Episode Transcription: 

00:08

All right, welcome back to fortitude everyone I am JW and I’m sitting next to my partner Brinton the pain, Payne. Yes. That’s my new name for him. I know we have a great guest today before we get to that my partner has requested a few minutes of time. Not sure why but my I’m obligated by our agreement to allow him these certain little special times for him so Brinton without further ado, you have the floor,

00:35

I would just like to let the audience know that I am currently under a conservatorship with JW. Similar to Brittany, he has controlling everything in my life including my outgoing calls, my texts, my emails, and I would just ask that we start a free ringtone campaign.

00:55

Our guest is just rubbing his eyes like what is he doing here?

01:00

A shade of red he’s going oh my goodness.

01:02

Well, if that’s really what you want Brinton and we’ll find a solution somewhere there’s an answer there somewhere but thank you for your time and welcome the yellows need to share it back to the show. Okay, back to the show. Before we get to our guests, you can find us Brinton and myself if you so choose on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @FORTitudeFW and you can contact us with any problems with Brinton’s or his comments at FORTitudefwpodcast@gmail.com. And our website is fortitudefw.com. So

01:35

check that 24 seven that email or two every 24 days

01:39

to our guest today. Brinton is a man who needs a little introduction, but we will do so anyway. His name is Victor Vandergriff. Thank you, Victor for being here today. We appreciate your time.

01:51

Great to be here.

01:53

Victor, you, your your you and your family have a long standing legacy in this in this town, Arlington, Fort Worth Texas all around Austin. Before we get into the really juicy stuff. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Arlington, Texas in Texas, high school,

02:09

high school, Arlington. I’m

02:10

proud cold. Very nice, very nice. When did when did your career as we put there it goes in a vast array of places, when did your career really take foot in your life?

02:21

Well, it’s been a varied career. I was a lawyer and still am and started that way in the professional world and then pivoted fairly quickly into the retail automotive world as a car dealer for a number of years as a executive in a larger company that acquired my dealership group and remained with them until just a couple years ago, in various capacities. And somewhere along the way, I got into my version of public service, which was a series of appointed positions that led me through first Arlington, and then the region and then to the state of Texas, to the state agencies. Yes, sir.

02:58

Thank you very much.

02:59

Yes. And thank you for serving in those capacities.

03:03

Go ahead. Britton. Okay,

03:05

so all of them were transportation related? For the most part,

03:10

yeah. All for the part and they’re all transparency. There’s a theme

03:14

there in the background and you know, not just coming from your professional life. Is there something that fascinates you about just kind of infrastructure in general? And as Have you seen Arlington grow and knowing the need for it? Tell us a little bit about that.

03:29

Well, in terms of the infrastructure side, it really kind of went full circle in my life I’ve always been interested in in data and the analytical aspect of that in What’s your plan? How do you get the best bang for the buck of what you invest? And how do you do the best and most for the people that you’re serving and whether that was in the car business and customers or clients in the car and the law firm? Or obviously a broader sense those that are in the transportation world we want to make the dollar stretch and get the most benefit for him surely.

04:02

Did you learn that from somebody perhaps, uh,

04:05

well, you know, the interest and all that obviously came naturally because of my family. Being in the car business before me. I ended up being a fourth generation car dealer so that clearly was in the blood. And the transportation side, my father cut his teeth. He was the original cult tollroad guy when he promised General Motors back in the early 50s when they elected to come here that there was a great new interstate planned between William column interstates in but road plan between Dallas and Fort Worth and the only problem was there really wasn’t. And so he convinced the legislature governor Alan shivers to pass a legislation that allowed for the first toll road and that was approved and 53 and opened up shortly thereafter. A couple years later, they can build roads a lot faster than then they can today. And it’s obviously the I 30 today and he was long enough in office that he became the Original anti troll guy and so he was both and that happened in the early 70s and resulted in the tolls being taken off in. The bonds were paid off in 1977. And my dad promptly retired from office after that.

