CRABBY: Council Member Michael Rainville Spills the Coffee on Police OT and Affordable Housing Failures

Summary

GARAGE LOGIC: CRABBY – Council Member Michael Rainville Spills the Coffee on Police OT and Affordable Housing Failures
Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Gamut Podcast Network
Guest: Michael Rainville (Minneapolis City Council, Ward 3)

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Episode Overview

This episode brings Minneapolis City Council Member Michael Rainville (“Mike”) into the Krabby Coffee Shop to “blow the lid off”—in true Garage Logic fashion—on two contentious local topics: overtime pay and staffing issues within the Minneapolis Police Department, and the ballooning costs of “affordable” housing developments in the city. Rainville provides an insider’s view and pushes back against his more progressive “socialist” colleagues, who dominate the council. The conversation is animated, sarcastic, and rich with local context, seasoned with skepticism and “common sense” gripes—a signature of Garage Logic.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Minneapolis PD Understaffing and Overtime Controversy

Historic Context and Staffing Reality

• Minneapolis police force is at 620-624 officers, half of the ideal 1,200 targeted by former Chief Arradondo. ([04:23])
  • Jay: “This council, this portion of the council, the socialists have said do more with less, so they do more with less. And now…” ([04:22])
• Socialists on the council criticized police for being “too policey” and focus on overtime, despite once advocating cuts.

Overtime and Standby Pay Explained

• $10 million spent on overtime and standby during Operation Metro Surge was “less than expected.” ([05:04])
  • Mike: "10 million …that’s 8% of the budget to be 8% over… but you have to have police. You just have to." ([05:04])
• Standby pay (for SWAT, specially-trained officers): officers must be ready to act within 60 minutes, paid 0.25% of their hourly rate for this commitment. ([07:00])
  • Mike: "Few officers have [certain] skills…so the SWAT team would be on standby…You have to be ready to go with your gear within 60 minutes." ([07:00])

Council Critique Characterized as "Performative"

• Council President Elliot Payne grilled police on individual officers maximizing “high five” (final five years’ pay boost for pension).
  • Mike: "What Elliot Payne is complaining about, he agreed to. He voted for." ([09:03])
  • Deputy Chief (paraphrased): "Yes, I’m doing the same thing myself." ([09:15])
• Kenny: “They're activists.”
  • Mike: “Right, right.” ([09:47])
• Soren Stevenson and Aisha Chugtai question standby pay as “insane” ($8-20K in a single month for some officers).
  • Jay: “She’s saying they didn’t do any actual work, Mike.”
  • Mike: “[They don’t] understand the training and skills that go into being in that position.” ([13:42–14:11])

Pension Realities & Police Life Expectancy

• Mike: “Most of [the police] are dead within five years of retirement.” ([16:10])

Recruiting and Retention Efforts

• Minneapolis is struggling to recruit; council cut marketing funds in half despite being under court order to increase force size.
  • Mike: “To me, I’m not an attorney, but I think you’re violating the court order if you cut the budget.” ([17:58])

Motivation for Joining MPD

• Higher starting salaries ($91,000–$100k+ with OT), career growth opportunities, and working under Chief O’Hara.
  • Lateral transfers are up: “So far this year, we’ve had 14 [lateral moves],” a record. ([23:02])

Notable Quote:

• Jay: “You have this socialist Stevenson questioning 12 officers who are giving up so much of their time… they were committed. And I’ve been on call as a reporter, and that kind of messes up your weekend…” ([12:02])

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2. Affordable Housing: Sticker Shock and Structural Issues

Exorbitant Per-Unit Cost

• Renovation of historic building across from First Precinct: $28M total, $589,000 per one-bedroom unit.
  • Mike: “[One-bedroom]… $589,000 per apartment unit.” ([37:58])
• Fort Snelling project: $900,000 per unit.

Systemic Problems

• Funding is a “stack” of city, state, county, and federal dollars plus tax credits bought by corporations, making it lucrative for developers but not sustainable for the city.
  • Mike: “It’s not sustainable. We have to build where the land is cheaper, where it’s new construction…less cheaper than renovation.” ([40:49])
• Projects designed for formerly homeless tenants, who pay ~30% of disability/social security, often barely $400/month.

Calls for Rethinking Policy

• Rainville argues for more efficient, scalable solutions—“[For $565,000] we could build two, three units for that.” ([41:15])

Notable Quotes:

• Kenny: “Shut the front door!” (reacting to $589K/unit) ([37:58])
• Mike: “We have to do it in a smarter fashion.” ([39:54])
• Jay: “There’s no appetite with the socialists for that, is there?”
  • Mike: “No, it’s… [They] are happy to spend that kind of money.” ([41:20–41:25])

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3. The Downtown Real Estate Crisis & Public Safety Exodus

• Target is committed to re-energizing its headquarters, bringing employees and vendors back, despite prior worries about vacating. ([29:07])
• Declining commercial property values shift tax burden onto homeowners; business and residential leaders rank public safety and taxes as top concerns.
  • Mike: “At one time…about 44, 45% of all property tax came out of downtown. And now that’s shrunk to about 32%...That has to be made up by every small commercial building…over on Minnehaha and 40th and every home, guys like Kenny…” ([48:30–49:10])

Personal Testimony

• Co-host Kenny shares his decision to leave Minneapolis following the riots and persistent crime, prioritizing public safety over property taxes. ([44:57–47:08])

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4. Dysfunction on the Council and Budget Gridlock

• “Socialist” councilmembers fixate on critiquing, not problem-solving; performative actions described as feeding “red meat” to their activist base.
  • Mike: “They have this base of activists that they think they have to feed red meat to…very performative.” ([31:32–31:49])
• The mayor’s vetoes are being upheld by a group of five councilmembers (including Rainville); further gridlock expected.
  • Mike: “I’m predicting 100% [veto upheld].” ([58:03])
  • Compromise will be necessary, but little appetite exists.

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5. DHS Fraud, Political Will, and Wasted Billions

• Recent “shuffle” at MN Department of Human Services (DHS) described as superficial—“rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” ([65:40])

• Whistleblower testimony and failure to stop massive fraud is dissected:

  • Jay: “Come to Minnesota and steal money. Minnesota was the easiest…” ([62:47])
  • Emailer Jennifer: “What if this is a good way to enable reparations?…You can’t pass a reparations bill, why not enable…fraud as redistribution?” ([73:24])

• Political gridlock prevents further subpoenas—e.g., attempts to subpoena Rep. Ilhan Omar over fraud fail on party lines. ([69:19])

Memorable Moment:

• Jay: “You know, the fraudsters…would call the investigators and complain that they weren’t getting their kickback money.” ([61:56])

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6. Neighborhood/Bureaucratic Stalemates: 3rd Precinct and George Floyd Square

• Third Precinct (burned during riots): finally being repurposed as voting center after political wrangling and national embarrassment.
  • Mike: “The socialists stonewalled the renovation…until the Republicans started coming here…and then all of a sudden my socialist counterparts wanted to know why the hell that building was being renovated.” ([51:01–51:28])
• George Floyd Square (38th & Chicago): now slated for a roundabout and memorial after years of political infighting.
  • Mike: “Public works is…taking up the street…gonna redo the street…there will be a roundabout.” ([52:48])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “You have to have police. You just have to.” – Mike ([05:04])
• “Most of my colleagues…have never worked, so they don’t understand the concept of a pension.” – Mike ([09:38])
• “It's not sustainable. ...We could get twice as much and help even more people.” – Mike on housing ([41:16])
• “We were the envy of every city in America, and then we lost that and we got to get it back.” – Mike ([47:41])
• “It's just these brave...public safety people that keep us going.” – Mike ([34:33])
• “They’re activists.” / “Right, right.” – Kenny/Mike ([09:47])
• “Why would anybody...want to be a police officer in Minneapolis?” – Kenny ([19:07])
• "We pay firemen and policemen to do things we don't want to do." – Mike ([24:01])
• “The socialists...are happy to spend that kind of money.” – Mike ([41:25])
• “[Councilmembers'] performative [actions are]...feeding red meat to their base.” – Mike ([31:32])
• “I am not an attorney, but I think you’re violating the court order if you cut the [police budget].” – Mike ([17:58])
• “At one time...about 44, 45% of all property tax came out of downtown. Now...32%.” – Mike ([48:30])
• “You called him Joe?” – Kenny teasing Mike’s name confusion ([77:07])

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [04:02] – Minneapolis police staffing goals/historic context
• [05:04] – Overtime/standby pay numbers revealed
• [06:44] – What is "standby pay"? Explained by Mike
• [09:03] – "High five"/pension calculation council confusion
• [12:22] – The reality of being "on call" for cops
• [16:10] – Police life expectancy after retirement
• [17:49] – MPD recruitment marketing budget cuts
• [23:02] – Lateral officer recruitment numbers
• [24:36] – The unseen costs (emotional/social) of policing
• [29:07] – Target's commitment to downtown Minneapolis
• [36:33] – Transition to affordable housing debate
• [37:58] – $589,000 per affordable housing unit revealed
• [40:49] – “It’s not sustainable” – Rainville on city finances
• [48:30] – Commercial property value collapse; homeowners' burden
• [57:39] – Mayor's vetoes and council gridlock
• [65:40] – DHS “deck chairs” shuffling; fraud context
• [69:19] – Political resistance to subpoenaing Omar on fraud

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Final Thoughts and Tone

The episode is spirited, irreverent, and stacked with both official insight and citizens' frustration. Rainville offers a blend of institutional knowledge and neighborly candor, often critiquing the “activist” streak of his colleagues and highlighting real-world costs—financial and human—of policy mismanagement on public safety and housing. The Garage Logic cast and their guest routinely call for “common sense” and “compromise,” but expect more vetoes and stalemates ahead.

