Serving the Community – Phil Ortiz

[00:00:01] [Music] would you like to have a conversation with Kevin

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[00:00:11] your host Kevin Conover bring your tea welcome to educate for life radio and podcast I’m your host Kevin Conover and

[00:00:18] we’re on Cape Rays 12 10:00 a.m. here in San Diego AM 12:10 San Diego we’re also

[00:00:24] on FM 106.1 in North County if you want to listen to us live we’re on every Saturday and we’re also streaming on

[00:00:31] social media so we’re on Facebook we’re on YouTube we’re on periscope we’re on all these different avenues and you know

[00:00:38] typically my program is about apologetics and that comes from the Greek word apologia defend which means

[00:00:44] to defend in greek defend a biblical worldview but today we’re still talking

[00:00:49] about a biblical worldview but I often have people that are involved in politics on the program and the reason I

[00:00:54] have that is because you know our Christianity our faith in God and our faith in the Bible is integrated into

[00:01:00] all areas of our lives so it’s not just a church on Sundays but it’s also how

[00:01:05] we’re voting right how we’re influencing culture how we’re reaching out to the community around us right our desire

[00:01:12] Christ asks us to reach out to the widows and the orphans that’s what he says religion that God our Father finds

[00:01:18] his pure and faultless as this reaching out to widows and orphans and Christ said whenever you visit somebody in prison you visit me whenever you give

[00:01:24] somebody a cup of water cold water you’re giving it to me and so our faith in Christ calls us to reach out and be

[00:01:31] involved in our community and a lot of that and I believe has to do with our involvement also in politics what do

[00:01:38] people believe politically how are they influencing the culture politically how are the laws that are being passed

[00:01:43] honoring God or are they not most of you know I’m also a teacher I teach at

[00:01:49] Christian high school out in El Cajon shadow Mountain with Pastor David Jeremiah and we’re actually going through a unit right now that talks

[00:01:56] about integrating our faith into the culture into government into politics because that’s a key foundation for our

[00:02:03] government if you know anything about that and so we have to ask ourself in Psalm 33:12 it says blessed is the

[00:02:10] nation whose God is the Lord and so today we’re getting a jump on the elections that are gonna be taking

[00:02:15] place the big election year coming up here in 2020 November 2020 my guest today is Phil Ortiz and he’s

[00:02:22] actually running for El Cajon City Council down here in Southern California and we’re gonna talk with him a little

[00:02:28] bit about why he wanted to get involved in politics and his own faith in God and and his background and what he’s

[00:02:35] concerned about so Phil thanks for being on the program today appreciate you having me absolutely so you know if

[00:02:42] you’re interested in supporting Phil if you like what you you hear today you can check them out on Facebook elect Phil

[00:02:48] Ortiz facebook.com forward slash elect Phil Ortiz you’ll also have a website up

[00:02:54] elect Phil Ortiz calm very soon too but Phil hey why don’t we start off with your growing up and how you ended up

[00:03:03] deciding that you wanted to get involved in politics but why don’t we start off with your faith in God and you know when

[00:03:09] did you decide to become a Christian yes so I was raised Catholic okay and so I always knew of God but I didn’t know God

[00:03:16] I didn’t know who he was sure and in college was actually when I came to

[00:03:21] faith a good friend one of my best friends died when he was 24 and that was

[00:03:26] just a mouthpiece for God and all my pain I mean I was depressed alcohol drugs everything and God grabbed ahold

[00:03:33] of my life through the book wall at heart and gave me I’ve read that book great book yeah very good really spoke

[00:03:40] to me and then just started reading all these apologetic books case for Christ blue like jazz my mom was going to

[00:03:48] church not in our Catholic Church at foothills she invited me got plugged

[00:03:53] into a home group and never looked back so Wow yeah that’s amazing really 180 transformation I was in a

[00:04:01] frat I was in a fraternity yeah so yeah where were you going to college at San Diego State locally okay was in the Phi

[00:04:07] Kappa Phi fraternity and just knew I had to change my life yeah it was no turning back from it and you went to high school

[00:04:14] locally also yeah went to Santana okay in Santee California yeah grew up born

[00:04:20] raised that’s fantastic so you’ve been very involved at your church at Foothill is also can you tell us a little bit about foothills yeah so the

[00:04:27] first homegroup I started going to I was being mentored by the homegroup pastor and he groomed me to become a helm

[00:04:33] fellowship pastor that was in the college group ministry called common ground at foothills Christian Church and

[00:04:38] then shortly after that we kind of branched off to continue the age group

[00:04:45] into a young adult and then a young families home group young adults and I

[00:04:51] recently just stepped down his home fellowship pastor maybe 10 months ago the beginning of the year because I had

[00:04:58] this vision and call on God to be involved in politics and run for run for office and but my time as a home

[00:05:06] fellowship pastor was fantastic we it was my home it was my community yeah

[00:05:11] family yeah and this that’s who I helped who helped me go through life who I helped go through life with

[00:05:18] accountability and it was a brotherhood and and I mean I still go yeah just not

