obsession of watching the weather channel.
So I go to sleep that night, and actually,
I was 16, so guys were starting to think I was cute.
I had my first invitation to go t o this football game.
So I was contemplating on whether or not I would go.
I went to sleep that night long story
short because it was a full week is my point.
And my father, I remember his voice.
He wakes me up early Jerika.
I got to climb out of my bed. I said yes.
He says, what's that?
And he points to whatever's going on over Florida.
And I said give me a moment.
So I go downstairs,
I pull up my computer,
I open up the hydrology maps.
I look again. I said, we got to go.
I said, what do you mean?
I said, this isn't going to here anymore. We got to go.
I said, I'm going to try to tell as many people as I can.
I had just gone school shopping,
so I put all my new clothes in a bag.
I took and the books were
expensive at my school so I was taking that.
So you guys we're not coming back here.
I printed out their resumes as all new jobs.
And we sat in
the living room and like, where are we going to go?
I want to go to Shreveport?
I was like, no, nothing's in Shreveport.
Atlanta was the last time our family was doing okay.
Daddy had a good job,
mama had a good job.
It wasn't as racist.
There's a lot of issues there,
but wasn't as crazy.
Atlanta, there's still issues,
but people got paid.
You got money so that you could survive.
And moms like, well,
you're going to college you should look at college.
You're you're not understanding what I'm saying.
Saying you're going to need new jobs. We have to go.
And I reached out to some of my friends who I knew were
in more precarious living conditions.
It's like, you need to leave.
The water is going to be here,
the winds going to be here.
Go. Don't do it.
And we got in the car
and headed on up to Atlanta by way of Birmingham.
>> So you got out just in time?
>> I was 10 miles off from my prediction. That's it.
>> Whatever happened to your research?
>> Well, when I got here,
we took it as a sign,
but my brothers so we're five years apart.
I'm 16, one's 11,
one's 6 and we're driving around.
They come across this park and
then football is the thing for them.
We get to this park and of the name of the team or
the saints.[LAUGHTER] [inaudible] B.
And there's a lot going on
with the trek here with Katrina,
living in the hotels,
staying with people and trying to
make things work and all that..
But the Saints.
There was a reporter that also had a child on
the team and forgot how it came about,
but he learned about it and they wind up interviewing
me at the hotel on the same topic.
And so yes, there is footage somewhere of
some Atlanta coverage of
me talking about this exact research,
but it was more catered around,
look, there are people
in New Orleans who we shouldn't be afraid of.
There were a lot of really great responses
during Hurricane Katrina,
but there was also a lot of fear and a lot of
negativity said by people.
And so I think that newscast was
more so to show, hey, look,
everybody's not trying to kill
you some type of flavour to that degree.
So I was upset about that.
But we wind up connecting with
another person who knew then Johnson,
who then that was my first interaction with John Lewis,
Congressman Lewis to try to
get the same type of arrangement.
But at that point, it just died on the vine.
At that point, it went from everything is going well
and you've got this 16 year old who we can hype up in
the state of Louisiana to my gosh,
we have this crazy crisis.
No one's thinking about what
the 16 year old is saying, hey maybe.
[LAUGHTER]
But I did use it for my college
entrance essay for Georgia Tech.
I did talk about the research in that.
>> Did that help?
>> It did.
>> Where did you go to high school in Cobb County?
>> I actually didn't go to high school in Cobb County.
I went to North Springs
so in Sandy Springs, which was Fulton.
So I went to North Springs.
>> So you all were not living in Cobb County?
>> We were living in hotels.
>> I see.
>> And my parents were trying to create
a sense of normalcy.
And then at one point we wound up moving
to on the southern side of Fulton County.
Like when we had lived here before,
my mom had a co worker who lived in College Park.
So we actually stayed in her house
for a little bit as well,
and she told us about North Springs.
Because the school I was attending in New Orleans,
they had a ton of AP classes,
technically talented in art and in music,
and they offered those special classes.
And so they were looking for a match here.
Usher went to North Springs.
Raven Simone went to North Springs.
They have magnet for the arts,
for music, for dance,
and for math and science.
>> I see.
>> So it was the closest match for what was available,
wasn't exact. It wasn't the same.
All of my teachers at my school in
New Orleans had written books on their professions.
When I came here,
that was the closest match we could find.
My brothers went to Dickerson in Mount [inaudible] .
>> There's a story about people.
Your mother must have found
a job pretty soon and people at
her workplace were helping you all settle in.
Could you talk about that a little bit?
>> I sure can. So she was
looking for a job and the sister company,
they had a sister company here.
So she wrote a letter to them saying,
I'm here from New Orleans.
I've been with the company, I think,
at that time, 17 or so years.
Not 17, 10 years.
I'm looking for a job,
would be so grateful if there was an opportunity.
And they responded back with,
''Yes and we want to adopt your family''.
And so they committed to hiring her,
but also putting $1,000
towards the rent every month for a year.
And so that was how we were able to settle
in Cobb County in a home.
And they also threw
a little housewarming shower for us as well.
We had furnishing and all types of things and it
was just really one of the highlights.
>> Well, what part of Cobb County?
>> Right across the street from the avenue.
>> Really?
>> Hampton Chase.
>> So you were in East Cobb?
>> East Cobb then in East Cobb for
that whole morphing that it's going through.
>> I guess so with Dickerson and
what it makes sense, wouldn't it?
Well, Cobb County and
I guess the same was true with North Springs.
And East Cobb was still
overwhelmingly white at that time,
but the county was becoming more diverse.
What was your impression of
the county when you got here in
2005 or six whenever you moved to?
>> All the above.
>> What?
>> Everything you can imagine.
All of the above, and there's still traces of it.
I know even when my brother was going through,
the youngest one was going through high school.
There were some unequivocally racist comments.
>> When the youngest one?
>> This is not that long. It was maybe 5 years ago.
>> Wow.
>> But unequivocal.
For history's sake, I'll leave it at that.
>> Well, how typical was that?
>> It wasn't that frequent,
but it's enough where you you know what?
>> Sure.
>> He felt like he had
a certain place, if that made sense.
And they came around to like him a little bit more.
It was towards the end of his time at school.
But certainly when he got picked to go to Alabama,
it was more like, ''Come speak to me.
[LAUGHTER]
We miss you''. That type of stuff.
I feel for him because he definitely didn't know
how to talk about it or how to accept it.
I grew up in New Orleans,
so it was just like okay.
[LAUGHTER]
That's where we are.
And my middle brother,
we all have very different personalities,
but he just does what he does.
He has his own kind of world that he
builds for himself and it's take it or leave it.
But certainly, the youngest one,
he's more into the community and into people,
and so it had it had a stronger impact on him.
>> Do you experience anything?
>> Personally?
>> Personally.
>> Sure.
>> Well, I guess everybody has a story.
>> I say at North Springs, frankly,
I was so trying to get back to my normal rhythm.
Because get this,
when I came here with Katrina,
I was on track to being
a valedictorian at one of the top schools.
