Live October 02

Whether we like it or not, he's the self-proclaimed governor of mid-Missouri, and he's the host of TTBS, the podcast. Since we can't shut him the hell up, here's Tom Bradley. Thank you, Nicky Garman, on what is sure to be a very special and very unique podcast, TTBS, the podcast. Today, as we're in a new location, we've never been here before. This is a first, and there are a couple of things I want to take care of quickly. One, you may not be ready for, I wasn't ready for earlier today. I lost a friend. I want to mention the loss of Paul Meyer, a great friend of mine, and a supporter of years, the Tom Bradley Show. I don't care if it's a beer fest or a fundraiser with Wingstock or Meat Palooza, it really doesn't matter. A brother in music, a brother in grilling, and he lost a bit of a finger a few years ago, and that meant that from now on, it was only going to be the bass, which means I inherited a 12-string guitar, that Fender, and Paul, I'm never going to play that without thinking of you, and we lost Paul yesterday. Well, thank you to our supporting sponsors, and we're not going to have, this is not going to be your normal format today, so I want to mention Family Focus Eye Care and Creekside Pet Center, and thank them for the wonderful, wonderful work that they do, being a part of the show on a regular basis, and they're with us right now in spirit, but it is a different format. We're going to move it over and say good afternoon to our guest today, Dr. Moon Choi, President of the MU System and Chancellor of Mizzou right here in Columbia. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Tom. Dr. Choi, you and I have met each other in passing at many different events over the years, but this is the most formal introduction we ever had. You walked in and I said, good afternoon, and you said, you're Tom Bradley? You wanted me to be taller, is that what it was? No, no, no, no. I mean, you're a good-looking guy, and I said, that's Tom Bradley, okay. That's very kind of you, sir, that's very kind of you. We're here at Jesse Hall, and under the circumstances, I want to go ahead and tell you, I'm uneasy, I'm uncomfortable, and the reason is because I'm upset. I am sad, and I'm also mad, but I'm being very honest about what my emotions are right now, and they've been holding on to me since early Saturday morning. I'm sure I won't speak for you, but you've got to be somewhere in the same realm. Well, the public safety for our campus and downtown is a paramount concern for me, and if you ask any university president, they'll probably say the same, and, you know, over the past several years, we've had a number of incidents in downtown area. I believe three of our students were shot in downtown. They all survived, but they were seriously injured, and that's a concern, but on top of that, we've noticed on campus many more incidents of trespass, burglaries, and intrusion into our sororities or dorms by the some members, some members of the homeless population, and that's why on early September, I reached out to Matt McCormick, the president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, to say, I want to come and talk to the members during the quarterly breakfast to talk about my concerns about gun violence and public safety. Did that already happen? That happened on September 17th. I was speaking to a crowd of several hundred at the Crossings Church where I laid out my concerns, statistics, as well as how the outside world views us. I showed a graph with the ranking by Forbes magazine of some of the best places to retire, and Columbia was included, but it did say that we have a serious crime rate, and so others are noticing what we're seeing now, and it was time for me to speak up and give opportunities for the business owners and citizens who've been sharing with me privately their serious concerns, and they didn't feel that it would have the type of reaction, meaning more support for public safety if they were to do it in public, and they also were concerned about boycotts that would occur, and so I said it publicly, but I also said this is not a situation, I remember at that meeting saying, well, we point fingers at each other about where the fault lies. We got to work together, working with the city. I also thank the mayor, as well as Chief Schlutie, who Chief Schlutie is doing an outstanding job. The police force's CPD is outstanding, but we need to support them, and business owners have a responsibility of working with the city and the police department to make the community safer. It's really something to look back on these days of you bringing this up to the chamber. By the 17th, you were addressing the quarterly membership breakfast. By the 22nd, which is a week ago this past Monday, you were on a panel, was that held at the Blue Note downtown? It was held at the Blue Note. And you were on a panel there with the district and several other leaders in our community talking about the situation downtown, talking about crime, homelessness, vagrancy, burglaries, robberies, shootings, and the district itself. You were there, and you had some choice things to say, and I want to get into that in a few moments. But it's not about pointing fingers, but sooner or later, we have to start saying, what's going on over here? Because you're trying