22 Sides
22 Sides is a podcast that will let you get to know some fascinating people and keep up with many things that are happening in and around the Houston area.
22 Sides
Houston Deserves Better: A Conversation with Jovon Tyler
What does it take to step into public service during challenging times? Jovon Tyler joins us to share his journey toward running for Houston City Council in 2027, revealing the personal experiences that shaped his political vision and the values driving his campaign.
Tyler's candidacy emerges from what he perceives as a leadership crisis in Houston. Rather than simply criticizing from the sidelines, he's developed the HOPE agenda—addressing Homelessness, creating Opportunity, ensuring Public accommodations for all, and improving Efficiency in city services. This framework reflects both his policy priorities and his commitment to making Houston a city everyone can be proud to call home.
The conversation takes an intimate turn as Tyler shares his two distinct experiences with homelessness—first as a teenager who voluntarily left home at 15 and later as a young adult struggling with addiction. These personal challenges have given him unique insight into the nuances of homelessness, rejecting the notion that it's an unsolvable problem. "I've talked to homeless people on the streets," he explains, advocating for solutions that recognize the humanity of unhoused individuals while creating meaningful support systems.
As a licensed funeral director specializing in pre-arranged services, Tyler brings a distinctive professional perspective to public service. He discusses the heavily regulated funeral industry, designed to protect vulnerable families during difficult times, and how his experience helping people plan ahead informs his approach to governance. Unlike many candidates who use elections as stepping stones to new careers, Tyler intends to maintain his professional work while serving on the council—understanding that Houston's city government was designed for part-time public servants who remain connected to their communities.
What ultimately drives Tyler is a belief in Houston's potential and the core Texan value of fairness. "I want people to feel just as proud to say that they're from Houston as they are from anywhere else in this country," he shares, pointing toward a vision of a city that works for everyone. Whether discussing public safety, relationships with county government, or the challenges of campaigning, Tyler's candor reveals someone focused on service rather than self-promotion.
Ready to learn more or get involved? Visit www.jovontyler.com to connect with the campaign and join the effort to bring HOPE and hard work to Houston's future.
We hope you will listen often.
For more information, visit our website 22sides.com
If I had an hour, I would love to talk to Jack about, for two things, why they left Montrose. Is that in the podcast? No, no. And then why did they stop with the disco ball or the chandelier in the center of wherever it is?
Alexis:Yeah, I mean the chandelier is back Sort of when In front of the grandstand, at the very beginning of the parade.
Jovon:You never notice it.
Alexis:I know it's on a big tower, I mean we have pictures of it and everything. But they did that to the disco ball. That was a mistake. Disco balls are totally different. They need a disco ball with like three or four really good spotlights and it would light up the whole neighborhood. But the group that did it they thought the chandelier was better because they had their own interior designers.
Jovon:Did I say that Not smart? You can quote me on that Not smart.
Robin:He didn't talk a lot about the current ones. He talked about what it took to actually get something up. Okay, so I'm going to interrupt you.
Alexis:No surprise, I'm Alexis and I'm here with Robin. All right we have somebody with us today that we both know really, really, really well and we both like really really really well. So this is going to be like a very positive friend-type conversation or maybe not and so I'll let you introduce yourself.
Jovon:All right, I'm Jovan Tyler and I am currently running for a city council seat, one of the at-large positions here in Houston. But, as Alexis made mention earlier, I've been a great friend and advocate of Alexis Melvin and her work throughout my time of knowing her, and I've also been a great friend of Robin Mack yes, and all of the time that I've known her. So I'm excited to be here.
Robin:So glad you're here and there are no topics that are off limits.
Jovon:I'll be open and honest and transparent, and some things I'll say I'm sure you'll agree with, and some things you're going to go. Why the devil did he say that?
Alexis:And I'll probably make some comments that aren't agreeable with various people, but I always do that. That's sort of my position on this.
Jovon:And that's why we're friends.
Alexis:Exactly, and you know, the other thing about it is, when I look at it, we're trying to get things out here, and so I guess my first real question would be why would you want to be on city council?
Jovon:Well, I think that the city is in crisis. Frankly, I think that there's a vacuum of leadership. Could I interrupt for half a second?
Alexis:Do you know any government entity in the US that is not in crisis? I don't know. Okay, good, starting with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Yeah, you can go top down or bottom up, it makes no difference.
Robin:Fair question yeah yeah.
Jovon:And I, you know, and I have tried to study history and so I know that this is not unusual that folks will say we're in crisis. But in my 48 years of life I have never felt more under threat, I have never felt more uneasy and I've never felt more as our society is out of control as I do now.
Alexis:Well, being the president of Transgender Foundation of America and a transgender person, I would echo that you know. I mean, it's like I thought we got rid of this a long time ago, but we didn't.
Jovon:Yeah, I was reading an article and I'm sure you all read it in the Washington Post yesterday, okay, about the president and his desire to erase anyone who's not white, straight and male out of history. And if you look on the website for the Stonewall Inn, which is one of our national sites, they took transgender people off.
Alexis:Yeah, I guess we weren't there, you weren't there, transgender people weren't once. You kicked them off, we were there.
Jovon:And were the stars of the show, but somehow you weren't there, nope.
Robin:It just goes to show how quick some things, especially digital things, can be erased, and that's. We do a lot of work to make sure that people have physical archives or, you know, a little bit of access to that, if you can. And you see you. How old are you now, jovan?
Jovon:I'm 48 until next week, when I turned 49.
