Abby Carroll · Athens Unfiltered
Publication date unconfirmed
Speaker 1 · 0:01
Athens Unfiltered, your town, your voice, no filter.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 0:09
We're here today for another episode of Athens Unfiltered, and my guest today is Abby Burke Carroll. Thank you for coming.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 0:16
Thanks for having me.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 0:17
Now you're running for council. I am. Now I know a little bit about you because we've had the pleasure of traveling to Ohio for Soapbox Derby, and and I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I do want to say, really love Soapbox Derby. I think as a kid growing up, for my kids, it was wonderful, and I think you enjoyed it as much.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 0:37
Oh yeah.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 0:38
So it was wonderful. So that's how I got to know you, but the listeners don't know you, and so you're a native of McMinn County, and so you went through school here, and you are now an attorney.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 0:53
I am.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 0:53
So now, growing up, did you always have an interest in law? Was that an interest you grew up with?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 1:01
You know, it's kind of a fun story. Maybe not so much for my parents trying to raise me, but it's a fun story. So as a kid, I always wanted to be a lawyer, and then when I got a little older, I was a teenager and I started working at Camp Lookout during the summers, which is a summer camp associated with the United Methodist Church, and so then I decided I wanted to be a camp director for the rest of my life because as a teenager, that of course sounds like what you want to do, and so you know I was doing that during the summers and everything, and then when my daughter Sophie came along, I needed a real job. You can't raise a baby at summer camp, and so I had some really good professors at Tennessee Wesleyan who pulled me aside and set me down and said, "What do you really want to do in life? And I still loved the law. I like, you know, defending people. I like helping people, and so they encouraged me to go to law school, and that's what I did. And in a fun full circle moment, being a lawyer a couple years ago, Camp Lookout called me and said, "Hey, we need a lawyer to be on our board of directors. Do you want to come do this? And so it's just kind of a fun full circle moment. It's not always what I wanted to do, but it definitely feels like I ended up where I was supposed to be.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 2:15
Now I noticed I was on your website or whatever came across Facebook yesterday, and by the way, happy birthday! I seen that it was your birthday, so good timing. But I seen that you were out wakeboarding. I was. So you grew up on the water.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 2:29
We actually didn't really have. We weren't out at the lake a lot, but I grew up with parents who loved swimming. We were always at pools. We were always, you know, at the river, wherever to swim. Just water people in general, yeah.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 2:43
I will tell you that, from my kids' perspective, one of the greatest things about going to Akron, Ohio, was in the pool with your dad.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 2:53
I'm sure
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 2:54
your dad was. I didn't know how to expect him. You know, we didn't know each other, right? But your dad was just very aggressive. I mean, he'd take my kids and he he'd heave them 20 feet through the air. Just they loved your dad. He just really came across and he was like they were just part of him. And so that was kind of a wonderful trip. But talking about water, you could tell I was amazed at how fast your dad was in the water. I was like,
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 3:20
oh yeah,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 3:20
man almighty, he he can move.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 3:23
Oh yeah. Well, you know he swam from Alcatraz to shore out in California a couple years ago.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 3:27
I did not know that. They had to tell us about that.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 3:29
They had a 5k. It's called the Escape from Alcatraz, and literally they take you out to Alcatraz Island, take you down to the dock where you know supposedly all the people would escape from, and you jump off the dock in Alcatraz and swim to shore, and then have to go bike like 15 miles and run another 10k and all that. And Dad was just like, I could care less about running the hills of San Francisco or whatever. He's like, I just want to say I swam to shore. So he did. He jumped off the dock next to all the great whites and all the things that I would never have done, and swam from Alcatraz to shore. He was probably about 5055, at the time, so just ridiculously comfortable in water. Well,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 4:09
that's amazing. Well, I knew that when I watched him there. That was one of the things that my takeaways from that year at Ohio. I mean, it was a wonderful week, but my kids will tell you that was just one of the best parts of their life was literally in the pool with your family, and so I did not know that, but that's a pretty cool story.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 4:28
Well, I'm glad to hear because you know Brittany and Emily were over at camp having to deal with all the soapbox area stuff, so I got to hang out with your kids all week there as the sibling group, and they adopted me, and it was great. Like we had a ton of fun.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 4:40
Well, that's what told a lot of people. So you know, it was like we were all just a family there. It was, and it was really cool. So, soapbox derby is a cool thing. Hope it stays around forever. But it's the first place I got to know you. But you're running for council, and so I want to give the people to get a chance to get to know you. So it's nice to. You were a native here. Have you always had a drive of wanting to be involved in politics of some sort?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 5:08
