Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 2/11/25 Crystal Palace Rumors & Downtown Revitalization with Andrae Gonzales About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, February 11th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: Andrae Gonzales, Ward 2 City Councilmember & Chairman of the Hub of Bakersfield website: https://thehubofbakersfield.org/
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:09 Speaker 01 I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?
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0:40 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.
0:42 Speaker 03 Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garrow Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we're your hosts, Sharad Wait and...
1:03 Speaker 04 Frank Lee.
1:04 Speaker 03 Frank Lee. Hey Frank.
1:05 Speaker 04 Hey, good to be back.
1:06 Speaker 03 It's great having you here. I know you're a tired dad, a tired new dad.
1:12 Speaker 04 Yeah, what gave that away?
1:15 Speaker 04 The raccoon eyes?
1:17 Speaker 03 Something about your face, it's a little sleepy these days.
1:20 Speaker 04 Looking half-dead.
1:22 Speaker 03 It's the joy and the pain of having a new baby. It's great having you on the show. Thanks for staying awake this afternoon. I want to get right to the message board here, Frank, and let's have a discussion. And again, send your comments or questions our way, 661-396-1000. That's the number you can text. All right, here's the first message. It says, "I had a guy show up at my home saying he works for an independent power company that said they were here in town to help people that are overpaying to PG&E and wanted to see my recent bill. Have you guys heard of something like this going on in Kern County? Or is this a scammer? He is supposed to come back later this week and wanted to ask you guys. Thank you." And that's from Eddie. Thank you, Eddie, for that question.
2:05 Speaker 03 So Frank, I have not heard this specific tactic, but I've heard...
2:12 Speaker 03 Several times personally, people coming to my door, solicitors having a very similar pitch, and they're all solar cells.
2:21 Speaker 04 That's what I thought, or that's what I got from this, this question was that maybe he's in solar?
2:26 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's gotta be, and, and they are.
2:29 Speaker 00 I had a guy at the, it was during the holidays, came to my house, asked me to see my, my gas bill, and said the same thing. He said PG&E was a monopoly and that they were here in town, you know, to build a business and that they had a grid and that they, they could help out our local neighborhood. And I said, well, I'm not, I'm not going to show you first of all, I, I don't have a paper bill.
2:54 Speaker 03 Right.
2:55 Speaker 00 I would have to open up the app and then show it to you and all this. And I told him I already had solar, and then he got frustrated and walked off.
3:04 Speaker 03 Good job.
3:05 Speaker 00 And I was killing him with kindness. I don't get it, but it sounded like a solar deal.
3:09 Speaker 03 Yeah, it, it, that's what it is. It's, you know, everybody hates on PG&E because they, they are the only game in town for us here in, in Bakersfield and most of Kern County, either that or Southern California Edison. And so it's so easy for somebody to just say, ah, yeah, no, hey, you, you know, you wanna, you don't need to give them your money. You can, you know, you can go this route. And there's nothing wrong with, like, we're fans of solar. There's nothing wrong with solar. I just don't like the, the pressure sales for it.
3:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
3:39 Speaker 03 And also, you know, there was in Bakersfield, this, this is many years ago, around 2018, this was in the, in the, in the local paper where some people were going door to door saying, posing as utility representatives, like almost as if they were PG&E representatives or representatives of a public utility, which that's, now you're just, that's full on scam.
4:04 Speaker 04 Yeah.
4:04 Speaker 03 PG&E is not going to do that. And if they do, there'll be, you know, the, the proper credentials and you're likely going to get things in the mail and it's not gonna, not gonna come to your door soliciting stuff.
4:15 Speaker 04 Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, if it feels fishy, then it's probably safe to, you know, question. And do some research rather than give in your statements or any other personal information.
4:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:27 Speaker 04 Cause it's, it, it could be, it could be that.
4:30 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:30 Speaker 04 So you'd rather be safe than, you know.
4:32 Speaker 03 And, and one of the tactics that scammers use is this idea that you have to make the decision now. They know that they need to get you worked up and in that emotional state to commit. And so they'll frequently make it sound like, oh, this isn't going to last forever. And you guys, there's always going to be a better deal. So you don't, you don't need to rush into those decisions and certainly don't need to hand a stranger your utility bill. You can, you know, you can, uh, there's, there's better ways to go, go about that.
5:02 Speaker 04 Yeah. I always, I always hate those. It's like, you can't, you won't find a better deal. It's like, I don't know.
5:08 Speaker 03 Yeah. Who cares?
5:09 Speaker 04 Yeah. Who cares?
5:09 Speaker 03 I remember this is right when flat screen TVs were really starting to like take off. And I went into a, I don't remember what store it was. I don't think it was a local store. It was probably Best Buy or I don't know who it was. But I walked in and I was just taking, I just wanted to look at the screen, you know? And the salesman immediately started just pressuring me to buy this TV. And one of the things.
5:34 Speaker 00 Fresh fish.
5:36 Speaker 03 One of the things he was saying was like, this is a great deal. Like this is, you know, you're not always going to get this. And I was like, do you know how technology works? Like it, technology always gets cheaper. Like it, 100% it's going to get cheaper. And he wanted to argue with me about this, like, oh my gosh. And sure enough, you know, that was probably back when we were flat screens were coming out. There were thousands of dollars, you know, for like a, a 40 inch would have been a huge, you know? This is before even LCD. It would have been thousands of dollars. I don't know. Three or $4,000 for something like that.
