Shofar, So Good: Senator Bill Weber’s Bold Political Path

I would I would hope that everyone in our community we talk about the good and the bad but if people sat down and did this no matter what your political affiliation is no matter where you live what walk a life if people talk to each other rather than at each other I think we we' have a better society as we need a big we need a big saiv lesson [Music] Hallelujah none of your business SOI none of your business Michael it's the noneof your business podcast hosted by Michael anoshi welcome back everybody to another amazing episode of the noneof your business podcast I am so happy to be back in this chair in the center with the logo behind me and I have my co-host to my right and I have an amazing amazing guest to my left Senator Bill Weber it's a pleasure to have you here this morning thank you so much for coming uh before we begin just want to thank all of our wonderful listeners and followers and ask everyone to continue subscribing commenting liking even not liking just tell us give us the feedback we love love love our feedback we want to thank our wonderful Partners at Prim source for sponsoring this amazing effort and for all the new beautiful uh tablecloths and shades and lightings that we have and as we continue to grow may we all continue to grow together so uh we're here with none other than newly elected Republican senator Bill Weber and I am excited to have you here because when I say newly elected I mean fresh hot off the press I mean like Ohi I know that you went out to vote right yes I made every effort to go vote I was never a big voter back in the day but in the last like eight years I started making a conscious effort to be more involved you know you don't have a right to complain you don't have a voice if you're not going out to vote and I truly believe that so I made an effort to go vote and by the way the process was really easy they somehow were having very organized I got there within 10 minutes I was in and out was aming yeah now I just want to tell you Michael when I think of politics and politicians I have a lot of respect for politicians because they need to be good at a lot of things you know someone who's in a specific industry they're in a specific Lane they have to master that and that's it but when you're in politics like you have to be a a people person you you have to know business um you you have to be a sensical logical person there's just an array of things that you have to do that it's difficult and I have a lot of respect for people who go into politics especially at a high level you know it's it's it's one thing when you're a politician at home you know you're arguing with your wife and your kids you know but this is on a grand scale it really is and you have so many people that you have to please and you have to contend with so much it's an it's an audacious job and it's a daunting daunting task and it's not for everybody this is only for for the elite it's for the people that can that can handle this speaking of which Senator how do you feeling we feel great so you know it's it's great to be here thank you for welcoming me in on this podcast um it feels great you know it's nice to get rewarded for hard work and and it's been hard work since day one you know I like to tell the story of election night 2022 when we won we were up on stage declaring Victory and at the time supervisor Holman of Clarkstown Whispers in my left ear saying your reelection starts in about 5 minutes and it was good to really have that uh said to me because you know it's always you're always running for re-election unfortunately in in this cycle that we have here especially in New York uh when you have Senate seats and uh that are every two years and uh you have to always be cognizant that everything you do uh has to be Amplified to the fact where you have to be out and about in the community out and about in your District so that uh people get to know you and that people earn that you can earn their trust throughout the two-year cycle so that when it comes election day you're not an unknown uh entity or an unknown brand and that was important for me to here back in 2022 and I really was Guided by that for the two years in office I have to tell you I feel the excitement in the community I feel the excitement on the WhatsApp chats I feel the excitement every time we go to a local uh party you're there you're you're you know you're there in the trenches with us and uh I was just talking about that with you a minute ago how is that in terms of dealing with the community right and you know know one of the challenges that we have in sales and marketing is you know adapting to new communities right not you know everyone is Jewish that owns nursing homes right so we're out there trying to find those people and trying to connect with them and I I'll never forget the first time I was in Louisville Kentucky and I was speaking fast to the to the nursing home owner and he says to me Michael you got to slow down and I just had to adapt to what was happening there so how's that been for you how's how were the Shalom zakers yeah and the parties and then going to the other sides of the community and joining in theirs how's that experience been for you so it's been it's been exciting you know it's it's something that I recognizeed day one that we have probably one of the most you know diverse districts you know in the State uh what I did is I made sure that my office people in my office uh reflected the district Democrat Republican it didn't matter I think I had the most bipartisan Senate Office probably in New York state and probably in the 308 District's history but I also hired people that that uh were reflective of the district one of my first hires was Mort Becker who's here with us today uh we also hired two uh Creole speaking uh uh members of the community we had a Spanish-speaking uh resident as well uh and also people reflective of Orangetown and clarktown in the secular Community what we did day one was we made sure that all of our Senate literature that we put out into various newspaper articles were in various languages whether it was in Yiddish whether it was in uh Creole whether it was in Spanish to make sure that everyone feels comfortable everyone knows what a senator office does and really let them know in their language and let them know that we have people at our office that can pick up the phone that that they will not have a language barrier with so I felt it very important to do that to show not only the effort but you know um making sure that that we that we were sensitive to their needs as well well by the way I have to ask you because this is very fresh you know you recently won it was a big victory I remember in Camp in summer camp when I was the general of the red team and that moment when they announced the winner oh it was it was the best feeling ever and we had hundreds of kids who started jumping up and down it was a frenzy it was just an elite moment and such Joy pure joy you know uh in the in our baseball league in the in our we have a softball tournament that we playing and uh I won this year and that feeling was just Second To None like it didn't matter any other accomplishments that I had in my life like that moment was just it was ecstasy this winning an election I mean this is the Pinnacle this is like the highest point you can reach and to win at that moment when it was clear that you were the winner like what does that feel like what what's going through your mind what do you tell yourself at that moment it's hard not to you know get ahead of yourself and feel really really good about yourself but what are you telling yourself what's that like it's exciting listen um you know winning is obviously much better feeling than losing and I've been on the losing side and it doesn't feel good but when you win um you uh I think reflect on all of the good things that you did and the the rewarding and really looking towards you know what you wanted to and what we want to accomplish in the next two years so you know I talk about rewarding but we also kind of even it out and kind of take a deep breath and and and talk about the journey that that comes ahead of this too as well so you know you get into elections you talk about a lot of things that you want to accomplish in the next two years and to really have uh the reward uh given to you on Election Day is just another step in what we want to accomplish long term yeah and it's a big responsibility you know thousands hundreds of thousands of people put their vote of confidence in you and they said all right Senator you want to be you want the job you know we're going to put you in office and they did the people have spoken you are now the elected official that's that's a lot to take in do you feel that pressure do you feel that weight of all right I got to get to work I have a lot of things I got to do yeah so I feel yeah obviously there's always pressure that comes with it but uh as I said before is rewarding and you know the one thing you always hear about people saying well politicians don't do anything they all they do is go around and shake hands it's a lot of work I have to say it is a lot of work uh it's a lot of handshaking it's a lot of events that you go to but uh in the end it's worth it and you know I maybe it's that the business background that I have being a CPA and and also being in uh private business for 30 years you know you always have to be willing to be open-minded to uh change with the times as they say really go into various media forums to really get your message out and really don't necessarily do the old way of politicking but also you know innovate yourself and have have you