to drum up support and an understanding. And awareness, awareness, and also a call to action for all of us, for all of us who are leaders in the city, to say, we have an issue. We have a beautiful downtown. We have a wonderful city, and I believe that very strongly. But we have an issue that we must address, and address directly. And we should all be talking about it, because our constituents, my constituents are my students, faculty and staff, and parents of students. And especially students and parents of students have shared so many messages with me through social media, as well as direct contact with me, talking about the issues of gun violence, as well as the homeless. I want to be very clear. Some members of the homeless population that create very negative interactions, whether it's accosting our students, harassing them, stalking them, whether it's burglary that happens on our campus or in downtown, as well as public urination, and these things that take away from the community that we all love. Yeah, they were looking for a quality of life. There was no question about it. No question about that. And this has become home for my family, and our kids not only attend Columbia Public Schools, but graduates of the University of Missouri. What is it like for you to have to sit here today and tell me how many students have been shot over the last? It's very hard. It's very hard. And, you know, there are some that wish I didn't speak up, because they'll say, well, you're drawing more attention to the problem that we have, but it would be so irresponsible of me, knowing what I know, from the statistics, as well as my conversations with business leaders and citizens, for me to say nothing about this issue, because I'm concerned about PR for the university. Sure. Do you think there's a chance that maybe some other people, other leaders in the community would have already spoken up, and you wouldn't be? Because right now, you are the vocal and focal point of making, maneuvering an effort here to try to get more people to understand we have a situation, and we need to get together and talk and put some plans together. I believe every leader that we have, elected leaders in the county and the city, care about public safety. I do. I do. But it's also now important, important for all of us to feel comfortable talking about it and trying to find solutions. And there's no one solution. It takes a partnership of city, county, state, federal, as well as university and business leaders coming together to find solutions. But we have to do it. We have to continue to talk about it until we come to a time where we feel that we made significant progress. But we haven't made progress, and we got to keep at it. When you were at the panel a week ago Monday, because they had a name for it, the name was I think it was Safety Seminar. Safety Support Solutions, I think was the name of that. And this is going to be paraphrased that someone will share with me. President Moon Choi said things have worsened in Columbia in the eight years he's been here related to violence and problems with some in the homeless community. He said we need actions and solutions. That's right. He said we have to get control of this or the university and town will languish. Was that the word you used? Yes, I did. I did. By the way, I'm not playing a devil's advocate. I'm just simply trying to put the whole problem on the table in front of both of us. But the reality is, I think you and I are in quite a bit of agreement these days. It says he wants the mayor, city manager, chief of police and himself to travel to Lawrence, Kansas, of all the towns to learn what they are doing to fix their issues. Moon Choi wants district businesses to be encouraged to sign letters of enforcement. We'll get back to that in a moment. You were the most vocal on that panel in this direction. I believe Chief Schlute was there as well. She, from what I can tell, agrees with you. But I think you were the most vocal. Am I correct about that? You know, I think Chief Schlute made some very important points, as well as Matt Stevens, who is the deputy chief. And they need support. They need not only the resources, and I am pleased that the city is providing more resources to hire police officers for the city, and that's great. And they're also going to be providing more patrols in downtown during peak weekend hours. Those are all great things. But on top of it all, we need our city leaders, business leaders, and civic leaders to support the police, to be able to say, thank you for the excellent work that you do. Thank you for keeping our citizens safe. And if something happens that is very negative, then let's address those issues. But I believe that our police department doesn't get the level of that type of support. There was so much criticism of the Columbia Police Department for beginning to do what is called proactive policing. And this is a term that I recently learned. I'm not an expert in this area. But what it does is it talks about making sure that there is lawfulness, because I said during my press conference in this room on Monday that an environment that breeds lawlessness will create more lawlessness. And why are, one may ask, why is the police department giving out jaywalking tickets and towing vehicles in downtown? That's