The Debale that led to the Cancellation of the Governor's Debate

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Speaker 1: And we continue at two five in the afternoon. On the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Wangs in Culver City begetting a lot of emails about the sewer. Lady Mary writes in at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com, Hey John and Randy. A lady interviewed by Katila this morning said she called several times about that woman living in the sewer and nothing was done, but she thinks that Karen Bass is doing a great job and doesn't want to blame her.

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Speaker 2: Oh great, Oh, you're so optimistic.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: You know what I'm picturing because I haven't seen the visual yet. I'm picturing that woman with all the birds from home alone.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: You know which one I'm talking about. I'm well aware of bird lady.

00:00:44
Speaker 1: That's what I'm picturing. But I don't know what you do with a bunch of birds in the sewer. Nothing good that part. I'm going to have to wrap my head around.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Eight hundred two two two five two. Who is a telephone number? One? Eight hundred two to two two five two two two.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: So last night was supposed to be a big debate for the candidates running for governor in the state of California. It was going to be sponsored by the University of Southern California, ABC seven and you Division, and they invited all the white candidates to attend, and they told all the minorities to get in the back of the bus. And then guess what happened. It turned into a big fiasco.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: And they canceled it. That debate less than twenty four hours before airing was canceled. You had candidates that went all the way down in their outfits, wearing their makeup, ready to go on the TV that had nothing to do. Which is why I get to spend my afternoon looking at Katie Porter's Instagram live she did last night.

00:01:55
Speaker 1: You know, the more I think about this, Randy, this might be the most outrageous racially charged USC related miscarriage of justice since OJ's acquittal.

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Speaker 2: What's going on in America?

00:02:14
Speaker 1: And by the way, who knew that USC stood for unusually so Caucasian.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: Let's find out what happened here, what this dust up was really about, and why everyone was freaking out about who was going to be on that stage and who was not going to be on that stage. Here is a report from Conan Nolan in NBCLA.

00:02:38
Speaker 3: Now to decision twenty twenty six and controversy among California's scribernatorial candidates after the cancelation of a major debate. It was set to air tonight on ABC seven and Univision in partnership with USC, but the university pulled the plug after growing criticism about its exclusion of candidates of color.

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Speaker 4: NBC fours Conan Nolan is here now to break down the controversy behind the original debate and what this means for voters as we move.

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Speaker 2: Forward here, we voters are still not paying attention. You know what, maybe this story and I actually thought about this, is it possible that this race got more attention by this debate being canceled than if this debate aired.

00:03:15
Speaker 1: If anything is going to generate attention to this race, it's going to be drama, and this was certainly very dramatic.

00:03:23
Speaker 5: Well, keep in mind, USC and ABC defended their process that they used to determine who would be on stage on the debate. At the debate, they said it's fair, but those on the stage were all white and those left off were candidates of color. But what really bothered those who were snubbed was the weight that had been given to candidates for governor who had raised money from billionaires over a short period of time.

00:03:47
Speaker 2: See, here's what this whole thing is about. Is they had something that they could say, which was, hey, if you're not pulling above let's say five percent, while you're not going to be on that stage. But then the invited man Mayhan, who while we really liked Matt Mayhan and he has raised a lot of money, has not pulled above four percent in any of the pulse.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: But that is such a bad look when you're leaving out people who are pulling better than him, Because wasn't Via ra Gosa, Betty Yee and Besera at five percent in the pPIC poll.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: And that's where they have a point.

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Speaker 6: It had been simmering for days anger from four Democrats who had been left off the invite list for tonight's scubernatorial debate at USC. Former HHS Secretary Javier Basera, former La Mayor Antonio Viragosa, former state controller Bettiyee, and state school superintendent Tony Thurmond cried foul over the algorithm the university used to decide who could participate and who couldn't.

00:04:46
Speaker 4: I've pulled lower than some of them.

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Speaker 6: But higher than one of the candidates, Matt Mayhan, who was invited.