know the younger generation around you that would show you the new ways to reach voters and we we tried doing that uh and I think we were successful in doing that by also just bringing in um being out there being on these Whata groups being willing to blow the chofar at a at a an event and look you blow theur I was successful on the second attempt but and then we did a uh little music video the the day before the election but trying to reach the voters of all ages and really being hip with the times I guess you you were in business for a few decades before you went into politics yeah what was that transition like what happened it's you know it's it's it's it's hard but it's also very similar and I think you mentioned it before you know I don't know if we were on air or not but we were talking about um market share and and customer and you know in business that's you know that's what it's about right you got to pick up the phone all the time that's why we're very successful in terms of our constituent services at our office because we're there to help our constituents and and if you don't answer the phone you don't you know win over constituents just like it is in business but also when you talk about market share right that's business and you always talk about improving your market share you know we felt very comfortable over the summer months knowing that our our brand and our um hard work was paying off in terms of polling and stuff like like that and and we used Jim mclaughin of the mclin group I know Mike Lawler uses them and and uh Donald Trump uses them um he was very comfortable where we stood in the election this was in August but he said don't lose market share maintain your market share and you'll win the election and that was something that we you know really focused on the last 60 days as well because you know market share is again in something that we always look at in the business sector but you know I knew that day one uh coming out of the business sector into politics uh it's about advertising it's about marketing it's about making sure that people know who my brand is and that's why we were very focused from day one on really marketing my brand it's interesting I always tell uh people that come to me for career guidance one of the most important things is build building your personal brand and you don't have a choice this is everything for you you know your personal brand is everything right what people see about you and and they say and uh I was enjoyed in uh joined into the WhatsApp Group which the first thing I do when someone uh forces me into a WhatsApp group is I do what normal people do they leave I leave the group but this one I didn't leave because I saw pictures and videos of you blowing chauffeur and I started learning about your Jewish uh family and you know I was like I was intrigued and I was like you know what I need to learn more about this guy and see what he's doing for the community but I was wondering in the beginning okay what made him go into this world like you were in business for a number of years so what happened what was that process yeah cuz they they do say that there's no reward for someone going into politics like it's just you you're entering into a world that could potentially become a nightmare you know it's Risky Business it's very tough you're really putting yourself out there you're going to be very vulnerable You're going to be susceptible to all kinds of comments you know good and bad you know and ushi and I are going through that now you know we open the podcast by the way we we welcome all the negative comments we look forward to those because we love haters everybody loves haters we especially love haters it fuels us it drives us and by the way most of those negative comments like those people that have always something to say that puts you down it's they're just trying to lift themselves up that's what they're doing it's terrible that they have to resort to that is by putting someone else down but for all the haters we have double and triple tenfold the amount of people that are positive and people that are trying to lift you up and people that are saying wow you're doing a great job I'm really enjoying it you should keep going and they're motivating you you always have both sides of it but you know this is this is really making a decision to be a public figure yeah that's like really putting yourself on a pedestal when did that happen for you what was that like it was a transition that I made probably you know 10 15 years ago getting involved in politics you know it's when you're in you know in in the private sector or you're a resident of of a village or a town or a county you don't like sometimes what's going on in your government and that kind of fuels you to to try and get involved I think as you said you know what fued you what was it well take us back it started off really when uh the whole St Lawrence thing came out you know I was frustrated with what was going on in town and it got me really interested and motivated into politics and you know I made mistakes you know I think you know not being someone who's been in politics for 203 years it that was everything in there wasn't in in my blood right and uh you know you you make mistakes you get tripped up you don't you know you're not fueled in or at least seasoned in in in knowing the whole political mechanisms but I'm a good learner I'm a listener I'm someone who you know takes criticism takes the good and the bad as you say and takes you know takes those criticisms as motivation and there's learning lessons as well and that's something that that I build upon and you know those those you know Downs became ups and uh those negative comments hopefully we turned around to the to the point where we can at least have U positive constructive conversations in the future you know everyone's not going to vote for me I think Mike Lawler always says this comment about Ed cotch where he said if you agree with me 100% of the time go you know go see a shrink or something like I'm going to butcher his the comment but the fact of it matter is everyone's always not going to agree with me or or or vote for me but that's okay because you know when the election's over which it's over right now our statement reflected our sentiment the election is over it's time to get to work and we have a lot of things that we need to get done for our residents so it's something that I'm focused on doing and it's it's working with Democrats and Republicans you know I'm in a very you know blue District or purple District but it's Blue by registration purple by its voting habits but it means that I need to make relationships and and build coalitions locally so that we can get done thing things done at the state level yeah Michael by the way I don't mean to interrupt over here but normally our model when we have a podcast is we have a bottle of wine and we drink a little bit I'm assuming that you didn't roll it out because out of respect for Senator like that what it is is that the no no no no but he doesn't seem to me like the kind of guy that's you know he knows how to have a good time it seems like I feel like you know he wouldn't be so turned off if we were to had a the bottle am I right in this or am I wrong you're right in what kind of guy are you like are you like you know can we hang out or does it have to be like I'm a gen and tonic guy you I'm not I'm not there you go you see there you go well he has he has these things called chill with Bill so like you know I want to hear about that I mean that's something that you know for you know we we need to have our own and our community with him what is this chill with Bill to know more about that was the creation of mort Becker over over here off off to the side um it was a way that we were able to connect with people by we would go to uh various restaurants and or people's homes I think our first one we did at nussies oo love that place then we did L did we do lishi we did lishi he's been all over the place look at this guy amazing we also did him in private homes it was a way that we uh brought food in you know food is always a good uh a good attraction for people to come most important every most important it was a way for people to come in and ask me questions about Where I Stood and and voice their concerns in an in an unfilled Ed Manner and you know you know politicians sometimes especially at the higher levels they have a wall right you can't you can't talk to your politician it's hard to connect you don't get an answer we felt it important that that I get out and about in the community to really create a buzz about my campaign create a buzz about me and get people there to really feel comfortable with me to in the end know that I'm a real person that I'm I'm a friend I'm someone who can relate to them to their you know their concerns whether it's paying high taxes well I pay those same high taxes you know whether it's struggling you know because you have four kids and it's the chaos of like everyday life well I have four kids and I have the struggles of everyday life it was important that people know that I'm not just a name or or a politician as they say because that that could be a dirty word to a lot of people uh I wanted to be the person of the people and I think that would gave us a um really broke down barriers and broke down walls between what what politics is and what relationships are I want to vote for you again can I go back can we go back to the polls and vote again for you I'll tell you why you know because what you're saying now really does resonate you know I'm someone I have four kids I pay high taxes you're one of us you're not someone that is sitting in its own little