Leading with Southern Hospitality: A Conversation with Summerville Police Chief Doug Wright on Law Enforcement in a Growing Town

Discover how Southern Hospitality mingles with law enforcement in our captivating chat with Chief Doug Wright, Police Chief in the charming town of Summerville. Chief Wright's tireless dedication and unique perspective on the changing face of law enforcement provide a fresh insight into the community’s growth, its unique challenges, and the role he plays in maintaining its strong character. From his early days in the Marine Corps Reserves to his current position as Police Chief, Wright's journey is an inspiring narrative of community building, personal growth, and adaptability.

Have you ever wondered how the rapid growth of a town can impact the law enforcement's approach? Summerville's story is a fascinating example. With its roads straining under the burgeoning population, the town presents a unique set of challenges that Chief Wright navigates. Listen as he shares his experiences with a town that attracts people of all ages and covers a quarter of a million people in its zip codes. Wright’s insights on how the police force has evolved to handle the influx of people is a testament to his commitment, leadership, and vision.

But this episode is more than just a deep dive into the complex dynamics of a growing town. It’s also a candid discussion on how social media has transformed law enforcement, and how they're meeting the challenge of adapting to the influence of the newest generation. In a finale that puts a spotlight on leadership, Chief Wright shares how leading with equity and respect, and investing in personnel has allowed the Summerville Police Department to thrive. Get ready to be inspired by a leader who is truly making a difference.

Thank you for listening! Please contact me if I can ever be of service:

Roni Haskell
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, got it All right. You want me to do the introduction at the end there, right? All right, All right. Well, I'm glad that you're here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. So today I'm joined by Chief Doug Wright and you are with the town of Somerville. What? the reason that I've got you on the podcast today is because you're a. You are a town leader. You've been integrated in this town. You've watched it grow. You've seen some challenges, I'm sure, along the way, So we're going to talk about all of that today. What builds a strong community to you, in your opinion?

Speaker 2: 0:44

The people, yeah, the people 100%.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Yeah, so how does, how do you integrate the police influence into the community to strengthen it and the presence? And of course we understand the safety aspect of it, but talk to us more about really the influence that the police department can have.

Speaker 2: 1:05

So we have to be a replica of our population and who we please, so we. Our challenge has been in this profession to get good people And we've been very blessed to be in the town of Somerville because we're we're actually an attraction for a lot of people that are coming from afar to move here.

Speaker 2: 1:26

So obviously we are very heavily involved in the community here as a police department, very community oriented, and we make it a point to go out of our way to shake hands, say hello, hold doors for people, and that Southern hospitality, as you say, as you would say, is alive and well here. So we like to extend that to, through our police officers, to the community.

Speaker 1: 1:50

You've been integrated in this neighbor, in this community, for a long time. When did you join the police force here?

Speaker 2: 1:56

I came here in 1997. I actually I'm a James Allen boy. I grew up over there So I always tell people they laugh. But the only time I ever came to Somerville was to lose in sports A three letter athlete. So I always came to Somerville as a long back then it was considered a long ride. I 26 was smaller. I was a two lane road coming into Somerville and you drove to this football stadium that's nestled in between the trees And then all of a sudden, just all these people come out of the woodwork to watch the sports here And then it was a long ride home And presumably that you all lost Yes.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Yes, Usually that was the case, In fact almost always, But I always. What I admired about Somerville then that is still the same now is how tranquil it is. But also I always looked at how clean it was. The grass is cut, The trash is not on the street A lot of the things that you want to see when you think of a picture book type neighborhood town. That's what Somerville is. So I hated leaving the salt water, being down in Charleston and being and smelling that salt there and the fluff mud. But coming up here you have the pine trees. The Azea is obviously just. It's just a great place.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So low country by nature, born and bred in the low country.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Born in New Jersey, but I don't hold it against you.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Well, I sell a lot of real estate to people from Northern states, and they are migrating here, But there is.

Speaker 1: 3:25

you describe perfectly the setting for which people love to migrate here because of just a couple of weeks ago I had some friends and some clients coming in from Queens, new York, and they said the same thing, like don't hold it against me. But quite frankly, this is. there's been a lot of growth within the Dorchester County area, but specifically town of Somerville. I looked back into this, into the census. I was selling real estate in Somerville exclusively, even in 2010. And but I looked back into the population. We had 43,400 residents in Somerville at the time And then I looked at 2020 and we had 50,900. So that's a 15% growth in the town of Somerville within a 10 year span. What challenges have you been faced with with that kind of growth?

