Welcome To The New State Of Florida, Homelessness Solutions & Budget Battles

[00:00:01] Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike

[00:00:03] Mikes on Mic, a conversation about politics, government and Jacksonville.

[00:00:09] With 50-year opinion leaders Mike Hightower, Mike Tolbert, an award-winning broadcaster

[00:00:15] and longtime political observer, Mike Miller.

[00:00:17] Welcome once again to another episode of Mikes on Mic.

[00:00:21] I'm Mike Miller along with Mike Tolbert who is actually sitting next to me in the studio.

[00:00:25] It's a delight to have him with us as always.

[00:00:28] Mike Hightower is back of course at his place in North Carolina but he's joining us remotely

[00:00:33] and it's good to have all three of you here.

[00:00:35] There are a lot of things that we want to talk about here in this episode of Mikes on Mic.

[00:00:39] We thought we'd talk about the contentious feud that's going on between the certain

[00:00:44] council members and the city council and the mayor's office over the proposed

[00:00:48] budget.

[00:00:48] I also want to take a look at Jacksonville's long quest as an identity and a moniker

[00:00:54] that fits, that people are not going to laugh at as they seem to be doing with the current

[00:00:59] leverage.

[00:01:00] Mark Woods talked about last week on the show where welcome to the free state of Florida.

[00:01:05] But first, Mr. Tolbert, let's talk about one of those contentious city council members,

[00:01:10] Rory Diamond, and seems to be at the center of this storm.

[00:01:13] Yeah, let's talk about Roy for a minute.

[00:01:16] We're probably going to spend more than a minute talking about Roy.

[00:01:19] Roy, if you don't know this, Roy represents the beaches, the three-beach communities in

[00:01:24] the west side of the intercoastal waterway.

[00:01:28] I remember the first time I met Roy Diamond was the night he was sworn in to the Neptune

[00:01:32] Beach City Council.

[00:01:34] He was a young guy.

[00:01:35] I was very impressed.

[00:01:37] Later on, I took a tour of Canine's lawyers that he gave me and once again I was

[00:01:43] extremely impressed by what they were doing out there.

[00:01:45] But right after that and after he got elected to the city council, Jacksonville City Council,

[00:01:52] his impressiveness went away for me, frankly.

[00:01:56] It has several factors dealing with policy, if not attitude and personality.

[00:02:04] But when we tried to put the referendum on the ballot to raise money, raise a half penny

[00:02:11] for school construction, new schools, renovated schools.

[00:02:14] He was one of those who tried to block the school board from letting it go to a vote.

[00:02:20] And then when they lost the case and it had to go to a vote, he also voted against it

[00:02:27] in the council.

[00:02:28] Still, he continued to do that.

[00:02:30] He did the same thing with the next issue for teacher pay.

[00:02:34] And then my favorite of all was his support of Lot J.

[00:02:39] He was strongly behind the Lot J thing.

[00:02:42] And he's been contentious ever since and it's no surprising, not surprising to me that

[00:02:50] he is doing everything he can to try to stop the mayor, to hurt the mayor or hurt the city.

[00:02:57] I'm not surprised at all.

[00:02:58] He represents the beaches out there.

[00:03:01] He wants to run for Congress when Rutherford steps down.

[00:03:04] That's where his brain is right now.

[00:03:06] And he's playing to that narrow niche and not doing what's right in right for the community.

[00:03:10] Other than that, I don't have another observation.

[00:03:15] Now, there was a folio weekly article that came out back in March of 2022

[00:03:21] that focused on Mr. Diamond and Mr.

[00:03:24] Hightower, can you want to go into that a little bit with us?

[00:03:27] And what are you found?

[00:03:28] Yeah, I want to pick my words very because Mr.

[00:03:31] Tolbert is doing a great job of threading this needle.

[00:03:35] I'm going to use the word disingenuous, as opposed that will be my observation,

[00:03:40] as opposed to a judgment.

