Open Land in Montana (S4E24)

There’s a lot of space in Montana and a lot of people want to keep it that way. To do it, you need good land management and as Ravalli County Commissioner Greg Chilcott explains, that may mean less government.

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Transcription

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Greg Chilcott: Any time we can increase jobs, increase incomes, increase output, that’s good for our citizens.

We we have to take the good at bad. And I have always compare being a county commissioner to being a paramedic. You going best intention trying to do the best job you can and to make somebody slide better.

We have to be accessible and I think that’s that’s the most important thing because we are where the rubber hits the road. I think it’s more difficult. the further away from home, an elected official get it becomes more and more difficult to contact him and to for them to make a difference, frankly, and for us to hold them accountable for their.

David Martin: Welcome to a good government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin, on this episode of The Good Government Show. We’re heading west to Montana, to Ravalli County, and I talked with county Commissioner Greg Chilcott. If you’re a fan of the show Yellowstone and you already know Ravalli, this is where much of the show is filmed. And if you know John Dutton spread dubbed the Log Mansion, this is right in Ravalli in the town of Darby, as you’ll hear pros and cons to having a big Hollywood production in your western town.

David Martin: So let’s head west. This is the first conversation I’ve had with anyone from Montana. So an interesting conversation. As you will hear. Montanans value their property. Greg said more than once, mayor, essentially, the government that governs best, governs least. It’s an attitude shared by many Westerners, so it’s a good perspective to listen to. Much of Ravalli County includes public lands.

This is a huge issue for many Western states. Again, a good perspective to listen to. I’ll have an update on what we talked about at the end of the show. So after the break, an update on Life Out West with Ravalli County Commissioner Greg Show, Todd.

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Ourco can get you an answer immediately. With O you are. You can engage your citizens or any group, learn what they want, and build programs and policies that advance your county, your job creators, your constituents. So visit our co.com. That’s o u r co.com and learn how they do it. And while you’re there okay. Demonstration.

All right. Welcome to the good government show. We have our first guest ever from Montana from the Wild West. So if you would please introduce yourself.

Greg Chilcott: good afternoon. My name is Greg Chilcott. I’m a commissioner in Ravalli County, Montana. The county seat is Hamilton, Montana. For those that know anything about Montana, where the county adjacent to Missoula County. Immediately south.

David Martin: All right. I know nothing about Montana. Describe your county. What does it look like? What would I see?

Greg Chilcott: We are. We are located in the mountains, in the Rocky Mountains. And we are a beautiful destination, place to visit and live very rural. About, 20 400mi², with approximately 45 to 50,000 residents.

David Martin: 45 to 50,000. That’s not a lot of folks.

Greg Chilcott: It’s it’s not.

David Martin: Yes. Well, we’re here at the Rural Action Caucus, and you came to the right place. And what sort of folks do for fun there?

Greg Chilcott: 73% of our landmass, 24mi², is owned by the federal government and is in national forest.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: So recreate on our national forests. They hunt, they fish, they hike, and boulder and climb.

David Martin: Which of those do you do?

Greg Chilcott: hunt and fish.

David Martin: Hunt.

Greg Chilcott: Yeah, there’s a lot of equestrian and,

David Martin: What kind of fishing?

Greg Chilcott: trout fishing. All right. Yeah. Fly fishing.

David Martin: Isn’t that, a river runs through it. Was that. Is that you’re. It’s close.

Greg Chilcott: It’s, about possibly. Yeah. 50 miles two years ago. 50 miles north of us.

David Martin: Okay. And it was a lot of trout fishing in that there is.

Greg Chilcott: And there’s wintertime skiing and snowmobiling. Yeah. start up after hunting season.

David Martin: So what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing there?

Greg Chilcott: The disparity between, local wages and salaries. Incomes. Right. And housing costs, as, since Covid came through in the remote work force, was able to move to where they’d rather live and still retain their job where they were from. Right. So they bring, they have been moving to the West and to Montana in my county. And, they bring with that, change in demographics has increased the value of properties and so it’s very difficult for a young, families and to purchase home.

So they’ve gone up so high.