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Speaker 2: This is true, That is an indisputable fac.

00:05:01
Speaker 6: That's also true for another candidate. Then it all boiled over last night the legislative leadership in Sacramento, Assembly Speaker Robert Reevas and State Senate President pro tem Monique Lemon set a letter to USC demanding the university and the four minority candidates to the debate stage.

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Speaker 2: At the last minute, you build those four podiums.

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Speaker 1: Now, well, what's so funny is that universities are the most PC institutions on planet Earth, Yet when it comes to protecting a seat for the Democratic Party, they just tell all their voters to press two for a Spanish speaking candidate.

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Speaker 2: By the way, isn't it so USC that, regardless of polling, if you had enough billionaire backing, you could buy your way into USC. Well, I do think on stage there was enough room for Felicity Hoffmann and Lori Laughlin's kids. They're never going to live that one down.

00:05:53
Speaker 6: And if they refused, State Democrats would call on voters to boycott the debate each of the Democratic camps.

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Speaker 2: That wouldn't have meant a damn thing. Do you think anybody who was going to watch the debate was going to turn it off because Robert Reeves said to no, maybe the friends and family are the ones that are left out.

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Speaker 6: Each of the Democratic candidates who had been invited claimed they had called on the university to invite everyone.

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Speaker 2: I sent out a letter saying, oh boy, that voice here comes super Dave Osborne. I sent out a letter saying, this seems grossly unfair, flat out wrong. But I'm still going to participate because why not? And you should change the criteria and make this a fair debate.

00:06:34
Speaker 6: In the end, it was all too much for the university and ABC it's broadcast partner. Last night, in a joint statement, they announced the cancelation of the debate while defending the process that had been used in selecting the candidates.

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Speaker 2: Then why'd they cancel it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no need to cancel it if you're defending how you conducted yourself.

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Speaker 2: Apparently people that are very tight knit with USC were pressed them to put Mayhen on there because Mayhen was a late injury and Mayhon is the billionaire backing and based on the power players that we know in Los Angeles, was it Rick Caruso, who was strong arming them to put Mayhen on the stage. Well, it's not Oj Simpson. He's no longer with us.

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Speaker 6: This is not the way you do business, and money should not dictate who runs for office who gets elected.

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Speaker 5: Javier Vassarah, the former HHS secretary, and one of those so fundamental to all.

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Speaker 6: Of this was Matt Mayhan.

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Speaker 5: He's the mayor of San Jose. He's polling in the single digits along with all the others. But because of the way they decided who is going to be on the debate, Mayhan's ability to raise a lot of money from a lot of billionaires in Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 2: Pushed Silicon Valley conan. No one in that shop is willing to correct him. Well, you know you've been in the business long enough. They're not going to correct him. Just let him go with it.

00:07:57
Speaker 1: Okay, But there are more breastium plans in the state of californ than probably the forty nine other states combined. We can't make a distinction between our silicon and our silicone.

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Speaker 5: M A lot of billionaires in Silicon Valley pushed him over the top. I mean he leaped frogged over. Javier Massera and Antonio Viragosa.

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Speaker 2: It's just it's not a great look that even though Mayhan didn't have the polling, we got to put him on there because he's got all the money.

00:08:27
Speaker 1: Well, I think you're one hundred percent right. I think Rick Caruso called him the favor.

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Speaker 2: And that's what they said was really uninteresting. Rick Caruso connection. Do you remember who's yacht Laurie Lochlin's daughter was on when the scandal broke out about usc Olivia Jade. Who's yacht was Gian John?

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Speaker 1: I think the other OJ was on the yacht with none other than Rick Caruso.

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Speaker 5: And that's what they said was really unfair because it actually rewarded billionaire contribution over what they had been doing, which is raising money for months.

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Speaker 4: So what happens moving forward? There are other debates coming up before the primary in June. Will the matrix or the criteria change and who decides what that will be?