Not in just Louisiana, but in the country.
>> Was this a private school? Public school?
>> Public school but for the gifted,
they had their own matrix.
But it was Number 4 in
the country depending on what scale you want to look at.
But really great school,
facilitated you trying things
and asking questions about things.
I am a complete product of the public school system.
But when I came here,
all the servers had been washed out,
so none of my grades could be found.
And I remember sitting in
the Counselor's Office with
my parents and they were
just trying to figure out what to do with me.
They didn't have all the classes,
so I went up taking an on level class and
an AP class at the same time. It was just weird.
And they said, Well,
since we can't find your grades,
we're just going to give you grades.
So I didn't even graduate in the top
10% at my high school.
But I tried to just rebuild normalcy.
I was active, I was doing so many things.
There were so many things that were on the horizon,
and it was just gone.
And so that's a life lesson.
I already felt that way
about grades, that grades didn't matter,
plus even more so,
they matter, but not really.
What matters more is what you
do with the knowledge that you get,
and it became more real at that point.
And so I joined a bunch of things,
I made friends, but my hair turned gray, fell out.
>> Your hair turned grey?
>> Fell out and I was trying to just
still be what I was, if that make sense.
But my body had to be expressed somewhere,
and I guess it expressed that way.
>> Well, that would be a shocker for any 16 year old,
ones a life totally uprooted and having to start
over with a new set of friends and knew everything.
>> It's the future too.
Well, I remember when my mom told me about
Georgia Tech and at the time I
didn't know anything about Georgia Tech.
I only knew Princeton Yale and Hartford.
>> I'm going to ask you why you went to Georgia Tech.
>> Well, I was looking at Biology because I
was going to go for neurosurgery.
I wanted to go that route.
>> So the closest to
Georgia Tech was biomedical engineering?
>> So what happened,
she was speaking with
another parent or something and they said,
don't let her go into biology. Don't let her do that.
Because if she goes into biology,
she can either be a teacher or she has to be a doctor.
Do biomedical engineering because
then you have so many more options.
And so mom told me that's it. I do like options.
And I looked into Georgia Tech and with
the Hope scholarship I was, that makes sense.
And I remember when I got the acceptance letter,
it said, Congratulations, Yellow Jacket.
And I said something feels right about
that. It feels right.
Feels like where I'm supposed to go.
And then it came full circle,
of course, of my grandfather.
And he's saying the we have a rex on.
>> I have a nephew who has a degree in
biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech.
>> Jack of All Trades.
>> But he works in a hospital now in Virginia.
It doesn't sound like you took that career path.
>> Well, a lot of biomeds go into consulting.
They're really consultants because
you get a little bit of doubli,
you get a little bit of chemy,
you get a little bit of emmy.
I have a lot of social skills, too.
>> You had said something earlier about
an award at Georgia Tech?
Talk about that. Your grades
must have been [inaudible] at Georgia Tech?
>> No.
>> No?
>> No. They're all right.
I got by engineering.
>> What is an engineering curriculum?
>> But I enjoyed every moment of it.
And of course, I still use pretty much
every aspect of what I learned
because that's all I really care about.
The award that I was referring to is not
the same award as the big one that I got,
but the other one that was really
important when my grandfather passed
was one of the Tower Awards.
>> Let's explain that.
>> So Office of Minority Education Development,
they give out things called Tower Awards to
minority students that are doing well in academic ways.
And I started off at tech super strong.
Started several different organizations
because that's my personality,
I got to do a bunch of things.
And I had a lot of Counselors come to me and they said,
you really shouldn't do all that
because Georgia Tech hard.
And other students come to me and said,
"Why are you doing all this? You're just going to fail. "
A lot of upper classmen.
And I said, maybe I'll cut back.
I was bad idea.
All of my grades plummeted when I cut back.
And it took about a year and a half for me to regain
my sense of confidence and go back to how I do things,
and my grades went right back.
>> So you should have followed
your own advice over all I guess.
>> Followed my own advice,
and that award was important
because I had done really well,
then I couldn't get the award.
And then my last year, I got it.
And I'm pretty sure he passed away
the very moment I was walking
across stage because I got
the text right when I sat back down.
>> Wow. And you
say there was a bigger award that you got too?
>> The first award.
So they said it's never about your grades.
No one wrote a book
about our famous figures
about how well they did in class.
>> I've got things
where they ranked at West Point or [inaudible].
>> Right. But the things
that we really commemorate are what they did
while they were there in
that particular position or
while they were here on this planet.
I don't know what my grandfather's grades were,
but I know what his character was. I know what he did.
>> Sure.
>> And so the
first it's a leadership award that Georgia Tech gives
to you one student for that,
and it's a testament to your body of work.
That year, Side started this organization,
did a lot of tech actually.
I did start at society staff,
morphed into the GT startup
because I saw that tech students could be
the next generation of leaders
for the 21st century in technology,
that we could lead technology way
because that is the world we live in now.
And the new president that had come in at the time,
but that was one of the mantles that he claims.
I was, put your money where your mouth is.
And came up with
this whole plan to
put in place the leadership initiative,
and was the undergraduate that got
paid to work on putting it in.
I worked a lot of different angles to reach that.
And we got the pilot running and the pilot was so
successful and there were so many other leaders
that I had pulled into that program.
Three people got the first award that year.
And it was just awesome.
And now the leadership initiative
grew into all of the different components,
and it still runs,
and I actually ran across the student.
I was like, part of the such and such, it's my legacy.
>> Is that the first award, the first.
F-E-R-S-T?
>> Yeah, F-E-R-S-T.
>> Yeah. That's a Jewish businessman in Atlanta.
>> Okay.
>> [inaudible] .
>> I thought it was a different name.
I don't remember it being Monty.
>> But there's a first center at Georgia Tech.
>> Yeah. All that. And so my name is
engraved in the flag building
as part of that first award.
>> How about that?
>> Along with two other fantastic leaders
that are doing wonderful things
in the world now.
>> Well, that's quite an honor.
Do you think about going to graduate school?
>> I think about it.
>> But just thought about it.
>> Just thought about it.
>> Yeah.
>> Now, you had enough courses for
complete [inaudible] about going to medical school.
>> [inaudible] public policy.
I did. I did.
I thought about that. I thought about going to JD/MD.
So I could because part of what I
wanted to do if I did nurse surgery,
it was to build because I had also had
theories on curing Huntington's disease.
But that I could patent
my own solutions devices, what have you.
And so JD/MD could allow me to do that.
But I haven't indulged again.
>> Not what you wanted to do?
>> No.
>> Okay. So what do you do
once you got out of Georgia Tech? This would be 2010-2011.
>> Well, just so that wasn't just a whim.
I did shadow several doctors
in order to confirm my decision.
>> Okay.
And you know,
sat with Emory admissions office
as well to understand what
that because that's where I was looking at.
But when I shadowed I enjoyed it.
But it was just Not the right fit for what I could do.