[00:05:24] in leadership yeah yeah absolutely well that’s great so let’s talk about why you

[00:05:30] decided to get involved in politics you said that you had a call on your life to do that and you have a wife and and kids

[00:05:36] right I have a two year old and I we just found out not too long ago we have one more on the way

[00:05:42] hey congratulations ones in March though so you’re a busy man and I run my business full-time ok what’s your

[00:05:48] business so I’m a home energy rater so we evaluate homes to see how energy efficient they are gotcha so we’ll do

[00:05:54] testing on homes we’ll work with contractors air conditioning companies and we try and save the homeowner some money so yeah ok great

[00:06:01] what’s the name of your business new earth energy special new earth energy specialists ok so that’s fantastic so

[00:06:08] you’re a businessman in El Cajon you’re familiar with you know what’s going on in the community you’ve been in the

[00:06:13] community for a very long time so that’s fantastic and when did you feel like you know what

[00:06:20] I want to be involved in politics this is something that you knew about like when you’re in college or is this relatively new or what what’s going on

[00:06:26] there so good that’s a really good question I was in the discovery phase for a long time so my family has a long

[00:06:31] military history of serving our country my father served my grandfather served my cousins my uncle a grandfather World

[00:06:38] War two veteran prisoner of war fought the Nazis Wow interrogated beat up didn’t give out

[00:06:44] any Intel I mean he’s he’s an American Hero so this is the the what is in front

[00:06:49] of me as far as service to our country and so I thought that’s where I wanted to go yeah um but I didn’t know it at

[00:06:56] the time but God had his hand on me throughout high school and throughout college and any time I got close to

[00:07:01] joining the military something got in the way I didn’t know it was God at the time but I think he was protecting me

[00:07:07] and guiding me towards this path that I’m at now my degreeing I didn’t know I wanted to go in in

[00:07:12] college my I thought I was gonna go into the military as an officer and after I

[00:07:18] graduated but that didn’t happen my degree was in criminal justice

[00:07:23] administration minoring in public administration I thought oh maybe if I didn’t go into the military maybe be

[00:07:29] police officer yeah and then I ended up working at a college Ashford University

[00:07:35] and we’ve got my master’s in public administration so these kinds of degrees

[00:07:42] not knowing that I want that God was calling me to go into politics later on in life totally servicing me here as my

[00:07:48] role as a city councilman and a planning Commissioner so moving forward I knew I

[00:07:56] wanted to serve my country I knew that I wanted to help my community and serve in

[00:08:02] some way and God called my wife and I to do it I had been getting involved

[00:08:09] helping out local candidates here and there I’m kind of playing around with it and finally we were sitting in church

[00:08:16] one day and God call it said you need to get in the fight and Rachel got a the

[00:08:22] same word of the same service saying Phil needs to start fighting for people’s freedom Wow and she told me

[00:08:27] what that word was and and I told her what I heard and we got prayer and it

[00:08:33] was a violent shove into serious after that after so yeah so I’m just curious

[00:08:39] what was the message that the pastor was preaching that sunny was completely unrelated oh yeah great message pastor

[00:08:48] but yeah here’s what I heard and I had just got done helping out with a

[00:08:53] vent it was an all church event and the mayor was involved in there bill Wells you had him on yeah and he had been

[00:09:02] encouraging me you should run Phil you should run you should you should get more involved and I was just slow playing him I don’t know what I was

[00:09:07] thinking and yeah and then the following day went to church and and we got a very

[00:09:14] very special and that was the first word that the Lord had given us as a married couple now how long ago was that

[00:09:19] that was three years ago okay three years now for those of you listening you

[00:09:25] know Phil is actually on the El Cajon City Council but he was not elected on

[00:09:31] to the City Council so when we come back we’re gonna talk about how he ended up on the El Cajon City Council it’s pretty cool story and then we’re going to talk

[00:09:37] about what’s happened what’s coming up here and what’s happening in politics currently in East County specifically

[00:09:44] but this is all relevant to you know the on the federal perspective on the

[00:09:49] national perspective what we have going on because there is certainly a cultural war in our country right now and if you

[00:09:55] don’t know about it you’d have to be hiding in a cave somewhere there is a very strong pool in two different

[00:10:00] directions there’s this idea of democratic socialism which I did a whole show on democratic socialism and what is

[00:10:05] that exactly who ever heard of democratic socialism and then we we have what we typically think of as a

[00:10:11] democratic republic and what does that mean there’s there’s a difference here so stay with us we’re gonna be right

[00:10:17] back my guest today is Phil Ortiz and he’s running for El Cajon City Council and I hope he wins so I hope you’ll vote

[00:10:23] for him we’ll be right back [Music] fast

[00:10:30] [Music]

[00:10:40] hi this is Jason hall president of team home loans a branch of synergy one lending I just want to take this

[00:10:46] opportunity to think Kevin Kahn over for the profound impact he’s had on mine and my wife’s spiritual life as well as

[00:10:52] being an incredible teacher while our kids were his students his knowledge and passion have taught us all how important

[00:10:58] it is to be defenders of our faith it is our sincere hope and prayer that he will continue to learn to be defenders of