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In Summary:
This episode delivers a critical, granular look at public safety staffing, city budgeting, and affordable housing, all colored by the Garage Logic blend of sarcasm, skepticism, and longing for practical solutions over performative politics. Rainville delivers the inside scoop, and the podcast wrestles with the consequences of activist governance, both for Minneapolis residents and its embattled city institutions.

Transcript

[Jay]

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[Kenny]

Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon.

[Jay]

The big one.

[Mike]

The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast.

[Jay]

Total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history. I just didn't know what would help me next.

[Kenny]

So I took it all.

[Mike]

Even the gun.

[Jay]

It was time cello see why American Afterlife is the number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Presented by Pair of Thieves. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Available now. Hey Garage Logic fans. I do a podcast on the Garage Logic Network that comes out every Wednesday and Friday. Now twice a week. But here's an important caveat. There is zero logic available in my show. In the formal definition of logic, of course, life is a yin and yang kind of thing. There's the logic side and then there's the what the hell side, which needs to get its exercise. So come for the what the hell and stay for the. You've got to be kidding me. Mishke. Now, Wednesdays and Fridays, twice a week.

[Kenny]

Welcome to the Krabby Coffee Shop. Today we'll get to the bottom of a bunch of issues in Minnesota and Minneapolis. Like, did our governor just shuffle the deck chairs on a sinking DHS fraudship, thinking it would prevent it from going down?

[Jay]

Wasn't that interesting? That move.

[Kenny]

Do Kenny and Jay qualify for low income housing in Minneapolis? And if so, could we get a top floor suite with three bedrooms, three bathrooms? We're going to need a really big refrigerator, courtyard view, and a couple of parking spots in the basement, if you don't mind. Oh, and the Minneapolis police, they're just so policey. And the socialists on the council think that's very icky. Joe Rainville, representing Ward 3 and many. Mike. Did I say Joe?

[Jay]

You got this Joe thing on your brain. You called me Joe. You called him Joe.

[Kenny]

Joe. Jay. There's two John. There's too many J's in my world. Yeah, Mike is here. Ward 3, Minneapolis City Council. And you've been sitting on some interesting stuff, Mike. And we're gonna blow the lid off that today. Oh, and you know what else? We get your emails, we're gonna read them. That's all. Today.

[Jay]

That'll be fun. We haven't done that Before. No, all positive, right? Or do we read them? We gotta read the bad ones first.

[Kenny]

No, they're actually really good.

[Jay]

Oh, okay.

[Kenny]

Yeah, no, they're really good and they offer some interesting insights.

[Jay]

The bad ones can be kind of fun.

[Kenny]

I don't read bad ones.

[Jay]

Okay, I appreciate that. Hey, did you see, did you. Did you like all the. Did you get a chance to listen to these sound bites from the socialists on the Minneapolis City Council?

[Kenny]

I haven't yet.

[Jay]

Oh, Kenny, Kenny, this is too good. It's too rich. And by the way, Mike, thanks for joining us.

[Mike]

Absolutely. It's a pleasure. I've been looking forward to this all week long.

[Jay]

We're gonna have a little bit of fun today. I told Mike, I said, mike, we're gonna shuffle the deck. We're gonna talk about the budget committee where the socialists started complaining about the police again, because like you said, they're being too policey. They don't like the police part of it.

[Kenny]

It's so icky, isn't it?

[Jay]

It's just so icky. Cuz they're doing their job.

[Kenny]

Makes me scared.

[Jay]

I told Mike Kenney, I go, this is the same crowd that was defund the police six years ago. Same group essentially. There's a few that have changed seats, but there's still the same block of socialists on the Minneapolis City Council. Right?

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

We should be at. And Mike, you remember this Rondo, Chief Rondo wanted the force to be at about 1200 by 2024.

[Mike]

Correct. He told the city council that in 2018.

[Jay]

Correct. Cause I got tipped off to it and he was kind enough to confirm it. And we did a whole story about it. And that was at the time when they had about 900, just shy of 900. And that was right before the murder of George Floyd. And now they're down to what, about 620, 624. And they should be at 1200.

[Mike]

Correct.

[Jay]

So, Kenny, they're working at half of what they should be at for a city the size of Minneapolis. This council, this portion of the council, the socialists have said do more with less, so they do more with less. Right. They're doing it. And now. And they wanted an update on how much overtime was spent and how much standby pay was spent during Operation Metro surge when the feds came here. And Mike, you got the numbers right. It was 3,000 federal agents.

[Mike]

Correct.

[Jay]

So 3,000 federal agents to 600 Minneapolis police officers. The total amount of overtime and standby pay was only 10 million to me. I thought it was gonna be higher

[Mike]

or, well, and 10 million. They always say, oh, you're $20 million over budget. 20 million. Well, that's 8% of the budget to be 8% over. When you talk about the Annunciation shootings. And we had some horrific incidents last year, and now we had another horrific one where the budget was spent. But you have to have police. You just have to.

[Jay]

Well, and it was unexpected that there would be 3,008. They couldn't plan for 3,000 federal agents to be here.

[Mike]

No.

[Jay]

So they do the best they can. In my opinion, Kenny, they should be probably beginning giving a lot of thanks. And I watched this budget committee hearing where they went after Chief o' Hara and some of his deputy chiefs and were complaining about the amount of overtime during Operation Metro Search. And we're gonna play some of that sound because people should hear what the socialists on the city council are saying. And I don't care if they tell you they're dfl, dsa, however they want to frame it, they're all the democratic socialists. They're democratic socialists, some of them.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

But to me, that's just a polite way of saying socialists.

[Mike]

Well, since we're amongst friends here, I'm going to tell you what's going on is the DSA has co opted the DFL party.

[Jay]

Yes.

[Mike]

They're smart enough to take it over. And the DFL is sitting there with their hands in their pockets and don't

[Jay]

know what to do right now.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

And because they have lost control.

[Mike]

Exactly.

[Jay]

So the first sound bite we're gonna play is City Council President Elliot Payne questioning Chief o' Hara and one of his deputy chiefs about overtime pay. And specifically, they really zeroed in on standby pay. The standby pay they didn't like. And can you explain what that is, Mike?

[Mike]

I'd be happy to do it. So standby. We have certain skills that are taught that few officers have. You know, the SWAT team would be a good example. And when we think there's going to be problems, we have the SWAT team standby. That means you have to be ready to go with your gear within 60 minutes.

[Jay]

It's like something within an hour. You got to be ready to go.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

So they get paid for that time.

[Mike]

They get paid 0.25% of an hourly rate.

[Kenny]

Who determines it's time to go on standby?

[Mike]

The chief. Chief or deputy chief. Yeah. Normally when you plan it, you have the ability with his command staff to understand what's going on. But there are unplanned events. For example, the federal.

[Jay]

The federal agents Showing up en masse with 3,000 of them.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

They couldn't prepare for that. So a lot of guys were on standby. So Elliot Payne is questioning the deputy chief at the time, who was. Who was trying to explain all this to the city council. And he. Kenny, he focuses in on one. Elliot Payne just focused in on one officer who had kind of maxed out his hours, if you will, based on the rules, because they got to take 24 hours off after a certain amount of time of overtime. So he had almost maxed out. So this is Elliot Payne and asking the chief and the deputy chief what's up with this one particular officer, Gabe, Maybe just a follow up on this one outlier. That's like working to the maximum level possible. Just out of curiosity, is this later in the career looking for high five? Is this an earlier in the career? And just. They have. They just have the time. I'm just curious. Just curious, Mike. Now what he's talking about there, Kenny. The high five is the.

[Mike]

So for police and fire, your pension is based on the average of your last five years or your highest. Highest of five, which are typically the last five.

[Jay]

That sets your pension and your retirement

[Mike]

for the rest of your life.

[Jay]

Yep, for the rest of your life.

[Kenny]

And

[Mike]

what it is, is if you are a successful fireman or police officer, you raise up in rank and then you have that option. It's been true since day one of the bargaining contract.

[Jay]

Because this is part of the union contract approved by the city.

[Mike]

Right. So what Elliot Payne is complaining about. He agreed to. He voted for.

[Jay]

Correct. He voted for this. And Kenny, the response from the deputy chief was fantastic. I should have pulled that sound too, and I didn't. What did the deputy chief said?

[Mike]

He said, yes, I'm doing the same thing myself.

[Jay]

I'm doing the same thing.

[Mike]

That's what we do. We have to take care of our wife and kids with our pension. We don't work again.

[Jay]

And if it's part of the contract and the contract says you can work that much overtime and that's part of your high five, the highest salary in your last five years. He's playing within the rules. He didn't do anything wrong.

[Mike]

No, no.

[Jay]

And Elliot Payne was trying to make it sound like something nefarious was up.

[Mike]

Right, Right. It's interesting because most of my colleagues don't have never worked, so they don't understand the concept of a pension.

[Kenny]

Yeah. They're activists.

[Mike]

Right, Right.

[Jay]

Yeah. Then we roll on to the second bite. And this is from city council member Soren Stevenson. Now he and Chugtai start looking at a group of officers, and I think he says, I think Sorensen said there were 12 that caught his eye. There were 12 officers that had quite a high number of standby time.

[Mike]

Standby time, Right. So specially skilled officers.

[Jay]

Specially skilled officers.

[Mike]

No one else can do their job.

[Jay]

Correct. And they're there in case all hell breaks loose. So this is Soren Stevenson now asking the deputy chief about 12 officers getting paid for standby.

[Kenny]

Sworn officers, total standby time, looking at 450 to 475. There were 12 officers who met that amount of time. And across 32 days, that's 14 hours of standby time a day. Can you just help me understand these numbers? Like, how is this possible?