[00:03:42] Picking up on what my Tolbert said, we were all very impressed when he ran for the beaches

[00:03:46] and everybody had great hopes at him.

[00:03:48] And he came in as a conservative.

[00:03:51] I appreciated that.

[00:03:52] But then what happened was when you go back to this folio article, which was March

[00:03:57] 21 to now you do is Google it and the name of the article is Dogon.

[00:04:03] And he goes into great detail about is one about what he did at the Canines for

[00:04:09] Warriors, that I'll leave that for people to make their own judgment.

[00:04:13] But the part that I have found just as a burn my saddle, the whole thing

[00:04:20] is about candidly is how he is stretched.

[00:04:23] I wouldn't say the truth.

[00:04:25] He's just been totally disingenuous with his resume.

[00:04:28] And when you go online right now, if you go to the city is bio and you read his bio,

[00:04:35] it floors me about how he has just added to it.

[00:04:40] And when you read about all the things that he has accomplished, I have to just

[00:04:44] say you read the article and there's a little bit of stretching.

[00:04:49] Fudging.

[00:04:50] I got just quote some of this stuff in his resume.

[00:04:53] He said he was an alumni of the White House and he was a deputy

[00:04:56] associate director for President George W. Bush during 9 11.

[00:05:01] He asserts he asserts that he helped in quote, founding the U.S.

[00:05:05] Office of Homeland Security and watch two wars unfold.

[00:05:10] He said he was briefed that he worked for Governor

[00:05:13] Schwarzenegger in California.

[00:05:16] He said he became a federal prosecutor for the U.S.

[00:05:20] Department of Justice from 2011.

[00:05:23] When you go back and look at this is really what it ended up.

[00:05:26] During that time that he was at the quote White House, he was an unpaid intern.

[00:05:31] He didn't do anything about creating Homeland Security candidly.

[00:05:36] And he wasn't there when the two wars, it was in a different state.

[00:05:40] What he did for Governor Schwarzenegger and Cal on you is up for again,

[00:05:46] up for real judgment.

[00:05:48] And he was never a prosecutor and that.

[00:05:51] And I think what's happened is if you will remember correctly.

[00:05:54] Mike, wait a minute.

[00:05:55] He was an intern just like he was in the White House.

[00:05:58] Correct. Yeah, exactly.

[00:06:00] And he was unpaid and all these jobs.

[00:06:02] He was an unpaid intern during all this time.

[00:06:06] I even saw a document from the Justice Department

[00:06:10] that responded to a question about whether or not he did what he claimed

[00:06:15] to have done at the Justice Department.

[00:06:17] And the answer was a very emphatic note that he was an

[00:06:21] he was an unpaid member of staff member, which is like to me being an intern

[00:06:26] or being a practice teacher.

[00:06:28] My understanding from the polling that we've heard from Dr.

[00:06:32] Mike Bender and all to the biggest issues that we're talking about in Jacksonville

[00:06:36] is affordable housing and homeless.

[00:06:39] Both those are issues that the beaches area are confronted with.

[00:06:44] And yet he votes against that and he's voting against it.

[00:06:48] He has never ever voted in favor of the city budget,

[00:06:53] even during curries.

[00:06:55] He always voted no.

[00:06:57] This is a no guy.

[00:06:58] And so what he's really trying to do is just be

[00:07:02] to the left to the right of everybody else so they can run as a conservative

[00:07:05] in the future.

[00:07:07] And I think when we start talking about where we want Jacksonville to be

[00:07:12] and what we want there to be, it's about a quality of life.

[00:07:16] That's what we want in Jacksonville.

[00:07:18] We've got young people and two of the biggest issues here in Jacksonville

[00:07:22] is the homeless, which I think we're going to talk about,

[00:07:25] which is a safety issue in downtown Jacksonville and affordable housing.

[00:07:29] My understanding is that there are 3,500 units

[00:07:35] affordable housing needed in Jacksonville,

[00:07:38] which means there are 26,352 people waiting for low income housing.