David Martin: You talking about, you know, growth I mean explains it like, have you doubled your population and or, you know, like.

Greg Chilcott: We don’t have good data on that. I can I can tell you that between 2018 and 2020, according to our driver’s license issuing bureau in our county issued 18,000 new driver’s licenses transferred in from other states.

David Martin: Oh.

Greg Chilcott: However, the census showed that the when it was finished, we increased by 2000.

David Martin: There’s there’s no master in the middle. Yeah. Either 80,000 or 2000 new people are living. Right.

Greg Chilcott: Okay.

David Martin: And so you do about that. What can you do? I mean I want to come in. They want to build a house. They want to live in a house. People can sell it for whatever they want. But, you know, you’ve got locals who are getting priced out, right?

Greg Chilcott: They are getting priced out. So what do you do? And some of them are cutting and running. They’ve made some good money and they move someplace else, okay. And be able to increase the size of their home, without new costs. But it is very difficult on the employers to keep people compensated, to be able to afford the housing costs if they didn’t have a house there prior to 2020.

it’s very difficult.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: So to do that, we’ve been exploring different ways to, to help with those costs. and we’re very, very private property. Right. Centric. Yeah. Community and state. And we believe that the less government you have in the way of free market, the better. And but it is difficult. Yeah. We we don’t have the revenue and the income to subsidize housing.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: So looking at it other ways.

David Martin: Are there things you can do though.

Greg Chilcott: There are. And that’s where I’d like to talk about the the public lands impact. They are big draw for people because we have so much public land. And what how do we make that work for us? We used to be a very strong timber community, right. And since the late 80s, early 90s, the the timber market has has crash or our economy has crashed.

We don’t have a timber economy anymore. And that’s, that’s what sustained us and made us a vibrant economy for decades and decades. So in the end of the Arpa debate, Senator Wyden and out of Oregon presented an amendment to add $2 billion into what he called the local assistance, tribal consistency Fund, two.

David Martin: Billion dollars, $2 billion. That’s a lot of money.

Greg Chilcott: That’s a lot of money. All right. And it was to be provided to counties with that, with public lands primarily. Yeah. in a nutshell. And so in essence, that that gave counties about two times their normal payment in lieu of taxes payment. And it was unanticipated income to all of us.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: And so we had a.

David Martin: Big $2 billion cash infusion to Western states.

Greg Chilcott: not only Western but but Western got the biggest share because we have the most public.

David Martin: The most public plan. And sure.

Greg Chilcott: We tried to come up with a way to make that money parlayed into something long term.

David Martin: Sure. That’s smart.

Greg Chilcott: And so we’re asking from public lands counties and beneficiaries of this unanticipated revenue to contribute the amount equal to 1% of that unanticipated revenue. And we want to create, Public Lands Research Center so that we have good data. You go from.

David Martin: And is everyone kicking in their fair share?

Greg Chilcott: no, we’re working on no, we’re working on that. Okay. In the end of the day, we’re going if everybody participated at that very small level of 1%, yeah, we would generate $15 million.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: We believe that we could generate in perpetuity based just off the earnings of that $15 million. We could have this research center up running and providing good data, do research and also gather data of successes and failures from public lands, counties, public, across the nation and learn from that.

David Martin: So this would just be a giant.

Storehouse for all the information.

From all these counties with public lands to figure out what works, what doesn’t work.

Greg Chilcott: Right.

David Martin: What what what the data shows. I guess it would probably affect housing as well. Who’s moving in? Absolutely. What’s the rate of growth? All those things.

Greg Chilcott: Right. It would and in good data in good data out here. And we just don’t have that that location to store this data yet. And we haven’t the data. What kind of.

David Martin: Adaptation do you.

Greg Chilcott: Need. Right. Right. And that’s what.

David Martin: We’re what do you.

Greg Chilcott: Need. The National Association of Counties is the perfect place okay. To to house this operation and this data. And if we can get the data in and collate it into a usable format where the counties facing an issue with an endangered species, say sage grouse, they could type in keywords and they could pull up, responses and action plans from other counties who have gone through a sage grouse concern.