Not really. I actually am a painfully shy person. So to me, that was a not something I would have guessed as a kid. But I was very fortunate to have parents who taught me that you know you need to learn to meet people, whether it's natural for you or not. That is part of it. We give back to our community. We're part of the community, and being very involved in that. And so you know, my mom put me in every speaking competition contest, whatever, all the things. And through that, I got pretty decent at it. I like to think. Hopefully, for my clients, I am. But you know, we were just raised with that concept of you get involved in your community. You're not just someone who takes from the community. You give back to it, and so you know it started with when I when Stephanie was little and there was a vacancy on the school board. Chris Liner had moved out of the city, and so he stepped down, and you know, I was approached by somebody about, hey, I think you'd be good at this. You have a young child in the school system, you know, you're a lawyer. We think we need a parent. Will you go do this? And so I started going to the meetings, and I started looking into it, and I really felt like there was a difference being made there. And I spent eight years roughly doing that, and it was a great experience. And I I was really able to feel like I contributed to my community, and that was very meaningful for me. And so when I look at running for city council, to me, it's not so much getting involved in politics. I don't really like politics. They're very divisive. They keep us separated, but I love helping my neighbors, and to me, that's really what this is: is stepping up and saying, "Hey, I'm here to be Abby from Athens. That's who I am. That's what I'm here for. I don't have an agenda other than doing what I can for the people who have helped be a village to raise me and raise my daughter. And so, to me, that's really more of what this is-not so much politics, but just community.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 7:05
Well, you know, you said something there, and it kind of shocks me a little bit. You said you're kind of shy because you know the Abby I grew up knowing. When I was working the bottom finish line, you were always doing the announcing. I never pictured you as a shy person.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 7:21
Oh, listen, Tanya Burke. When she wants you to learn a skill, you learn that skill, and that was part of it. Was you know, I, she, every opportunity that came up was, hey, if you get a chance to do this, all you learn by doing. You're going to get more comfortable every time, and that's what I did, and that's what I learned.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 7:38
It's amazing how parents have influence. I'm going to tell you a quick story here. We're talking about families. My one son been roofing with me for years, doing his own roofing, and it wasn't until just a few years ago where it come out and he said, "I've always been scared of heights. I said, "What are you talking about? You scared of heights? He's like, "Dad, you made me. I had no choice. I learned to deal with my fear, but I'm still scared of heights, and so you know you never know. So you're shy, but but your mom got you through that, and that's part of what a parent's job is. So now you have a daughter. Tell us a little bit about her.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 8:17
Ooh, she is feisty. She's 16 now, so obviously very feisty.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 8:22
Get that from her mom.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 8:23
Probably a little bit. But you know, she's my favorite person in the entire world. She plays soccer like I did, which is great. You know, we bond over that. But she is very much her own person. She is very into music and art. She could, where I'm shy, she is not. She has been on the theater stage her entire life. She's very active by the Arts Council. She was just in Mean Girls a couple weeks ago, and just very smart, very creative, a very compassionate person, and definitely strong-willed. That's very true. But it's one of those things that, as parents, you know, I don't want my daughter to grow up to be me. I want her to grow up to be a better version of me that I could have never imagined, and she is well on her way to that. And I'm so proud of her.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 9:15
Well, that's kind of cool to say. I understand that because I've never wanted my kids to be me. I want them to be the best they can, but have their own. I've taught my kids that you know have your own opinion. Speak for yourself. Don't just because I think it's right doesn't make it right. It takes you have to learn to decipher for yourself. And now, and I know I've talked with your dad. I mean, I've known your dad a long time now. He don't always agree with everything you were, you you guys are independent, but he wants you independent. That's what he raised, and so that's the way it should be. Now, if you get on the council, that's what we're looking for. So you you feel like you could be on the council and be independent. You you can think for yourself, even if you're four to one, you're comfortable.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 10:00
Oh, absolutely! You know, every time I have a jury trial, we question jurors, and that's one of the questions we ask: is you know, you are supposed to try to reach a verdict, but you should not give up your honestly held beliefs just for the purpose of reaching a unanimous verdict. And when you ask other people that over and over and over again, it really sinks into you how important that is, and that goes in either direction. But you know, no one. There are very few things that everybody in a town can agree on unanimously. It's just what's good for one person usually has a detriment somewhere else, and you're trying to do the most good you can for the most people you can, but everybody deserves to have a voice, and so you know being able to balance that and say, look, I understand where y'all are coming from, but I just can't do that, or hey, I understand why y'all don't want to do this, but I think it's necessary. That's just a skill that has to happen if you're going to be on a government body like that?