I was not the best usage of my energy.
>> Right.
>> Like, I could do it.
But I had other things that I wanted to bring to
the table that that profession doesn't allow.
>> Okay. So this is 2010, 2011.
>> Twelve.
>> Twelve? 10 years ago.
Incredible amount of the last ten years.
So why don't we
talk about what did you do once
you graduated from Georgia Tech?
>> So okay.
I was sitting one of my public policy classes
because I was working on the pre law. Okay.
And hopefully, it doesn't bite me.
Lexis Nexus is a great company.
We have to use Lexis Nexus to do all the research,
if you're in your blue books and you're coming up
with which case law to cite.
We had to do all of our research out of there.
The interface to me,
I was like, this is horrible.
This is a horrible interface.
It's not intuitive.
You can't find what you're looking for,
you can't there are so many opportunities for
that software was basically
what I was thinking in my head.
And so I was like,
I could build something better than this.
I couldn't code worth a lick.
Okay. That was the joke, though,
that I could code something better than this.
And so I said, you know,
I'm going to build something better
because it's an important need in
the community to be able to know what the case law
is and understand your standing, etcetera.
And I found a company that
actually was a competitor next.
>> Okay.
>> And apply to go work at that company because
their position was very interesting.
They it was a younger company start up type,
but it wasn't a true start.
They've been around for a little bit. But they
had suite of software,
but they had set up this program where they looked for
high potential recent college grads,
they could bring in expose them
to everything about business,
and then they would go into sales.
But it was software company.
I was like, this is interesting.
It's a pretty good starting salary.
Let me try my hand at that.
And I figured it would also
help me with my selling skills,
and I could probably expand my network of attorneys.
In the process too.
And so I applied for it,
got in, and that was my first job.
And I got exposed to
everything in the business from product to
marketing to strategy to
even customer satisfaction and all of it.
I loved it. I loved it.
I love every aspect of business, corporate,
how you streamline resources,
and how you deliver something of value to a customer.
Okay. So that was that was how I had
applied my background in that space was
all of those different pieces and life experiences
and got I wound
up having sales for about 11 states in the Midwest.
I was flying out about three times a week.
>> Wow.
>> And became the top salesperson.
Lana making all kinds
of internal changes and recommendations,
and how about we package things this way
and coming up with all types of
research profiles for my clients
because when you know more than the industry,
when you bring that value to the industry,
they learn more about themselves
and you can do things really great things.
I was super excited.
Then it was time for my review.
And at that time,
my boss, he says,
"Why are you doing all this?
You just need to stick to your job."
Yeah. I said, well,
I wasn't selling before I got in the position.
Like I figured out why it wasn't
selling and came up with this whole program,
got it to sell, cleared out all the cases so that
things that had been sitting there for five years,
we had lawsuits with some of our clients.
Those are now dropped,
they're paying for more things now.
And he was like,
"You need to just do these things."
I said, well, it's not about,
he's like, "You don't care about money? "
I said, "Money's not the thing.
It's about delivering value."
I was like, "I'm going to make money, but if I sold to
every client, I'd have what $5 million."
I was like, "I think I'm worth more than $5 million."
In general, I'm doing this because
I came here because of the product,
because of the industry, and I'm doing it
because I'm delivering value. Okay.
And the next day or that Monday,
he called me into the conference room and he
says, "Okay. I have to let you go."
>> Wow.
>> And the other coma hammy is,
we don't need a problem solvers on the team.
Hmm. And that was devastating for me.
My psychic because I was like,
Wow, you know, when you get fired from a job,
you feel like I did have severances,
you know, whether it was true firing,
but it makes you really question,
what am I doing it right?
Am I doing it wrong? What is it me? What did I do?
And you know,
that's another lesson that I've learned, you know,
because I always had an affinity to
how do I internalize versus
blaming someone else because there are a lot of
others around me that
will say, you know, because of this.
>> I wonder if you were intimidating to him.
I mean, I'm just saying you must have been
23 years old and you've been running the company.
It sounds like.
It was just exciting for me.
I like problem solving.
And that is it doesn't matter what [inaudible] .
>> So you solved all their problems and they
didn't need you anymore.
>> You know, I don't think I solved
all their problems.
>> The problem may have been themselves.
>> But it was so valuable.
I mean, I was sitting in rooms with
CTOs and CMOs and CEOs and telling them
about their industry and their business
and things that they sitting with managing
partners and understanding how you manage a law firm
because these are just
you know how when you live through changes.
You never noticed the change.
That is so persistent within industries.
They live through it, but they don't really
understand what change they're undergoing.
And so being able to just be around
that type of environment was educational.
But at that time, I was writing my third book.
Yeah.
>> Really?
>> And one of my co-workers,
this is before I got fired, one of my
co-workers had read the book.
My co-worker had read the book,
the unedited version and would debate me every day on it.
But he was inspired by the content.
He had a very different upbringing than I had.
But he wanted to.
>> What was the [inaudible] ?
>> It's called "Influence".
>> Influence.
>> Yeah. Actually, I used to teach it when I was at Tech.
It is the curriculum.
I developed this 25 week curriculum
so you can determine
your own personal value and
your own personal sphere of influence so that
you could do something about it.
But yeah, it takes you on a whole journey.
25 weeks of journey.
And so yeah, he read
it and was inspired to start a company called Pierd.
So when I got fired from that,
we basically focused on
this business concept and traveled around the country.
Helping different organization and
trying to get the business off the ground.
It morphed into something called Hack out Ninja,
which was and that's where I learned how to code.
I taught myself how to code.
You came a software engineer, full stack,
so I could make pretty things online.
Got immersed within the Hackathon community
and what that meant
and became what I referred
to a self-proclaimed expert on collaboration,
bringing people together and
administering things effectively.
And so that's that part of the journey.
We had mild success.
There was some internal,
when you're trying to get off the ground
and it's a bunch of young people,
it comes a lot of internal things.
But we had some mild success and
certainly developed a lot of
relationships around the country and around the world.
And that just led into a whole new realm of technology.
And so now I could take
the technology and juxtapose that with the business.
So politics is always in the fray and
never I haven't brought it up in this conversation.
But it's always in the background.
And so now I have that opportunity to merge
all three; technology,
the business, and the politics,
the policy, the people aspect of it.
>> Now, what is friend way advice?
>> So that was my consultancy.
You got to make ends meet.
>> So that's your company?
>> Yeah. Friendly advice and
I did a lot of different projects I have one.
One was a co-business owner.
He has a paper production company.
And they had all these paper cores.
Didn't know what to do with.
So I went to their factories and walked the floors,
talk to their personnel
and put together this presentation for what they
could do with all their cores and how they could use it
to affect their bottom line, basically bottom line.
That was the company. That was the first iteration.
>> That's the first company.
>> That was the first iteration
before it became hack out.
Yeah. For friendly advice also worked
on a lot of different.
So I had another software company.
They did a lot of contracting
with different cities and counties.