05:14

So we know him as Mr. Arlington but what he obviously he was your dad, what was it like growing up with with Tom as a father.

05:21

He was a great guy. He was good in private as he was in public, never lost his temper. He was the kind of voice of God as a lot of people you say Jim Reeves in particular from the star telegram. And he every time he spoke even in private, you just you felt like that. A lot of wisdom there. A lot of thought and he really, really cared about people. I think that’s why he had such a good reputation is that he was good with the little stuff he would help his constituents whether it be in the city or the county that he later was a part of, or even his brief time in Congress.

05:53

How did you first learn their trade as a car salesman? Did you start on the floor doing?

05:57

No, my training was a little bit different in that I did not necessarily grow up in the business I started as a lawyer and jumped in because of the special need in the late 80s. It was tough time for the car business and my father would be the first to tell you that he was maybe the third generation car dealer but he was the least of us that enjoy that my grandfather and great grandfather before him and got into really kind of help us get through a bad time. Thought it was a short term gig found out I liked it and the rest was history. So I

06:32

apologize got those two switched on the real attorney first, but I was wondering if you had somehow learned how to sell cars like like maybe your pick your family had

06:39

never never did that at any point until I actually jumped in the business you know.

06:45

So in Arlington, if we can talk about just kind of growing up there and kind of the public figure that your dad was not only in the private side, but the public side. Was that was that good for you? growing up? I mean, did you didn’t enjoy that? Or did sometimes it feel like now? I don’t I don’t want to be known this way that kind of thing. Because your dad was a public figure as well. I mean, being in Congress in the county judge to right, yeah,

07:09

those are those came later, but he was the mayor of Arlington, Texas for the first 20 years of my life. Okay, so that was just a part of my life. I never knew any different than the one influence of all that though, is that I’d figured out early on that he didn’t get paid for being mayor. That’s not exactly true. They paid him $20 a meeting so you got a little bit of money, but that didn’t seem like much and so but I liked what I was around all that time, particularly the big stuff I got a chance to see like when he got the Washington Senators to move here. I was a teenager at that point. So I decided I really wouldn’t mind being in government service. And my degree was actually in public policy from the University of Southern California go Trojans, and I got to plug them and well not so much at the moment they’re not doing so well. But anyway, I’ll be low on that one. But I found out that city manager’s got paid that’s what I really intended to start out doing I wanted to be in public policy and be on the side where you got paid for doing it from the volunteer aspect. So yeah,

08:14

very good. Um, we can move on now to you. I’d like to talk about your time as an attorney. Can you take us through some of the maybe the work you did there and then how that progressed into the next chapter in your life?

08:27

Well, it was it was it was very brief actually worked for Kelly Hart and Hallman when they were here it was there for three plus years and was an associate there and attorney and was in the trial section there and enjoyed doing that that’s the other part I decided that the lawyers made more money than the managers at least so I went to that and I loved talking I can’t tell that Canyon and so it really enjoyed that but there really was the opportunity slash need to jump into the family business to see what could be kept on moving forward and and I liked it the rest is history there they they kept a seat open for me for a while but after a couple of years it was pretty clear I wasn’t coming back Oh yeah.

09:12

Yeah. So then you go into your first gubernatorial appointment comes pretty quickly after that. No,

09:19

I started if I got into public work, honestly, if you can call it that is my brand was appointed positions, really was in the City of Burlington as you would expect, where I lived, I got appointed district committees. And then Mayor Bob cluck, really took a liking to me. I was pretty blunt. He was very blunt. And we had a good relationship. So he appointed me to a series of things to try to help get proper policy and that positioning between appointed positions and elected positions. They’re in charge. Yep. And learn that early. And so I guess my biggest role there was to chair the beyond and then chair the planning and zoning commission chaired it for about four years. Okay,