[Jay]

So Kenny, he's asking, my God, how is it possible?

[Kenny]

Yeah, well, he knows.

[Jay]

He knows exactly it's possible because you have 3,000 federal agents, protests going on, demonstrations going on. To me, how did they not all have 14 hours?

[Kenny]

Let's get something straight here with Mike, formerly named Joe, when we say standby, these guys aren't standing by in a fishing boat on Mille Lacs. Right. They're actually close by and ready to haul ass into work.

[Mike]

Right.

[Kenny]

And get geared up and go fight for Minnesota or Minneapolis citizens.

[Mike]

Right? Right. They got all their gear in their car. Right. And they got the, you know, their pager on cell phone, radio, and they're ready to roll.

[Kenny]

So it could go down, be ready.

[Jay]

And they've got one hour to get to where they need to be.

[Mike]

And the professionalism, the average time is about half an hour because they know this is their job, this is their profession, and they're good, good people.

[Jay]

And they don't even take the full hour to get out on the street

[Mike]

where they need to be. As a matter of pride, they get that call. They're here to serve, to protect.

[Jay]

So you have this socialist Stevenson questioning 12 officers who are giving up so much of their time, which they're required to do. They signed up for it, but they still did it. They were committed. They were ready to go. And I've been on call as a reporter, and that kind of messes up your weekend. I gotta be honest with you. You can't plan anything.

[Mike]

No. Your neighbor calls you up and says, let's go have a beer. Let's go up to the yacht club and have a cold beer arrangement. Come on, call. I'm on call.

[Jay]

And these guys, it's a whole different kind of on call where they gotta be there within 60 minutes. And they gotta sometimes go into some really tough, harrowing situations. Right, right. So that's socialist number two. Let's go to socialist number three, Aisha Chugtai. She too, along with Stevenson, questioning whether these guys were actually doing any work or not. While they're on standby. Gabe. There are 118 officers who received somewhere between. Just using their hourly rates provided by you. Somewhere between $8,000 and $20,000 worth of standby pay in one month alone is like. That's astronomical. That's insane.

[Kenny]

I can't think of a better word

[Jay]

other than insane to describe just the standby pay received just to be ready to work. You receive $20,000 over the course of one month. Not for actual work done. You know, like that is mind boggling. Not for actual work. She's saying they didn't do any actual work, Mike.

[Mike]

Well, what they don't understand is the training and skills that go into being that position to be on call for that specific task.

[Jay]

Right.

[Mike]

And again, it goes back to life experience. I'm very fortunate to have gone to De La Salle High School, which had a lot of firemen and policemen, a lot of neighbors in northeast Minneapolis. It's a heck of a life to choose. And you have to be a really talented person. You have to have not only a big heart to help people, but be brave.

[Jay]

You gotta have courage and stand down all the crazies.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

Those that want to defund that comment from her, Kenny. I couldn't believe she said this was mind boggling. And because they made between eight and ten grand or whatever it was, Mike, that's part of the deal. It's part of the collective bargaining agreement.

[Mike]

So let me give you something else that's mind boggling. When Officer Jamal Mitchell was assassinated on Blaisdell Avenue in Franklin, the police didn't know what was going on. They sealed off the area. They had a helicopter out. They didn't know what was going on. They just knew they had actually two people dead and another shot. She complained that there was too big of a police presence in the neighborhood.

[Jay]

I remember she also complained the choppers were unnerving to the neighbors or something like that.

[Mike]

She never said thank you. Recognized that Jamal Mitchell was assassinated and gave up his life for public safety.

[Jay]

Right. Just worried about the helicopters and the disruption, she would call it to the neighborhood. I also noticed not one city council member, Kenny, except Mike. Now, Latricia Vita, Linnae, Palmisano, Pearl Warren. I would have said the same thing you did. But all the socialists, none of the Socialists thanked o' Hara or his deputy chiefs during that meeting one time for Operation Metro Surge. You did. You took a moment to thank them for the work they did and nobody else did. And then they immediately launch into, this is too much overtime. This is too much standby. The same group who said, do more with less. Am I wrong?

[Mike]

You're absolutely right. And again, my life experience living in northeast Minneapolis, growing up, going to De La Salle, knowing firemen, policemen, I often when people encourage me to go into that career, I just admit it. I didn't have the courage.

[Jay]

Right.

[Kenny]

I don't have the courage.

[Mike]

I didn't have what it takes to be a cop or a firefighter. It's a tough job.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I mean, and they die young. You know, the average. The amount of years that a police officer collects their pension is 5. Most of them are dead within 5

[Jay]

years of studying of retirement.

[Mike]

That's the average. Yep.

[Jay]

I didn't know that. I couldn't believe after what Minneapolis police had to deal with. And it wasn't like the federal agents and the federal government was communicating with them, telling them what they were gonna do, where they were gonna be next. MPD kind of had to fly by the seat of its pants, Right. And try to protect the officers if they had to. Try to protect the demonstrators if they had to. I mean, how else can you do it without having people on standby? You have to. Right?

[Mike]

In my thanks to Chief o', Hara, I complimented how professional the force was, all the extra training. It's been six years now since George Floyd was murdered, and that was terrible. When police take you in custody, you live. You don't die on the street like he did. But we've increased the training, we've increased the psychological help, the recruiting effort. It's all working. And it was proven when these federal agents came in town and our police protected the citizens from the federal agents.

[Jay]

You know another thing that was interesting about that meeting, Kenny, because I had to watch the whole thing after. I just had to, Mike. I had to. There's also money set aside for recruiting, like marketing. They hired a marketing company to come up with a recruiting marketing plan. Right. They were complaining about money being left over from that. Right.

[Kenny]

How so? What do you mean, so?

[Jay]

I can't remember the dollar amount. Was it a million bucks or something like that?

[Mike]

Well, first of all, it was a million, and they cut out a half a million.

[Jay]

Okay? So it ended up being only half,

[Mike]

even though we're under court order to increase the numbers. To me, I'm not an attorney, but I think you're violating the court order if you cut the budget. Yeah.

[Jay]

People forget that. That the courts have said you got to get to 731 officers.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

And they're not anywhere near it.

[Mike]

No.

[Jay]

So they. So it was a million bucks and they scaled it back to 500. Okay.

[Kenny]

And they didn't spend that 500.

[Jay]

Apparently. They didn't spend all of the 500. That's what they were. The socialists were making this claim. I didn't see any evidence to that. Did you? Was there some money left over?

[Mike]

I've never heard that before.

[Jay]

Right.

[Mike]

You know, no one. All of our department heads, they don't leave too much money on the table

[Jay]

because they don't get it back.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

They're smart enough to know that if you give us 500,000 and we only spend 300, you're only going to give us 300 the next year.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

So the socialists, who wanted. Who wanted to do more with less with the police department cuts the funding for marketing to get new recruits. And then if there were some money left over. We still don't know if that's even the case. Mike. They were complaining about that, Kenny. Even though the recruitment efforts. The numbers are way up, Kenny. According to Mike.

[Kenny]

Right. But I want to know what those ads sound like or look like. And why would anybody, you know, even if you're like, say you're a police officer somewhere in Iowa and you want to move home to Minneapolis, why the hell would you want to be a police officer in Minneapolis? What's so attractive about it? What draws them in? Mike.

[Jay]

Mike can tell you.

[Mike]

Yeah. So it starts with Chief o'.

[Jay]

Hara.

[Mike]

People want to work for him. He protects his officers. He's cutting edge of modern policing. But you don't want to be the officer that has violated someone's constitutional rights and have to go before Chief o' Hara for discipline. So people understand the rewards and the risk of not being good. And it's a great job. So a starting salary, if you're 22 years old. You know what a starting salary is, Kenny?

[Kenny]

In my world, it would be 150, but I'm sure it's not.

[Mike]

Well, it's 91,000. And that's straight.

[Kenny]

That's so bad.

[Mike]

That's straight time.

[Jay]

That's where they're starting. At straight time, they get overtime. So you can start out making six figures.

[Kenny]

You know this 731 number you're talking about? In 2020, when I was still living there, there were about 800 to 900 officers. Sworn officers. And my opinion at the time was that wasn't enough.

[Jay]

Correct.

[Kenny]

My truck got broken into repeatedly, and unless I had a firearm or ammunition in that truck, the cops wouldn't come see me.

[Jay]

Chief Arredondo said it needed to be 1200 by 2024.

[Kenny]

Yeah, they were understood.

[Jay]

They were understaffed prior to. That's what I'm saying. If we're supposed to be at 1200 in Minneapolis and they're only at 620

[Kenny]

or whatever, they're at 560 to 600. Is that what we're at 6?

[Mike]

Well, the. The. In the mayor's state of the city, the number was 624.

[Jay]

Okay, so they're half.

[Mike]

But, you know, people go on maternity leave right there. They deploy to the armed forces, they get hurt, and people beat up cops. Right, right. And so.

[Jay]

So even if it's at 620, it's not enough. That's not even close to what we need.

[Kenny]

How did you arrive at 7:31?

[Jay]

Something to do with the city charter.

[Mike]

Yeah, the city charter has a mathematical formula, so for every citizen, you have to have 0013. So it's a law. It's the. The rules.

[Jay]

So the court ordered that they get to 731, and they're not gonna be held in contempt of court because they're making a good faith effort to get

[Mike]

there despite the lack of support from the majority of the counsel.

[Jay]

So now they complain. You know, Gabe, what was the name of that campaign? Remember the ad campaign for the cops? The commercial was great. What was it called?

[Mike]

I can't remember what I had for breakfast. Jay.

[Jay]

I know. I can't remember. Gabe, could you find that? And look, it was post.