6:11 Speaker 00 That's why my wife doesn't go to Costco with me.
6:13 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:15 Speaker 00 I see the new 100 inch TVs and she's like, no babe, no babe.
6:19 Speaker 03 Oh, man, 100 inch.
6:21 Speaker 04 My brother-in-law told me about that.
6:23 Speaker 03 How much are they?
6:24 Speaker 00 Uh, they were like 1,200 bucks.
6:26 Speaker 03 Holy cow.
6:27 Speaker 00 Yeah, but you know, 10 years ago, that wouldn't have bought you a 40-inch, you know, uh, the actual.
6:33 Speaker 03 Not a flat screen.
6:34 Speaker 00 The nice ones.
6:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, holy cow, 100-inch TV.
6:39 Speaker 04 Yeah, can you imagine?
6:41 Speaker 00 Yeah, they're so cheap right now.
6:42 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:43 Speaker 00 Like, you can get a 40-inch for 200 bucks.
6:46 Speaker 03 Unbelievable. That's great.
6:48 Speaker 00 You have to buy it now.
6:50 Speaker 03 They're getting thinner and lighter and better quality. 8K, 12K, I don't know what, how many Ks they're up to now. It's a lot of Ks, 24K.
7:02 Speaker 03 Holy cow. All right. Well, thank you, thank you, listener for that, Eddie, for that question. Good luck with your utility bills. Uh, go, go through some legitimate sources if you are looking at reducing your, your, your utilities. You know, unfortunately, now we're in the new net metering with PG&E where you don't get as much credit for your over-production. As you did before, it's because PG&E and other public utilities are pushing people towards batteries. So you can store your own and then that's what you use during peak hours or in, at night. And it's not really great, as great for consumers. I mean, those batteries are extremely expensive. And so the break even on solar isn't nearly as attractive as it used to be.
7:44 Speaker 04 Oh, wow.
7:45 Speaker 03 Unfortunately.
7:46 Speaker 04 Yeah.
7:46 Speaker 03 We've got another question here from a listener. It's, uh, go ahead and read it, says, hello, guys. Is there steps to avoid a 20% tax on 401K withdrawals? Or is that the norm? So, great question. This is actually the norm. And it depends on when and how you're taking the withdrawal from the 401K. The standard is 20% if you are going to make a, just a partial withdrawal or a lump sum distribution. You know, that's a lot of withholdings for a lot of people. But you have to look at it from the perspective of the government that set up this IRS tax code. They're trying to incentivize you to not touch it until you're at least 59 and a half.
8:30 Speaker 03 So this is a disincentive for people to withdraw that long-term money that hopefully you don't need to go after until later. The other aspect to this mandatory 20% tax withholding is that the government wants to make sure that they get their taxes. And if you are in a desperate financial situation where you have to withdraw from your retirement account, likely you're not going to have money to pay taxes either.
8:55 Speaker 04 Yeah.
8:55 Speaker 03 And so I think this is kind of a way for the government to protect themselves.
8:59 Speaker 04 Right.
8:59 Speaker 03 Unfortunately.
9:01 Speaker 04 And does that still imply the 10% penalty tax? Or that's just separate?
9:05 Speaker 03 That's separate. So on top of that, you have the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
9:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, before the age of 59 and a half.
9:12 Speaker 03 That's right.
9:13 Speaker 04 Yeah.
9:14 Speaker 03 But the 10% early withdrawal penalty is something that you pay when you file your taxes. So that's a bill that you're going to get when you file your taxes for that year. You don't have to have... They don't automatically withhold that early withdrawal, 10% early withdrawal. That's something that's just going to be tacked on to your tax bill.
9:35 Speaker 04 Right, right.
9:35 Speaker 03 But the 20% is pretty significant. There are some ways, however, to avoid the 20% withdrawal. And it's a little nuanced, but if you have a 401K, oftentimes, even if you're still working with the company, there are ways that you can transfer or roll your 401K into another retirement account, like an IRA. And then once you have your money in an IRA, you don't, again, as long as it's a trustee-to-trustee transfer or a direct rollover where the money is sent directly to the new IRA provider, the new 401K provider, you don't have taxes. There's no taxes withheld.
10:19 Speaker 03 And now if it goes into your own individual retirement account, well, now it's up to you. To make, decide how much is being withheld because you're in control of that IRA. So you could withdraw it and not have anything withheld. You're still gonna owe, it's still gonna have to pay taxes.
10:36 Speaker 04 Yep.
10:36 Speaker 03 And we would recommend that you have at least something withheld. Especially if you're in a financial position where you think you might not be able to pay your taxes. Then have something withheld, so it's not so much of a sticker shop when you stop, shock when you go to file your taxes.
10:52 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think that's a very key point to distinguish between, especially between the traditional IRA and Roth IRA. As soon as you pull money out, you have to pay taxes on it.
11:02 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:02 Speaker 04 Regardless, so be careful of how much you pull out. Make sure you have enough to pay off some of the taxes.
11:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:09 Speaker 04 When tax season comes.
11:10 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:11 Speaker 04 Which is coming up.