[00:11:03] your faith through Kevin’s radio show and through his educate for life teachings thank you Kevin from the hall

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[00:12:23] [Music] hey thanks for being with us today

[00:12:30] really appreciate you hanging out and my guest today is Phil Ortiz he’s running for El Cajon City Council phil wave to

[00:12:36] the camera here one of the cameras here i think we got all kinds of cameras over here so and he’s gonna be running in

[00:12:43] november 2020 so we’re really he’s really getting a head start here and when was your kickoff campaign Phil it

[00:12:49] was a couple months ago had no parking at the event yeah and it was fantastic

[00:12:54] that’s really cool he’s successful yeah that’s nice when you got a lot of support behind you and and you’re heading in there and you’re way way out

[00:13:00] in front of everybody else yeah as far as I know there’s been no one that’s officially declared to run for El Cajon

[00:13:06] city council in my district okay I think district in southern Elko gotcha so now is it is it broken up into districts or

[00:13:13] is it is it the whole city yeah that’s a good question so El Cajon just went to districts yeah 2016 and that really

[00:13:21] divided the voter ship so I’m in a district right now that that had no

[00:13:28] sitting city councilman okay um that’s one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to run is because I wouldn’t be running

[00:13:34] against an incumbent yeah it is a lot easier to win yeah I’m sure you know yeah it’s not easier if there’s no

[00:13:41] incumbent so I have a tactical advantage I guess is that’s what you’d call sure so so now we were talking about last

[00:13:48] segment how you’re on El Cajon city council already but you weren’t elected so give our listeners the background there what happened how did you end up

[00:13:54] on the council yeah so about four months ago there was a city and City Councilman

[00:14:00] that resigned his position as City Councilman I won’t mention his name but he’s all over the place sure if he just

[00:14:06] Google I’ll cone City Council you see a bunch of news articles about him yeah but he resigned and so the City Council

[00:14:12] had to fill the seat within a certain amount of time legally they could either do a citywide election which would have

[00:14:18] cost about six hundred thousand dollars or they could appoint someone for the remainder of the term which was about a

[00:14:23] year and a half so they chose they voted to appoint someone about twenty four

[00:14:29] people applied from within the city of El Cajon and the process was pretty

[00:14:34] intense we submitted an application the City Council members reviewed our application a handful of questions

[00:14:41] we had in front of the City Council and in front of the entire crowd at the City Council meeting we gave a two-minute

[00:14:47] presentation or speech on why we think we should be a vote appointed to the

[00:14:52] open seat then they narrowed it down to I think five people right there right right in front of everybody

[00:14:58] they narrowed and narrowed it down right there they were like okay everybody this was like you got voted off the island here right yeah that that’s exactly what

[00:15:04] it was like I’m gonna talk about palm just wedding yeah our beatin fast and so I made it to the top five then they

[00:15:11] brought us up again and then each city councilman could ask us two questions so it was like a G the biggest job

[00:15:17] interview of your life yeah live streamed in front of a huge crowd yeah

[00:15:22] it was it was very one that one of the probably the most intense thing I’ve ever done in my entire life yeah then they deliberated in front of everybody

[00:15:30] oh I like this person and I like oh I like what he said here so you’re just sweating him and I wanted I had to sit

[00:15:36] down and maintain composure did you have any sense when it was narrowed down to that five yet did you have any sense that hey I have a good chance at this or

[00:15:42] were you thinking like oh man I’m not sure if I’m gonna get it or not I mean honestly there were some there’s some pretty incredible people in El

[00:15:47] Cajon yeah I I I have to tip my hat to the majority the people that were there excellent human beings yeah fantastic

[00:15:53] they’re engaged in the community they want to see good in El Cajon and so I I

[00:15:59] felt lucky that I was selected to be honest so after her obviously I was

[00:16:06] taught part of the top five yeah I knew I had a shot but it was still a long shot just because I mean there was a former police officer that was actually

[00:16:13] there at Santana the shooting that that I was a part of usually the responding officers I got to meet him Humbert

[00:16:18] Cabrera another great guy and he was El Cajon citizen of the year one year oh my

[00:16:24] so there’s some really upstanding individuals so you must be some incredible person to beat everybody out

[00:16:29] I guess because you’re really good-looking no so they then then I had

[00:16:38] I had a relationship with a couple of council members yeah Goble the deputy mayor okay he’s a good he’s a really

[00:16:44] good guy we did the El Cajon community cleanup group together where we go around a cone we picked just picked up trash and then we picked up around five

[00:16:50] tons of trash Wow in about a year and that’s just our small little group

[00:16:55] and him and I just picking up trash on Saturday mornings with five or six other people so I think he saw my heart yeah

[00:17:01] desire yeah he selected they they voted and nominated me and you got it and Here

[00:17:07] I am as a city girls but you still have to fight for this in November yeah big big seat coming up in in November 2020

[00:17:15] so like I said we’ve already started yeah I’ve been knocking on residents doors and I’m I’m in the position now

[00:17:22] learning what it’s like to be a council member so ya have the expertise as we

