The Common Good with Randy Porter

Show Notes

Join Kosta and his guest: Randy Porter, Putnam County Mayor and Host of Today in Putnam County, a weekly radio show providing news, interviews and useful resources to listeners of the Upper Cumberland.

For over 38 years Randy has served Putnam County as a volunteer, civil servant, leader and advocate.

In this episode: How a lifetime of service in Emergency Services shaped Randy as Mayor, how voters should approach local electors when they see an issue in the community, and as the Mayor of Putnam County what Randy wishes every voter knew.

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

Find out more about Randy Porter:
http://randyporter.org/

Listen to Today in Putnam County with Randy Porter:
http://randyporter.org/radio-show/

Find out more about Kosta and all the ways we're better together:
http://kostayepifantsev.com/

What is Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev?

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a podcast about business, parenting and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you intentional conversations on making your own path to success, challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better. Recorded in Cookeville, TN, Kosta joins guests from all walks of life to bring fresh perspective and start your week with purpose. We're better together.

Randy Porter: I'm helping people
on a day to day basis. That's

what I did at EMS. That's what
that's all about. You're seeing

people sometimes it's a worst
being county Meier. It gives you

the opportunity to help a lot of
people also not the same way

you're not dealing with their
emergencies, or their medical

conditions or accidents, those
kind of thing, because you're

dealing with things that are
very important to them. And the

dog barking across the street
all night long, is very

important to them. And you might
think, Well, that's very minor,

but it's very important to them.

So I've tried to treat this
position the same as it did EMS

is that that I am there to serve
you.

Morgan Franklin: Welcome to
Better Together with Kosta

Yepifantsev, a podcast on
parenting business and living

life intentionally. We're here
every week to bring you

thoughtful conversation, making
your own path to success,

challenging the status quo, and
finding all the ways we're

better together. Here's your
host, Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Hey y'all.

This is Kosta and today I'm here
with my guest Randy Porter,

Putnam County Mayor and host of
today in Putnam County, a weekly

radio show providing news
interviews and useful resources

to listeners of the upper
Cumberland. for over 38 years,

Randy has served Putnam County
as a volunteer civil servant,

leader and advocate. Randy, we
are honored to have you here

today. And I'll tell you, I've
lived in Putnam County for 11

years. And this is astounding. I
have never heard one negative

thing ever said about you. And
we've interviewed a lot of

politicians. So we get a lot of
mixed reviews. But for you

personally, I've never heard one
negative thing. Oh, so I want to

set the scene. The years 1980
you've just started working full

time for Putnam County EMS as a
911 dispatcher, what are the

county's biggest problems? And
how did these problems compared

to today?

Randy Porter: First of all,
thank you for having me on your

podcast for sure. I feel very
honored to be here. And back in

1980. Things were different. In
Putnam County, we were much

smaller that we only had one
ambulance on duty at a time in

Putnam County, you only had one
sheriff's deputy on duty at

night time. 911. You couldn't
tell who the person was it was

calling all you got was the
telephone call. We didn't have

street addresses. There wasn't a
lot of new jobs come into the

county, all those kinds of
things. So we were more

concerned about emergency
services and the services that

were bought in the county and
what were we going to do to be

able to grow in Putnam County?

Sure. We were kind of on a in a
standstill. Yeah, I asked for

it. I mean, look the difference?

Kosta Yepifantsev: Absolutely.

How many 911 dispatchers were
there in 1981

Randy Porter: on duty at a time.

So when I'm credible that I
started, there was one on DVD at

a time, we had two telephone
lines. And that was it. Wow. And

so you took the normal one call,
you didn't know where they were

at? They had to try to give you
direction because there

Kosta Yepifantsev: was no
software. Right? And so

literally, what was the
population? Like in 1980? Do you

know off the top of your head,
we're

Randy Porter: back in the
30,000. Maybe? That's

incredible. Yeah. So people
would call in the head give you

directions to say, Okay, go to
the third road pass the big oak

tree, turn right at the barn.

And it's just like a house on
the left. Those are the kind of

directions that we got back
then. So it was a totally

different time in Putnam
County's history.