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 11:02
Now, for the listeners, you are actually a public defender.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 11:07
I am,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 11:08
and you understand and believe in justice and believe that people need to be held accountable. So some people think, well, public defender-they just don't care. They want to get people off. That's really not your job, is it?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 11:19
Not at all. So you know. Every time we have an election that's like a DA or a judge or someone like that, my mom always kind of gives me a hard time because she's like, "Well, Abby, should I ask your opinion because you know them, or you know, are you just trying to have an easy job here? And what I tell my mom all the time is, "Look, my job is easy when the entire system is strong and working like it should. I live in this community just like everybody else? I raised my daughter here. I live here. My property is here. I want a safe community, and what I want, you know, as a citizen and as a public defender, is for the entire system to work the way it should. My job is not easy if you have a weak DA's office. My job is not easy if you have a if you have a disreputable police department, because in that circumstance I have to tell my clients, well, you're guilty, but here's 16 loopholes we can try, and they're always going to want to try. Everyone wants to avoid responsibility when they can in those scenarios, but when we have a strong police department, when we have a strong DA's office. I look at my clients and say, "Here's the evidence, and you're not getting off because someone else is going to drop the ball. These people are good at what they do. We need to take the best plea offer we can get you because the system is working. That's what justice is. My job is not to find every loophole and try to get people off on technicalities. My job is to protect the Constitution and enforce that, and make sure that's what's being followed.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 12:45
See now, I understand that because I've very involved him more than I'd like to be in the legal system, but I've always said, and I can't tell you which one of our forefathers said it, but they said they would rather let 100 guilty people go than convict one innocent, and that's why we have checks and balances that are supposed to work, set of rules to follow, and so I understand in your job you actually might get somebody off that's guilty, not necessarily that you want to get them off if they're guilty, but the rules are there for a reason, and they're supposed to be followed. And sometimes that's hard in your position because people think, well, you're just trying to help, and that's so you're about the system following the rules and obeying the law, and the Constitution that was there set up to protect all of us. And so, is that kind of a fair way to say it?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 13:42
It's very fair. I'm there to make sure that the system is working the way the system is supposed to work, because everybody sits there and says, "Well, sure, you know this didn't happen the way it was supposed to, but they were guilty. They should have been punished. And if everyone was omnipotent and they knew everything, and we could be sure that things were right. Yeah, that is how that would work. But the question I always tell someone who says that to me is, "What if that was your family member? And it's when is good enough good enough if it's your family? And usually that makes people stop and think because we want good police work. I want to know that if we are convicting somebody, we're convicting the right person, because it's not that a guilty person or an innocent person is being convicted. That's a problem, but it happens. The bigger concern is if you convict the wrong person, the guilty person is still out there and they're waiting to reoffend. And so, when the system doesn't work, it's not even just the innocent person being punished. It's society because no one's being held accountable.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 14:46
That's what I want people to understand because a lot of people just don't like the public defender's office.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 14:51
That's fair,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 14:52
and because they just feel like you're there for the wrong reason. And I appreciate your position. Well, thank you. I've never needed the public better, and hope I never do. But you know, but the fact is, I would like to know that there's somebody that's there trying to look out for the truth for me. Which, that's a period of everything that I want to, even with this podcast, is deal with truth, and that's really what your job comes down to. And it's sometimes hard. Sometimes you got to take a stand and say, "I'm looking out not at this person's interest, even though it's going to maybe get him off. It's the interest of every citizen, because if I let them do that to him, they can do it to the next person. And so, you have a hard job, and it's not always rewarding. In fact, probably more so than not. I know Steve put on there when he just had a big conviction over someone. He can go out and rave about it. You don't get to do that when you get somebody off because you always got the other side, somebody saying, "Well, that's bad. People just don't understand why you do it. It takes an amount of integrity to say I can stand up for everyone, so that's a tough thing. So I've always said, just if I was ahead of the public defender's office or the DA's office, I'd get rid of all plea deals, and I I know you ain't agree with that, but but my attitude is, they need to prosecute the guilty people, and quit playing games with everybody. And
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 16:28
yes, but I will say this from our standpoint: a win, in my book, is not necessarily not guilty. I actually have a spreadsheet on my photo of every jury trial I've ever done, and most of my wins are not not guilty verdicts. I have some, but most of the time it's someone who was overcharged, or charged with something they couldn't prove. And I walk into a jury and I say, "Look, they may be charged with crimes one, two, and three, but the only crimes they're guilty of are three. And I'm asking you to only find them guilty of that. And when that jury comes back and says, "Yeah, they didn't do one and two, but they did three. My client's still getting a guilty verdict, but that's a win because the system parsed out what justice was. But that's a long, expensive process, and so if you got rid of plea deals entirely, one, I cannot imagine the backlog that would cause. But two, there are most most people who walk into court are going to accept responsibility for the basics of what happened that day, and so plea deals are important because most plea deals are as charged. They're walking in and saying, "I acknowledge I use drugs. I acknowledge I did this, and I'm going to take my punishment for it. And yes, you you usually get some form of benefit based on the fact that you're not dragging this out for three years, but usually when that's happening, they're also going somewhere like a drug rehab or there's other services that can be put in place that a court can't order because you can't force someone to get clean if they don't want to get clean, but if they agree to it, then we're helping fight the recidivism, and a judge can't order it, but they can agree to it, and that only happens during plea bargaining. And that's what's better for society is if they can get clean and get away from the environment that caused them to turn to criminal.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 18:11
When I understand that, I made the comment only based on the fact that I've seen so much injustice coming from the DA's office, and I don't mean just McMinn County. I mean nationwide, and so I just have a problem with injustice. But that being said, so a lot of what your job isn't just dealing with the client; it's getting them help to keep them from coming back to where they become a repeat client. So your goal isn't just let's deal with it legally. But if you can get somebody help, you want to do that with them.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 18:45
