The keys to my TR CU I’m faded hoodies in the street M so good you don’t Hello hello all right folks time for our second panel uh our president’s panel was the first one we got a group of black Mayors coming up right now and it’s going to be a great conversation uh and so we want y’all to uh uh stick
Around come on take a seat y’all can see you not got nowhere to go go on back sit down we’re appreciate our conversation with the presidents uh now we’re going to have a conversation uh with uh our Mayors and so uh uh on the panel we have uh several different folks
Montgomery mayor Steven Reed Birmingham mayor my Alpha brother Randall Woodfin mobile mobile Alabama’s first African-American mayor current state house rep Sam Jones Huntsville Alabama state house representative Anthony Daniels and business owner shali figures genten come on up here please come on up come on up y’all come on come on come on come
On let’s go I guess they need some walk up music or something I don’t know y’all come on so we got five folk might need another microphone we’re going to share what’s going on good seeing you good seeing you what’s up good brother all righty how you doing
Good good what’s happening all right there you go I think I need uh see you have two more got one more okay cool all right cool so uh let’s put one here and then two of you share mik there you Go that’s who we do here got to hear everybody In all right so good to see uh everyone here glad to be here uh let’s talk about money uh I’ve always said that if you’re not having a money conversation you’re not having uh an American conversation you look at uh unemployment ticked up uh 3.9% but it’s but it’s uh below
4% um it’s uh we look at what’s happening uh in terms of with wages we look at how the econ has changed we look at how inflation now uh has dropped dramatically uh from the from the high it is um but we still are seeing a lot
Of our folks who believe that the economy is not good it’s worse and is always has been how are you how are you um trying to walk that mindfield I start with you may uh M Reed Walk that mindfield of of you see the economic indicators on one side side but people
Think or perceive something that’s totally different uh in their reality first I want to um thank you for hosting this role thanks for all the work that you do uh each and every day around the country I want to thank everybody who has uh put this on and
Invited us to this uh Expo all my colleagues that are here at different levels of government and those that are working in in the um private sector as well I think have a role to play I think from our standpoint uh in Montgomery what we’re seeing is although we’re investing in in small
Minority owned businesses it seems like the cost of doing business keeps going up becomes harder and harder and so we we’re in this you know um circle of trying to play catchup as the cost of goods changes as trade changes all these things that are impacting their bottom
Lines the second thing you you all mentioned a little bit earlier is the labor shortage uh that is is playing a tremendous role and so we’re partnering with um our 2-year colleges we’re partnering with our four-year colleges and HBCU as well as our public school
System so we’re trying to do the best we can from the uh Municipal side to close that Gap in terms of procurement as well as some of the program initiatives that we have however I think we have to demand more from our financial institutions I think we have to leverage
Our uh platform as Mayors uh did that last year by putting $20 million in the Liberty Bank uh black own bank based out of New Orleans uh for a reason to make sure that capital is more accessible for our uh blackowned business in particular that were’re running into a lot of
Obstacles with some of the Legacy uh financial institutions now since then we’ve gotten some traction and talking with some of those Regional Banks um but there’s still a lot more for us to do and I think from my standpoint as mayor we’re searching for solutions that come
From The Business Leaders that come from entrepreneurs to help us in terms of policies that we can drive and programs uh that we can Implement ourselves um Rand you heard me you may have heard me say the previous panel that when I I had this conversation last year cuz John
H Bren had posted a video and he was just talking about how desolate Selma is and I said to him I said John I’m really tired of us having civil rights commemorations and we’re not focused on what they were focused on then which was the money and I said we should not have
Another bloody Sund commemoration that’s on Sunday I said but on Friday and Saturday it should be an economic conversation I said we I said we should not allow any of those folks especially those who used to come down Republicans used to come down with John Le any of those folks including the
Vice president of the president come to Selma every year for a photo op and a march across the bridge and they’re not bringing a check because we’re still dealing with difficulty economically in that region but also in many black areas across the country I think we have to be
Have have a a a different conversation and force that change force that conversation to change versus keep doing the exact same thing yeah well one let me say good afternoon to everybody um as maror Reed said I want to thank everybody for inviting us here Roland we
Follow you man thank you for your platform and your voice and I’ll say this when I study anything related to black people in economics I always go back to WB de boy and Booker T Washington when you when you peel it back there was a economic blueprint for
Black people when you bridge with both of them were saying you didn’t have to pick a side um around identity Politics as it relates to what what king and molm were doing all for social justice racial Equity civil rights but what du boy and Washington were saying I think we’ forgotten a
Couple things one of the things is as it relates to what Marie said around what’s going on with the labor market today the biggest disconnect I I find today is there is no connection between employers and opportunity and our school systems Across the Nation and urban America and
Until we get that right as far as Upstream what are we doing for the Next Generation so when they finish high school they have they have opportunities and they have choices we’ll never get our economic blueprint right and so I think we have to start Upstream by saying for black
People for young black people what are we doing to make the necessary investments in them where they feel Empower and they have opportunities whether it’s a 2-year institution Africa High School whether it’s a four-year institution um whether it’s trades or whether it’s straight to employment opportunities that
Exist it’s not a fact of people not wanting to work they just don’t know how to get there they really don’t and so I think for Mayors for state legislators um for leaders on this panel we’re always constantly waking up every morning and going to bed every
Night trying to figure out how do we make more birming hamian residents in Montgomery alabamians more gamefully employed and I think the way to do that is we have to meet them where they are and I’m not I’m not seeing employers do that but I’m also I’m also not seeing on
The Upstream on the educational end providing an actual Exit Plan for these young people so they can be gainfully employed post High School Shamari um as as a as a business owner and and I deal with this the reality is um somebody walks into the door we need them ready
Day one and and I I can’t tell you how many people I brought in and they’ve gone out you bringing somebody else and many of them simply are not ready and what I argue in my business of media uh cuz I went to Communications high school
So I was ready walking out of high school I knew more going into Texas A&M as a freshman than seniors knew because of what I learned in the high school through through through my M through my Magnet School of Communications in Houston and I believe if we’re talking