[00:07:45] This is two of the things that Rory is against.

[00:07:48] So when we talk about the quality of life and where we want our city to be,

[00:07:52] we have this person for only my observation,

[00:07:56] political reasons is saying no to the mayor about two issues

[00:08:00] that are important for the quality of life in Jacksonville.

[00:08:04] So let's let Miller, let's let Mike, let's let Miller

[00:08:07] get in here and talk about these three issues, the homelessness,

[00:08:11] the workforce preparation and the third one.

[00:08:14] And as all three of those areas were part of the CBA,

[00:08:18] the Community Benefits Agreement that we did with the Jaguars,

[00:08:21] where the Jaguars were willing to give the city one hundred and fifty million

[00:08:25] dollars if we if we match that with the same

[00:08:29] one hundred and fifty million dollars for the CBA.

[00:08:31] As people probably know through this budget process that we've seen,

[00:08:36] the City Council, including Lori Diamond, decided to carve out

[00:08:39] the CBA from the overall program of the of the stadium enhancements.

[00:08:47] And as a result of that, we don't know if we're going to be ending up losing

[00:08:51] fifty million dollars from the Jaguars that they were willing to put in.

[00:08:55] Let me just focus, if I can, on the homelessness for just a moment,

[00:08:59] because there's an important issue with many people

[00:09:02] may have forgotten about or never known about.

[00:09:04] Our state legislature back two years ago

[00:09:09] voted in favor of House Bill 1365.

[00:09:12] 1365 says that homeless individuals are prohibited

[00:09:17] from camping on city streets, sidewalks and parks,

[00:09:21] and instead placed in temporary shelters monitored by law enforcement agencies.

[00:09:26] The state of Florida has enforcement tools needed

[00:09:28] to ensure local governments comply with that.

[00:09:31] The interesting part about this is another one of those unfunded mandates

[00:09:35] where the state is saying you've got to do this,

[00:09:37] but we're not going to give you the money to do that.

[00:09:40] What the mayor has done and I haven't seen this publicized very much

[00:09:43] and I'm just going to show this to the audience so they can see it.

[00:09:47] This is it's called a new day homeless plan

[00:09:50] to address the passage of state law 1365.

[00:09:53] And this goes into great depth about some 14 different points

[00:09:58] that the mayor feels must be addressed if we're going to get a handle

[00:10:02] on this homelessness issue.

[00:10:03] The total cost for it 13.6 million dollars.

[00:10:07] But let's talk a little bit and hear for ourselves

[00:10:12] what this riff is between Diamond and a few other of the Republicans

[00:10:16] on this city council and what the mayor has to say.

[00:10:21] She's not going to take this down, take this sitting down

[00:10:24] and listen to this as you as we roll this tape.

[00:10:27] I think you have individuals who spend a lot of time,

[00:10:32] frankly, being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

[00:10:34] What's member Rory Diamond disagreed.

[00:10:37] That's a piggy bank.

[00:10:37] I hope we never touch the mayor who's expected opposition from the Republican

[00:10:41] majority on the council, however, believes it's all politically motivated.

[00:10:45] It's like starving your family so that you can keep more money

[00:10:49] in the bank than you really need.

[00:10:51] And so I don't really understand it beyond the fact

[00:10:54] that I think some of it is simply politically motivated.

[00:10:57] Honestly, it's an insult to the voters who put me into office.

[00:11:01] People put me here because they trust me to do what I believe is best for the city.

[00:11:04] It is wildly fiscally irresponsible to transfer anything close to that.

[00:11:08] At the end of the day, let me do my job.

[00:11:11] And with that, we'll move on from the homelessness issue,

[00:11:14] but it's a very important issue.

[00:11:16] Since it's extremely important.

[00:11:17] I do hope we get some more play on this

[00:11:19] because it's a very good plan that really has not seen much publicity at all in the media.

[00:11:24] A couple of things, Mike, when we drove into town today from Brooksville,

[00:11:28] you can't miss the homeless.