David Martin: But I got it. Okay, you got it. I’m from Brooklyn. Yeah, I got to stop you right there. What’s the sage.

Greg Chilcott: Grouse? A sage grouse is a grouse. It’s, primarily famous.

David Martin: And sagebrush in the whiskey bottles. The other thing I know right.

Greg Chilcott: And they they’ve been determined to be endangered. And so they they forestalled any activity on public land to have it designated on their on their, their land.

David Martin: Yeah.

Greg Chilcott: And in defense of the federal government, there’s a lot of it out there. And so they do a very broad brush, high elevation look. And they say this is this is sage grouse. Sage grouse habitat.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: But you put boots on the ground. one county in Colorado. Move the needle 80% still protect the sage grouse, and we’re still able to.

David Martin: Oh, I conduce I see.

Greg Chilcott: Produce, products off of their public lands. so.

David Martin: You’re able to, to alter the, the federal directives at a more local level. Right. And you can share that information with others.

Greg Chilcott: Right. Is the guy how do you do it? How how are you successful?

David Martin: How does that help people?

How does that help the citizens of your county?

Greg Chilcott: Anytime we can increase jobs. Yeah. Increase incomes, increase outputs. That’s good for our citizens.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: And again, where I come from or where the less intrusion government has in our lives, the better. And so if we can get government out of the way and let let the free market work.

David Martin: well, this is the good government show. So tell me what they are doing that that is working.

Greg Chilcott: They is. I’m not sure what you’re asking, but.

David Martin: Well, the government with these some of the policies you’re.

Greg Chilcott: Well, we like I said, the federal government use a very broad brush approach. They can’t they can’t be boots on the ground every, every place. And so if we can find out how somebody did it successfully and mimic that in another jurisdiction, another state, another county, and reduce the footprint, restrictions and still protect the species or the, the habitat, whatever.

David Martin: What needs to be protected, open up the rest.

Greg Chilcott: Of the rest to multiple.

David Martin: Use. Yeah.

Greg Chilcott: And provide opportunities for for jobs and resource extraction.

David Martin: you said this to me earlier. on a whole different topic. This is where they film Yellowstone, the TV series.

Greg Chilcott: my county, your county, the, the Yellowstone Ranch is in Revolved County. All right.

David Martin: Just so you’re getting used to Hollywood stars walking around town.

Greg Chilcott: you know, they’ve been really good neighbors. Okay, the influence said.

David Martin: it’s got to be fun to watch TV and go, oh, that’s my friend’s ranch. It is.

Greg Chilcott: It is it is entertaining, but it’s disturbing. The impact it’s had on our on our community as far as growth.

David Martin: Right.

Greg Chilcott: People see the beautiful scenic value in the Yellowstone TV series. And they say, I want a piece of that. And they come in and that’s that’s had it had a negative effect as well.

David Martin: Well, oh, this is again, you know, I live in Brooklyn and I’m not a Westerner. But this is the perpetual problem, is it.

Not in your region is.

You know, managing growth and keeping in what is, you know, wonderful and wild about Montana. Certainly. with people who come out there and look at it and go, this is great. I want to be here. Right, right.

Greg Chilcott: Oh, absolutely. And then we have the culture collision, right? We have had people moved to to rural states and want to, want to get away from wherever they come from. Right? They come in and then they want to change the way of life or the way of government, or to.

David Martin: Where they came from. Let’s do it right way.

Greg Chilcott: Right. And yeah, and that creates conflict naturally. And some of it’s really positive. We learn a lot and we see options and opportunities we may not have explored before.

David Martin: So are you a born and raised, Montanan?

Greg Chilcott: My family’s been in, in my community since Abe Lincoln was in office.

David Martin: Really? Yeah. What brought them out originally? Just westward expansion.

Greg Chilcott: Probably the Civil War. Yeah, I would guess, but, okay. There’s a lot of denial in that.

David Martin: I see. That’s okay for southern state of Virginia. Yes. All right, all right. that makes sense. Okay. We will not try to refight the Civil War. wow. It’s, it sounds like, there’s a lot going on there.