About how do we transform education for employment for ownership we’ve got to have actual owners in relationship in high schools and colleges so folk understand what the real deal is because you can have a theoretical understanding of how a business works but that ain’t meeting up with reality when they actually walk in
And if that person can’t survive that first 90 days then they’re out talk about that so I think it’s um first of all thank you uh to everyone for hosting this event to the ball family and to hold a little bit closer and can I get a
Little bit more volume of his microphone please uh he has a blue one he has blue go ahead go ahead that better there you go all right uh also want to extend my thanks to to you for moderating this panel but also to the ball family and
Everyone that had a a role in putting this event together and I think we are sitting literally in part of that solution right I think it is exactly events like this that we sit in here today that we don’t see uh enough that are not common place enough in Black communities across this
Country that OPP uh that offer opportunities for children to have exposure uh to businesses to a variety of businesses to people who have owned those businesses people who have taken on careers in those businesses who can actually give them insight and access uh to those opportunities um what we did we
Own a uh business in the hospitality and service industry with the largest uh blackowned employee in tuscalo Alabama and what we have before you go to that what do you do we don’t uh said Hospitality what what does that mean what do you do a sports bar and restaurant business in Tuscaloosa we’re
We’re located right literally 100 yards down from the uh University of Alabama football stadium right on the strip in Tuscaloosa first blackowned business in that part of um in that part of Tuscaloosa um and we have had to be intentional very intentional about establishing relationships not just with
Um high schools but more so with uh our black college students going into college we’re going a very uh cyclical sort of high Hing situation where it’s it’s college right so students go home for the summer and they come back um but intentionality is the key intentionality and reaching out to the black
Organizations intentional intentionality and reaching out to our Greek organizations offering them opportunities not just to come in and work but offering them opportunities to come in and leverage their time in school to actually come in and learn the management and business and operational uh side of the businesses um but we’re
Just one business right um and I think that there that there’s a lot of Truth in what how many employees it ranges between 50 and 75 got it right which is a mediumsized well you know still considered a small business for for federal government say small business 499
Less uh exactly but it’s um but it presents you know unique challenges in the environment in which we operate but nevertheless we still try to give them access not to just come here and work um we want to motivate for the future right and that takes opportunities and it
Takes insight and it takes intentionality primarily from business owners that want that willingness to build and develop the talent for the future so don’t come in here with the expectation that your career will begin and end as a server or as a cook or as a
Bar uh a bartender uh that you have the opportunity and Pathway to come here and see behind the scenes what does inventory look like what does uh operational security look like what do all of these factors that ultimately lead to the success of the business what
Do they look like um and I think that’s something that’s key and I think that’s something that as a black community and a black community of business owners that I think we all share that ideal all Embrace uh that idea and that concept and I think it’s events like this that
Can actually put us in a better place to leverage that I agree with that and and I will say uh to um the the organizers uh and again when they S I got the text right before we what came up with the last panel in this panel uh
And I always am very cognizant of this uh you are not going to see two all male panels next year I just want to say that all I I see everything don’t think I a see it don’t think I a see it uh I I
See that um S I want to start with you when we’re talking about creating economic opportunities we’ve always seeing how politicians utilize their power to do so we could talk about providing opportunity for businesses come into the area think about mayor Jackson whose grandfather talk him the 3bs the bow the book and
The buck and to me this is an area where if we have black elected officials they have to be intentional on specifically creating opportunities for blackowned businesses to build capacity and why did I say that why did I ask uh Shamari how many employees he said 50 to 75 preco we
Had 2.6 million blackowned businesses 2.5 million had one employee doing average revenue of 54,000 and so the day I launched my show September 4th 2018 we had seven people so we were already in the top percentile of blackowned businesses from day one and so the reality is that unfortunately
For us nearly all of our businesses they’re not just small they’re basically one person those are not businesses those are so Proprietors and so talk about taking being a being a mayor but now being in the legislature that understanding of how are you looking to build capacity for black business owners in this
State being a mayor you always run into the issue a little bit higher till you speak a little bit higher little bit we always run into the issue of how do you create opportunities for black businesses uh one of the things that we’ve had to do in the past here uh when
You build something like the 90 $ 5 million government complex we have over there we certainly wanted black businesses to participate we had to come up with an Innovative way to make that happen so in instead of building actually buiding a $95 million contract we bided 26 contracts and broke it up
Speak right to it 26 different contracts and kind of broke it up so people could participate so so what you so you did which was what Manor Jackson did instead of having one large deal you broke it up so somebody could be be on a prime portion they now had a prime Contracting
Opportunity a lot of that came from a visit from Maya Jackson to mobile to talk about opportunities in Mobile and talk to me about how he created opportunities in Atlanta and I I think for the most part um most of us when we come into the arena we think
Socially we don’t really think that much economically when when you first get started then you realize that that’s the real goal that we should have we should be a creating job not just looking for jobs and that’s one of the things that I think we all look for throughout our
Communities regardless of what city it might be but the importance of having black Mayors like these gentlemen is that they can use innovation to change some things that been locked into place and locked us out for many many years and I think that what we have to do is
Change our thought pattern as it relates to sure it’s important that we address all of those social issues but it’s really important that we find some way to finance that and the way we Finance it is make sure that we are in a position to create jobs we’re in a
Position to lift people up who are trying to grow their businesses and the most important thing and I I was looking at Shamari here because his father and I used to have this conversation and the conversation was he’d always tell young people be on time be prepared and be there to take advantage
Of opportuni he he his position was you can’t take advantage of an opportunity if you’re not prepared to take advantage so I I think one of the things we need to spend a lot of time on how do we prepare young black businesses to grow
And I agree with you uh when you try to put together and I don’t know if some of the other may have done this we tried to do it put together minority business directory and when you go through that directory you usually have more more beauticians and Barbers yeah than you