field you know and all you're a real person like you said and the fact that you did this chill with Bill thing and you went out to places to the people I think that's a much more modernized way of how politics is going look at Donald Trump he went to The Joe Rogan podcast like 20 years ago such a thing would have been like are you out of your mind you're running for the president of the United States you're going to go sit with the people and Joe Rogan yes yes that's exactly right that's exactly what catapulted him and K Harris she didn't take that opportunity she didn't sit down with Joe Rogan right and that that may have been a very big Miss but she sat with the view though she sat with the view exactly but at the end of the day this is the new modernized form of politics is that we're all involved in politics much more than we ever were and we asked I think it was your brother who was a councilman we asked him like what changed in politics that people are so in tune with what's going on I think the average consumer knows so much more than people did 20 30 years ago and he said very simply social media social media really created that platform that now everybody is involved you say something 20 minutes later the world knows about it and everybody understands exactly what you meant by it as well so by really taking that to your advantage and by sitting and mingling with the people I think that's really what set you apart and I think that's what people really resonated with you and uh I I think that's an amazing thing and people should should learn from it's not just in politics but in business and anything people just want to do business with people they don't want to necessarily do business with your company they don't care about your product is just as good as the next guy's product a little bit better a little bit worse but people want to know who are you you know I'm going to spend time with you now that we're doing business together I want to enjoy myself while I'm spending time with you I want to have a good time you know we got One Life to Live and I think that was a really clever thing that you did is that you understood that and and you really capitalized on that you know it's also that that power of 10 right so we would have people come to chill with Bill and they would say can we take a selfie with you right and that selfie goes right up on their WhatsApp status and you know that everyone's got hundreds of people that follow them follow them follow them so it was building that brand and really saying oh I want to go to that next one and you know even even with um visiting schools we visited a tremendous amount of schools in the last two years and we went to camps whether it was camps locally here in in in ripo and Muny and throughout Rockland but we also went to Camp Hask and a lot of the camps Upstate and I found it you know our our opponents criticized saying well Bill only goes to school and camps but to me you know being on the education committee and being on the disabilities Committee of course I'm going to visit camps I want and schools I want to know the successes I want to know what what's working and not working and bring those comments and experiences back to Albany as well so that also built our brand as well because there was so many families that we ran into that said oh my son or my daughter saw you at their school and they keep talking about it and they brought the home the pen with your name on it and they took F selfies with at Camp you know that was kind of making again building the name brand by even having the kids and and the parents involved in this entire experience very smart you know my seven-year-old son came home last week from school and uh you know I'm talking to him he says Daddy are you voting for Mike Lawler I'm like what I'm like what are you talking about like he's seven what do you know about like you know politics but like that's yeah start him young you know people should be involved like this is your life you know to this is a community that we live in and this directly affects your quality of life and what we believe in as a community and what's good for the public like you know this really matters it really makes a difference I want to say I know that you're involved in a lot of things um fiscal responsibility uh disabilities and many different things I did I did a little bit of my research and I've also been following you over the past few months and I'm super impressed I have to just say because you know like we talk about in the nursing home industry there's so many different parts of running the business in politics also there's so many different parts there's so many people that you have to care about you know you could you go to Camp Hask if you were just busy helping the people with Camp askk you'd be busy all day long of course and and it's such a noble cause and it's something that we wish that people would help people that need those kinds of help all day long but you can't you have to spread yourself out I'm curious what are those challenges that you think that the world around you is facing now you're going to these chills you're hearing the people talk are the people that are coming to you and saying you know this is a challenge you're like you know what hey I never thought about that that is a good challenge and I'm going to go look into it right now like I'd like to hear about that I think the biggest challenge I'm hearing is the affordability crisis locally and and it means a lot to to different people whether whether we talked about it a minute ago whether you live in Ramapo or uh and send your kids to private schools you have a very big tuition bill above and beyond your taxes whether you're a senior at any at any anywhere in our County it's very difficult to live here uh because you're on a fixed income and rents are high and mortgages are high and cost of living is extremely high and the younger generation I know they're struggling as well in terms of you know how much it is to buy to to rent a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the county is just um it's really big struggle for people so we really need to solve that uh and you know it's going to take some State Investments you know I think a couple years ago the governor talked about you know some incentivizing you know more affordable housing built in you know various areas of the state and you know she used an approach I think that was very uh that turned off a lot of people especially in the Hudson Valley we we were essentially against what she was trying to do in terms of we called it hcal control of local Planning and Zoning I think most people in the Hudson Valley want their own local towns and Villages and County to be in charge of their own zoning but the but she wasn't wrong on the on the the fact that it's very unaffordable deliver and we need a more affordable housing so I talk about affordability uh people's water bills their tax bills their their electric bills added on to their whether they own a house with their mortgage or their you know their rental apartment that's a big problem that I hear throughout the entire District that we need to somehow deal with it's been talked about for a long time but it's getting harder and harder for people to have any money left over in their checking account after they have to pay their bills so it's something that we have to really tackle immediately and re realistically though what do you do I mean like you know when I when I get uh some piece of mail and it says your taxes was reduced recently by 2% or 5% you say Where It Go like like it doesn't really help much like that's not really what I'm looking for so I'm curious like what kind of solutions are there what are the real solutions I don't know I'm I also feel like it's a little bit sort of tied into you know the federal control as well like there there are limitations as to what a state can do directly that will affect you know the people living in that in those districts but what what is some of the remedies what what would you know what needs to give in order to bring some of those costs down because you're right affordability I mean I think everybody can agree that's probably the number one thing is we have so much you know tuitions are very expensive you know private tuitions and uh the taxes that we pay is not just high but I think it's higher than a lot of places in the country we're probably in I don't know top 10 I'm making up that number I don't know if that's true you may be top two between Rockland and Westchester for sure maybe top two maybe in the country and in the state state for in the state but even in the country we're probably pretty high you know but it's like what's the next steps where do you go from here I think what what Congressman La has been talking about um in terms of changing that salt tax the salt deduction limitation that was something that you know the Republicans did in you know eight years ago which is a bad idea I saw it you I being a CPA I do many personal income tax returns and I see the effect it has on a lot of our local residents because as you said we're one of the highest taxed uh counties so you add property taxes and school taxes but also your income taxes and having that limited in terms of deductibility uh puts a lot of pressure on people's pocketbook so getting that corrected hopefully will will put some more money back in people's pockets I think there's a lot of things we could be doing at the at the federal and state level in terms of uh increasing the child child tax credit which is something that gets immediate money back into people's pockets and it's you know being open-minded on on allowing people to deduct other things on their