Kosta Yepifantsev: In 2022,
you've got what 100,000 People

just in Cookeville alone,

Randy Porter: at any given time,
when we look at the people that

come here on a day to day basis,
they're eating, they're

shopping, they're coming to work
here, probably at least 125,000

or more during the day, our
population in Putnam County, we

think somewhere in the 80 to
85,000 at nighttime when a lot

of those folks leave but look at
what a change was incredible. 40

years.

Kosta Yepifantsev: What do you
think the biggest change has

been?

Randy Porter: I think the growth
that we have seen in housing,

we've been setting records every
year, this year was no

different. And you just the
building the construction that

that's been going on. One big
thing we have going on for us is

Tennessee Tech University. At
any given time you got 10 or

11,000 students here that that's
what's made our community and

hipped it to grow. But then
you've got all these people that

are moving here from other
places, California and New York,

see them all the time. He talked
to them all the time. What's

bringing you to Cook County,
it's the crime. It's the

homelessness, it's the drugs,
it's the shutdowns. Everything

has to do with the pandemic.

They are wanting to get away
from those big cities and coming

to smaller communities where
they can raise their kids or to

retire.

Kosta Yepifantsev: This may be
kind of a bit of a complicated

question, but the things that
you're describing the crime, the

homelessness, those are all
concerns for Putnam County

residents as well. And so as the
city grows, those things grow as

Well, you have been in your
position you've been affiliated

with, you know, the operations
of the county for 40 years now

in some way or another. Do we
have the resources to manage

expectations on crime on
homelessness on affordable

housing? I mean, does that stuff
keep you up at night?

Randy Porter: A lot of things
keep me when you're in this job,

yeah, not so much. Because we do
have the resources to take care

of those things, had lunch with
a friend of mine that deals with

the homeless, most of those
folks will not let you help

them. So that that becomes an
issue if folks do not want

helping, how do you help them?

We deal with that all the time?

What's the answer to that? Crime
is a concern. Probably the

number one issue right now that
I worry about is the drug

situation with bail. We're
seeing all this fentanyl come

into our country, we're seeing
young people that think that

they're buying a Xanax or an
ecstasy pill, and it's laced

with fentanyl, and they want to
overdose in some of them die, or

drug overdoses are like
everywhere else across the

country, they are up. That's
probably my number one thing. We

got a lot of good folks, and a
lot of good resources are

working on it. But unless we can
stop that drug coming into our

country, it's very, very hard to
deal with

Kosta Yepifantsev: when you were
growing up. Did you guys have to

contend with drugs?

Randy Porter: I didn't even know
what drugs were. I'm raised on a

big farm. And because the worst
thing we had to deal with back

when I was growing up was
smoking a cigarette or drinking.

That was the there there was,
um, I came to tech. And that's

the first time in you know,
getting out of the country and

coming in that I'm a new what
marijuana was, I mean, we just

didn't have those issues back
there in small town America.

Kosta Yepifantsev: You know, I
grew up in Atlanta, and I have a

brother who's 19 years old, and
he grew up like in the heart of

Atlanta, right. And I remember
talking to him one day, and he's

telling me about his experience
in high school. In Atlanta. This

is what 2019 2018 And he's
talking about how they can buy

drugs on Snapchat. And it scares
me to death because like you're

describing, you know, back in
the day, you'd go and you buy a

case of beer, and you'd go to a
party or whatever it might be

nowadays, they go for like, hard
core drugs, and it's illicit.

Right, right. And if it's laced
with fentanyl, and they've never

taken fentanyl, I mean, it takes
what like a gram or something,

Randy Porter: oh, it's such a
small amount. I mean, we use it

in patches for people that are
in really bad pain. And it's

such a small amount, because
we're very careful in EMS about

touching the patches. And it's
such a small amount, and these

drugs are being delivered to
them. I mean, they texted or

they Snapchat or they whatever,
and somebody brings it to them.

We've had some really sad
stories where that young people

thought they were taking
something very mild as a get

high thing and they didn't never
dealt with fentanyl before and

it winds up killing them. It's
it's CYA,

Kosta Yepifantsev: do you think
that every family should have

Narcan in their home?