Have anyone else it it knows directors and people say where’s your minority business director and you give them a directory and they call you back and say well I can’t use that I I need I need a CPA I need a structural engineer I need this person or that person and if that
Person is not within your area we have to go to Birmingham together them so that those are some of the things that have happened in the past year now I think we really have some opportunities to involve people in the economy to a point where they become business owners
And not just employees of other people see Anthony the reason I think while I’m talking talking about this is because when he talks about creativity the the the the thing for me is look 2023 is not 1973 no you don’t you don’t have you don’t have uh minority set aside you obviously get
To Supreme Court decisions and all of that but I was talking to but I was I remember I was telling uh the Illinois governor Rob Lovich this because we were having this conversation about lack of access to Capital I said Governor you can literally do the exact
Same thing Manor Jackson did by saying if this business has received a state contract you you should make it a requirement that of all the banks that you’re putting State money in they provid a l of credit to that company I said that’s not racial you can apply to anybody I said
Now you’re putting millions of dollars into these Banks I said make that a part of the deal he looked at me and I said yeah it’s constitutional it’ll pass that’s the sort of thing because part of the deal is if you have a business you can’t you can’t float that sucker for
180 days in terms of how cities and counties and state pays and so to me that’s the leverage point that folk have to have to look at so when people say well we can’t make it just for black that’s fine but any business that that let’s say has a
City contract or a state contract that can that can be made a requirement I can guarantee you those Banks do not want the state to pull their money out of their Banks because they’re using that for the purposes to me that’s what has to happen to order sort of to change this dynamic
Because the biggest thing I still see for us people say we need more black businesses I said no we need more black businesses with capacity because we frankly we are too small thoughts R I just wanted to add that in Alabama There’s a beid process I
Think you may want to grab rand’s micone required but in that in that bid process the mayor gets the opportunity to pick financial institutions that you deal with the thing that we had to do is tell some of the huge banks that he’s not in the
Deal because of you you in the deal because of him that changes the playing field for everybody at the table go ahead go ahead so to your point but thank you again for for having us here and certainly appreciate the ball family for this uh but I’ll tell you some of the
Things that we’re doing to try to leverage black wealth in the state of Alabama and some of the pieces of legislation that we’ve attached language in uh for example the prison Construction Bill where they took $400 million of Co dollars to invest in building two Mega prisons well while we
Were voting against this piece of legislation we were able to negotiate language that addresses prevailing ethnic minority and the prevailing ethnic minority in the state of Alabama are African-Americans and so this what this did was it changed the Dynamics of just saying minority it removed the white
Woman from this language who who is the greatest beneficiary of all affirmative action programs Across America absolutely and so what we’re finding is it’s giving us an opportunity to leverage the opportunity for the construction project to then leverage this in other agencies okay so but I
Want you to explain that though when say we changed the language uh that means that Prevail say it again prevailing ethnic minority got what um African-Americans so set aside for contract opportunities for the prison construction project okay so what you have is uh you have a group set up to only target african-american-owned
Businesses to lead various projects within the overall prison scope that language was accepted yes it wasn’t challenged and so we in Alabama well they didn’t have the votes to to really move it and so I was able to leverage that in order to give our folks an
Opportunity but I we voted no on it but we were able to leverage that and bake that inside of the legislation okay and I really got the language from Steven’s father he he he tght me about the prevailing ethnic minority language is a way to really get a carve out for
African-Americans right now we are the Prevailing ethnic minority now later on we may not be and so right now right now you know we’re we’re living for right now and so what’s happening is you’re beginning to see more African-American businesses get certain aspects of the prison um
Construction project we also baked in a seat on the authority the uh the authority Finance Authority so that we have a seat on the Finance Authority so that we’re able to leverage that from a bonding capacity in other areas it’s not we’re not going for Subs subbing
Something else to someone that may be a minority owned businesses and then it goes back to the company that originally had the contract and their buddies no we’re intentional about it we have a project manager that’s assigned to this particular project and its execution and so we get reports every every month on
The progress of it you’re not going to do quarterly reports they wanted to do annual reports I wouldn’t allow them to do the annual reports so we did the quarterly we did uh quarterly and we do weekly meet bi-weekly meetings to get an update as to what’s going on because at
The end of the day their favorite line is we weren’t able to find anyone well we’re not accepting that and so right now you’re finally seeing some of our our African-American business businesses make money now there may be challenged later on but I will tell you they are
Making money so what this does is gives us and I put accountability on them make certain that your your Mr Joe that been a brick mason for 25 years may not have the capacity to take on the full project but he can take on pieces of the project
And it’s not lowest bid lowest bid is what get a lot of our businesses in trouble because they’re they’re able they’re not able to float their employees for the 90 days or 120 days and we also have or also the larger business because they have more capacity
They can bid lower because they’ve got multiple projects so they squeeze out a smaller firm and we also from a bunding capacity we altered the language to where the prime is able to use their bonding to be able to allow the smaller business to take advantage of it so it’s
Not requiring the smaller business to all to have the full bunding capacity in order to take on the contract uh Randa have you had to have conversations with some black folks in Birmingham to say look all y’all small but two or three you together is much larger I spoke at a Black Chamber
Deal and I’m sitting there and they awarded three different PR firms and I was sitting and I was like I guarantee you all three combined ain’t doing $500,000 in Billing and I said why y’all got three if but if you had one one large firm now you don’t have three back
Offices you don’t have three different and cuz it it frustrates me in the blackowned media space because before I before I launched my show I went and met with every major blackowned Media company and not one one of dep partment what I’m doing none of them are doing
None of them L none of them do remote broadcasting none of them do a daily news show so it wasn’t like it was any it was any competition but too many of us love and I and I I’m going say I ain’t got a problem if you got a problem