11:12 Speaker 03 It's coming up real quick for a lot of people. In fact, it just started just a few weeks ago. People can, as of the end of January, you can actually go file your taxes. There's a couple of other things that you can consider. If you take periodic withdrawals instead of a lump sum, we call this a 72T. Then essentially what you're doing is you're taking substantially equal periodic payments. And you have to, there's a formula that you have to follow. And you have to pay it back as long as you make your payments over that period of time. Then, then you don't have the 20% withholding. So the other aspect or the other thing to consider is maybe taking a loan instead of withdrawal.
11:52 Speaker 03 Because if you're taking a loan and as long as you're making those payments, again, there's no withholdings from that loan. And 401Ks generally allow you to borrow up to 50% of your balance, but no more than $50,000. Of course, if you miss a payment, it becomes taxable. So you want to make sure you make those payments. And also you could have run into problems on, on taking loans from your 401K. And then you get laid off or you change jobs. Guess what? That loan, you gotta pay it.
12:23 Speaker 04 It follows you.
12:24 Speaker 03 Taxable. Yeah, it doesn't follow you. It, you're still gonna, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to satisfy the loan.
12:30 Speaker 04 Oh, I see.
12:31 Speaker 03 Otherwise it becomes taxable and now you have that early, that 10% early withdrawal penalty and all the income taxes. So it's very financially devastating to, to go, to have a 401K loan go sideways.
12:47 Speaker 03 So hopefully that helps our listeners a little bit. Great questions. We want you to please continue to send us your comments or questions. 661-396-1000. Please stick around. We're going to take a quick break.
13:02 Speaker 00 Are you curious to learn more about how you can be money wise? Check out the Money Wise website at MoneyWiseGuys.com to get more info about what we do.
13:18 Speaker 03 Thanks for tuning in. We're the Money Wise Show. I'm here with frankly, I'm Sherid Wait. We're joined by our guest today, Andre Gonzalez. He is Ward 2 City Council Member and Chairman of the Hub of Bakersfield. Andre, thanks for coming on the show.
13:33 Speaker 05 Thanks for having me. Good afternoon.
13:34 Speaker 03 Good afternoon. Well, first of all, let's, let's address the first, the first topic, which I'm sure a lot of people are interested in. This is the fact, this came out of a week or two ago, the city of Bakersfield is considering the purchase of a couple of buildings in town, including the Crystal Palace. So this really piqued my interest because the Crystal Palace has been on the market for how long now? Six months or so?
13:59 Speaker 05 It's been a minute. Yeah, for sure.
14:01 Speaker 03 And immediately I thought, well, okay, we're going to get, you know, Garth Brooks is going to come in here. Somebody's going to, you know, come in here and buy this up. But, and there has been some interest, but no takers. And that's concerning to me because of the, the legacy that Crystal Palace is. So what can you tell us sort of where, where, where the city is with, with the Crystal Palace?
14:26 Speaker 05 Yeah, it's a great question. I've been getting a lot of questions about this. I think first and foremost, it's important for everyone to understand that the city is just exploring the topic at this moment. And so what we want to see is what would make sense for the city to step in and to purchase this property as a public benefit. We, we recognize that, you know, as a private business and as a business venture that includes a restaurant and, you know, concert venue, that, you know, the city's role in that is probably Limited, right? We don't want to be in the restaurant business. But there is something to be said about the history, right? The fact that Buck Owens was from Bakersfield, the Bakersfield Sound.
15:08 Speaker 05 You know, all of these different things that are part of the history of our city, part of the culture of our city. And there is a good argument to be made that we should preserve that. And so as a public benefit, I think it makes sense for us to at least explore the option of retaining that property. Preserving it along with, by the way, all the memorabilia, all of the things that are included in that. For for our community and to celebrate that history and in turn. Help utilize that property to help generate additional tourism. Because in years past, that property was the number one tourist attraction in Bakersfield.
15:48 Speaker 05 There have been buses of tourists daily that visited that center that went to the gift store and. Purchased memorabilia and then also, you know, participated in visiting other local businesses. So there is a case to be made for that, but there are a lot of questions. The questions are.
16:09 Speaker 03 Well, let me ask, you wouldn't, I don't see a scenario. Or is there a scenario where the city would outbid a private, private buyer?
16:17 Speaker 05 No, and that's, that's, that's a perfect point is that exactly if a private buyer were to come in and say, look, we want to. Make a go of this, you know, I don't think, well, as one council member, that it would be appropriate for the city to come in. Let, let the private market work it out and let that deal happen. It's a public benefit. It works out. It's a win win situation, but that hasn't happened. That scenario hasn't happened. No one has really taken this up as a, as a private deal. And so it's important for now the city to really consider it now. The question is, what will the city do with it once we purchase this property? I think that we really need to analyze, you know, this venue space, maybe do a pro forma to see
17:00 Speaker 05 how we can actually generate some revenue.
17:04 Speaker 03 The city has some experience in this, like the Mechanics Bank.
17:09 Speaker 05 Mechanics Bank Arena and the theater are both managed by a company called ASM. And actually, for over the last three years, they've actually generated a profit for the city to the tune of $4.5 million. And so that's the other question is how are we going to pay for this? I am opposed, and I want to be clear for the whole public to realize this, I'm opposed for us for us using general fund dollars or PSVS or locally generated tax dollars to pay for this purchase. What I would propose though is that we use those proceeds that we generated through ASM and the performance of the arena and the theater.