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Speaker 5: Well for the Democratic Party, it's going to be tough. You're a big tent party, You're you're a party of of you know, of cultural diversity. For you to have a debate or to participate in a debate that's all white and not and and and the candidates of color are are set aside. That's a problem so going forward.

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Speaker 2: But that's a weird thing to point out too, because it's also based on the polling. The electorate is rejecting the candidates of color. It's almost like color has nothing to do with it.

00:09:46
Speaker 1: Well, yes, and no, the candidates who are invited, with the exception of Mayhan, are certainly polling better than the ones that were left out. However, political polling doesn't tell you ex exactly where.

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Speaker 2: The race is. It just gives you an idea.

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Speaker 1: And there's always a margin of air associated with any poll, so poles essentially tell you the race is inside the margin of air or outside the margin of air. That's what's important to take away from them. If you're reading the poll and you're trying to determine who's going to win, who's going to lose, who should spend money, who should pack it up, And all the polls say in this particular race is that three or bunch together at the top, A bunch of them are bunched together at the bottom, but the ones at the bottom are within the margin of air of the ones at the top, which means they're all one big clump. And I think the argument that the ones at the bottom are using is, look, if we're within the margin of air of the top performing Democrat, you can't call us losers and exclude us from the debates. That means voters are still deciding. This is the critical moment.

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Speaker 2: This is when.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: Everyone's looking to have moment and to break away from the pack. And if you deny us that ability, then the people who are organizing the debates are going to be the decision makers and the shot callers, not the voters.

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Speaker 2: Well, and to that point, every single poll that has come out, the biggest number, even higher than Hilton or Bianco is always undecided. Are set aside. That's a problem.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: So going forward, I believe that these whoever's putting on a debate, and we have one in May, is going to invite everybody. And because you know, regardless of what.

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Speaker 2: Youth debate is going to go from a two hour to a four hour, maybe they should do like what they did in the twenty sixteen Republican primary, remember where there was so many people running that they had the main debate and then they had the JV debate with people like Bobby Jindall.

00:11:52
Speaker 1: Well, listen, if it goes on forever on NBC, then that means at least none, no one will be subjected to Seth Myers.

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Speaker 6: Is going to invite everybody.

00:12:01
Speaker 5: And because you know, regardless of what you think how fair it was, this had a real problem and it's the optics particularly were really bad. And the university's defending all.

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Speaker 2: And this was just a week after the head of the California Democratic Party, Rusty Hicks said on a letter pretty much isolated, singling out all the candidates of colors, saying get out, oh yeah, the only people they hate more than racists or minorities.

00:12:28
Speaker 3: And the university's defending also, it's professor for the algorithm itself.

00:12:32
Speaker 5: Right, and the professor is well known, he's highly regarded political scientists. And they argue that they told the candidates from the outset, this is what we're going to do.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: Now.

00:12:41
Speaker 5: The candidates believe that they changed the rules, actually that they gave greater weight to those who raised money over a shorter period of time. And that's Matt Mayhean because he entered the race you know later.

00:12:51
Speaker 2: That's exactly what this is. And again I say this is someone that likes Mayhean, but they definitely twisted the rules to put Mayheen in there, and they're making the fall guy, some guy with a beard and a pipe. Well, and when you're talking about an institution like USC, a lot of the people who can strong arm the officials are the billionaires because they're also the big donors for a school like that.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the way it works at these institutions.

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Speaker 2: Buy your way in.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: You have kids that are really dumb, but you want them to go there because that's where you went. You just write a big enough check and guess what, you're home free.

00:13:31
Speaker 5: But yeah, the academic senate there, they're saying, listen, don't throw him under the bus.

00:13:36
Speaker 2: He did his job and it was accurate.

00:13:38
Speaker 4: You'll have what eight people on the stage. I remember you and I doing a debate years ago where we had six.

00:13:43
Speaker 6: I believe, right, And that was a lot. Yeah, you could have.

00:13:47
Speaker 5: You could have could have ten, actually ten candidates, because you have two Republicans who are by the way, leading in the latest polls.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: There you go, that's the latest on the debate that wasn't.