[Kenny]

George Floyd, right? Yeah, it was around 22 or 3.

[Jay]

They did the recruiting in 23 or 24.

[Mike]

Yeah. By 2023, when the chief got here, they jumped it up.

[Jay]

Yeah. If you did Minneapolis police recruiting video or recruiting had a name, and it was really well done. And Mike tells me, Kenny, that they're actually. What was the recruiting numbers over the

[Mike]

Last applications are 2000 in the last year.

[Jay]

Okay. They didn't even come close to 1,000.

[Mike]

Oh, no, it was hundreds.

[Jay]

It was hundreds.

[Mike]

Just a few years ago, we were in 22, 23. We'd have GR graduating classes of 8, 8, 9, 10. Yeah.

[Jay]

And now it's

[Mike]

low 30s, which is. And we're on the last year. This year we'll have four recruiting classes each year.

[Jay]

And Mike was telling me, Kenny, that quite A few are what they call lateral moves. So in other words, you could be an officer in Moundsview and you decide to come work at Minneapolis. And what were you telling me about the lateral moves? It's more than they've ever had in recent years.

[Mike]

They usually have two or three a year. So far this year, we've had 14.

[Jay]

And that's because. Why do they want to come here?

[Mike]

They want to come and work for the chief, but they also want the opportunity. We are the largest police force. We have horse patrol. We have the Police Activities League where you work with children. We have bike patrols, you know, dogs. So this is a chance to advance, and you can become a sergeant within three, four years. Lieutenant, if you're pretty sure five, six, seven years doesn't happen in a suburban police force.

[Jay]

And some of them want what we call the action. They want more action in Minneapolis than, say, Mounds View.

[Mike]

Well, you know, young men, there's a certain drive they have that you and I don't have anymore. Jay. Kenny, I don't know about you, but my spark ain't as hot as it used to be.

[Kenny]

Before they went encrypted, I used to listen to the scanner. And every single call I'd hear, I'd say to the scanner, don't go. Don't go there. Just say, no, don't go. They're all horrible, horrible calls.

[Mike]

Yeah, well, people don't realize, and I wish your audience would understand this, that in essence, we pay firemen and policemen to do things we don't want to do. To rescue people, run in a building, burn. And just to see really bad things. You know, you see these young kids that are hurt or abused. And I had a brother who worked for Hanifin county as a deputy sheriff. And, you know, he used to bring the kids over to St. Joseph Homes, take them out of a drug dealer's house and, you know, $10,000 sitting on the coffee table. And the kid's got dirty diapers and is hungry.

[Jay]

Yeah, 10,000. All from drug money, too. Yeah.

[Mike]

Right. And, you know, that just eats at you after a while.

[Jay]

Yeah. And they're seeing it day in and day out, every day. Yeah. I mean, some of those guys, especially if you're working that second watch over on the north side. I think the second watch is the highest number of calls in the state of Minnesota.

[Mike]

Yeah, the dog watch.

[Jay]

Dog watch.

[Mike]

Dog watch.

[Jay]

Mid watch would be what? Middle of the middle?

[Mike]

Mid watch is from 4 in the afternoon to 2 in the morning. Dog watch is from 8:30 at night. To 6:30 in the morning.

[Jay]

So it was the dog watch that had the most calls.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And you know why they called it the dog watch? The only people up at that time are crooks and dogs.

[Jay]

Could you imagine, though, at times I did stories with the police union where that dog watch and even parts of the mid watch had only four officers in that particular shift. And it gets more calls than any other precinct in the entire state, not just Minneapolis. And you got four cops to cover.

[Mike]

We dropped. There were times in the summer of 23, every precinct has a whiteboard in the roll call room and there's a discreet little number in the corner. And it's basically, if everything goes to hell, how many people can put on a uniform and get out there? And it was 494,91. It was lean.

[Jay]

I mean, under 500 available for a

[Mike]

force that should have 1200.

[Jay]

Well, at one point I was allowed in to see the whiteboards for all the precincts on a particular day. I couldn't shoot video of it, but I could look at it just to get an idea. And there was one particular day, Mike, where they were lucky to have four on each shift. It just happened to be that bad of a week. Yeah. For each precinct they were lucky to get to four or five.

[Mike]

Right.

[Kenny]

For some of these shifts, that's unacceptable in a major metropolitan market.

[Jay]

I was really shocked. I was told not to videotape the whiteboard, so I didn't.

[Mike]

Yeah. So you saw the number, but I

[Jay]

saw the number and what they pointed out to me, they're like, first precinct, second precinct, third, fourth, fifth. Look at the numbers here, Jay. And if something goes down, we're in deep crap because we don't have any bodies.

[Mike]

Right.

[Kenny]

So

[Mike]

one thing I did when I got elected was I immediately took the offers of doing ride alongs. And especially my first election, I represented a lot of downtown, all the entertainment district. And to see Downtown Minneapolis at 2, 2:30, 3:00 clock on a warm summer Friday night, it's just something else.

[Jay]

It's way different than people can imagine. Because I got a chance to sit in on. What would they call that command center where they watch the whole city in real time on video.

[Mike]

Yeah, the camera room.

[Jay]

The camera room. Okay. I've had a chance to see that. And I did a great story with Chief o' Hara on that. I should bring that story up and play it on the air because what they were watching at 2, 3 in the morning all over the downtown area and how it was all going down,

[Mike]

people Just don't go home.

[Jay]

They don't go home. And then they were also telling me how they noticed which guy might have a gun, which guy might have a knife. What they're looking for in each individual and their behavior. And what we ended up doing was a story. We focused on one incident where they were right on. They go, look at this guy. Look at how he's wandering around. Look how he's got his hands in his pocket, he's got a hoodie up. He's not interacting with a lot of people. Turns out he had a gun in his waistband and eventually pulled it out and was threatening people with it. And within seconds, there were Minneapolis police taking him down.

[Kenny]

Isn't it interesting how the criminals are so dumb that they continue being criminals right in front of cameras?

[Jay]

Right in front of cameras.

[Mike]

They don't care.

[Jay]

They either don't care. They weren't smart enough to know they were there.

[Mike]

Yeah. So years ago, Target was kind enough to fund some cameras that started on Nickel Mall.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And they sent one of our officers to London to learn about their experience in London. So that has only grown. Grown more and more. More effective. And there's nothing like when a charge is filed and the prosecuting attorney puts a tape in the tape deck and says, watch this. This is it. Yeah. It changes the course of the defenders.

[Jay]

You just mentioned Target. I was going to ask you about that today. What do you think's gonna happen with Target in downtown?

[Mike]

Well, I recently met with the government relations person and they're bringing people back. They finally realize, you know, first it was the banks and the accountants and the insurance people that you have to have that interaction that walk down the hall of when you're new in your job and talk to an experienced person about how to do something. You can't do that on a zoom. And God forbid you'd go to lunch with a co worker or maybe have a drink after work with four or five people and talk and get to know each other and have that relationship. And now Target is calling people back. They see the results and they're actually taking people from their suburban location and bringing them downtown. And they're holding more of their national meetings here in Minneapolis.

[Jay]

Were you nervous when they ended the lease?

[Mike]

Oh, yeah. That was. That's not. City center is, you know, like 20% occupied. That's a big office building.

[Jay]

Wow.

[Mike]

Yeah. But, you know, in America, people. Samsung owns the building. They paid for it at the top of the market. They took the risk. They're gonna take it in the Chops. And whoever buys it is gonna get it at a low enough price to re tenant it to revitalize that building and make a profit. That's America.

[Jay]

I mean, Kenny, the first reaction I had when they ended that lease was, oh, they're leaving. I thought they were gonna go. Are you getting any indication they're gonna leave?

[Mike]

No, their indication is they're gonna reenergize their headquarters in downtown. I recently did last week with councilmember Shaffer and councilmember osman at the 800 Nicolet building. There's a lot of Target vendors in there. And they just said the vendors are coming back, too, because that was a big part of who came. Is, rather than hold up a T shirt on a Zoom meeting, you bring a suitcase full of T shirts in and say, I'm gonna give you a good price target. And then you go to dinner and maybe you see a show or you go to a ball game. That's a part of our downtown economy, and Target is bringing that back. I appreciate that effort.

[Kenny]

Before we go to break, Mike, I have one question regarding this meeting earlier in the week. Do these council member activists, did they know the answers to all of their questions ahead of time, or were they actually truly curious? To me, it seems like they were just trying to bring something to light to piss off their supporters.

[Mike]

Yeah. So, yeah, we have all the answers ahead of time. We get the materials ahead of time so we can review them. And yes, Kenny, they have this base of activists that they think they have to feed red meat to.

[Kenny]

That was just a show business. Basically.

[Mike]

Performative. It was very performative.

[Kenny]

That's what I thought. That's what I was afraid of.

[Jay]

And that's why, Kenny, I said to you, this is too rich to pass up. Because I thought it was such theater on Monday that they already knew the answers to all of this. And it was just another opportunity to go after the police and not this time for any of the other things they were mad about. Now it's about standby pay.

[Mike]

Yeah, they're looking for anything, anything at all. And not understanding that we were very close rides. I actually did a ride along. A guy named Jake Lane came into town. He was known for burning Korans in Detroit and throwing dead pigs. And he was going to organize. Yeah, dead pigs. He was going to go into the west bank from city hall and blah, blah. And everybody was scared. And our police were so smart, they put the inspector from downtown. Deputy Chief, Is that Peterson? Yep. Inspector Peterson.

[Jay]

He's a good guy.

[Mike]

Smart. Smart and they took their jackets off so they had their blue shirts showing and they told everybody they go into the coffee shops. I rode with them. I never got damn such a bad cold afterwards. I was sick for about three weeks.

[Jay]

You're too old to be doing that.