[00:17:27] that’s fantastic so you’re almost becoming in a sense an incumbent so you have a yeah even though you weren’t

[00:17:33] elected but you’ve got all this experience here so yeah and it’s like drinking out of a fire hose yeah and it’s part time too yeah like I said

[00:17:39] before I have a full-time job all the local all local government officials it’s all part-time for them yeah

[00:17:45] they either have to run there they have to run their families that they’re out of business they have a full-time job so it’s it’s a it’s a big sacrifice heavy

[00:17:52] load it is service yeah it really is service I mean we don’t get paid pretty much anything yeah yeah yeah which is

[00:17:58] what my heart is and I think that’s a good thing it is being and being in a position of attract volunteers the heart

[00:18:04] of a volunteer is a strongest thing in America and if you’re not getting paid to do something you’re gonna attract the

[00:18:11] right type of people who have the right motives absolutely and so I was gonna actually ask you about that very thing is so what is your heart for El Cajon

[00:18:18] and what is it you know you you said that you felt God had a call on you to do this and so from a spiritual

[00:18:25] perspective and from a service-oriented perspective what is it that you’re hoping to achieve through serving on the

[00:18:32] council for the people of El Cajon and for the people of the city well I mean specifically there’s there’s a handful

[00:18:38] of things that I want to do one of them the most visible ones homelessness I mean that’s that’s what I hear most well

[00:18:44] you know homeless people are homeless for you it’s it’s a it’s a problem in all of the ice called the left coast the

[00:18:51] west coast yeah it’s a big one California it’s unreal in in LA in San Francisco the homelessness is out of

[00:18:57] control yeah it really is and so what I think we need to do is we need to manage the homeless population and what I want to

[00:19:04] bring is we need to treat certain homeless people differently than others we don’t treat the single mom living out

[00:19:11] of her car the same way we treat a homeless person who’s on drugs or as

[00:19:18] meltable illness or just the vagrant that’s robbing people breaking into cars and garages yeah so that’s one thing the

[00:19:26] other one is law enforcement we got it we got to make sure we have police and fire yeah and and the last one is

[00:19:34] financial responsibility of our financial obligations hmm I mean if anyone looks at the pension which is

[00:19:39] super boring but it’s super important yeah there’s a lot of costs paying for our pension so that’s the specific

[00:19:45] spiritually like you said we’re in a war for our culture and you you you’re an

[00:19:51] apologist for our faith yeah we need people that are apologists for

[00:19:56] conservative values in in the political realm yeah and a lot of the times people

[00:20:01] know what conservative values are but they we don’t know how to defend it yep we don’t know how to identify it so you

[00:20:11] set off the air we you did a show on democratic socialism what it is yeah

[00:20:17] that’s important your listeners needed we need to know and and know why this is a destructive policy yeah it’s

[00:20:23] interesting because you know you’re running against somebody or very possibly running not everybody like you

[00:20:29] said as declared but you’re potentially running against a fellow who has essentially come out and said very

[00:20:36] clearly I am a Democratic Socialist I’m for single-payer health care I’m for

[00:20:41] free education and so you know immediately and I’m curious to hear your

[00:20:46] perspective on this but for a lot of people when they hear that they go sounds good to me hey free everything

[00:20:53] you know right now our community colleges are giving away the first two years free yeah and I talk to my

[00:20:59] students about that and they’re like hey you know I don’t know how they do it but I’ll take advantage of that yeah right

[00:21:05] and I think that makes that’s interesting because it’s kind of like okay how do you run against somebody who’s saying I’m gonna give you

[00:21:11] everything for free okay you know well before you answer we’re coming up on a break here but my guest today is Phil

[00:21:17] Ortiz if you want to learn more about him you can check out his Facebook page its face facebook-dot-com forward-slash elect

[00:21:24] Phil Ortiz and he’s running for El Cajon City Council in November 2020 so you

[00:21:29] might be like wow this is a little early but you know we will he’s trying to get out in front here get everything

[00:21:35] established he actually had his kickoff campaign two months ago so I think this shows a lot of diligence and respect

[00:21:42] here we should give him a lot of respect for that and I encourage you to vote for

[00:21:47] him he has conservative values if you a value conservative values he is a strong

[00:21:54] faith in God and so somebody that you should really consider voting for in the

[00:21:59] election coming up and we’re going to be talking about the different worldview perspectives here that are being brought

[00:22:05] to the table the democratic socialist worldview versus the Democratic Republic

[00:22:12] worldview which is two very different things so when we come back we’ll continue that discussion stay with us we’ll be right

[00:22:19] back [Music]

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[00:24:19] [Music] thanks for listening today this is Kevin

[00:24:26] Conover I’m your host on educate for life radio and we are on Cape Rays 12

[00:24:32] 10:00 a.m. here in San Diego Southern California as well as FM 106.1 in North County

[00:24:37] we’re also streaming all over the web we’re on Facebook we are also on YouTube periscope and so

[00:24:44] all kinds of opportunities to check out what we’re doing here I’m also a Christian apologist I teach I’ve been