00:14:01
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you beware of the law of unintended consequences. I always say this, it's not just in politics, it's in life.

00:14:13
Speaker 2: Be careful for what you wish for.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: And right now, what the Democratic Party wants to do is they want to take all of these candidates who are not polling at the top and they want them to drop dead because they say they have no chance and they're just going to screw it up for the Democratic Party and it could result in a Republican becoming the next governor of California. Well, go back to twenty sixteen when Hillary Clinton, in her infinite wisdom, got the grand idea that Jeb Bush was the guy who could have beaten her.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: And what did she want.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: She wanted Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee because she thought she would stop all over him in a general election. And so the Democrats meddled in that Republican primary to try to get their preferred candidate, which was Donald Trump, and they got him, and then he turned around and beat her in the general. Just because you think you're smart and you think you know where an election is going, that may not necessarily be the case. And you look at those three candidates who are in the top three, right now for the Democratic Party running for governor, every single one of them has a million and one problems with Eric Swalwell being at the top of the list. That guy is a ticking time bomb. He has no judgment, He has an ego the size of North Dakota. All he created gives his attention, and that guy is going to blow up. Whether he blows out before the primary is over, and another Democratic candidate benefits because if you have someone who's polling well who all of a sudden gets blown to smithereens, then the Democrats probably avoid two Republicans on the November ballot. So it might be the Democratic Party that makes him sit on the grenade.

00:16:28
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well, you look at the timeline here where yes, election day is June, but the ballots go out in early May. So that would mean if you're sitting on a big pile of OPO right now, you're dumping it in April.

00:16:44
Speaker 1: Do you remember when he first announced in all of those Democratic Party strategists who know far more about that world than we do, we're tweeting that this guy was going to wreck his reputation, wreck his political career, and would become an pariah if he follows through with this, because everyone knows about his indiscretions and what he's doing that he shouldn't be doing.

00:17:08
Speaker 2: I think there's going to be a very, very very ugly April in this primary.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: But here's the problem though. Let's say you're via re Gosa and you're sitting on all that information. If you use it, but you don't use it at the exact right time, it could benefit Tom Steyer, or it could benefit Katie Porter. You not only have to knock him out, you have to lift yourself up. And I would imagine, based on everything that we've seen and heard that there's probably a number of Democratic candidates who have the dynamite to blow Swallwell up. But if you're Betty Yee, let's say, and you have it, how does that end up benefiting you? That's the hard part. And I don't know how you do that if you're them, I don't know how you time it out just right.

00:18:06
Speaker 2: So are the Ye's and the Thurmons waiting for Porter, Swallwell and Styre to all blow up at the same time.

00:18:14
Speaker 1: Well, you know there's going to be more videos of Porter being nasty, to steal staffers and probably anyone.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: Else get out of my shop.

00:18:24
Speaker 1: So that's going to be her problem. With Stire, it's going to be sexual or it's going to be him stealing money from something. It's going to be him using money from his campaign accounts inappropriately, something along those lines, doing something bad with an intern. It's going to be something regarding moral turpitude. And then you have Stier, who has just limited appeal because he's trying to buy the election. If I'm Via Regosa, I'm looking at them and I'm going I am head and shoulders better than all of them. If you're Matt Mahan, you go, I'm the most successful big city mayor in the state. Why would you even be fooled around with these clowns when you have me. I don't think any of them are dropping out, and I don't think they should. And I think that if anything is going to save the Democrats from having two Republicans on the November ballot, it's going to be because one of those top three gets incinerated over something.

00:19:28
Speaker 2: And maybe it happens to more than one of them. I don't know. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two.

00:19:40
Speaker 1: If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com.

00:19:49
Speaker 2: And Randy.

00:19:50
Speaker 1: If you missed last week's interview with Antonio via Rigos, candidate for governor, and you want to find out what you missed out on, that's easy to do.