With it that ain’t my problem too many of us are enamored with seeing CEO on a card and we got a bunch of small businesses with a whole bunch of business cards in our pockets and not enough business so capacity is the root issue and it does prevent cities like
Birmingham cities like Montgomery and cities like mville in this case cities like Huntsville as well been in a position to award bigger contracts to minorities I.E black fol I’m just going to with a black Expo tell I need more audio on red no no you’re fine go
Ahead so for the last two years there’s been a very very intentional conversation I and my economic development team have been having with contractors we just completed a a Minority Report and a A diversity study on our capacity to engage minority businesses and one hasn’t been done in
Decades and we Dust We dust we we blew the dust off the old one and we came back to the table and said it’s time to do a new one a disparity study from this dispar disparity study we’ve uncovered so many things related to how the city of Birmingham engages minority
Businesses particular particularly black businesses and capacity is literally the number one issue and so my language has been very very plain two hats in my left hand my hat is serving as mayor of the city and my right hand being one of nine board members that serve on our conventions our conventions
Bureau our convention Bureau just completed a new stadium a few years ago they re um imagine and redevelop the basketball arena and now a new Amphitheater is getting ready to come on the same site and so for all three projects I have said this exact same
Thing you’re not going to get a contract coming by yourself you need to come together I’m not telling you to lose your identity I’m telling you all to come together and submit a package together and if you do there is nobody that won’t award y’all right and you’re
Talking if they come together you’re talking more than 30 33% you come by yourself then everybody combined by themselves may get you to 20 to 25% participation maybe right but if you come together and submit a package together the GC got to deal with you because in the wording of what we want
In our contract whether it’s the the convention side or the city side and especially on the city Side the disparity studies complete so now we have ammo to push back on anything the state says illegal this is what we’re looking for right got to come together
I’m I’m telling I can look all y’all in in this audience in your faces they got to come together they don’t have enough bonding bonding capacity to come as an individual or individual organization they got to come together if they come together I’m tell telling you everybody’s eating see Stephen this is
A this this is a literal problem in Black America and I just think that so many people are enamored with saying no no no I’m the boss yeah you’re the boss of something that is so small you literally can’t hire folk um and you have really no future
And it drives me out absolutely crazy and that you know the night before that the King was killed in his sermon at Mason Temple on April 3rd 68 he said black people individually or poor yet collectively represent one of the world’s largest economies he said if we
Move as a collective then we can actually change our community well I I think that uh what we’re talking about here is being discussed uh intentionally among Mayors I’m the first vice president of the African-American Mayors Association uh Randall Serv on our board of directors and when you consider that the four
Largest cities uh right now have black Mayors for the first time ever that’s significant but when we’re talking amongst ourselves whether it be through text threads or informal conversations we’re all talking about how to move the agenda economically a lot of us are are in states where our legislative help is
In the minority most cases in the super minority uh whether that’s Texas whether that’s uh Arkansas South Carolina obviously Alabama Mississippi uh so we have a lot of challenges at the state level but what we’re trying to do is to have the economic conversation and the Frank conversation with entrepreneurs uh
With Business Leaders about the power of merging and Acquisitions I think far too often R not enough people understand now a lot of these businesses have grown where they be law firms architectural engineering firms it firms and I don’t quite understand how we uh cannot show
Them that uh pattern uh they didn’t all grow just from you know the back of somebody’s garage just by themselves well because it’s literally not on the agenda of the organizations I I probably have spoken at 12 to 15 black Chambers of Commerce events across the country I’ve been a keynote speaker
And I purposely get the book and I go through all the workshops never have I seen Mna mergers and Acquisitions on the agenda not one when I spoke to the US black Chambers Inc uh several years ago I told Ron Busby you I said all these
Were all the leaders of all the chamber I said you can you have got to stop meeting and not having m&a conversations am and so it’s never discussed that’s why you don’t see it it’s literally never even talked about well I I I think if we can then soften the language and
What I mean by that is talk about Partnerships and collaborations because when we’re talking about the amount of dollars that are coming out of the state of no no no no you on the right conversation it has to be murders and Acquisitions well but but but they have
To see that I’m not it’s not what I’m giving up it’s what I’m gaining is my point and I’m gaining access to Greater levels of opportunity and no question and I think so sometimes whether it’s ntion black NBA which is just in Houston or whether it’s the uh black economic Alliance or
ELC any of those groups they I guess we need that Clarity uh to be shared because I think from the government standpoint those of us understand that the legacy of of mayor Jackson Mary and Barry are often left out of this conversation and so many others that have really pushed that and implemented
It that those in in our current generation are trying to follow that blueprint and so I think the key piece here is for our business owners our entrepreneurs to understand that it’s okay to partner it’s okay to team up it’s okay after three years or four or
Five years to understand what may be out there what we can do collectively together to go after State contracts local contracts and certainly Federal but also private sector business as well uh Shamar it was interesting uh during the bomb Administration Department of Labor uh no Department of Transportation
They had a conference uh I keeno the conference and we I had this this was in my my speech sister walks up to me and she said for the past three years my business partner and I have been preparing our business to sell she said it never dawned on us to go
By and she said after your speech I called my business partner and said stop what we’re doing we need to go look at acquiring something but that has to be an intentional conversation that we have because you’re not the days of being John H Johnson launching eony magazine
And 65 years later you’re the largest black own Media company that’s gone that ain’t happening anymore you’re not going to be able to achieve capacity without merging acquiring without having joint Partnerships uh and to me that is a huge a huge problem for many of our blackowned businesses and why would sort
Of stuck in terms of where we are I think it’s a uh can you guys hear me okay I think it’s a a symptom of a broader um of a broader uh problem or condition and that is of black business education right I think it’s a they
Don’t they don’t know because they don’t know they don’t they don’t know what they don’t know um but I think this touches on a number of issues that we’ve uh that everyone up here collectively has addressed in that just because you are a business owner does not mean that
You know how to own a business there’s a you might want to repeat that one just just because you are a business owner does not mean that you know how to own a business and I don’t exclude myself from this right I I we had to