returns whether it's medical a lot of people have a lot of high medical bills maybe we should you know allow that to be more deductible whether it's private tuition you know that's something I think we need to be open-minded with in terms of allowing people to deduct it um so it's those are those are to me things that should be on the table immediately to look at and then I think long term we have to talk about how do we you know how do we incentivize how do we help local municipalities you know at least doing it without that without a hammer but having incentives for local municipalities to allow housing to be built that's affordable housing and right now it's it's not happening and as I said the governor's approach was wrong but her entire concept was not wrong and that's something that we need to go back and revisit at some point did it ever happen to you that you're about to do laundry or go to the cleaners and you or you get back something from the cleaners and you put your hands in your pocket and you find 20 bucks oh my God Michael those are one of the uh joys of Life what do you mean those are like moments that you live for like when you reach into your pocket of a pants you know you didn't wear in a week or two you know and you put your and you find a $20 bill I almost don't want to spend it I just want to like frame it or something it's free money like somebody just you know had it's amazing yes I know that my wife my wife says whenever like if she's doing a laundry or something if she finds money in in that's her money of course if I didn't take the money out of my pocket I gave it up that's by the way any money she finds is her money okay even if she doesn't find it it's still her money let's face it whether we like it or not yes yes I'm curious you go into your pocket you find 202 bucks what are you spending your $20 on oh I don't know usually it's gone I don't get a chance you even have cash on you do you say cash that's it's interesting to say I generally don't carry cash at all I don't either by the way don't and it gets it gets a little complicated because sometimes we we'll go to event like uh two weeks ago I went on a Sunday morning to up in havra to a fireman's breakfast and I went with one of my staffers and they had cash on on them thankfully cuz I had nothing on me and we walked in and I'm like you take credit card go not cash only but I think more and more people don't carry any cash on them yeah yeah no it's it's a digital world by the way firemen here are all volunteer up here in Rockland did you know did you know this that they're all volunteer well I know firemen in general usually a volunteer isn't in the city not right not in the city New York and the big cities not they're all paid but they're not paid a lot I'm saying they're not getting you know they're not getting rich by being a fireman right it's a it's a big a big component of it is really being volunteer you know work that they're doing I I just find it interesting that that up here they're volunteers they don't get paid for doing what other people are volunteers out here serving the communities are there others other thanam also as well yeah true great I think so great people great great people you know they started out as like an organization that was like you have a flat tire we'll come and help you they've grown into so much more than just that by even that alone is a beautiful thing I'm not going to fix people's tires like I got I got stuff to do but these guys were taking out time of their day no matter what and no matter how small of a task it is how big they're up for uh they're amazing people I want to ask you something you know just it triggered for me when you made this comment about you know the private schools you know we pay for um it's very expensive so in our community in Muny there's about I don't know six or seven day camps that you can go to um and a lot of them have been around for 10 20 years for a long time and we don't really have you know a building that can accommodate this many kids in the summer so typically what we've done and I know that because I used to be involved in a day camp many years ago I was a head counselor at a day camp for a long time then I became an owner of a day camp and I was involved in this aspect of securing a building of where we're going to be for the for the summer so what the camps typically would do is we would go to public schools and we would ask the district East ripo if you know we can rent not for free if we could rent you know lease their buildings for the summer and it was a nightmare it was a tedious process they made it very very difficult for us and there were certain Summers that we didn't know even a week before Camp if they were going to actually give us the building or not because they didn't just like you know make it a simple process and two months before they gave us a yes or a no they made us sweat it out to the last to the last minute and it always bothered me it really bothered me because the community the extended communities you know in ripo at least the Jewish communities you know we pay taxes like everybody else and part of those taxes goes towards the public school system towards education which is fine that's amazing that's where it should go I'm glad they're spending the money wisely um but we don't really benefit from the public school system we don't and you know we have the private school systems and we pay for it which we should we want to go to private you got to pay we understand you know but come on let's let's do a little bit of basic math over here you know we're not benefiting in any way we pay towards it I'd think that they would be jumping out of their seats to help us and to at least let us use the building so by the way you're making money on this so you're monetizing which is good for the schools right otherwise it's sitting there empty and you're not making it it's just costing you money you have an opportunity now to actually make revenue and help people at the same time and ask any day camp owner in our communities they the biggest issue the biggest obstacle they have in running a day camp is are we going to get a building this year or is these ramp just going to tell us for whatever reasons they don't even like reckon with us they just tell us yes or no and we have to pull every connection that we know by the way you're going to be getting a call Senator soon you know when we need help but literally what's going on what's up with that I'm glad you brought that up you know so probably one of the first uh challenges we dealt with coming into office was exactly that we got calls from Manny Schwab from Camp fun there you go right Rabbi Isaac from he already started getting the calls he doesn't need you wait a second am I the only one doesn't have you on their phone book what's happening over they're all calling already it was probably right around March 1st month month or two into office and we got a call from Rabbi Isaac and from Manny Schwab saying that they weren't able to secure their Camp space they were told that the buildings were going to be unavailable um the the district had the all the Opera money that they were doing the constructions on and we worked to get them the camp space and that was one of our proudest moments one of our biggest successes right out of the gate was speaking with the administration at the time speaking with um you know uh not only board members but the administration in E Ramapo and securing that space and I got on the phone with not only last year but this year getting on the phone with um the administration but also the construction managers who were doing the projects you knowbe I kind of Ed my own experience in the private construction World talking about you know all of your schools are not going to be having the construction at the same time we have thousands of kids that rely upon and especially their parents rely upon their their kids going to Camp again as we said relatable I have four kids my kids went to Camp my wife and I work full-time we need our kids to be in a camp environment in the summertime for our work schedules but also for their their their great experience too so we we were able to work with the school districts to do it this year was a little bit more challenging I know Morty over there's uh has his head down but he was very successful in helping Camp fun Rabbi Isaac or Camp Rabbi Isaac Camp fun right so we were able to at least get them a space for the kids for portion of the day they were able to use the outside Fields over by um I think Grand View uh so we made it work but I I do see some challenges I see challenges going for uh in terms of uh the lack of Camp space so I think what we need to do is be more Innovative in terms of maybe using utilizing some of the state park areas you know I think there's challenges there because there's not enough restroom facilities but I think we need to be forward- minded and knowing that if you're not going to have enough spaces on the public schools um because you know obviously there's Public School camps that go on as well so you have you know you have limited space to do it but it's something that we're going to have to deal with because in terms of enough properties to handle the amount of kids in camps is something that I'm I'm curious about your approach what do you do when you get a no when someone says no I can't I can't do it it's not going to happen I mean being in politics being a a person of the community what is your approach and and maybe you can tell me something that happened to you that where you got a no but you turned it into a yes it it was with the camp that camp in in uh with the district uh last year year and a half ago uh