[00:11:31] They're everywhere.

[00:11:32] And when we go over and visit our friend Alan Blister, the historical society,

[00:11:37] we have to ride through and evade or avoid

[00:11:42] people of the homeless all over the place over there.

[00:11:45] And something's got to be done.

[00:11:47] I don't know that what the legislature has done is the right thing to do.

[00:11:52] But it's been done and something else

[00:11:53] and something's got to be done about the homeless.

[00:11:56] There's no question about that.

[00:11:57] And part of the squabble between Diamond and Deegan has to do with

[00:12:02] spending reserve funds.

[00:12:05] And Donna talked about that when she was on our show,

[00:12:08] which reserve funds have always been

[00:12:11] sacrosanct and that started with consolidation.

[00:12:15] Two when the first years of consolidation with Mayor Tansler,

[00:12:18] there were two or three things that you couldn't touch.

[00:12:21] One of them was you can't you cannot touch reserve funds.

[00:12:25] Another one was you could not raise the ad valorem.

[00:12:28] In fact, for years, the mayor bragged about every budget year,

[00:12:32] reducing the ad valorem and cutting employees.

[00:12:35] And, of course, as good as it sounded back then,

[00:12:38] we saw what happened, what it caused later on.

[00:12:41] Deegan has taken the approach that we need.

[00:12:44] She's over. They've overfunded the reserve fund.

[00:12:47] They put they got plenty of money in there.

[00:12:50] We've got these needs to move the city forward.

[00:12:52] And she wants to use some of those funds.

[00:12:54] And all of a sudden, Mr. Diamond says, no,

[00:12:57] because he's not going to let that happen.

[00:12:59] I don't know how he by himself stops that unless

[00:13:02] as other conversations been going on,

[00:13:04] they're not supposed to happen about law anyhow.

[00:13:06] Mike, on that point, on the reserves,

[00:13:10] my understanding is that in reserves, we have three hundred

[00:13:14] and forty five million dollars in operating reserves

[00:13:18] and another hundred and twenty five thousand for emergency

[00:13:22] reserves, and which is almost so when you add this up,

[00:13:26] this is twice what we in order for the miss out to be

[00:13:32] for our rating. And by the way, our rating said now

[00:13:35] quite has gone up from Fitch.

[00:13:37] Now, the amount of money that the mayor wants to use

[00:13:40] on these issues that we've talked about

[00:13:43] is forty forty seven point two from the reserves.

[00:13:47] And you know what that amounts to is two point five percent

[00:13:52] out of the reserves for a quality of life, something that we need

[00:13:56] to move our community forward.

[00:13:58] So to underscore what Mike over and what we're saying,

[00:14:02] being an obstructionist for the sake of being an obstructionist

[00:14:06] is not good for our community to move it forward.

[00:14:08] I guess the question that we do have our river is that

[00:14:11] where do we think this is all going to take us?

[00:14:14] One of the problems that the mayor Dighan has is she is

[00:14:17] from the beaches and under a lot of normal

[00:14:21] circumstances on the mayors that we've known, if a councilman

[00:14:25] who represented the district was doing what Diamond is doing,

[00:14:30] that mayor would pop a whip and say your potholes are not going to get

[00:14:35] feel and your constituents are going to be calling you about it.

[00:14:39] But Donna, I don't think can do that because she's a resident.

[00:14:42] So she's between a rock and a hard place, I believe.

[00:14:45] That's got to be maybe some other things she can do, but I'm not sure what that would be.

[00:14:48] But somebody needs to pick up a stick and get his attention.

[00:14:52] One of the things that is we've talked about in the mayor is very good,

[00:14:56] is that she is a great communicator.

[00:14:58] And what Mike Talbert has said on more than one occasion,

[00:15:02] you can never over communicate with the voter.

[00:15:05] And I believe that she won.

[00:15:08] She has a message in number two.

[00:15:10] They're going to push her.

[00:15:11] And I think that as we all know, she is very good in the media.