Learn um it is a it is a complex process I had the luxury of having resources and examples in my life and professional networks that were able to serve as a launching Point uh for me but in this black community everyone does not have that same luxury right
We’re not as networked we’re not as uh tied to not only one another but to the broader business uh communities to be able to even have these sorts of conversations right about how you run a business right and so when you talk mergers and Acquisitions I think that that’s a
Symptom of that issue I think it is a um I think it is something that you have to analyze at a very micro level and almost at an academic level and when we talk about resources that black businesses need it’s not always just Financial Resources it’s the educational resources
It’s the know-ow issues it’s the networking issues it’s the who can I call right because one thing that you see uh unfortunately very commonly in the black business Community is the lack of the ability to expand right Clarence ball knows what it’s like to expand Greg coun knew what it was like to
Expand but I don’t know that collectively we can think of any other black business owners in the state of Alabama who’ve had that capacity to expand right in that to that degree and I think that ultimately I think all of this ultimately boils down to business education and it and it’s uncomfortable
Conversations uh it is because you you as black business owners and I see several out here in audience you you have to humble yourself to acknowledge what you don’t know um and ask and so I think that what cannot be lost ultimately in the conversation of access
To resources because we need access to resources you got to have the money you got to have the funding and you need it at every single phase and government uh government involvement is often focused on the first phase the startup phase you know without paying attention to the sustainability phase the Lifeline
Funding the expansion funding right there all different life cycles um you know in the business life cycle but what cannot be lost in the conversation about resources is this conversation about actually educating business owners on how to uh stand up establish and operate the best business that they can so I’m
Going to do this here so how many people if you are a if you are a or have been a public worker meaning teacher firefighter officer work for the city county state federal government School District doesn’t matter uh stand up all right y’all sit down y’all sit
Down talk about no no no I want y to stay standing to stay standing so now I want you to look look around the room look at each other what you’re looking at right now is actually the largest collection of black wealth in America now you’re going to take a
Seat here’s what I mean by that and say I’ll go to you on this one I see all these people talking about man we need to do something to get Silicon Valley to get private Equity uh to change how they do business and for years I have been
Saying they get their money from pinion funds I said you change that they’ll change we’ve seen the state of New York and other states mandate what black law firms are you using accounting firms who your partners and if you don’t you can’t manage our money one of the things that I think
That we also have to be doing is educating our people to say if you want to change that put the pressure by saying y’all invest in our money private private Equity can’t do what it does without Pension funds Pension funds Drive Wall Street are you seeing more State black state legislators have that
Conversation because when you change the money at that level it changes here because without pension fund money none of those folks can do what they do they have uh there have been numerous efforts to address that and I guess it depends on the structure of the pension
Fund um Alabama’s pension fund is very active most of what you see downtown here as a result of the Alabama pension fund and public employees um as far as them trying to leverage things for black businesses I’ve not seen that in any way other than them requiring some construction standards or some
Participation in their projects but it’s for them having a Target to elevate black businesses or involved black business I not seen that in the state pension Florida in Alabama yet see Anthony well I’m trying to get at it CU I think so historically we are having this conversation we focus on
Construction we focus on engineering billions are being spent Professional Services the law the law firms the accounting firms we can go on and on and on and to me if we’re going to change change the game what we say is if you want to come here and access our Pension
Funds who are the other business that you’re using when I am when I’m arguing when I’m hitting companies on my show I’m not just saying I want to see what you’re spending on blackowned media I I want to know you’re hiring Transportation companies catering companies PR companies event Planning
Companies audio visual companies I want to see black own companies up and down that that roster there and not just how they always think oh no no we we we built something we found no no no no you’re spending billions in all these areas all you’re using black people in
These areas the reason I think the pension fund is an underutilized focus is because what do they say why do you ride bank that’s where the money’s at if at that level if black lawmakers make it perfectly clear y’all ain’t come and get this money unless you’re making some
Substantive changes here that to me could have a huge impact across the board uh for black Economic Development I think you’re absolutely right yeah to Sam Point you’re absolutely correct now what we have been able to do despite being a super minority is there are certain pieces of legislation we’re able to negotiate
Right now we’re dealing with um gaming uh which is Sam leads that effort and in the gaming l legislation that we’re crafting those are requirements all the way down to the vending services and ownership and in facilities that in communities where they’re looking to uh put a gaming facility we’re requiring
That it’s be it be reflective of the community that they’re going in uh and looking at all of those Services uh whether it’s the machines whether it’s the technology aspect and then we’re starting to have those conversations at least the black caucus part of our our is is having conversations even with
Companies that Lobby us that message will come will be a lot clearer to me if it was someone that looked like me and so we’re trying to leverage that at the various levels where we have the negotiating power or it gives us an opportunity to um I would
Say make it very difficult to advance the legislative agenda for the other side and and have long days and long nights and so we’re able to leverage that through a defensive strategy but the other my final point we have what they call a public private partnership The Innovation Corporation and in that
Legislation we were able to require that the minority leader in the house and minority leader in the Senate serve on this public private board equal to the number of Republicans that’s on this board and we’ve given out approximately $20 million to tech companies uh across the state of Alabama which requires at
Least 40% to be uh minority I African ethnic minor already own and so we’re leveraging those type of things that have been baked into legislation to require it so that it Outlast us or out lives us and so I have a we have a great team to where they play they’re the tree
Shakers I’m the jelly maker and sometimes it’s vice versa but it worked for us because of certain piece of legislation that they don’t have the majority because of it’s whether it’s a a conservative uh that U pack to where they’re against certain things whether it’s gambling or alcohol and so we use
That as Leverage in points to advance some of the the set or opportunities uh for the black community to be able to benefit from an all levels um I saw you shaking your head Rand cuz you were like uh yeah uh I know what that feels like because I think