Speaker 2: 4:21

So it's good, it's actually a good question. I'll tell you why because We as a town are trying to, as the town government are trying to keep it that small town, feel tranquil. You know, southern town if you will. But we have to grow at times and we're doing that. And There's a little bit of unfortunateness here and that is the roads weren't built to to withstand the amount of population we're seeing right now. So we're a little bit behind on the on the transportation part of it. But, um, the people here, i think for the most part we're kind of pessimistic, if you will, about people coming from so many places to move here. But I think that's changing because what used to be an older population in the town of summerville has now become a much younger generation of people who are living here, and so that it's very attractive to come here because it's safe.

Speaker 2: 5:16

Um, we have great parks, uh, great schooling in district, two schools. Obviously, brookley county has good schools too and, um, you know What I tell people, even though we're over, we're probably in the mid 50 range of population right now. You know, we police about a quarter of a million people because, um, 29483 is a summerville zip code, it's the most populous zip code in south carolina And I believe 29485 is the third most populous. So there's four summerville zip codes. Um, and we're policing those people because they're coming here to eat, they're coming here to to shop, they're coming here to to go to their, their worship centers And, uh, so we we want to keep all those people safe and that's policing. Fire, we're really big on public safety here in summerville.

Speaker 1: 5:58

And we have a lot within the town of summerville that attracts people. You were talking about the downtown area and Just the landscaping, but we have tons of festivals and there it seems like there is dream. Is is a wonderful um community resource that really does Pull it. It draws people into the downtown Um summerville area, which with that, i would imagine, brings its own levels of challenges and such that y'all face. But you, what really um Impresses me is how Your it's not just police enforcement. You guys do a lot of service within the community outside of Just the interactions of your Um law enforcement details, right. So tell us about that. How do, how do you pull your team Uh over into the service side?

Speaker 2: 6:48

So we have, um, obviously, a lot of uniform officers, um, but they're assigned to different tasks. Obviously, we have officers assigned to patrol, who patrol on your streets. They're responding to calls for service. We have a traffic unit that obviously is is out enforcing and handling traffic collisions and whatnot. We have several different units within the agency, but our um, our hospitality team, as we call it. We sent them up two years ago, um, out of hospitality tax and we have officers assigned to this, this team, there's five of them And basically what they do is they they police and help the merchants in town. So They've been very helpful when it comes to hit dealing with shoplifters or panhandlers Or different things like that. But what they also do very well as they attend a lot of community functions So, uh, community crime watch meetings.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Obviously, you're talking about the different festivals and different things. We have a, uh, we created or we repurposed a vehicle, a bread truck, and made a paddy wagon which is an ice cream truck, and so we take that through the neighborhoods and give away free ice cream to the kids, play the siren and the music and Um, so we do a lot of cool things like that. But, yeah, we're very involved with the schools, um, a lot of their programs, a lot of the church programs around. We we're constantly Uh involved and engaged with that way. Uh, we also have a program that's called the ddd project. We stood up with the coastal crisis chaplaincy program and, uh, basically it's a grassroots effort for us to break down the the walls between different uh races and ethnicities, um, in law enforcement with the community. So that's I'm really huge that we're doing too.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So one thing I was recognizing, because you've got stats that are on your website for public reading and knowledge Um, even though the town of summerville has seen considerable growth in the last 10 years um, i was quite impressed that really the, the, the level of um Fraud yeah, well, it's just fraud and all all the the law Enforcement that y'all are having to do it really hasn't seen at the same kind of level of growth that the population has. So I guess what I'm saying is the population continues to grow in the town, but your team must be doing a fantastic job because the numbers have it growing.

Speaker 2: 9:01

So one thing I've been very Um outspoken about in my time here is is about proactive policing And there's a way to be proactive and do it right where you're not um overly aggressive but you could send the message through education and enforcement. So we do give second chances here as far as people who are doing wrong, depending on what it is. But we are very proactive in the quality of life type crimes, because we feel like you know, obviously the broken windows theory is if you walk past a piece of trash and you don't pick it up, that you just acknowledge that piece of trash is okay to be there. So it's. The same goes if I have a panhandler or someone who's public drunkenness. Those are the quality of life type issues that, if we take care of, people feel more comfortable and have more pride in the town that they live in. So the proactive policing, instead of being reactive and just responding to the calls after they happen, we wanna be out there and be seen and do what we need to do.