So did some automation work for them and
some business development work.
And then also for another one was this IP one.
Got to really use my engineering here,
but a friend had
come up with a design for a new high heel shoe.
That was carbon fiber and used
completely different physics than
what high heel shoes have today.
And so brought in a 3D printer, had the physics,
you had them do the stress tests on them,
and then help get the patent set.
So yeah, there's a patent on that.
>> So you paid the bills with
consulting work for a number of years.
Okay. How did the Equifax job come about?
When was that that you started working from it?
>> So between Hackout and
Equifax is a company called Explori.
Hack out, mean learning how to be a software engineer,
Jaxopost out with some internal stuff.
I'm looking for a full time job to help
me not survive off of startup.
So Explori hired me and came
in as a project manager/ Scrum Queen.
If you're familiar with Agile,
that is just the person that
organizes all the developers and
the database engineers and stuff like that.
So Scrum person does that.
And then just some other audit things.
So I did that role and
a lot of different pieces within
that and my role expanded.
We rolled out the product.
But the person I was reporting
to at one point was one of the CIOs at IHG.
Intercontinental. So he had
just jumped into start up to get his feet wet.
But we were a team of like five or six of us.
>> Yeah.
>> So he was the person I reported to on this team.
And when we finished that product,
he wanted up going to another company Equifax.
Bryson. Bryson was also the CTO,
CIO, at IBM,
the weather channel, sounds like a shool guard.
But Bryson brought Alex on.
And then Alex called me on his day one and was like,
I need you all my team.
And so through lots of different hoops,
I went up working at Equifax.
And so initially, I was doing
some project management aspects then started doing
some enterprise level programs.
And so now that's primarily when I'm doing
Enterprise Level Program Management.
>> So you're technology strategic program manager.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, I was going to ask you what that meant,
but I think you've explained already.
>> I told you I said,
do you know that thing that happened
a couple of years ago and there had to be
all types of changes? I'm part of that change?
>> You're part of the change.
>> Yeah.
>> And you've continued to do
your consulting business on the site or?
>> Not as much.
>> Not as much. And then
you've mentioned some of the books that you've written.
Maybe let's do a transition to the politics.
How did you end up as campaign manager for Eric Allen?
>> So that's starting halfway through my politics.
>> Oh, that's only the beginning of your politics.
>> Because that was right before I ran.
But, I mean, the beginning was the Twin Towers,
I said falling a lot of friends that were Muslim and
watching how students in
middle school turned against each other.
I mean, I would ask questions because
there was so much in the media.
But there were things that were just not nice.
However deep it is. I went knee deep into politics,
international foreign policy, international politics,
and how do we get to
where we were? And what are these things?
I didn't even know the Twin Towers were.I just remember.
I remember I was in sixth grade.
I was sitting in science class and
this kid runs down the hallway and he opens race.
The Twin Towers are falling.
And they had the little those TVs
in the corner of the classroom.
And so they turned on the TV and we're just
watching this thing so coming out of it.
And so they had us all go into my english classroom.
Her classroom was the biggest size aisles.
So we all sit in there, and we're just watching TV;
watching this all day.
Like I said, just the weeks that ensued
and the words that were used through
media and the impact that it had on
kids and how kids related to one another.
That position has way more influence than
just the policy than what are we going to do?
Every word said by our president has
impact that is extremely impressionable for kids.
They do what they see.
And so that kicked off like this whole thing.
I said just learning about it
and then my interaction
when it came down to do my research.
I was like, all right, I'm going to use that.
Our goal is talking about climate change.
I to some degree,
understand politics that if
something amps up your platform,
you're going to want to support it.
So that was why I took
that whole route going through the research that way.
And then when I came here.
While I was at Tech that well,
so how I got into politics once I came here, two ways.
I was actually trying to break into the music industry.
So by daytime, I was the student, I was good.
By nighttime, I was a music artist.
From Jim and the Holograms.
And so, I was trying to start my music career
and actually sang at Apache before they tore it down.
And I had this whole thing,
the whole stage thing going.
>> What kind of music were you singing?
>> R&B, hip hop,
rap, and opera. I was trained in opera.
And a matter of fact,
there was a merger
happening between two medical companies.
And so I went up and sung some opportunity [LAUGHTER].
But no, I had this little career I was trying to start.
But also, when I was at North Springs,
I met this guy,
he was interested and his father was Franks Key.
I didn't know who Franks Key was at the time.
And then I go over to his house to meet his family.
I'm like, this is a little different.
That's what we're talking about.
And of course, Frank had his wine tasting.
So I say both of those things because I
say the music community,
the entertainment community,
and the political community
are almost identical [LAUGHTER] here in Atlanta.
When it comes to Atlanta politics,
a lot of entertainment attorneys run for office.
>> Wow.
>> And so I had a chance to meet a lot of
people running for office
and trying to do different things.
I also met Kwanza Hall pretty early
on and talked to him since
Georgia Tech was in his district,
talked to him about Georgia Tech
being an innovation district.
And the importance of that and
then he would give
me exposure to different things going on at the city.
I'd be at City Hall.
At one point with the Hackathons,
I worked on when they were what was that?
Something nearby the Braves Stadium
and they were gentrifying the area,
worked with the community and trying to do thing around.
>> You talk about the field.
>> Yeah, work with
the community to try to do something around that.
>> So that's the Summer Hill community?
>> Yeah. Went to their community meeting and gave
them a pitch on something we could do because I had
also done stuff, Kasim Reed.
When I was at Tech, I was going to the AUC once a
week for I was a part of
an organization at LN University Center.
Did stuff Kasim Reed's campaign.
That's where I got involved with APAC,
traveled to Israel as part of
all types of things in DC. It's like a separate life.
[LAUGHTER]
But that was bubbling up of politics.
The exposure to those different rooms and
different personalities and seeing
where all the connection points were.
And at the time Charles Mathis was still alive,
he was a force in that space.
And so once Kwanza
decided he was going to run for mayor,
he asked if you had help on the strategy and stuff,
and he sent me to this political boot camp.
And at this boot camp,
I met Jaha Howard and Eric Allen,
who were interested in running for office [LAUGHTER].
>> Yeah.
>> Spoke with both of them.
After I was training to be campaign whatever for Kwanza.
Jaha was like, I want you to be my campaign manager.
And Eric was like, I want you to be my camp's director.
I called Kwanza and I said, Kwanza [LAUGHTER].
He said, No, I think that's a great idea for
you to get some more experiences,
I think I could do both.
I'm okay with doing both because that's like my life.
I do well when I do more things.
Not too many things, but more things.
And he said no, do it.
Just go ahead. I said, Okay.
So I had to decide.
So I went with Jaha Howard for that first time he ran.
>> He lost one race.
>> State Senate, yeah. Well, he lost two.
But the first state senate race at that time,
Cobb's politics were very different.
[LAUGHTER].
>> Okay.
>> And we had decided we were going
to run a campaign that was solely about the community,
solely about getting people engaged and interested.
