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Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NBC Studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5.
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You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jobs and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Unknown Speaker 0:34
Good morning Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I am pleased to be here as we again continue into the into the first month of 2020 for y'all pray for my my friend, my young colleague here in his radio station. He's my producer and director where sees a little under the weather. So let's keep him in prayer. Yeah, a couple of days ago, I attended a groundbreaking for one of Frank Hawkins and his staff's new project where they're going to build 40 New, affordable apartments on Decatur. I think it's 1501 North Decatur so I was pleased to participate in that as his chairman of the board. Also, this month we had well this week, I should say we had our brother, Mr. Don Hamilton was put to rest up in the Veterans Cemetery up in Boulder City down was a good guy. He and I played a lot of golf together. But we will miss down and we'll continue to keep his legacy alive by just talking about him on the side of condolences. Certainly want to express condolences to the family of Miss Barbara Coleman, Barbara, as you may recall, she was a longtime librarian over at the West Las Vegas Library. She passed away not so long ago, just a few days ago. And then believe it or not, just about a week or so later, her brother I'm tau, which I didn't even know he was her brother, Michael Bombay, we call him Garrett he passed away. So those two for sure they're founders we want to express condolences. They my wife informed me about Miss Olivia Stephens, a longtime member of the victory Baptist Church. They had her services earlier this week. So again, condolences to those families on the side of birthdays. Miss Cheryl Hawkins had a birthday this month. I was earlier in the month and then Jonathan Armageddon who was the brother to my son in law, Nathan armagard. And also earlier this month we had the Chief Chief Burt Washington had a birthday. Bert is still a young man and doing great things in the community over in Southern California. Certainly want to mention that Mike and even though Mike Armorican, my son in law's father, he passed away back in May. But he and his wife is still thinking and celebrating their anniversary because they were married for quite a few years. So we want to acknowledge that. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. And we will be back on the other side. We're going to have Brett Burton. He's a retired fire captain from LA County Fire Department. Good afternoon or good morning I should say. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. And I am so pleased and excited to introduce a dear friend and colleague, Mr. Brent burden he is a retired fire captain from the LA County Fire Department. What's up Brent?
Unknown Speaker 3:45
Hey, Dave, how are you?
Unknown Speaker 3:47
I'm well I am well. Glad to have you on the show. Man. Would you give our listening audience a little bit of background on yourself please? Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 3:55
First of all glad to be here. Thank you for having me on. I just retired after 37 years with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. I was very blessed to start the job when I was at the young age of 19. I figured out that I want to do this profession. I want to be a police officer at first then I had a cousin had fire department and got chance to see what he was doing. And I did both I did a youth programs to the police and fire department and the fire department is more of a what I want to do so I went over there and did that. So during my course, years that was a paramedic, I was a training officer recruitment officer, a training instructor a youth mentor. worked various assignments throughout the whole county. The county is pretty large. I think we're the were the second largest department as far as number of fire stations in the country. We have 177 fire stations. But as far as staffing, we're number five we have 3000 uniformed personnel. So large agency and a lot of variety there a lot of diversity. So during that time I was also the president of the LA County black firefighters social Asian call this tutorials I did that for 10 years. And I was also found co founders and President past president and current historian of the Afro American firefighting Museum in Los Angeles. And so also, I was able to go through the EDI governance to program last 97, the third class after you date, right. And I was served as an instructor since 1995. And so now I'm been blessed to have been appointed to be one of the board of directors there. And I'm looking forward to that endeavor and what that's going to bring, hopefully do some things like that. So pretty much said, I retired and moved out to connect to a California where I live with my wife, I have three grown children on public service. So right now I teach. I'm teaching right now part time high school kids about fire careers and life skills and mentor programs in LA. So that's what I'm doing.
Unknown Speaker 5:52
Oh, man, sounds like you are a busy person. Man. That is something. But I want you to just give a little bit more detail on the museum because in fact, I didn't even have that down as a question to ask you. But give our listening audience because I trust that some that maybe down in Southern California here visiting would want to stop by I would encourage that, in fact.