[00:24:50] doing this for 13 years teaching 12th grade students about apologetics how to

[00:24:55] defend their faith in God and we’re actually going through a unit right now in school that is dealing with God and

[00:25:03] government how do we as Christians integrate our faith into what we believe and how do you do this in a pluralistic

[00:25:10] culture so you’ve got people with different religions you’ve got all kinds of different viewpoints on things so as

[00:25:16] a Christian what does that mean for me how do I live out my faith and integrate it with politics and you know how do I

[00:25:23] treat people fairly while at the same time saying Christianity is true and other other viewpoints are not that’s

[00:25:31] very exclusive and and some people are offended by that we live in a culture where right now where the popular thing

[00:25:36] is hey don’t offend anybody and so that’s what we’re talking about you can check that out it’s in my 400 series

[00:25:42] online I have a whole video curriculum that helps you to understand that better and I was talking with Phil off the air

[00:25:49] just a little while ago I actually have a program that I did on democratic socialism because it’s such a weird

[00:25:54] thing to say democratic socialism is there such thing as democratic communism

[00:26:00] it’s just weird and so what you can listen to that but I wanted to get your

[00:26:06] take Phil you know as you’re moving into the City Council and so forth and you’re

[00:26:11] looking at these things what is your view on you know the back and forth right now one of your opponents is

[00:26:17] offering all this this free stuff how do you respond to that when you’re taught to telling people how vote for me but

[00:26:24] I’m not gonna give you feet free college yeah well before I jump into that I want to first address you know as Christians

[00:26:31] we go to church and we are model as Jesus and he’s perfect and the Bible the Word of God is perfect

[00:26:39] and then and it’s easy and we can jump in there and then we go to politics and it’s not perfect yeah it’s messy and

[00:26:46] it’s it’s scary and there’s and so we we we shy away from engaging and because

[00:26:52] it’s easier to just be involved in church but just like any ministry we have a youth venture ministry at

[00:26:58] foothills were where we ministered it youth that are in in depressed areas and

[00:27:06] that’s messy and that can be a little scary and so we need it so all that to

[00:27:11] say we need to engage but um so democratic socialism the first thing III want to make a comment about it is I

[00:27:17] think most people who are saying yeah free stuff free stuff I think they’re uninformed about the consequences and

[00:27:24] the actual results that they’re going to produce mmm and the people that are producing or that are promoting it I think they’re

[00:27:32] just willfully ignorant they they kind of know that it might that it that it

[00:27:37] sounds good it’s you know most people that want to vote for it I’m sure they just want to

[00:27:43] help people out yeah they might have altruistic motives but the result is

[00:27:48] what you have to look at and the consequences and the unintended consequences of those policy are are

[00:27:56] destructive I mean you look at places like North Korea and Cuba where the

[00:28:02] government controls the means of production which means they control businesses yeah which means they business business owners can’t make

[00:28:09] decision the collective the group is more important than the individual which

[00:28:14] is the exact opposite of what the founders who prayed and sought god to

[00:28:21] figure out what is the best government to honor God that is the exact opposite we say the individual is important that

[00:28:27] you should not trample on them yes we have a democratic society but there are

[00:28:32] limits to that there’s limits to those and that stops at the individual at their rights yeah I mean that’s why we

[00:28:38] believe in we’re against abortion that’s an infringement upon that baby in the

[00:28:44] wombs individual rights that’s why we believe in property rights as yeah so it’s communism socialism they’re

[00:28:53] close cousins they trample on the rights of the individual for for the benefit of the society yeah I mean fundamentally

[00:29:02] what you’re looking at here is when you the more free stuff you give away the more you have to take money out of the

[00:29:07] pockets of the people that are working for it exactly and I mean even the even the Bible in Proverbs it says if you

[00:29:14] don’t work you don’t eat yeah and so and people that try and twist I hear this

[00:29:19] argument a lot people try and twist the Bible to say Jesus socialism heard that yes I’ve heard that but it’s absolutely

[00:29:24] crazy because Jesus gave us two models to be chaired charitable or the Bible

[00:29:30] gives us two one was the individual making a personal choice to go and feed

[00:29:36] the hungry yeah and clothe the naked the second model that was given to us is through the church it’s for us to be is

[00:29:43] for us to be charitable through the church in acts the disciples came

[00:29:49] together voluntarily I’m using these words because this is an exact opposite of what socialism yes we have forced to

[00:29:55] be terrible yeah so that’s the biggest it ceases to be charity and it ceases to

[00:30:02] be living out our calling as Christians if we’re forced to do it it’s coercion it’s not charity and you’re not

[00:30:09] fulfilling the gospel of Jesus by taking care of people if you’re having someone else do it plus you miss out on the best

[00:30:14] part of of helping your fellow man and loving people you missed that face-to-face connection that God calls

[00:30:19] us that’s right if you’re just throwing money to the government what it does is it disconnects the person that’s supposed to be helping the individual

[00:30:26] and that’s so important it’s the relationship it’s not just the money it’s not just the material gain it’s the

[00:30:32] actual relationships that are cultivated through one person helping another individual yeah and the and when you