And we came very close that year.
The following time he ran,
he picked someone else to be his campaign manager.
And he had had a very tenuous campaign,
and so I came at the end after his staff had left to just
try to rebuild what was there earlier.
And then Eric was running.
I had already spoken in Eric's place for something
else and so he caught up and he's like,
why don't you be my campaign manager now?
[LAUGHTER]
At that point, it was his third time.
He had had things just going really well.
This was that weird election too.
This was after the weird with Sarah Sandra Bullock.
And so I came after that decision,
but helped him just cross the finish line.
And I joke as a lot of my friends are elected officials.
It makes it easy.
Andre Dickens,
Mayor Dickens now was one of my mentors at Tech.
He was one of the mentors
at Hallmark at the
Office of Minority Education at Hallmark.
And so that relationship is there.
And it's just really let a couple of months pass by
and someone had floated
this idea of looking at the county commission see.
Let me see. I'll see if it
works with what I'm trying to get done because
I'm trying to get some really significant things done in
the community and the larger community.
We have serious issues to address.
I read our enabling legislation and I
pulled up Mide code read through it.
And I was so inspired.
I was like, We can do so much.
We can do so many great things.
I decided to run.
>> Okay. And I understand that Reverend Mintz
advised you against it.
>> Did you advise me against it?
>> No. He encouraged me to support you.
She encouraged me to support her and
I was Republican, she was Democrat.
>> Well, I was thinking that there was something
about you said that she thought she was too young.
>> No. I said that she encouraged me to support her.
She was a Democrat, I was a Republican.
>> I see. Okay.
>> I said,
I don't know about that.
So she encouraged me to support her.
>> Yeah.
We had had several conversations about different things.
And honestly, I heard it all when it
comes to, I look like I'm 16.
I still have people follow me
around and when I went to the casino,
I had one of the security guards,
he looks at my mom, he looks at me. He looks at my mom.
He says, Is she old enough to be in here?
I'm like, well, I'm old enough to speak for myself.
But there's so many interesting,
unique challenges within the community,
>> So you decided to run.
And of course, Bob was retiring.
What's been your relationship with him?
>> It's been great prior to even leading up,
we would interact every now and
then before I had decided to run.
And he was like,
why do you want to be in this anyway?
>> I was just going to say he said
some nice things I guess after you got elected.
I'm not supporting you.
>> No. He's been I said incredible
and was there for my inauguration,
said great words and we had the transition of the keys.
And I think it's like I said,
the words of elected officials,
it goes beyond just the policy.
There's a reason for the decorum.
There's a reason for that.
And it's to show
how you can be civilized and how we can appreciate.
I think one of the things
that former commissioner would say,
potholes don't have parties.
They don't. There are
real challenges. How do you solve them?
We may disagree on the best way how,
but we get to the best answer when we engage each other.
And so the relationship has been great
and whenever there are different decisions,
he reaches out to me or I'll reach out to him,
or maybe I'll want background on something that he
may have had a decision on,
but he's just been very supportive enough.
>> I forgot to check. Did you have
any opponents in the Democratic primary?
>> No.
>> You were the one. And then Fitz Johnson
in the general election.
>> I call him the Cobb success story.
>> Well, Fitz Johnson he's got some relationship
with [inaudible] and Fifth Third Bank Stadium and I mean,
they basically built the stadium for his soccer team.
So we had some connections there.
It's interesting.
I guess it's indication
too of how demographics are changing
that you basically had
two African American candidates
running in the general election.
One is a Democrat and one is a Republican.
>> Yeah. And it's a testament to how
diverse this district is.
I tell you, diversity isn't it's not just race,
it's educationally speaking,
economically, political affections.
It is such a blessing to represent this district.
>> I think one of the things that's interested me about
Cobb County and maybe you can reflect on this,
but we have obviously grown more diverse.
But in terms of economics,
the county is just as affluent as it ever was.
And so we're diverse and
affluent and I don't know how typical that is.
I don't think that's the perception of how people have of
growing more diverse and
growing more affluent at the same time,
but it seems to be the Cobb County story to me.
>> Absolutely.
This county is amazing for
so many reasons and how the stewardship of the finances.
Yes, there are some major challenges
that we have to address,
but all in all,
those that are here love the county.
They want to give back to the county.
They want to see the best for the county.
And I think it's absolutely incredible to
have that type of relationship.
People are willing to get involved and engaged.
People are willing to talk across the aisle.
[LAUGHTER] I always talk about
being a great model for bipartisanship.
I don't want that to change, it's needed.
We need diverse voices in the conversation.
That's the only way you get good ideas.
When I was running for office, I would tell
a story about because I
served on the East Plus oversight.
And they were talking about
funding allocations and we had
a presentation that was done and
they were basically just saying this is the funding.
I asked the question around,
well, that's what it was.
They made the comment,
people in apartments don't have kids.
>> People in apartments don't have kids?
>> On average. And I
said we did you break that down by zip code?
[LAUGHTER] Because I would think there are
different trends that show
up when you break that down by zip code.
>> I don't think so.
>> Because they're like when you take the county average,
people in apartments don't have kids.
>> Is that true?
>> That was what was stated. And so
I pushed back with saying,
well, let's look at it by zip code.
>> Right.
>> But my point is,
how did I end up sitting there to ask that?
Who was going to ask that question?
That's the importance of
diverse voices, diverse backgrounds.
If that voice is not represented,
you're going to ask the wrong questions.
That's true for corporate. If you're
not thinking about your customer,
you're going to ask the wrong question.
And you're not going to sell.
[LAUGHTER]
Same is true for delivering services.
>> Well, I would think even regardless of zip code,
there's plenty of apartment dwellers
that have kids everywhere.
>> Take the average because they're looking at it at
projections for class sizes.
>> I see.
>> So in order to do those types of
predictions, you take averages.
Which means you're always going to be overcapacity in
areas that have higher density
if you don't factor in zip code.
Which is my whole point. [LAUGHTER]
>> Well, you've got a district that is very
different than I guess
north and south parts of your district, don't you?
>> I do.
>> The northern part is still pretty
typically Republican looks like,
the Johnson Ferry Road
and Roswell and Lower Roswell, and all that.
But the southern part of Mapleton and Smyrna,
I've been here long enough to still think
it's amazing that Smyrna is diverse.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Fair.
>> [inaudible].
>> It's it's definitely a reputation for diversity now.
The biggest thing about this district is that people
pride themselves on being highly educated on average,
highly educated and nuanced.
And for that reason,
you have a lot of self-proclaimed independence.
>> Well, I think Cobb County's 46% college degree
for those over the age of 25.
And that's just amazing too.
There's not too many places in
the country that can say that.
>> Yeah. So for all of those reasons,
it can be seen red is the north and blue is the south,
but it's really very purple.
>> Do you think it's going to stay that way or are we
transitioning now from red to blue?