Oh, absolutely. We probably send half our clients to some form of rehab, and a lot for a lot of them it works. Sometimes it takes two or three times to stick. Recovery is not a straight road, but it usually is very effective. In fact, one part of my job right now is I am the public defender liaison for our recovery courts in the 10th Judicial District. So that's McMinn, Monroe, Bradley, and Polk counties. Judge Sandra Donaghy presides over it right now, and every Tuesday we have a drug court, a mental health court, and a veterans court, and it is for individuals who have acknowledged that they have some form of need, and they go to intensive outpatient as a group. They are assisted in getting employment, in getting housing. They learn to do budgets. They get anger management if they need it, and it is a support system that wraps around them, and every single week they come in and stand in front of a judge and say, "I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, or "I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. And if they don't, there's sanctions, there's violations, there's things like that to hold them accountable. But it is literally court-ordered, court-supervised recovery for some of our most vulnerable public. And like I said, there's three different ones: the drug court, the mental health court, and the veterans court. And that's my job every Tuesday. Is what I travel around the district doing is helping those people who've come through the justice system, and I'm their attorney in that courtroom. And you know, I sit there and say, Hey, look, this is you know what they need. This is the treatments they need. They don't need to be further incarcerated. They need maybe to go inpatient for a while or detox for a while or something like that. And those wraparound services are what are really effective, and that's probably my favorite part of my job. I love jury trials. They're fun and they're dramatic, but that's where you see the real change in our community.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 20:38
Now, when you talk about veterans court, I guess, what's different? You know, what is that?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 20:45
Sure. So, Veterans Court, McMinn. Well, the 10th actually had one of the first ones in the state. It's a. They're very proud of it, as they should be. But that is for individuals who are anything other than dishonorably discharged, and I know that kind of runs a gamut, but anything other than dishonorably discharged from our military who have found themselves in the criminal justice system for something, and it can be done on a diversion, which means they might end up with no criminal record, or it might just mean that they, you know, did have to have a guilty plea involved. But rather than sentencing our people who served our nation and saying we're giving up on you, go to prison. Instead, what happens is the community comes together. We have VA liaisons, we have mental health liaisons, we have all kinds of great support systems who wrap around these individuals and walk them through a 12 to 18 month program where we help them get employment, we help them get housing, we help them get their VA benefits up and running. If they're having trouble with the VA not wanting to give them, you know, the medical treatment they need, we have a liaison who's got an in at the VA who goes and helps them specially to do that, because we feel like you gave up so much to help our country. Why would we turn our back on you in your hour of need? And so that helps them to navigate that system, to get through that system, and to get back to who we know they are as people, and back out into the community.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 22:14
Talk about the veterans. How you like our wall?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 22:17
Oh, it's gorgeous. I'm so excited to see it when it's finished,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 22:21
well, I appreciate your help with it.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 22:23
Well, anything I can do.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 22:24
So, so talking about, I'm doing a podcast coming up with Alan Carter. You know Alan, and and he deals with the Grace House, which is what we're going to be talking about. So, you do you deal with private groups, or are yours mostly state run or federally run? Is there a difference in how they're handled?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 22:47
It can vary. It can vary widely, and it varies between counties in our district. Bradley County chose to use their opiate settlement funding to open what's called the Bradley County Prevention Coalition. They essentially find grants for almost anybody. I don't think I've ever had them not be able to find a grant for somebody to fund them going to an inpatient rehab, and those are almost always private entities. The drug courts and recovery courts, generally speaking, those people aren't in a residential facility. We have a few who need sober living, and they're at a private facility. But for the most part, that is all public funds, public use, those type of things. We do have some programs through our through TDOC, which is the Tennessee Department of Corrections, for Morgan County Drug Court, DC Four, Davidson County Drug Court, those type of things, and those are people who actually receive a prison sentence, but they go to a rehab that's located on the prison grounds, and as long as they complete that program successfully, then they come back out on probation without having to serve the full prison link, and those tend to be for people who need something a lot more intensive than what our local recovery courts can offer, because they need residential and they need to be in a secured facility. They don't need to be on the streets because sometimes what you need in order to get clean is to get away from the people, places, and things. And for those people, a lot of times those work better. So we kind of run the gamut on everything, and they all have their place.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 24:22
And I'm using the Grace House only because I'm new in Allen, but I know it's got a. I don't know what the percent is of the success rate versus the. I know you're just going to get repeat all the time. That's just part of it. But have you seen some pretty good success rates with the programs?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 24:39
Oh, absolutely. And the best success rate that we see, and I know this is going to sound really weird, but one of the best success rates is the person who comes back and says, "I fell off the wagon. Can you help me? Because they have learned they don't want to be here, and maybe life's not perfect, and they haven't been perfect at this, but they they are affirmatively. Reaching out for help, and they know that they have a support system who will help hold them accountable and help hold them clean, and that means you're building that community, and they are that much further down the road to a maybe a more permanent recovery.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 25:13
One of the podcasts I can't wait to do is actually one of my best friend's sons, and it's a long story, it's a hard story, but he's a success rate, and so you know. And I've said you know before. I've been guilty saying I don't think they help, but I can tell you I can tell you one case that I can't wait to tell the story because it's amazing where he's come from, where he's gone. So we need those programs, and so I'm glad those people will put their effort and time into it. Now, your job is really not a nine-to-five job, is it? It is
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 25:49
not. Some days it is. Some days it's even shorter than that. It feels like. Other days it gets a little longer.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 25:57
So you put a lot of your personal thought and effort into it, and so you carry your your personality with you in your job, your care. I
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 26:05
do,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 26:06
and so well that's what we're hoping that you're going to bring into the council when you get elected. Let's talk about the council.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 26:13
Okay, what would you like to know?