Robin:And since this is not a video podcast, could you describe yourself for people?
Jovon:Absolutely, I am 6 foot. I'm currently 255 pounds.
Robin:I am relatively attractive hey.
Alexis:We'll give our opinions on that too. And by race, I'm black, but my grandmother was very, and by race, I'm black.
Jovon:But my grandmother was very particular when she was living, in terms of our blackness, and so we are Creole. Our genealogy was done and we came from Lyon, france. We landed in Sunset Louisiana, we went from Sunset Louisiana, we went to New Orleans. From New Orleans we went to Liberty, texas, and from Liberty Texas.
Alexis:we ended up here in Houston. Yeah, I was saying the other day, this explains a lot.
Robin:Jovan is really good at cooking.
Jovon:Yeah, I can make gumbo and double iron and etouffee. You get him in the kitchen and he just smiles, yeah, and a great fried chicken.
Alexis:Yeah, I smiles. Yeah, I was saying the other day. I said you know we have a lot of people who are leaving texas that we hear from and you know it's interesting because they're finding that the idea of moving to louisiana is good and even oklahoma is better than texas these days and I'm like, okay, this is really bad it is bad.
Jovon:You know it's bad because, other than the food in Louisiana, I don't really know what, like you're closer to the eye of hurricanes there Right.
Robin:That's really scary for me.
Alexis:And the people. That's the big thing, in my opinion. I mean, the Louisiana people are great.
Robin:They are fun, yeah, and Houston history is. We're very open to them Now.
Alexis:Oklahoma. I'm having trouble figuring this out.
Jovon:I can't either other than what was the song from the Oklahoma Broadway show Good Morning Everybody, or whatever it was called.
Alexis:Good morning. Good morning, yeah, it's the only thing that I can think of, and then Oklahoma Sooners, yeah. I was going to say but Oklahoma had nothing to do with that. They were a New York thing, You're right, anyway, but yeah, new York thing, you're right Anyway, but yeah. So you know, with the city of Houston, I could come up with my list of things that I think are real problems. What's your list? What needs to be?
Robin:What's your response to the crisis? Because one could say dumpster fires have been going on for a while. Right, you know, but it takes a lot to throw your hat in the ring.
Jovon:It does, and so I have a hodgepodge of things I want to tackle once I'm there, but someone recommended that I use an acronym to ensure that I remember what those things are.
Robin:All right.
Alexis:Let's hit with that acronym. You keep talking to Grant. No, actually this didn't come from a grant Kind of when.
Jovon:I was president of the caucus. I like to label myself as the people's president, and so I'm the people's candidate, and so I get ideas from people just ordinary, regular people. Right on, and so Houston stands for hope and the H is our homeless crisis, our human trafficking crisis. It is a crisis. O stands for opportunity. I don't think that people have access to opportunities here in Houston. P stands for folks being able to access our for lack of a better phrasing kind of our public accommodations in terms of feeling free to be themselves.
Robin:That's a big one.
Jovon:In public spaces. I know I'm about to step on some toes perhaps but I'm tired of going to only LGBTQ events and there's a sign up saying I can use any restroom and then, when that LGBTQ event is done, the signs go away. I think that's really insulting. And E just stands for efficiency in terms of, I don't think that our city is run efficiently. Trash is being picked up whenever Illegal dumping is at an all-time high.
Jovon:I deliberately bought a home in the third ward and it's a disaster in terms of illegal dumping and tire dumping, and I mean people bring their trash to our neighborhood and dump it.
Robin:We live there.
Jovon:And small children still play in the streets in that neighborhood and it's out of control and I'm not certain that the leaders that we currently have either they don't care or they don't know how to solve these problems.
Alexis:Yeah, I mean, personally, I don't like the HOPE acronym. That's okay. My reason is that I fully understand why the saying is that HOPE was the last thing that was left in Pandora's box. It is, and it drags you on instead of just saying, ok, this has to be fixed. A lot of people just say, well, you know, I'm hoping this or that, and I'm like, no, forget the hope, let's do it. Yeah, you know, it's sort of where I come from.
Jovon:Houston also stands for hard work. So it's not just for hope, it's also for hard work.
Alexis:You know I can't do things alone.
Jovon:I had someone talk to me about the homeless crisis someone I respect and they said that Houston will always have the homeless and so we can't solve that problem. I don't think that's accurate. I don't think it's true.
Alexis:Okay, if we're looking at that say homeless, I think Houston will always have homeless people. Okay, I have a lot of reasons why, which you know, happy to go over, but the key is the homeless problem is different than just having homeless. You know, if we have some facilities that take care of it and we have laws that you know recognize the fact that homeless people are homeless people, then it's not a crisis anymore and it's not a problem anymore. And I mean, there are some people I'm one of these weird people that talk to homeless people on the streets.
Jovon:As do.
Alexis:I and you know sometimes it's just a very pleasant conversation, Other times not so much, but that's okay. I've talked to people who are not happy with me a lot and I think what we need to do is find that sort of place where if there's something they need, it gets taken care of, but if they just want to be pleasant on the streets, we should have places where they can be pleasant on the streets, because there are a few people who just don't want to be inside someplace.
Jovon:Well, and that was true in my early part of life when I left home. I left home to live on the streets at 15 because my grandparents God bless their souls. They were not equipped to manage raising a 15-year-old version of me in 1992.
Robin:In Houston, in Houston, okay, so you're very familiar with this location, what it has to offer, yeah.