00:19:59
Speaker 2: Well. The first first five minutes of the segment is me vamping because he called in light, but the rest of it was a great interview. Search for The John Phillips Show. Wherever you get your podcast. That could be the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe, you could download all the episodes. You could do a Google on the YouTube. You could get the free KABC app, the free KSFO app, the KMJ now app. We're on that station Saturdays at noon. So many different ways to listen live to our show and download all of the podcasts, including Johnny's interview with mister Peanut Pnine. All right, so we know that the SEIU is trying to put an initiative on the ballot that would be a wealth confiscation text targeting billionaires. Unfortunately, it's already cost over a trillion dollars in wealth to move out of the state. They believe that the California electorate would likely approved an initiative like the one the SCIU wants. According to a new poll, those fears are grounded in fact, that's right. The billionaire Tax. Polling shows it likely to pass with over fifty two percent support. Here's a report from kpix.

00:21:18
Speaker 7: Keipning it has yet to qualify for the ballot, but it is already one of the most talked about measures that could go before voters in November. We're talking about the so called billionaire's tax. According to Forbes's latest list, there are nine hundred and eighty nine billionaires living right here in the US, and a big chunk of them are in California, not be more. That includes Google co founders Sergey Brinn and Larry Page, in Vidia CEO Jensen Wong, and Metis Mark Zuckerberg. The proposed measure would put a one time tax on these billionaires in about two hundred others who live in the Golden State, and while it is gaining support, Brad Hamilton tells us there is all already big money behind the opposition.

00:22:03
Speaker 8: Oh.

00:22:03
Speaker 2: In fact, if you look into that video shot by our friend JJ out there showing the signature collectors who were paying the homeless to forge signatures, one of the initiatives that they were forging signatures for was a ballot measure that would ban billionaire taxes.

00:22:24
Speaker 8: Oh mind, inside of cal Berkeley's Social science building, the keta one lock, just how realistic a ballot measure to tax the ultra rich in California might just sit on the desk of Professor Eric Schickler. There are still many months to go before the midterm election, but Shickler has his hands on a newly released campus poll, which he says shows some positive signs for those in favor of the proposed tax on billionaires.

00:22:53
Speaker 9: About fifty two percent in favor, thirty one percent of posed, and the rest undecided.

00:22:59
Speaker 2: Oh boy.

00:23:01
Speaker 1: So essentially, what we're learning is that in a state that is heavily dominated by Democratic voters, soaking the rich is still popular.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now, I think support for this ballot measure is growing because people keep seeing Tom Steyer ads and they want to take his money away. Well, who do these idiots think employs them. I don't think they care. This is one of those you vote with your emotions, not with your brain. If you think billionaires are screwing you over, you're going to take their money.

00:23:39
Speaker 9: A lot of voters have heard about this. About sixty percent of our respondent had at least heard something about this, which is pretty high for such an early point in a potential campaign.

00:23:50
Speaker 8: The initiative itself seems pretty simple, written on a whiteboard. One time.

00:23:54
Speaker 2: They want to take away so much of Elon's money he won't be able to afford the microdos LSD.

00:24:01
Speaker 8: The initiative itself seems pretty simple, written on a whiteboard, A one time five percent tax on the net worth of California billionaires to fund healthcare and social programs.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: You know, specifically the ones that the SEIU gets paid for.

00:24:17
Speaker 1: This is the SCIU trying to protect their members. This buddy does not go to the California General Fund. This is a cash grab.

00:24:25
Speaker 2: But when you're talking about polling for that issue, do you think the voters are educated about any of that or they just here, Well, we got to text and billionaires. No.

00:24:34
Speaker 1: I think it boils down to billionaires. Do you like them or not, and if you are a Democrat, the answer is going to be notch as simple as that as a response to potential federal Medicaid cuts.

00:24:49
Speaker 8: But Brandon Castillo, who helps strategize on behalf of initiatives, explains why this one is fighting a big Bucks battle.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: So what happens to be a big Bucks battle? There's some alliteration for you.