because it's a public safety matter. They are enforcing the laws that we have. And we got to make sure that we support them. But I saw a lot of very unfair criticism of the police department in those times. As difficult as the job that our police officers have, we should be supporting them, not criticizing them for the work that they do. I want to bring this up because I think people sometimes miss this. When we talk about the police department, that's the CPD, the Columbia Police Department. We also have the MU Police Department, Chief Wymer. We have the Missouri Highway Patrol, and in fact, on things like Homecoming Weekend, they're all over, right, everywhere. We have the Boone County Sheriff's Department with Sheriff Dwayne Carey and his incredible deputies. And at times, they might all be working the same piece of ground. And we thank all of them for what they're doing. I want to ask you a couple of questions on more of a personal level. I want to understand your perspective. You are originally from Seoul, South Korea. You've lived in Akron, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois. In your studies and in your professional career, you've been in places like Connecticut, back in Chicago, Philadelphia. And your studies, undergrad, general engineering, then a master's in mechanical engineering, and then a PhD, Dr. Choi, in aerospace engineering. You're an engineer. I'm an engineer by training, yes. And do you find that your perspective on something like safety, a community, making plans, making steps, do you think your perspective as an engineer gives us a unique frame of reference? Well, I think my training as an engineer, which, if I can boil down what engineering means to me, is finding solutions that benefit society under conditions of limited resources. And in many ways, many problems that we face as a society can fit under that definition. And I look for solutions. And I look for solutions that are going to be effective for different environments. So I try to understand as much as I can, because trying to solve for a problem when you don't understand the problem is a big deal. That's why, in this particular matter, I gathered experts in this room on Monday from the city, county, university, and business community to talk about the problem that we have, and what can we do collectively to be able to solve for those issues. It was based on that meeting that we had on Monday that we released 11 points of immediate action that we believe will help improve public safety in downtown Columbia. I want to go to those points in a moment, but your week changed a great deal. You and I, we were trying to get you on the podcast. And you've never been on my show before, and that's on me. But I reached out to you after the safety event was held on September 22nd because of the things you said. And I was like, we need to hear this leader and his perspective and find out what kind of plans he thinks we should be making. So I reached out. This is the day I was first trying to get you on. This is before we came to our homecoming weekend, and it wasn't going to work out. We were looking at a couple of other dates. As things have changed, I reached back to your office, and they said, we'll work out what we can. And I said, I'll make it anywhere, anytime. What do we need to do? And that's why we're here in the afternoon at the conference room here at Jesse Hall. So it's interesting. Your entire week has changed. You don't have to jump into this next thought, but I'm a little surprised that the mayor of Columbia and the city manager, as I understand it, still made the trip to Columbia, South Carolina this week on a scheduled outing with the Chamber of Commerce. Well, the purpose, one of the purpose of that trip that was organized by the Columbia Chamber was to understand public safety decisions that was made by the city of Columbia, South Carolina, because they also faced, several years ago, similar types of situations that we faced here. And that's why the chief attended that visit. And I encouraged my police chief, Brian Weimer, to go as well. And so I think it was for a good purpose. But even while they were there, we worked closely with the mayor and the chief, Chief Shrudy, to get the points that we needed for the action item. Can you give me an idea of those 11? You can't just recite them off the top of your head, can you? No, I can't. But the key ones, more staffing for CPD and MUPD. Those are things that are very important. We've never talked about MUPD and whether or not they're staffed up. We don't talk about that on a regular basis. Tell me, are we staffed up generally? We are. We are about 50 officers, I believe. And I think we have several openings. It's hard to hire police officers, as you know. But we are committed to being at full capacity. We are also committed to providing more overtimes during peak weekend hours. And so that's a commitment. We're going to continue with the additional patrols, including foot patrols from CPD, as well as MUPD in downtown during peak hours. Chief Schlute was able to get the support of Missouri State Highway Patrol members to be able to provide additional patrols during peak hours. And Sheriff DeWayne Carey will send more deputies during the peak hours. So those are all very positive things for our