[00:15:15] And I would not take her on on something.

[00:15:18] And also, as I remember what John Thrasher said, always tried to be

[00:15:22] the most reasonable person in the room and that will get you nine times out of ten.

[00:15:26] They'll get there.

[00:15:27] This changes a subject for a minute.

[00:15:28] Flip it over.

[00:15:29] I got to tell you before you start this, I know where you're going to go with this.

[00:15:32] I must have received eight phone calls from friends who are out of state

[00:15:37] who have come to Florida for one reason or another.

[00:15:41] And they have all said without exception, what the hell is that sign about?

[00:15:46] Welcome to the free state of Florida.

[00:15:49] I immediately refer them to Mark Woods's appearance on our show last week,

[00:15:54] just to say if you really want to hear our absurdities,

[00:15:58] listen to what Mark Woods had to say.

[00:16:00] This is not necessarily this is not necessarily about the free state of Florida,

[00:16:04] but it is about slogans and logos and identification.

[00:16:08] On our last trip to Jacksonville, the previous trip to Jacksonville,

[00:16:13] we went to dinner at the beach bowl, newly renovated beach bowl restaurant.

[00:16:18] How was that?

[00:16:18] It was wonderful.

[00:16:19] Wasn't it really?

[00:16:20] Service sucked.

[00:16:22] It was fresh.

[00:16:23] They're getting used to it.

[00:16:24] But when we walked in the door, we were greeted by at least a 30 foot

[00:16:29] tall photograph poster that was Mayor Tansler and Lee Meredith,

[00:16:35] the actress Lee Meredith, putting the city,

[00:16:39] new moving the city limits sign all the way out.

[00:16:42] And there was a sign that said right there,

[00:16:45] welcome to the bold new city of the south.

[00:16:49] Yeah. Now.

[00:16:51] What concerns me is people to this day, all these years later,

[00:16:56] even though we've gone through slogan after slogan after slogan,

[00:17:00] people still refer to Jacksonville as the bold new city of the south.

[00:17:05] At the time they put that sign up there and created that slogan.

[00:17:09] It was all about a new consolidated government,

[00:17:13] but it was not real.

[00:17:14] It was not applicable to a lot of things that were going on negatively in Jacksonville.

[00:17:20] Today, I really believe Jacksonville is the bold new city of the south.

[00:17:25] Instead of tinkering around with all these damn logos and slogans.

[00:17:30] Let's let me find the list here.

[00:17:33] River City, River City, Florida's first coast where Florida begins.

[00:17:38] It's easier here.

[00:17:39] And now we're the flip side of Florida.

[00:17:43] And I had to get this out of my crawl.

[00:17:45] You get a burr, I got a burr.

[00:17:48] Because I've been in this business for a long time.

[00:17:51] And what we don't what we miss understanding is there's a difference

[00:17:56] between an advertising campaign for tourism and an identity for the city.

[00:18:02] A lasting identity for the city.

[00:18:04] I love New York.

[00:18:05] Think about it, the windy city.

[00:18:08] Virginia is for lovers.

[00:18:09] Virginia is for lovers.

[00:18:10] But you got all these cities that have these names that have stuck.

[00:18:14] And we keep fishing around here.

[00:18:16] And when we I think we got one in our lap, there was a gift to us

[00:18:19] 60 years ago, almost.

[00:18:21] And we ought to take advantage of it.

[00:18:23] That now I'm off my soapbox.

[00:18:24] Do you know what the official slogan is for the state of Florida?

[00:18:27] Guys, you know what it is?

[00:18:29] It's in God with trust.

[00:18:31] Really? That is the official slogan of the state of Florida's in God we trust.

[00:18:36] I want to go.

[00:18:37] Let's go back.

[00:18:38] We had Michael Corrigan, the CEO.

[00:18:40] By the way, the reason they have that is because everyone who comes here

[00:18:43] leaves all their money here.

[00:18:48] We're taking it from the dollar bill and putting it on our slogan.