00:25:01
Speaker 10: So what happens is it becomes a competitive market up there, and campaigns pay higher amounts per signature so they can get priority, so they get what we call on top of the stack.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: So that you are And by the way, this is exactly why you have these crooked signature gathering organizations paying the homeless five dollars a signature because they're getting twenty dollars a signature, so you make fifteen per signature, YEP, one of the Honestly, I don't understand how paid signature gathering is legal. It sounds crooked as hell and easily exploitable.

00:25:33
Speaker 10: One of the first or second or third signatures that the signature others appeal to because they're paying more per signature.

00:25:40
Speaker 2: I mean, especially when you call these things citizens initiatives, Then shouldn't all the signatures be gathered by volunteers.

00:25:48
Speaker 1: Well, that's I think what the individuals who created the tools of direct democracy in the state of California had in mind. But back then the state was a lot smaller, not geographic but in terms of population that.

00:26:02
Speaker 2: It is now.

00:26:03
Speaker 1: It is very, very very difficult to get a huge number of signatures to qualify an initiative for a ballot unless you pay, even for the most altruistic causes.

00:26:15
Speaker 2: It's still hard.

00:26:17
Speaker 8: Brandon says, they've already seen billionaires take on that exact approach over the past few months, spending millions on at least three counter initiatives, one being called the Transparency Act of twenty twenty six.

00:26:29
Speaker 2: And what the strategy here is is do exactly what they did with the sports betting bills in twenty twenty two. Put so many of them on the ballot that everyone gets confused and they just vote them all down, which would.

00:26:46
Speaker 8: Include a voter approved limit on all new special taxes, which would effectively wipe out the billionaire tax. All of these ballot measures competing to reach an estimated one point four million certified signatures through daunting task.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: Even certified meaning that it was someone who actually signed it or certified, meaning it was a homeless person forging the signature, probably.

00:27:08
Speaker 10: Pretty daunting task. Even the most well connected grassroots organizations have a really hard time collecting signatures by volunteer basis.

00:27:18
Speaker 8: The discussion is early, but it is there, and Schickler told us that that could create a conundrum of sorts for the crowded governor's race, especially ahead of the primary.

00:27:28
Speaker 9: Risks alienating a lot of voters who they need to win to make the top two. On the other hand, clearly this is not very popular with extremely wealthy individuals who help fund campaigns.

00:27:42
Speaker 8: For now, it's all about the push to qualify for the ballot, But this political expert told us he doesn't need a poll to know that this could be an interesting story to follow.

00:27:52
Speaker 7: Supporters have until June twenty fourth to gather enough signatures for the measure to make it on the ballot. The state's non partisan Legislative Analyst Office projected the tax could generate tens of billions of dollars beginning in twenty twenty seven, but it also warned that some billionaires could leave the state as a result, and in turn that could mean a loss of state income taxes.

00:28:14
Speaker 2: What this actually is is you're robbing money that would be in the general fund to put it in the seius pockets. And you're deciding right now if California is going to be the home to AI or you're going to send it to Austin. Because if this thing passes, guess what. AI could move to Texas. It could move to Florida, it could move to Tennessee.

00:28:39
Speaker 1: It could move to someplace else, just like Hollywood did, and just like the oil industry has.

00:28:46
Speaker 7: There are reports that Sergey Brynn and Larry Page have already moved some of their businesses out of California.

00:28:52
Speaker 2: There you go. That's the latest pulling on the proposed billionaire tax. It's not yet made the ballot, but if it did make the ballot, according to this poll, it would pass eight hundred two two two five two two two. What eight hundred two two two five two two two. One of the things that frustrates me like no other is when I have a problem with some company and I need to fix it, and I get stuck in AI hell. When I call RES.