[Mike]

I know. Or nor did I ever drink so much sweet tea in my life. Because everyone wanted to give us tea. They were so happy that they were being protected by the Minneapolis business.

[Jay]

They were doing some forward work.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

To let them know, we're gonna protect you, no matter how crazy it is,

[Mike]

sitting in the lobbies of those high rises on the west bank, saying, don't worry, we're not federal agents. We're gonna protect you. And that was just smart, smart police work.

[Jay]

I mean, Jamal Osman did thank him for that.

[Mike]

Yeah. And Jamal, because I said, remember, Jamal, you and I were at the West Bank. So I spent more time in his ward than he did. He did because it's important. Everybody deserves to be feel safe. And the way you do that is with a great police department. And we have a great police department.

[Jay]

I mean, they're sitting at 600. And to do what they were able to do for about three months was pretty remarkable, actually. And all the socialists wanted to do was pick up. They just picked a new thing to get mad about. And then now, this time it was the standby pay. I couldn't believe it.

[Mike]

Well, there's only X amount of snipers and SWAT teams. These are specialized guys, canine squad, dog sniffers. You gotta know what to do. But we have. I'm very proud of my support of the fire, the police, ems, we have great. Our ambulance drivers are incredible. And that's Hennepin County.

[Jay]

They're getting assaulted more and more. Did you see the stories they did on that a couple, maybe six months ago or more? Number of assaults on ambulance and EMS is skyrocketing.

[Mike]

Right. Our society has broken down. And it's just these brave braves, public safety people that keep us going.

[Kenny]

Yeah, I want to change gears here. Coming up. But the first thing I want to do. You heard me mention truck getting broken into broken glass. That's one of the many reasons why I've gone to Schoonover. Actually, the best thing that we've done here at both Crabby and garagelogic for our cars and trucks is put them in the care of Mike Schoonover and his team at Schoonover Body Works and Auto Care and Shoreview. For me, it started years ago with bodywork. A deer assaulted me. And by, by the way, you know what? That bodywork is guaranteed for as long as you own the vehicle. Then it was numerous issues with glass replacement, the new tires, alignment, brakes, ball joints, you name it. Many, many oil changes. And then, of course, the rest of the GL staff caught wind of all of this, and now they're happy Schoonover customers. You'll love how Schoonovers act as your warrior. Yeah, I'm going to use that term, warrior when it comes to dealing with your insurance company. That means quality replacement part, not cheap knockoffs. And also assuring that you get the full value of your policy. They always keep you in the loop as those repairs progress and the vehicle is going to come back to you meeting your full expectations. And if you only. Oh, one thing I really love. If you only have a minor body issue on an older vehicle, ask the guys and gals at Schoonovers about their good, better, best policy. You'll get the service you want and the service you can afford. Schoonover Bodyworks and Autocare is the official repair shop of the Crabby Coffee Shop and Garage Logic on County E in Lexington and Shoreview. And on the Web, schoonover bodyworks.com. okay, gentlemen. Yeah, Kenny, where do we want to go from here?

[Jay]

Well, so in addition to all the stuff that's going on with police, Mike started talking to me a while ago, Kenny, about affordable housing in Minneapolis and what it costs the city. Now, a lot of these projects, Mike, correct me if I'm wrong, it's city money, but there's also state and county and federal money kicked in. Right?

[Mike]

I mean, generally the stack in one of these affordable housing projects is five or six funders.

[Jay]

Yeah. So get a load of this, Kenny. I'm interviewing Mike outside the First Precinct, the first police precinct in downtown. This is what I don't. Summer ago, Last summer, maybe couple, three. Yeah, it was a couple summers ago. And you looked at. There's this building across from the First Precinct, and it's at 16 Fourth street, so it's right down there in the middle part of downtown, across from the First Precinct. Mike looks at me again. He goes, that's affordable housing project right there. And I was looking at it going, oh, wow, it's a nice old building. They're renovating. It was a historic building. Right. That they're renovating. Mike goes, what do you think it's going to cost per unit? I said, per unit? Like an apartment unit kind of thing? He goes, yeah, what do you think it's going to cost for Affordable housing. I said, I have no idea.

[Kenny]

To repair or to live in.

[Jay]

To fix it up. So the total cost was about 28 million for the building. Right. To be renovated. So Mike and his staff found out $589,000 per apartment unit.

[Kenny]

Shut the front door.

[Mike]

Right. One bedroom.

[Jay]

One bedroom. $500,000 for that one unit.

[Kenny]

That's gotta be like $2,500 a month

[Jay]

rent on that hard of downtown. But how does that work, Mike?

[Mike]

No, they were built specifically for people coming out of homeless. So, you know, 30% of your Social Security disability check.

[Jay]

So someone could be living in downtown Minneapolis in this renovated building. Beautiful old building. And the renovation's nice, too, right? For how much? About three, 400 bucks a month?

[Mike]

Yeah. No more than 400.

[Jay]

And it's not that people aren't saying we got to figure out affordable housing. Mike's point to me was, and that was just one example. Then there was Snelling, Fort Snelling. Fort Snelling was 900,000 per unit.

[Mike]

And those buildings are really. They're really in bad shape. I mean, they're old officers quarters, right?

[Kenny]

Are you kidding me? Down by the golf course in the ball fields.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Mike]

No, we had a county commissioner that pulled the plug on it. Can you. For your blood pressure goes on. I don't want you to stroke out here. But we had a common sense county commissioner say, this just ain't gonna work.

[Kenny]

Even developers don't want to touch those buildings because of the cost. And they've all been. Haven't they been fixed up now?

[Jay]

So here's why they do want to touch them. Why is it so good for them?

[Mike]

Because money.

[Jay]

It's money. And they get a lot of government help. Lots of tax credits.

[Kenny]

Explain the process.

[Jay]

Go ahead, Mike.

[Mike]

Well, you know, every affordable housing project is different, but there is such a need, and we all recognize that, and we have to help that. You know, the federal government is very generous with money. The state government, they have federal tax credits. So corporations buy. The tax credits help offset profits. You know, the city of Minneapolis spends a lot of money. And it's just the point that I brought up with Jay is we have to rethink this. We have to do it in a smarter fashion.

[Jay]

Correct.

[Mike]

And rehabbing these old buildings. There's another one in my ward that's. It's a beautiful building. What a great place to live. It's right on the river in the old Pillsbury. A mill.

[Jay]

Yes, that's the artists quarters, or whatever they call them for artists. That, too, was Very expensive

[Mike]

to renovate

[Jay]

and get them up to code, today's code. But when you look at this one, that's across from the first precinct, for example, I've got that right in front of me. When it's $28 million, Kenny, for affordable housing, there's no way. If you do the math right, Mike, how could the city, any city, not just Minneapolis, how can they afford a $28 million affordable housing project? Even though I know they didn't pay the whole 28 million, it's just too good. Cost prohibitive, is it not? Can it continue like this is my point.

[Mike]

No, it's not sustainable. We have to build where the land is cheaper, where it's new construction, which is less cheaper than renovation. Right, right. We're just. It's a knee jerk reaction that isn't being thought out. We have to help people. Absolutely. But if we're spending $565,000 on a one bedroom unit, if we do that smarter, we could build two, three units for that.

[Jay]

Correct? Right.

[Mike]

You could get twice as much and we could help even more people. That's the point I'm trying to make.

[Jay]

And really there's no appetite with the socialists for that, is there?

[Mike]

No, it's.

[Jay]

You know, the socialists on the council are happy to spend that kind of money, right?

[Mike]

Sure.

[Kenny]

But it makes so much sense to get more and help more people for your dollar.

[Jay]

Yep.

[Kenny]

There's no downside to that.

[Mike]

Well, welcome to my world, Ken.

[Kenny]

Instead of helping one person, maybe another, you help three to six.

[Jay]

Correct?

[Mike]

Right.

[Kenny]

Okay, so say I qualify or somebody qualifies for one of these. They move in, their life continually improves. The next thing you know, they're making pretty good money at a pretty good job. Are they going to get the boot or can they keep living there?

[Mike]

Yeah, that's the goal. Right on. The theory on paper is to bring you up and out and there's the emergency shelter, and then the more longer and. But what Minneapolis is, is a magnet. If you're living in a small town, maybe you're drinking too much, you got a substance problem, the local sheriff or your Auntie Marie says, hey, Michael, what the hell are you doing? Straighten up. Well, you don't straighten up. You go to Minneapolis and then pretty soon you're living on the street under a bridge and you need help. And we try to help as many people as possible, but every time you help someone get out, someone new comes in. It's just an ongoing cycle.

[Jay]

I mean, I was stunned when you told me it was 500,000 per unit.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

I never really.

[Kenny]

Well, everybody stunned.

[Jay]

Yeah. I mean, think about that. Just for one bedroom apartment. $590,000 almost to fix it up.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

And that's just one project we're talking about. We could probably go find a bunch like this.

[Mike]

Right. It's very, very expensive, as is all your supportive housing and shelters. It's just really expensive to help people that need the help.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Okay, so the people that voted for these council members that just spent $450,000 on a house in South Minneapolis that's worth $140,000. How can they stomach this with real estate prices? What they are right now in south Minneapolis. And I'm only using south Minneapolis because that's where I'm from. How can they handle this? This is a. This should be a nonpartisan issue.

[Mike]

What part of South Minneapolis you from, Kenny?

[Kenny]

I lived in front of. Oh, you'll love this. A word. 12, I believe.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Kenny]

Live right across the street from a park that was called Sibley Park. And of course, Sibley was the devil himself.

[Mike]

General Sibley.

[Kenny]

Yeah. So I looked up my address on the map. On the Google map recently, they've changed the name to the 40th Street Park.