Jovon:And so I hit the road and I voluntarily lived on the streets, the first I don't know 15 months of my life from that. And it was probably some of the best times of my life, and and you know.
Alexis:I don't know that people would have guessed that answer, but you know you like I was trying to get there, I mean you know, you know, in all fairness, you know, openly support Jovan for this position.
Robin:You're, oh, you're going to throw out that endorsement right there. I've already done the endorsement Alexis and Melon for Jovan. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Alexis:But yeah, I mean, that's what I'm talking about, and the real problem is that the way people would solve the problem that they saw you as, shall we say, whether you were a problem or not, right, is there going to go arrest you and put you in jail, absolutely. Oh great, that's going to help. No, and it's like no, that's the wrong thing. If you're having trouble, there needs to be help for you. If you aren't having trouble, there needs to be. Hi, how are you? You doing, okay, today, right?
Jovon:And I got a lot of that. So during the daytime I had safe places to go. I got a voucher to go to McDonald's, which was funny because as a teenager at my grandparents' house I never got McDonald's I drank my first Coca-Cola at 18, which was incredible. And I lost some teeth as a result, because I drank a lot of Coca-Cola and it was in the midst of the AIDS crisis and so a lot of my friends we were all teenagers together and all of them died because they contracted HIV and then later AIDS.
Alexis:And then right.
Jovon:But in terms of memories, we had a. We had a ton of fun. Now, years later, when I fell into a drug addiction and spent a month on the streets because I had lost my apartment and things, that was About how old were you then.
Robin:I was 26. So a lot of different perspective. Yeah, and a frontal lobe. Yeah, yeah, and that was a lot harder. Yeah, the first job I had.
Jovon:I worked. I was a part of AmeriCorps.
Alexis:Okay.
Jovon:And I worked. Part of our mission was we worked at search and the folks training us at search told us that homeless that that homeless adults folks don't look at them in their eye, they pretend like they don't see them, and I know that's true. For the four weeks that I lived on the streets no one looked at me in my eye it's like I was invisible yeah you know, and so I make a point of every homeless person that I see. I don't often give them money, but I look them in the eye and say I'm sorry, I can't today.
Alexis:Yeah, because they're entitled to it, they're humans. I mean I don't give them money. I look at them and I talk to them frequently.
Robin:Yeah, so in your seat, what do you think that you can do for that? Because for people who are not familiar with the position you're running, there's probably a scope of efficiency that you could get to, and then some that you would hope you could work with others that could get to.
Jovon:Yeah, I think that city council folks are mostly constituent services people. You know illegal dumping like on my street I should be able to call it my council member and he and she, in this case, or her office would get on that and clean up my street. That's currently not happening.
Alexis:Well, and you can get a hold of the constables and HPD quicker than a regular person. Can you? Can you know?
Jovon:you can but the. But I also think that it is an advocacy role. You don't really make laws, but you can influence people to create laws and to create programs and to create structures that help people. I think back to the hero situation, a law that was sort of attempted to be enacted.
Jovon:And I was around when Lee Brown attempted to make life fair for everyone and the voters came out and overwhelmingly said no. And then Anise Parker attempted the same thing, and I'm not certain that our leaders typically know how to discuss this kind of issue with the public, absolutely correct, and I look at it and the Trump election, for instance.
Alexis:the part that I find sad about that is that I think it was a fair election it was. I don't like the results I sure as hell don't. But just because I don't like the results doesn't mean it's not fair, unlike the other side that claims everything that doesn't go their way is unfair. And it really saddens me to think that 51% of the people wanted what Donald Trump said he was going to do, and he's actually doing a lot of it Well, in some of the statistics.
Robin:I actually heard Anise Parker do a keynote speech this Saturday at the Houston Art League and inside of the speech she said that the 51% voted but 12% of that was LGBT. And what I didn't hear is how many people were available to vote but didn't, and I think that there's just like a group of people that have completely checked out from this. And then there's the people who are obviously still making it to the voting polls, but we're not really talking about it as much as we have past elections. Like all I'm hearing is silence. In fact, it was weird for me going into this last election about two months, in which was right at the height of Kamala's increase of who she was and making the rounds, I heard nobody talking. I was like, oh, this is not good. It was like really loud silence.
Alexis:I mean about two. Well, after Kamala did her first round of things, I quit talking about the election because I'm like Trump's won. Oh yeah, I mean, there was no question, so why spend your energy on that? And you know there's a point when you're like, ok, I need to go on and spend my energy on something else that actually might work.
Alexis:Well, if you look at folks voting in Houston, more people voted for Lee Brown than voted for John Whitmire by a country mile, and we had a whole lot less people that were eligible to vote then than we do now, so they came out and voted.
Robin:What do you think has created some of that gap?
Jovon:I'm sure you got some thoughts. As somebody who's running, I do. I think, even though you had Sheila Jackson Lee who was a charismatic vocal leader.
Robin:She was in every photo possible.
Jovon:In every photo possible.
Alexis:I don't know how the lady got from Washington to Houston as fast as she did.
Robin:Say what you want about Sheila but she was working at Photo Fitness.
Jovon:She got around, she did.
Robin:For a person who had a seat that would put you in DC. Often she was getting the DC and the houston photos.
Alexis:And then you know, everybody was like I don't know if I could do anything during this disaster. I was like she was literally lifting water cases, get out there at like 9 30 in the morning I would get a photo call and say it's sheila. I don't have a photographer. This thing it's over here and here and here. I'm like I'll be there, yeah argue, but I'm gonna be there.