09:59

yeah. And then Then when did the ntta come along? Because that was the first one, right? Yes, that

10:03

was that first on. That was a regional level. And really I owe that to judge Whitley, who continues to apply me to things including the Tarrant County bond initiative that we’ll talk about in a bit. So that he, as with everything I’ve ever done with him, he’s never really asked me he just appointed me. Yeah. And I remember when I when I took that call, I was on the deck of the USS Arizona in Hawaii. Oh, wow. on a trip with the family. And I see that you know, Judge Willie’s call me on the phone. And he’s about six months into the job at that point is the county judge. And so he had an assignment for me, and I really didn’t know much about ntta. But being honest, by that time, I was with a large car company that had acquired me and I was working, essentially as a chief operating officer for them. So getting all these dealerships positioned in built in Texas, and I just figured out a good way to learn up, why we couldn’t get roads built to our dealership. So that started, and so

10:57

did you look at the phone and think maybe I should take this or maybe I shouldn’t take this.

11:02

I need the judge well enough and was good friend. I was actually used Treasurer in his first campaign. And he’s never taken me off of that. So I guess I’ve always been there. And so I didn’t know what the call was going to be about, of course, but I took it. Did he come directly after your dad? He did. Okay, he did. He was on the Commissioner’s court. And when my dad als announced in December, I think that was of oh five that he was going to retire. I was the first person that endorsed Glenn Whitley,

11:30

and clearly he made an oath with your father to just continue to appoint you to things.

11:35

My dad never pointed me to anything. So therefore he broke whatever that was, but I think they thought that the spell was broken, so to speak. And since my dad wasn’t there, they could appoint me to anything they want anything under

11:45

the ntta during your tenure that we could talk about what about this road right here? Well, about that you talked about? Yeah,

11:53

well, you know, I really my auntie tea service was, it was the most crazy, the most hectic of anything, I served on the three big transportation entities. But I’ve often said that I had my most fun there. I first off, I’d learned a lot about it. I i at that point, I was a neophyte in transportation policy and, and learning about the toll roads and we kind of come full circle, because at that point, really the only way we were in coming into and heading out of a deep trough that happened right around 2008, if you recall, and I got appointed in August of oh seven. And really, the only entity that had any money because they could borrow it and put it on roads was was the toll authorities and there were only two that had significant dollars and that was tektro, which is the entity in Houston and then of course ntta up here. So we were the focus of a lot of attention statewide on us and whether it was the people wanting to build them, design them or write on them. And we also were we went from it was really easy and really easy accounting and accounts receivable were non existent, because when you put those coins in the bucket, of course you had long lines waiting people go through and started we were still doing that, but fairly quickly, we went to all electronic tolling. Yeah. And there was chaos over that as any new technology runs out, rolls out, you end up having problems and so that’s scofflaws and and we had no real tools to collect so we bludgeoned people to death administrative fees and Dave Lieber attacked us all the time in the news Yeah. And we were at war at times with text out over who was going to do what but through that I mean great people that I served with great staff. Without a doubt, the closest person I’m in my transportation world happens with on the car side I’m on the roadside, the car sat was a bit different, but was Paul waismann, who was the chair for most of my time there he’s great friend. I’ve got some good memories of him. He was he was not shy about voicing his opinions or his displeasure. And I found myself in an ironic position of being the moderate moderating voice sometimes I was Vice Chair for much of that time. So but we got a lot of things done but the probably the most pivotal thing was on this road that we’re on or near is that there are nine people on ntta then and now to each from Collin Denton Tarrant and and Dallas County and then one gubernatorial appointee. And at one point techstop was telling us we had an interesting situation text.at a great credit rating. And because we’ve done this what’s now the Sam Rayburn Tollway we had no cash I’m sorry we had cash because we the tolls we collected but we had no credit rating because we use it up on that road. And and that’s a simplistic way of working it we obviously had credit and they obviously had sure cash but not enough to do that. So we’re going to merge forces but the commission wanted us to do only one of those roads and they would do the other and honestly you if you’re the toll authority up here, the last thing you want to do is to let somebody else do a toll road up here. So that was but that’s it. time if we’re gonna do one, we had a bit of a faceoff over that, and I had five votes. And the two from Derek County, the two from Denton County, and the gubernatorial appointee, and Collin and Dallas County were on the other way. And again, we were all friends, Sheriff all wanted to do both both roads, we wanted to do both roads. But if we were going to have to choose, and we never voted in public on that that just became at a committee meeting, it became apparent that it was five, four. And my friends in Arlington, where I lived, and where I was from, we’re not happy about that I would not vote, everybody thought I’d vote with that. But I said, last time I checked, I’m a terror county appointee and the only road that’s entire county is Chisholm. And yeah, and the two roads ironically 161 started off better, but over a 50 year period of time, they were almost identical in the revenue they would bring in. So that being the case, you’re going to pick your I had five votes, but unfortunately didn’t come to that because the Governor Perry said entity should do both. So he deserves credit for that. So we did both