>> Time will tell. Certainly the portions that touch
up closer to Atlanta south of the Sandy Spring side,
that's probably going to
stay of a more blue characteristic,
but time will tell.
There was a lot of flux during the pandemic.
We had new people
coming in from the West Coast and the northeast
as well with housing prices and certain flexibilities.
[LAUGHTER]
But time will tell.
>> Well, when you talk about campaign issues,
how did you and Fitz Johnson differ in the election?
What were you for that he was against and so vice versa?
>> Fitz, I have so much respect for
him and the campaign we ran,
I thought was representative
of how campaign should be run.
People would ask, what did, I said I'm not running
against Fitz I'm running for Cobb County.
And it sounds political, but I actually mean that.
I had a set of 49 things that I want to do.
>> Forty nine things.
>> Forty nine things over the course of four years.
And I wrote entire pages on
them available to people and talk about each of
the issues in detail and made it a
campaign about visionand that was it.
>> So what's your vision?
>> Connecting Cobb was my vision.
And it was about
the way that I would tell my story to tie in, of course,
Hurricane Katrina as a part of that,
that through love, that was
how you could accomplish anything.
In any issue that you face, you have a choice.
I said, I compared how the feeling
is between COVID and Katrina.
When we first came here,
how I told you there were people that
we're not that kind and there were
people that were incredibly gracious.
I remember we were in the checkout line one time and
somehow the lady behind us knew that we were
from New Orleans and she looks at the cashier.
She said, just put it on my tab.
Those types of things,
that's what builds a community.
And to put words to it, I call it,
stability, safety, and lead a life of significance.
And my whole purpose in life is to
create a world where people love one another,
which is liberty, opportunity, value, and empathy.
That's it. That's simple.
Anything else is not really love.
And so all of my policies are derived out of
love as the choice given a challenge,
you choose love and you create stability,
safety, and a sense of significance.
That is it. And so that was where I saw Cobb County.
I said, we have all of these different things going on.
[LAUGHTER] We're changing as a county.
There are new challenges. We should choose love.
And these are 49 things.
[LAUGHTER] And I did break it down into categories.
You want to make sure when you're talking to
people about what you're trying to
do that you're not talking over,
that you're actually saying,
this is what I want to do and I want your feedback.
I want your input, do you agree?
You don't have to agree, but you can be a part
of how do we build this together?
Those were innovation, live, work,
play, and empowerment.
>> I have a quotation from you,
Cobb County Courier, April of 2020.
"You can overcome any fear and
any division by connecting through empathy.
Through understanding other people and
understanding how we can all
work together to accomplish something."
>> That's right.
>> That's what you're talking about.
>> That's it. I am like a broken record.
[LAUGHTER]
>> And I imagine Fitz Johnson say, no,
I don't believe in anything.
[LAUGHTER]
>> And Fitz had his own way of delivering his message.
It was not against him at all.
It was just this is how I see the community.
This is where I'm coming from,
and this is what I want to do.
>> Well, when you stated it the
way you did, who could be against it?
[LAUGHTER] Well, one of the things I'd like to talk
about is your advisory cabinet.
To me, it sounds very unique. You agree?
>> I agree.
>> That's very unique. [LAUGHTER]
>> Something borrowed, something new, you know?
>> Well, I just going through all that you've got
a zones to all the different communities in the county.
You've got Reverend Mintz doing vulnerable populations.
You've got people on sustainability and
on transportation and veterans affairs,
faith based and nonprofits.
I mean, it's pretty much the waterfront though.
Yeah. In a way, but not
necessarily economic development and entrepreneurship.
Now, let me just ask you how
you use the cabinet and what it does for you,
I guess, to understand.
>> Lots of different ways for. A lot equaling four.
But one of the primary roles that
cabinet members play. Let me back up.
So one of the promises that I made was
that I wanted everyone to have a seat at the table.
I represent almost 200,000 people.
I can't have a table that big.
I'm not that rich.
There's not enough space for that.
But The point of the cabinet is meant to
extend the powers that I have legislatively,
it's to extend that to
the people by way of the cabinet members.
And so monthly we meet as
a cabinet so that each cabinet member can represent
the voice of that particular area
or expertise or constituency, or what have you.
So that's one of the roles that they play.
The other role is as they're out
and about in the community and
talking to people and learning
all the different groups that fall
under their particular category.
That they come up with programs,
ideas, things that can be rolled out or policies,
things that could be rolled out that solve
a problem and at
our monthly cabinet meetings, they present projects.
And as a cabinet, when we all come together,
let's say Stephen events here proposes something.
Everyone in the cabinet will chime
in on where there might be a gap.
Maybe there's a blind spot
or maybe it can be improved this way, right?
Because different communities are represented.
He's doing vulnerable populations.
Someone's doing public safety.
Someone's doing the courts,
Veterans Affairs, sustainability, so on.
Everyone's able to chime in or as Cobb findings.
Everyone's able to chime in so that we
can make the best program that
covers the most people and takes into
consideration to ask the right questions, right?
And then we all vote after
we've given our suggestions and we've modified it,
we all take a vote and the eyes have it and they
all any program that then
gets approved gets the full power
and backing of my office.
>> So they have access to any person?
Any resource that I have access to any cloud, any event,
whatever they need to make it happen,
they have the power of my office to do that.
And so that has been one of
the most fulfilling things because I think last year,
we rolled out maybe four or five programs a month.
And these are things that I
wouldn't have time to be able to,
you know, in the midst of doing
the agendas and doing this.
I they're still happening in
the community based upon
what's needed for that community.
And so that's another role.
And then the last role is
to basically stand in for me if I can't make it.
So I've had some people
go to a press conference for me and
speak on behalf of what it
was that I'm trying to do or trying to say.
And it's just been so rewarding so rewarding.
>> Well, another thing that to me,
it sounds unique and
maybe you can set me straight if it's not,
but it sounds like you have
a meeting to go over the agenda with anybody
that wants to participate before
every county commission meeting or every zoning meeting?
Is this a virtual meeting or in person?
It's virtual. It's okay.
So we're in a pandemic.
So it's on Zoom, in other words.
Yeah. Okay. So anybody, I guess,
presumably,
anywhere in the world that wanted to sit in could,
but I'm sure that if if somebody
is representing
a neighborhood association or what have you,
they'd be especially interested.
But so you go through
the agenda items and how how do those meetings work?
Do you tell them what you
think about it or do they tell you what
they think or A both if they have a comment on it,
but I'm really there to try to
dispeel anything that might be confusing.
Because when you see some of the agenda items,
you see these large numbers.
You're like, Well, how did they pick those people?
You'll see questions like that.
I'll just address because I think
our republic depends on an educated community.
It doesn't sustain itself otherwise.
People need to know how these things work,
how they come about because it's empowering.
They can influence it.
They can participate in
the right way if they know how it works.
>> They don't need to go up to the meeting if they've
already talked to you ahead of time.
Of course, you're doing your meetings virtually now too.
So how long do these meetings
these agenda meetings generally go when you.