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 26:14
Well, actually, I I want to know what your goals now. There's a long term, but if you're going in for four years and you've been around, you've seen things that's happening, and so I assume you have a goal as to what you would like to say. I accomplished this while I was on that council. Do you have a platform? Do you have something?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 26:37
I do. It's actually a five-point platform. Five seems pretty ambitious for four years, but I think this is something that's very doable. First and foremost, it is professional leadership. Everything starts at the top. The way the council behaves is the way everybody under them is going to behave, and you know, I can disagree with somebody and still go to lunch with them afterwards. That's the benefit of being a lawyer. You argue for a living and you're still friends at the end of it. And I think that's what our city needs. We need people who are going to stand up for what they believe in. Nobody wants a doormat, but there's no reason to make anything personal. So, professional leadership. That's day one accomplishable on day one, if I and the other four council members make that commitment, and I think we can,
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 27:25
I would love to see that because we do not have that right now.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 27:30
You know, I don't want to say anything bad about anybody, and I'm not going to. But I do believe in leading by example, and that's what I plan to do.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 27:36
I can't wait and hope that we get to see that. So let's go on to number two. Yeah,
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 27:41
number two is we need long-term planning for our infrastructure, and I don't mean five years. Five years is a long time, but five years in the life of a government is not a long time at all. That is still very short-term planning. When we look at what's happened in our community lately, when we built the new school, when we are looking at building this new fire hall, there's been conversations about building a new city hall or renovating city hall, and it always comes up as we're in a crunch for money. We need to figure this out and let's find the fastest way to do this. And that's how that's worked. The school is a good example of it. That conversation first happened between the school board and the city council when I was in third grade. I was sitting on the school board when it finally got approved with a child who was older than third grade. There was plenty of time in there to start thinking ahead, planning ahead, and I don't know where it didn't happen, but it didn't happen. You know that is a capital planning that is at the city level. That just we don't think about those things. Every building and every asset we have has a projected lifespan. It has a level at which it's going to need to be renovated, and then a level at which you stop being able to renovate and you need to replace, and so when we're looking at these things, we need to have a long-term plan. We need to have a spreadsheet that says this is our building at the regional park, and this is how long we can expect it to be before it's going to need a true renovation, not just a touch-up. This is how long our building at our restrooms at Knox Park are or Powers Park, all those things. We need to have a plan for that, and then you set aside money now a little bit at a time, and you plan for that. And debt is still probably going to have to happen on major capital projects, but it's like buying a house. I want a down payment, so I'm not paying mortgage insurance. When you're looking at these building projects, you want a down payment in place. You don't want it to be, oh, we need a fire station, and we're making this decision now because our ISO rating has dropped, and now everybody's insurance is going to go up, and they're going to be mad at us. So let's empty our capital improvement fund to be able to do that. A little bit of planning goes on long. Way and that's what we as a city need for our capital projects, our staffing, and our infrastructure. And so the first thing, obviously, you don't accomplish 30 years in four years, but you have a plan in place, and then you have a roadmap.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 30:16
So you work towards it. Well, one of the things that I've been disappointed with the council, and again, I don't want to make this a personal thing because I'm just trying to get what your plans are. But one of the things I've noticed is they don't really put a lot of thought into the future. Even with the buildings that they built, they didn't think about the drives, the roads, you know, and so they create new issues. And so I hope when you get in there, you'll learn to ask more questions, but talk to the people, because the concerns that we've seen with some of the things done, those concerns were raised by people in meetings, and so we need a council that is willing to listen to people, not do what they say, listen, and check into it and see because I know things about building that you'll never know. I grew up in it. You have to rely on people that have not just your head of your building department because they're not in the real world. I will tell you the county for years had two men running the county maintenance, and they call me all the time, and Frank and Benny, and and they they just wanted my opinion. They didn't want me come do a job. They said, "Hey, we need to know what do you think, and so they utilized. It didn't cost the county nothing because I'd come out and look and give them a thought. So I hope that you get in there. You'll use the people around you because nobody knows everything. We need to work together to get the best for what we got. So let's go to number three.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 31:53