Speaker 1: 10:02

And the community involvement in your efforts I think is outstanding within Somerville as well, because as a community I do feel like people take great pride in where they live, not just the people that have lived here for their whole lives. You know, it's a generational kind of community. There's a lot of families that they've lived here. Their children, grandchildren, still continue to live in this. You know small town USA, so to speak. But we're talking about earlier the attraction for people moving here from out of state and they too are coming here and continuing to take pride Is my perception. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 2: 10:39

Oh, yeah, in fact I was with the police chief of Miami police department. He actually retired two years ago, this police chief. I was with him the other day and he said that he has heard nothing but good things. I mean, this is Miami police chief telling us I've heard nothing but good things about Somerville. That's the place to move to. You know, it was very impressive that we had that. We were on the map with him And so you know, having said that, i think everybody's kind of closing their eyes and putting their finger on the map and it's just ending up right here in the Charleston metropolitan area.

Speaker 2: 11:14

And what a lot of people understand is they've said that Charleston will be the size of Jacksonville within 20 years, and I think that was five years ago. Wow. And then they said let's say they untitled sources that Somerville would actually become the epicenter of the low country. So what you think about is the moratorium and the different things that are going down in the Charleston is nowhere else to build And unless you go to Ravenel or Allendall, mcclellanville area, right, johns Island maybe, but everything's moving up here, you obviously have the moving up towards Ridgeville in the Somerville area. You have Volvo up there. You know they're widening the highway for that and different things are doing there. They have Walmart's distribution center up the road, so if they're saying that this is a very good place for people to employ people, then obviously they know how hard South Kilinians work.

Speaker 1: 12:03

So you were talking just a while ago about the Miami police chief coming up here. I just was in Miami actually earlier this week. I get to do some travels. Let's get into a personal life of chief for a minute. So do you get to travel with your family much?

Speaker 2: 12:19

I used to do it a lot. So I used to teach. I was considered a subject matter expert for criminal interdiction. So I traveled around the entire country for a long time as a side gig while being a police officer here. So I was able to take my wife and then my young kids with me on some of those different things. But you know what? I'm one of those people that doesn't use sick leave, don't use annual leave. I'm always here. I mean, I know there's times at the end of the year I have to burn my leave because I haven't used it. I just love coming to work every day. But yeah, my hope is that one time, when I eventually do retire, I'll actually get to do some of those things. But my wife was a professor to call to Charles and so we did some study abroad for a couple of years And that was really interesting because I got to go with the students and my wife and we got to go to Europe and Africa and different things like that. So that was cool.

Speaker 1: 13:11

So when you travel, do you stay guarded? Your eyes always are out right.

Speaker 2: 13:17

It's a cop thing. People think we're kidding when we say that. But when we walk into a restaurant, we always sit where we can see the door, and it's the same thing when we're off duty. The things you see and the things you do you're always watching. Your eyes appeal, you're people watching. You're looking for bulges on people's clothing. I mean the things that you're just trained to do and you do it. You take it with you.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Yes, yes, let's. you talked a little bit about some of your past experience, but what I've read about you and you can tell me if this is correct K9 unit you've been involved with Marines for six years. graduated of the FBI National Academy You've got quite a accomplishment under your belt. I'm not done.

Speaker 2: 14:03

Yet I'm actually. I have two and a half classes left for my masters And just to tell you how I mean, I was one of those kids that I had to fight really hard in school to have to make passing grades. I fought really hard. I was like I said, i was an athlete so I had to stay academically eligible. So it was really important to me. That was all I had in high school was my life with sports. So I wrestled, i played football and track. I was in chorus too.

Speaker 2: 14:28

But you know, I ended up going in the Marine Corps. I couldn't get the SAT score I wanted And I went in the Marine Corps reserves, worked at Charleston County Sheriff's Office as an animal control officer, then became a police officer And, um, i had no. I started an associate's degree. It took me 17 years to finish that Went to the FBI Academy and came back and said you know what I could do this? So I went to my bachelor's and now I'm at Liberty University finishing up a master's degree in executive leadership. So I hope to be done this year.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Fantastic, but 49 years old, and it's never too late to try to better yourself, right?

Speaker 1: 15:01

You never stop learning and growing.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Right.

Speaker 1: 15:04

But as a parent of some teenage girls, you've just given me hope, because one doesn't make all the best grades and so, but you've just given, you've planted a seed of hope there that even though grades don't they're not everything I mean, it does matter. but you have paid the path for where you are today because of your diligence and your hard work.