[Jay]

Oh, you're kidding me.

[Kenny]

The innocuous 40th Street Park.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Because I lived on 39th and 20th, right across from Sibley. Great neighborhood, blue collar, as diverse as you could possibly get. And every single one of us had a job, and we all worked hard and, you know, we appreciated where our taxes were spent. But when I bought this place in 2005, and then when we spent a couple of nights sitting outside with shotguns in the alley protecting our property, my wife, who I refer to as the roommate, we both decided, let's just sell this shithole and get out of here. We're done with the city. And we gave up and we fled.

[Jay]

I think that's an interesting story to share. You've shared it before, and Mike hasn't heard it before, but you are one of those folks who finally said, public safety is that important to me. And I don't feel like I'm getting it here. I'm out of Minneapolis.

[Kenny]

The riots and the response from the governor and the mayor and everybody was just so off putting. We went to a meeting in the park one day where we were told by somebody in the city, I don't know, neighborhood leaders, to stay in the house, put your garbage cans in the garage, get rid of your LP tank, stay in the house. Do not leave your house.

[Jay]

Wow.

[Kenny]

And Basically surrender.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

And me and the wife, of course, and a lot of other people in the neighborhood, both Democrats and Republicans, refused to do that. And we were arm in arm. My best friend was a gallon jammies with a plastic bat who was protecting her place. I mean, it was ridiculous, but it was fun. I didn't show her my 212 gauge.

[Jay]

Kenny, did you. Were you feeling the pinch of the property tax issue at that time?

[Kenny]

No, I didn't care about. That's never been an issue.

[Jay]

So you were. You were fine with that part. It was mostly the public safety part of it.

[Kenny]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the, you know, the helicopters flying at treetop level and the smell of smoke. That went on for three weeks, the looting. I went down to Hiawatha or Minnehaha, basically right across Lake street from the third Precinct, that big. That big complex there. And. And I have. I still have the video. The kids were running in and out of all the shops at 10:30 in the morning with arm. Arms full of merchandise. Right. And there were no cops there, of course, because it was a war zone. Yeah, it was bad, but it was. It was absolutely ridiculous. And to see all of those. Those businesses burn up for no reason whatsoever. All of Lake street was on fire from the river all the way down to Hell Nicollet Avenue all the way. Everything was on fire.

[Jay]

It was bad.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

I was out there in the middle of it, covering it. I remember.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

Everything you're describing, I remember.

[Kenny]

It was ridiculous and it was so heartbreaking. And it's just. I can't. I can't live in this situation. And we left and I loved Minneapolis. Loved it.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Mike]

I'm sorry. Jay, do you hear stories?

[Jay]

A lot of stories like Kenny's.

[Mike]

And that's what breaks my heart the most, is people wanting to leave or leaving because we can't keep them safe.

[Jay]

That's the feeling they have base.

[Mike]

That's the basic tenet of so. More so than property taxes or property taxes, the second. But it's safety.

[Jay]

It's safety.

[Mike]

And for me, I had a career going, a 35 year career with the Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association. We did some furloughing during the riots and the COVID And that's when I decided to run for office because the city was just all that good work to build up. You remember in 2018 with the Super Bowl, 2019 with the NCAA, we were at the peak. We were the envy of every city in America. And then we lost that and we got to get it back. And that's why? I'm putting my shoulder to the boulder. I'm going to get this city back to where it was.

[Jay]

It's going to be a big boulder.

[Mike]

Yes, it is.

[Jay]

I was going to ask you about that. The property tax issue is not going to go away anytime soon.

[Mike]

No.

[Jay]

Because the commercial values are going down in downtown. Right?

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

So the homeowners then got to pick up the rest. Right?

[Mike]

Right. At one time, there was about 44, 45% of all property tax came out of downtown. And now that's shrunk to about 32%. Well, that's hundreds of millions of dollars. And that has to be by every small commercial building in the neighborhood over on Minnehaha and 40th and every home, guys like Kenny, and we have to do that. In fact, the mayor and I today, earlier today, we were at a skyscraper in downtown to talk to the tenants and the management of that, like, what do you need to feel really good about coming downtown and getting your co workers? How do we bring them back? Tell us what, what we need to know.

[Jay]

What are you hearing from business leaders down there?

[Mike]

So, just like Kenny, number one, public safety. Number two, taxes. A lot of the people that work downtown live in Minneapolis and they're worried about their property taxes. One young lady talked about safety on the trains. And of course, that's metro transit, but that's the reason why the mayor vetoed the drug paraphernalia. So, you know, the transit cop comes up to you and you got a crack pipe hanging out, or you're smoking it, or you got needles. Like, come on, we're giving you a ticket. You need help. We're going to start this process of letting the whole world know, the judicial system know that you have a drug problem.

[Jay]

Interesting, man. Yeah. When you said putting your shoulder to the boulder. Good luck.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Michael, I have a question about the third Precinct. Do you have any speculation or maybe firsthand knowledge of why nothing will ever become of that building and that property? I've got my own wild speculation. Well, I want to hear it from you.

[Mike]

Yeah. So right now, to store our voting machines and to have. We have a staff that runs our elections, whether it's municipal or statewide. And we rent space for them on East Tennepin over in northeast Minneapolis.

[Kenny]

Okay.

[Mike]

And so we're gonna. We own that building, the third Precinct. So we're going to turn that into our voting center. So when that opens up, and it should be the end of the summer here when you early vote, you would go there. That's where we'll store the ballots. You have to store the paper ballots for X amount of time. And so we're going to convert that into a democracy. Senate.

[Kenny]

Is it currently being renovated as we speak?

[Mike]

Yes.

[Kenny]

Oh, it is, yeah. Oh, that's great news.

[Mike]

But I'll tell you something funny, Kenny. You had a lot of barbed wire and burned out.

[Kenny]

Oh, it was cyclone fence. It was horrible for years and years and years.

[Mike]

And the socialists stonewalled the renovation all the time. But you know what happened?

[Kenny]

No, tell me. This is good.

[Mike]

The Republicans started coming here to do press conferences. J.D. vance. We had some congressional candidates, Mike Johnson,

[Jay]

the Speaker of the House, stand in front of us because I came and covered one of his news conferences in front of the third Precinct.

[Mike]

All of a sudden my soldiers, counterfeiters, want to know why the hell is that building being renovated? Well, our staff is too polite to say because you're.

[Jay]

They kept blocking it

[Mike]

until they were embarrassed.

[Kenny]

My wild speculation was they wanted to keep it that way because it was a monument for them.

[Mike]

Absolutely. Until the Republicans understood that. And during their press conferences outside, you

[Jay]

had national guys coming here, Kenny, holding news conferences in front of the.

[Mike]

Fly into town to stand in front of that burned out building. Nothing.

[Kenny]

Then let's go go over to 38th and Chicago, what we're calling George Floyd Square. Now, I've been through that intersection a number of times since. Since it all went down. And I don't see any problem with just leaving it the way it is right now. Just make it a roundabout traffic circle and be done with it. Give us parking back on the street. Get a tenant in that gas station and let's get back to real business. That's what the business people and the people that live in that neighborhood want, other than a few select loud mirrors.

[Jay]

You're right.

[Mike]

Right. So the good news is our public works department as we speak is taking up the street because they're going to put. There's lead pipes in it for the water. So we're going to. New pipe, water pipes, new sewer pipes. They're going to redo the street. You know, Chicago is one of the busiest bus routes in the main artery for the buses. And so is 38th.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Mike]

So there will be a roundabout there, just like you said. And they'll memorialize the murder of George Floyd because again, when our police take you in custody, you're safe. You should not be allowed to die. And that's what happened.

[Jay]

But that thing too, Kenny, got held up by the socialists.

[Kenny]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike]

Finally. Andrea Jenkins, Councilman Jenkins, who had 20 plus years in city government on the very last day of her career, we got the votes to move that project

[Jay]

forward, and deservedly so, because she spent many years working on that corridor before.

[Mike]

Well, before George Floyd. Yeah.

[Jay]

So if anybody was working it, it was her.

[Kenny]

38th street for us was a busier thoroughfare and more used than Chicago because people like using park or Portland as their north south there. But 38th crosses the freeway. If you want to go to uptown from my neighborhood over on 38th by Cedar EU's. 38th.

[Mike]

Right.

[Kenny]

There's a major thoroughfare. And it was a pain in the ass getting through that intersection before the roundabout.

[Mike]

So, you know, I'll give credit to the citizens. They contacted the people, and there were two council members that changed their votes and we got a pass. So I was a rock on that. I wanted to listen to Andrea Jenkins. She's lived there 40 plus years.

[Jay]

She knows and worked on it for many, almost a decade. She put in on.

[Mike]

I respected her experience and her knowledge of the community. These younger council members don't respect that type of.

[Jay]

Well, and it was interesting because Chavez, one of the. Jason Chavez, one of the council members who's a socialist, what's he got like one little corner of George Floyd Square is his ward. And he was. Half the time when he would talk about it, you would have thought that thing was in his. The entire thing was in his ward.

[Mike]

Right.

[Jay]

And he held it up a lot because.

[Kenny]

Wait a minute, I remember him saying something along the lines, if they were going to do his idea and if they don't like it, I'm gonna cram it down. These are my words now. I'm gonna cram it down their throats and this is how it's gonna be. I don't care what the voters want. Didn't he say something along those lines? Yes, yes.

[Mike]

Well, and also, Kenny, the businesses there, time and time again when they would come down to city hall, their businesses are getting crippled. There's good restaurants, arts, a body shop, you know, basic city services that people want in their neighborhood, and they're failing. So they were very adamant about reopening that street.

[Jay]

Yeah. And they weren't being listened to.

