Welcome to Senate Education Friday, February 18th. A little bit of a late start. We had a cancellation from Treasurer Pierce who's having some technology issues. We have rescheduled or we're working to reschedule her for Tuesday. Really appreciate Mr. James coming in. Brad, thanks for being with us and for jumping in. To bring those watching as well as colleagues back to the conversation, we have a letter that we have getting close to finalizing. The core of it is there and a memo to finance with a recommendation around how English language learners, learning students, ELL students would be funded in the state. And Mr. James, you've probably seen that we have landed or are leaning toward a hybrid model and some questions were raised by a number of senators on this committee as to what the impact would be on taxes. So, and what would that look like? And so we have you here to talk to us a little bit about that. Sure, no problem. Brad James, it's your bit of education. And first of all, I apologize because this came to me two days ago and I completely missed that email. Thank you for following up, Senator Campion. No problem at all, we know everybody's busy. So what the question was asked, what's the impact going to be? And so if you use these two grants, in other words, you set it up so that you were looking at using all the recommended weights plus an ELL weight of 2.49. And then you were saying, then the question was, what if you get, I believe you call them mini grants to those districts that had 25 or fewer ELL students? So what I did was I calculated what the tax rates would be using all the weights including the ELL weight of 2.49. And that's the second column there that has the tax rates in it. Then I calculated what it would be by reducing education spending by $25,000 per student for every, or not pursuing, but for any district that had 25 or fewer students. And that's the second column that, and that's what I'm showing you, I figured it would probably be easy is just see what the decrease would be. So if we're looking at, does everybody have this handout that I put up there? Okay. I just wanna make sure if it's on our website and I believe Daphne sent it around to senators. So I think people have had it for a couple of days or at least a day now. Okay, great. So if I just look at the very first one, then it's Addison Central. If I work my way across obviously in Addison County, they have 15 ELL students, that's the very first column. Again, these are FY20 numbers. This is all predicated and based on FY20 data. So it's anything will change in the future. But the rate they would have with just having all the weights would be $1.679. Then if I took, if I went back and recalculated by reducing their education spending by $25,000 because that's what that grant would do, reduce their education spending, their tax rate decreases by about 0.001 pennies.  That's what it decreased. At 50,000, it's that last column, 0.003. The reason it's not doubled is because there's an extra digit in there. I'm only showing you three digits instead of four in difference. So that's what we're looking at here. If there is no change at all, one of two things is happening. The district has no ELL students or they have more than 25 ELL students. I think there are seven or nine. I think it was seven. Oh, nine, I take it back up here on the sheet of paper. There were nine districts that had more than 25 ELL students and they accounted for 1,485 students out of a total of 1,780, those nine districts. And so the other 47 districts that had ELL students accounted for 295 in total. Just so you have some semblance of what's happening. So the idea here from what I interpreted from reading the letter from Senator Campion, and I guess the rest of you all, was that having these mini grants would then allow those districts that do not have a significant number of students, ELL students, to be able to at least hire a part-time person to work with these students. And that seems like this would do it. It's a very interesting idea. I like it, frankly, in my opinion. But so that's kind of where it stands, what you're looking at here. And again, I'm just showing you the differences. If you grab the tax rates themselves, I can show you that. If you grab see the four digits of the tax rates, I can do that, whatever you prefer. Senator Persley. Yeah, I guess what I was thinking we were gonna see is the change of the tax rate because of the 2.49 weight. That's hard.  So this is just what it would be if in 2020 had we had this 2.49. So we'd have to look at some other chart that had us with the tax rate. If you would like to put another year or something in there, I'd be happy to. I mean, if you want to put, here's what they would have been, here's what they were in FY20. So now it's where we started from. You know, no ways of more or less current law with all those caveats as to what we did. If you want to put in that FY20, and then I could certainly show you that. I mean, it's a question of what you want to do. I wasn't 100% sure because we were racing around the end of the day. Right. I think it would be interesting to see that. But then as far as this chart goes, I'm having trouble visualizing why the rate would go down with the mini grants because when their, you know, their education spending is going up, but they're getting that money. Education spending doesn't include any of the grants. Right. That's right. The initial column did not include the grants. So the education spending was actually higher in those. If you were one of those districts that had, you know, that cohort of students, then your education spending decreased by either $25,000 or $50,000 for which scenario. So I was trying to bracket it is what I was doing. That's right. But in a way, it's just going down, but... It's not huge, it's not significantly going down. It's going down from what could already be going up from all the other lengths. So I mean, it will not take me long to add more information into this because the work was actually getting those deltas that you're seeing there. That's what the work was.  And I'll put it together.  And, you know, so I would have, I guess I'd have you all counts of that base comparison and then the next three columns. Was that what you prefer to see? I mean, it's the committee's decision. It doesn't matter to me, just let me know. Yeah, I think that would be interesting to see. Okay. So you'll add that, Brad, Center Alliance. Yeah, I was gonna actually suggest that, but so that's helpful because then that'll help us understand what the possible concerns might be out at the local level. But there's no way of knowing at this point what schools have for the fewer students that they have. So they have 25 or less or they have the 33 or the 50. We don't know what provisions they currently have in place. So there's, you know, we can't tell what the overall effect will be.  So which is important because we're trying to help schools that have ELL students. Just an observation. So I think this is very helpful overall. Yes, Senator Perslick. And in these grants that's coming out where they do in the formula, education formula, they would have an impact on everybody else's tax rate. Slightly, yes, they would. Small, not a big number. Not a big number.  