city, for downtown. You've also brought up, if I may, cleanup of homeless encampments. That's right. Passing of a loitering ordinance. That's right. Which I've understood that we've got the ACLU attorney, Dan Vietz, has stepped out and said that it's going to affect certain people more than others, and it'll discriminate. I'm not exactly sure what we're talking about there at all. I don't know, Mr. Vietz. Someone told me what he said in an article. But let the city council decide. Why preempt the discussion that the city council can have? Ultimately, it's up to the city council. There are other cities that have loitering, and there's a lot of loitering that goes on in the city. We see it every day. How many times have you heard, if you're like me, from people that come visit and say, wow, there's a big population of homeless individuals, and that they can be very disruptive to the pedestrians? I hear that all the time. It goes to this idea of lawlessness, an environment that creates lawlessness will breed more lawlessness. And it doesn't matter what the individual's backgrounds are. If you're violating the policies, then we must hold them accountable. And what is the purpose of policies if we're not going to enforce them? You've also brought up prosecution to the full extent of the law for crimes. And I'm glad you're bringing it up, because lawfulness requires a huge cycle of making sure you're taking care of everything all the way around. If somebody is arrested, and they're prosecuted, and we find them to be guilty, what are we doing with them then? Absolutely. And there are a lot of things to go through on that, no question about it. I want to bring back then to this weekend, when you and I found out the news of what happened. I'm sure you found it earlier than I did. But when we found out the news of what had happened early on Saturday morning, we have a 21-year-old young woman, a member of our community, graduate of Battle High School, currently a student in nursing at Stevens College. And just without saying something that doesn't belong, I'll just say she was struck by the round of a bullet shot by someone that had decided to start shooting up downtown Columbia. And several people were hit. Hers was the most severe, the most critical, and it took her life. I want to share with you something that someone passed along to me and said, would you please share this with Dr. Choi? And it's personal, but I think it's worth it. I serve on the board of directors of the Daydreams Foundation with Phyllis Williams, Ayanna's mother. I've had the privilege of meeting Ayanna personally a few times. Both are amazing women with contagious smiles and beautiful, strong personalities. I'm absolutely gutted by what happened Saturday. My fear stems from having a daughter who graduated from Mizzou just over two years ago, who probably stood on that same street corner at some time in her college years, and having another daughter who wants to attend Mizzou two years from now, and will also likely spend plenty of time downtown. The fear I have is overwhelming, and that's due to my own lack of control, making the situation safe for them. The question is, why is everyone in an uproar over this event when they weren't over the others? Why is Dr. Choi now sounding the alarm? I think it's a worthwhile question to put out there, and I did kind of answer at one point, but you tell me what you think about that. Thank you. And as I shared earlier, public safety is paramount in my mind, and it has been. I want to go back to the three students that were shot in downtown, as well as the many other negative encounters that our students have faced in downtown, as well as some cases in our campus, and we have to make sure that we address those issues. I've been working quietly behind the scenes to discuss with leaders, discuss with the police chiefs, as well as anyone that will listen to say, we have to address these issues. And on September 17th, I spoke to a group of several hundred business leaders to talk about gun violence, as well as the homeless problems, that's creating crime issues and a crime crisis in Columbia, and it was time for me to speak up to make sure that people understand that this is a problem that's going to not go away. It's a problem that we need to discuss, because I don't want one of our students or any student that goes to downtown to have a good time, which young people do, and face the type of trauma or injuries that one can get in a situation that is very crime-ridden. I want to take the time to thank you for being proactive and starting this. I don't even know if and who and how many ever reached out to you and said, hey, Dr. Choi, what are you thinking about this thing? Seems like we need to do something here. Maybe you were just picking it all up on your own, but you have been starting to move those stones, and I appreciate that tremendously. Tell us, in your leadership position, you're talking about we have a problem, let's go take care of this, and we have others who have tried to step in and say, oh, we might have a problem, but we're working on this, this, and we've done this, we've done this. I don't want to hear about that. I want to hear what we're going to do now to continue to work to improve where we're failing. And that is so important, Tom, and