16:06

what why would people vote against this? What were some of the consensus? Well, well, I

16:10

wouldn’t know they weren’t voting against it. The vote was if we could only do one of those two roads, which one which one? And naturally, you would think that the western folks would vote for the one closest to them, and vice versa, and the gubernatorial appointee would decide it. But the reality was, most people thought I would vote for 161. Because that’s what’s the road closer to you to write that route into the ballpark? Yeah, that was the end, particularly cowboys. They were building the stadium there, at&t Stadium, as it became known as, but fortunately didn’t come to that. And it very much was a challenge behind the scenes. But you know, I certainly heard a lot from a lot of people, but it was really all about your Tarrant County appointee. That’s what you do.

16:51

I mean, thank you for doing it. Well, it

16:54

turns out it didn’t become necessary because we got both roads. Yeah, both got built. Everybody’s happy. Yeah,

16:59

you made a comment about your dad not wanting told tollways or being kind of anti, maybe that’s the wrong word. But does that ever factor into your thinking and doing these projects? Yeah,

17:07

I will tell you, I’m glad you brought that up. Because the the challenging thing and I’ll never be able to repair that is so then I’m named to the tolworth. Or I don’t ask you about that. I mean, at that point, gosh, I was almost 50 years old. I didn’t ask my dad. Yeah. And he had recently retired and my mother called me and asked me that I think you really need to come by and see your dad tonight because they were that announced it and, and in the papers and little story about me not much in my background at that point other than the car business. So I did and I noticed when I got there, he had this round table in front of him. And he had the paper very neatly folded where the only thing you could see was this little article show I mean a little bitty thing showing that I’d been appointed to ntta and we talked about everything for a few minutes. You know, he’s great politician even with his children. And and then he finally got to the point he says, say in that deep voice Do you know my history with toll roads? Yes, sir. I certainly do. And he said that and I see that you have been appointed to the north Texas Tollway authority is that true? Yes. And he told me nothing good ever happened to anybody that was with a toll road so He really said that to me I don’t know that he ever was happy with me over that unfortunately he passed away before I got appointed to the Transportation Commission well yeah I was about to say yeah even did out but I don’t know I’ll never know

18:31

no but I think that that did kind of go I mean not to go against his words but it did prompt you know, pump you up to text dot and that’s people don’t understand how much influence and money and the kind of machine that that is. And so that was a real high appointment as well. So maybe you can take us through that a little bit, your appointment there, and just some of the things you worked on then.