I'm going from the memory now. It wasn't huge. And so that would be, that would maybe be a 10th of a penny on everybody's tax rate. Somewhere in that range. It would not be a big, terribly noticeable thing. It would be a question. And that means it would impact these folks too who are also going down because it would impact everybody uniformly. But you're correct. It would have an impact because it would change the education spending. Actually, what it would do, well, you still have to raise the money because you still have to pay, you have to have the grant. So it may not change it much at all. Now that I think about it and put the pieces together because you're reducing education spending, but you're putting in that grant as another line of the headphone for all practical purposes. So it should probably wash. And that money is, well, wash for these districts. I think wash for everybody. These guys, well, these guys have got a bit of a break. It would depend on where their property values are. Now we're really good at the weeds. So that could impact the yield slightly, but I think it would be minimal. And I can't remember, I guess I have to go back and look at what we were thinking. I remember the 25,000 or 50,000, but I thought at one point maybe it was just some conversation I had with Senator Hardy or something about whether we wanted to do two different tiers of how many students they have. This is just a 25. I wondered if the grant should be stepped more than just one step, that like zero to 20, 20 to 50 or something like that, but. It could mathematically, it could certainly work. It's a policy decision for you all to make. If you could do it as a sliding scale, which take a little bit of work, but you do a sliding scale going down. So it's kind of whatever you chose to do, but you can certainly break it into two steps, three steps, whatever you chose, so chose. That's what about that way. And then Senator Perslick, are you okay right now? Okay, so this recommendation, this is where we land. We send it down to finance. And of course, this is going to be put in with a lot of other weights. Right. And so tell us a little bit about that and what one might anticipate. Well, I think what you're seeing here in that very first column is all the weights together that are recommended by task force, including the yellow weights. So that's where the tax rates would start. Right. And then, as again, as I'm showing, I think what you're seeing is you're gonna see those minor decreases due to whatever you choose the grant to be. As I said, I was basically bracketing that based on what you're asking. So I think you're pretty much seeing what's going to happen because nobody's really talking about changing any of the other weights because the weights are coming as a package. Right. So I think this is pretty much what would happen right here. Straight weight starts. Senator. Just to clarify, those weights were weights that were in the study, the Colby study. Thank you. Senator Lyons? Well, I was just looking down the list and I mean, it looks like, for example, if you look at Craftsbury, it goes from 0.013 to 0.026 and doubles. So it's a variable. That's all. And a lot of Senator Lyons has to do with the size of the district. Yeah. Because the smaller the district, the more of an impact that $25,000 or $50,000 is going to have on their education. But isn't that kind of consistent with what we've been wanting to do in terms of supporting our rural, small schools? Yes. Yeah. I think so. Senator Persler? Yeah, I was just looking at, I guess a thing that I had written, I guess we'll have to look at what, do we have this, the letter that we drafted somewhere on our website? I guess I could look at that. But the way I had it was one to 10 students, $25,000, 11 to 25 students, $50,000. So once you get over 10 students, you get the 50, but if you're under 10, if you're 10 and under, you get the 25. I can easily do that. It'll take a little bit of time. And I don't know if you're trying to get a letter out today, I don't mean to jump into it and tell you guys what to do. I'm not sure I'd be able to get it done in an adequate format today. I don't think we need to see, like it's pretty clear from what you've done, what the impact would be, like the difference on the tax rates for the towns is minuscule.  I think that if you had the 2020 tax rate for those towns and then the people could actually see the difference, that's where everybody's focus is gonna be. The fact that some districts changed one to three-tenths of a cent because the yellow grants probably won't give much attention after they see the other change. Okay, so let me ask you this then. I'm trying to keep it simple. And I was impressed with how simple that one looked. I came out with it for once. I mean, I can always change it to landscape too. But what if I ignored that column, the column that has the estimated tax rates of all the weights that I'm using as the base? And instead, I think this is what you and Senator Gliner are saying, put in the FY20 rates there and then had the plus minus from that. Is that where you're kind of thinking it would be more beneficial? The plus or minus have all the weights including the yellow weight. Plus the grants. I mean, I could do the FY20 column and then I could do plus minus all the weights, no grants, and then all the weights, 25,000, all the weights, 50,000. Yeah, that would be fine. It's okay with Senator Persley. Okay, Senator Lyons, does that work for you? Yeah, okay. I just asked Daphne to send the letter around to everyone, so it's fresh in your emails. So hopefully it will be there soon. I can probably have that done within 30 minutes at the most. If you would. That would be terrific. That would be terrific and we can have you back. Okay, all right. Anything else before I jump off then? Just giving people an opportunity. Daphne just sent around the draft of the letter. I just want to pull it up and make sure, give everyone opportunity to take a look, to make sure they don't have any additional questions. I mean, when I say draft, this is draft because I do want to add some real language to this, give people some context for our discussions, and how we got there, et cetera. And it's still, it just looks sloppy to me. Senator Persley. Yeah, I like the idea of being more precise on the mini grants. I mean, this is 25 to 50,000 range, but we could be more specific if we have the time to say, and I'm not sure what the right number is. I'd have to talk to the schools or AOE, or those, at what point does a halftime person can handle like how many students, and then at what point did they need a full-time person kind of thing? But we could say, okay, instead of just telling finance 25 to 50 range, and like one to 10, 25, 10 to whatever number, 25, 50 would be more precise that I feel better about. Mm-hmm. And who do you think would be best to determine that? Ideally it would be whoever deals with ELL at AOE. I think there's a person, I don't think it's also just- You retired. Retired? You retired, okay. Yeah, so we're down a position right there. Okay. So, I think, I don't know, I don't know as we know the answer to it. I think it might be more of a question for folks in the field and the school districts themselves to what they think. I truly have no idea, but I would guess they would probably have a better idea than we would. I mean, I wouldn't say Libby Bonne-Steel, so then Bonne-Steel might have an idea because I think they're, I don't, not saying that to be prevent, what do I, I think that word wrong last time. Just because, you know, I'm in her district, but she's in my district, depending on how you look at it, is that they, their ELL students