back in March you know immediately we got no we're doing construction it's not going to be available and I took you know I listened to the no and I said well it's not good enough you know we have kids that need to go to camp we have parents that are relying upon these kids to go to Camp so we worked through that no and got it to a yes with some limitations you know we had to sure you know you know work around a calendar work around a schedule that was more um more conducive for what was going on but you know you do get NOS don't don't get me wrong it's not like I convert every no to a yes but you know we we try and take a no and we take it back and say well is this just government saying no because government likes to say no because you know in government things work slowly and too slow for what I'm used to in the private sector but just trying to take a no and really seeing if there's other opportunities to do it so I I consider it a challenge um on a lot of NOS but there are certain NOS that that are frustrating but we try and you know work around that as well it actually reminds me that um one of the things that I was taught When someone tells you no and I try to teach this to salespeople and people that just want to you know move forward in life and try to get yeses is you ask the following question under what circumstance will you say yes that's a good approach and just let's just go through it well no it's impossible because we're doing well under what circumstance would you say yes well if you know you gave me more money or if you if this person wasn't around you know so what would be that yes and uh it's something that you're going to of course face challenges in the future of politics and dealing with people but Michael yesterday literally just yesterday yesterday uh we did an annual review on one of our sales reps we do annual reviews for all our reps if you're here for one year then we do quarterly reviews but after one year you get annual reviews so on his annual review this very topic came up is you're getting a lot of nose out in the field and you're coming here as to well that's why you know I didn't have the greatest year because I got a lot of nose so I told him I want to tell you about something personal that happened to me me four years ago a family member was going through a medical experience um traumatic it was really rough and there was one person Brody I think is a physical therapy company gave me advice that at that moment didn't seem like it was such powerful advice but as I went through my experience it was tremendously impactful of what he said and I lived by it and it was this very sentiment and what he told me was in this field this IAL field you're going to hear a lot of nose you're going to hear a lot of people tell you no this can't be done no that's not a good idea no don't do this you're going to hear a lot of that and you're going to have a hard time responding to that because this is not an area that you know anything about I mean I'm not a doctor I'm not a clinician I don't know this space and I'm going to accept it because the professionals are telling me no he says here's my advice to you anybody who tells you no at this point is in your way that person is not the right person he's just in your way and now you know you have to work a little bit harder and you got to go a little faster because he wasted your time that person that said no was in your way go to the next person because he's not the only doctor he's not the only surgeon he's not the only practitioner there are others who are going to say yes so keep going and it might sound like it's simplistic advice it really may but when I lived it in real time I realized that if I would have listened to that guy who I thought knew it all came with a high reputation and if I would have accepted that yes at that moment I wouldn't have found the next person who actually said yes and who's also as capable who's also competent that was the advice he gave me and I told this to this rep I said you need to treat it in business the same way there's millions of customers out there it's not the only one and even with this customer they tell you no it's because you didn't ask the right question or it's because you didn't have that right interaction he's in your way go to the next person in the organization that was the advice and it sat with me and what you guys are talking about now I feel like it just it Blends in very very well don't accept no it sounds easy don't accept no you know I see the this the uh trophy you have there from I guess your softball tournaments oh yes right when you think about a baseball or softball analogy right the best hitter in in baseball average wise is probably someone who got hits three you know 350 or 300 3. 350 it means they've they failed 65% of the time right but you have to look at that and and really put in front of you where you can get your successes where you can get your wins and really focus on that because whether you're in sales Mo most you'll get 10 NOS on the phone or 10 Hang-Ups before you get one successful one you have to look at that in politics as well and really try and keep your your head to the ground your ear you know your ears and mind your ears open and really focus on where you can make the successes and and you know NOS can be turned into yeses of course um but it takes work yeah and you don't look back and say you know I had a lot of failures in my life you look back and you say I had a lot of learning lessons in my wife not a fail you look at a failure as that was an opportunity to grow an opportunity not to repeat the same thing and understand I got to try something different and get a different outcome then you'll never have any failures it's just a lot of learning lessons yeah I agree I'm Cur where did you grow up by the way I'm curious you so about a mile away two miles away from here in Pearl River yeah so my parents moved up from Brooklyn and Queens in 1969 uh my mother I guess was pregnant at the time I was born I think eight months later after they moved up here I was born in niak hospital so live uh lived there for into my early 20s got married moved to Nanette for about a year or two years and then uh we built our home in Montello in 2006 so I've been there ever since with my wife and four kids beautiful wow how is Montello it's a nice beautiful area Montello it's very beautiful we're on a a private road um we love where we are it's we get bears and we get deer and we get uh you know all different type of wildlife but it's I think that beer came to visit me the other day also by the way that that same beer yeah he's been around the community for a while he goes all over the place he gets around that bear I think it it's been doing its Circle for a long time but um you know it's nice to live in a community where you know you can you know just go out in your backyard and listen to Nature and go on hiking trails in kacak park or especially in the fall when the fall it's beautiful there nothing like it we love living there and we love the fact that um you know we feel safe we feel secure we have great neighbors um that we've got got new a lot of new neighbors do they vote for you I hope so by the way anybody who lives in your area didn't vote for you you cut them off because that's not cool because they know who you are so that gu a direct insult if they didn't vote for you I have to tell you no it means that I need to do if if they didn't I need I need to work and really show them that there's that's what exactly exactly cuz I don't have that know I'm too emotional like if I would find out somebody didn't vote for me I would have what to say to them and I would be like I would attack them I'd be like uh what is look why didn't you vote for me there's a reason why the reason we don't find out by the way there's a reason why it's not made public yeah ex and some of the some of the first things I did in 2022 uh the day after I I won is I went and spoke to a lot of community groups that didn't vote for me saying that we're going to work hard every day for um everyone everyone you said that you feel safe and secure and and I love that and the truth is you know here in Rockland County it's pretty safe it's pretty secure but you're a senator and it's uh the responsibility of just the local community is much be more beyond that that for someone like you and therefore I'm curious I don't feel that safe and secure anymore as a Jewish person visiting certain towns visiting certain areas recently listening to what happened around the the World Around the Globe just being Jewish is putting yourself in a situation where you don't feel as secure as you used to how does government get involved in that how can you as a person in the political landscape affect my life to make me feel more secure when I travel what steps can you guys do to help us feel more secure I'm just I I really am genuinely curious other than the fact that okay you know uh I could take lessons in karate or I can you know carrying permit exactly you know but I'm not talking about that extreme I'm talking about from a more political landscape what can be done what's on your mind in terms of right so I was happy to be appointed to uh the uh anti-Semitism working group that we went around the state to get testimony and we we did one in Rockland County as well to get testimony of experiences of anti-Semitic activities and anti-semitic um assaults and and and crimes against our Jewish residents and this was before October 7th last year so we were we know there was a heightened increase in anti-semitic activities in the state and we was obviously further compounded and we saw what was going on throughout the state and Thea and the nation