18:51

Well, it, it was an honor to be there. You know, I spent six years at ntta and then part of the time was concurrent. But what really the whole six years was ntta and part of it concurrent also with my service on the Department of Motor Vehicles as their inaugural suite created that out of nothing and literally I led the charge to do that we were from the car business side the car industry was the back in the bus of textile we were literally in the on the org chart the motor vehicle industry and all of its divisions were in the a part of the org chart that was it was support services other that was the name support services other so we were with the rest stops the travel brochures stuff like that. Oh yeah. And which we mean we never really got in front of the commission for anything. It just kind of things perpetuated and the lack of funding and it wasn’t that they didn’t care about it. It just wasn’t naturally the highest priority and and so Governor Perry let me through the commission have the ability to study our future and there we were going through texts. I was going through Sunset Review So we created the DMV. And it was really a great success continues to be since its inception in November of 2009 is when it started. And I remember they assigned me an office early because I was appointed brought up shoot side about six months for there’s anybody else I was working with then divisions of tech stop moving over. So I went to the office had been assigned and it was literally a closet. hidden in the text that senior executive director, great friend that is he became assigned me as a practical joke. I clause was it Ahmed Al Amadeu was the executive director. And everybody claimed that was a complete mistake, but I thought it was beautiful. somewhere. I’ve got a picture of me standing there with my first office. But anyway, I that service, the two of those ended, when in the middle of February in 2013. Governor Perry asked me to move to the Transportation Commission.

20:53

Right during the session. Yeah, right. Right before the session. Yeah. He,

20:58

Bill Meadows was a he’s a great friend. I’ve known him because his wife was one of the associates with me early on in the firm there, Patty. And so I’d known him since the early 80s. And it was both a pleasure and a pain to succeed him for a variety of reasons. But then, mostly good. Yeah.

21:18

But that was a very political way of saying that that was great.

21:23

That’s, that’s, I was Tom Vandergriff son. So I learned a few things. Yeah. Anyway, we, unfortunately with my mother, son, too, and she was very blunt. So I’ve got both but and so then I went to the commission. And I didn’t actually move there because of some DMV things until May of that year of 13. But that I went to the commission. Okay, so you

21:43

describe some of the more difficult things you had to deal with at the commission?

21:48

Uh, well, I, I think there were there are a few that were challenging. But But I want to say that the things I remember the most, or the just the great things that we got a chance to do and be involved in. I really techstop was, and I said this once in a public speech that when I, when I went there, honestly, I was a very unlikely person to be there, because I had been at ntta. And we essentially been at war with them at times, friendly, but still at war. And then, when I was at the DMV, we just we essentially broken off and created a new agency out of divisions that were theirs. And the I think the rank and file that were in the road divisions, which are the vast majority probably didn’t care much about it, but some of the senior management did that was there. So I think people probably thought I was Darth Vader walking in, compared to them. And I thought, you know, they were the the Deathstar. Yeah, I mean, we had some misperceptions of each other that, honestly, over the years, those changed, I mean, terrific people, terrific programs. The Commission has a hard job to do way more projects, and they have money to fit in priorities change over time, we were protel place when I started in transportation, and we were not so pro after that in at towards the end of it. So but good people good place. So whatever perceptions we had about each other, I think at least from a staff perspective, those dramatically changed over time for the better.

23:21

Do you think do you appreciate the inner workings of the local government in these ways? I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of things happening, and you’re right in the middle of it in some regards. But does the state government local governments work efficiently your mind would compare to like maybe the government, the national government? Do you have any comments on how that whole looks on a general scale?

23:43

Well, I’m gonna plead the fifth on I don’t know that anything good can come from me commenting on that. Is it safe to say for me, I think that the, the, the this the people I was engaged with at a staff level, at the commission level and the legislators for example, in Austin or the mayors or the city council members or the commissioners the county judges whatever that engaged in that subject matter all we’re well meaning I mean, clearly anybody elected is interested in their area Yeah, they’re if you’re if you’re the county judge of Tarrant County, you don’t really think a whole lot about Euston and Harris County and nor would you be expected to if you’re a commissioner from North Texas and you’re not looking out for North Texas then there’s something wrong with that because there’s gonna be somebody from South Texas and Central Texas. It’s doing the same thing. But but generally I saw people that tried to do the best for everybody. I that was awesome. So when I ended my time there I think we both agreed that well, maybe I wasn’t Darth Vader and they certainly weren’t the Deathstar, either. So yeah, we were