fluctuate because of people coming and going for national life. So I think they, not too distant past, they've had under 25 and now this year they have over 50. So she might be able to provide kind of the difference, what it means, or we could, if there's other districts like that, that have had a range or experience, because I think when you ski has whatever 500 might not be as helpful for somebody that's in the range we're talking about. Would you mind reaching out to the superintendent, Bonne-Steel? Yeah, I can do that right now. That would be great if we could get that, those kind of numbers and center alliance. We did, I thought we got some testimony, a little bit of testimony about that, but I don't remember who, who gave it. Maybe it was Libby Bonne-Steel. Might have been someone from when you ski, but go ahead, please. There could have been when you ski. They were talking about what happens when you add and subtract, but I guess my question is more about, is about the memorandum and the draft, the draftness of it. So I was not here when it has changed a little bit. I think I was absent when that happened. But my question is, are we going to put together any language regarding best practice for ELL students, not necessarily to send to finance, but if it's going to be included in the bill, we're going to have to put it somewhere, and direction around what, I guess the ELL person has gone, but so how do we... This is where we would be working with the probes on this piece personally to get that language ready for them. It seemed to me a better connection, but I'm open. Well, I was just thinking that whatever language is put forward, we ought to be putting it together, and then, yeah, so that's all. Not a big deal. No, I think that's a good reminder. And I suspect whatever we end up doing if we change the mini-grants, listen, that also could end up being changed down the hall, but I think we can give them greater specificity, or some real policy behind it, the better. I noticed the last sentence there is that we could provide you with related policy language if needed. I suppose that's okay, but... The last sentence. Tell me where you're looking. On the draft at the very bottom, where we're thanking them for consideration. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. That one. Yeah. I'm not clear. Yeah, it's still sloppy. It's just there needs to be more text in general here, kind of pulling things apart a little bit, and I do have some text, a little bit that I'll share orally with the committee when Jim is in, and Jim's gonna work with us a little bit this afternoon to see if we can get to a point where it's a little bit more solid. Okay. Senator Hooker, question. A favor from Brad? Yeah. Could you just give a couple of examples of what this would look like for a person's property tax, the changes as you go through. Just a couple of, you know, when you do the run of the other numbers of what they pay now, what they're paying at this point and what they would be paying with the new weights and the grants and the difference that it would mean to an average property tax payment. Yeah. Sure. A penny, essentially a penny on a $100,000 house is about $10 in tax, just roughly, you know. And so we're, in a lot of cases, we're talking about 0.001 or 0.002. So we're really talking about a couple of dollars per $100,000 value. So you figure, I have no idea what an average house worth these days. But you figure, but if you figure about $400,000, you say $400,000, that's maybe roughly $10. Okay. But I will do some more calculations so that you can see it instead. Okay. Instead of listening to me. Okay. Senator Lyons, when I just want to go back to your comment, if you don't mind about the letter itself for a moment, just to make sure I'm on the same page with what I'm thinking, tell me what sorts of things you're thinking about as it relates to related policy language. What are the kind of things that are coming to your mind? Yeah, good question. I think we had talked about how to put some guidelines in about what it means to work with ELL students and the extent to which it might go beyond simple English language instruction to other areas of support for kids. So, and it's a lot more difficult to engage community when you have one student. Maybe it's easier, I don't know, but some of the concepts that we've heard about from the schools that have been doing this for a while, they're all over the state. Yeah. So that's all I was thinking about. No, that's really helpful. I really appreciate that. Yeah, that's great. And I think we might be able to plug some of that in with Jim when he comes in this afternoon and then maybe even I can, you know, kind of committees comfortable, share it with some superintendents and others and try to tighten it up a little bit over the weekend and get back to folks. But that's really helpful. Yeah, that's all it was. A little comprehensive. You know, we could go on forever with that one, but we don't, it's more of what's possible. What are the kind of guidelines, I suppose? Great. Yeah. And I'm just seeing that Jim Demeray just wrote that he's available. So who'll come in now? Oh, my God, look at that. Can I just comment on- I don't know if that was, what's that? Please go ahead. I just dovetailed to what Senator Lyons said or go back to what she said before about best practice. And maybe that's some of the language that we want to include in this because people who have been in this for a long time have things in place that they can certainly share. And I know we talked about that when we talked about the position at the agency and how that position may help to disseminate the information that comes from best practices. Mr. Demeray, thanks for joining us. Brad, do you want to leave for a little while? Yeah, I will and I'll let that have to know when I'm back. I mean, I don't mean that in any, like, that's not, that does not mean for me to be, I'm trying to be rude. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Brad. Yeah. But you're trying to stay so offended. I'll be back. You can listen to the tape later. We're not gonna say anything bad about you. I'm used to it. You are. Geez. All right, so Mr. Demeray, thanks for being with us. A couple of things as we look at this memorandum, I'm just gonna first just throw this out aesthetically and this isn't your job. I'm happy to do it in a Word document, but it isn't, it's crunched up. There are, again, this isn't you. This is something I can do or we can have if you wanna just communicate with the editors. It's crunched up.  I think we just need to generally have editing tidied up. I also think we need some kind of introductory comment there that mentions that we've deliberated over the past several weeks on how to provide English language learners with the necessary educational experience is the necessary funds, if you will, to support this very important work. I think it just needs something. And I'm looking, if others disagree, feel free to jump in.  