17:53 Speaker 05 Those dollars that we have available, we have about $4 million cash on hand available.
17:58 Speaker 03 Nice.
17:58 Speaker 05 We utilize those dollars to purchase this property.
18:01 Speaker 03 That would make sense because you're essentially using that pool of asset, that asset pool that is, it's an entertainment like investment in our city, cultural entertainment investment.
18:12 Speaker 05 We're not using the local tax dollars. We're using the proceeds generated that we earned. And then also, you know, there's also this transit occupancy tax that's generated through stays at local hotels.
18:23 Speaker 03 Yeah.
18:24 Speaker 05 For me, that makes a lot of sense because it creates a virtuous cycle in the fact that if we're able to create, let's say, a concert venue at the Crystal Palace, we're able to attract more visitors to the community and, you know, maybe have exhibits that feature some of the Baker, Bakerstown Sound memorabilia. That can actually generate additional hotel stays and help us continue to grow that TOT tax, which has been growing, by the way, every year.
18:53 Speaker 03 Nice. Yeah, I'm always shocked because of the hotel number of people that come here and occupy our hotels. Like we have. What's the big wrestling event, the CIF wrestling?
19:05 Speaker 05 Yeah, and we, we won that bid. We, you know, we won it against lots of other cities who wanted to have all those wrestlers from throughout the state in Bakersfield, and that's coming up.
19:18 Speaker 03 That's super cool. Again, we're joined by Andre Gonzalez. He's a Ward 2 city council member. Andre, is there a, what's the pushback? Are you, what are, what are the skeptics saying? Or what are people mad about?
19:32 Speaker 05 Yeah.
19:33 Speaker 03 There's always somebody mad about something.
19:35 Speaker 05 Everyone's mad about lots of things. Yeah, I think people, you know, I think there's legitimate questions about, you know, what, what should be the role of the city, you know? If, if it's, if it's not performing well currently, why is the city going to step in and try to handle this business? And I think that's a fair question. I think my response to that is, I don't think that we need to operate a restaurant. I don't think that's what the city should do. But I think that there is space for an additional concert venue. And perhaps we can, you know, convert this into more of a, you know, concert event space. And I would like to see the numbers of something that might work in that regard.
20:19 Speaker 05 But the other question is, look, it's a, you know, it's a private business and cities shouldn't participate in this.
20:27 Speaker 03 It's more of a landmark than a business. I mean, it's a business.
20:30 Speaker 05 But again, that's my retort is that it is a, it is a landmark and there is a public benefit that has so much more value than what one private investor can actually monetize.
20:42 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:43 Speaker 05 And when there is that public benefit, that is the most appropriate place for government to step in and to help provide some support in order to preserve that asset. I mean, we don't look at our public parks and say, we shouldn't build a public park because it doesn't generate revenue. We know inherently in a park, it has, it generates some public benefit.
21:07 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:07 Speaker 05 And in the same way, the Crystal Palace for a large portion of this community has Has generated that benefit in terms of our culture, our history. The Bakersfield Sound has been celebrated throughout the world internationally.
21:22 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:23 Speaker 05 And it's a shame that in, in, right here in Bakersfield, we're seeing that sort of disappear.
21:29 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:29 Speaker 05 And I know there's been some really valiant efforts among some folks to bring pieces of that back. Roosters, for example, in downtown.
21:38 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:39 Speaker 05 With the honky tonk.
21:40 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:41 Speaker 05 But I think that if there was ever a time for the city to really lean into that Bakersfield Sound, this, this is it. Again, all that said, we, we have to look at the pro forma to see how we can make this.
21:55 Speaker 03 Make the numbers work.
21:56 Speaker 05 And also, we want to negotiate the best deal. I mean, the, the asking price right now is seven and a half million dollars. I, I'm not in support of purchasing the property at that amount. I think there's a.
22:07 Speaker 03 The free market hasn't, hasn't been jumping at that either.
22:11 Speaker 05 That's correct. And so we need to negotiate a deal because again, um, you know, I'm sure the family wants to preserve the legacy of Buck Owens and, and this Crystal Palace as well. And there is no better buyer to preserve that, to preserve that legacy over the long term than the city of Bakersfield.
22:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:32 Speaker 05 Because unlike any private business, the city's not going anywhere in the next 30 years, 50 years, 70 years.
22:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:39 Speaker 05 We will be here.
22:40 Speaker 03 So maybe the family can work a deal a little bit at least for, for the city if it gets to that point. Is there a, what would you estimate the timeframe on something like this would be? Would it be the next six months, the next year?
22:53 Speaker 05 I, I would say probably the next year or so. I mean, this isn't the most urgent issue in the city of Bakersfield. I think, I appreciate, you know, the fact that this has been brought up for us to consider. Um, and I think it's worthwhile that we consider it. Oftentimes we let the most urgent thing take up all of our time. Uh, but, uh, but really there are lots of other things that we gotta get through. The city right now. Um, and so it isn't as if, uh, this is the, the top priority.