Robin:We know this.
Alexis:Yeah, and then the worst part was that frequently I'd say okay, but I'm not gonna talk because I have nothing to talk about whatever, and about halfway through I'd be taking pictures that here, alexis right and you just have to go talk because she's not gonna give up.
Robin:You're on the hook no, I was at west great and she was talking to somebody uh, maybe you know, not this last election for her, but the one before that and she stopped her conversation and she pulled me aside. She said tell Alexis, I'm going to give her a call. And the lady looked at me and she goes who are you? I was like it doesn't matter. Good to see you, Sheila, I'll tell her.
Alexis:And then I'd be like oh yeah. Because you good to see you, sheila. I'll tell her and you know I'd be like oh yeah, because you know there's certain people, you just don't bother to say no, it won't work, no it doesn't.
Jovon:And the other funny thing about sheila and I know I'm kind of going down a rabbit hole talking about sheila, sheila. So when I was president of caucus, sheila was the first person to call yeah, yeah, midnight of the elected folks and said congratulations wow I'll I'll never forget that. Wow, and then the other awesome thing about Sheila is you cannot not answer the phone.
Alexis:Yeah, yeah, she's going to keep calling. Yeah, I know, yeah, you know you look at it and you're like it's at six rings. Mine goes to answering machine at seven, it's like, and it rings again.
Jovon:Yep, that's it. You can call again and you know you go listen to the message if you want, because you'll be like call me anytime now. So back to the question of so what do you think the gap is between Lee and? It was the most uninspiring election in my life for Houston mayor, and this is in a time when we've elected Bill.
Alexis:Bill White really wasn't an aspiring speech giver or anything, but he had been an effective business leader and he was a good public servant and I think people got by that I was about to say I think Bill White did a good job as mayor and there were several things that he did that were difficult to do and he really didn't care.
Jovon:Yeah, he didn't care, he's like it needs to be done, but people were willing and happy to come out and vote for him. Yeah, he's like it needs to be done. But people were willing and happy to come out and vote for him this last election people I think a lot of people just chose to stay home.
Robin:Yeah, it was really disappointing.
Alexis:Well, these are our options on staying home yeah, and I think one of the things is that we get into a situation where we've had so many elections and we've had so many things that have gone on leading up to the election that people get confused. Yeah, I mean, I was having trouble keeping the candidates for mayor straight and basically I know them both really well, right, and it's like oh, wait a minute. No, that wasn't Whitmire, that was this other person.
Jovon:And many of us got excited about different people that were running for mayor, sure, sure, and they switched seats on us.
Robin:Yes, they do that sometimes.
Alexis:They do that sometimes and it's like okay, yeah, I can probably support you over there too, yeah.
Jovon:I had to think about it a little bit.
Alexis:Which brings me up what made you decide to run at large? I think you're running at large, right.
Jovon:Yes, I am running at large so I appreciate the district council folks. You know they get money specifically for their district and I do live in D and I think D needs a lot of help, but my resume is more for an at-large position. Yeah, I've helped Houstonians all over our city. And I wouldn't stop in a district, but I get needle-focused on something and that's where I work, and I'd like to work for the entire city rather than just a single district.
Robin:I love that answer, I think it's a great answer I totally, jovan is. The thing that I do know about you is that you are someone who's willing to do the work. You just throw your whole self in there, and so it's good that you know yourself where you need to have a large enough capacity to thrive. Yeah, thank you for that.
Jovon:Well, I don't lie, and I know that politicians bend the truth, they fib, they misremember.
Alexis:Don't forget to spin. They spin yeah that's true, but the truth of the matter is that is.
Robin:That is that they lie yeah, and I'm not going to ask someone to vote for me.
Jovon:I'm not going to ask somebody to work for me, to campaign alongside of me, to volunteer for me, to give me money, and then I lie because that's not.
Robin:That goes against my character, and I think the character really matters in these public positions absolutely, and and they can tell the difference sometimes. I mean, this is a bold statement giving the world that we're living in now, but I think sometimes you can tell the people who are just passionate about it and then the people who are just spinning stories. You know, like they're not really doing anything, they're just talking out their mouth.
Alexis:And some of them are really good. Yeah, they are.
Robin:You believe everything that they say, yeah, yeah, and even when they come back with the spin, you believe that too well. When we screen with. I screened a few seats for the lgbt political caucus and it was when beethoven was running against. Uh, cruz and I, I must have sat for 20 seats and I'll tell you there were some people in certain positions that would come in and you have to screen the people that were running in the same race that wanted to be endorsed and they would have completely different ideas about what that seat does. So I found myself going. Well, now I need to look it up you know, and and you, you're like wait a minute.
Robin:Which one's right?
Alexis:I sort of laugh because of me. I'm not a political scientist, but living in, living in texas, you better learn how the government really works.
Alexis:Yeah, because the people who are wanting you to vote for them are frequently going to lie to you, and you know I mean I always love hearing someone running for city council, for instance, and this isn't you who says, well, we're going to fix the problem with flooding and we're going to do this and this and this, and it's like how are you going to do that? Right, you know, because, a it's going to be the mayor's program, because of the strong mayor council government. B it's almost all state or federal Right, and yet you can tell them what you think, but so can I.
Alexis:Yeah, we're equals there and you know. Then you hear somebody come through that says well, what I'm going to do is advocate for it. I'm going to, you know, spend some staff time doing it, which is the correct answer. Yeah, and people don't like it because they haven't been promised a quick fix, and those people who voted for him because of that are now complaining that well, but my house still floods.
Jovon:It's like no kidding. Yeah, no, I agree 100, and so you?
Alexis:know I? I think if you're not going to lie, you have to do a lot of education while you're doing your other part, because people don't know how government works. Speaking of that, so, hypothetically, lots of hypotheticals here. Uh, you think you'll get along okay with the county, okay.
Jovon:Well, I think one of my biggest cheerleaders with the county currently is Leslie Briones.
Alexis:Okay, one of the first people I sat down with when I decided to do this.
Jovon:She was very. We had a lovely breakfast and she couldn't have been couldn't have been sweeter. Yeah, one of my favorite politicians I have since heard she's gone around town telling, telling folks uh, you better not get in that race, Cause my friend Joe Jovan is in it.
Robin:So that's great, that's good, that's good.
Jovon:I have friendly relationships with uh Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis. Uh and I historically have had a friendly relationship with the county judge, but yesterday, as many people know, my mother former Mayor Neese Parker has declared that she's running for county judge. I'm not certain.
Robin:Can't talk against your mama. No, no question.
Jovon:I don't know if the current county judge is friendly or not, so we'll have to. So time will tell.
Alexis:I thought I'd bring this up.
Robin:I appreciate it. That sounds like Texas politics, yeah.
Alexis:And, interestingly enough, council members and mayor's relationship with the county is, in my opinion, much more important than a lot of people think. It is Because to think about county commissioners is they have money, they do and they can spend it any way they want to.
Alexis:And so the idea is, you have a good enough relationship that, if you really need something for your people, you're like, look, I need to get this done Right. And somebody like Adrian Garcia or Leslie Briones says, well, how much is it going to cost? You Tell them they're like okay, do it. They're like okay, do it. Yeah, and you know they can do that, which is just an amazing thing.
Jovon:It is an amazing thing, yeah, and they can be real partners for you. Absolutely, or they can make your life miserable, not a whole lot of fun. You're right.
Alexis:Your people and what you want never happens and there's nothing that can be done about it. I mean, this is probably the closest that we still have to old Texas politics. You know, this is like Judge Roy Bean running stuff out there and it really is. Yeah, I mean. And so that's why I was asking and I'm like, yeah, I think we have a chance of having a pretty good county government. We do, you know which is, and I'm excited about it.
Alexis:Me too. It's sort of like wait a minute, and you know I wasn't a fan of Lena's, but I think Lena's done a pretty darn good job.
Jovon:I think that she has. I think that she's had some struggles and those struggles, I think, have bled into folks' perception of her Right. I don't have an opinion of her struggles whatsoever, but I do know for a fact that my mother did a great job as mayor. In fact, I also know that she did a great job as president and CEO of Victory Fund.
Robin:More recently.
Jovon:More recently. I mean, the number of LGBTQ folks who have sought elected office exploded under her leadership and we got more people elected, and so I think if she is our next county judge, I think she's going to do an equally great job. I mean anything that she's done. She's been great at it. Not always popular, but she's been great at it.
Robin:Not always popular, but she's been good at it, I think that's the cost you risk of being elected, of wanting to be elected. Even if you don't get there, you still have this cost of putting yourself at risk for people not liking you, maybe even personal threat, maybe even causing issues for yourself. There's problems when you get that much access to that much media.
Alexis:Sometimes and when they're doing sound bites and not telling the whole story or even the right version of it, and you just have to sort of slough it off and hope. Yeah.
Robin:So people who want to vote for you, is it the November election? No, Because I think you threw your hat really kind of far out right, very early.
Jovon:Okay, my election isn't until November of 2027.
Robin:That's what I thought. So this is like really early.
Alexis:We're talking to you now.
Jovon:Because we're friends. I appreciate that. However, to run a good city election, I need to raise anywhere from $500,000 upwards to a million.
Robin:Where are you at right now?
Jovon:Probably a little less than $20,000.
Robin:And you started around when Last month.
Jovon:Okay, but I'm not trying to raise a bunch of money now, right, I'm just trying to go out and meet people and shake hands and kiss babies and find out what the issues are.
Robin:Yeah, and take the long game.
Jovon:Take the long game, there's nothing worse and I think Alexis would agree with me than people who show up to political groups and say vote for me and you have no idea who they are.
Robin:Yeah, that's the first question. If you show up in a room, everyone's going to be like, first of all, where have you been? Who are you Like? They might not even care about that part. You know because it's where have you been. Yeah, it's where have you been, right.
Alexis:I mean like CD18, we've got what 25 people filed already.
Jovon:Adding by the day.
Alexis:I know I was telling Maria Gonzalez the other day I'm like you know, I'd really sort of like to screen in that race, but then I don't want to screen in that race for the caucus because you have to screen everybody and a lot of those people want to go for the caucus endorsement and I'm like, oh, this is just going to be a madhouse. Good luck, Brandon.
Alexis:And hopefully, if you don't get it, you won't walk away all upset. Yeah, that's the hard part about politics to me is that you really have to have a thick skin and not get upset if you lose. And who was it? I don't remember who it was. It was somebody we were screening that had lost the previous year and this was in the LGBTQ plus. I can't say it all Caucus screening. You can blame me, I know that's what I was sort of looking across at Joe Vaughn and you know. So this person sort of came back and everything and they're like, yeah, I lost.
Jovon:And.