>> Agenda previews, they last until
I sometimes I'll tell them things
because like we have the agenda work session.
Before then and so I'll tell them what they're probably
going to hear from certain commissioners as well,
if they know if they're really interested in this,
you're going to hear this debate.
This is what we're debating,
and this is where it comes from.
This is what we're considering.
>> So I know there was a time
when they didn't really want the public to
show up at work session. Is that still true?
>> I mean, it's it's because of COVID now.
>> But in the days for other reasons.
>> I don't know about that.
>> I just know about the COVID times.
And so we are all in that in that room
and but certainly for their agenda preview,
it's open to anyone, and I tell
them what was said in those meetings,
but those meetings are virtual.
The work sessions are virtual too.
There broadcasts.
>> And I said that it sounded unique to me.
Is it unique? Does anybody else do?
>> I think for the zoning ones,
I know other commissioners will hold
zoning town halls prior,
you know, when there's a big case
and they'll walk through all the cases in the docket.
That part might not be as unique,
but certainly the agenda preview
about what's coming and why is this in there.
If there's something new added to the agenda,
that's new and the community huddles.
I do every two weeks
community huddles where literally I just get
on the call and people ask me
about anything they want an answer to.
Well. Anything that's meant
to connect different communities.
You have people from East Cobb from Vining from Smyrna,
just different places and
cabinet members on there as well.
>> Well, almost a lifetime ago.
My wife was president of
the Belsfer Civic Association when
we we haven't lived out there in 30 years,
but at any rate.
That's cool. I've heard some stories from
her trying to how things work in County.
But I mean, so I would
think from neighborhood associations,
this would be wonderful
that you can have an agenda preview.
>> For the associations, there is a bit more of
a routine conversation that I have with them, though.
So they're not necessarily waiting,
you know, it's not they're already.
Right. We're talking about things
prior to because I really rely
basically if the If the association is against it,
against it, for the most part.
Like, it has to be something egregious, you know,
or sinister for me to say,
okay, let's take a look at it.
Okay. But I rely on what
that community saying for a particular zoning case.
>> East Civic Association used to be
really powerful in Cobb County. What about the day?
>> Yeah. That's who I lean on.
If they say no, I say no.
If they say this is what we should do,
that's what I say we should do.
Okay. Same goes for Vinings and Powers ferry.
They get to see all my OBs before I get it and
I ask for them to work it all out.
And then we're working
on establishing several others as well,
because I want to make sure that each community
has that type of collective voice.
>> And you do hold a lot of
town hall meetings, too, don't you?
>> Keep it going. Keep it go.
>> So I'm in incredible that
you're you obviously you spend a great deal of
time on this job as well as having
a full time job at Equifax.
>> It still put in all my hours at
a perfect. More than all my hours.
>> You work 20 hours a day, it sounds, right?
>> No. No. I was clocking about 70 at one point a week.
>> 70 a week.
>> Well, you mean I work 20 hours a yeah a day.
Yeah. How many? How many hours a day?
So you want to know my secret?
>> You're doing anything but work, I guess.
>> Do you want to know my secret? What's that?
I have a fantastic team.
I couldn't do it without it to you at all.
I've got my cabinet members.
Uh huh. I've got my office interns.
I mean, we have eight or so office interns.
And you know, I believe in investing in people..
>> Well, I know you don't want to stay here all day,
but I did have a few questions I'd like to ask you.
I guess the biggest controversy
in this last year has been over
the potential crash zone for Dobbins
and the zoning for 38 condos.
Could you talk about
that and what your position is on that?
And also what was in the paper just this morning
about the land swap that's underway?
>> Sure. So case came up part of
the property was located in that zone that is restricted.
And in the effort of
trying to balance because in zoning hearings,
it'd be nice if I were queen,
but I'm not I'm not trying to be either,
but I don't have those powers is my point.
I have to balance property rights.
Precedents and what the community wants.
So every case has to be looked at with that lins
and through just so much dialogue
because the base is very important to
me and very important to the community.
And really just understanding
holistically what's going on and the history.
Because you've got 20 years of
development happening all around the base.
That when it came time for this case,
I was not happy about this case.
But when it came time for it,
we looked at it through the lins of, okay.
If I have to balance these things,
precedence points to the fact that something goes there.
So if something goes there.
>> Everything else is developed for analysis?
>> Yeah. And so my thing is,
so what can we do to
create the least amount of impact as possible?
It wasn't because it like the case went
through the board first,
the Planning Commission Board first.
And these were a lot of conversations I
had with him in terms of how he approached it.
Here was the analysis.
Here is what all of these studies have said.
And so we actually found
this obscure thing that
the Department of Defense had created
the stip some extra stipulations that could be put on
residential properties in order to
reduce risk around safety, noise, etc.
And so I'm like. Well,
I guess if we can put the stips on then
that can establish the new precedents that
anything else would have to at
least abide by what the DOD is prescribing here.
And so in order to
force because no other property
has that, but in order to,
even further force that negotiation
for those stips to be accepted,
let's add the pressure with the no vote.
So the no vote came. I could've gone either way.
No vote came added the pressure.
I put in the stip. Stips were
like, great, great, thanks.
And they weren't news for anyone.
That was all part of the same conversation.
But one of the things that came of
that was really the opportunity
to look at all the pieces because of course,
there were individuals that threw out
the realignment assessment, for example.
So I had a chance to get some,
let's just say expert evaluation
on what that was and what goes into it.
And saw all of these different pieces that as a county,
we have an opportunity to address moving forward.
One of those things,
it looks like we'll be coming
through the Code Amendments as well,
which is the removal of a certain discretion.
It's like a discretion clause that's within
how zoning is done around military hazard districts.
So I'm grateful to see that.
That was something Commissioner Burrow
had found and pushed
for and something I hide staff. What can we do?
Where is something I can latch onto that?
We can restrict it even more because
An discretion means I have to
take into account precedents.
So that's something that is being
proposed right now for this year's Code Amendment
to actually take that part out.
There are about 13 other things
that we can do as a county.
That I'm hoping we can do.
And I'm just trying to be very careful because
this issue has slightly become politicized.
>> Slightly.
>> But it's going to require us to
not be as political
about it if we're going to
address some of these other things.
There are some real opportunities
that we can take advantage of,
in order to make sure that it's here and that
it's strategic for our military,
not just like the federal from
a federal strategic aspect
to make sure that that's the position that we're holding.
>> But Dobbins was against
the zoning to allow those condos?
>> So Dobbins was also,
and this is where certain things can be sent
so the military has to be against it, that they have to.
Because anything in that zone they would not agree to.
So they have to be.
That being said, there are still conversations.
>> I understand.
>> That given the situation.
>> You also had the Chamber of Commerce against you.
>> What could be done?
I had conversations with the chamber as well?
I gave the same opportunity,
but there were some that were more involved in
the negotiation, such as Dobbins.
They were more involved in the conversation.
>> Well, there was at least the spread of
closing down Dobbins, wasn't there?