23:21 Speaker 03 What, what now? Now, the other building that was mentioned is the Bank of America building on Truxton. This seems to make a little bit more sense because my guess, is the city capped out on office space?
23:32 Speaker 05 You know, the city is, and in fact, one of the things that I really hang my hat on with regard to this purchase of the B of A building is the fact that we actually lease office space to the tune of half a million dollars every year. And so, we also know that there's about 1.2 to 1.5 million dollars in lease revenue generated by the current tenants. If we continue to maintain those tenants, you can actually structure a scenario where we're actually being able to recoup all of the funds from the additional investment.
24:10 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, no, that's shocking. I didn't realize there was that much revenue coming in.
24:15 Speaker 05 But the other thing I like about the B of A building, if I can, is the fact that we have close to 300 parking spots as part of that property.
24:25 Speaker 03 Right.
24:25 Speaker 05 And parking is a premium in downtown Bakersfield. And so, for us to have those 300 spots that we can turn into public parking on the nights and weekends, that is very valuable and attractive. One of the things that, well, we know that it's very expensive to build a parking structure. It's almost close to $30,000 a parking spot in some scenarios. And so, we know that that's also a value. Now, again, there are some drawbacks as well. It's a large building. We don't know the current condition fully yet of the building.
25:06 Speaker 05 And so, we have to do our due diligence diligence there as well. And so, there's a lot of, you know... Opportunity for us to negotiate a deal and make it work for the city. But yeah, it's an option that we're looking at.
25:23 Speaker 03 How would the city pay for that? Would that be a different scenario than, say, the Crystal Palace?
25:30 Speaker 05 It would be a different scenario. I mean, in the case of the B of A building, we have, you know, revenues set aside for capital projects. And so we would have to look at ways in which we can, different funding streams to pull together in order to make that purchase happen.
25:50 Speaker 05 You know, one of the things that I'm really proud of in the city of Bakersfield is that we've really done a good job at growing our reserve fund.
25:58 Speaker 03 Yes.
25:59 Speaker 05 We have a rainy day reserve that equates to roughly two months of cash flow in the city of Bakersfield.
26:08 Speaker 03 We've had Christian Clegg on the show to talk about this.
26:12 Speaker 05 Yeah.
26:12 Speaker 03 And we should be very proud about this.
26:16 Speaker 05 We should be, because if you look at other mid-sized cities, you know, we're a mid-sized city, you know, they're on the lower end.
26:24 Speaker 05 And so not, and larger cities have like 5%, 6% cash flow. We're at, you know, 16%. And so you take a look at this, you know, and how well we've done. When I first joined the council, we had, you know, close to maybe 13, 16 million dollars in reserve. That included a facility reserve. Today, we're upward to 60 million dollars and we're about to put another additional five to six million dollars into that reserve. That, that reserve also earns interest. And so we're gaining another couple million dollars each year to continue to build that reserve fund. And so, you know, I'm very proud of that.
27:08 Speaker 05 The fact, you know, when I leave the council, I want to make sure we're in a much stronger position, far healthier financially than when I first entered, when we were barely scraping by, we were begging Peter to pay Paul, if you will. You know, and it was a very difficult situation to deliver city services. We're in a much stronger position now. We have more police officers than we ever before. We're seeing police response times drop to priority one calls. We're looking at priority one, two calls now and see how we can reduce the response times there. We have park rangers to help protect our parks and keep them safe and clean for families. We have more code enforcement officers than ever before.
27:53 Speaker 05 So we've taken public safety very seriously. We've been able to make those investments. We still have a lot more work to do. Let me be clear, I'm not saying mission accomplished at all. There's still a lot of issues to work on, but we're making progress.
28:08 Speaker 03 A lot of this, my understanding is from measure N.
28:10 Speaker 05 A lot of it is.
28:11 Speaker 03 And you were on our show, you came on our show as this was being promoted. And we were, we were big advocates of it. And now, and I remember the hate that, we got callers, I remember. Hey, this is ridiculous, we were paying taxes and what's, you know, what's, what's gonna happen? And I remember your response at that time was, this takes time. This, the money will be coming in and once, you know, to give us a couple of years here. And, and you'll start to see some of the benefits. And sure enough, you know, a few years after it was implemented, you could just notice, you could just see all these things. You could see the call times come down with the police officers. It's so many benefits that I don't know the public recognizes what a game changer that was.
28:53 Speaker 05 Yeah, and, and you know, I would say, you know, one of my critiques of City Hall is that City Hall does not tell its story enough, right? Does not share with the public some of the success and how well we're actually doing. Vis a vis where we were five, six years ago. And so, you know, all of this is relative, right? If, if you've lived in this community long enough, you remember certain areas that were always clean, always free of trash and never, you never see a homeless person. I'm thinking like in Northeast Bakersfield where I grew up. And now you see that more and more. And so, in some respects, from From one person's perspective, it could feel like it's just getting worse.