[00:30:39] make the government the middleman in that process you’ve essentially eliminated that yeah and there’s so many things wrong with it it also takes away

[00:30:45] the drive to work hard because you’re having so much money taken from you right that you don’t get to you don’t

[00:30:51] get the fruit of your Labor’s yeah yeah you think of it this way right now in California if you combine all the taxes

[00:30:58] we pay I mean it’s around 30 or 40 percent so 34 thirty forty percent of your pay is

[00:31:04] going to the government which means from September to December you’re no longer

[00:31:10] working for yourself yep you’re working just for the government every day you wake up early you go to bed you miss out

[00:31:16] on hanging out with your kids your family you’re going to work for the government yeah and it’s up to the government to

[00:31:22] spend that money responsibly to have some respect for it ah and so that’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m in here

[00:31:28] and and then one of the problems with government spending your money is that because the money wasn’t earned there’s no appreciation for how it’s spent yes

[00:31:35] it’s like it’s like if I give my son you know 20 bucks versus if he earns 20 bucks if

[00:31:41] I give him 20 bucks he just flitter fritters it away he’s like wow whatever right but if he had to

[00:31:47] work hard to make that money and he’s much more responsible for it and the same applies with the government getting

[00:31:52] money there’s so many problems with socialism it’s unbelievable but on its on that immediate gratification hey you

[00:31:59] get a free education right but do we want to give everybody free education or do we want to be able to spend more time

[00:32:05] with our families and not have to work so hard right which which is critically important and along with those same

[00:32:11] facts I mean we could talk about the cost of education and and these things that are happening too but but that’s

[00:32:17] for another story but so so my guest today is Phil Ortiz he’s running for el

[00:32:23] cajon city council and so Phil’s some of the other people that are running for you you know they’re advocating this

[00:32:28] socialism and everything and all do you think that they have a chance I mean what is your viewpoint on where things are going

[00:32:34] um well in the immediate yeah some of these people obviously like you said it’s sounds great on the surface yeah

[00:32:41] but that’s one of the reasons why I’m getting out so I can have these conversations and my philosophy with

[00:32:48] regard to government is is this if and this is coming from a former city

[00:32:53] manager for city of El Cajon he told me this I don’t want to take credit for it he said local governments the most

[00:32:58] important form of government if this federal government were to shut down you probably wouldn’t notice four

[00:33:04] maybe six unless you worked directly for the federal government yeah if the state government were to shut down you probably wouldn’t notice for a year if

[00:33:10] ever okay but if the local government were to shut down you’d know with an

[00:33:17] matter of minutes that’s police that’s your fire that’s so that’s 9-1-1 that’s your trash service that’s your water

[00:33:23] service that’s flushing your toilet that is the most important form of government that we have oh that’s great insight and

[00:33:28] that’s where our hearts and our efforts should be with your neighbor on your street forget about what’s going on in

[00:33:34] the in the loonie State forget about what’s going on in the circus in Washington what’s going on with your

[00:33:39] neighbor we have laws that are being passed in your backyard I mean we have kids that you know don’t have parents

[00:33:45] that you know there’s drug addiction and there’s homeless like go get involved in your local community have that

[00:33:52] face-to-face relationship we were talking about before that’s really cool so if I people ask me oh you know you’re

[00:33:58] so young you can go to this position in that position and position yourself and honestly I don’t want to divert any more

[00:34:05] control or power to the state or federal I want to focus that all of our efforts into our local community and you can get

[00:34:12] a lot done yeah in your local community I mean that’s where churches are had their biggest effect so yeah so I want

[00:34:18] to talk about that too we’re coming up on a break here but when we come back we have one more segment left and I want to talk about practically speaking when you

[00:34:25] you’ve been on the council now for a little while and you’ve got a lot more to go till November and I’m just curious

[00:34:32] for our listeners to know what kind of practical things are you guys deciding on a regular basis what kind of things are you having to wrestle with and to

[00:34:39] figure out I know some of it we’ve already talked about homelessness and so forth but what other things are critical

[00:34:44] and could you use support and encouragement with and how also people

[00:34:49] can get involved in your campaign so when we come back we’re gonna finish up with Phil Ortiz running for El Cajon

[00:34:54] City Council in November 2020 and we’re just getting ahead of the curve here so stay with us we’ll be right back

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[00:37:00] [Music] welcome back to educate for life I’m

[00:37:07] your host Kevin Conover my web sites educate for life.org you can check out all kinds of resources on there if

[00:37:12] you’re interested in establishing a firm foundation in your faith we go through everything you can imagine that has to

[00:37:19] do with biblical questions how do I know God exists who wrote the Bible how do I know that the right books are in the

[00:37:24] Bible how do I know the Bible is actually from God is the Bible real history we have all these kinds of

[00:37:30] questions that we answer we also deal with cultural issues so we have things up there that have to do with a lot of

[00:37:35] the issues that we’re dealing with in our culture today and that people are wrestling with and trying to figure out and how should I feel about this and

[00:37:42] what does God think about that so check it out it’s on my website educate for life org all kinds of helpful answers