Unknown Speaker 6:13
Absolutely. So the African American firefighters as one of the original freestanding Black Fire museums in the country were housed at Oh, fire station number 30, just outside of downtown Los Angeles, on the Central Avenue corridor, for those that know about LA historical corridor was the black hub, the boulevards for those that migrate to La between the 1920s in the 1950s. So at one point, the LA Fire Department was segregated from 1902 to 1955. Black firefighters are only allowed to work in two fire stations, one or two fire stations. So station 30, was built in 1913. House black firefighters from the years of 1924 to 1955. And then it closed in 1980. And several years later became a historic landmark. And in 1997, we actually got a chance to reopen it after a $1.9 million renovation restoration project. And so I was blessed to serve on the founding board. I was a president for over 12 years. And so now I'm the current historian. So I tell the story and share the history of our partner after American firefighters, we have artifacts from firefighters around the country. But mostly our history deals with the county and city of LA. But we do have artists, pitchers in pain and memorabilia from firefighters from around the country as well. So it's only open once a week on Sundays. It's staffed by volunteers, but if you go to our website, we can arrange a tour via our website from one of our docents that can make themselves available during the week. So it's a jewel of LA. Excellent,
Unknown Speaker 7:43
excellent. I trust that, again, some folks will take you up on and give that website again, because I think it's important for people to know when they can set up those tours. Oh, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 7:53
So if you don't google F American factories in Los Angeles, the website will be WWW dot H A. S F as in firefighters, use them that use them. That org is our website. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 8:08
Excellent. Now you did mention that you had. You're currently an instructor at the Carl Holmes executive development institute, give us give the folks an idea of a couple of topics that you actually teach.
Unknown Speaker 8:21
Well, you know, I started out just doing one class. And when I was asked to teach that now that's morphed into five classes now. So I'm very blessed to work with two dynamic brothers from the East Coast. Brother Joseph Mohammed, they retired fire Lieutenant out of White Plains, New York Fire Department. And she had della Boo from the Milwaukee Fire Department. Now he's relocated down to Atlanta, but the three of us teach the history of African Americans in the fire service. That's the first class that we give the students at air entering day one. He talks about us as a people through ancient Africa and what we've come through, I talked about building your history and your legacy, how to record it and document it and I give a brief overview of our museum. And then Joe Muhammad does clean up as we say he comes along and just pulls everything together and gives the history of the International Association black professional firefighters came and OSHA as president, so the IBP FF and so they kind of round everything out as far as what we're doing. And we kind of share with the students that topic. I also teach with my partner Kwame Cooper, who's now the Deputy Chief Diversity Equity inclusion with the FDNY. He's a former LA City Fire Department retired Assistant Chief and I've been known to quality my entire career. And we teach courses we teach the fire service in high risk communities, which is a community risk reduction program that teaches students how to develop their own fire programs and youth programs and educational community based programs either either fire station or out of their black reading chapters. We also teach a coaching class called coaching conversations for fire service professionals where we teach them more about how to work with their people. more intimately. We teach off chip for fire service professionals more of a leadership course that really builds around customer satisfaction based on training these the firefighters themselves as customers and, and how to look at building a good authentic relationship with their people. And then the last class is the fire service and the fire safety and risk analysis as the course that's more of a training safety officer type program looking at risk management issues and line of duty death issues, and how to deal with those, those complexities in the fire service.
Unknown Speaker 10:36
Excellent. Look, you mentioned that you had became become a board member director with the with the Institute. What do you feel you bring it to the table as we get ready to close out this session? Wow,
Unknown Speaker 10:47
it first of all, it's an honor to do that, you know, because I've been an admirer of Dr. Carr Holmes when he was here with us and just the inner workings of the institute, I look to bring some nonprofit management experience. I do have I've ran several nonprofits in Los Angeles. And I've attended. I'm a certified manager of nonprofit organizations, the Center for management. So bringing the expertise of how did he manage managing a executive board, on the nonprofit level is something that I bring also some ideas and thoughts about how to work with our students to make them more marketable. And to more. Actually, I would say just just to get the most out of our student biotech cons, because when you come and most of those feminists, firefighters, and they're looking at, I want to kind of bring out of them that authentic leadership, I want to bring out of them that that goal of what the institute is trying to employ in our students. So I'm looking forward to working with you, Dave, and the rest of the board and our Institute, a worldwide organization even taking it further because 35 years is a long time. I know we can make lasts a lot longer. Excellent,
Unknown Speaker 11:54
excellent. Look, as you close look, I want to get your thought on how do you think AI is going to affect fire service? He's you know, it's it's a hot topic right now.
Unknown Speaker 12:03
Yeah, well, AI is there's a positive ai ai is a good tool to use for helping us with our technology, because technology. Now as far as figuring out drones, drone as part of technology, we're looking at cameras and systems or how to determine natural disasters and how to mitigate them. But we'll always err on the ground to do the full pulling somebody on the rescuing. Right? I think AI is this this on the peripheral with those things from a managerial standpoint, as far as actual firefighting, the actual hands on the actual rescue the physical efforts of the nature of what the work that we do, AI can work hand in hand with this. So I know there'll be up to embrace it, and look at ways we can present to help us out. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 12:47
Brother Britt, retired captain Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles County Fire Department. Pleasure to have you on the show, man. And I trust that people will get a lot out of this to include, hopefully some visits down to the African American museum down in LA. Thank you so much, Grant.