[00:18:53] When Michael Corrigan, the CEO of Visit Jacksonville was our guest

[00:18:58] recently,

[00:18:59] and he started talking about this new slogan, the flip side of Florida

[00:19:03] and why they were going to why they were making this change.

[00:19:06] What this was all about.

[00:19:07] And let's play that tape.

[00:19:09] That's 100 percent the challenge that we face every single day.

[00:19:12] The good news is Jacksonville's 840 square miles.

[00:19:16] The bad news is Jacksonville's 840 square.

[00:19:19] And we obviously do a lot of research on who comes to visit us,

[00:19:22] why they come to visit us and everything else.

[00:19:25] And the reality is there is no one thing.

[00:19:27] There is no one reason people come to Jacksonville.

[00:19:30] Again, I said one of the end with this,

[00:19:34] iconic identifiers for a city

[00:19:36] are very different than a slogan for an advertising campaign.

[00:19:41] And somehow we got to figure that out and get on with business.

[00:19:44] Let's have some fun.

[00:19:46] It's obvious that we three happen to be

[00:19:49] of the senior citizen genre.

[00:19:52] OK, that's obvious.

[00:19:54] I may not be to some of you who've seen our faces and think,

[00:19:57] no, they can't be that old.

[00:19:59] Actually, most of you are looking at us and saying, really?

[00:20:03] Those are the those must be the ones you need glasses.

[00:20:06] And it's obvious that we as seniors and a lot of water

[00:20:10] has flowed underneath our bridges over the last several decades.

[00:20:13] We've all done different things in our lives

[00:20:15] and had reasonably successful careers, I think.

[00:20:18] But when we were young and we were growing up,

[00:20:21] their question always comes from our family.

[00:20:25] My father used to be the one.

[00:20:27] What do you want to be when you grow up?

[00:20:28] What do you want to do when you grow up?

[00:20:30] I'll end it, but you guys go ahead and start.

[00:20:33] I'll start it when I was a kid

[00:20:35] and playing Little League Baseball.

[00:20:37] I wanted to be a Yankees outfielder.

[00:20:39] Ah, that was my goal.

[00:20:40] And then when I found out I couldn't hit the curveball,

[00:20:42] it was vanished.

[00:20:44] You and Mickey Mantle.

[00:20:45] But I always like to write and I can remember

[00:20:48] when I think I was in junior high school

[00:20:50] and I was working for the city recreation department

[00:20:52] during the summer at a particular park,

[00:20:55] I created a column for the daily newspaper

[00:20:58] called Nicky Northside.

[00:20:59] When I would write weekly about what went on the park

[00:21:03] that was kids.

[00:21:05] And about that same time, I was babysitting

[00:21:08] at neighborhood kids.

[00:21:10] And so I put together a Mimograph newsletter

[00:21:13] for parents telling them what their kids did

[00:21:16] and how much fun they had and all those kind of things.

[00:21:18] So that kind of got me into business.

[00:21:20] And so I made a great choice.

[00:21:22] I went to Alwin University that did not have a school,

[00:21:25] a journalism school or writing school.

[00:21:28] So everything I did was just hands on.

[00:21:31] I ended up in Little Rock, Arkansas in college

[00:21:34] and as a sports editor, sports reporter

[00:21:36] put the newspaper right there.

[00:21:39] And one thing led to another

[00:21:40] and then when I got to Jacksonville

[00:21:42] shortly after getting here, I got into politics.

[00:21:45] So who the hell knows what you're gonna be

[00:21:46] when you grow up?

[00:21:47] That's true.

[00:21:48] What about you, hi, Tower?

[00:21:50] Believe it or not, goes back to high school.

[00:21:53] All I really wanted to do

[00:21:55] because of the teachers I had

[00:21:57] was want to be a history teacher.

[00:21:59] That's really what happened.

[00:22:01] And then I got bitten by the political bug.