29:37 Speaker 05 It's not getting better. And so that's very frustrating and that's that perception is reality. And so what we have to do then is we have to continue to just stay focused and continue to do the work. Because what we're seeing on the flip side and what's not always obvious or visible to the public is we have, for example, a Brundage Lane Navigation Center, the low barrier homeless shelter, where we have close to 300 beds now. And from there, over 400 people have left the shelter into permanent housing. And that's because they've been able to have a case manager or what we call a housing navigator,
30:18 Speaker 05 work with them one-on-one to get them their ID, to get them the resources that they need, to get them a job interview, get them the education that they need, so that they can then find stability and also earn some income and then get into permanent housing. That's hard to do. That type of case manager is hard to do when you're working with someone who's living on the street. Because they're in just crisis mode, crisis situation. And they may be on Stockdale in California one night. And then you try to revisit them the next day and they're somewhere completely different. And maybe somewhere on the river. It's hard to do. So the fact that we have one place where people can go, they can stay, they can get their meals, they can rest, they can kind of gain a sense of stability.
31:02 Speaker 05 And then from there, build their way out of, build their way up and get out of the shelter into permanent housing. That is a huge plus. Not only is it a blessing for that person and this strengthens our community, but it's also just really, really good for how we expend our public dollars. Because
31:26 Speaker 05 The cost on the other end of it, through law enforcement and through code enforcement and through responding to property crime and some of the things that we experience in different parts of the city, it's very expensive.
31:41 Speaker 03 Way more expensive. Speaking of homelessness, how, I don't know how you've gauged it. I think there was just recently, we had the point in time.
31:51 Speaker 05 Point in time count.
31:52 Speaker 03 Count. So I don't know if we have the results from that yet, but how do we gauge where we are with the homeless issues?
31:59 Speaker 05 It's a great question and it's something that I'm starting to question a lot more. Because too often we've relied on that point in time count to really measure the success of our region in terms of addressing homelessness, when I don't think it's an accurate count.
32:15 Speaker 03 Right.
32:16 Speaker 05 And here's why. Every year, we go out and count the number of unhoused people, but that measurement is really contingent upon a lot of things.
32:25 Speaker 03 The weather.
32:26 Speaker 05 The weather. How many volunteers you actually have.
32:29 Speaker 03 Yeah.
32:30 Speaker 05 Who actually show up for that day. Also, sometimes the metrics change, kind of the hours of the count. So all those variables really make it inappropriate, frankly, to kind of measure against past years. So it's not a real good indicator of our work or our success. There are other methods. There's a system called HMIS that actually does a better count of the number of people who are falling into homelessness and moving out of homelessness. And those are the two rates that we actually want to begin tracking.
33:14 Speaker 05 How many people are finding themselves entering homelessness, meaning they were housed and now they're unhoused? And then how many people are actually moving out? People who are unhoused, moving into permanent housing, that those are the numbers that we really want to take a better look at.
33:32 Speaker 03 Yeah, now it seems like Bakersfield has gotten some national press at least a few years ago in terms of what we were doing for the unhoused in these centers, like the Navigation Center. Are we, are we all maxed out? Are, how many, how many beds do we still need? Or is that just not the route that we should continue to go down?
33:56 Speaker 05 It's a great question. So we're close to or around 300 beds at Brundage Lane Navigation Center, which is the city-funded shelter. This is the shelter, as you remember, years ago, we had a major fight to push to build is the purchase of the old Calcop building. That is, I'm very proud of that shelter. It is, it is state of the art. Mercy House, which is the nonprofit that runs that shelter, they do an excellent job. They, along with Flood Ministries, are really good at, again, that housing navigation, because the goal is, once people are there, you want to move them out of the shelter and into permanent housing. But they've done a tremendous job. It is all full, all full, all occupied, not awful.
34:41 Speaker 05 It is all, it's all occupied, right? And all the beds are occupied and so we're, but we're constantly moving people out. And so the beds open up, there's actually a waitlist, about 30 to 50 people any given month, there are people waiting to get into the shelter.
34:58 Speaker 03 That's unbelievable to think that before the shelter, there would be over 300 people just out on the streets.
35:05 Speaker 05 Right.
35:06 Speaker 03 That's a lot.
35:06 Speaker 05 Well, think about this, if it wasn't for BLNC, and if it wasn't for PSVS and the investment all of us have made in PSVS.
35:17 Speaker 05 700 plus people would have been on the street last night.
35:22 Speaker 03 Yeah.
35:23 Speaker 05 But who are now in the shelter.
35:26 Speaker 03 Right.
35:26 Speaker 05 Or in permanent housing.
35:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, right.
35:28 Speaker 05 Or permanent housing.
35:29 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's unbelievable. You know, I want to ask you, always, always, it's kind of just irritating to me a little bit that a lot of our citizens don't realize that city council members are essentially volunteer positions. $50 a month, is that the stipend?
35:46 Speaker 05 I think so. I don't even pay attention to that.
35:49 Speaker 03 It doesn't, doesn't cover your gas.
35:51 Speaker 05 Yeah, but we do get a car stipend.
35:54 Speaker 03 Okay.
35:54 Speaker 05 Like, I think it's like $600 a month.
35:58 Speaker 03 Okay, well, you know, I always like to compare us to other cities in California. Los Angeles, to be fair, they have the highest in the nation for their council members, $18,000 a month. A little bit more than the $50 a month that we get.
36:14 Speaker 05 Just slightly.
36:15 Speaker 03 San Diego, their salaries are $14,416 a month. San Jose, $10,450 a month. Sacramento, $5,481 a month. That's about $65,000 a year. This is, yet, I know, because I've witnessed this, I've seen people in the public talk to you in such a way that they're so demanding and they're speaking to you as if you're getting paid like a Los Angeles city council member.