00:29:25
Speaker 1: When I call RES, I hope to speak to some four hundred pound person with a headset on. I don't want to talk to a computer. I don't want to talk to Bobby and Bangladesh. I don't want to talk to some foreign call center. I want to talk to someone right here in the United States who can fix my problem. But more often than not, when I call RES, I get a foreign call center, or I get AI. And now Randy, it looks like we're going to get AI not just when we call companies to resolve a dispute, but when we're calling to resolve a dispute that's going on right here at home in our community.

00:30:05
Speaker 2: The city of Antioch is considering implementing AI to take over non emergency calls to the Antioch Police Department. What could go wrong? For more on this, we go to KPIX in the Bay So tonight.

00:30:24
Speaker 11: The Antioch Police Department wants chatbots instead of people to answer non emergency calls.

00:30:31
Speaker 2: That's because you know how most of those conversations are going to go, Hello, how can I help you today? Talk to human? Well, you have to press one for English first.

00:30:43
Speaker 11: That's because they say the humans are too busy with the emergency nine to one to one phones. Keroseint Syr has that story emergency services dispatch your one on Where's your emergency?

00:31:01
Speaker 12: This AI system could be the liaison between you and the Antioch Police Department. APD is asking the city Council for permission to incorporate prepared an AI system into their non emergency phone line.

00:31:13
Speaker 13: We're non emergency and business calls. We're seeing over two hundred thousand calls and we operate a center of We're supposed to have sixteen dispatcher positions, but we've had about a twenty five percent vacancy rate.

00:31:27
Speaker 2: We can't hire these people, and that's why we need the robots. Okay, here's what's going to happen. People are going to get frustrated with this and they're going to hang up and the police Department's not going to get their information. So, for example, you have one of those alerts where you're looking out for a specific license plate, you're looking for a specific type of car because there's a missing child. I've never been in this position, but clearly there have people. There are people out there who have been. Where you see the car, you see the license plate, it's not an emergency. Someone's not having a heart attack, there's not a building on fire. You just need to communicate that information with the police, So you would call the non emergency line. Well, if you get AI and you get stuck in that tree, I don't have time for that, which means I'm just going to hang up and not tell them the information I have. And I bet you there's a lot of people out there who are like that, because it takes forever to get to a life human and the moment I find out that I'm going to have to deal with a robot unless it's something that's really deeply important to me, as in yours, truly, I move on with my day because I don't have that kind of time.

00:32:45
Speaker 12: Lieutenant Mike Maloney with the Department says the bot would basically do the same job as a human dispatcher for non emergency calls. It would listen, transcribe, and reroute the caller to the right person.

00:32:56
Speaker 13: When somebody calls our a non emergency line. If our if our call takers are handling nine on one calls, those folks are going to wait on hold, sometimes for several minutes.

00:33:05
Speaker 2: This all right, What do you want to do, Johnny? You want to wait on hold or deal with the phone tree?

00:33:10
Speaker 1: Have you ever dealt with the phone tree that made life easier for you.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: No, this system alike. Every single time I have to call American Airlines to change my reservation because I booked it on Alaska and they won't let me put in my advantage numbers, so I can't go to the Admirals Club, so I have to call them. It takes me five minutes just to get to the point of the phone tree where they'll transfer me to somebody, and then when the person picks up, it takes them thirty seconds to fix the problem. Bingo.

00:33:41
Speaker 13: This system allows the person to speak in whatever language they're comfortable with about the reason for their call.

00:33:46
Speaker 12: Maloney says. The bot is programmed to listen for background noise and buzzwords like gun or knife to determine if a human dispatcher is needed.

00:33:54
Speaker 2: Okay, so if you want to get out of the phone tree, just tell the robot you're being stabbed.

00:34:01
Speaker 1: Okay, But what happens if it picks up a word that's not gone. Let's say you say fun and the machine picks it up as gun. They're going to send the SWAT team over at your house to.

00:34:12
Speaker 12: Determine if a human dispatcher is needed.

00:34:14
Speaker 13: If the person called in to report a vehicle break in and all of a sudden the suspect comes back, the system has the intelligence to know that that call immediately needs to get escalated to a human.

00:34:25
Speaker 12: But the idea of AI working with the police is new to community members. So if you hear the Erica Foster, owner of four Seasonings in Antioch, has some questions.

00:34:35
Speaker 14: Is it going to be you know, TESTI for languages and different accents and the timing. How fast is it going to transfer?

00:34:45
Speaker 2: What accents are we talking about? I don't know.

00:34:49
Speaker 12: For Melissa Galvan also wondering if AI is necessary, I.

00:34:55
Speaker 14: Wish we would fill a positions with the community members here, you know, before entering into AI.

00:35:01
Speaker 2: And we're not talking about the nine to one to one dispatchers where it's really hard to hire them because the standards are so high. The training goes for about a year and then people get burnt out immediately. It's why we've seen shortages up and down the state in places like Oakland, places like antiog But I don't think you go through that kind of training for the non emergency line.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: Did I ever tell you I have a friend who is one of the George Floyd nine one one operators. Oh really, the guy's nerves are shot. People have been so abusive to him. He could drink both of us under the table. That's a lot of drinking.

00:35:37
Speaker 14: And just be nice because there are people with free jobs.

00:35:40
Speaker 12: Maloney's answer to both questions.

00:35:43
Speaker 13: Is yes, at every step of the way, there's a human involved, whether it's emergency or non emergency. Emergencies always go to a live person.

00:35:50
Speaker 12: So far, the program is being used in Richmond, Alameda, and San Diego, among other places, which Erica Melissa say they're okay with as long as it's being monitored.

00:36:01
Speaker 14: Just really making sure that the bias is not programmed in so that it responds correctly to your location, to your language, to your Maybe.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: It's the second time she said that, and she's clearly an English speaker. I can understand every word she's saying.

00:36:16
Speaker 12: If the program is approved by the city council, Maloney says it would be a matter of weeks before it's prepared and online.

00:36:24
Speaker 11: The Boys Department will bring the proposal to the city Council on Tuesday to see if they'll approve it.

00:36:32
Speaker 2: How abusive do you think people are going to be to the robot, oh, more abusive than they are to the humans. I had to call Alaska Airlines this week because there was a flight that I took late last year and for whatever reason, my utmost number wasn't on the ticket, so I didn't get any credit for it, didn't get the miles. So I called them to get that fixed. And it was one of the days when there was weather on the East Coast, and I think it was right after the hurricane in Hawaii, and Alaska Airlines has a big presence in Hawaii, so I assume their planes were stuck there and flights got delayed and canceled all over the place. And I was talking to the guy and it was a very simple fix, but the call just went on and on and on and on, and he was very pleasant. He was asking me about life in California and what the weather is like here, and you know, those sorts of things information that had nothing to do with anything related to my call.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: And then I realized, oh, it's a day when there's weather and lots of cancelations. He's getting screamed at every time he picks up the phone. And one call is more abusive than the next and with my call, he has an easy fix.

00:37:58
Speaker 2: So I'm going to.

00:37:59
Speaker 1: Leave happy because my problem is going to be resolved. I'm perfectly polite to him, and so he just kept me on the phone as long as possible because it was near quitting time when the call center was shutting down, and he wanted to run out the clock with the polite person so he didn't have to deal with the screamers.

00:38:19
Speaker 2: It's going to be quite a life operating in a call center. Oh could you imagine, because nobody calls you with anything good?

00:38:28
Speaker 1: No, And you know what was funny. Remember Elmentcho, who was the cartel leader that just got arrested. Oh, yeah, we're killed. Was he killed or arrested? I know he was killed, Okay, so he was killed. One of the things that the cartel was doing down there. His cartel was they had call centers where they were scamming American seniors out of what was it vacation rentals? Oh yeah, that was a huge part of the cartel's business, time shares. And he had buildings in Mexico that were filled with people with headsets on scamming American zeniors.

00:39:12
Speaker 2: What are you going to do?