it's also very important for all of us to acknowledge that we have an issue. And I am very pleased to see that the number of gun incidents in Colombia is down compared to the same period last year, and that's due to excellent policing. It is. And also awareness that we take these things very seriously. But we still have 58 gunshot incidents this year in a town of our size. That's not a big selling point. That's a very negative stain for anyone that wants to consider come live or maybe study here. And in Chief Schlutie's statement that was made I think two days ago, it said that issues in downtown, crime issues in downtown, have increased over the years. And people may say, why are you sounding the alarm now? No, I've been talking about public safety for many years, many, many years. I was doing that in the background quietly, quietly, not to draw attention to myself, but it was time for me to speak up to make sure that all of the city leaders know that constituents are saying the same things. And within two days, city leaders stepped up, county leaders, which and I appreciate their support. We have an 11, 11 item action plan that didn't exist before Wednesday. And so we have to keep at it. This is not, let's release the action items and then we're done. We got to keep, keep at it until we see dramatic reductions in the crime in downtown Columbia. This weekend, I have two nights of planned events in downtown Columbia and I had a lot of friends and, and I'm going to go through with those plans. You have introduced a new set of plans for this weekend. What are you planning on doing Saturday night? Well, Saturday, Saturday, I invited members of the city council and the mayor to walk with me to different parts of downtown. So that I can see firsthand, firsthand, because I've never spent a late night in downtown. Well, like me, you're probably in bed by nine or eight. I'm an old guy, I'm 61 years old, I'm in bed by then. But I want to see myself what people are saying, especially business owners, students and parents. And I wanted to bring the city council members so we could all see the same things at the same time. So it's not just me saying here, you see what's happening here, let's try to find a solution. I think it's more effective if we're all there together at the same time. I really like what you're planning on with that. And I want to mention this because I said at the beginning, we've never had a formal introduction of any kind, but we've passed each other or said hello at a number of events. Dude, I have seen you at so many different things in and around Columbia that are Mizzou related or have nothing to do with Mizzou. You are a, you like to get out in the community and do stuff. I enjoy meeting people. I really do. And this town has so many, so many things to offer, whether it's cultural activities, going to the Missouri Theater or going to Talking Horse for a small intimate theater production and the great restaurants and the shops that we have. I love this community. I really do. And many people do as well. You know, I look forward to the day when we're talking about how great, how great we're doing, how far we've moved from where we are this past weekend. And I don't know what those things are going to be that we see that have come out. The 11 points you put together, other ideas that are brought out. I think it's going to take the entire community. I want to thank Angie, who also mentioned that to me, that it's going to take a community to make this happen. It really does. All the way through. It really does. Can I ask you, we're going to be wrapping it up because I promised I'd have you out in 30 minutes or less. It's my guarantee. Or your next podcast is free. Can you tell us as a community, what would you like, if you had a directive to give us or a request for us, what would you like to ask us? I would say support CPD, support the city leaders as they make some difficult decisions, but necessary decisions to improve public safety. I would say speak up. Speak up. This is your town. If you see something that needs to be addressed when it comes to crime issues, speak up. Let your council members, the mayor know. If there's anything that we can do as a university, if we're doing something wrong at the university, let me know. I answer my emails. And like you said, I'm out and about a lot. Stop me and say, I have an issue, please. Dr. Moonshoy, I really, really appreciate you allowing us to come in and sit down and talk together today. I think given the chance next Thursday, I'll probably be a little more outspoken. But this was your chance to speak. And next Thursday, it'll be my chance to do a little talking. Plus, I think we'll have some interesting people that'll be coming on and join us. So Dr. Choi, thank you for making the time. Thank you. I will see you around town. All right. Thank you very much. As we finish this up this morning, this afternoon, and I said right at the beginning that this is a very, very different podcast for us. But I think that's the way it should be. So we're going to wrap it up at this time and really, really looking forward to what Dr. Choi, our chief of police, the city of Columbia, the other leaders, what they put together as a plan and watching you and I get involved and support. Thanks for listening. Take care.