Alexis:Yeah, you know. Yeah, he said no big deal. You learn a lot. You get to talk to lots of people. You get your points of view out there. You get some people who you can figure out pretty quickly. They wish you, wish you, because they change to your point of view to see if they can get you to support and and I'm like, okay, got it, yeah, and and you know, and it just it's not necessarily a negative, no, and and a lot of people I have noticed if they do this, you can see that they're actually spending more time with business people than anything else, because they're really looking for a job.
Jovon:That's true.
Alexis:It's part of their job interview thing.
Jovon:So I'm glad you brought that up, because someone told me they said well, you know, if you run at large, even if you don't win, you're going to get this amazing job offer. I'm not looking for a different job. I'm very happy in the job that I've done now for the last 15 years.
Robin:Which is what for people who don't know.
Jovon:Sure, I sell prearranged services for families, which includes cremations, burials, funerals. I think it's one of the most important things a person can do for their loved ones.
Alexis:And it's also what everyone's going to have to deal with.
Jovon:Everybody's going to get a turn, including the three of us at the table. Yes, exactly.
Robin:We might as well get a plan. Might as well get a plan.
Jovon:I'm also a licensed funeral director and what caused me to decide this is what I wanted to do was that I met families over the years 14 years as a director who, when we slide them a bill of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, they say is there a payment plan? The answer is always no, it's against the law. Is there a discount you can offer us? The answer is no, it's against the law, it's against the federal, it's against a federal trade practice. What the bill is is what the bill is, but pre-need allows us to give a discount and you can put it on a payment plan.
Jovon:Wow, and so there's two kinds of families that I met with, families whose loved one didn't prearrange. They were wondering how to come up with the money, because when death occurs, people become very emotional.
Robin:They overspend For sure.
Jovon:They make decisions that the person who died probably wouldn't have made for themselves. Right, but it's emotional and they want to honor their loved one the best way that they can Versus a family that prearranged. They come in, they talk about their loved one and they laugh and they say, oh, thank God, this person did this, so we didn't have to.
Robin:We so we didn't have to. We didn't have to pick out a cat, we didn't have to pick out an art.
Alexis:We didn't have to figure out the music.
Robin:Yes.
Alexis:And so I try to educate, educate families on that on how to do that.
Robin:I didn't know that there were law restrictions on prices and things like that, oh, absolutely. Is that something that people are working to take away? I mean, for me it seems like it's so weird because in the state of Texas, if you run your own business, we oftentimes make our own prices for everything. No, I know there's plenty of people who cannot afford their funerals and their burials and stuff. What do you think about the limitations on that? Is that suppressive to people or there's a good plan behind it? I think it's fair, Okay.
Jovon:Or just there's a good plan behind it. I think it's fair. Okay, the funeral service business is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. Okay, the Texas.
Robin:Funeral.
Jovon:Service Commission and it's one other group. It's a state group, I can't remember.
Robin:That's okay. It's not a pop quiz, but this is a national thing. But it is one of the most over-regulated businesses in our country.
Jovon:Okay, and I think it's because people have been taken advantage of Okay.
Alexis:That's a point when it's really easy to take advantage of them. Yeah, wow, people are the most vulnerable. I mean, there are so many things you can throw in that may or may not be true. Right, it just dings at the people and they just throw you money. Yeah, yeah, and I was going to say because in my mind I always thought that was to keep people from being gouged.
Jovon:It is Wow. It really is Okay. The other thing is that whenever you visit a funeral home, I know we're going somewhere else now in this conversation, but whenever you visit a funeral home. Before a person says this is how much something costs, they're breaking federal law by not giving you a copy of their price list. They have to give you that first before they give you any price.
Robin:Okay.
Jovon:What that includes is the right to provide your own casket or your own urn.
Alexis:You don't have to buy theirs.
Jovon:Wow. It also provides you with the opportunity to either be refrigerated, or get embalmed. Embalming is not something that's required, and a lot of people are told that you have to buy the casket or earn here. If you use this, you have to be embalmed. Those are bold-faced lies and they're against the law.
Robin:I'm glad you say that right now, in this moment, because you are somebody who is passionate about lives being honored and lives being celebrated long after people are no longer here physically and you've used a lot of your years your own personal sweat, things like this to do this for people. But hearing how things work in a moment of grief, you know the human brain can't really think through a lot of stuff. So I'm glad people get a little bit of facts right now, in this moment, and then you know, maybe it does inch them to making their planning and honestly, you've been a huge contribution in my life and my family planning spontaneously spontaneously, so I mean, even if it's spontaneous, like I would recommend going with a known resource, going with a friend, making sure you have someone that's thinking for you with you, because it may not be you right now. You know you might be tender, so that's great. So you're not actually interested in leaving that field. You're going to stay in that field.
Jovon:No, so the city charter. Our four folks said years and years and years ago that the job of a city council person is really a part-time job. Right, wow, so you better have another job, yeah, because that ain't going to pay the bills.
Alexis:I was going to say that just has to do with how much they're going to not pay you, Right?
Jovon:Right, so my chief of staff will probably end up making a lot more than I will as a city council person. Okay, the only time you have to give up an outside job is when you run and win. Not when you run, but when you win as city controller or when you are our mayor, okay, and they compensate you well for those particular jobs.
Alexis:Like I say, a city controller always seems to be a lawyer, so it's not really an outside job.
Jovon:Right, right, right, and, unless you like numbers, that's a really boring job.
Alexis:I was going to say, and I do like Chris, just so you know I do too. He's a great guy.
Robin:I'll always remember Chris for 24-hour voting, so that was my favorite. Mine too. I wouldn't be mad if we brought that back.
Jovon:Yeah, I'd be happy if we brought it back but we have a way to work on that.
Alexis:We'll talk about it sometime Right, some other time, right, right.
Robin:Well, what do you? I just I'm curious. As somebody who has had family run for office, you've been around a lot of people running, you've been in caucuses, things like this. What are some of the things that you're finding out, actually doing it yourself, that you know, like on the ground, it was like, oh, maybe I thought that part was going to be easier. Or, you know, I wish I had space for this. Or, oh, I didn't think that part through, like just in the beginning stages. You know, giving yourself grace because it's going to be still like a long path, right. Are there some things where you're like, oh, I wish I would have known this part one month in already.
Jovon:Yeah, so I have helped so many people, even when I was president of the caucus. I've helped so many people. Even when I was president of the caucus. I've helped so many people get in seats. I've helped so many people just in life get to the places that they want to get to. And so, and I believe I'm a humble person and so it's hard to say vote for me, it's hard to say give me money for my campaign.
Jovon:It's hard to say, come and volunteer for me. It's hard to say, give me money for my campaign. It's hard to say, come and volunteer for me. And what someone enlightened me to is this is not about me, this is about the city. Yeah, and it was a trigger in my brain and I realized, oh yeah, I'm running to help my city, right, so this isn't for me right for
Alexis:the city, but initially it was really hard. Yeah, it was really hard that's what I would find very, very difficult and and you know, one of the things, people who might not know Jovan's good at raising money for other people. I am, I don't mind, asking you for a check for what you're doing.
Jovon:In fact, I like it because I think that people ought to give money for causes and things that need your money, sure, sure, your money, sure sure. I'm annoyed by folks who are so proud to say, well, we give to this national group, we give to that national group. And then you say well, what about your local group? And they say oh, that's someone else's problem.
Alexis:Or I'm not interested or I've never heard of them, but they complain constantly about not getting their trash picked up. Right, and it's like you know, maybe you could take a little bit of what you gave Nationals, because they had a whole lot of zeros Right.
Jovon:Exactly. And you could get your trash picked up Right Exactly, and so that's been the hardest thing. But I've kind of changed that thinking and I've changed my approach, and I'm not allergic to the word no.
Robin:That's good.
Jovon:I enjoy when people say, no, I'm not going to do this for you. I can come back and say, well, what are you, or what else can you do? Or can you at least do this for me, or can you at least do that? I mean part of having been a salesman in this life is that I can overcome objections.
Robin:Good, good. Yeah, there's definitely some skill set there, that's wonderful yeah, okay so.
Alexis:I have another question for you. It's one of those questions that's probably not overly popular, but I listened to your list of things that you're interested in and I didn't hear public safety.
Jovon:Yeah, so I am. I know that public safety is important, but I also know that public safety, if not presented in a way so people hear what they want to hear, when you say that you're for public safety, you know there's people that want to defund the police. I'm never going to say that there are people that are, unless you've got the blue sticker on the back of your car, then you're not with the police. I'm not going to say that either. I think that there is a fair and balanced way to look at public safety is a fair and balanced way to look at public safety. I don't think that a person should be running for office if they are not looking at it from that perspective.
Jovon:I don't, I'm not like Mr Police. I'm also not Mr Defund the Police. I think that we need the police, I think that we need the fire department, I think that we need our first responders, and there have been instances that we all know where abuses occurred and people have been enacted, and there will be more changes, I'm sure, as time moves, moves forward. Um, it's just one of those things where I just don't. I don't think it's something that I've had a great deal of of, of, of of history being involved in outside of ACT, up and Queer Nation, but I was never arrested. Um, um and my. You know I'm getting ready to be married to a firefighter.
Robin:And so I definitely believe in public service Wow the people around you are putting you in a hot seat. They are Also good for you, congratulations.
Jovon:Thank you.
Robin:Thank you very much. You have that firefighter dream bod next to you. I do, yeah, and it's fresh out of the Army National.
Jovon:Service.
Alexis:Hey.
Jovon:Hey, or National Guard rather, and so yeah.
Alexis:Good that they're out right now. I know I sent a text earlier today, you just got out.
Jovon:Thank God, thank God, he said what happened.
Robin:I was like our governor yeah, seriously, seriously. Well, I think those topics are quite big and as we get closer to you getting elected, I don't think the necessary support for mental illness and things will also disappear. I think a lot of people post-pandemic are noticing just how many people went without their medicine, how many people are going to be affected by the heats this summer. I mean a lot of these, uh, police calls and whatnot should be psych calls, should be support calls, and so I mean a bunch of things can happen before you're ever elected with the funding for all of that, honestly. So it's probably people hear what they hear, but there's still a lot of need. It's a huge city and what is like one more issue that's just important to your heart.
Jovon:before we close, I want people to feel good about being Houstonians. You know there's an old saying that if you've been in Houston longer than a day or so, then you're suddenly a Houstonian, and I think that's true. They say we have 40,000 people moving to Houston daily.
Alexis:That's sort of scary. It is scary, I mean we can barely hold the ones that are here, right? I saw that the other day I'm like oh, this is getting really scary. It is getting scary.
Jovon:Wow, and we have a double number of people that are coming into Houston every day to work and then leave. Right, that would be Harris County. Yeah, that's Harris County. That's why I was asking about what you thought your relationship was going to be, because a lot of people don't understand that they're as big as Houston the non-Houston part of Harris County but I want people to be just as proud to say that they're from Houston as they are from anywhere else in this country.