36:47 Speaker 05 I think there is that perception that somehow we're
36:50 Speaker 03 Your career.
36:51 Speaker 05 That we're career politicians or somehow, you know, for example, our Kern County Board of Supervisors, they're full-time position. They're $100 plus, $1,000, can't remember how much, but you know, they're well compensated. They have a staff.
37:04 Speaker 03 Right.
37:05 Speaker 05 They have their own office. We don't have a staff. We don't have our own office at City Hall.
37:11 Speaker 03 You don't have an office?
37:12 Speaker 05 No.
37:12 Speaker 03 At City Hall?
37:13 Speaker 05 No, I, you know, do a lot of the work in my home office.
37:16 Speaker 03 Wow.
37:17 Speaker 05 And with my own home, you know, computer and on my own cellphone.
37:23 Speaker 03 Wow.
37:24 Speaker 05 You know, that's, that's the work of a Bakersfield City Council member. And it is hard to do.
37:30 Speaker 03 It is so hard.
37:31 Speaker 05 Very hard to do, and it's the reason why I think so many smart, very, very talented people opt not to run for Bakersfield City Council. Unless you're already retired, or you've made it financially and you're well off.
37:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
37:49 Speaker 05 And you can afford the time.
37:52 Speaker 05 Other than that, it makes it very difficult. And thankfully now we have some younger council members who are working professionals. But I gotta tell you, you know, it is a challenge. It's a challenge to have your full-time job. You know, I have a full-time job.
38:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, what's your full-time job?
38:07 Speaker 05 I'm the executive director of a nonprofit called Stewards. And, you know, I have seven employees that I manage. And I gotta, you know, do the day-to-day. I gotta make sure we're making payroll. I gotta make sure the lights are still on. I gotta make sure we're serving our clients. I gotta make sure that I do my employee evaluations. I gotta board of directors that I have to respond to. You know, there's all these things I gotta do in a normal work week. And then I gotta turn around and do a second shift as a city council member. And I'm not complaining. I'm just, I'm just giving you the reality.
38:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
38:39 Speaker 05 I signed up for this. I knew what I was signing up for. I love this work. I actually love the work. I love creating a vision, providing vision for the city. I love providing leadership for the city and trying to move us forward as we continue to grow and making sure that we enhance our quality of life as a city, making sure that we're really addressing needs. I feel like there's certain areas where I feel like I'm pretty good at.
39:03 Speaker 03 I agree, I agree. And I'll, I'll just, I'll just expose my, my bias a little bit here. As a property owner downtown, I've seen your work and the benefits that you've brought to your passion, from the passion that you bring to just downtown. And I'm, I'm super grateful for the fact that you've put a lot of effort into downtown, including you started an amazing nonprofit called The Hub.
39:28 Speaker 05 Yeah, thank you.
39:28 Speaker 03 That you're still involved in. And The Hub, for those who don't know what The Hub is, can you maybe explain?
39:34 Speaker 05 Sure. The Hub is a nonprofit organization that's really focused on Promoting urbanism in Bakersfield. What we mean by that is
39:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, what's urbanism?
39:43 Speaker 05 As Bakersfield continues to grow and expand, that's wonderful. And we continue to see more and more people come to this community. But what we want to do is, what the hub is saying is, we have to, at the same time, have to invest in and think about in an intentional way, how we're reinvesting in the urban core. How we're developing the urban core. Downtown, Old Town Kern, Southeast Bakersfield, East Bakersfield, all of these neighborhoods which are historic in nature. It's where Bakersfield first started. We're saying, we cannot neglect these parts. We have to be intentional about investment. That means not just city investment. I mean, that's a lot of the work I'm doing on the city council as a council member,
40:29 Speaker 05 but also private investment and also just, you know, community investment in terms of coming down and visiting these communities, supporting small businesses. You know, thinking about, you know, starting a small business within downtown or surrounding neighborhoods and being really intentional about that. So the urban core and what the hub is really focused on is really trying to say, look, in a growing city that is 156 plus square miles, the one opportunity that we have to bring people together and really build a sense of community where the northwest or the northeast residents can meet southwest residents
41:12 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:13 Speaker 05 is in downtown.
41:14 Speaker 03 Downtown.
41:14 Speaker 05 It's in the center of our city, the heart of our city. And when people are able to connect through third spaces, for example, the spaces that are not your work, that are not your home, these spaces like cafes or, you know, restaurants or parks or theaters, right? You're able to connect with lots of different folks. You actually strengthen our community.
41:37 Speaker 03 Yeah, and it brings economic, huge economic benefits.
41:40 Speaker 05 Huge economic benefits.
41:41 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:42 Speaker 05 Huge, you know, community building benefits and also
41:48 Speaker 05 You know, if you will, it also helps strengthen our democracy because we're all able to kind of exchange ideas, exchange new insights, and also get to know one another.
42:02 Speaker 03 We want to, we want to give a shout out to the Hub, and including there is an upcoming event that the Hub is sponsoring on February 25th. It's a screening of Nickel Boys, a movie, Oscar nominated movie.
42:17 Speaker 05 Yes.