[Mike]

Yeah. Because the other side wanted to close it permanently.

[Jay]

Permanently. Can you imagine? If you're a business owner and they want that thing closed permanently, that's the end of your business.

[Mike]

Can't get your. Well, you will, because you never get a delivery truck in there.

[Jay]

You can't do anything.

[Mike]

Customers won't come.

[Jay]

Yeah. You can't operate a business. And when I say they weren't listening. City staff was listening. When I say they. It was the socialists on the city council who weren't listening.

[Mike]

We spent over $2 million doing community outreach. $2 million. You could have bought one. Affordable housing.

[Jay]

That's four apartment units across from the first precinct. Damn it.

[Kenny]

The round headed guy is the council member there, right? Sorenson Stevenson.

[Jay]

Soren Stevenson.

[Kenny]

Yeah, Stevenson. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike]

He took Andrew Jenkins spot.

[Kenny]

Yeah, yeah. He's got a. He's got the roundest head I've. That's neither here nor there.

[Jay]

Kenny, you were in the 12th Ward, you said? Yeah. You're in 12th Ward.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

So who would have been there? When? When did you leave the 12th?

[Kenny]

I don't. You know what? You should talk to my roommate. She was writing letters every other week. Seriously, she would not give that person a break.

[Jay]

So before chowdhury. Is it Chowdhury now?

[Mike]

12th Chowdhury now.

[Kenny]

So who's before chow? It was a dude.

[Mike]

Andrew Johnson.

[Jay]

Andrew Johnson.

[Kenny]

That's Johnson. Yeah. I wrote him another email today. Oh my God. Yeah, you're gonna want to be friends with her. Don't be on her bad side.

[Jay]

Let me guess, you said I don't. Don't tell me. I don't want anything.

[Kenny]

Just every little thing. Just firing off another email. That son of a. Hasn't got back to me yet. Or he would get back and he'd be very polite, but, you know, so good.

[Jay]

Did you tell Deb you didn't want anything to do with it?

[Kenny]

I let her handle all.

[Jay]

I'm like, this has been great. This has been awesome. Thanks for taking the time. We'll probably have you back. Because I have a feeling you should share with the audience though, what you share before you get out of here. I said to you, what do you think this year's gonna look like out of the gates? We've had all these right out of the gate. How many vetoes? Three. Four vetoes from the mayor on the socialist agenda. Four vetoes already. What's the rest of the year going to look like? Do you think it's going to be more of the same?

[Mike]

Well, you know, sometimes when you're younger, you don't have that experience to understand when you're up against an immovable object, which is the mayor and his veto power, you have to work with that. And not only does he have the veto power, but there's five of us that are rock solid. And upholding the veto last term when he would veto Something about half of them did not get upheld this time. I'm predicting 100%.

[Jay]

So pretty much a veto proof proof city council.

[Mike]

So that means you have to compromise. That's what has to happen.

[Jay]

They don't like to compromise thing. So you see more of the same for the next year, rest of the year, four years. Well, I guess it'd be four years. Yeah.

[Mike]

Unless there's compromise. And what the mayor said in the state of the city is we have to get back to basic cities core services, governance, in other words, and these services that maybe the county should do or the state should do. You know, a lot of the stuff that the city does, we do it and then the county doesn't, or we do it in the state. Like housing. We put a lot of money into housing. The state should be building the housing. And we just have to take. This is going to be a brutal, brutal budget season because Kenny, I'm with you about the property taxes where I live, the low income and the fixed income citizens, they're terrified, you know, they're gonna move because they have to move.

[Jay]

It's almost like they're taxed out because what was. Have we hit 10% each year the last three years, was it close to that?

[Mike]

8%? 8 to 9%? 8%, 8%. You know, that's a lot. It's a lot. Year after year after year.

[Jay]

And people forget that's just the city's portion of the property tax. It's not the county or the school or the district. And then you throw in Minneapolis, you

[Mike]

got the park board, you've got the park board, you got.

[Kenny]

And then you have to pay for fraud too. So

[Mike]

on the campaign trail, out of the blue one day, people ask about housing and complaining we didn't do enough. I said, can you imagine what we could have built if the fraud didn't happen? How many people could we have helped in Minnesota had not billions of dollars been stolen from the taxpayers and from the people who need it the most? I mean those social service dollars, that's to help those who need the help. And there's people buying Mercedes, shipping money, overseas jewelry. It's disgusting. We.

[Jay]

Kenny and I was it last week. Kenny, where we played the testimony from the Capitol. Gabe. Kenny, was it last week, the testimony from the guy.

[Kenny]

It's all blurred together.

[Jay]

Jay Swanson, who said.

[Kenny]

Oh, that was.

[Jay]

Yeah, yeah, he was an investigator with DHS in 2017.

[Mike]

He blew the whistle.

[Jay]

Yeah, he. There was two of them. There was this guy named Stillman and then Swanson and What Swanson, Do I remember this right, Kenny, he said he was trying to warn the state cuz they were listening. They had off a cell phone and it was text messages where the fraudsters said yeah.

[Kenny]

One fraudster asked the other, how long are you gonna keep bilking this? A couple more years. Gotta buy a house in what? Nairobi.

[Jay]

Gotta buy a couple of houses in Nairobi before I quit the scam.

[Kenny]

And where was he at the time of this phone conversation?

[Jay]

He was vacationing in Dubai.

[Kenny]

Yeah, he was in Dubai. Yeah, you know, not a cheap destination.

[Jay]

Did you hear that testimony?

[Mike]

I'm familiar with it.

[Jay]

It just was like a week ago

[Mike]

and I didn't hear that particular one. I remember the worker who in 2017 said this is really bad, we're getting sold. And they wouldn't listen to him. So he quit. Yes, he had the integrity. I'd like to meet that guy someday. That is a man with high morals.

[Jay]

And Swanson and the other guy who just testified for the first time publicly ever last week is much like Stillman. Same kind of thing where he told Kenny and I, or excuse me, he told the committee that the Walz administration in 2019 shut the fraud investigation unit down. They actually shut it down. And one other thing that we found was funny, sad, not too much, haha funny. But the fraudsters, when he was investigating this Mike, the fraudsters were telling him,

[Kenny]

they were calling him to complain.

[Jay]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The fraudsters would call the investigators and complain that they weren't getting their kickback money.

[Kenny]

Where's my money?

[Jay]

Could they help him out? And then one said that I am not getting my kickback money. Right. And then another.

[Kenny]

Would you like that in cash?

[Jay]

Two investigators. And then Kenny, what was the other part where they were hearing about this? Oh, he was investigating how they would know to come to Minnesota. Right?

[Kenny]

Oh yeah, what was the refugee camps

[Jay]

in Africa, in Kenya.

[Kenny]

Minnesota was all the talk.

[Jay]

He testified last week.

[Mike]

I heard that in Kenya in the refugee camps they said, come, you can go to the United States and steal money. But the best place was Minnesota. Minnesota was the easiest come to Minnesota.

[Jay]

To your point about what you could have done with that money, that's not

[Mike]

the recruitment video you want?

[Jay]

No, it's not.

[Kenny]

Yeah, okay. It's 30 below in the winter, but I mean, billions of dollars.

[Jay]

I'll take it.

[Kenny]

Come on. To Minnesota. Michael, thank you very much. Say, before we go, could you do me a favor?

[Mike]

Sure.

[Kenny]

Say hi to Latricia for me.

[Mike]

Okay. Well, I don't know, maybe not why wouldn't you?

[Jay]

You got it. Since. What'd you say? That's. That's his work wife, right?

[Mike]

I don't want your roommate getting mad at me.

[Kenny]

Thank you, Michael.

[Mike]

Thanks, Mike. This is.

[Jay]

Appreciate it.

[Kenny]

So the opener coming up this weekend and to celebrate the fishing opener in Minnesota, Warner stock in New Richmond, Wisconsin and skeeter boats are offering early season rebates available right now. Not only can you find your brand new skeeter [e-mail] you also have your pick of new alumacraft boats and premier pontoons. Those two names the best in the business. And maybe you're thinking about upgrading your current fishing boat or pontoon. Warner stock will take that trade in. Oh, and by the way, they're also purchasing fishing boats and pontoons up to 15 years old. We're talking four generations of family here celebrating 79 years in business. Warner Stock in New Richmond is committed to an American amazing dealership experience for your family. From sales to service storage, Warner stock is the place for all your needs. Outboard repairs. Yeah, no problem. They can install electronic equipment for you service your trailer. They are committed to keeping you on the water this season. Look, everybody knows this boating game. It's not a cheap lifestyle. So we can trust Warner's doc to take care advantage, excuse me, take care of every step to keep us on the water all season long. They're right there in New Richmond, Wisconsin and on the Web, warners doc.com.

[Jay]

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[Kenny]

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[Jay]

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[Kenny]

new world of comfort. Visit a sleep number store or go

[Jay]

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[Kenny]

So speaking of Warner stock and boats, I thought it was interesting what your governor. I guess he's my governor. You live in Wisconsin. What my governor did earlier this week, he basically rearranged the deck chairs in the Titanic, thinking that's going to make a difference. You know what I'm talking about? I do a DHS with Shereen. Yep.

[Jay]

Shereen Gandhi, the commissioner now.

[Kenny]

No longer the commissioner but probably still running the show.

[Jay]

You know, it's interesting. That's a really good point because I just talked with Faye Bernstein via text.

[Kenny]

I was just gonna bring her up because she said something. The most shocking thing she Said to us, I carry it with me is that she reported all that fraud to Sherene and Shireen gave her the brush off.

[Jay]

Yeah. When Sherene was then the head contract compliance.

[Kenny]

Right.

[Jay]

With the compliance of all the stuff that's happening. Yeah.