Greg Chilcott: There is a lot going on. And again, I just keep coming back to the Public Lands Research Center. If we can get buy in from all of these, these beneficiaries, we can create a legacy that goes on forever and gets better data to make better decisions for our citizens. And right, I’m really excited about that opportunity, and I hope that we can get everybody to participate.

David Martin: of the citizens excited about it as well.

Greg Chilcott: You know, the ones that pay attention, I think are okay.

David Martin: How do you get them to pay attention?

Greg Chilcott: And that’s a challenge. And sometimes we don’t want to see the sausage made. True. Right? True. And so it we haven’t put this on the, on the front burner under microscope yet okay. Because we want to be able to show a more finished product okay.

David Martin: All right. That makes sense. Well, listen, that was all the that was the easy part. That was the fun part.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City. Former mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter, a Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Org slash podcasts.

Now we’re going to get to the Good Government Show questionnaire. So we’ve developed a questionnaire to get to your personal philosophy of government. So so here we go. Are you ready for the questions?

Greg Chilcott: I hope.

David Martin: So. All right. Go ahead. from where you sit as county commissioner in Montana, define good government.

Greg Chilcott: Responsive to the citizens. Need the best delivery of service in the most efficient manner. And to stay as much out of our citizens life as we can.

David Martin: All right. So how do you judge.

Your success or lack thereof?

Greg Chilcott: You know, as an elected official, our successes somewhat judged every four years in a report card.

David Martin: Sure.

Greg Chilcott: Depending where you had at least four years, just the length of our terms. Right. And if you’re successful.

David Martin: You’ll you’ll.

Greg Chilcott: Be.

David Martin: Reelected. How many times have you been elected?

Greg Chilcott: I think six, but I’m not real sure we’ve had it.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: Some unusual elections in my right county.

David Martin: So I guess they seem to like you on that score. What about in between elections? How do you judge if you’re successful?

Greg Chilcott: Feedback. We meet with citizens on a daily basis. Okay. We participate in public meetings all the time, and we attend public functions often. But you really know when you go to the football game, the high school football game, you go to church, you go to the grocery store. Our citizens are very, very willing to share with you.

David Martin: If you’re being successful or not.

Greg Chilcott: Right, right.

David Martin: And this is sometimes take a while to go to the grocery store or.

Greg Chilcott: Or eat a meal in a restaurant. Yeah, but, that’s what we sign up for. Okay. And we, we have to take the good at that. And I, I’ve always compared being a county commissioner to being a paramedic. you go into the best intention trying to do the best job you can and make somebody’s life better.

David Martin: What was your background before county commission?

Greg Chilcott: private sector business, primarily, but I did not.

David Martin: Real estate.

Greg Chilcott: I know, not real estate.

David Martin: Okay, no.

so how do you how are the.

Voters, the citizens? Your constituents?

how do they know if they’re getting.

Good government and and how how should they hold you accountable? Well, I think they.

Greg Chilcott: Always hold us accountable at the ballot box. especially at the local level.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: we are the closest to them, and they feel the potholes in the road. The, dogs at large, whatever it is. Yeah. And and they they will do their assessment on their private concerns, and everyone’s just different.

David Martin: Okay.

if people feel like they’re not.

Getting the government they want or good government, what should they do?

Greg Chilcott: They should reach out to to their elected officials, first of all, and try to correct the problem that way. And if you.

David Martin: If you’re having dinner at the at a restaurant.

Greg Chilcott: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely.

David Martin: You hear that? He just said you can interrupt this. Well go ahead. Sorry.

Greg Chilcott: Absolutely. Yeah. We have to be accessible. And, I think that’s that’s the most important thing, because we are where the rubber hits the road. I think it’s more difficult. the further away from home and elected official. Get becomes more and more difficult to contact them and to for them to make a difference, frankly, and for us to hold them accountable for a difference.

David Martin: So you said you were a six term, county commissioner.

Greg Chilcott: I was first elected in 2000 and.

David Martin: Two, 2002. Okay. So in, River County, as a commissioner.

There, what would you what.

Would you like people to know about government from an insider’s point of view?