42:18 Speaker 03 At the Maya.
42:19 Speaker 05 Yes.
42:19 Speaker 03 So, how can people find out about this?
42:22 Speaker 05 They can go to the Hub of Bakersfield website, thehubofbakersfield.com, and actually go onto the page, and the tickets are free.
42:29 Speaker 03 Oh.
42:30 Speaker 05 We're partnering with Maya Cinema, NAACP Bakersfield Branch.
42:34 Speaker 03 Morgan Clayton.
42:35 Speaker 05 Morgan Clayton, the African American network. I had an opportunity to go to see this film in Burbank a few weeks ago and was just blown away. This is a Jim Crow era film, set in Tallahassee, and it's about this young man with all the opportunity in the world, just very spry, who unfortunately is a victim of this systemic racism of Jim Crow South. And so, it is well done. The way the film is depicted, the way, the way the story is depicted, the way the film is shot, just through this kind of first-person point of view, is
43:17 Speaker 05 really compelling. And so, I encourage everyone to come with us and watch the film on that night, or check it out, because I think that if I had my choice, I would select it as Best Picture for the Oscars.
43:31 Speaker 03 Oh, that's sweet. Again, that's thehubofbakersfield.com. Go support the Hub. We all benefit, even if you never go downtown. I don't care how far out in the outskirts of town you live, we all benefit by an improved downtown. Andre Gonzalez, thanks so much for coming on the show. Really appreciate it.
43:49 Speaker 05 Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
43:51 Speaker 03 We're gonna take a break. We'll be right back.
43:52 Speaker 00 Are you nearing retirement and currently working with a financial advisor? Are you not sure if you're invested appropriately? Call our offices at 661-847-1000 to sit down with a Money Wise financial advisor for a no obligation assessment.
44:11 Speaker 03 Thanks for tuning into the Money Wise Show. Frank Lee is joining me. I'm Sharad Waite. Thanks to Andre Gonzalez, City Councilman, for coming on the show, breaking things down. We have a listener question. It says, "What is the cost for the Crystal Palace?" I believe it's on the market for seven, seven and a half?
44:28 Speaker 04 I think that's what Andre said.
44:29 Speaker 03 Seven and a half million?
44:30 Speaker 04 Yeah.
44:31 Speaker 03 You know, it would be a scream, it's a screaming deal if you consider how much went into it. Because I think it costs about that to build it. At least according to the, to the news articles, about seven million to build it. And I don't know if that includes the, the memorabilia. My guess is it's just the, the, the sound and the, the design of that building. Buck Owens was involved in that personally. And, and legend has it that he was just, he didn't care about the cost overrun. He wanted to have a world-class venue space. And so, you know, I'm glad that if we can't, best-case scenario is a private buyer, a private investor can go in there and make it, keep it.
45:15 Speaker 03 If, if not, it's good to hear that maybe the city can come in so it doesn't, you know, turn into cobwebs. Got another message here from a listener. It says, "With tax-related scams on the rise, what key precautions should individuals and businesses take to securely file their taxes and reduce the risk of fraud? Thanks and great to hear, Mr. Gonzalez." So, good question about tax fraud. Every time we have the tax filings coming due, we see an uptick in fraud. So, you know, file early. Obviously, you want to use secure methods to file and make sure that, if you can, avoid using a public wifi if you're filing your taxes.
45:55 Speaker 04 Get a VPN.
45:56 Speaker 03 Use a VPN, use a VPN would be even better. You know what? One of the easiest ways is to remember that the IRS does not initiate contact via the phone, or email, or social media regarding your tax returns. That's not how the IRS rolls. They're much more old-school. You're going to hear from the IRS by a letter in the mail.
46:16 Speaker 04 That's it.
46:17 Speaker 03 And that's it. You're not, so if you get a phone call from the IRS, you can just hang up. As that is a scam and they're not going to email you.
46:26 Speaker 00 Well, do what I do and say, "Welcome to Movie Phone."
46:30 Speaker 03 That's good. Yeah, seriously, if you want to really hurt them, you just keep them on the line for as long as possible because then they aren't able to go to the next scammer. In fact, there's apps that now will do this for you. We'll screen the call and it's all like a robo, like AI voice that can keep the telemarketer on the line for as long as possible.
46:50 Speaker 04 Interesting.
46:51 Speaker 03 And they hate that.
46:52 Speaker 04 I've heard something like that where someone developed ways to charge the telemarketer.
46:58 Speaker 03 Yes.
46:59 Speaker 04 I forget what it was. We'll have to dig into that.
47:02 Speaker 03 That's another show.
47:03 Speaker 04 Yeah.
47:04 Speaker 03 So there you go. I want to thank all of our listeners. And if you missed any of this or previous shows, you can go to moneywiseguys.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. That could be Spotify or Apple Music. We are there. You're going to want to not, you will not want to miss tomorrow's show. Great guest, John Cox is the business editor for the Bakersfield Californian. We're going to have him on tomorrow. We're going to talk about what's going on in the news. He's been reporting a lot on what's going on out at Tahoe, Hard Rock Cafe. We're going to cover all of that with Mr. John Cox tomorrow. So don't miss that show. And also remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.
47:47 Speaker 02 Securities offered through SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc. SCF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
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