Unknown Speaker 13:03
Thank you day.
Unknown Speaker 13:05
This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. On the other side, we'll have Miss Debbie state. And once again, good morning. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host and have Miss Debbie standing on the in the studio, in fact, and she'll introduce her daughter shortly. But Dave, how's everything going for you in 2020?
Unknown Speaker 13:27
Always Well, always. Well, a good, good.
Unknown Speaker 13:31
So give our listening audience a little bit about you. How long you've been in town, where to grow up and school.
Unknown Speaker 13:40
Originally, my family's from San Antonio, Texas. In fact, we moved to Texas right after the war as my grandfather was saved to a wall. And so I was born there and grew up there for a few years and then we relocated to Las Vegas in the early 1960s. Okay. All right. And I graduated from Las Vegas High School. Vegas high.
Unknown Speaker 14:02
Well, cats in the old spot downtown. Right, right.
Unknown Speaker 14:05
That's definitely a Cisco, the original one who now
Unknown Speaker 14:09
Debbie, you recently retired? What were you doing and who you're doing it for?
Unknown Speaker 14:14
I retired from the Nevada State Education Association. I was what is known as a uniserv. Director. I worked for the Union for many years and what I I was assigned to Clark County, where I represented support staff here and also both teachers and support staff in my county. And I am officially 16 days retired
Unknown Speaker 14:39
16 days and how many years
Unknown Speaker 14:41
did you do? Well over 20
Unknown Speaker 14:44
And how did you decide to get into that field?
Unknown Speaker 14:48
I started out. I was hired by SEIU as a union organizer. And they moved me or transferred me to Texas. And I spent I was doing Nursing Home Reform they For a few years, when Ann Richards was governor, I worked with her daughter, Cecile Richards. And then they were going to transfer me to Maine. And at that time, my daughter had just turned five. And I'm like, I can't keep traveling all over the country, right? This kid, I have to have a stable life for her. So the Texas Federation of Teachers was they were hiring. So I took a position with them and I was assigned to the Houston, Texas area. I had browses port Goose Creek, which is good and then move back to Las Vegas and Clark County Education Association was hiring. They made me an offer and I accepted it. Okay. Now,
Unknown Speaker 15:36
you mentioned your grandpa said something about what is it called the war, the war. So who in your family aside from and I'm assuming that your grandfather was a service guy, my great
Unknown Speaker 15:48
grandfather fought. As matter of fact, my three times great grandfather and my four times great grandfather fought in the Civil War. They were freedom fighters.
Unknown Speaker 15:57
So got a rich history in the military in the back in the family. All right. So you guys came to Las Vegas, you said in the early 60s, you left and went away and then came back as a result of folks wanting to move you to some coal country? I would call it coal country.
Unknown Speaker 16:17
almost definitely. And the best thing that ever happened, I'm going to be honest with you was coming back home because my family was here. And you know, that was nice.
Unknown Speaker 16:25
So do you have any college background at all? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 16:29
I went after graduating from Las Vegas high school. I went to Texas Southern University in Houston. And I realized that that was a little bit too far for me. So I transferred to the University of San Diego. Okay, which I liked. That means I could come home on weekends and holidays.
Unknown Speaker 16:47
Yes, when my brother in law went to graduate, I think in Business Administration or something from Texas Southern. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 16:54
he kept us out of trouble. Are you down around the same time on the same time? Matter of fact, he made sure that we ate so
Unknown Speaker 17:01
so there was a little Las Vegas connection. You know, I think that's that's commendable, and also a great opportunity for people to get settled when they are some others from home that they can connect with, if you will, because I know that. In fact, I need to correct this last week I had on my three of my granddaughter's. And I call my great niece, I call her my cause, but she's actually my great niece. And, you know, sometimes your brain just shuts down. I'm like, and people, family members who heard the show, why did you call and not nice. I'm like, I couldn't think about it. My mind just got to shut down. Well, that's good. So now that you're back home, and I know, I'd like you to introduce your daughter and bring her on the line. I know she's sitting out there waiting on us.
Unknown Speaker 17:52
Okay, my daughter's Amanda Staton, as a matter of fact, she grew up and was born here in Las Vegas. And she is now living in Atlanta, Georgia temporarily. And so we're looking forward to having her move back here. And that being said, Amanda. She should be thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 18:13
How you doing, man?