Robin:That's a wonderful thing.
Alexis:You know, I moved back to Houston and one of my big reasons was that I wanted to be someplace that I was proud of what they're doing.
Robin:Yeah.
Alexis:I mean I was living in Ann Arbor, michigan, which gets a whole bunch of pluses and everything. Not from my point of view, right, you know. I mean it's. It's like they get pluses because for one day a year marijuana was legal. I'm like that's nothing. I mean seriously, and it really wasn't legal. It was just the police agreed not to arrest anyone and I'm like, okay, I'm not overly impressed. And then they had a reasonable art fair and I'm like I need to get back to some place where I'm proud of the city. And you know, sometimes I haven't been proud of what the city is doing, but that's okay. That's when you sort of start making phone calls and doing things.
Robin:I was there in person when Anise was getting told over and over and over again during the hero testimonies and things like this. Lots and lots of just foul abuse was being talked towards her and and then the council members at that time and I I I wish that on no one, but they stood for people being taken care of and I think they authentically thought it would win at the polls. And it's great, going through something like that, even when it didn't pass, to see that people wanted it to pass. And then in hero or sorry, and then Harvey, when the disaster happened, a lot of people came together, whether it was a city official or, um, just your personal on the streets, you know, stranger to you, helping you out.
Robin:I don't see that in a lot of other cities and since global warming will keep warming, like I can't say a lot for the state, but I can say that Houston local leadership wants people to thrive and even though they have their differences and they have their shortcomings for sure, that's the part that I consistently see is that it is a big city to take care of. So if we can do it here, we can do it in most places. I would say so. It's an ongoing job, but personally that's what I like about our local leadership is they're willing to hang in there with all the punches and all the toughness, to keep people safe.
Alexis:And you know, one of the big things, when I first moved to Texas, which was 1970 in Dallas, the thing that I noticed that was different about Texas is that people who I consider true Texans, they believe in fairness Absolutely. You know they might not like what you're wanting to do, but if it's fair they're stuck and you can just see it. It's like, okay, yeah, it's fair, We've got to do that and you know a lot of that has gone away as lots of people have moved in. But that's still sort of an underpinning and you can still watch people. When you, when you make the case that it's not fair what they're doing, they start to get uncomfortable and that's all you really need. I mean, I mean, I think of some of the things. For instance, you mentioned Harvey.
Alexis:Anytime we've had a disaster and had to open shelters or anything, we Transgender Foundation of America, TFA I'm president of TFA have had people sort of at the shelters looking for discrimination. Yeah, Because a lot of times there is and it's bad and we try to do something about it. Well, this time the only discrimination we found at one of the shelters was it was a church and the person that called in and when we called and checked with them. They're like, oh yeah, they're discriminating. They're discriminating against everybody in every group you can think of here and said, but it doesn't matter, because the water's coming up really fast, they're moving everybody to george r brown and but the rest of them there was no discrimination. So afterwards I called shelter managers back because I was curious. I'm like, like why? And they said well, county judge made it really clear that anyone that discriminates for any reason and doesn't take care of these people, the best way they possibly can is going to answer to him.
Robin:And at the time it was Ed Emmett. Yeah.
Alexis:And I was like seriously. And they're like yes, and it's funny because at the Unity Banquet we had Emmett as a speaker and I was like, okay, so I'm having the Republican at this gathering, that's almost all Democrats, and he went over perfectly well, I mean, and all like that. But you know, that's the whole fairness thing that I keep seeing and I think that's a big plus.
Robin:I think it's a huge plus for you, you know, and uh, so when people are supporting you getting to the seat and the seat that you will, you know, continue to support houston and not necessarily jovan, with the seat that you want to be in. How can they find you? What's the easiest way to to show that support?
Jovon:man, I'm glad you asked me that grant. This is going to make my campaign consultant very grant's a really cool guy like our entire purpose for having you here is to make Grant happy.
Alexis:Right, let's keep making Grant happy. We know Grant, right, right wwwjovantylercom.
Robin:J-O-V-O-N-T-Y-L-E-R, nice.
Jovon:No A's are in the name Jovan.
Robin:All right, one more time for Grant www time for grant.
Jovon:J w w dot j o v o n t y l e rcom. That's where you can find all the information, including how to donate, how to volunteer, uh, and, and how I feel about, about issues affecting houstonians across our city. So what if?
Alexis:what if somebody wants to send you a question?
Jovon:well, I'm on every social media outlet you can imagine and I answer my own social media and I'm always willing to talk to anybody. I'm willing to go to any group, I'm willing to do anything with anybody as long as it's legal, will you even go to Clear? Lake. I have been invited to Clear Lake there you go.
Alexis:Sabrina has talked to you. Yeah, she's spoken to me.
Jovon:I owe Sabrina a call.
Robin:Well, that's great. Thank you, Jovan, for taking your time and coming in today. We can always have you back, but we know you're on a tight schedule, so enjoy and stay safe and just. I'm more than happy to hear that you're going to keep your current profession and look at how to make people proud of Houston with your next election.
Jovon:Thank you very much, my friend. I appreciate you and love you.
Alexis:And we have a good amount of time before we get there. Yeah, but I'm going to do, you know, an advertisement. We'd really love to have anybody that's listening to this support our podcast. You can support it with our online links and send us questions, if you have them, via the talkback, and we're happy to do that, thank you.