especially on college campuses um but we we need to keep our resolve up we need to continually pass uh Stronger laws you know hate crime laws and other laws to really um really show that we're serious about uh uh addressing this issue we need to I think strengthen laws and penalize College universities and schools that are allowing this hate to be taught that we see a lot and you know that gets to that whole Free Speech argument but you know I think what what we know is what we saw on Capitol Hill and Harvard and Columbia and all these higher Institution right the the presidents came there and they couldn't even tell you what anti-Semitism was and we we saw we know what it is and we we saw what it is uh the one thing that we did do in this year's state budget uh that was passed in April was we put an extra $35 million in in grant money that's available to religious schools shools houses of worship that they can access grant money to increase their security their um at their at their facilities in terms of Hardware you know it doesn't doesn't uh pay system doesn't pay for operating expenses but cameras and such we actually had a forum at RCC a week before the election uh where we had and we invited a lot of the smaller nonprofit organizations to come in because navigating through the grant process in New York state is very difficult and if you're not a larger organization you miss the deadlines you don't get pre-qualified so we had a great turn out there of local school administrators and local um ad uh just just all types of nonprofits that came there to uh to learn about how they can access the money so it's more money in terms of so let's break it down for a minute if you don't mind so number one is responsibility in terms of actions have consequences right and that's that's really great because you know what recently happened in Amsterdam I saw this video I saw that last night and I was just I was blown away there was someone that was pushed into a river and they weren't allowing him to come out of the river and he was at risk of drowning until he screamed free Palestine and I was embarrassed for the person and it was hurting me inside and I was thinking to myself this person is being recorded they're going to know who took the recording if they don't punish that person to an extent where they don't you know never ever think of doing this again it's not going to work so you mentioned the the idea of the hate crime and then you're talking about the the idea of putting security measures uh funding those cameras and systems the other day I was walking in New York City and there was a there was a protest going on and I felt a little bit you know insecure in my surrounding and I'm walking up by one of these what was a beautiful hotel called The Roosevelt Hotel which is now a playground for you know people that are coming in over the border and I've been to beautiful weddings there and it's a shame what happened it's really a shame and I'm walking by there and I was I was scared because I saw someone holding you know a a you know obviously a flags that you know weren't welcoming to someone like me walking down that street you know what I did at that moment I took out my phone and I made believe that I'm live and as I walked through the crowd I said we're live here right now in front of the Rosevelt hotel and they all stayed away from me so I do want to mention that the idea of putting security cameras and funding the local you know um areas of giving them the ability to put cameras is also an amazing idea you know together with fighting those crimes and making sure they punished properly let's continue down that road what else can be done what else is happening so that we can feel more secure knowing that like I don't have to pull out a camera and make believe I'm live when I'm walking down the streets of New York City Michael this is what he's saying is the number one thing is to put a deterrent for people to do such things yeah right and the harsher you are and the more you criminalize it it will limit people do that's I was right now they feel very Brazen to do things like this because of our soft on crime policies so somewhat especially you know in New York and other states as well if we reinforce that and it's it's Peace by force it's making sure that people understand that we're strong and that we have resolve and that if you step out of line and if you do any type of hate to any person no matter what their background is no matter what their Creed is I don't care what religion they are but if you do any type of hate crime you know in America everybody knows this in America more than almost any other country you're better off you're better off murdering someone before you steal from the government when you steal from the government they have all kinds of repercussions they'll put you away for 50 years they'll put you away and if you murder someone I mean they'll put you away but that's not as bad I mean white collar crimes are known to have harsher you know like you would some would say that maybe the punishment doesn't fit the crime but no why because that's the exact reason why we have to make a big deter because people think it's not so bad I just I didn't murder anybody I didn't rape anybody and therefore people feel more emboldened to do those types of crimes that's the crime you have to punish more right that's exactly the one that you have to do more so when people feel like they can do whatever they want they can go out in the streets and literally beat up someone because they're standing behind some type of free Palestine or whatever it might be it doesn't give you the right to beat someone up in the in the street almost to death you see like four or five guys standing around there's one person on the ground they're kicking him repeatedly repeatedly right there has to be peace by force we got to that's a very important thing and that's I think what the senator is saying that we have to make sure that we're putting in place big punishments so my question is and follow up on that and thank you USI which is perfectly said is that enough right now is the hate crime punishments enough today that it is a deterrent you know is there I think it's something we have to I think continually look at and continually Monitor and you know we'll look at the St statistics but also really have those having those laws prosecuted Ed I think with real penalties I think would be uh I think a big deterrent as you said but I think it also comes down to the fact that we need to have a better educated Society right and and I think it comes to the to the fact that we need to make sure the kids are learning about uh the Holocaust more you know we we have a the Holocaust museum at RCC is is amazing and if you haven't gone to it and visit you haven't seen it you should go there uh a lot of the schools are going and requiring uh the the the classes I think it starts in middle school for kids to go in and see what what happened because I didn't even know that it existed NE I'm first history repeats itself and you know I saw something yesterday it said never again is happening now right right so we need to make sure that education and we got to do it at their early ages because I think we we need to make sure that the next generation is educated as as to what happened and and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again but it takes continual education that's a great you look you know that's what I was referring to earlier is you know that's the second step education the step of education is stemming it at the roots where it's starting from you know if you eradicate that you'll have less of a problem later on but right now unfortunately you know the colleges right A lot of these campuses that's where it's all coming from they're they're misleaded they breeding breeding ground for hate right now and we've seen it and it was exposed during right during post October 7th last year we saw what what went on but we also know that we have a lot of people around the world that are funding right these col that putting money into these endowment funds yeah people that are just affiliated with Bad actors around the world that are really they're perpetuating it it's terrible you know by the way in our little circles I think everybody in this room like you know this we see what's going on we're very well aware of what's Happening how could you not it's all over the place it's rampant but let's just like on the flip side remember that I get along with you know the people in our community and like in my inner circles you know you have uh Muslim people black people Hispanic people Jewish people Christian we work with all of them and we get along like let's not forget about the good in a lot of mainstream this doesn't really happen we don't care what background you're from we don't care what we're all humans we're all here to make our lives as best as we possibly can right we're just trying to make a living support our families have a little fun a little Recreation never hurt anybody and there's a lot of good going on and all you see on the news and all you see is all the the dirty Parts all the the detrimental things that are happening around the you're seeing that unfortunately and let's not forget there's a lot of good Senator right there's a lot of good that we also need to remember and focus on that a little bit too for every 10 minutes of bad media let's give two minutes of a nice story let's remind everybody hey here's a beautiful story that happened in the community let's do a little bit more of that unfortunately the media doesn't highlight The Good the good in the world it's you know negative or controversy sells more on the media forums but you