[00:22:04] And as you all know from the young Democrats

[00:22:07] working for Jimmy Carter and then being taken

[00:22:10] across to the Republican line by Ronald Reagan

[00:22:13] and then spending the last, I don't know,

[00:22:16] Mr. Talbert has been doing it 55 years,

[00:22:19] I guess I've been doing it 53 years

[00:22:21] and just been involved.

[00:22:22] And then from that, it's just from the folks

[00:22:25] of the people who helped me along,

[00:22:27] wanted to take it back and try to be a mentor

[00:22:30] and a coach or get people to be coaches

[00:22:32] for the next generation.

[00:22:34] And I guess that's just using all the good things

[00:22:38] that these people have done

[00:22:39] and then their historical life's journey

[00:22:42] is sharing that with the mentoring program

[00:22:44] all the emerging leaders programs.

[00:22:47] But coming full circle, having met Talbert in 1972

[00:22:52] and here we are back here when we're still youthful,

[00:22:56] maybe not looking for youthful.

[00:22:58] And here we are back here on this thing,

[00:23:00] talking about one history at Jacksonville

[00:23:03] and talking about what's gonna be happening

[00:23:04] in the future.

[00:23:06] Unbelievable how it comes full circle.

[00:23:09] It is.

[00:23:09] And then Mr. Miller come to find out,

[00:23:12] you and I were on the same road with Jimmy Carter.

[00:23:14] And all the times we spent with Larry Delaney with Talbert.

[00:23:18] You think about Jacksonville, the two degrees of separation

[00:23:21] and that's what really makes those back to what Talbert said.

[00:23:25] But it's a unique city with the bold new city.

[00:23:28] We got a lot going for us.

[00:23:30] We need to build on them, break new things we got

[00:23:33] and the friends we got.

[00:23:34] My growing up and my ultimate vocation

[00:23:39] came from my father when I was about 12 years old.

[00:23:43] We used to watch the Tonight Show all the time.

[00:23:46] At that time of course, Carson was still on.

[00:23:49] And I never forgot my dad once looking at me

[00:23:52] and saying someday Michael,

[00:23:54] I want Ed McMahon to say here's Mike

[00:24:00] instead of here's Johnny.

[00:24:02] And that just stuck with me ever since then

[00:24:04] and of course here's Mike.

[00:24:06] Exactly.

[00:24:07] Yes, and here's Mike now.

[00:24:10] There it is.

[00:24:11] But yeah, my father always saw me

[00:24:13] and he always thought the epitome would be

[00:24:15] if I starred on the Tonight Show.

[00:24:17] That's what he wanted.

[00:24:18] I was gonna say I hope your dad has not pissed off

[00:24:21] that instead of hitting up with Johnny Carson

[00:24:23] you ended up with us.

[00:24:24] Yeah.

[00:24:26] Which is why I did it.

[00:24:27] You gave what you paid for, unfortunately, Mr. Miller.

[00:24:29] This has been fun guys.

[00:24:30] Thank you so much.

[00:24:32] It's good.

[00:24:32] Always good to have you all here.

[00:24:34] Thank you, Mike Talbert.

[00:24:35] I tell her we'll see you when you come back in.

[00:24:38] And we want to thank all of you for joining us

[00:24:40] and once again of course remind you

[00:24:41] that we wouldn't be able to do this program

[00:24:43] if it weren't for the generosity of our friends

[00:24:46] at the Jacksonville History Center

[00:24:48] and the Historical Society

[00:24:49] and thanks to Alan Bliss and the donors

[00:24:51] who keep the cameras rolling and keep the lights on.

[00:24:54] We'll see you again next week everybody.

[00:24:55] Have a good week.

[00:24:57] Mike's on Mike with Mike Talbert, Mike Hightower

[00:25:00] and Mike Miller can be found

[00:25:01] on your favorite podcasting platform,

[00:25:04] Facebook and YouTube.

[00:25:05] Visit the website at mike'sonmike.com.

[00:25:09] Join us next time for more conversation

[00:25:11] with Mike's on Mike.