>> So no.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
You're talking about the realignment assessment?
>> Yes.
>> That's not it's.
>> It's not going to happen?
>> It's not that it's not going to happen.
It's that it's related but not related.
That's what I'm trying to tell you that
there are about 13 other things that
we need to do as a county to make
sure that that relationship is fortified.
>> I understand.
>> Because I got expert analysis
on what goes into that assessment.
>> So you had a divided vote on the commission.
And the three Democrats voted one
way and the two Republicans voted the other.
I'm not sure that there's
a question and I accept that.
I guess really from a public point of view,
it sounds on the face of
it that you wouldn't want to build
anything where a plane might crash.
>> But there are a lot of other things that are
there. That's my point.
>> Okay. So there's a lot of other places
the planes could crash to.
>> In that same area.
>> And in terms of property rights,
I think they put in the paper,
it's like four acres and $1.7
million, something like that etc.
It's really expensive property.
And it's not making
anybody any money if it's not developed.
So you all are thinking about a property swap now?
>> Right. So there is staff worked
very hard and identify it just worked.
The stars aligned on this one.
Stars don't always align.
The stars aligned on this one,
where there is property of
similar value that can help assuage this.
Again, this is a drop in
the bucket for the larger concern.
>> So at any rate,
lots of things taking place and conversations about
stipulations and what have you
to take care of problems like this for the future?
Do you want to say a word about
the SPLOSTs that are
going to be coming up or possibly coming up?
I guess we're people that wonder what a SPLOST,
Special Purpose of Local Option Sales Tax is worth.
It fits in with transportation,
which is one of the things you've got
an advisor on your cabinet for.
What do you see as the future for
Cobb County, more light rail,
more buses, what kind of SPLOSTs, more roads?
What is currently there?
>> My opinion on this has been consistent throughout,
which is I do believe in increasing connectivity,
but I think there is
more analysis to be done on who are we connecting?
Why are we connecting? How are we connecting?
I think right now we're trying to solve how we're
connecting without determining who
we're connecting and why we're connecting.
And so I've articulated this in different ways.
There's a lot that's missing
from the analysis at this point.
And as for the potential SPLOSTs that
might come up there have been a lot of
concerns that have been shared by members of my district,
and I do share with those same concerns.
I do understand the opportunity
that we have but I also want to make sure
that we are making
good decisions for the future of
Cobb County which means
you have to have the right inputs.
And I have yet to see
that robust of a vision laid out when it comes to.
>> So we're not there yet?
>> I mean, here's the thing. I would be supportive of
the community providing their opinion through vote,
but I don't think
we've asked all the right questions yet.
>> I guess we should say that
the Braves Stadium is in your district?
One of road series is [OVERLAPPING].
You've said some things about
the battery and development around that before.
What do you see is the future for the battery area?
What does it need from the County Commission?
>> So the only thing I've said when I
look at the CID and total is,
when I went to Sweden, you
walk for miles and miles and you don't realize it.
What I see for that area from a tourist perspective.
I see it being more so tourism.
But a real opportunity for us to
create just a fully walkable area
that has that same feel
and that connects to
the rest of the county through some other,
like I have the art triangle
district that we're working on.
So it kind of filters
the economic activity through those different points.
But I see it as a walkable area.
>> I think of Cobb we've got lots of trails now.
>> We do.
>> Silver [OVERLAPPING] and all of those things,
so you've seen some of that around the battery area?
>> Yeah.
>> And I guess that's one of
the young folks are really flocking to, isn't it?
The young couples and what have you?
If anybody doesn't have children,
that's probably the young couple?
That's where they're going.
>> Pedestrian bridges, safer intersection studies,
those types of things.
>> What's your vision for Cobb County in the future?
Where would you like Cobb County to be 10 years from now?
>> It's what I've shared,
just that connected piece,
and I want to make sure our budget is sustainable.
We do face some realities with our budget.
Make those decisions and then
make sure it's sustainable for longevity.
>> You can always raise taxes to make it sustainable?
>> There are many ways to get.
>> But that's not too popular?
>> No. That one's not. My thing
is more so having a conversation
with what services do you want?
And how much of that service do you want?
And then what are
some creative ways that we can accomplish that?
And then that will include a lot of different things.
>> What's your vision in terms of
affordable housing for Cobb County?
We're going away from the time when all the young couples
were flocking to Cobb County
because land was so cheap here.
>> Yeah, we don't have that anymore.
>> It's not anymore.
>> No.
>> So what's your vision for affordable housing?
>> Affordable housing for me, it always
depends on the definition of
what affordable housing is
and who it's for and just housing in general.
When you look at homeless populations,
people think of the homeless and like,
but the homeless, you've got all types
of categories of homelessness.
And there needs to be
different solutions for all the different categories.
And so when it comes to affordable housing,
one of my commitments was
to have the affordable housing initiative,
which is tied to my master
planning initiative in this year.
But in the Affordable Housing Initiative,
there are about 14 different models
that I want to have analyzed.
And I'm sure there will be some mixture of
those different models that would be
ripe or perfect for Cobb County.
Don't know what they are yet,
but some of my favorites include
things like life cycle housing,
where there's some type of a pathway to
ownership to then lease to that ownership and
you wind up with recurring wealth for
those individuals as well as a step into
different phases of their housing journey
because housing means different things
to you at different life stages as well.
But there are lots of models.
So getting to what's the right mixture.
Some people say, well, it's more density.
I'm like, not really.
Some people say it's tiny housing, maybe, maybe not.
That's just a model.
There are a lot of different models.
It could mean workforce housing.
When you looked at original public housing
in the Northeast for instance,
that was tied to a company.
That was the sustainability factor.
Once the company didn't need those houses anymore,
that's where they started to decline.
Not to mention we had the war on drugs and stuff
that factored into that too,
but point is, is there are lots of ways to get there is
just being mindful about
the different options and finding the best one.
>> What's your plans for you for the future?
You're going to be
a lifetime commissioner of Cobb County?
What's your, I guess,
dream of how you can
be of the greatest service for the future?
>> The other lesson I learned with
Katrina is it doesn't matter.
The only thing I've got is,
no matter what the situation is,
I'll be ready for it.
But that I can't predict what the future holds. I can't.
>> Sure. Nobody can.
>> The only thing I can prepare is myself.
Is to continuously improve myself,
learn more, meet more people,
become more educated about different issues,
and that's the best I can do.
>> Well, maybe you can go back and solve all of
our environmental problems like
you were doing as a high schooler?
>> Maybe, I would go back into research.
But it just depends.
>> Well, that's the end of my questions.
I could ask a million more,
but I think we've probably
covered enough of the waterfront.
Is there anything that you'd
like to talk about that we haven't?
>> I covered a lot of ground.
I think we covered a lot of ground.
I would say we covered a lot of ground.
[LAUGHTER]
>> So you go with this.
>> I'll go with this.
>> Okay. Great. Well, thank you very much.
>> Thank you.