All right. So number three is everyone talks about wanting to revitalize downtown, and I agree. You know, I remember being a kid at the middle school when it was the junior high. You'd have a half day. You'd walk downtown. You'd go into Riddle and Wallace. Legend was was there for a little while. All these places, and there were places to wander around and just exist in downtown, with without it necessarily being I'm going to one place, parking there, and walking away. And I think that's great. I think we want that. We want to have what Sweetwater has. We want to have what Cleveland has. But I am a big believer that the government exists to serve the citizens. The government does not exist to tell the citizens what to do. You have to have a little bit of regulation. We want law. We want. We don't want chaos. But so when I look at this, you know, they talked about a historic overlay. I very much oppose it. I don't think we should intrude on people's property rights. But in those same meetings, we learned what Cleveland was doing, and it was working very well. There was a developer who came in and talked to us, spending lots of money in downtown Cleveland, because what Cleveland offered and what I would suggest is tax breaks for people who are renovating their buildings downtown and opening new businesses, and the way that works is, you know, we have guidelines that are suggestions right now, and to be fair, they will turn out beautiful if everybody follows them. It will be brick and lovely and all the great things, but not everybody can afford to do that. But we offer a tax incentive. If you're going to go in and renovate your building to open up a business in it, we will freeze your property tax rate for X number of years. And I am not arrogant enough to know think I know what that number is. That would be a conversation with Mike Keith and Finance to know what, and contractors to know what the right number is. But you say, hey, hypothetically, if you come in and you renovate your building and open a new business, we will freeze your property tax appraisal for five years, and that gives you a chance to use the extra money to renovate your building, get your business up off its feet, where you're not automatically absorbing. Okay, well now my taxes are higher and I'm paying more money because my building's nicer, but my business isn't running yet. And if you want people to use the guidelines that you have for the downtown district, then you say great. If you renovate, it's five. If you renovate in accordance with ours, it's seven. You give them an incentive. We can we can use a carrot and not a stick to accomplish what we want to, but we do that by empowering and supporting our business owners and our property owners, rather than punishing them and saying this is what you have to do, because otherwise, what's going to happen if you put in this overlay is you say, well, if you do it, you have to do it this way, and then someone says, well, fine, then I'm just not renovating, and then what are we left with, and so those type of incentives downtown, I think, are the way to go. And I think it would work wonders. It did in Cleveland.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 34:48
I want to talk about that a little bit because that was a very hot subject here in the city council. It was not too often do we bring in large crowds, but it did bring in large. So I want to just kind of give my thought, my notice of what happened with that. There were more against it than there were for it. Yes. But there was a still a large thing. So, but I want to give my take on it. I listened to a lot of people speak. I spoke about it, but I will say that when you went up and spoke about it, I think you were probably the only one that spent the time to do the numbers, to
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 35:27
do the
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 35:28
paperwork, and say, "This is why I believe this. And so, I think even the other side, there were four, were at least appreciative fact that you came prepared. You didn't just come in there, which is what I do. I like speeches, but I mean I don't spend no time preparing. I just go speak. So, but you took the time, and you put the effort into it. So that is a representation of the character that you'll carry into the job. And so I did notice that. I think most people did. So I just want to throw that out there that I recall it very well, and like to say, you spoke for many of us.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 36:08
Well, thank you. I'm just a big believer that if I'm going to do something or have an opinion on something that is going to affect people's livelihoods and their property, I should at least know the facts behind what I'm doing. I may not get it right. You know, I may make the wrong decision. No one's perfect, but I'm at least going to be educated about what I make a choice on.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 36:27
Well, that's what we all noticed, and I appreciated that then. And I just tell you, it didn't go unnoticed. I think lots of people noticed that. I hope they remember that when they vote. Let's go to number four.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 36:39