[00:37:48] there for you my guest today is Phil Ortiz we’re talking about government and politics you know one of my favorite

[00:37:54] verses Psalm 33:12 says blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and another

[00:38:00] scripture that I really like righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and you know

[00:38:06] the scriptures are really clear that if we put God first in our in our lives and

[00:38:12] in our culture in our communities that that culture will experience blessings

[00:38:17] they will experience emotional blessings you’ll see families hold together you’ll

[00:38:22] see fathers be better fathers you’ll see less drug abuse you’ll see less

[00:38:27] substance abuse you’ll see kids staying in school you’ll see less teen pregnancy

[00:38:34] so in fact all of these different social problems can be tied back to not

[00:38:40] following God’s plan and design for our lives and so I really want to encourage you that as we’re coming up in 2020 it’s

[00:38:48] a huge election year that when you’re considering who you’re gonna vote for ask yourself where do they base their

[00:38:54] values where do their values come from what’s the foundation upon which they they establish their opinions and their

[00:39:01] their feelings about life right because these things translate into people’s perspectives on things like immigration

[00:39:07] on things like taxes all of these issues are very relevant to a biblical

[00:39:14] worldview and Phil something I was going to throw in when we were talking about you know is

[00:39:19] the Bible advocate socialism you know obviously it doesn’t Christ didn’t advocate socialism in the Old Testament

[00:39:25] it’s really interesting that the laws never tell people that they have to

[00:39:31] contribute to a community fund that then goes towards you know the poor or

[00:39:37] whatever it is what’s interesting is that there’s an individual mandate given by God to the people of Israel that

[00:39:44] tells them you must help the poor as an individual help the poor if you love God

[00:39:50] and it’s basically saying look it you can’t love God without loving your

[00:39:55] neighbor but it’s not like you said it’s not coerced its voluntary and I find

[00:40:02] that so interesting that that’s the way it is yeah if we shouldn’t know what should

[00:40:08] seek to advance the kingdom of God through government hmm Jesus didn’t go to the Roman government and try and pass

[00:40:14] laws to be charitable and – yeah yeah so we shouldn’t be doing that either we that’s the individual mandate that we’re

[00:40:20] talking about so yeah people that twist the bandage you have to do origami with

[00:40:26] the Bible yeah say that it advocates socialism or something like that right so so currently who’s on the City

[00:40:33] Council in el cajon so bill Wells mayor city of El Cajon then we have the deputy

[00:40:38] mayor steve Goble gary kendrick he just actually won his first the first

[00:40:44] district election in El Cajon and then Bob McClelland who’s been on the City

[00:40:50] Council I think longer than I’ve been alive yeah but he’s gonna be sunsetting

[00:40:57] and he’s not gonna run for real okay so how many different seats are up for

[00:41:03] election in 2020 there are three seats so Steve Goble and Bob McLeod live in

[00:41:08] the same district like I said Bob’s not running anymore so Steve’s gonna run in the Granite Hills there yeah then I’m

[00:41:14] gonna be running in southern el cajon and then there’s another seat the third one in northern oh okay so three seats

[00:41:21] in 2020 okay and so are all of those do we do we currently have conservatives

[00:41:28] running in each of those seats yeah yeah so right now there’s five conservatives on the El Cajon City Council and we’ve been fortunate enough

[00:41:35] hone to have the majority counsel be conservative Christians in El Cajon for

[00:41:41] a long time which is really strange for California yes and so and to be completely blunt San Diego is really the

[00:41:47] last foothold for conservatives in the entire state of California we’re an East

[00:41:53] County is the strongest yeah but hold for Orange County lost everything exactly and so uh so if you’re gonna get

[00:41:59] involved you need to get involved now there’s no waiting right yeah our backs are up against the wall yeah

[00:42:04] so I’m running in my district as a conservative conservative Christian

[00:42:10] Steve Doble is running in the Granite Hills area and there may be someone there’s rumors it’s still so early it’s

[00:42:17] yeah tell but yeah so all that to say this new district election there could

[00:42:23] be a couple seats loss too if people aren’t involved if people are yeah so if

[00:42:29] you’re listening this is super important because you know California just keeps going farther and farther left it’s it’s

[00:42:36] unreal I don’t know how far they can go with with everything that’s happening but even if you’re in another state and

[00:42:44] you’re yeah you’re a concern maybe you’re from San Diego and you wanna you want to help us out you know please

[00:42:51] invest some of your time energy and prayers finances into helping get you

[00:42:57] know Christian conservatives elected in East County and specifically you know El

[00:43:03] Cajon Phil Ortiz you can check them out at facebook.com forward slash elect Phil

[00:43:08] Ortiz he’ll have another website up soon to elect Phil Ortiz calm and so what are

[00:43:14] you guys wrestling with currently on the City Council I know you said homelessness is part of what you’re

[00:43:20] dealing with but what other practical issues do you have to deal with that decisions you’re making on the City

[00:43:25] Council yeah I mean the list is long and distinguished yeah but you know how often you guys meet

[00:43:31] though we meet every other week okay about twice a month and sometimes it’s