Unknown Speaker 18:16
I'm doing well. How are you? Good. So
Unknown Speaker 18:17
how long have you been down in Atlanta?
Unknown Speaker 18:20
I've been down here since June 2016.
Unknown Speaker 18:23
Oh, you've been down a
Unknown Speaker 18:24
few years? Yes, about eight years now. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 18:27
So what are you doing well in in the great city of Atlanta.
Unknown Speaker 18:33
I am an operations manager of a 1 million square foot warehouse currently. But I also own a cannabis consumption lounge based back home.
Unknown Speaker 18:42
Okay, so that's because I was gonna ask your mom, which I'm well aware of some of what's going on in her retired life. So you guys are partners. So Debbie, would you explain how you guys got into that? And then we'll get you back in a man.
Unknown Speaker 18:57
Okay. Also, David. Amanda says that I'm not retired that I'm on vacation. Because of the business right. A couple of years ago. An opportunity came up regarding perhaps Amanda and I applied for law. Let me just see it right. Amanda signed me up for a cannabis class 16 weeks cannabis class. And and then the next thing that happened is we apply for a cannabis consumption lounge license with the state of Nevada. This was a new area that was opening up in Nevada, where people could go and be able to partake in cannabis. And so with that being said they had a lottery system. And there are two types of licenses that were given. And that was the independent license, which is what we have and we are also are allowed to be located in unincorporated Clark County, which opens the door for us more areas wherever we decide to open, you know, gives us a broad area is what I should say. And the other ones it was, I believe 10 Social equities so The license we were given is called a provisional license. And so once you go through all of the requirements, you meet all the requirements of the provisional license, the next step you're going to meet before we will meet before the cannabis to board compliance board for our what we call the I feel like you, David, I understand I understand
Unknown Speaker 20:24
that to people. Because we're said, Wes always tells me Hey, remember this ATV when you ain't talking then here?
Unknown Speaker 20:32
conditional life conditional license. Yes. And that's where we are right now. So we're at the point is we're going to be meeting before the board to regarding our conditional license, and Amanda can give you more information on that. We had a man.
Unknown Speaker 20:47
Sir. Yeah, so I'm really excited about this opportunity. Just as my mom said, you know, voluntold her mainly because she was boots on the ground. This is something that I have been wanting to do since cannabis has actually passed medically. And as soon as I moved, they decided to pass it recreationally. So it's something that I've always wanted to do and be a part of. So when I found the course, I told my mom, hey, I can't make it. They're not doing it virtual. So I need you to go and i i literally voluntold her and put her on the business license. See, there was no asking there was no safe. Oh, and it was what it was at that point.
Unknown Speaker 21:27
You know, it's kind of interesting that you use that voluntold, one of my deputies kind of coined that phrase on the department, when we were told to do something, we were voluntold I'm like, You're right, somebody, almost point a gun and say you will do this. So that's very exciting. So you guys have got to be, even though with the social equity, which I'm somewhat familiar with, because I've done some work for Mr. Frank Hawkins, as to dispensaries in town. And I know that the so called social equity allows for those who've been in trouble around the use of marijuana, cannabis. And they given those. And my position is, and I'm totally late this, but I trust that there's going to be a lot of failure because most of those folks, I bet they don't have a clue about the industry, nor business practices. And I think it's going to be very interesting. And as I deal with people as I do this work for Frank him, my wife calls me a drug pusher because I pick up people from the hotels, and take them to the dispensary. Look, it's legal. I told you in the form of 5g, hey, the former fire chief is not doing anything illegal. This is perfectly legal. But my point is, as I'm dealing with folks, they said, Can you Can we just fire up outside? I said, No, it's against the law. By law. You cannot. And I'd say they were looking, they had a vision. And they were looking down the road. And I believe that's why they decided that ultimately, we need these quote unquote, consumption lounges, where where people can go and smoke, you know, so but I still believe that those in the social equity, they better be very careful. I don't know how much time you guys even in the independent that you have to get everything set and up and running. Did they give you a particular timeframe?