[Kenny]

Basically shut it down. And is now has been saying recently that she's doing everything she can to fight fraud for us.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

Right.

[Jay]

And so what you're referring to, if the listeners aren't aware, the commissioner of dhs, Shereen Gandhi, is now a deputy commissioner and a guy named Connolly is now the commissioner.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

So I asked Faye Bernstein, who works there, what are the workers being told? And she said she doesn't think it was. Let me see how much I can share with you from this text. She said. Well, she says she has a hard time believing it's involuntary. In other words, they said this is how it's going to be. But why? Yeah, she's not sure why.

[Mike]

So.

[Jay]

And then Connolly, the new guy, is out for the month of May on a medical thing. I do know that. Something like that. He's out for the month of May. So for the month of May, I guess you'd have Sherene still running the show. I guess.

[Kenny]

I don't know. Trust me, she'll be running the show until she's finally ushered out of the building or put in cuffs. I mean, come on. And that's the problem with all of this cuffs. We're never gonna see any cuffs. Nobody's. Nobody's naming names. Nobody's taking responsibility. All. All the Democrats are covering for everybody. It's just ridiculous what's happening right now. And they all say the same thing. They're all fighting this fraud for us, when in fact all they're doing is covering their own asses.

[Jay]

Yeah. And trying to get to the election. And hopefully in their mind. Right. They want Klobuchar. And then there's gonna be new commissioners in every agency. They're just trying to wade through the river and stay above water until November.

[Kenny]

What do you think of Amy as a possibility for a governor?

[Jay]

Well, she will be. I don't think. Do you think there's any chance she won't be governor? I mean, I would say she's the next governor.

[Kenny]

And do you think we'll ever get to the bottom of the fraud with her as governor?

[Jay]

Not politically, you know, maybe more so from the law enforcement side through the justice system, I think. But do I think any. Any. Whether it's Klobuchar or any Democrat that wins that seat Kenny, do I think they're gonna go after their own?

[Kenny]

No, no, no. We're far too tribal these days.

[Jay]

Yeah, they won't go after their own on that.

[Kenny]

Remember, just when was it 20, 2017 or 18 that the entire party turned on Al Franken?

[Jay]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kenny]

Those days are over now.

[Jay]

Yeah. Well, and think about this. In the fraud committee, on Monday or Tuesday. Excuse me. So it had been yesterday, I believe.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

The chair of the fraud committee at the Capitol, Kristen Robinson, Representative Kristen Robbins, was. So she wanted to subpoena Bill on Omar.

[Kenny]

Yeah. And the fact that that didn't pass, divided on party lines is proof. Yeah, isn't it? That's proof, right?

[Mike]

Yep.

[Kenny]

Yep.

[Jay]

That was the Democrats. For those who don't know, it would have been the first time it's happened at the Capitol in the Fraud Committee since Omar wouldn't show up and wouldn't share her emails and share her financial records. Kristen Robbins put it to a vote to subpoena her and it was, I think seven Democrats who said no and seven Republicans who said yes. And I can't understand why, other than it's a political season with the election just a few months away, why wouldn't. If you're a Democrat, why wouldn't you say, yeah, I'd like to subpoena. I'd like to hear what she has to say.

[Kenny]

They're not gonna turn on their own in 2026. No.

[Jay]

So to answer your question, I just don't see any Democrat Klobuchar otherwise doing anything. I mean, they might do things to the judicial system for the fraudsters and put in better guardrails through policy. But to answer your question, Kenny, do I think they'll come after anybody in their party? No, I don't think they will. I don't think so.

[Kenny]

Remember our show on property taxes? Business property taxes?

[Jay]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Kenny]

Got a fun email. Well, an interesting email from Jack. He lives in Mora, Minnesota. I live in the small town of Mora. Your podcast had me wondering about taxes on businesses in Mora. Mora has a population of 3700, so there are a few more businesses than Sabika. Among them five gas stations and a grocery store. I decided to do some checking on taxes. There is a newer quick trip. It's a nice building, well kept grounds. I was shocked to see that they pay 61,000 in yearly property taxes. There's a very well kept Coburn's grocery store which also sells gasoline on a pay at the pump basis. No convenience store there, but again they pay 102,000 in property taxes.

[Jay]

Yeah, yeah. A hundred and two thousand.

[Kenny]

Yeah, yeah. So it's not just Sabika, which is. No, if I remember right, it's less than 500, isn't it?

[Jay]

I think she said it was 300 or about 300, I think is what she said. Yeah, about 300 people.

[Kenny]

Bert writes, you know, it's one thing when you get, when you and Jay get me all worked up about how much fraud there is, but now we have warrants being served, more credible whistleblowers. Jay is a secret agent. Omar may get cut off at the knees. It's fantastic. Bert here, very optimistic.

[Jay]

I love Bert.

[Kenny]

He says it's like, it's like the dry hump is over. Also PS News Woody is the phrase of the day.

[Jay]

I think, I think that was when I told you. I said, yeah, I had a little bit of a news woody on the fraud stuff.

[Kenny]

This is a good one from Jennifer and it's long. I'm just going to cut out a few things that Jennifer wrote here and I actually forwarded this to you because she works in the medical insurance business. Okay. And she made a lot of really interesting points during that. I'm going to leave all of that out in case it comes up in a future show. I had a thought. Listening to you and Jay, it occurred to me that there may be an interesting reason that all, all the fraud was ignored. All the investigations shut down and all the concerns set aside. All the serious enabling of the fraud happened in 2019 after Walz was elected. Right. Walls is a Mao loving communist. What if this is a good way to enable reparations? Money from honest taxpayers gets paid to the fraudsters that are mostly people of color. And since they can't just pass a reparations bill, why not enable, increase and encourage the fraud as a means of redistribution? Walls believes that one person's socialism is another person's neighborliness or whatever exact he said. He keeps referring to illegals as neighbors. Well, is it possible that he takes the welfare, snap, Medicaid and fraud the same way? It's just taking care of our neighbors.

[Jay]

Wow, interesting. I thought that was a really interesting. Yeah, it's an interesting take.

[Kenny]

She goes on to say that she's worked in the medical insurance industry for 30 years and said some really interesting things. It's very long and complicated. Too much to break down right here. But I sent you the email and she concludes with it's all just a racket. If you'd like to learn more about medical fraud, you can give me a Call. So we might actually. Jennifer. So thank you for that.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Jay]

And I like the email bag. This is fun. This is all right. As long as they like us.

[Kenny]

Rick and Stillwater. I want some scalps. I want firings. I want the anonymous bureaucrats exposed. They are as guilty as Amy Bach and the Somalis we've seen on trial. We need someone like Bill Glan or Hauser or Coles to figure out who's being protected and who is doing the protecting. Enough hiding the truth. GD it. I'm not a tinfoil hat guy, but it seems like some very powerful figures are keeping the full story buried. And I agree.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Kenny]

It's so frustrating at this point. We want names.

[Jay]

Yeah. And it's really hard to get at until somebody. You're going to need somebody to flip, as they say. Right.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

I will tell you this much, like we said last week, I do know there's an ethics investigation into Representative Congresswoman Omar. There's at least that. The Ethics Committee in the House. The U.S. house of Representatives, not the Minnesota House. And with Omar, Kenny, there's a lot there in terms of questions. Right?

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

And we know of at least one investigation into what she might have known and when did she know it. Right.

[Kenny]

Yeah.

[Jay]

But I can't think of anybody else in all of this, Kenny, that. There aren't any names coming up in investigations or reviews, are there, Other than Representative Omar. Really. I don't think we're ever gonna know the names, Ken.

[Kenny]

And I don't think Minnesota is going to. What's the word? Get. No, Johan, If. If she gets got. It's going to be on a federal level.

[Jay]

Yes. 100.

[Kenny]

She's far too protected here.

[Jay]

Yep. And also what. What makes that a little bit of a tangled, messy web is. So much of it was put in her husband's name.

[Kenny]

Yeah. With.

[Jay]

With the business, finances. Yeah. Outside of the other stuff that she's, you know, accused of.

[Kenny]

But I mean, think of the long list of accusations, whether they're. Whether they're bullshit or not. We'd like some answers more than just shrugging and calling us idiots and saying this is nonpartisan or this is partisan attacks. Islamophobic, and this is Trump's fault. You know, everything with her is Trump's fault and Islamophobic.

[Jay]

That comes up a lot.

[Kenny]

It's always racism, and it has nothing

[Jay]

to do with any of it. It's just more like, answer these questions. Let's get to the bottom of what. How much of this is true and how much of it isn't true. Let's find out. But who knows? Well, I think we're gonna find out a little bit more on Omar down the road. I gotta. I think there's gonna be something at some point.

[Kenny]

You're very coy. You're very, very coy. I've known you long enough to know that you're actually saying something that you're not saying. Gabe, do you have anything before we shut it down? You need to add anything, Gabe. Just keep fighting.

[Jay]

Keep fighting.

[Mike]

Just keep doing it.

[Jay]

I love Gabe.

[Kenny]

Keep going.

[Jay]

Just keeping the good fight going. Yeah, it.

[Kenny]

Thank you, Gabe. Thank you, Mike. Not Joe Rainville.

[Jay]

Yeah, it was funny. Called me Joe.

[Kenny]

You called him Joe?

[Jay]

Awesome.

[Kenny]

It's. I've turned into my grandma. I can't remember anybody's name. Seriously.

[Jay]

Mike was great. That was nice of him.

[Kenny]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, Joe John J. Joe John J. Okay.

[Jay]

All right, Cal, we'll see you later.

[Kenny]

Thank you to everybody that. That listen to news from the Crabby Coffee Shop. We appreciate it, and hopefully we'll be back next week.