All right. So number four is we are going to. If I'm on the council, we are going to go back and reaffirm the city of Athens' commitment to open and transparent government with policies and procedures in place. I think that's something that has really been a hot topic in Athens, and I think it's something that's kind of lacking in a lot of ways right now, and I think the historic overlay district is a great way to show that because the historic overlay district has to go through a couple of different entities before it gets to city council. It starts at the historic preservation committee, then it goes through the planning commission, then it gets to city council. But what was so difficult as a citizen about that is that there is not a lot of transparency and accountability in that for the citizens or for the people who are having to run that because those boards and those committees are comprised of people who are donating their time and effort to the city. They're not making bank off of this over here somewhere. These are volunteers who are doing it because they believe in our city and in trying to give back to their community. And the least we can do as a city council is to give them guidance and direction that says, "Hey, we're going to tell you how this works. We're going to tell you where this goes, and we're going to give you a framework you can rely on, rather than just throwing you in the deep end and saying swim. So when you look at our city code, there is an entire section in there. It's Title II, and it says boards and committees, etc. reserved, and has nothing in the code. It just doesn't exist, so there is nowhere you can look if you are either a citizen or a member one of these boards and committees and say, "How does this meeting run? What are we using Robert's Rules of Order? Probably, but it's not written down anywhere. Are we using something else that's been provided to us by the city? Are we allowed to speak at these meetings, where's the rules for citizen comments? Does it have to be germane to the agenda? There's nothing. There's no guidance for anyone, and that's not fair to your citizens who are walking in and trying to get something done. It's not fair to these people who are going to take the heat. Let's be clear, they took a lot of heat, the preservation committee and the planning commission, and I was part of who was giving it to them. I'm going to own that, and they don't have something that they can go back to and say this is how we're supposed to do this. And when you leave your people out like that, it's not fair, and it's not right, and it's not how we should be treating people. And when you do that, it opens us up to litigation of people writing letters that say, "Hey, you did this. I don't think it's in accordance with the law. I'm going to argue that everything you did is invalid. That's part of it. It opens you up to people who are going to accuse you of things. The best thing we can do is insulate and protect our people, whether it's staff or volunteers, and you do that through policy and procedure. And we're just lacking in that. And also, it doesn't require a whole speech, but we are bringing back the Facebook comments on City Council. If you can comment on every other thing the city does, you can handle having someone sit there and say unkind things about you on Facebook. If they're threatening you, there's a way to deal with that. If it's inappropriate, there's a way to deal with that. But let the people speak. It's all right. They're paying you for it.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 40:03
I love the fact that you brought that up because that has been one of the issues that has really upset me. Because when we had several of them running last time, that are now running again, they campaigned on that. They implemented it the first month they were there. They put it back, and two months later, they take it away, and I will tell you, our mayor went on radio, so he made it public. He said, "We're tired of people talking negative about the city. Well, if you're sitting on the council and you're getting more negative than you are positive, I hope you take the time to read it and say, are they right now? Maybe they're wrong. Maybe I'm wrong, but you need to care. You need to say, I need to hear it. And their attitude was, we don't want to hear it. Let's cut it out. So I'm glad you brought that up. I wasn't going to because I'm trying to, I want to introduce you and not make it my political stand here. So, but that is one of my political things, and so the fact that you brought it up, I appreciate it. Yeah, and I'm going to assume that that goes wrong with the city comments, where they cut the time, and you want to hear from the public.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 41:11
Yeah, I mean, there's really no reason not to, and I will say that you know maybe this is something where me and maybe some other candidates are going to have an advantage. I have one of the only jobs where, at the end of the day, someone literally signs a piece of paper and says, "You win, you lose, and it'll give you a pretty thick skin. Okay, if you have a judge yell at you in court more than once, you will learn to roll with it, and it's okay. But you know, approachability is important, and there are plenty of people who will find me at a high school football game where I'm out there, you know, with my daughter, and they'll walk up and talk to me because they're brave, and that's fine. But there are plenty of people who can't do that. They're elderly. They are just scared of public speaking. They don't. Maybe they don't recognize my face to walk up to me or feel comfortable doing it. They need to have a voice too, and they should have a public voice too. Now, there are always going to have to be some form of limits on public comments. You will have someone who will give up and give an hour speech. That's you can't have it unbridled. But we have a Tennessee Code Annotated section that tells us these are the rules that you are allowed to put in place as reasonable. I don't know why we need anything more complicated than that. Copy the code, put it on a list, put it at the front, and say these are our rules. That seems pretty straightforward and pretty easy to avoid a lawsuit if that's all you do is quote the law, Adam.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 42:32
And pretty fair.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 42:33
And pretty fair.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 42:34
So, well, I appreciate that. I hope that that gets implicated. I hope that you do get in. So, let's hit number five.