This is a compromise that Senator Perchalick and Senator Hardy worked on. I think it's good to put that in there. It, two members from the task force as well as both serving on the committees of jurisdiction. And this, you know, we'll get to the point where we have a vote, but I think looking at what Brad just presented us with, I think we'll might be able to go unanimously. And then at the bottom, instead of, or in lieu of, I guess, the discuss with you and provide related policy language, I think what Senator Lyons mentioned before you got in, and then I'll turn it over to everyone else, you know, for us to reference something around, you know, these aren't the right words. This isn't something that just happens in the classroom. This is something, this is a working with ELL students. It is full services and it's, there needs to be a comprehensive approach. So students are successful, families are successful. There are things that are going to happen outside of the classroom. There are going to be things aside from just teaching English, but you know, cultural kinds of things, making also, I don't know, Senator Lyons, you're, you know- No, you've said it, you know, that for some of the schools there's some integration within the community and support services to help kids adjust to a new culture. And that happens in the school and then the school, some of the schools have provided some outreach to families and community organizations. So, you know, I'm not clear, we can state fully what constitutes best practice, but certainly there are some components other than teaching English. So having those broader support services that better integrate the student into their new culture, you know, and it could be considered school culture, but sometimes it extends to the family. We saw that too, where the families are helped in teaching the language or in learning how to vote. I mean, all of those things are so critical. And that is why we've moved in this, that language to support why the categorical grants in smaller populated communities are essential. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Senator Hooker. I liked what you said about comprehensive and then I liked what Senator Lyon said about including, you know, family and stuff. It looks like a holistic approach. And I don't know if that's a- Oh, I like that one. Might we need this? Yep. Good word, Senator. Holistic is great. Senator Perslick, how are you feeling about this in terms of what we would be? You and Senator Hooker both served on the task force. You worked on this compromise. How does, where we're heading sound to you in terms of what we would share with finance? I don't think it's good. And it allows us to move forward and help, you know, at least hopefully, help these students out, help the schools out throughout the state that need the other weights and then collect the data to move forward and keep up. My main interest at this point was that, one, we get this pass, but two, we keep up on it every year and not say like, okay, we did that and then 20 years later realize we're all out of action. Right. Senator Demerite, questions or comments from you? I do have questions. So I understand that the open, you want the format to be different. This has been through editing, but I can certainly make it. No, I know you mentioned that and it's... I'm happy that I've changed the format and make it a bit different. The opening, I got, I think I got what you want in the opening. You want more of a description of your deliberations, taking input from task force members. And then you said at the end, you'd like to replace the end with something, but I'm not quite sure what that is. So what do you want to say at the end? So at the end, I would say, let me see if I jotted anything down here. Bear with me one second. We were talking about the end being more of an opportunity to explain, well, support the work above, the decisions above. In other words, we recognize that English language learners, it's, as I think Senator Hooker said, you need a holistic, comprehensive approach to making certain that these students are successful and their success is essential to all of us. I mean, these aren't exactly the right words. I'm just giving you the gist of what we're thinking. It's work that takes place not only in the classroom, but outside of the classroom. There's work with cultural liaisons. There's work to be done with other agencies in state government, local government to make certain that the student and their family is successful, if you will. And having a categorical grant, particularly I'd say in very low populated districts is essential in terms of achieving that success. Something that's where I'm at, but I'm looking for others to weigh in. Anybody want to add to that, please?  Senator Purchlick, no, okay. Senator Lyons, Senator Hooker. Just looking at something that might address or point to being successfully integrator, successful integration into the whole community as opposed to just having classes at school. So I think the whole idea of becoming an integral part of the community might serve them well. Senator Campingkei jumping. Oh yeah, Senator Taranzini. Yes, sir. I don't have the raise my hand feature. I like to bill a lot. I think it's a nice compromise. I fully support it and look forward to voting on it. Great, terrific. Thanks for that. Senator Chinden, anything from you at this point? I know you've, no, okay. How's that feel, Jim?  Yep, let me take a stab at that and get this back to you. Okay, let's see. Let me just look at the schedule for today. We have Jay Nichols coming at 2.30, then 2.45. We were gonna do this with you at 3.30. Is it possible for you to bring language back to us at 3.30? Oh, sure, of course. All right, that'd be great. If you don't mind, we can look at this language that you're gonna do right now at 3.30 when we were gonna take up people waiting and maybe move it or close to it. We'll get close to it. Great, anything else from anybody? Okay, all right. Mr. Demeray, if you wanna go now. Okay. I'm just kidding. We will see you soon. Committee, we have Mr. Nichols coming in at 2.30. So, sorry for the unevenness of the schedule. We'll all remember this on election day for Secretary with Treasurer Pierce having canceled on us. But yeah, so why don't we come back at 2.30?


You know what I really admire about you? The fact that you're doing a lot but you don't even want people to know that you're doing a lot. Yes, I think I want to be recognized after I've helped a billion people. That's the target. So if a billion people have gotten help then I will be ready for recognition. Mention his name. It's my responsibility to celebrate every African and anytime I want to celebrate every African I want every African to join me as we celebrate our own. Do me a favor. Like this video. Share this video because the man that I'm going to celebrate today. Yes, yes, yes. I'm the shaker here for like a minute. Has done something unimaginable. So according to what you say will you say that the person who owns this house is the beneficiary of the whole initiative. Exactly. What does that mean? What it means is that these landowners like now this one who lives in Nairobi they give us access to land in the back to be able to use and depending on the value of your land we build your house equivalent to the land that you provided. When Julia started this project I mean this project people did not take it lightly but for me and our family here we sat with him and we had very many questions for him to answer but we said okay can we now go into the project and on the basis that there is no business that has no risks. You see that. After we have now gone up to this level if you ask Daniel he will tell you people are now pestering him to see that he goes to their homes and do what is happening here. So far 710 people, partners, community members have participated in this program. For those 710 we've upgraded their home and then built them rentals. So