24:50

getting things done. No doubt. I mean, people were gonna complain, like they’re gonna complain, but you’re getting things done and things are moving forward. So not always at the speed of light, but still, you’re getting a positive movement. So, I know we’re going to talk to you a little about this bond expected expected to be approved here in November this $400 million bond, you were instrumental in that deal. And we’re wondering some of the projects you’re expecting to tackle with that money, if you can talk to that. And how did that process go getting that put together?

25:20

Well, I think the better people to grade our paper and there was a committee, I was the chair, but there were 15 members. Each Commissioner had three appointees and I oversight. So there they in the public were, the better greater that. But what we did do is, unlike the policy positions, I was in where you were expected to take a position on something. I took a position on this just much like I did when I was back on the planning and zoning. So I kind of came full circle is I was just helping to call the balls and strike I was the head umpire and I had a bunch of other umpires and their role was to really look at the projects in their particular precinct that because if they didn’t stick up for projects in their precinct to an HEC word, right, but the Commissioner’s Court made it relatively painless. I went back to them several times over a three month process to the court in public, and ask them questions and post things to them. And some of them were we probably shouldn’t be doing drainage projects and pedestrian bike path projects. Not that those aren’t great things to do. But is that the highest and best use of this kind of money? And they could certainly turn up in the county wide initiatives that come on quickly drainage if it’s something that affects more than one community and the Penn bypassing thing. So they focused on projects, and then the big decision they had to make as you know, we had 2425 I can’t remember exactly how many communities presented projects lead agencies, they call them but cities? And do we pick the highest and best based on the ranking we do on the factors which you chose to look at? Or do we is every city get a project and they decided every city would get a project at least about the ballpark number three, I should have said the early 200 million, so 200 million of the 400 million goes towards the call for projects that was put out back in it actually was put out the call itself was like in January or February before I was engaged. So by the time I got there, they had received these projects and and then it was my role to to, you know, be the chief umpire if you will catch him, but he

27:31

did a great job of I mean, it’s very hard to look at that and not look at those projects as being validated. So I mean, you are more than the umpire, I would argue that you’re a little bit of coaches on both side are what is the guy’s name from that Moneyball was that coaches named Billy Beane? Yeah, Billy Beane, you kind of had that in there too, a little bit? Sure. Sure. It was so much data that was just so precise. To me, it was really, really well done.

27:58

Well, as I mentioned at the top of the show, I’m a data person and analytical person. So it came right that came really easy to me to to help others guide through that. And I was as I always have been, when I get a point is that my mom put in the time. But I can’t say enough about the county, senior staff course I’ve known Gk mania, since he came in the door magazine for my father’s time where English was the county judge, then, you know,

28:22

you know, Gk is absolutely do and went to school with the kids. Okay.

28:27

Yeah. Well, great gentlemen, a great leader quiet. But but very forceful. And he has a good set. He kind of shifts a little bit he had a set of deputy county administrators that I’ve dealt with most of them in different capacities, but they were kind of in the huddle, we’d meet once a week. And the consulting firm from free Freese and Nichols, and particularly a gentleman named Chris Bosco, he, he, he looks like he’s about 30. And he was the lead guy in terms of the day to day work on the 2006 bond election. So I wondered if he was in high school at that point. Yeah, young looking even now, but he was pretty much right out of school. And so his experience was very helpful to just a good team. And then the individuals involved. I mean, some are more in the weeds than others, and some were specific planners for their cities. And so they had a leg up on those who were, you know, volunteer citizens on this committee who didn’t have to have that background. But nobody operated that way. And particularly when the county said, Every city gets projects that kind of relieved us yeah, we had to decide the highest and best but but I argued for and we did this I mean, the group agreed that you can build columns agreed is that, well, if everybody gets projects and we ought to give great deference to the one they want most, and I think for the most part, they got that Yeah, they wanted most and not surprisingly, when you had additional projects, the larger cities with the bigger land mask, certainly Fort Worth Arlington, Mansfield got, you know, multiple, two or three projects. That was a very fair distribution. I thought,