About uh Mitchell Titus largest black own accounting firm in the country um again when these deals are done uh it’s not something we’re thinking about uh Reverend Jackson always understood that uh I remember when he was hitting Verizon he was hitting AT&T uh and number of these other
Companies where they were doing massive Bond deals and they were saying well who’s running the bond deal again who are the law firms who are the accounting firms Professional Services are huge John Rogers on era Capital uh John says stop using Supply diversity he said no use business diversity uh when you start
Thinking about all these publicly traded companies when I’ve been when I’ve been hitting PepsiCo and Clorox and all these different companies I’m sitting here saying I want to know don’t just come to me I and and and and I make it perfectly clear don’t come to me cuz whenever we
Do meetings with them it’s always amazing we’ll do a meeting with them and they’ll have the foundation person the Dei person and I would say uh does your Dei person your foundation person meet when Disney come here and so that’s part of the game and I think what we have to
Do is make a level of Demands as totally different because when we now expand the pool of now Services we’re now talking about billions of dollars and we know blackowned businesses are more than likely going to hire black people are more than likely going to support black
Institutions are more to give money back to HBCU or to their high schools and their churches and then to other organizations fraternities and sororities and so when black politicians use that political power to hit the economic power power that has a massive change in Black America so earlier I went I went deep
Into the archives I’m talking about du Boys in Washington but Mar re has already mentioned is worth mentioning again the blueprint we study as Mayors particularly as black Mayors is it’s easy to see what mayor did what Maran did and to some extent what Washington did in Chicago as well
Like we study these these guys Hatcher Stokes mean that group of black right we study them to the N I think they scared so many people that even in a state like Alabama they say you can’t even do set azees no more as it relates to bidding right so we we’re blocked
Up but now as it relates to Professional Services so I go back to Richard Arington is the first black mayor of Birmingham 7999 and I I I literally have asked him hey how did you create what was your blueprint what was your model how did you create black
Wealth and he doesn’t even hesitate to say it was through Professional Services so as it relates to the outside law firms that represented the city of Birmingham as it relates to the accounting firms who did birmingham’s books um as it relates to all the other Professional Services all right our Administration
Going to do the same thing we’re going to level up on Professional Services and as of today we’ve had the same black accounting firm in the last 4 years who’s never had an opportunity not just black own but black black woman own just never had an opportunity we’re providing an
Opportunity she’s doing an amazing job her organization is doing an amazing job as long as I’m there we’re going to keep doing that not only to support her but other blackowned businesses for folks who listening who don’t understand and again because I C city council I sat
There and watched it there’s a lowest bidder process it’s Professional Services process where it doesn’t have to be the lowest bidder and so a lot of people don’t understand how a council or even if you have a city manager in former government they can pick who gets
It and they don’t have to be lowest bid that is correct and look I’m Unapologetic about being intentional about how we how we engage Professional Services the city of Birmingham three out of po citizens are black so when we are giving out tax dollars as it relates to services to the
City those are tax dollars represented by those same people we need to be intentional about who’s getting those tax dollars because I want to be very clear there are folk in the state of Alabama who don’t want that and so with our platform at City Hall Unapologetic
About it um and I know that repor is in this room is going to talk about it and write about it I’m okay with that because anytime I get to say that publicly I want to put people on notice about what what city Hall’s role in creating and being intentional about
Economic Opportunity I told you about two hats here’s a hat I didn’t tell you about but you brought it up I’m also the president of our pinion so I preside over our pension monthly and I realized when you had everybody stand up as it relates to all these various Public Service
Opportunities there’s a overwhelming amount of wealth embedded in pensions the beauty of the conversation as president I don’t have to drive it I facilitate the conversation and lead the conversation among my colleagues but you damn better better believe my colleagues are asking these questions when vendors
Are coming to us saying we want the opportunity to represent your pension board all right tell us about who you partner with what your board look like I don’t even have to do the work my colleagues are doing it for me I mean they’re leading the charge I don’t have
The slide them a note and say ask this or any of that they know the right question to ask for the people who want our pension business and believe it or not there is a lot of money just in the city of birmingham’s Pion I know it’s in
Yours I know it’s in ours say and everybody had stand up I know it’s in theirs as well and so that conversation thank you for using your platform to talk about that because an overwhelming amount of wealth is in our pensions it literally is it took me a couple years
To figure that out it literally is the largest concentration of black wealth in America uh and Stephen uh and when I first started talking about it people were like dude what are you doing I’m like you don’t understand Wall Street cannot operate without Pension funds and
So the power literally rest in the hands so imagine if thousands of black workers right now there’s a lawsuit in New Jersey of a blackowned pension fund suing the governor the Democratic governor Phil Murphy and black rock because they were being frozen out Black Rock controls
75% of the federal pension fund so the re when you look at when you look at the amount of money in this country nearly 90 I think the number is 97 97% of the money no 98.5% of the money in this country is controlled by White America meaning P
Meaning private Equity all the different firms like that so this is the power the powers be able to say no no we can change this game because they need the money to be able to go do their deals well I think for us uh it’s it’s about leveraging um the platforms and
Positions that we have now local state and federal with CBC uh with nbcsl uh and other organizations that that are out there to push for full participation by entrepreneurs and business owners from Mobile to Michigan I think we have to have that conversation and I I’ll just use a a uh
A recent example I’m only use two I just got reelected in August without the support of any uh majority White Law Firms now I was told by a major uh business owner in the city they were not going to support me because and they didn’t they held True to this
Promise because I had them share I didn’t say take all share legal services with black law firms now I didn’t say take all and I didn’t get any money from law firms now we we we’ll have a sit down about that coming up but that’s
Kind of what we deal with but we have to be intentional about it when we put $20 million in Liberty Bank you know it was important for us not only just to make that um statement but it was important to show other Banks what they weren’t
Doing I think when it comes to Pension funds we have to make sure that we’re doing the same thing with the RSA because I do believe there is more room to grow uh with the RSA Retirement Systems of Alabama for those who are not familiar with that in terms of how they