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 42:41
All right, number five, and this one takes a little more explaining, but number five is identifying and correcting underfunded areas of our government and our community. So, when you look at our budget, which when we started doing this overlay district, I got real into the budget. So, when you look at our budget, you will notice that there are places where there are requests that constantly get made and don't get fulfilled, and there are requests that are always made and fulfilled. Now, some of that's necessary. You know, we want certain areas to always have full capacity at everything. That's part of it. There's always going to be differences, but there's really no reason why someone can't see that transparently, and a city budget is not easy for most people to read. It takes time, it takes effort, it's hundreds of pages long, and it's not broken down into you know tiny line items. They're big general ideas. A great way to look at this is paving. Ben Birchfield, our director of public works, will tell you, 25 to 30 years is the lifespan of a road. That is before it's going to need major renovation, major repair, or replacing. That just is what the experts say. It's what Google will tell you. It's what he'll tell you. It's just math. That's all it is. We know how many roads there are in Athens. We know if we divide that number evenly into however many years, 2530, whatever number you want to use, this is how much mileage we need to be doing each year to get through this. There's, he has a spreadsheet. He's very kind. Showed it to me. He's got a spreadsheet that says this is the level of repair these roads are in, but he doesn't get to pick what gets funded on a given year. That comes from the council, and it's one of the most common complaints people have: is they feel like their area of town is neglected in favor of this area or that area. And there's no reason why we can't insulate our employees and make sure our citizens know what's happening by saying, "Look, create a 25-year plan. Start with the ones that are worst off. Go to the ones that have been most recently repaired. And here's a 25-year plan. Where if we split it out, this is where you're at, and you can come in and look if you're a citizen and say, 'Oh, I'm.' I am 10 years out from having my road fixed. Oh, I am 15 years out from having my road fixed, and this is why. And politics don't come into it. Feelings don't come into it. It's math and engineering and science, and that's all it takes. And when you look at all those things, we can do that with most of our infrastructure. We can do that with most of the things that cause conflict in our communities, take your parks. Which parks have received the most attention? Now there are some that are money-making parks. Regional park gives us a lot of traffic, a lot of traffic from the sports events.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 45:35
Creates a lot of revenue for the city. Lots of
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 45:37
revenue. You're going to have to prioritize that, and I think most people understand that, but when you go out into your neighborhood parks, why are those treated disparately? If you can create a way to track this fairly and impartially, where people say, "Okay, we put in this much money to this park, this much money to this park, this much money to this park, and we know we did it, sure, maybe one got a sidewalk and one got a swing, but maybe they started at different levels, and you just sit there and you identify who's getting neglected, what areas are getting neglected, which areas are getting more than their fair share, and you say, how do we balance this? You're not taking away from anybody, but it's just putting all the information in one place because sometimes that's all the problem is, is Parks and Rec knows one thing, and Public Works knows one thing, and someone else knows one thing, and if you go around to all the places, you get all the information. But our citizens can't do that; they may have the ability; they probably don't have the time to do that. But if we're open and transparent, going back to number four, and we pull this information together, and the city council is using that as part of their strategic planning. From number two, it all comes together to create a way that our community knows that everybody is being taken care of. And yes, you have to give more to your revenue areas. I mean, that's just part of it. Those areas have to be kept well because they're helping to fund the others. You have to pave your main thoroughfares more often because they get more traffic. That's part of it. But those, when you put it into a spreadsheet, they can understand it, and it avoids hurt feelings and it keeps our employees from taking the political pressure and lets them just do their job.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 47:14
Well, see, I appreciate even there. You, this is what I was talking about earlier, where when I said you went in prepared, you take the time to look at the numbers. Now, I've done lots of public records requests, more than anyone in history, but a lot of times I'll get a lot of sheets that mean nothing to me, and that's the difference. Is you understand the numbers, you take the numbers, and you put them in a position where somebody like myself can understand it and can see the long-term goal and say, "Okay, I can work with this, and so that's what we need. So I'm excited about you running. I will tell you, I hope that you do get elected. Is there anything you'd like to tell us that I know you just went through your five main points. You kind of said who is Abby. That's what I wanted people to get to know. Is who are you? I think people have a little idea who you are. But is there anything you'd like to leave with people know?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 48:14
Just that I'm an open book. You know, I'll tell you some people gave me a hard time because I made a post on Facebook recently, and at the bottom of it, I said, "You know, please feel free to comment. Or here's my cell phone number. My cell phone number for anyone who wants it is on Google. It's on Facebook. It's on my campaign Facebook. It's on my business cards. You can call me. You can text me. I am an approachable person. I might be a little awkward on the phone, like we said before. I'm a little shy at times meeting new people, but I'm going to be approachable. I'm going to be the person you can walk up and talk to. And you know, we're not always going to agree, Glenn. You know, I don't always agree on all of our politics, but at the end of the day, we're going to walk away shaking hands, and you're going to know that you've been heard. I've always
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 48:57
said that you have the right to be wrong. That's America. Yeah. Okay. So, that being said, we will be posting her card on our website, and it does have your website on the back. Do you want to tell what it is so people?
Original video URL not verified.Abby Carrol · 49:11
Oh yeah. So it's it's really simple. It's www.abbybartcarrell.com, and on there there's a couple of different pages. But if you want more details on my platform and what I stand for, that it's written out as an accountability measure. If I get elected in four years, I want you to use that thing like a checklist, Glenn. Invite me back and say you did this, this, this. You failed at this. I want to be held accountable. I want my information as far out as possible because I think that's what we need right now.
Original video URL not verified.Glen Whitey · 49:39
I think you know me pretty well to know that I will have no issue coming in there and saying, Abby, I don't think you're right. Yeah. And I think at the end of the day, like you said, we're going to walk out of there still friends because we can disagree and still agree that this is part of the job. So, thanks for tuning in. Please go to AthensOnFiltered.com for the updates, and follow me on YouTube at Athensunfiltered. Thank you.
Original video URL not verified.