know as as I've gone around our our entire District whether it's People to People uh which is a a food bank or whether it's Tom kavit we have so many great organizations and people that are donating their time and really making a difference in this world and right we should be celebrating them more and that that's why you know we attend those you know as we talked about earlier I I attend other events but we we go and visit all our nonprofits as well because there's so much great greatness going on in our community whether it's like I said no matter where we are in the district we have great organizations that are doing great work every day work that government can't do or with do as well as they do it because people's hearts and minds are behind it but unfortunately in this day in politic and and in media the the goodness of everyone doesn't necessarily get get highlighted and it should and maybe maybe if they were more people would would would participate in those goodness and really do it instead of being online as I call keyboard Warriors talking about all the negativity and why we should all fear each other rather than Embrace everyone keyboard Warriors that's that's a good name uh I'm curious about your Senator um there aren't many of you this is uh a very rare type of job that you have that most of Americans do not have can you give us a little glimpse into what your day typically looks like when you wake up and you're not coming to do a podcast you don't have anything major on your agenda you're just going to work today right and you're going to do your thing you know 9 to 5 let's assume obviously you're probably working many many hours beyond that but your responsibility wise you go to an office in the morning and you sit down in the office you make calls you bring your people from me what does your day look like from when you wake up until you come back home right so it's kind of different between the beginning of the year and the end of the year so starting January 1st we go back or January 3rd or 4th whatever we go to Albany so we're not in session from June 10th or 9th through the end of the year so we're back in our district uh we could be at the call of the governor for special sessions which you know happen but they're in frequent so from January to June uh a lot of my time is spent majority of my time is spent in Albany you're up there two or 3 days a week when you get towards April towards the budget being due or towards the end of the legislative session when all the bills get passed uh you're up there five days a week um but during those five days a week or three days a week I'm back in the district either at night you know I come home at night or on the weekend depending on you know when we when we get finished there so a lot of time is spent in Albany at you know that January to June cycle from June or mid June through through the end of the year does everybody stay in the same Hotel in alany like how does that work like they don't so I think the younger generation stays in the Airbnb well stays in in in Albany closer to the capital they like to go out but kind of the old some of the oldtimers I stay in the same hotel with Sim celder oh nice um you know being in my mid-50s I stay with uh the older generation because when we're done for the day I don't need to go out been there done that uh so I kind of stay a little bit off the beaten path but uh it we don't all stay in the same place but uh you know I we I think we all chot our own course but through through the January to June we're in Albany through June through uh December we're primarily in in our district office our district office is in Nanuet 163 airport Executive Park near Costco which is a great spot because we can be at any point in our district in 20 minutes but you're right it's not a 9-to-5 job there's been times I've been in Albany I've come back for a wedding in our district that night on a Monday night or a Tuesday night and then go back to Albany right after it's only an hour and 45 minutes you know when I was in in the private sector as an accountant coming out of Rocklin I had clients in Brooklyn and Staten Island trust me that that's a worse commute than driving up and down the throughway where you can schedule all your calls and you can get you know work done and accomplished in that ride itself and it's an easy ride and but you know Jan June through December we're visiting camps in the summer we're visiting schools we're we're going out giving accommodation accommodation Awards or Empire Awards to recognize nonprofits and businesses and really going out and having senior fairs and veterans Affairs and all these other type of uh community events to really listen to what our our residents need and bring those you know experiences and those um that information back to Albany for the next legislative cycle wow what is the biggest number one like accomplishment that you would be very proud that in 10 years from now we can all look back and you know we're enjoying whatever the results were then but we can say oh you know Senator Bill Weber I mean he was a Pioneer he was a Trailblazer on it what is that one thing not necessary that you maybe you won't or will accomplish I'm not putting any pressure but what would be a nice what would what means something to you what's personal to you to say that this is something I had a Parton and and I'm glad that I did it it was a lot of work but here we are now at this point wasn't easy but we got it done what would be something personal for you so it's going to be on the school related matters and you know we were successful and proud to accomplish getting uh private school families busing in suffron Central School District there was a lot of challenges for the last8 nine years with with uh private school families not being uh satisfied and not getting the services that they needed with their families in terms of you know Public Schools do a great job in terms of scheduling the busing for the public schools it's easier it's one high school one Middle School maybe five elementary schools and all of those start and end times are at you know more consistent when you have private schools you know you have larger families but you also have different bell times the kids younger kids start earlier older schools so we had a lot of challenges we were able to through um through con Cons with consistent advocacy with and meeting with the uh some Schoolboard members in administration and suffron we got them to allow uh a large number at least a number of nearly 500 students were able to get busing through their own uh through their own Yas or through their own private schools um and it's going to be a a great Improvement for them and I i' we've already gotten great positive feedback I think it was about 25% of the kids now in suffron Central have busing through their own schools and that is a big one and it didn't cost the district any more money which is important because from the public school point of view the the hold back could be well it's going to cost the district more money we don't want to do it we're going to utilize it through our own system we're able to show them that it's not going to cost them more money and they were open-minded in in looking at this new system you don't have to wait 10 years that's something that you feel good about right now happening right and and and we'll hopefully we know the district will will see the successes of it and build towards that but we'll also I think showed surrounding districts where you're having a large increase in private school families Clarkstown North Rockland Nanuet that they're going to have similar challenges uh the families that are moving in there will have similar challenges and we could at least show those districts that it didn't have any negative impact on budget you have a template now for the others to see didn't have imp negatively on the budget but it also says that you can have peace and Harmony and everyone can feel satisfied with the service well thank you for yeah thank you and I I I just have to ask you because this has been in our community spoken about many times when it comes the busing why can't I know when the bus is coming to pick up my child I know I know it we have the technology it's available in city buses you mean like like a Tracker like an app tracker that a parent by the way Senator if you don't mind me pushing my little agenda here I as a parent am willing to pay a monthly fee yeah to just see when is the bus going to be there to sit out and wait talk to your wife because I have a feeling that you're not aware of this but most neighborhoods have a chat a WhatsApp chat no no no I know they have a chat I know I'm I'm very aware of the the Bus shows up to the first person yes and then everyone lets them know when it's coming because everybody has their heads up where the bus is up to not I think this it's been talked about I've heard some of the districts talk about getting an app on your phone where the parents can know where their child's bus is that's what I'm referring there was some privacy issues that I think a lot of a lot of families were concerned about say by the way Michael really this is what you haveing we have the senator sitting for an hour and you want to get an app that tracks AB but but it's no it's I think it's an important and by the way I don't have kids in school that it matters to me anymore I don't even have kids I'm talking about people in the community and this is what they're talking about every day you in the winter it's freezing to have your child I disree I disagree this is not what community people are talking about we have a lot more pressing things you're talking about busing so we're I was