Speaker 2: 15:27

Listen, i gotta tell you something like this that my only motivation was first, i wanted to be a police chief. so I said I have to have a master's degree. Well, i think, since my town council had seen me continually educate myself, they gave me the pass on that because I was halfway through my degree then. But to me, just to be able to say you've accomplished that, something you can never take away. And we have a lot of police officers who have a lot of college and haven't finished. So we're trying to incentivize them by having, if you have a different degree or if you have military service, we will pay you a stipend for having a different level of degree, and it's to incentivize that?

Speaker 1: 16:07

Who was one of your mentors? Who would you say is a mentor, and why?

Speaker 2: 16:13

My dad. I know everybody's gonna say their parent, but my dad was a police officer. He was a Marine. I knew at the age a single digit age that I was gonna be a US Marine and I was gonna be a cop. Now my dad was a cop, he retired as a cop And my entire career was really I wanted to follow in his footsteps And so he's first Sheriff Al Cannon from Charleston County Sheriff's Office, retired. I always looked up to him because he really was able to bring police departments and agencies together and to collaborate. There's a lot of people, but obviously my mentors in the military, my wrestling and football coaches from high school. When you're in sports you're at practice every day, especially three-letter athlete. You're never off. You have summer. In the summertime you're at practice, but that's your dad Actually. They're there parenting you through your entire life when your dad's not around because you're there. So that very powerful role model for me was my coaches.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Nice. So really it just goes to speak. We don't know who we're influencing. Well, we are. We're influencing everybody that's around us every day, And so we really have to take that with a lot of honor, but a lot of make sure that we have integrity in everything that we do as well. Tell me a little bit more about your dad. What would you say is like number one key element of life lessons that he taught you that you still carry?

Speaker 2: 17:38

with you Self-discipline. He was a drill instructor in the Marine Corps, so I grew up with that mentality And you woke up on time, you made your bed. You weren't late to anything, you were early. If you're 15 minutes early or late, just the way I dressed I had to tuck my shirt in and wear a belt, so I was got made fun of and little coming up through school, Always had my hair combed to the side. All these other kids were having you know styles, but I didn't know any different. That's what I knew. And I had to work for my allowance. It was 45 cents a week And I mean the stuff that I had to do And I had a brother and a sister as well early in life. So it's yeah, it's my self-discipline, i think, is what's really in perseverance and never quitting. I've never quit anything. It's why I'm finishing my school at the age of 50, almost as I just have an ethos in me about you never quit.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Yeah, and you had made mention to me before that you've got children that are now, or you've got two Marines.

Speaker 2: 18:44

Yeah, so I have one. my oldest one is 23. And he's just now getting out of the Marine Corps. He is now working at a local sheriff's office, following in my footsteps, i suppose. My middle son is 21. And he's. He's a infantry Marine, and I have a 14 year old daughter who is the apple of my eye. She does no wrong. Yeah, my wife hates it.

Speaker 1: 19:09

I do have a 14 year old and talk about influence there, Social media, right, the influences of communication. Today, with internet and social media, it's vastly different, not only for our teenagers but just as a population as a whole. What would you say would be a challenge that you have been, that you've had to face from law enforcement, you know from the law enforcement side. What would you say has been a challenge that the social media has really posed on you and your?

Speaker 2: 19:43

team The biggest thing with not dealing with children, but dealing with law enforcement. Social media has really I'll put it. I'll give you an example Something like you saw happen in Minnesota, where the gentleman was murdered by the police officers And I say the old days, but you know, literally 15 years ago, you would read about that in a paper, maybe two, three, four days later if it was in another state, or you may never have heard of it all. We were able to see that happening in real time, i mean within minutes. It was being live broadcasted and simocasted around the world, and so that is one thing we're having to deal with now is real time. People live streaming their crime in real time. You know manifestos and different things like that and fulfilling their, whatever their crime they're committing. You know a lot of Snapchat, a lot of this stuff. But I'm gonna tell you something right now when it comes to law enforcement And some may disagree with me if you're some of the old timers out there Law enforcement is smarter than they've ever been before as a profession, and the way you gotta look at it is this way When we came up, you had to go, you needed to fact check something.

Speaker 2: 21:07

You had to go check out a book. There was no internet. These kids today can hit Google or Siri and they have answers in seconds. They researched everything they really do Now, whether it's right or wrong, whatever they're getting or where their sources are, they're smarter than they've ever been. So having these police officers come in they understand technology, they understand how to research, they understand how to do these things with technical computers and phones is important, because that's how we're solving crime now is through that electronic footprint. Whereas before you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks I mean it was a typewriter When you put a MS-DOS computer in front of them and they had to type all of a sudden it was very difficult transition for probably all professions, but particularly for law enforcement, because we've always handwritten everything. So technology has been a challenge in the aspect that people commit crimes and whatnot, but we're also solving the crimes through the electronic footprint.