Randy Porter: Absolutely. And I
think that's coming. You're

starting to see it being kept in
all the schools. It's being in

vending machines across the
country. They're putting it out.

You can get it for a PowerPoint,
and I'm here, they put out the

free Narcan to folks, I think
it's coming that everybody's

going to be carrying Narcan in
their vehicle and have it at

home just in case.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Absolutely.

So as the mayor of Putnam
County, what's one thing that

you wish voters knew,

Randy Porter: I wish they knew
more about how county government

operated. I find so many people
that you talk to them, and they

have no clue who their county
commissioners are for their

district. They may know me as
the county mayor, but the people

that actually vote on the
budgets and their tax rates and

all those kinds of things. They
have no idea who those folks

are. They do not know that I'm
don't have the authority to

regulate over all the other
elected officials. So the

sheriff and the road supervisor
and all those other folks that

are elected officials in the
county government system, I have

no authority over them, they
answer to the people. Most folks

think that they can call me up
and say, Hey, Randy, I've got

potholes in my road or I need to
this or that I can talk to those

folks and use it get it worked
out. But it's not something that

I have any authority. So I wish
folks would take more of an

interest to learn about county
government and how it operates.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Can you give
us a brief overview of how

county government operates?

Randy Porter: There are eight
elected officials in Putnam

County, you have myself you have
the sheriff, you have the road

supervisor, county clerk circuit
court clerk trustee registered

deeds and property assessor.

Those eight elected officials
run the day to day operations of

county government, they have
their own duties. Then we have

24 county commissioners to per
voting district, and they are

the ones that set our budget
each year which is very

important, but they as their
primary job once they set the

budget, they deal with policies
and different things with

economic development, so forth,
but they are the primary ones

that set your tax rate, what
your property taxes gonna be

what your hotel motel taxes are
gonna be. They are the governing

body and then once they make
those decisions, then the light

elected officials, they operate
on a day to day basis inside

that budget. They have their own
atmospheres, their own

government agencies is run.

Being the county mayor, I have
all of the agencies that don't

fall under one of those eight.

I've got EMAS, I've got solid
waste. I've got building

maintenance,

Kosta Yepifantsev: all the fun
ones,

Randy Porter: all the fun ones.

Yes.

Kosta Yepifantsev: You're not
overseeing uch IRA, are you?

Randy Porter: Actually the
county mayors are the governing

body over uch and the
development district, the upper

covenant region, there's 14 of
us Wow, we are the governing

body by state law over both of
those agencies. So

Kosta Yepifantsev: what
interaction? I mean, do you kind

of just like make sure that the
county commission runs smoothly?

Or do you interject do
essentially interject just like

on the rules of how the county
commission operates? Or is it

more than that?

Randy Porter: It's a little bit
more than that. You get the

county commissioners they meet
once a month. I'm the CEO, Chief

Executive Officer and the Chief
Financial Officer for the

county. So about everything that
happens financially comes

through my office. So I set the
agenda for the county

commission. So anything that
needs to be put on the agenda,

any commissioner that wants an
item, I set the agenda, I have

to to pull myself to be the
factfinder and the information

provided with the county
commission. So when they have an

agenda item, I'm gonna give them
everything that I can

information wise for them to
make a good judgmental decision,

but I'm not gonna tell them how
to vote chair. Now you have some

counties that the county mayor
is actually the chairman of the

county commission, I chose not
to do I have veto power, though,

okay. And it's kind of like the
President does with Congress,

but I've never had to veto
anything. I always thought that

if I could not provide the
commission with enough

information that they went the
way that I wanted them to, then

I need to rethink my attitude
towards whatever it was that I

may have it wrong. Absolutely.

And so ultimately, it's their
decision.

Kosta Yepifantsev: The reason
that I asked that question is

because there's 24 county
commissioners, and they span

from Cookeville, to Baxter to
Monterey, Rickman,

Randy Porter: right? Yes. Well,
Bailey is everything inside.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Exactly. And
I have some brief experiences

working closely with people that
are in politics. And I would say

that they have, gosh, I don't
want to make it sound negative,

but they have an ego. They have
a specific type of personality,

I guess, type a kind of person
out there alphas. And you've got

24 of them. And you gotta manage
all 24 Alpha personalities. I

mean, what's that, like?