Invest their money and where and with who they invest their money and then we got to look at who’s managing the fund do we have black fund managers involved at a level that they should be because the numbers actually show matter of fact when Obama was
President tarp funds I got called to a meeting the Treasury Department I’m sitting with two brothers and they said tell me black and minority firms outperformed white firms in the management of tarp funds me I went cool that mean they get more money to manage everybody get quiet
And I was like why don’t hell everybody quiet well I come from if you do a better job you now get a bigger cut of the pie the data actually shows that black and minority private Equity firms do a better job of managing firms than white firms but they literally get a
Small piece uh of the pie because they essentially capped those are fact the data is there they do a better job but they’re simply not getting access to more of the dollars yeah and again I think for for us we we’ll celebrate the U Montgomery Bus Boycott on December the
1st um and obviously obiously we we understand the social and political significance but we don’t understand the economic significance of what that boycott did right and that that that was why it broke the city and when you look back at at the the papers from the mayor
And and the papers from the for the commission form of government at that time you see they’re tracking those dollars go down and they’re say what are we going to do how long can we sustain this and so I think from our perspective we’ve got to understand that there is
Leverage There Is Power ically to implement some of these changes at a high level for Pension funds and for investment that reverberate throughout our communities and those are things that start to close those wealth gaps those are things that start to close the gaps in terms of what blackowned
Businesses make versus similar size white owned businesses and others those are things we have to do and those are the ideas that I know as as Mayors we’re talking about from Kansas City and St Louis to Atlanta to August Savannah Montgomery Birmingham and Jackson and I
Want to make it so plain for the person sitting here I know somebody sitting here going like man they talking about stuff I don’t know what the hell are they talking about but so let me make it plain to you how this thing works I launched the show September 4th
2018 we are profitable March 2020 at the end of 20120 my accountant are saying uh you going to have to pay probably you had way too good of a year you probably going to pay about 700,000 in taxes I was like no we about to buy a whole bunch of
Stuff part of the deal was me taking some of that money and creating a $25,000 scholarship at my high school in Houston we’re only talking about we did 3 million in Revenue so the point I’m trying to make is when you grow capacity on black businesses and all of a sudden
You’re now doing 10 20 30 million 50 whatever millions in profit the bottom line is you’re looking to place that money elsewhere in order not to have to pay taxes on it so when we’re fighting for these issues that money comes right back into our community in Scholarships
In donations to organizations and so we’re talking billions of dollars and so that’s why I want to have this specific conversation because we don’t talk about this and realize how it literally can change our communities go ahead speaking of billions Corporate America I think it’s a little bit past b
B as in billions but when George Floyd was killed Corporate America pledged anywhere from 30 to $120 billion in commitments Roland we still looking for that money sir huh it’s been 3 years we’re still looking for that money right and and I I incorporate this Ser I have
I’ve spoken to numerous HBCU I’ve i’ I specifically said to Mark moral the national Ur league and to the NAACP and to the US black Chambers Inc and to the executive Leadership Council uh Mike heido I said y’all have to be tracking this and demanding the companies because
What I’ve said is stop letting companies come get the seal of approval from the Urban League and the NAACP and all of our groups and again showing up with large checks in small amounts they have to be Aton for that but those were press release announcements and they were not
Real and and look I I I have no problem with ch when I met with General Motors and we challenged them on their lack of advertising we with Deborah wall who was then the chief marketing officer I said let me explain to you I ain’t giving you no credit for a press
Release I credit you based upon direct deposits so if I don’t see a direct deposit we got a problem and I’m going use my voice to call y’all out and the whole and I say let me be real clear with y’all we ain’t got to call for a
Massive boycott of General Motors I said if I knock off 1% of market share all y’all losing y jobs and so we have to actually to the point learn to understand what our power is and so people it and with last point with this before I get a final comment for all of
Them when you mention the law firms how are things the same as they were then when mayor Jackson left the city of Atlanta not a single may as the mayor not a single Major law firm white Sho law firm in Atlanta would hire him as their in their law firm as partner
Because they were pissed because of what he did for black business so how they penalizing what they did to you was exactly what they did to Mayor Jackson when he was the mayor of Atlanta because they said how dare you reward black businesses by using the power of the
Mayor’s office and that’s why he had to start the bounding company with a Chicago Law Firm and not a law firm in Atlanta final comment listen I think at the end of the day black business ownership is a beautiful thing it’s a critical thing and it’s something
That I think everybody um should Aspire uh to support in every way that we can uh we for all of the problems that we identify uh today we sure ain’t where we were when my daddy started his first business when my mother started her first business when my uncles started
Their businesses when um you know uh fellow panelists uh families started their businesses it’s a lot that we can do it’s a lot that has been done and it’s a lot more that we can do at the core of it though at the core of
It all is how do we here in Black America how do we support us when we have the opportunity to spend and support and host events and do the things that businesses need to thrive which at the end of the day is money it’s a business are we going there are we
Recommending that other people go there no no no break it down using black food company the people who print the materials yeah the the badges the banners the whole everything that you going to be asking that question did you try to get a black firm for all of this
Business absolutely at every at every granular level we have to support us we do in every respect of black business ownership that goes from networking to Capital access to the business education that I was speaking of earlier we have have to support us that goes at the
Municipal level at the state level uh every every step along the way the support and the Vitality of black businesses and the sustainability of black businesses begins and ends in the black community and so we have to support one another I just really want to take the
Opportunity to say that uh I am extremely impressed with these two Mayors um it’s a awesome job to be mayor and addressing some of the issues you addressing how you are providing for black businesses and the growth of people in the black community um it was
A little different in my time and I think now you really focus on the economics something that we were really focus on focusing on rights at that time so you really focusing on some other things but I I would just say this oh this right the right to get paid go I I
Would just say that we have to realize that the same thing it took to put these guys where they are it takes the same thing to keep them there the same effort so let’s not forget that uh sometimes I think what we do is we say okay we got one
Now and we don’t go back to the polls anymore we don’t we just think we’re at ease in Zion and then they can tell you that there’s always somebody there who does not want you there so so please keep that in mind as we move forward as
A community there there’s a lot that we can do there’s a lot more that we have to do and we can only do it together so thank you thank you for coming we appreciate you being here in Mobile um mobile is a city where this has done a
Lot for us to have you here and to talk about what’s happening in your cities uh everyone here Shamari new was a little boy in my yard and Anthony who was our minority leader in the legislature just thank all of you for being here today uh thank you uh again Roland thank
The ball family for what they’re doing uh I will leave you with one statistic 40% of blackowned businesses went under the first year of Co and hadn’t come back the other thing that we have to understand I’m a small business owner but in health care the reason you don’t
See primary care physicians or specialists in Black communities is because the ZIP code that they’re under the reimbursement rates are lower in those zip codes and it’s almost difficult is impossible for them to be able to survive uh in those communities and so I think that at some point we
Have to start taking these folks to the court again everything that we’ve ever gotten has been through the courts and that’s doesn’t change right now say that yeah we literally having a conversation right now about filing a class action lawsuit against every major advertising firm for how they’re
Cheating black owned business out of the 322 billion spent on Advertising absolutely so I tend to quote um a lot of rap songs and rap lyrics and if I had a final word from you it would be from um an artist name by the name of Chad Butler AKA
Pimpy and this song called knocking down doors he talks about as long as we stay divided they going to run the South and he goes on to say I got a bread truck you can get off the these crumbs Professional Services can only take you so far but as it relates to
Bidding and going after big contracts if you go at it as individuals and and your small baby team you’re only going to get crumbs if you come together you can eat from an entire bread truck I mean I think it’s it’s all been said here um I want to thank the ball
Family uh for for spearheading this I want to thank everybody that’s been involved um want to wish everyone a great time here at the Port City Classic uh I think when we party with a purpose we got to remember that there’s a purpose with the party and the one thing
I would I would say is that to have the the leadership and brain trust that not only is on this panel but has been part of previous panels I think it’s something we should not take for granted uh it’s a tremendous opportunity and if you’re not in in the place then
Sometimes you miss that information so I just want everyone that’s watching uh VI Rolland show and whatnot have a great time but let’s be about the business there’ll be a time to party there’s always time to have a good time but we got to be about the business we going to
Move these things forward it takes more than black Mayors it takes more than black legislators takes more than black businesses and black media it takes a collaboration among the community to really start to chip away at these things that we know have been plaguing our communities for too long so well I
Thank you for for bringing these topics up and really getting us to focus and continuing the advocacy work from the standpoint that you use this platform for because it benefits all of us uh directly and indirectly so thank you as well appreciate it my final comments uh
Are this and I need you to understand why black own Media Matters if it’s if it wasn’t for John A Johnson and then Earl Graves you’re not seeing the number of African-Americans sitting on corporate Boards of directors the work of Reverend Jackson as well if you’re not when you look at
Um where we stand obviously going going through the 20th Century blackowned Media uh played the huge role that making the claring call whether was Chicago Defender whether it was Pittburgh Courier whether it was Houston Defender we can go all around go all around the country papers in Birmingham papers uh people all
Over where we are today the conversation that we just had I spent six years at CNN I’m telling you right now this conversation will never be at CNBC or at Bloomberg or any of those networks and so what the conversation that we’ve had isn’t just for the room
Because they what often happens is I’ll have some people that’ll say man the room should have been packed I don’t worry about a room being packed because we’ve been live streaming the whole conversation by me owning the network we can restream the conversation it’s going to be there there are more people who
Are actually watching the who people sitting in this room and so we have to also support blackowned media because as the first nation’s black first nation’s first black newspaper said March 16th 1827 we wish to plead our own cause too long have others spoken for us but the support also has to be
Economic I have people go man we would love for you to do this here without understanding that box that’s sitting on that chair right there that’s a Lu 800 which is the top of the line live streaming box if ABC or NBC or CBS was here they would have the exact same box
That box is $20,000 we own two of them the rack mount unit that it sends to the office is $40,000 I say that because we have to also understand his business folk got to get out of the mentality of can’t getting a hookup we don’t ask for
Hookups when we go to Walmart we pay what the hell that tax is and so if we’re going to talk about how do we build and grow and sustain our businesses then we also have to get out of a hookup mentality which means folks got to stop asking for the hookup for
Tickets to the classic I’m I’m I’m being very clear the I’m I’m telling you so this is literally a state of mind so when people wonder why many of our institutions are broke it’s because we are not willing to pay full service for it yet we will pay full
Service for nonblack stuff every single day that’s what I want to leave y’all with appreciate y’all pound thank you so very much thank to all of you I’ll be live on my show I’ll be a little late but I’ll be live in 15 minutes y’all take
Care I think we’ll take a group photo down front and then uh so just simar right here then we’ll line right up in front DJ hit it don’t hit it what an epic day it has been here at the poor city classic the events began this morning
With over 500 students being exposed to entrepreneurial and educ ation so we’re excited to wrap up this wonderful day we want to thank those who’ve been here today our guests our vendors our sponsors who made this event happen our moderators our panelists the convention center team we also want to thank DJ
Sham for keeping us going today you did a phenomenal job we want to thank Felicia Turner and her team for doing a great job as well this day was impactful we want to bring your minds to our happy hour that begins at 5:00 p.m. tonight right all these doors the doors open for
DL huy at 7:00 the show begins at 8 and the comedy after Power Hour will happen at 10:00 until thank you guys for being here we look forward to seeing everyone at tomorrow’s game and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year at the black business expo this sh check us
Out ma’am check this out we about to do this getting ready get ready get ready check this out come on come on come on come on ready ready it ready get it ready check this out that stuff now roll that stuff now roll that now roll that now walk like walk walk
Walk like a walk like a like a like a walk like a like a like a Dr like a walk like a on get I get get I get I do get I get you know now it I want it the game [Applause] the
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