Speaker 1: 22:07

Like most things, it's pros and cons, right, yeah, just that. I just kind of come in full circle. back to the children. but they are smarter, this generation. I mean I was just helping my mom clean out some bookcases in the national geographic that we had Cyclopedias Yes, encyclopedias, those are old commodities, i mean, they just don't, they're not applicable anymore to this generation. but it's just interesting to see the influence of this newest generation coming up and how that's gonna continue to affect, from a social standpoint, from law enforcement all the way to real estate. I don't it just it is influence and we just have to learn how to adapt to it.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Well, you're exactly right. I remember the first time I was being videotaped by somebody's cell phone on a traffic stop It was probably 15, 20 years ago, and I walked up and they're videotaping me and I'm like, yeah, i didn't know. I kind of went vapor lock. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I couldn't do anything about it because we were in a public place. but it was just very odd for me to see that. But then I realized this is gonna be the norm. So now we just tell them hey, we're recording you too.

Speaker 1: 23:16

So Yeah, just like every time I show a property, i have to tell people before we go in. Just assume that your own camera and the sellers are hearing everything that you're saying.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Funny. you say that I mean the house I bought had cameras in it and I walked in and I purposely was talking to the cameras. I was like I really want your washer and dryer. Can we throw that into the deal? And I actually did get the washer and dryer in the deal. So yeah, i really did that. It was fun.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Oh good, Maybe I should try that. I haven't tried that tactic. I'm actually talking directly to them.

Speaker 2: 23:45

I was pointing at it talking to us. Yeah, This is what I want and this is what.

Speaker 1: 23:50

I love that. Well, good, we will have to try it. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I think we've learned from a different viewpoint about our town, a lot of the benefits that Somerville has to offer for our community and how integrated the police force is here. So thank you for your service and thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 2: 24:09

You're so sweet. I appreciate it If I could say one thing Yeah, please, if you see Somerville police officers, say hello to them, force them out of their comfort zone. If they're not saying hello to you, say hello to them. We have some of the best people on the planet working here and living here. I encourage you, if you're not living here, to look to live here. Certainly you'll be safe.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Yeah, let me on that note. There was a recent. I got a little distracted, let's say at a stop, signed it and come to a complete stop. The police officer had every right to pull me over and she did. I had not really, i had never known her before, but she came up, did her duty and I did walk away with a traffic violation ticket.

Speaker 1: 24:53

It's called coupon. Well, i paid the sucker. As soon as I could online I jumped on, get it knocked out, so you don't forget it right. Next thing I know I see her in the local coffee shop that our friend Brad Mallard owns and I walked up to her and I said I just wanted to really formally introduce myself to you and we had a good, great conversation right there. Really I was gonna pay for their coffee but they had already gotten what they needed. but since then I've seen her at the Somerville farmers market. I've seen her at different times and now she'll give me a big warm hug And she was doing her job right And there was no fault in that. I needed the friendly reminder. Thankfully I got it in the form of a coupon and not a fender bender, But that's the style of community that we live in.

Speaker 2: 25:46

Well, even you being brave to go up to her, i mean, what a bigger person you are than that's cool.

Speaker 1: 25:51

Well, it's saying hi. It's saying you know, just here's my name, you know, and you're a community member, i'm a community member. We get to both love on this town.

Speaker 2: 26:02

So Well, I'll take a quick story. I don't know you're trying to end it. There's two people who are community members, who you all know and I will not say their names that when they were younger they had interactions with me as a police officer. It makes me feel old now because they're now older and they're community members and they remind me all the time about my interactions I had with them when they were younger, running the streets.

Speaker 1: 26:20

So I bet you could tell some tales around this town.

Speaker 2: 26:24

You won't tell them tales, all right.

Speaker 1: 26:26

Well, you bet. Thank you for joining us today. Miss Love, do you have anything you'd like to add?

Speaker 2: 26:33

Yeah, i can, yeah, i can Do they familiar, i mean um.

Speaker 1: 26:43

He was he's Charleston County.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Charleston City. He was.

Speaker 1: 26:45

Charleston City. Well, oh, he just oh yeah. Yeah, let me out. Yeah, So what he'll do is he'll go in and plug this in. So tell me about your mentorship or the let me start that You had made mention of Chief Reynolds and the influence and mentorship that he had with you. Elaborate on that with me, with Fubo.

Speaker 2: 27:09

So Chief Reynolds was late Charleston Police Chief who just passed away, lost his battle with cancer And he came to us from Montgomery County, virginia I'm sorry, maryland where he was a deputy chief and he was only here for, i think, five or seven years. But what a tremendous impact he had on not just his department at the City of Charleston Police Department but other local law enforcement agencies. He really was a collaborator. He was a someone who just what a great speaker and mentor and he would show up at something and just bring both sides together. And so it's a tremendous loss to see someone so physically strong and well fit, who was a runner, who was very athletic. you know, fight the good fight and he passed away. So obviously, on behalf of Summerville Police Department in town of Summerville, we'd like to say we're sorry for the loss of Chief Reynolds to his police department and, most importantly, his family, because he really did have a big impact on me and the other law enforcement officers in the low country.

Speaker 1: 28:09

Sure, throughout the low country. he's been honored. So thank you for bringing that up. Cool Sure, that's a good question.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Yeah, all right, let me ask that That's good, well, that's what we are, so I'll tell you about it.

Speaker 1: 28:26

All right, so tell me about the leadership within the town of Summerville. You're the chief. You got a lot of cap to a lot of different personnel underneath you. How do you manage all those different personalities?

Speaker 2: 28:39

It's actually my specialty. My favorite thing to do is lead. I don't even call it management, it's. I lead people and I lead personalities, like you said. So one personality is enticed by for intruistic, you know, reward or whichever it is, you just got to manage or lead that person, knowing that, knowing that you can't lead to the same to the same people, or two different people the same way. We have the same mission and the same cause, but the way you do it might be a different way than I would do it, as long as we're not breaking the law or policy, you know, you just found a different way to get it done. So recognizing that, instead of telling them, no, you're not going to do it that way, you're going to do it this way, there's more than a way to skin a cat. So you know really personalities is important because in law enforcement a lot of type A personalities right, you have people who feel like they're authoritarian type people. They don't like to be told they're wrong. They're they. They've always got to be first place. They hate to lose that type of personality. And there's outspoken, you know extrovert and you also have introvert of the same type of personality. So having everybody together for a common goal and theme and knowing that we're going to accomplish the mission. However gets done, as long as it's done right, is important And the big thing that we've really. You'll actually like this, this metaphor, if you will.

Speaker 2: 30:14

But we don't like renters, we want homeowners. So what we talk about is you know people who are invested in the community. They take or they they're paying for their house or not renting the house they're going to take care of the house And then you build a community in a neighborhood based off of that. But if you have people who rent I'm not making fun of renters, because there's really good renters out there But it's kind of like when you're a kid in high school and your dad gives your brand new Corvette, you're not going to take care of the brand new Corvette. You know the kids you went to school with to have new stuff and they were trash in their car and doing like. And then I went and worked hard all summer for four years and bought a car. I took better care of it.

Speaker 1: 30:53

It's having equity in equity.

Speaker 2: 30:55

That's the word. Yeah, so that's what we do. You can take that back to your team.

Speaker 1: 30:59

They put equity, you know, into it. It is, it's building this team of ownership. So it's not just as a leader, right, it's not just one person on top and everybody else is on. No, you as a leader. what do they say? We lead from the back right. We kind of allow other people the liberty to shine and to be able. I'm sure you have different forms of leadership, even, you know, over, over over each of the different components, even over the different departments, and so leading those personalities and just leading the people to their successes. So that's what you do Precisely They get to put equity into their ownership.

Speaker 2: 31:41

Yeah, we don't want people who are just going to be on holdover. They're here just for a short period of time because they're not going to be invested in the community either.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's not just a job. It's not just a job, it's, it's they're pouring themselves into it Just as you have, yeah. Just as you have. Well thanks, you bet. All right, yes, i, oh. Okay, i am Ronnie Haskell, otherwise known as that SC real estate chick, and this is for the love of real estate podcast.

Speaker 2: 32:20

Some talent.

Speaker 1: 32:24

I've done this a few times, but do you want me to go ahead and do? because I haven't I really haven't introduced him, i want. I'm joined today by the town of Somerville leader. Okay, all right, i'm joined today by the town of Somerville's wrong leader, chief Doug Wright. Thank you for being here today. Good. No this is awesome Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:51

This is really cool.

Speaker 1: 32:53

Well, you did a great job of using the platform to deliver. Thank you.