Randy Porter: I've been I've
been very fortunate in the last

four years. And it looks like
it's gonna be staying that way

in the next four with having a
great county commission. Now,

I've dealt with county
Commission's over the years that

were they were not good, those
personalities got involved. He

goes, got involved. Back in the
80s. We kind of stood steel,

they didn't want to do anything.

They didn't want to build
anything new, they won't fund

anything. And then all of a
sudden the girls started, and it

was crazy catch up. Yeah. But
I've been very fortunate over

the last four years to have a
good group of commissioners that

work together and try to do the
best for the county. I'll tell

you a little side story, please.

When I came into office in 2014,
the very first vote that

happened at the county
commission at the very first

meeting I was at was to elect
the chairman of the county

commission, toiled 12 ta, not
only once, but three or four

times over and over and over,
they kept trying to elect a

chairman, which is supposed to
be the simplest thing, right? 12

tilta. Finally, after probably
an hour, one of the gentlemen

that was running says we don't
need this, we don't need to

split in our commission. So he
says more back out. I admire

that person to this day for
doing that. And it helped the

commission going forward. That
was my first first meeting. And

I thought, Oh, this is gonna be
by. It got better as we went

forward.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Can I ask you
about EMS? You've obviously

worked closely with EMS for I'd
say pretty much your entire

adult life. Yeah. What are the
main issues in EMS right now?

And also how can we sort of fix
some of those issues moving

forward?

Randy Porter: Young people are
not getting into the field. We

are seeing a total different
attitude with young folks about

what they're going to do with
their career. When I was getting

into EMS Yes, we would go and
say it at the hamlet station

waiting for an opportunity to
work a shield or guard to get

hired. You don't say that
anymore, we have a real problem

and getting folks to get into
the EMS Field. Some of that has

to do with pay. The salary is
not as good as it could be.

Although we have done some major
improvements over the last few

years. We need a marketing plan
to be able to get folks involved

in anymore, what we see is you
won't go be a paramedic and

start out at $45,000 a year when
you go be a nurse and start out

at 100 pandemic has changed a
lot. Exactly. And we don't have

the TV shows that we used to
have years ago, emergency 911

All those TV shows that got the
kids interested in it. The other

thing we have a problem with in
EMS is reimbursement, teen care,

Medicare bad, they're terrible.

Yeah, you know, on a day to day
basis, you're involved. You

Kosta Yepifantsev: know, I think
EMS, you know, we have a company

that that works with TennCare
very closely. And I mean, I feel

bad just calling EMS, you know,
on behalf of one of our clients,

because I know that they're not
going to get paid anything for

it. It's astounding. But the
thing is, is they always show up

and they do such a great job. As
you were talking about with

regards to getting more
engagement. How understaffed Are

you guys, though right now in
terms of like percentages, how

many vacancies Do you guys need
to fill to be fully staffed?

Randy Porter: At any given time,
we have about 60 personnel at

EMS, okay, there for a while we
had six 810 openings. At any

given time, we started something
new pandemic really affected EMS

really by it had a lot of folks
that didn't want to deal with

it. It was it was tough on them,
and they were near retirement.

So they retired, we started our
own marketing plan or concept.

And we felt like that we had to
reach the young people at a

younger age before they got up
to a senior in high school and

decided what career they wanted
to do. We started hitting them

in the freshman and sophomore
years, we started teaching

emergency response classes
inside of the high school so we

could get them attracted into
the field to great idea until

just recently, two months ago,
totally staffed. Unbelievable.

amazing ideas have not been at
that place in years. Yeah, I

don't know how long it works.

We've got our fingers crossed.

But so far, so good. And we gave
him a $5,000 pay increase this

past year at the county, which
really helped, I think, to keep

some of those folks that were
thinking about leaving, and it

kind of starts looking out to
those folks that are looking at

coming soon. Well, wait a
minute, maybe that's not so bad.

They pay for all my schooling,
they pay for everything. I've

got vacation days and holidays.