the rentals range from five units to up to 16 units. So on average we have done over 4,200 different units for all the people in the community. So I want to know who built this apartment for you? This one here. In your home? Yes, I live on the home there is another house down here because you are short maybe you cannot climb here. He is an unsung hero. I mean unsung heroes in Africa are always humble. Unsung heroes in Africa hardly tell their own stories and that is why they have their number one bragger in the entire world called Wada Maya. The only African who is so proud about Africans changing lives in their own way and as the number one bragger of the continent I need to come in here and brag about this guy. So before this was, what were you guys going into? There is a small dispensary along the road and there is a sub-county hospital in Buteri in the town of Buteri. It is not very near. Today I'm trying to tell people to forget about going there then they come here where they can get doctors and get medicine immediately and get good treatment with good doctors and good nurses. You see that? I think that's a big... Do you have an ambassador for your project?  Please, change my life right now. This is your unit now so you can finish it to your liking. Yeah, you know, get it to... I still don't get it. Your unit now... Yeah, this is... No, that's for rent. You own this now. This is a gift for you coming to Kenya as an in-law from this community. This is one successful African who left Africa, went to the United States, made it so big and came up with an idea of building a city inside a village. You're building a city? Yeah.  Yes. A city needs to have an airport, needs to have a power station, needs to have industries. Yes. Even places that people need to live. Yes. Yes, so... You're doing all of that in here, you're just, I mean, because the camera is there, so I just want to lie to the people.   And what this man has done... Our cash crop was sugarcane. And the industry of sugarcane has since died. But you see, if you look at sugarcane, if you have to benefit from sugarcane growing, you need to have less than two and a half acres. These ones would give you around maybe 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 Kenyan shillings. And the sugarcane would grow for 18 months and then harvested. And then it would take another six months for the processing for you to be paid. Now, if today I can raise my 50,000 from here, then in a month, compare it with 24 months to get 50,000. So you can see, he has brought a very good project and a very good business.  Yes, of course, everybody thinks we're crazy to build a city in a rural area. I know it's me very well. Yeah, mama. Umbu. Umbu ucha. Umbu ucha. Umbu ucha. Umbu ucha. Umbu ucha. Umbu ucha. My first question would be like, why would you build a city in a village? My name is Julius Moale. I'm the principal investor for Moale Medical and Technology City, located here at MMTC in Western Kenya. I've been inspired to transform lives of people in Africa. Yeah, because, you know, Africa resources have always been used to exploit the people within Africa and then, you know, help people outside, you know, the continent. And so we wanted a model that is going to benefit, you know, the people in Africa, the owners of resources like land and minerals and all the other natural resources that we have and also benefit the people that are getting those resources. So I wanted to make sure that we can drive this. We can drive this change where our generation can lead the world in making Africa the engine of the world be driven in the right direction by Africans, people that are controlling it to benefit all of us. Do you believe Africa is the future? I believe Africa is the future. I wouldn't have invested two billion dollars to build a city here. Yeah, and then expanding that city as a concept to other cities in Africa. This is the future and the future is here today. We studied this city with a feasibility study in 2007 to 2012. In five years we spent four million dollars and we found out that 180,000 people in this, you know, East Africa region go to India for medical treatment. And so we decided that, you know, why can't we capture that market by putting a medical city? Yeah, that has innovation park and, you know, transforming community people within this region being able to raise their levels of life. So we are here, we've built a city. It's the number one green city in the world, smart city in the world. Yeah, only one to exist. And we are taking this concept, the concept of the city, all over Africa to 18 locations in 12 countries in Africa. Starting out from Sierra Leone, in Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, you know, Cameroon, coming all the way down to Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Zambia, Mozambique and, you know, Angola.  And so we want to change Africa, 800 million people, we are targeting to put them, transform their lives, put them in middle class by the year 25th. Mr. Julius Muali. Yes.  Your life has already changed. You know, after meeting me I think your life has changed. You got to see how the city has been transformed here in Africa and I'm a billionaire of ideas. Billionaires of, you know, the wealth of getting people out of poverty. So that's my billionaire, my billionaire is my net worth is how many people am I moving from poverty? Yeah, that's my wealth. That's, you know, how many people if I don't I want to move millions out of poverty. Yeah, you know, in my lifetime. And that's my net worth. That's how I look at myself. A billionaire that wants to move people from poverty? Can you let me know how was life like when you were growing up? Literally this house this is where I was born in 1976. Yeah, and I'm a sixth born. There were five sisters ahead of me. And then there's one behind me and then there's another brother behind me. So they are four boys, eight girls. So the last born boy in our culture here in the Luya culture of western Kenya stays in the ancestral home to take care of the graves. I have my father's grave right here with a tree. He passed on in 2005 and my mother's tree is right here. I grew up here. I grew up, I used to go there's a creek down there. There's a river that I used to fish and plant yams or arrowroot and potatoes down there. That's what I used to do. I liked farming. I grew up in a village. I'm connected to people. We were 12 siblings of us growing up in the community here. My last born brother stays here now. And we were working on the farm and going to school as our father who was a farmer and a businessman in this area helped us to be able to see the importance of getting people out of poverty, helping the community. And that's what I got to do. You see a stubborn guy when he was growing up. Very stubborn, eh?  