Greg Chilcott: I do think I mentioned making sausage earlier. You know, necessarily want to watch it be made.

David Martin: Okay.

Greg Chilcott: Government. Government is slow to react and respond. It takes time. It’s a big sometimes, like turning a big ship. All right. So to expect immediate results is probably, going to be a disappointment. But to keep on and keep communicating with your elected officials and to see movement.

David Martin: So who is your political hero, but who inspired you to be a county commissioner? If anyone or or continues to inspire you?

Greg Chilcott: Abraham Lincoln, just one of my all time favorites.

David Martin: Even though you escaped Virginia Tech go.

Greg Chilcott: Well, I wasn’t around.

David Martin: Yeah, but I don’t know. I suppose that you.

Greg Chilcott: And, I think Ronald Reagan, he showed a lot of leadership. Yeah.

David Martin: And he two very different leadership styles. Very different.

Greg Chilcott: Yeah. but a nice blend of the two. And, Abraham Lincoln was try to please everybody to begin with and determined, late in his first term, that that wasn’t working right. He brought in the opposition into his cabinet and he did at some point that.

David Martin: He had opposition. I mean, from the beginning, the people ran against him. Right? You know, Chase Seward, the right others. all right.

Greg Chilcott: But he decided he was going to do it his way. And if if people didn’t like, they wouldn’t reelect him. And I think he slept a lot better once he once he followed his instincts.

David Martin: So growing up as a kid, did you want to be president? Did you want to be, governor? Did you always have county commissioner in your sights?

Greg Chilcott: No, no, no, no, not at all. I was more of an entrepreneurial spirit, I think. And I always like community service, and, frankly, I, I like politics, too, but, it was something I aspired to as a young man.

David Martin: Was it? Did you have a political family growing up? Did you discuss the issues?

Greg Chilcott: Oh, we we discuss the issues a lot around around dinner table. Okay. And, it was my dad was very thoughtful about it, and, I would say he was very conservative, but very moderate at the same time. And he could see both sides and encourage us to do the same thing.

David Martin: All right. As I said, I live in Brooklyn. I’ve never been to Montana. I’m going to come to Montana. I’m coming to your county. I’m coming to Hamilton. What’s your favorite local meal? Regional meal. What do we have in. What do we what do we what do we try? And,

Greg Chilcott: Beef steak.

David Martin: Pizza?

Greg Chilcott: Without a doubt, a ribeye steak is hard to beat. All right. and get in a regional there.

David Martin: Yeah. Get it on a horse.

Greg Chilcott: Get in on a horse in hidden backcountry fishing. Some of those high mountain lakes. All right. We’re hunting for for elk in the high country is, an experience that’s, almost religious.

David Martin: So you’re telling me that I have to hunt my own elk before I can have dinner? no. No.

Greg Chilcott: That’s not beef.

David Martin: That’s all right.

Greg Chilcott: So, yeah, I think, we’re pretty proud of our, we have more cows and then, than people in Montana.

David Martin: I’m pretty elk because I know. Absolutely. It’s on the menu.

Greg Chilcott: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You know, it’s a wild game. Yep. Very, very healthy.

David Martin: All right.

Greg Chilcott: meat, to.

David Martin: Somebody who’s never had. I’ll describe it.

Greg Chilcott: I always depends on how one takes care of the of the harvested animal. Okay.

David Martin: Initially. Right. Well, how do you do it?

Greg Chilcott: Elk is is, very low in fat and high in protein and a very, very mild flavor. good elk is not gamey at all. Okay. And, of course, a lot of people want to shoot the, the big bull with the big antlers. And, they’re a little older and they’re, they’re not quite the same meal.

David Martin: Okay. Any other great regional dishes? They’re.

Greg Chilcott: I think I’ll stay with, with, beef.

David Martin: Beef. All right. Okay. All right. We’re having a steak. This is the good government show. We always like to bring it back to good government. Give me an example of a good government project that you’ve worked on in your county.