Great insurance, great benefits,
retirement. So we've got our

fingers crossed, we'll see how
it goes.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I love it. So
you talked a little bit about

how people need to get more
civically engaged, find out who

their county commissioners are,
you know, step one, right? What

kind of problems do constituents
go to their local elected

officials for? And also, how do
they contact them,

Randy Porter: most folks will
wind up calling my office, they

don't know who to call. In a lot
of cases, of course, we have a

whoever website, and it has all
the phone numbers. A lot of

times they don't know who to
call or who to go to. So they

call and we try to direct them
in the right place. Probably the

number one thing we get called
on is roads, okay? Not

necessarily in always bad
things. But traffic lights out,

stop signs been knocked down. We
have a pothole, all those kinds

of things. And and we get a lot
of those calls, even though the

road supervisors elected
official takes care of those,

but we just turn around and we
forward those to him. A lot of

folks would do email, send us
things have pretty good presence

on social media, I get a lot of
notifications and messages on

social media from folks that use
it a lot in reaching out to me

and I had one Sunday morning
with a water leak inside the CD

and they didn't know who to
reach out to so they message me.

And of course I called the CD
and social media has kind of

changed the way things are
happening. And so that's that's

a big

Kosta Yepifantsev: part of Do
you encourage county

commissioners and you know, road
supervisors like those eight

agencies that you were talking
about, and maybe even city

council members. I mean, do you
encourage them to get more

engaged in social media?

Randy Porter: Absolutely.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Are they
scared to

Randy Porter: I? Oh, yeah. I'm
thinking about running for

accounting Meyer back in 2012 to
2013. And I never forget the

first meeting I had with my
campaign manager. I didn't have

a Facebook page. I didn't have I
was not on social media at all,

because I was totally against it
that I thought this is not

something I want to do. And he
said, Randy, you got to and I

said no. He said, Let me tell
you if you want to get elected,

right? You have got to do social
media. today. I look back and

that was the best advice that
I've gotten. It's a way to reach

the people and get messages out
that they might not read the

newspaper, they might not listen
to the radio, but they're on

Facebook or Instagram or some of
the social media platforms. And

it's been a great thing for me,

Kosta Yepifantsev: when you open
up that social media world, it

increases your workload by a
lot. Do you ever think it would

be beneficial for the state or
the city or the county to add

some resources to the salary or
even like money that they can

pay to hire like an assistant or
something, I just feel like they

could be a lot more effective in
communicating with their

constituents in getting them
more civically engaged, if they

can at least have somebody
helping them do it, right. I

know,

Randy Porter: the sheriff's
department has their own public

information officer that helps
do a lot of that I've kind of

been my own. It is a lot of
work. So on Saturdays, I come

into the office usually for 234
hours and get caught up, you

know, there's nobody there and
it's quiet, and I get things

done. But that's when I schedule
all of my social media, it's

great thing about social media
is you can schedule those posts

as they're gonna go out. So I
may have some of them scheduled

a week ahead of time, but it is
a lot of work. But it's a great

way to reach your constituents.

So I've encouraged folks, like
you're seeing it more city

councilman, cabinet ministers,
most of them got their own

Facebook pages now. And they're
trying to push the information

out down

Kosta Yepifantsev: because and
Ricky and when we talked to

Ricky, he spoke a lot about how
he use social media to not just

build support for his election
or his candidacy, but also just

communicating all the different
things that are happening within

within Putnam county or city of
Cookeville. Essentially, really

quick, going back to emergency
services. How did your work in

emergency services shape you as
mayor,

Randy Porter: it taught me that
I was a servant. I take the

county mayor as a service
position. I also took that in

EMS has been a paramedic and
being the director of the

service then for many years,
that being a service position

also and also thought it was a
calling. Not everybody can do

EMS, and not everybody can do
what you do or health care

teaching. And my sister's a
teacher and I think Oh,

Kosta Yepifantsev: right. That
they deserve. They deserve so

much. Yeah, but

Randy Porter: it's I took it as
a service position and helping

people on a day to day basis.

That's what I did it EMAS.

That's what that's all about.

You're seeing people sometimes
it's a worst being county mayor,

it gives you the opportunity to
help a lot of people also not

the same way you're not dealing
with their emergencies, or their

medical conditions or accidents,
those kind of thing. But you're

dealing with things that are
very important to them. And the

dog barking across the street
all night long, is very

important to them. You may think
well, that's very minor, but

it's very important to them. So
I've tried to treat this

position the same as I did EMS
is that that I am there to serve

you and are to serve the people
and I'm gonna do everything I

can to try to help. Most of the
time you can. Sometimes there's

things you can't but it really
molded me I think into the

servants thinking,

Kosta Yepifantsev: what did your
parents do for a living? Like

when you were growing up on a
farm? I mean, obviously, you had

some life events that occurred
because I mean, you're right,

you've definitely embody the
servant's heart.

Randy Porter: My father died
when I was very Vietnam or was

going on. And he was a Vietnam
veteran. They roll maneuvers in

Belgium, I think before they
went over and he had a massive

heart attack. Oh my gosh, in his
20s It's just just unbelievable.

But while he was active duty
while he was active, so I lived

with my grandparents, my mom and
I moved in with my grandparents.

My grandfather was a deacon in
our little small country church.

And he worked at a at a lumber
mill, and we formed and he

molded me it was his way of
thinking is, is that he served

the community, I can remember
anybody that got sick in the

community, we'd go get their
corn crop in or their hay or we

would take care of their cows,
we do whatever it took, and it

was a community effort. And
everybody had that same

attitude. So he kind of molded
me into that my mother was a

beautician hairdresser. And she
kind of had that same attitude.

So that country life and the way
I was molded in that little

small country church really
carried forward into my life as

I came to tech and saw a
different world, but I didn't

give up on those things that I
learned early on in my life.

Kosta Yepifantsev: When you see
Cookeville growing and

expanding, and you have these
values, do you still see those

values in Cookeville? Today?

Randy Porter: I do in a lot of
people. Yeah, but there's some

people I don't you get folks
that are moving here from other

places, law, those are good
people, okay, they're just

trying to get away from bad
things. But you asked to see it

in a lot of people. I think the
pandemic and the political

environment. It's been going on
the last couple years or so.

It's got people divided for no
reason. We're We're all God's

children, we all are here to do
a job serve a purpose. Let's try

to work on the things that we
agree on and that we can do. And

let's put the politics aside.

And let's let's try to make
Coolblue better and put them

Kenny better. And I think before
the pandemic, I saw that really

big. And now I start seeing it
coming back out again, just it's

Tree Lighting service. Kupo had
the other day, I've been in two

parades, a Christmas parades.

And I'm seeing all those people
coming back. And I'm starting to

see those attitudes, get back to
the ones that were pre pandemic,

Kosta Yepifantsev: because
pandemic made a lot of people

cynical because they were
isolated, you know, and I'll

tell you, social media man, do
you think that that's driven us

even farther apart?

Randy Porter: Absolutely.

prepended? Yeah, I rarely had a
negative comment on any of my

social media. Occasionally, you
get something paying me kids.

It's like, everybody goes
negative. Yeah, they're arguing

and they're fussing amongst each
other because they're on

different sides of the ideas of
whether you should be shut down

or not shut down, or mandates
and all those kind of things.

I'm starting to see that get
better, though, in the last six

to 12 months, I think is things
are starting to get back to

normal. I have started seeing
that easing up and don't see it

near as much as I did before.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So Mayor
Porter, I only have two kind of

controversial topics. And we'll
address one and you know whether

or not you want to answer it,
we'll see. How do you feel about

this don't Pelosi Putnam thing,
and how it's kind of taken over

at least for a period of time,
all the oxygen in these

elections. And sort of, in my
opinion, I feel like kind of put

a black eye on our community.

Randy Porter: I think so too. I
disagreed with all that

happening. I'm a positive
person, I try to be positive, I

am never going to be negative in
an election area in a campaign.

If you can't sell yourself to
the people with what your ideas

are and what you want to do. If
your elected office, then I just

won't be elected. I'm going to
run on who I am, I'm going to

run on the positives that I can
bring to the to that office. And

I think everybody needs to do
that. I think we'd lose so much

when we go negative. I disagreed
with the Pelosi Putnam thing. I

disagreed with the way that they
had an impact. I love that

organization. A lot, a lot of
great friends there. We had

never done that before, in an
election that I remember where

it got real negative. This was
kind of the first and I think

that we need to make that the
last I think we need to go back

to running on your your good
things and what you can do for

the county or for the city and
lead the negative. Does that

Kosta Yepifantsev: concern you?

It does. There's a lot of
agencies that a lot of elected

officials that say that the best
thing about Putnam, county and

Cookeville is that everybody
works together. Yes. So division

is

Randy Porter: division is what
kills us exactly. If we're not

all working together. And I
think, take me out all the other

elected officials over the last
eight years have done a great

job of working together, I think
that's when we've been so

successful. All it takes is
something like that negative or

you get one or two that try to
break it up. And we can have a

downfall. So I won't say a stay
positive of cam.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Absolutely.

And a lot of it obviously comes
from the growth of Cookeville.

And a lot of new faces, a lot of
people moving here, a lot of new

opportunities to you. And not
everybody can take advantage of

those opportunities. So in your
opinion, how do we protect the

charm of Cookeville and the
upper Cumberland while

supporting growth and economic
development?

Randy Porter: That's a fine
line. To walk, I try to walk it

every day, and so did the other
elected officials. We want to

see Cooper and Putnam County
grow. I always said that if

you're not growing, you're
dying. It's kind of one way or

the other. But you don't want to
grow so fast as did some of the

other areas in our state of the
last several years to where that

they're trying to play catch up.

They're reacting to things
instead of being proactive ahead

of time. So that's a fine line.

You asked me in a previous
question, what keeps me up at

night? That is one. Are we
growing too fast? Yeah. How do

we keep our small town feel are
at small town attitudes, the

great positivity we have with
all these folks moving here? I

don't tell you that I have all
the answers because I don't. But

I think that's something that we
have to work on daily, because

if we don't, we can lose that
very quickly. And so I think

you've got a large group of
people CD Meyers County, that we

constantly are talking about
that and working on that to try

to make sure that we don't lose
it.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I was at the
chamber and I heard someone say

something about Randy Porter.

The story went that there was an
RFI request for information and

they brought it to you.

Actually, they brought a few to
a You said Do not bring me

another RFI unless that business
is willing to pay $15 or more.

Yes. And I think that fact that
you kind of have your thumb on

the pulse of what is the future
of Cookeville. It's not just

growth for the sake of growth.

And I'd love that I'd love to
hear that perspective. I always

ask this to everybody that comes
on the show that's involved in

politics. If you could have a
dream business, a dream

industry, something that would
completely transform the

economic dynamics of this
region. What would it be?

Randy Porter: While? That's a
big question, I think it has to

be in the technology sector. So
if I could pick it, it would be

in the chip sector, and the
technology of chips, they run

everything? Absolutely. So I got
a truck last year, okay. And

it's minus chips who don't have
all the chips in it. Some of the

things don't work. It's crazy.

So I'm thinking, wow, if we had,
we've got to bring all that

stuff back to America agreed. So
if we had the chip technology,

and I'm not necessarily saying
making the chips, but designing

what those chips gonna look like
in the future, those high paying

tech jobs, if I could pick just
one that will be

Kosta Yepifantsev: even the raw
materials? Oh, absolutely. You

know, we don't have to bring
Intel over here. But if we can

at least just mine, the raw
materials that would be

transformational for us.

Randy Porter: Absolutely. I
mean, we're bringing everything

from other countries, we used to
make everything pretty much in

America, we've kind of lost
track there. And I think we need

to bring back to the United
States most of our manufacturing

jobs so that we could don't have
to worry about the supply chain

shortages.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So you were
the chief local elected

official, Cleo for the upper
Cumberland region workforce

development. This is the
controversial question that I

wanted to ask you. Good. You
know, there's 11,000 job

openings. Now that may change if
we get into a recession, it's

going to come down a little bit.