Yes, yes. Going to school, how was your life? I really wanted to know. So this is, we're talking about about 40 years ago. Between like 1980 and 1986 and 87. So that's when we were together in primary school. And we were here. The roads were impassable. They were muddy. You had hyena, we had hyenas here and leopards. That's when you grew up. When you were going to school in the morning you ran into hyena. That guy standing there killed a hyena right here in the rocks. When we were going to school. So that's when we grew up in this area. So we got it now opened up and the hyenas were taken in reserves. And leopards in the reserves. We have a big reserve where these animals are. So we have 12 of us. We are all in here. So this is a shrine. This is now a tribe. This is now a shrine. It's come to you now for future generations. It doesn't get messed up. So this was built in 1969. And this electricity came in this house in 1969. Which year were you born? I was born in 1976. You lived here all your life? Yes, I lived here until I was 18 years old. So I went to the military after I finished here and I studied telecommunication engineering and then I invented the technology when I went to America for biometrics that transformed the way people did business to access business on the internet. Made money there and then I came back to do a study to invest in the city right here. That's a summary. I don't want a summary. We have to go into details. My next question will be like why you left Kenya in the first place? So I left Kenya. I mean the 18-year-old Muali. Why did you leave Kenya? No, so I left Kenya. I joined the military in 1994. So I left in 2000. I did telecommunication engineering. So I went to the U.S. and political asylum. Because there was misunderstanding that technology had created. And I went to the U.S. for asylum to be able to protect my own identity and the technology that I had that I wanted to be able to use to help. If you went for political asylum, which means you ran away? I think I'll put it in that way. I'd say I excluded myself to be able to protect the technology that I had. What was the first country that you went to? Because you cannot just fly from here to America if you're planning to run away. Definitely you have to jump into it. I was in Uganda for six months. Trying to get asylum there. And then I ended up in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe? There were farm invasions in the year 2000. That's when I was in Zimbabwe and that's where I was there for nine months looking for the UN Refugee Agency to be able to get me to get political asylum there in Zimbabwe. And then they referred me to the U.S. and that's where I was offered my political asylum. At what point did your life change in the U.S.? I spent about a year in a homeless shelter. I was a homeless man when I arrived there waiting for paperwork. To be able to get paperwork from 2001 I was there starting in July. I started starting in May and then I left the shelter in May 2002. And September 11 happened when I was in the shelter. And I got to witness that and say that. And then an idea came to me I was like look I can create technology that can be able to protect the networks. You know the banking networks from attack. You know terrorist attacks going in the future. I knew no one else had the power to do that and I was working already on my technology and this was an opportunity to be able to cure this problem for the world and for good. You would say that technology changed your life? Yeah it did. At what point did that technology transform the company in 2003? And what I did I created you know a two-factor authentication. I went to the local authorities who are the elected senate office in New York and they were helping small businesses to be able to create jobs. So I said hey, you know can we be able to propose a two-factor authentication for banks so that you know there's a username and password and another level like a token, a picture I proposed biometrics for that and then the congress put up that legislation in 2004 and it went into effect in 2006 and my technology now became the go-to technology for bigger banks. I had Bank of New York, I had Bank of America and I had JP Morgan as my first clients you know with this technology and that's how I made money and that became very successful. It became very successful. I was talking about billions of dollars you know millions of dollars. I would like to describe it as you know millions of people getting help. I mean that's the wealth of a billionaire. That's the wealth of anybody. For the work you are busy committed to perform you have tried so much to enlighten each and every corner there is no kind of darkness. There is no kind of darkness although by the region. This is the power plant it's a 10 megawatt solar power plant and this power plant we put it here to be able to power the 2 billion dollar city so we have a 5000 bed facility which is a hospital and then we have an entire shopping district growth district we have even built an airport and we have an innovation park and this is a city that is supposed to basically transform the lives of people here in the communities and extended to Africa. My first question would be like why would you build a city in a village? It knows me very well. We know. Yes, so this area we did a feasibility study and we saw this area has about 16 million people between the lake here about 30 kilometers from Lake Victoria in western Kenya and then to the Mount Elgon we are another one hour from Mount Elgon there's 16 million people in 14 counties and that's a third of the Kenya's population. So this land here it's equivalent to Nairobi metropolitan region which only has 8 million people so if you want impact and you want to help people in Africa you go where the people are and this is the area 10 megawatt solar power plant being upgraded to 50 megawatt and what it does is it draws power from the sun and helps us not rely on the national grid that has a lot of demand from other growing economy and so we have 24 7 available power that can power the city at any time. And all the power comes from here? Yeah, all the power that runs the city comes from here so an average city like say example in America in Sababan city needs a 10 megawatt run it we have that here so we can run power in Kakamega, Kisumu this city is in western Kenya from here but now we have this for this system That is really brilliant man maybe I need to have a new name for you a visionary leader? Thank you, I appreciate that but I mean being a businessman with this vision for your own people in Africa we say why do people like you don't run for politics I mean don't run for being the leader of a country so influence is very important and you get influence by helping people politics is one way of having influence and it's one way of helping people so you can help people through business and so long as you know my goal is to end poverty to be able to help people and I'm doing it well through business and it's been very effective so far so I have no ambition to get involved in politics. So since the whole project is two billion dollars how to pronounce two billion dollars how much did it cost you for this power plant? So the power plant is about 100 million dollars yeah this plant 100 million dollars but it's sustainable and it will stay here for over 100 years without needing minimal payers. You don't think Africa don't need this whole hybrid instead of why not the whole continent based on solar because we have the most sunshine? Yes but all countries in Africa can get solar for example there's the latitude around areas of Rwanda going up to Congo and Ethiopia they can't use solar because there's not enough sun there but Sahara needs solar. Ghana needs solar Kenya needs solar we are right on the equator so we need solar and we've seen it to be very sustainable then I think African leaders from this part of the continent needs to invest in solar you don't think so? Yes it's very sustainable very reliable and cheaper in the long term cheaper and easy to maintain It's more like you are empowering the people living in this area? Yes we are empowering the people we haven't relocated them from this community here so what we do we integrate them like you know we go to their land and we tell them look you want to partner with us in the city we build them rental homes we put our workers there we upgrade their homes we give them electricity and then we are able to give them our workers to rent every month and they are earning money there that's bigger than the Bacapita income of Kenya What's going on? He was his classmate Back in here? Our school is right here in this community that's where we were in the 1980s There was one guy when he was growing up very stubborn but not so much But you guys are still friends? Yes We are city friends here now So by now I'm working in the construction there he is his class and I gave him something like a land where there is some construction going on and I know that place will be very very nice and I will be very very happy when that place will be okay That's amazing It's good to be working with your classmate Yes So these are the people we are transforming So this is what the city is being built for now he is a contractor and he has a full-time job his property is being upgraded his community has street lights his roads are done the kids are going to school Construction is it at the hospital? Yes He is extending a new wing at the hospital That's amazing He is a welder He is a fixer Very nice one This is my home This is a house for my son one of them and this is where I lived from 1988 until very recently and moved to the next one which now comes in the hand of the chief investor after he came around and he said he wanted to transform these homes not only my home but homes Now this one is where I currently live here So you will find that this is another project which is an apartment It has 10 houses inside here He is planning to bring in the renters and these are single rooms Here This is single So it depends on the size of your family You may be single but you are in a bigger room and he is now equipping them right off So let us see On this side we have 4 of them and on this side we have 6 of them So together they are 10 and you can see that they are all mine So that story that is taking people's land is nice I don't even know that story What story is that? Have you been hearing that story? Yes I have heard of it That is why I am mentioning it Including the president he did not know how we are getting this work done without ejecting people from their homes and farms Let me clarify this Yes How did this happen? What was the contract between you When he came he called a big meeting and he said he is telling us what he wants to do and you know he is a local son here I am told you have been at the MP's home that is his younger brother and now he was going to school near there and they say he will go to school barefooted and then after that he went to high school and from the high school he went to the forces and from the forces he comes out and says I want to do ABCD and then people wonder how a small boy like this saying these very big things so they said no this one has an hidden agenda to maybe take our land maybe he has a lot of money to take away our land so that was the misconception Are you satisfied? I am not satisfied Did he take your land? No I want to show you what is happening Who built this apartment for you? This one here In your home? Yes There is another house down here because you are short maybe you cannot climb here You have seen it There is another one through there That one is for my son Wow But that one is not in the program So this one and this one 10 plus that that one 12 So let me show you how it came to be We are consuming this water It is part of what he did here and you can see I was looking for water from a well Now I am getting it from the borehole I am no longer looking for water from the well Now look at that fence You see that fence That fence is a boundary between me and him Now when he took that land he gave me all these things you can see We are in agreement that this is what he was supposed to do From the beginning he said that and he has done it So this one has changed from a farm into a golf course This is the old church where we have been praying from and as I said his idea that he is going to give a donation or a gift to the community then he comes up with that one there In fact this one is a big big church we are going to go inside so that you see the size of it It is larger than the community Thank you, I appreciate it I really want to know how are you changing lives in here? Yes So we have a free prompt approach So the first one is that we are building new homes for people here and giving them rentals and workers trying to their homes And then number two we go to their kids we educate them So we are able to send them to school we educate their homes we educate their kids and then those kids go and get education anywhere that they want whether they want to go to Nairobi University University of Ghana or they want to go to Oxford we pay for their education and they can come back and then work at the hospital work at the power plant they can work in construction they can work in dining and hospitality in those areas so they are being treated at our hospital largest in the world and they are coming here getting treatment for free if you are from this county on an NHIF which is a national hospital insurance fund so we don't charge people co-pay when they come in for treatment no co-pay charge, we just charge the insurance company for the fees of treatment So anyone from this village get treatment for free? Not from this village from this county you have that kind you get free treatment


All right, Bolo Buddies, in this video I am going to show you some plush that I sourced on what not. Okay, Bolo Buddies, my friend, zombie bargain hunter on YouTube had his first what not show and he was doing animated plush and you guys know that I really enjoy selling animated plush. Now, he started everything I believe at five dollars and hope you like the owl, thanks. He sent me a zombie bargain hunter sticker. All right, so why did I buy these? One, I'm going to resell them. Two, they were super fun and three, I'm going to test them on my Bolo Buddies product channel, reseller testing Bolo products channel. So it's kind of like a win-win. Now, this guy right here is hilarious. He has his original tags, Halloween animated plush. I think he took all the batteries out, which I don't blame him because batteries can cost a million dollars when you're selling a ton of plush. So let me get batteries in this and I will be right back. But before we go any further, I have a bag of batteries. Some of these are batteries that I've bought. Some of these are batteries that have come out of other toys and I test them. I do my video and then I put in my list during batteries not included. That way it's very clear that they are not getting the batteries because I sell a lot of animated items also and if I was buying batteries for each one, it would be crazy. So let's see how this guy works. So this is by Jemi, G-E-M-M-Y. This is one of my favorite animated plush to pick up. I love that brand, but this, let's see what he does here. He eats this brain. Look at his mouth. The only thing I wish he would do is burp. He eats the burp. All right, that's what he does. Okay, so this was the next item I picked up. How stinking cute is this? It's got a little spider. This one is only at Hallmark. There is a little bit of dirt right here on probably from people pressing the button. No big deal. I'll just disclose it. I might try to spot clean it. I did, the batteries go in here. I do have the battery case, but I'm not going to put it back on because I'm going to take those batteries right back out. But this can actually hold candy if you want it to, but let's check it out. So you get the idea. This is Hallmark, only at Hallmark. So this is a Hallmark exclusive and it is super, super cute. Let me see what I paid for this. I believe, like I said, he started everything out at five. The zombie, the brain eating zombie, I paid $7 for plus whatever the shipping was this dancing treat bag I paid $5 for. So I'm going to get a video out of this, which will over time make me a little bit of money. They are adding revenue to shorts, hashtag shorts. So that's great. That's coming soon. If by the time I post this video, it may already be out. So that's encouraging me to do more shorts, which I always do on my reseller testing Bolo products anyway, because I put these videos in the description of my eBay listing. So that will help me sell the item.  So I will definitely make some money on this. I don't know how much yet because I haven't comped it out, but I'm bringing in money from the YouTube channel and then I'm also bringing in money from when I sell the product. So I'm going to make my money back plus make some and I'm supporting a fellow friend. So let's move on to the next one. Okay, so this is Hammy over the hedge Dreamworks, but it's also from 2006 and it says wild planet. I paid $5 for this and also I wanted to tell you guys that zombie bargain hunter went into somebody's what not show and bought their entire show. He paid, I don't know how much for, I don't know how many items, but it was the whole show and there's a picture on his Facebook group or in a Facebook group he's in. I'm not sure which one and it is a ton of plus. So I think he's going to do an unboxing or an unbagging on his show. So definitely be sure you're following zombie bargain hunter over on YouTube. So this one, he talks. I kind of go wee wee. He's from 2006. So I'm, he's retired.  I'm also going to list it and I paid $5 for it plus discounted shipping and he sent me a little owl. This was a throw in a free gift. Thank you so much zombie bargain hunter. You are so sweet. A while back he sent me a massive owl. And if you guys have been following the channel for a while, you saw it, it was like huge and I love it so much. So this is going to be its baby, I guess it doesn't match, but it can still be its baby, right? It's so cute. And it's squish mellow. So I'm going to hang on to this. This one is a hashtag keeper and super cute. So that one is mine. That one is mine. Okay. Let's see what else we have in here. We have this guy, the raccoon that I bought. Let's see what I paid for him. He's pretty cool. I'm gonna have to put a battery in him, I'm guessing. So we will be back after I do that. But I paid, is this the Elvis Presley jailhouse rock? It might be. If it is, I paid $5 for this raccoon. I don't see it anywhere else on here. So I think he was five bucks. Press here. Yeah. So this is by Cuddle Barn. I mean, you guys, I'm paying like five bucks for an animated plush. I mean, how cool is that with the original tags? I don't know what year this is. Cuddle Barn 2011. So it is discontinued and retired. And we're gonna see what he does. Look, his mouth moves. That song might have a copyright. So I'm only gonna play just a few seconds of it, but you saw how its mouth moves. Super cool. $5 for this plush shipping with the original tags. Wonder if there's a date on here. Oh yeah, that 2011. So it is retired. I'm gonna pop my batteries out and I'm gonna sell it as is without batteries. And it's tested and working. And I knew it worked because I sold that on whatnot. He was playing all of these little guys on whatnot. It was a super fun show. So awesome deal right there on the raccoon. So as I'm doing this, I'm doing a short video, which you hold your phone the other direction and it's 60 seconds or less. I'm also creating this video and I'm also taking photographs of the item. So when I am done with this video, all of my photographs will be done and I will be ready to list these items. So I am definitely multitasking. I'm not just doing a video where I'm unboxing it and gonna sit it to the side and forget about it. I am gonna get these items listed today. I just found this in my box. I have no idea what it is. Look, it's suction. It's like a body that went splat or something like that. So zombie, what is this? What are you telling me here? What is this little silly guy? How funny. Okay, we'll just sit that to the side. All right, this one, the price got cut off, but I think I paid $5 for it also. There is a little bit of discoloration. It's a white plush. So I will just disclose that. Would I have still picked this up at the thrift store or at a garage sale? Yes, genius here. The next item I bought, I paid $6 for. I think this was the first item I bought.  All right, that's all we're gonna play because that one also may have a copyright. So I will only do a few seconds of that, but this is also by Jimmy, which is a brand that I love. So cute little monkey and all of these items will be available in my eBay store. I don't know if you guys saw it, but it did have a little dirt spot right here and I just took a rag, a wet rag. I use a Norwex rag and just use water and it came right off. So it is ready to go, ready to be listed.  I always pick up sock monkeys and this one talks. So that is fantastic. I mean, he sings. He doesn't talk. He sings. Alrighty, this one came from Rachel Strickland and I purchased this quite a while ago. I was waiting until I had more stuff to unbag or unbox for you guys before I shared it, but let's go ahead and put this one with this show because it has, it's a plush and it says today's prayer. In his days, may the righteous flourish and peace abound till the moon be no more. So she put this little card in there for today's prayer. So that's awesome. And we have this little guy right here, which is awesome. I loved it and I had to pick it up. I don't remember what I paid for it. But the reason I picked it up, of course, is because it does something. It has a function and I can put it on my reseller testing BOLO products. Another reason I picked it up is because it's vintage. It is so cool. I'll try to figure out what I paid for it. I'll go and look for my invoice. 1991 Play School. How cute is he? And he is, I forget. Okay, here we go. Are you ready?  Hey, everybody. So yeah, I'm going to be listing this in my eBay store. So it will be listed today. And he's super cute. Let's see how big he is. He measures this big.  And there he is.  So he's not perfect. He's, you know, his little paw needs cleaned up here. I'm going to try to spot clean that. But look at his little mouth, how it opens.  All right, check out Rachel Strickland on YouTube. Also, she is fantastic. She has a YouTube reseller channel. All right, so I did pay $5 for this plus shipping. I did have a what not credit. So the actual item was free. And I'm going to do a reseller testing Bolo products. That's my YouTube channel where I test products. And I'm just going to do a little hashtag shorts and just show how it works. So I will make probably a few cents on that. Maybe over the course of 10 years, it may pay for the item. We'll see. I don't know. But anyway, cute little item, Play School 1991. Thank you so much for watching.