Greg Chilcott: We’ve been working really hard. roads are a big issue in our county. Yeah. And and so we’ve been trying to take some of this surplus funding we’ve been getting from the federal government through CARES act and our pie and our payment of taxes and trying to enhance and increase our reserves for our roads, because we don’t have the funding necessary for them.

We have a lot of citizen committees, advisory committees, and we use those a lot because they too are on the ground. And I’m pretty excited about that. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t say when it good government things I’m excited about is the Public Lands Research Center because of the impact on public lands in the West. actually nationwide.

But it’s disproportionately high in the West. And how we encourage our, our federal partners to better manage those public lands, for water use, resource extraction, responsible resource extraction, and, reduce the impact of wildfire on our communities and our citizens for their not only public safety but public health.

David Martin: I as I said, I’ve never been to your state and Ravalli County. Tell me the one thing about your county that’s awesome.

Greg Chilcott: we have the Bitterroot River running right down the middle of this absolutely beautiful valley, goes north to south, and a river runs north, and it’s it’s crystal clear water. And the fishing is exceptional, and this scenery is spectacular.

David Martin: And a river really runs through it.

Greg Chilcott: It does. And it’s it’s, we’re very blessed to live there.

David Martin: How often you get out fishing?

Greg Chilcott: Not often enough.

David Martin: and, you cook your own trout, I guess. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Greg Chilcott: Their their best.

David Martin: Steak.

Greg Chilcott: They’re their best over a campfire.

David Martin: Very good. Commissioner Greg, chili toddy, thank you very much for stopping by. It’s a pleasure to talk with you. And, good luck in my town.

Greg Chilcott: Thank you very much. Good luck with your project.

David Martin: I want to tell you what our friends at the LA Academy of Science are doing. The LHD Academy is a national association for local health department data collectors. Through the Academy of Science, County health directors are coming together to measure their county health issues the same way. Here’s the problem there are over 3000 counties in the U.S. and they all count differently.

We live in a data driven world. We need all the public health data to be counted the same. Let’s say you want to see if your community is overweight or vaping, or in other ways, less healthy than your neighboring counties. To determine this, you’ll need to measure these problems the same. You also have to ask the same questions, different results, but same data points.

LHC Academy is working with a National Center for Disease Control, creating a standard to count and collect data the same way you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they create the process and make sure everyone is looking at the information the same way. This means a county in Connecticut can compare their data with a county in California, it’s apples to apples.

Now with the Academy, counties and other governments are pooling resources and sharing data and creating a huge database library. That means lower costs, more accurate results, and better information for everyone. Sound like a government, right? If this sounds like something you want to get for your county or your city, check them out at the Academy of science.org. That’s LHD Academy of Science data. Org.

What is it the county government does? That’s the question county commissioners get asked the most. And the simple answer is everything on the Good Government show. We’re so lucky to have talked with so many county commissioners and other county officials that have shown us how effective county government is. County government dates back to get this 1634, making it one of the oldest forms of government in the United States.

Think about it. Roads, highways. Hospitals. Schools. Recycling, law enforcement, water, sewers, and most of the county. Those services are maintained by the county that’s county government. The National Association of Counties represents all 3069 counties across the USA. Naco helps county government work better together through things like sharing best practices. When county government works well, well, that’s just good government.

Let me give you an update. There’s now a group called the National Center for Public Lands Counties. It’s sort of an independent subsidiary within the National Association of Counties. Essentially, they act as a union between local and national efforts to coordinate the flow of information. So Gregg’s had a hand in helping this get started. Two big areas include forest and range management.

The idea is, as long as federal efforts and local efforts match, the path of success is easier, let’s hope good government prevails here from previous episodes, particularly a show we did with people in Breckenridge, Colorado, and that was way back in episode seven, season two. The challenge is the same in Ravalli as it was in Breckenridge. We’re talking about an area where many people move too, which drives up the closing costs, making it hard for locals to keep up with the price of living there.

It’s good to see Ravalli County Commissioner Greg Chilcott and other leaders are working on the issue. Well, that was a good look at life out West. I learned a lot and I hope you did too. That’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share us with your friends and review us right here where you’re listening, and check out our website.

Good Government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government in action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is a good government show.

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**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.