Unknown Speaker 23:10
There's no timeframe generally, there were they're just waiting, you know, for everything to be turned in on time. And then they'll schedule a time for us to meet with the with the board. They do give us that timeframe. But you can request an extension, which is what's been occurring across the board, people have been requesting extensions. So that's kind of where we're at. And, and based on that is when your deadlines are two
Unknown Speaker 23:37
can either one of you guys share? I would imagine that they want you to have a certain dollar amount, whether it's equity somewhere or cash in the bank. Is there $1? Yes, there
Unknown Speaker 23:47
is a requirement once you initial is born, especially for the independence license, it's a two, I believe it's a $10,000 non refundable fee. And then once you are awarded that license, the next step you would have to the cost would be a $200,000. Like Like you said monies are that you would have to have in a bank or in some type of an escrow account. That because the board needs to know that you have some money that's available. And and I also want to add this David, the paperwork on this is extremely extensive. And Amanda and our partners have done an exceptional job. And I'm very proud of her the way she has put together all of our paperwork and everything is ready for the board. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 24:30
I can tell you that I can only imagine because me Ernest and Marsha were partners in a convenience store. And we had I think five or 10 slot machines. Man at the paper this thing was so thick and they won't know about what I thought about this that when I was three man I don't remember that. They I mean they take you way back and I guess I'm assuming that they want to look and see what's going on in the family etc, etc. But the thing was very, very thick so I can only imagine a count of application requests and things that you have to go through in terms of filling out that particular paperwork and you Debussy, they've done an excellent job in preparation.
Unknown Speaker 25:10
Oh, she she really has she was very methodical about making sure everything was as it is supposed to be. And she would also check periodically with the individual that was working with us from the board to make sure all of our stuff was as it should be, or is correct and is in line in what the board is requiring. So, you know, Amanda has developed a very strong relationship with this person to, you know, to ensure that what the board is requiring, that those needs are being met by us in our teeth. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 25:39
And I can tell you that it's rewarding to hear some folks who step into what's already, I believe, a multi million dollar business, and will soon be a billion dollar business because you can't assume and think, who smokes. I haven't smoked in 37 years. And my family, why don't you be telling people that because it's true, I don't smoke, no weed no more. But I did. But one thing I do use is the CDB lotion, and says for my back, when I go play golf, I put that on, it lasts about two hours, and I have to put some more on it. But it's better than having to take a lot of different drugs, if you will, to deal with the pain. Most
Unknown Speaker 26:19
definitely. And that's where we realize that it's really there's a need for the medicinal end. Because you know, a lot of people don't just necessarily like yourself and like me, we're not we don't want to get high, but we are definitely looking for that medicinal aspect, that
Unknown Speaker 26:35
relief for the aching body. So Amanda, I assume you're gonna wait till things get locked down and Eagle make that transition back to to the wonderful city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Unknown Speaker 26:48
Well, I'm not too sure about transitioning back. I think my mom has just got a little bit too excited. But he's I love to travel. I definitely will be home for a long extended period of time. For now Atlanta is home.
Unknown Speaker 27:02
Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get into the family. I don't want to start a family squabble on the radio. This is me. So so any closing remarks in terms of what you plan to do outside of just this and any other thing that you may be planning, Debbie, as far as your brief retirement brief? Once you say you're on a brief vacation? Amanda say,
Unknown Speaker 27:29
yeah, man this term. You know, it's amazing, because it's as if our roles are starting to revert. But closing, you know, I would definitely encourage the name of our companies, the rolling clouds, c l o u, d z, that will be the name of our lounge when we open up. And we will select an area once we have met with the board. And like I said, it will be in unincorporated Las Vegas. And we definitely would encourage people that come come and check us out. Check, because we're going to have a lot of things that we're going to be offering. And with that being said, I just like Amanda, just to wrap it up, Miss
Unknown Speaker 28:09
Amanda, and let me say this to everyone. This is Veterans Affairs plus on any 1.5, jazz and more. And this is the plus side because sometimes I have guests on that have nothing to do with the military. And that's why I added the plus. So because there's things that people need to know about within our community. Miss Amanda, go ahead.
Unknown Speaker 28:27
Yes, definitely looking forward to opening the lounge, creating a community communal space for all walks of life, and definitely tapping back into the community and giving back to the community at all.
Unknown Speaker 28:38
Excellent. So wish you Godspeed as you travel back and forth until everything's get situated here. And we certainly wish you guys well. And I think it's great that we have some African Americans other than Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Larry Smith involved in this industry, because I think it's going to be very, very profitable. So why not get some of that money. So once again, Las Vegas we appreciate Miss Debbie and her daughter Amanda, calling in from Atlanta, GA hot Atlanta to talk about what they got going on. And we we wish you guys great success. Once again, Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. And Debbie, you're welcome anytime to come back on the show. So thank you so much for for agreeing to come on.
Unknown Speaker 29:22
Thank you for having us.
Unknown Speaker 29:23
All right. We'll talk to you guys next next week, I should say and we will have Mr. Will not Mr. But former Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Dan Scott and also the president of the centurions. Mr. Johnny gray will be our guest coming up next week. Once again, vessels fares plus on any 1.5 Jazz and more. We'll talk to you next month. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai