Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Move the Chains podcast. I'm your host, Jason Jacoby, along with my co-host Mark Boyer. Mark, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1 00:00:05 I'm doing great. Yes. Very excited
Speaker 0 00:00:07 About today. We got a very special guest today. Yeah, yeah. Well, this is our first inaugural podcast. Yeah. So we'll kind of give a brief background about it and then we'll, we'll kind of kick off our, our special guest here. But moving the game of life is often complex, fast paced, and unforgivable. Setting yourself up for success by doing the little things right, being comfortable in uncomfortable times and creating goals will help you move the chains towards success. We sit down with industry titans, seasoned experts and investment professionals to discuss all things life, leadership, sports, faith and finance, move the changes about inspiring individuals to maximize their potential and achieve their goals through exciting and informative commentary and personal stories. So today I am thrilled to have Will O'Neill, current Mayor Pro Tim of Newport Beach, and former mayor of our great city in 2020, Gracely leading us during the Covid 19 pandemic. He was first elected to city council in 2016 and reelected in 2020 with the most boats in the city's history. He also serves as the chairman of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency, which manages the 73 Toll Road. He is an attorney, husband, father, and volunteers at his local church, and also as an A Y S O soccer referee, giving out the most red cars by a long shot. Definitely fake news, but will, thanks so much for being on with us today. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:01:30 Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 0 00:01:31 Absolutely. So, obviously you're a prominent figure in the community, but why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you come from and how you grew up.
Speaker 2 00:01:38 Yeah. I grew up in Fresno, California. Most people know someone from Fresno is what I found. So Fresno's right in the heart of California, pretty much the dead center of it. Really lucky to have great parents. So my, my dad was a judge all the whole time when I was growing up on the state side and then over on the federal side. And then my mom actually, when I was growing up, was the president of the Y W C A, which took in battered women and children in really bad situations and would give them a place to stay. And so my sister and I actually, we grew up going there sometimes after school. And so there was a, there's a strong civic ethic, like a good community service ethic that we were instilled with and just really fortunate to have grown up in, you know, a great family like that.
Speaker 0 00:02:24 That's amazing. That's
Speaker 1 00:02:25 Amazing. Where are your parents now? You said, you mentioned earlier that they're no longer in Fresno. When did, where, where are they living?
Speaker 2 00:02:31 They moved to Orange County. They
Speaker 1 00:02:32 Did
Speaker 2 00:02:33 So, so once, once grandkids started coming, they, they wanted to be closer. And so my dad actually retired at the end of 2019 and is actually now a law professor over at UCI teaching evidence.
Speaker 1 00:02:45 Oh, wow. That's great. The law's, the family, we'll, we'll learn, hear more about you as we move on, but it's into family, huh?
Speaker 2 00:02:52 I'm fourth generation
Speaker 1 00:02:53 Attorney. Oh, are you? Wow. Okay. Whoa, that's
Speaker 0 00:02:55 Amazing. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 00:02:56 Little pressure to, to major law at, at that time,
Speaker 2 00:02:59 There really wasn't Okay. But it was something that I saw that really just affected me. And, and so it was, it's actually pretty interesting. So my great-grandfather was a lawyer, but then my grandmother went to law school at uc, Berkeley, right around 1940 or so. She was only one of a handful of women in her class. And so she was actually told by a professor in class, you shouldn't be here because you're taking the spot of a man who would be providing for his family. And I was obviously, I'm very glad that she was there because she, her last name was Murphy. My grandfather's name was O'Neill. They were sitting next to each other, and so they met then. My grandfather actually didn't graduate from, he only, he did one year and they, but they met and she ended up taking a second year. By the third year the war was on.
Speaker 2 00:03:41 And so there just weren't enough classes being taught. And she had actually given up some of her classes to men who, who were likely to go to war. So she ended up not graduating then. But after my grandfather passed away, she went back, completed her studies at uc, Berkeley, and then ended up writing some of the family law code because she got into helping create a family dependency court up in the northern California area. So, really amazing woman, my daughter, who's now 10, her middle name is Elizabeth, named after my grandmother, because I really want my daughter to recognize the advantages and the opportunities that she has is because of women like my grandmother.
Speaker 1 00:04:16 Wow, that's amazing. So Clovis in that area, Fresno, that's kind of where you grew up. Were sports a big deal for you in, in in that area? No, it's big. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:26 Sports were, sports were a big deal. So Clovis Unified School District really emphasizes both the academics and athletics. They just love 'em. And so I grew up, obviously like everybody else playing soccer, but eventually fourth grade rolled around and in p in a PE unit, I got introduced to track and field and I, I, I'm, I'm always a big kid and so I hated running. And so I, I would, I would, I I got told you can either run, jump or throw and, and since jumping involves running, I threw and, and it turned out I was pretty good at it. And so from fourth grade on, I stayed in track and field. So I was doing shot put up through elementary school, middle school, they introduced discus. And so all throughout that time I had pretty much a different coach every year I was throwing, but I would go to these track meets, I would listen to what other coaches were telling their athletes and I'd say, oh, okay, I can try that. And by the time I was a senior, I was good enough to get recruited. Hmm.
Speaker 0 00:05:18 So talk, walk us through that recruiting process. So Clovis West, right? Clovis West High School. Clovis
Speaker 2 00:05:24 West High
Speaker 0 00:05:24 School. Yep. So track and field disco, shot put, walk us through that, that kind of senior year
Speaker 2 00:05:31 For yourself. Yeah, it was interesting because I was also on the football team. I, I, being a big kid, I always, I stayed a big kid. And so, and if you're, if you're 6 4, 220 pounds, which I was in high school, you have to play football in Fresno. It's sort of like the, it's a little bit like the Texas of California. Yeah. So we would, we had a good football team, but I, you know, I would get recruited to things like the Ivy League schools because I had had the academics to go along with it. I wasn't an amazing football player. But the nice thing about throwing is if you can throw a heavy thing far and read, you're probably gonna get recruited somewhere because the academics don't usually align with people throwing a heavy thing far. And so the ac on the athletics side, because my marks were, I, I I, I don't remember exactly where I was, but I think I was somewhere in the top 25 in the country in discus and top 50 in chocolate.
Speaker 2 00:06:21 And so combined with academics that could get in places, I was able to choose where I went. Ultimately chose Stanford after taking a recruiting trip and seeing the campus and realizing, holy cow, that's where I wanted to go. So I, I got really fortunate to have that combination. But you know, this is something why I tell a lot of football players that I meet try track because there just aren't enough people who can throw a heavy thing far and also be able to reach those academic standards. And if you can get those two things together, you're going to get recruited to great places.
Speaker 0 00:06:53 Wow. That's the same thing in Newport Harbor. We're all football players. If you wanted to put on size and strength, cuz you have to be really athletic to, to do discs and shot foot. I feel like especially there's like a special technique, right.
Speaker 2 00:07:04 There's a ton of technique. It's, it's, it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. And it's sort of like when you are golfing, you're golfing with looking at the ball, going left and then going Right With discus you are starting with your back to the field twisting one and a half times and throwing pretty heavy implement. So yeah, there's a ton of technique, otherwise you're gonna hurt somebody.
Speaker 1 00:07:22 Yeah. Yeah. Wills are tight end too in high school. So it's like, he's obviously a great athlete cuz best athlete, the best,
Speaker 2 00:07:30 You know, if my friends listen to this high school, they'll tell you no. So I, I was a, yeah, I was a blocking tight end in high school because we ran the wing tee and for those of you who do not follow football that closely Wing Tee is a very run oriented or group. So, so I, I, I caught very few passes, but I did end up catching two touchdowns in a playoff game and that's my claim to fame.
Speaker 1 00:07:50 That's great. You go, that's fantastic.
Speaker 0 00:07:52 So going to Stanford obviously took your recruiting trips, had athletics on your mind, did you always know you wanted to be in law just cuz your family was always in
Speaker 2 00:08:00 Law? No, it was definitely a path that I thought would be somewhere I'd, I'd consider so go. So I, I was in, I I wanted to do history, so I knew I was gonna do that. I really enjoy reading and I always have. So I was going to be a history major, but with a history major, there are only really a couple paths. You can certainly be go down the path of going to law school or you can go be a teacher. And I, I actually took a really hard look at becoming a teacher, ultimately choosing to go to law school, but it was, it, it actually was really close.
Speaker 0 00:08:31 Wow. Hmm.
Speaker 1 00:08:33 As you, you know, Stanford is a beautiful place. You saw the campus you wanted to live there. Was there even a second choice? Was there another place you even looked at or was that it from the get go?
Speaker 2 00:08:45 No, I, I, I did take a really hard look at some of the schools back east. Yeah. I remember one recruiting trip to one of the Ivy League schools. The coach was trying to sell me on it and he, he said, don't worry you kids from California, you, you buy these special lamps. And I thought he was kidding. It turns out there are these lamps that you have when you don't see the sun for a long time that, you know, and I know that there are special names for them, but, but I looked into that and once I found out that you would have to buy a lamp to, to mimic the sun, I realized perhaps I'd rather live where the sun is. Yeah. Not a place I wanted be, but, but yeah, there were, there were some great programs, great coaches and I, I, like I said, I was really fortunate to have a skillset that allowed a lot for good recruitment.
Speaker 1 00:09:28 Yeah. Years ago, I'm much older than you, but back in the eighties I was recruited many, you know, packed, some packed 10 schools back in those days. And I took a trip to Stanford and absolutely loved it and almost went there. And the quarter, the coaches actually Rod Dauer was the coach at the time and he was actually recruiting me to play quarterback and so he was trying to sell me on my quarterback side. I was, I was a quarterback in high school and then also tied in. So mostly being recorded, re recruited by as a tight end. But Dauer is smart trying to grab that side of me, except they said, well who's the quarterback here now and what's going on? He's, and he said, well, a guy named John Elway who's a, just a freshman. So I said, ah, I don't think so, coach I, although I do tell the kids I've told 'em for years that man, John's so lucky I didn't go to Stanford. Nobody would ever heard about who he's played. We had fun with that, but it's an incredible place. It's a great, great school. And
Speaker 2 00:10:22 You ended up at usc, I mean, and it's really funny because Bill Walsh had been the coach at Stanford right before you were getting recruited then. Yeah. And so, you know, Walsh his least favorite, he great wrote some great books, but one of his least favorite things in the world was watching the horse. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:37 Right around there,
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Running around the track.
Speaker 1 00:10:40 And in those days, s scb Stanford fairly regular and it was always, Stanford had this saying as a, in the fourth quarter, the, the, the crowd was, would be yelling, that's okay, you'll be working for us someday. So, and you know, probably true. So they was using the academic side of, oh, well
Speaker 2 00:10:58 That was fun. By the time I got there, there really weren't a lot of fans at the game. Yeah. So even if someone had been yelling that it would've been a one.
Speaker 1 00:11:05 So what
Speaker 0 00:11:06 Years was that, that Stanford experience? And then could you walk us through balancing athletics with academics? I mean, we're both, well all of us are former collegiate athletes, pro-athletes, but, but like what day-to-day, how is it balancing being a history major, having the law thing kind in the back of your mind, like, okay, could explore this one day and then also doing track and field, which you're lifting year round, right? I mean, it's pretty intensive.
Speaker 2 00:11:29 Yeah. I mean, you, you need to be very strong to be able to do both shop foot and discs. So there was a lot of weightlifting, there's a lot of program. I came in at two 20 and, and my last year there I ended at two 80. So I, I was a big, big boy at that point, very strong. And it was great. I had a great program, actually that was the first time I really had a consistent track coach. And so he actually taught me, here's how you actually throw. And so that was, was nice to have a coach for the first time. Yeah. Where you could really say that, that someone is investing their time to make sure that your entire technique is better. And also, he also was a, a multiple time olympian for Great Britain. So very good base. Yeah. From which to work from and, but yeah, I was tired a lot.
Speaker 2 00:12:09 So you'd have the practice in the afternoon, you'd come back to your dorm exhausted because you had just done not just the technique side of things, but you were lifting. And fortunately we didn't do a lot of running, so, but we were, but, but yeah, it was exhausting. So I would come back to my dorm, especially my freshman year, and my freshman roommate was one of the smartest people I've ever met in my entire life. And that's still true today. But I always wondered how in the world, like what, what do you do with your life when you're, when you don't have that three or four hour block in your afternoon and then you're exhausted at night trying to do homework. And the truth is, what he ended up doing with his life was getting the electrical engineering degree and working for a bunch of startups and he is done quite well for himself. But, but that was balancing was hard, so you needed to get used to it early, which set a good course for the rest of my life because I've never really been one to just be focused on one thing really. Well. Yeah. I focus on many different things and so having that balance has been helpful. So do you think
Speaker 0 00:13:08 Your work ethic and doing the little things, right, it's kind of like a thing in our podcast, right? Like kind like setting yourself up for success over the long term. Was that instilled from your parents at such a young age? I feel like from what you're saying it was, or was it like a hard reality? You got to Stanford all of a sudden, it's like, this is a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 2 00:13:25 I mean, every stage that you go on, as long as you're progressing is going to be a different ballgame and just harder. But the billing blocks are there. So my parents instilled the values that I'm trying to instill in my kids, which is we expect you to do your best. You know, for some people, and this, this is for athletics too, so some people are just naturally gifted. They'll, they'll be able to pick up a shot, they'll be able to go play basketball, they'll just be amazing at it. And I've met some of those people and I'm, I envy them for that ability, but sometimes they get complacent, lazy because of it. And so the expectation is with what God's given you do your best. And sometimes that means you're gonna score a hundred on your test. Sometimes it means you're gonna score 80 on your test.
Speaker 2 00:14:03 Yeah. But as long as you can look back and say, I did my best with the, you know, with the tools at hand, then we're in really good shape. And that goes along with way because if that's instilled in with you at the building block stage, well then it's gonna teach you a little bit about how to study and how to get to that point. And then by the time you get to college, you know, so at Stanford everyone's smart and, and most of them were much smarter than I was. And so that, that was, that was a wake up call. And, and it was great because I got to be around some amazing people. And then on the athletic side, a lot of people were way better than I ever would be. So they had not only taken their naturally amazing gifts that God had given them, but also were excelling because they had that, that approach of I'm going to do my best and I'm going to do everything I can to do my best. So it took three or four Olympics for me not to know someone still in the Olympics because of my college experience. So being around those people made me wanna be better. And so by the time I got to law school changed that. And then by the time I became an attorney, cha you know, it's like I said, just building blocks of life and as long as you're moving forward and you know, progressing, then they should, there should always be a challenge.
Speaker 1 00:15:08 Absolutely. Sounds like that coach, you know, the track coach at Stanford, you already knew how to throw, throw the discus and shot a little bit, but he got you to think about probably little, my guess is little tiny things that you could change that you get good at this and you'll throw it 30, you know, 10, 30, 20, 30 feet longer. Right. Something like that. So that's exactly right. Yeah. So it's, so we talk about all the time is that those little things get really good at those Yeah. And it really helps you.
Speaker 2 00:15:34 Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's like listening to Hank can talk about Tiger Woods's swing. Yeah. Right. I mean, you're just constantly changing. Just little bits on the, at the time the world's best golfer, like they're just constantly changing. It's not like he was, he was staying stagnant, he was trying to improve constantly. And that is true for literally everything you could possibly be doing in your life. Professionally, personally, there's always room to
Speaker 1 00:15:58 Improve. And like you mentioned, those great players that are naturally gifted, the ones that are naturally gifted and then focus on those little things, become the ones we hear about all the time. They get shoes and shirts named after 'em. You know, that really think of Michael Jordan who just got, they said he was so detailed oriented on what he, his steps, everything he did, you know, you know, just naturally gifted, but he also really refined his craft really well. So something
Speaker 2 00:16:23 Sounds great. Yeah. And I mean, locally, you know, I would, I'd be remiss not to say Kobe Bryant. I mean you look at, you look at the way that Kobe Bryant idolized everything about the way that Michael Jordan went, about his competitiveness and he just wanted to be better. And that is an incredible trait it makes sometimes in your personal life difficult. Yeah, for sure. But boy, I, I'll tell you, there was no better documentary, certainly during 2020 than watching the Michael Jordan Bulls documentary. I love that documentary so good. But he still hasn't let go of some of his grudges.
Speaker 1 00:16:55 That's very true.
Speaker 2 00:16:56 That's very true.
Speaker 1 00:16:57 So Will, what about your family? Tell us a little bit about your, you know, your wife and your kids. Where, where'd you meet? I, I read somewhere you met your wife at an SC game? I did, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:05 Yeah. My wife's entire family went to usc.
Speaker 1 00:17:08 Okay. There
Speaker 2 00:17:08 We go. All of them. So Oh, I like
Speaker 1 00:17:09 Those people. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:17:11 And, and they're what I would call it the good USC fans. Cause I was just saying I'm sure that there be some USC fans listening to this. So I'll just say real quickly, there are good ones and they're bad ones and I hope you're good ones. My, my wife's family are the good ones. And so we met at a Stanford USC football game. I graduated from law school in 2007, came down, met her in October of 2007. SC fans will remember that game because that was what we called the greatest upset ever game. And there were not very many Stanford fans at that game. And in fact, I know that's true because I was one of them and I was actually wearing Stanford stuff and people kept coming up to me saying, that's so nice. You're here. It's so great that you're here. And they were, you know, they just felt so sorry for me. And I said, I know, I know. And for folks who didn't remember that game, Stanford was favored to lose by 41, 42 points, somewhere like that. And ended up winning that game, which I called the best day of my life. Cause I met my wife in tailgate. Yeah. Met my wife before the tailgate, before the game, had the tailgate and then got her number and then watched that game. So yeah. That was a good day for you. It was, it
Speaker 0 00:18:14 Was the best day. That was a really good
Speaker 2 00:18:16 Day for you. It worked out very well.
Speaker 0 00:18:17 That's great. So you had just graduated law school at that point? You were finishing
Speaker 2 00:18:21 Up? I had just graduated law school, so I was up up, so I, I was up in the Bay Area again for law school, uc, Hastings moved down to Orange County for work and my best friend from high school who had gone to USC called me out and said, Hey look, I can't sell the, no one wants to go to this game. I can't sell the ticket. You, if you come, I'll get it to you for free. I said, yeah, I'll be there. So we met that day, started dating pretty quick after that. And then I, by January, so I met her in October. By January I looked at her at my best friend's wedding who, the one who invited us Yeah. At his wedding. I looked at her and said, I think we're gonna do this. And she said, I do too. So we got engaged a few months later. Yeah. So it was, it was pretty easy to know that she was gonna be the one for me. I just had to convince her I was the one.
Speaker 0 00:19:03 Yeah. That's amazing. You work on, so I'm guessing you came to work for our law firm down here initially I did.
Speaker 2 00:19:08 Yep. I started at a small firm here, folks, especially in the financial industry. Remember 2007, 2008, not great times. 2007 was fine. But then 2008 rolled around and the economy started tanking. And so I had started with a very small firm and then I actually switched over to another small firm but had been around for a little longer. That firm ended up so size of litigation attorney. I got really lucky with some of the mentors that I, I had at this firm. And then when it made sense for the, for that firm of three partners and three associates to split up and go to two different firms, I got to choose between them and ended up choosing a great law firm out of Texas called Hanes and Boone. Great, great office, really amazing experience. But by the time my second child was born, so we had Aubrey our 10 year old now 10 year old daughter, and Sean, our eight year old son, by the time Sean came around, I was working all the time and I, I, you know, I look back on what my parents gave into my life and I really wanted to be able to do the same.
Speaker 2 00:20:08 So I switched back to the, actually the first firm I went to. Really? Yeah. So I'm, I've been a partner at a small firm in Costa Mesa now since, gosh, I guess it was early 2015. Okay. And that's allowed me to do the public service side as well as be really active with church for my kids.
Speaker 0 00:20:24 Wow, okay. That's fantastic. So, I mean, I'm curious kid from Clovis Fresno Yeah. Moves down to Orange County. What, so what, what was the allure for, for Newport Beach? Like what maybe did you wanna run for city council? Like what made you fall in love with the
Speaker 2 00:20:42 City? Yeah, I mean those are gonna be two different answers, but I, i, I think most people would just kind of recognize the, the answer to why Newport Beach is, it's Newport Beach, you know, and it's been a city that has done a lot of things right for a really long time. And so it's a safe environment. The coast is gorgeous. A lot of people have spent a lot of time making sure the environment is really well taken care of as well. So it's pristine, just beautiful. And, and so it was a great place. And when we were there, you know, when we were looking, we were looking to be racing kids. Yeah. And so for us, we, we really, it really mattered to us to have that safe environment to, to look around and say, are there great schools? Are there, is there a great community rep?
Speaker 2 00:21:27 And so we ultimately moved into Newport. Funny thing by the way, is when we, when we, the first house we put an offer in on was in this area called the port streets. And that offer fell through and then we ended up instead going to an area right across the street from it called Seaview. Had we actually moved into the port streets. I never would've run for city council because the dividing line is a street called San Miguel, which is the dividing line between the port streets and, and Seaview. And there was someone who el someone else who was going to run for that seat. And so I never would've run for council had we had our first offer been accepted. So I'm sure that there's some people in Newport right now wishing that first offer had been accepted.
Speaker 0 00:22:07 Absolutely. So, so the city council thing, did that just kind of fall into your lap or was there something that you wanted to change or thought you could influence and effect in a specific
Speaker 2 00:22:16 Way? Oh man. Yeah. Nothing in politics has fallen into my lap. So the, so in 2015 I had a friend of mine, very close friend of mine, come to me and say, Hey look, there's this seat open. So the way Newport Beach City Council works is you have to live in a district, but you run citywide. But in order to run you, you do have to live in that district. So there was a council member whose term was coming up. He had served for two terms and that's the maximum amount of time you can serve. And so his time was coming up and there wasn't anyone who had announced they were gonna run for that seat. And he said, you should run for that seat. And I said, no, that sounds terrible. Why would anyone do that? And he said, no, no, I think you really need to consider it.
Speaker 2 00:22:57 So I told him, look, you introduced me to people who know what it's like to run and serve and all the reasons not to do this. And I will find one of those reasons, give it to you and we'll be done with this. And so it's, we, I started down that path and there were a lot of things that started happening, a lot of doors that were opening that, you know, I would consider to be that this, it wouldn't have been a normal path. So for example, I was about to be put on to the board of library trustees, which I love because I said earlier I love to read. Yeah. That's not a natural place to jump onto and run for city council from, but instead, right before that was about to happen, there's a guy who was on our city's finance committee who got caught embezzling money from a congressman and obviously he needed to not be on the finance committee any longer.
Speaker 2 00:23:43 And so I was asked to replace him and all of a sudden it turned out I had a knack for municipal finance. And so when I saw that and then I realized, oh, you know, this city is doing some great stuff. It could be doing some better things. But the only way for me to accomplish that would be if I were on city council at that point. I went to my wife, we had a long conversation, she was my first vote. If she hadn't been my first vote, I would've had no votes. Yep. But she, she, she gave the sign off. I ran in two, the 2016 election against two other people. The two of them combined spent over $225,000. But I walked over 3000 doors, was only bit by one dog and it was very small, but I knocked on over 3000 doors and ultimately one, I think it was something like 49.98% of the vote.
Speaker 2 00:24:28 I know that because it was not 50. Yeah. But, but in a three person race, that's enough. So yeah, I was elected in 16 and it, it was a, yeah, that was a, that was a pretty interesting experience to run for elected office for the first time. Was it an adjustment cuz your partner at a law firm, you got family now, city council meetings, finance, you're still part of that. Correct. So you're, you're always busy. Yeah, you're always busy. But it kind of comes back to what we were talking about earlier also, which is there's always a progression. Yeah. And if you're not challenging yourself, you're stagnating. And so the, but, but you know, like anything else, you go rely on other people to help you out. And so you're not an island, certainly not on an elected office. There are plenty of people that you can reach out to and ask for help and advice. And I was really fortunate to have the, you know, a lot of good people feeding into me. So yeah, the, the folks who get in a lot of trouble are the ones who try to go it alone and act like they know everything. I can guarantee you I'm in my seventh year on city council and I'm still learning a lot all the time. And so it's, it's the people who lack humility, they find themselves in really difficult spots.
Speaker 1 00:25:37 Yeah, I love that. Love what you just said there. I mean, I think what jumps out to me is your process there is how you sought council, you know, from other people to find out, you know, what they thought or Hey, you know me, what do you think about this? And then ultimately your wife gave the go ahead, but how wise, you know, talking about moving the change or moving towards something great wisdom to seek other people's counsel ahead of time to help you speak into that, to figure out what God has for you. Right. Oh
Speaker 2 00:26:04 Percent. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:26:06 Where was your faith in all that? I mean, what were you doing also, I mean, we talk about, you know, where did your faith help you in the decision as well? I mean, just seeking the Lord in prayer obviously, and then Yeah. Coming outta that.
Speaker 2 00:26:17 Absolutely. Yeah. So there's, it's exactly right. So prayer has a massive impact on this because you're constantly trying to hear where God's voice is steering you. And then I oftentimes will try to discern that usually through my conversations with, you know, mostly a lot of people that go to church with me. I, I mean, my wife and I are true partners. And so for her to sign off meant that it was probably going to happen. Yeah. Certainly the running side, I, I had, I, I never expected as part of the process that God said, you're gonna run and win. I think it was more along the lines of, hey, here are a bunch of open doors, why don't you go walk through one of them and see where it goes. Yeah. And, and that's how a lot of this path has, has charted itself. It's more being open because that was a big change for me when I was in high school, when I was a kid all the way through high school and to a certain degree in college.
Speaker 2 00:27:15 I really didn't like change. I didn't adjust well, it took me a while. That has been kind of burned off me as, as a lot of things have kind of just transcribed, like moved, moved through the move through the church. Mature, yeah. Matured. Exactly. Right. Exactly. So being in a men's group at church was a big deal. My wife and I are now in a, a really good life group at church as well. But the, the having the men's group at church, being able to talk to people, ask them questions, what do you think was really helpful as well. And then look, elections are brutal. You know, the attack ads come, people say terrible things about you on social media, which only amplifies once you get on council, by the way. But, but people, but, so you have to be pretty well grounded in who you are and feel comfortable with the fact that the characterization that people are making about you out in public is not who you actually are. Yeah. And being able to do that means that you need to know who you are before you run. If you try to find out who you are in public service, that you're gonna let other people define you. And that is a big problem.
Speaker 1 00:28:14 Big problem. So I wanna go backwards just a little bit. I mean, we talking about faith and prayer. I know your family had a huge influence on you, but where, where did that really begin for you? Where it became your own, your, your faith and your walk
Speaker 2 00:28:28 With the Lord? Yeah, you're right. My parents were, so, actually interesting enough, my dad grew up in the Catholic church and then, and then my mom grew up in the Presbyterian church. And so my sister and I were both baptized in the Catholic church, but then were raised in the Presbyterian church for a whole bunch of different reasons. But ultimately my, where I was when I was growing up was Sunday school. My mom actually taught vacation Bible school. And so that was always part of our family journey, but it didn't become mine really until probably after law school. So in, in college, I didn't go to church often enough in law school. When I was up in San Francisco, I would go to a handful of churches but didn't really find it. But the moment I came down to Orange County, it came back and it, and at that point, that's when it became mine.
Speaker 2 00:29:12 So started going to church down on Lisa Viejo, which is where I first moved when I came to Orange County and got into a, a small men's group there that changed everything for me. And you suddenly started finding accountability matter. And so now we go to Mariners over in Irvine and have just really fallen in love with it. We originally went to Mariners for the same reason. A lot of people go to Mariners, which is they have a ga a great kids program. Amen. And then, yeah, and then, and then now we, we really got a lot more active and involved and you know, interestingly enough tail end of that, you know, God always had a purpose in all of this anyway, because the life group that I'm a part of is the life group that the senior, the new, he's not that new anymore, but the senior pastor Geiger, he references during sermons sometimes I'm in that life group. And so we got to know each other really well during that process. So when 2020 happened and everything was getting shut down, we, we used to talk a lot because he'd ha he'd want to understand from a government side where, where do I see things going? And then oftentimes he'd be able to plan out how quickly is the church gonna come back and reopen. And just a great leader. I really, really came to appreciate him a lot more during that time.
Speaker 0 00:30:25 Yeah. My wife and I, we were church hopping around for a while. We went to Mariners Huntington for a little while and, and grew going to St. Andrews in Newport, was close to home. And we finally went back over to Mariners, Irvine and Eric, I think he had just started become, or he was the senior pastor again and or not again, but for the first time. And we just fell in love with him and his leadership and just the way he taught the bible and everything was, was biblically based. And, and then I saw a video with you and him sitting down, I think you interviewed you, it was there, was it right after Covid? It might have been 2021 or something like that. It
Speaker 2 00:31:02 Was Oh, it was, it was right after Covid. I think it might have even been something like March or April of 2020. Okay. And so I sat down with the mayor of Irvine, her name was Christina Shea in his office. We did a po we did a video and just basically talking about what's happening right now. Yeah. And how does faith play into our leadership and yeah, I mean Eric's done a great job for a long, long time. Everyone locally would know Ken Beshore was the Yep. The pastor of Mariners. And at one point Kenton said, you know, in order to grow this church and and mature in a different direction, I need to step aside man, the amount of maturity Yeah. That it takes to say that and actually enact it. Yeah. That's incredible. So you know, that's the case study in leadership under itself.
Speaker 0 00:31:44 Absolutely. So 2020, I'm actually really excited to talk about this because I think we all have similar feelings on it, but I think, I mean, you're mayor, brand new mayor as of January, by March it's shutting down and that's when you started your daily updates, right? You're quick daily updates that you do and you continue to do to this day.
Speaker 2 00:32:04 Yeah. So you actually skipped over a really important aspect of that. So in, so I became mayor in December of 19 and was actually gonna call that year, the year of the volunteer. And absolutely no one remembers that because 2020 went a totally different way. Yeah. But so the, so that, that year actually started, if you remember with the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant. Yes. I mean the world remembers Kobe Bryant and his daughter, everyone here locally remembers the nine people who were on that helicopter because, you know, there were, there were daughters on that, on that plane. There were dads and moms. There were sisters and a lot of of classmates. I mean, that, that was, that was the, had covid not happened, that was going to be no question, the single worst thing that had ever happened in the history of our city.
Speaker 2 00:32:46 Yeah. And it was, it was a brutal moment. I still remember that day pretty regularly actually. And so trying to figure out how the city can play a role in the healing of our, of a lot of our residents, for the most part we played facilitator, you know, we were there to make sure that events went off safely. We were there to, to be more of a backstop and and facilitate the grieving process. And it was tough. And you know what people kind of forget about that is a lot of that grieving process got cut off really quickly by Covid. Yeah. So that's true. So I was up in, I I was outta state with my family on our, on, on a trip when we found out that California was planning on putting every covid positive patient into a quarantine in Costa Mesa. People probably for, for guys matter as well.
Speaker 2 00:33:36 So, so you're right, I'm new on, I'm new as mayor and within three months these things are starting to happen in our city. So flew back down, I'm an attorney which helped a lot in that moment because we were able to put together a, the litigation support for the city of Costa Mesa over the weekend. And we were in court pretty much early that week. And then of course that was a ridiculous plan because it was a contagious virus that went global. So we were at that point the world shut down. I actually will say a lot of people know this. I do not agree with Governor Newsom on a lot of policy goals. At the very beginning, given what we were seeing in New York and Italy, he was making the right call to shut things down. We needed time to assess. And so in Newport, one of the first things we did was we got really fortunate by having one of the foremost experts in ver virology and actually in Covid at home Hospital.
Speaker 2 00:34:33 And so I was able to lean on them early and often. And so one of the first things we did was we said, who's most vulnerable? And they gave us exactly who's most vulnerable. And it's the same people we now know for sure were the most vulnerable, which were people with preexisting conditions and especially seniors. And so the first thing we did was we partnered up with hog at our fire department level who run the paramedics went into all the skilled nursing facilities, seniors care facilities, talked to them about how to prevent outbreaks. But if you do have an outbreak, what do you do? So if you end up looking at the final statistics in dealing with Covid, even though, or Newport Beach is an older community by Orange County standards, certainly we ended up having a much lower mortality rate than just about anybody else. And there were reasons for that. And one of them was realizing early on, we're not a healthcare agency but we can rely on people at ho in particular to get the message out and go protect our residents. And so we took a very different approach than a lot of other cities and the statistics show that we, we did better than most.
Speaker 0 00:35:38 Absolutely. So, so the, the Instagram posts that are now famous, right. I remember cause we were residents of Costa Meis at the time and the policy was starting to veer off of being like, you know, like you said like, oh let's find out what this is. You know, we need to kind of assess and look at statistics and all that kind of stuff and then we can figure out a game plan and a strategy and move on and move through this. But Hosta Mesa started taking a different route and so obviously we had family in Newport and we're so close to the community just seeing your leadership start reaching more masses. Cuz we had a lot of friends that didn't live in Newport all over Orange County that would follow your post still to this day I'm sure, cuz you have a large voice that kind of started.
Speaker 2 00:36:23 Yeah. So stepping back for just a second, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach did take totally different approaches. Their leadership was very different than mine. I knew their mayor and she and I just didn't see eye to eye on, on how to approach that. And so much. So actually there were times when we would be, like for example, when the whole beaches open, beaches closed issue was popping up. Costa Mesa does not have a beach, but the leadership over in Costa Mesa was trying to convince the state to actually shut our beaches down. So I had to go to battle quite a bit to protect Newport. And you know, it was interesting because the beaches, open, beaches closed debate, obviously that ended up being a, a whole debacle. But the, the, the problem at that moment was that there was just this weird, there were, there's a lot of weird policy decisions being made, a lot of decisions that just didn't work rounded.
Speaker 2 00:37:13 In fact, people were, it was, it was a massive hysteria that started up really quickly and some of the elected leaders felt like they needed to get in front of issues so they wouldn't look like they were being irresponsible. So LA County shuts their beaches down. Orange County kept our beaches open, but you knew that this was an airborne virus. You knew that the most dangerous place was an indoor crowded environment. So it made absolutely no sense to shut down the largest outdoor space all coastal cities had. But that's what they were doing. And so when we were going through the process and we had this famous picture that was totally distorted and it showed, like, it showed like three miles of beach and it looked like everyone was on top of each other. Man. I got, I got emails from Paris, France complaining about us keeping beaches open because of that picture.
Speaker 2 00:37:58 But, but we kept them open and the governor shut 'em down. And so it was interesting cause I ended up going on national television cuz of it, and which was a totally weird experience under itself. But the, the one thing about that, that kind of comes back to a faith question I've been asked a bunch of times, were you nervous going on there? I said, no, I wasn't nervous, so why not? I said, well first off, I had no idea how many people would be watching because I ultimately was told, you know, 4 million people were watching you. And I said, no, I had no idea. But the, but the other thing was right, like the last person I talked to was my wife and the one thing she said was, Hey, right before you go on, pull out, pull up your phone looks, look up something in the Bible, just read it.
Speaker 2 00:38:39 It doesn't matter what it's, so inside our wedding rings is first John four 19, which says we love because he first loved us. So I pulled that one up and I read the verse right before it, which is first John four 18. And it starts with, there is no fear in love. I said, okay, let's go. And so, so I ended up fighting back, we got our beaches open really fast after that. So anyway, that's, that's kind of, that's where a lot of people suddenly started paying attention to what Newport was doing. And there were, by the way, a lot of nextdoor posts up in the LA county area that were linking to my interview because they were saying, wait a second, this guy is saying exactly what we've been saying because statistics were showing already every beach community in a closed beach community in LA had a higher covid rate than every open beach community in Orange County, because of course it did.
Speaker 2 00:39:28 Right. So anyway, and then you were asking about Instagram that actually came about because of the George Floyd protests. Ah, okay. Yeah. So what was happening for folks who've forgotten, there was a, there was a police officer in Minnesota who murdered a, a man named George Floyd. And, and it was awful. I mean, just awful. And I, I, I can talk a lot about how important good policing is and I have, because that is a really good example of a city council that did not properly invest in its police department for a lot of different reasons. But the, and that I can tell you that officer never would have been employed in Newport Beach. And even if he had, he would've been watched out very quickly. But, so because of that, we saw a lot of protests going on nationwide and some of those protests turned into riots.
Speaker 2 00:40:19 And so we were seeing a lot of riots going on in LA for example. And so there was a lot of, there were a lot of people who were really nervous in Newport Beach because there were planned protests. I mean, I can tell you I've talked to a lot of people, no one can remember a protest dealing with police in the history of Newport Beach. We had five in one day. And so we had a lot of people really, really worried about what that would look like. And so I started seeing all these crazy posts on Nextdoor, particularly nextdoor and then some on Facebook and whatnot. And it was driving me crazy cuz it was just like that none of this is accurate. So I started putting it out on my own social media, hey. And I started calling it a quick daily update. This is what's happening.
Speaker 2 00:40:58 And know that our city knows about it, knows know that our police department is aware of it. These are first amendment rights absolutely allowed to, to go out and, and say, but if they descend into chaos, like what we've seen that our police are right. And it, it calmed people down. And then when that happened, some people started asking the other questions, could you explain this then? And I said, sure, I can explain that. So I started posting about that. And so, and then I started just posting on things that I thought were interesting because one thing that happened out of 2020, people all of a sudden realize how important local government is big time. And they never thought about it. So a lot of people who had no idea who their local school board member was, or their local city council member now knew exactly who they were and the people who stepped up and led are remembered and the people who didn't are forgotten. And, and so one of the things that people got really tired of is being talked down to. And so being able to talk directly to people through social media and explain public policy issues in a way that is, Hey look, come along with me. Let me, let me show you why I think what I think has been really beneficial to having a better civic discourse. And so I now post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Instagram and Facebook and the handle is at real Will O'Neil, o n e i l l
Speaker 0 00:42:18 You post 'em very early in the morning. Do you pre-write these the night before Schedule 'em?
Speaker 2 00:42:22 Yeah. Well I don't schedule 'em. I've been told I can do that. I don't know how to do that, but I, I do. But I, I do pre-write them the night before. Okay. And then when I wake up, I'll post them. Gotcha.
Speaker 0 00:42:32 Okay. So you working out in the morning, like what's your, what's your morning routine here? Cause you're pretty
Speaker 2 00:42:36 Early. I'm up pretty early. I'm usually reading and sometimes bible, sometimes right now I'm reading the, a biography of Sandy Cofax. I didn't know anything about Sandy Cofax other than Amazing Picture. So now I'm learning about Sandy Cofax. But the, I'm usually reading in the morning, Wednesday and Friday I'll be up pretty early working out. But, and then on the weekends I still, I can't just turn it off. And my son is a very early riser because he have a ton of fomo. So, so he'll, he, he just, he just wakes up and says, all right, let's play. And so yeah, he's fun.
Speaker 0 00:43:10 That's great. So 2020 was, I mean, you're bringing back all these memories. No, it was such a busy year for you. So I mean, going into that year you have, you're the volunteer, right? Like you said, and then you have Floyd, you have the protests, you got covid, you have all of these things. So you're coming up again for mayor next year, right? This is your last year on city council?
Speaker 2 00:43:33 Yeah, so I'll, so yep. So we're recording right now in 23. I'm the mayor pro tem and then that, that basically means vice mayor or next in line essentially. And so I am done next year. I'm mine my eighth year next year. And unless I annoy everybody, I I will rotate into being mayor again. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:43:51 We're excited about that, that's for sure. Yeah, that's, I know you wanted to do it after 2020 cuz it was shut down for a lot of the years, so you're like, hey, I'm, I'm willing to go right into another year, but, but, but next year will be, will be a, a nice swamp song to your eight years and the city council and
Speaker 2 00:44:08 I, you know, I appreciate that. I I view it differently only because being mayor of Newport is a really big deal. And so if, if, you know, I was really fortunate to be able to be mayor once, being mayor twice of a city like this would be incredible. And obviously I'm hoping next year goes way better than 2020 does. But, but the, you know, the, it, it, it, there's so much to focus on and do right? That it takes a lot of effort and a lot of leadership and again, coming back around to it's not about you, right? It's the, it's about the city that you serve. I mean, we've been really fortunate. Everyone on council has been really fortunate to be able to serve this city. And so it's just such an honor. And so, like I said, being mayor a second time of a city like this would be incredible.
Speaker 2 00:44:55 Being there during a tumultuous year that felt like 10 years frankly. Sometimes. Yeah. Was was also, I mean just, you know, look, God puts you in the, in funny position sometimes. One of the things I took away from 2020 in particular is, you know, you can want a position and, and get it, but you can't control the circumstances in which you hold it. And so if you have a really good team around you and I did, and then, you know, if you, if you spend a lot of time realizing that an indecision is still a decision and you gotta keep moving forward with best information you have in front of you, if you make a bad mistake, fix it. But for the most part, you gotta keep moving forward. And that's what we really did in 20, so 24, I think we've, I have no idea what is in store for us, but I, I know that if, you know, if you look back to, so actually again, grounding yourself in faith, I was thinking about this because Matthew 7 24 to 27 is the verse that says, everyone then who hears these words of mind and does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and continues to go forward.
Speaker 2 00:46:01 You know, that's, that's a verse that I think I plan on having help inform my, my last year on council. Because if you build on the foundation and there's a amazing foundation here and you're gonna be fine. And so that's probably what's gonna help inform me on, on my last year on council.
Speaker 0 00:46:18 Are there any plans post city council, any aspirations that you can talk about Uhoh? I'm not trying to corner you, like, you know, you're very, you know, you're a great leader, obviously you got a good head on your shoulders, great family, faith, all that stuff. Like, is, is there something else that you're maybe a, a new passion that's developed through this or
Speaker 2 00:46:39 I, my passion is, has really become public policy. I mean, I'm loving the public policy side of things, being able to do the regional bodies like being a chair of the 73 board, which is a, you know, multi-billion dollar agency. And so that is, that's stretch fee. And we've done some great work on that. But, you know, the public policy side has mattered a lot. So if there's an opportunity for me to continue to play a role in public policy, by all means, but I'll tell you, there are two things that will constrain that. One of them is, I'm a Republican in California. There are not statewide offices to run for as a Republican in California. And then even if you are in a state office, like the assembly of the Senate, you are in an extreme minority position right now, and pretty much all their bills are getting killed.
Speaker 2 00:47:24 Even the really good common sense ones dealing with public safety. And so that, that would be pretty disheartening and really difficult to tell my wife. I'm gonna be gone four or five days a week now so I can go up to Sacramento, have them put me in a corner, say, Hey, come vote no now, and then go back to your corner. And that's sort of what's happened right now up there. And so that would be really difficult for me to say. And then, you know, the, the, the other constraining part, which is a constraint in politics, but obviously amazing in regular life is the age of my kids. So my kids at 10 and eight, I care a lot about being with them, especially during a really formative time of their life. And they're both entering those times right now. And so trying to go run for a position that would take me away from them quite a bit is not something I'm willing to do yet. And so if, if I find something fantastic, but my, everything that has gone right in my life has been when I'm focused in on what's in front of me and doing the best at that. And so again, coming back around, being mayor of Newport Beach, it's an amazing position. Yeah. And doesn't come around much in your life, so I'll be really, really focused in on that.
Speaker 0 00:48:30 So last two questions here. Quick fires. Any like advice or guidance you can give young members of our community and beyond? I mean, it's such a divisive time, whether it's politically via social media and things like that. I mean, as Christians we're called to be compassionate and love others. Is there anything that can help us kind of get out of this? Like even the, the political divisiveness, you know, you mentioned you're repub Republican, I'm sure you have Democrat friends
Speaker 2 00:48:55 And you
Speaker 0 00:48:55 Can have a civil, you know, conversation, civil discourse, but on certain policies. But I, is there anything that you think could improve those relations or
Speaker 2 00:49:06 Yeah, I'd say first off, embrace nuance, especially when you're talking about public policy, because there are gonna be topics that they're difficult to talk about unless you actually talk about nuance. There are way too many people who have tried to look at Twitter as if it's real life and then enact the policy based on what they see on Twitter, the like hot takes and how fast you can burn someone with a hashtag is garbage. Yeah. And so you end up with really bad policy. So, you know, one of the things I talk about a lot is during the George Floyd discussions, you know, a lot of people started embracing the defund, the police movement. Well, that's ridiculous. And the defund, the police movement came about because of people embracing Twitter policy. The truth is though, the opposite of it needs to be embraced too. If you're a conservative, you need to recognize that you can't just rea reflexively respond with back the blue, for example.
Speaker 2 00:49:57 I saw that hashtag a lot. That's certainly a, it's a good, it's a good response in many situations, but not all of them. They're terrible police officers out there. Yeah. And, and they have got way too much power to act like bullies or authoritarians. And so that's why, you know, one of the most important things that city council member is getting the public safety right, which requires you to be creating an environment to recruit in some of the best out there, retain them, and then recruit them. And I'm sorry, recruit, retain, and train. And so if you're doing those things right, you're doing a good job. But if you wake up in the morning and you're not willing to do those things anymore, you need to quit. That's, it's that important. And so that's why if you are on this discussion, you need to be able to recognize that you're not gonna be defending everything just because someone has an r next to their name that I, I've seen way too much craziness coming out of people, people's mouths or on their Twitter handles. And none of that is compassionate and none of that advances the ball. So that's a big one. It's just listen, try to embrace nuance and find out, let other people burn away some of your positions so that, you know, it actually shows off like where your actual core principles are. Hmm.
Speaker 1 00:51:09 Well, how about for, you know, in California we've got so many people moving, you know, out of the state. You, I've seen signs, you know, Gavin Newsom's the best realtor in Tennessee and Idaho and all these different places. Right. You know, and me and my family, you know, partially, my kids all live here, and so they say, Hey, you know, but I got friends that have left and I have no intentions of leaving California. I mean, this is where I grew up. This is where I want to go to. He, you know, go, when I die want to be here. I don't have any plans to leave. But yet sometimes people like me, they don't know what to do. Like in a state like this where you're, like you said, your voice doesn't, you have no voice, nobody listens to you. But so what can we do? What, what can those who are, you know, who care about this state still, who still, you know, believe in the country and God and all these, what, what are some practical things that we can still do to, to, you know, to hopefully maybe change the culture as we move forward or, or whatever that is, as as we go into the future?
Speaker 2 00:52:14 Yeah, I think that the situation we find ourselves in is Sacramento is not a great mirror of where I think most people are. And, and that's true even in, I think democratic strongholds. You see up in San Francisco, a very progressive prosecutor getting recalled because it's unsafe to live there now. So there are plenty of people who, you know, the only qualification to getting elected is being good at getting elected. And so you're, you're not, you shouldn't be looking to your politicians for where your culture is. You should really be looking in your neighborhood and finding out who's, who lives next to you and who lives down the street. And so that's where if you feel despondent about how things are going on up in Sacramento, you can really turn way more inward and more locally. Because, especially if you're a conservative, one of the things you should believe very strongly is a principle called Ity, which says that decisions ought to be made at the most local level possible more often than not by individuals and their families.
Speaker 2 00:53:10 And then as it goes up the chain government is necessary for many things, and those decisions need to be made at the most local level possible. So I would really recommend that if you're feeling despondent about Sacramento, pay attention to what's going on in your own city. And that's something that I, that I've been able to clinging to because sure, I have no ability to influence what's going on up in Sacramento. If I did, we would have a very different set of policies, but I do have a massive influence over what happens inside of our city. And so do you, you know, I, there are plenty of people who reach out to me through Instagram, through email, through text. I think my phone number is pretty much everywhere in the city
Speaker 2 00:53:47 To tell me what's going on. And at the city level, we're dealing with issues as big as crime and, and public safety to trees and sidewalks and, you know, someone's rain gutters not working properly. How do we help that? And, you know, we, we do a lot at the local level. So I would really encourage people do that. But I would also say, and this is kind of maybe the last thing I'd say on this, if you're really involved in charity and you're taking care of a lot of the issues that someone would otherwise say, gosh, someone needs to take care of this, government won't seal that void. Yeah. And, and you know, especially if you're in a church, there are plenty of opportunities to serve. I would really encourage you serve first and then try to change public policy later.
Speaker 1 00:54:27 That's good.
Speaker 0 00:54:28 That's, that's a great snippet right there. That's great. That's perfect
Speaker 1 00:54:32 Wisdom.
Speaker 0 00:54:33 So, last question for you. So we're finance guys, so I want the best financial advice or investment advice could be from mom, dad, whoever that you got in your entire life.
Speaker 2 00:54:44 Only invest in what you understand. I mean, it's simple
Speaker 0 00:54:47 As that, as simple as No, it's,
Speaker 2 00:54:49 It's as simple as that. I, so I'm an attorney, litigation attorney. I have been involved with so many clients of mine who are incredibly successful in one area, and then they went into another area because they believed that no matter how things went, they would be successful anywhere they went and they were not. And, and so if you find an area where you are particularly successful, there's a reason. It's because you understand it. And so stay invested in areas you, you understand. I
Speaker 1 00:55:14 Love that. That's really good.
Speaker 0 00:55:15 Any closing remarks? Anything you wanna let us know? Any way anybody can reach you besides any of your, your Instagram handle?
Speaker 2 00:55:22 Yeah, but there's so many ways to reach a, a city council member and we always respond. So you're welcome to reach out through City email. You can also reach out to me through all, all my social media. I, I get such a kick out of people when they ask, do other people do that for you? Do you have a staff? I say, no.
Speaker 0 00:55:40 City council, Lord writes this work.
Speaker 2 00:55:42 So if you reach out directly through, through Instagram handle, at Real Will O'Neill, I will respond. And, and a lot of people do that. So really appreciate the direct inter interface, a lot of dialogue. And that only really happens at the local level. So I love it. I really do. Great.
Speaker 0 00:55:58 Thanks so much for, for leading our city like you do. And the rest of the city council, we have, we've all-star cast here in Newport Beach. I'm very blessed, blessed to live here and, and be a part
Speaker 1 00:56:08 Of it. But thanks for being you. Thanks for taking on the fears. I mean, what I learned today, again is reminded about the little things, you know, you're a reader, you're seeking, you know, you're, you're small groups with, you got accountability with other men, you know, know you're attending church on an active in a regular basis. And there's so many things here that I'm just being reminded of, of help you move the chains and you've really fully moved the chains here in Newport Beach and we're grateful for that. Yeah. And your leadership even beyond that is really exciting. So thank you. Thanks for having me on. Thanks Will.