30:03

yeah. And that’s November 2, is that elections? Correct? Right. Early voting starts next week. It does, they can’t. And there’s a prop eight and prop B on there.

30:11

There is the prop B, I’m not as proficient in. But basically, we’re building a criminal justice center there and you haven’t had her on, I sure wouldn’t encourage Sharon Wilson to come and talk to you about the event. We are having her in two weeks. Okay. So right before the election, that’s good. Well, she’s a great spokesperson for that project, and certainly is the driving architect for him.

30:31

So I’ll ask her this week, kind of in coming around to the end here. You started locally, and then you kind of worked your way all around, and now you’re back locally, again. So

30:40

it kind of a circle thing? Yeah, I would say that.

30:42

What is the what’s the goodness on that? Or? I mean, there’s got to be something that, you know, as you kind of get to this point that that you feel good about? I mean, it’s a lot of the same people that you probably spoke with throughout all of your varied career. But do you like that kind of being back home a little bit?

31:01

Well, you know, that’s a great question. I will thank you for asking that. So my, my my start also, because people assumed I knew politics, but I knew very little of it. So when I first got here as a lawyer, they assigned me as a, as a second chair, to the bond lawyers at that Kelly Horton home and come over here for the Commissioner’s courts meeting. And that was pre Gk and pre Glenn Whitley, pre my father, for sure. and ended up staying around long enough that I got a chance to obviously meet Gk and, and then of course, Glen Whitley, and they were instrumental in getting me involved in the very beginning of my transportation work back in the late to late, was it to South 2007. And so now, you know, I kind of came full circle. So I don’t know what comes next. But working for Terry counties a good thing, and I’m glad to have had that opportunity. Now know a little bit more.

31:58

Yeah. So it sounds like you’re enjoying what you’re doing. So yeah. What do you do when you’re not working? Do you for fun?

32:05

That’s a very good question. Mostly. We have six grandchildren. And I do a lot of grandparents. Yes, I do. They call me Gee, dad. And that’s a terrible thing. So that that would be my primary thing. Very good.

32:21

Okay. So family aside, we always ask everybody, that’s what was what has been the best day of your life.

32:26

That was an easy one. For me. The best day of my life was, it actually is many days but the best one had been the day that I married Kristin Olsen, which is Kristen Vandergriff. And

32:37

I don’t know if we’ve heard that one. That is a great answer.

32:41

That’s not even close. She’s, you know, my father was a great influence on me and I people ask all the time, and I say he was a great influence. But the best influence on me was my wife and followed right behind her was my mother. And then behind them were my three children. And my sisters so they were all probably more influential on me in terms of the person I am and my dad even though he’s a big part of that. Yeah, he was kind of like a god on Mount Olympus a lot. And you admired him you enjoyed the time with him, you learn from that, but he was the voice of God, as I said earlier, so it was that was one of the bad thing. Yeah, it was not a he was not a tyrannical voice of God. He was a benevolent, wonderful loving father but those women in my children those those were huge influences. But she did

33:29

use familial so I never heard that it’s Valley all family aside, what’s your best day of your life? Yeah. Um, that’s where it gets tricky.

33:39

Well, I if I wasn’t clear on that, I’ll say it again. The best day of my life was when I married Kristen Vandergriff, that was the best

33:49

political answer. I know it’s a truthful answer. And you did it. So thank

33:55

you, Victor, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you sharing your story. Great job. Thank you. Thank you.