My question is, why not consider
bringing immigration as a topic

for this community, this county
to try to bring people from

outside the United States that
are maybe involved in

significant conflict, like in
Ukraine to try to plug some of

those employment holes that we
have? I'm not saying like, you

know, be a sanctuary city or
anything like that. I'm just

saying, if you have a economic
problem, in the sense that you

don't have enough bodies to be
able to fill all of these

positions. And you have
companies all across the upper

Cumberland that need people. Why
is immigration such a sticky

subject to talk about?

Randy Porter: I think it's
because of the illegal

immigration. I think when you
started that flooding our

country with illegal immigrants,
it's really put a bad light on

immigration itself. We're all
immigrants from some point.

Right? Exactly. We may have been
born here. But our ancestors

were not at some point, they
came to America. So that's what

America is built on. I think if
we could shut down our borders

to the point that we're
controlling our immigration like

we used to, and we're bringing
in legal immigrants work vases.

I think that's probably a great
answer. Yeah. So we have a lot

of construction going on. In
Putnam County. If you go out and

look at most of the construction
workers, a high percentage of

those are immigrants that have
come here, Hispanic Mexican

dish, different nationalities
that are doing those

construction jobs. They're good
at it. And there was a shortage.

So they're filling that void. I
just don't know how we make that

happen on the legal basis right
now until we fix the illegal.

Kosta Yepifantsev: And I'd say
that the first step in I'm not

obviously telling you how to do
your job I couldn't even imagine

I'm already begin. I'm open
Well, I think that the first

step is there's a h1 B visa
program that's very low, like

the amount of slots, I think
285,000 or something like that.

If a county or city or even
state is serious about improving

their economic conditions,
through immigration, they have

to work with the federal
government to try to get a lot

of those slots filled and
educate their businesses, their

local businesses, about how they
can access that visa program,

and how they can get employees
from overseas to come and work

in Putnam County. And I'll tell
you, it's interesting, because

there's a lot of h1 B visa
workers in Putnam County that

work at phi cosa that will be
working at portabello it's not

like it's something that's just
crazy to say, right. We were

doing

Randy Porter: it before Yeah.

And I still go back to the to
the issues we're having with the

illegal immigration but yeah,
it's great book OSA is one of

our big manufacturers here,
eight or 900 employees most of

the time, and they use a lot
portabella coming in, they're

moving their whole North
American operations here to

Putnam County, 100 and 50
million. And they're bringing a

lot of those folks with them,
because they're already trained.

They know what to do in the
factory. I think you're onto

something, I think he's great. I
have found that it is very

difficult right now to
addressing those issues, though,

because of the attitude of the
federal government right now on

illegal immigration. We had a
ceremony at the courthouse

recently with a young lady that
she became a US citizen, she had

worked very, very hard to get to
that point. And she was very

proud of that. And I think
you're seeing a lot of those

folks that they're not looking
at doing that when you've got

all these other folks that are
coming in ahead of them and not

going through that process. I
think we've got to fix it. And I

wished our congress and senate
and President would come

together. And let's fix this.

Yeah. And let's start these
programs up, because we're in

need of workers when you got
6000 10,000 12,000 jobs in the

upper criminal and around in the
counties. That's a lot. I go

back to the day, when if we had
five or 600 job openings, that

was a big number. Yeah. And now
almost every industry that we

have has a shortage of workers
and we've got to do something

they have to.

Kosta Yepifantsev: So we always
like to end the show on a high

note. Who is someone that makes
you better when you're together?

Randy Porter: My my first
inclination is always going to

be my wife. Okay. We've been
married 35 years and she's been

a great influence on me. If I
take her out the probably the

the answer you get most of the
time if I take her out, I'm

gonna say my other four Myers
here for four together all good

Monterey Bastian Cool. Well, if
we're all together, they make me

better. And I think we make each
other better, because we're

always working on the same team.

Great things are gonna happen.

Morgan Franklin: Thank you for
joining us on this episode of

Better Together with Kosta
Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed

listening and you want to hear
more, make sure you subscribe on

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Kosta Yepifantsev is a Kosta

Yepifantsev Production. Today's
episode was written and produced

by Morgan Franklin post
production mixing and editing by

Mike Franklin. Want to know more
about Kosta visit us at

kostayepifantsev.com We're
better together.