[00:43:37] two meetings that day on Tuesdays I think the first thing that I’ve learned

[00:43:43] is what’s best is you have to be a listening ear to the residents hmm my

[00:43:48] mom told me you got two years in one mouth for a reason yeah listen twice as much as you speak yeah so you gotta listen I mean and maybe a

[00:43:56] month in I had a email from a resident medam talked about a traffic issue a car

[00:44:02] ran into his house into his fence Wow and it was a it was a really small fix

[00:44:09] so it’s these little practical things yeah that aren’t really divisive but you

[00:44:15] just have to have a servant’s heart and and to go in and represent the community well um so you need to listen to the

[00:44:21] community the second one is a lot of its just standing in the gap and not having

[00:44:28] bad policies come in we we’re in a good position the city’s in a good position

[00:44:34] right now having conservatives run the finances we have a surplus right now which is going to come into handy if a

[00:44:42] recession comes yeah and we and we can’t pair if we can’t pay our bills that means I want one’s not coming like we

[00:44:47] said before can’t fire everything so we need to make sure that we manage your funding well a lot of it like I said is

[00:44:55] keeping bad policies out I like that what you said because that’s a lot a lot of bureaucrats what they’re doing is

[00:45:00] they’re looking for something to do and so they’re trying it seems like in California they’re always trying to find a way to you know hold our hand it’s

[00:45:08] like yeah they’re constantly looking for ways to go hey you can’t do life on your own here we’ll help you we’ll fix

[00:45:14] whatever you know is going on and so with that the philosophy is the government shouldn’t do what the

[00:45:20] individual or the public can’t do on their own and so whenever a proposal sent or I get an email or something you

[00:45:26] got to put it through that filter is this the government’s role yeah probably not especially the local government the

[00:45:32] local government has a handful of responsibilities to accomplish and and

[00:45:38] and and that’s really is your standing the gap of that the biggest one I’d like to see practically if I could just say

[00:45:43] real quick is our downtown area we just had a concert venue come in which is an anchor and it’s it’s a it’s a kind of a

[00:45:51] sleepy downtown area we’d like to revitalize that yeah we the

[00:45:56] the best way to combat this is something you learn in public administration 101 is the best way to combat theft is to

[00:46:03] increase pedestrians in walkways and it prevents homeless encampment encampments

[00:46:09] passively you’re not aggressively going out and with the stick of the government and whipping people yes passively you patronize areas you

[00:46:16] get people coming into the city going to restaurants going to shops and things like that and you know that’s something

[00:46:21] that I’d like to see done on a practical Public Administration standards that’s what we do to attract business into

[00:46:27] absolutely I was gonna ask you one last question before off the air here but you know El Cajon has an incredibly diverse

[00:46:34] population I mean you have a lot of refugees coming from the Middle East you

[00:46:39] have diverse Chaldean population you have you have a lot of Latinos in the

[00:46:48] percent twenty five percent so how do you how do you reach the message how do

[00:46:53] you reach out to these communities with a message of conservative values and and

[00:46:58] demonstrate that as a City Council and as a just front on a practical basis

[00:47:04] what how do we do that yeah so we have I think the best position that I’m in is

[00:47:10] to be a mouthpiece for all the incredible organizations we have base in

[00:47:15] El Cajon helping each of these groups refugee the Iraqi community center

[00:47:22] refugee center we have Latino there so there’s homeless advocate groups ICI TLC

[00:47:28] is a huge one so it’s my job as a leader in the community to promote these groups

[00:47:34] that can advocate for their individual situations yeah the best way possible if

[00:47:41] the government like we said were to take that on we’re gonna mess it up oh yeah we’re gonna use it inefficiently yeah so

[00:47:47] and outside of that it’s just knocking on doors yeah it’s going to these events we have haunt fests tonight it’s the

[00:47:54] largest of three gir kala ween event in the county Wow and immigrants love it

[00:48:01] because they don’t have any idea what what Halloween is yeah just love that he so going out there and talking to people

[00:48:06] and shaking and what are your issues and and like I said it’s an ear it’s yeah connecting with people that’s on a

[00:48:12] one-on-one individual base exactly that’s fantastic Phil thanks so much for being on the program today man thanks

[00:48:18] for all you do really appreciate it so if you’re listening out there Phil Ortiz facebook-dot-com forward-slash elect

[00:48:24] Phil Ortiz I really think you know if you vote for him you voted for a winner and somebody

[00:48:31] who has a really a real heart for people and really cares and really wants to make a difference for good loves God and

[00:48:38] loves people so thanks for listening today I hope you enjoyed the program and and we’ll be back next week we have a

[00:48:45] couple pretty cool interviews coming up Jay Warner Wallace the author of cold case Christianity is going to be on the

[00:48:51] program with a new book he just wrote with Sean McDowell and we have a few other amazing guests that are gonna be

[00:48:56] on the program so look forward to being with you next week I hope you have a fantastic weekend god bless you did you

[00:49:01] miss part of today’s program don’t worry we’re con mitad to helping you get the info you need okay that was dumb but for

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