talking about busing because it came up but there was privacy about you know if someone has a family where maybe the the mother has custody and the father doesn't he has access to the app or there's people you know Bad actors that can get information about where the buses are going so there there's some privacy issues that they're going to work through what's the community talking about not this what is it not this what the commun is talking yeah what are they talking about I don't know why can't we have more bars why why is there why are drinks so expensive like why do I have to pay $18 for a margarita win question like three years ago it was like $9 know like that those are things that Real Americans Michael struggle feel you're pay on that one yeah yeah I'm aot I'm allow of chime in every once in a while I actually have something to say what about the traffic yeah could we talk about that the infrastructure the traffic it's crazy how it takes would you like the senator to put on a yellow vest trff there's got we discussed it actually we talked podcast priority priority coming in and starting but you know that's a it's a big need in our in our community now we we have a growing community in Rockland County and and the infrastructure dates back and was designed for what Rockland was 40 or 50 years ago rather than what it's going to be in the next 40 and 50 years and I think we as a as representatives in our District but also as a state have never made the investment that I that I feel has been necessary to really be Innovative and be Forward Thinking and that may mean widening Route 59 in certain parts and that may mean putting sidewalks in in a lot of newer areas that haven't been considered in the past and that may mean uh reducing speed limits on 202 in Wesley Hills where it's 50 m an hour where you have you know you have people walking and riding their bikes in on on a on a shoulder that's about three feet wide um I think we need to say what is Rockin and this area going to be in the next 50 years and let's plan for that accordingly and let's put the money away whether it's at the state level bringing that in or at the local level factoring in that those are our responsibilities to make sure that we have our our residents are that are walking uh are safe and it leads into the hole we talk about busing you have a lot lot of you know busing incidents bus accidents kids getting off the bus in in areas at bus stops that they're not the safest because there's you know not enough sidewalks or there's not enough uh area on the road uh I think all of those things factor into where we need to be over the next 50 years and and um really make the investment starting now because you can't do it all at once you have to do it in pieces but if you have a plan going forward I think it makes for a better and more safe area okay yeah I agree listen it's very normal you know the the city is growing you know we're expanding and infrastructure's got to go along with it and it takes time you know I respect that I'm curious what what does it take to get a street named after you like at what point do did you like make it and they're like ah let's name this streets Senator Bill Weber Street like what happens how does that work well no we're not nameing one after me what I will tell you it's like we we did a street naming recently that we passed a legislation like who decides what to name streets even to begin with who decides that it depends so at the state level I'd love to know who named my street bore Court like who thought it was a good idea let's name this street after a boore like probably in those cases probably the developer right we talked about being in the development business for for myself years ago well they got to pick it's not like Citywide or Statewide thing no no on the local roads no but on the state roads yes so for example over in um spark Hill toan area sparkel we uh we renamed a road after uh a longtime administrator at St Thomas aquina so Route 340 which is a state road we renamed portion of that road I announced two weeks ago up in Garnerville area we're going to rename part of Route 202 well she wants a street named after him how does he go about that process no no no no I don't want anything for us it's I just want to know like what the process is and who's naming it's a lot of power for someone to have to be able to just give a name to a street that's now landmarked forever so it's a big deal maybe I could sit in that board I'd love to be a part of that I also want to know like people come up with these strangest names sometimes you come in a street like what what's it called like how do you spell that it's just strange I'm just curious about it I don't think so for state roads that are existing because the state roads are there we can rename portion of them with State legislation I I carry the bill in the Senate my counterparts in the assembly will do it the Governor passes it and we change that name in terms of local towns and Villages they've recently renamed portions of you know various towns and Villages after you know police officers that have passed away or firemen or or or communitymed people as well but I think when it comes to new private streets or or new developments I think the developers have a say in terms of what uh what those names are going to be on those streets okay I think years ago we built the development um right outside Gary Goldberg's mansion in Montella by the mansion there and we had we had something to say in terms of what those streets were being called so what's the Gary Goldbergs Mansion oh it's it's on montabella road it's a big uh old uh house that was uh I think occupied by uh Thomas Ryan years ago and um it's now in office development but I remember at that point being involved in some of the street naming so I can't comment on why a lot of those street names are named after you know God after those people but I I know that on local developments they have a they have a say in weren't you a developer in your area weren't you part of that development team yeah so did you have a part in naming the streets well uh no we came after the streets were named but one of the streets were named after a firefighter that was lost the 911 and they got so that's exactly right it's hard name to pronounce Sikorski GRE sakori okay yeah and uh but we're proud to live on a street that's uh named after someone who was a hero a local that's a very nice story like if I would live in a street named Greg sakori Street and some you know I have a story to tell now like I I have a reason to enjoy the name of my street you know versus like I'm embarrassed to tell someone Bor Court spelled b a r and make sure to tell them how it's spelled also because it could be any you know few I'm going to petition to change your name of your street so how do I go about that Center the street next to me by the way is called Stag and I think stag is more appealing so the name stag is like you know has has much more you know it's a nicer namei any final questions before we wrap this up uh I have so many questions can I come work for you can I just like can I spend some time can I just like tail you for a day or two actually you can you know I'll tell you funny story so we have two interns that work with us over the summer but during last legislative cycle it was done through the League of Women Voters uh students came up from the high schools here to Shadow us Shadow a senator for the day and we had two two young girls that that shaded us for the day they came into conference with us when we went to Executive session obviously they had to leave but they shattered us from my office to our conference before we were going to the floor to the senate floor so we can maybe you'll come Shadow us for a day and see the day in the life of uh as long as you agree to Shadow ushy okay I will no no his life is way more interesting than mine it's a deal I just work a lot I work a lot but this is you know Michael we should do it together by the way do you think we should get into Politics the two of us what do you think I think so do you have any other aspirations Beyond this like are you going to be one day running for the US you know for congress for US senator I don't know president like what's what I'm very happy where I am right now oh see again by the way this guy he's he's the real deal he knows what to say absolutely Senator I just want to say again congratulations thank you for everything you do on behalf of the community it is a pleasure to get to know you more personally and I'm happy that our listeners have a chance to also get to know you more and uh we look forward to many amazing great things that you're going to be doing for us for our community for our families for yourself and for all the people around you and just want to wish you a lot of good luck in everything that you're doing and with God's help we will uh we persevere and all do good things and there will be amongst us hopefully not through Force if we wouldn't need that but you know we do what we need to do Amen brother amen and uh just what any final uh now it's lessen I I would I would hope that everyone in our community we talk about the good and the bad but if people sat down and did this no matter what your political affiliation is no matter where you live what Walk of Life if people talk to each other rather than at each other I think we we'd have a better society as it we need a big we need a big Civic lesson Hallelujah I love that Senator really thank you so much for coming we really appreciate that thank you again prime source for sponsoring another amazing episode please don't forget to like comment subscribe get involved and it's a rep have a great day everybody