Undercover Boss (2010) s02e16 Episode Script
City Of Cincinnati
Americans are worried about the economy.
Many of them wonder if our corporate and elected leaders have the answers to our problems.
In these tough times, some bosses are taking radical steps to discover how to improve their companies.
Each week, we follow the head of a major organization as they work undercover alongside their own staff.
Tonight, for the first time we go undercover with an elected official-- the Mayor of Cincinnati.
Rick Wilson, good to meet you.
The Mayor will trade in his key to the city and fine dining for a wrench and roadkill.
There's just no way of describing having to pick up a flat cat.
By working on the front lines of public service, he'll get an inside look at his own city.
If you was working on a three-year-old car or a 13-year-old-car, which one is gonna cost you more? That 13-year-old car.
Go tell City Council that, will you? And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his city run.
I felt like for the first time I could talk to somebody who lives in my city and just get the real deal.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the Mayor? As the Mayor of the city of Cincinnati, I've had the opportunity to go undercover.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Known around the world as the home of the Bengals, the Reds, some of the world's best chili, and even as the setting of a classic TV sitcom.
The Cincinnati region is home to 2.
1 million people.
And when it comes to leadership, they all look to one man.
I'm Mark Mallory.
I'm Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
You know, the official job of the Mayor is defined in the Cincinnati Charter.
It says the Mayor is the official representative of the city and that the Mayor plays a role in the budget process.
Beyond that it doesn't really define the structure of the job of being Mayor.
That's really up to whoever the person is that sits in this seat.
So the job of Mayor as I see it is to make sure that the city is running efficiently as possible, that we are creating jobs, keeping the citizens safe, and creating a great environment for our citizens to live in.
All right, you guys ready to eat? - Yes.
- I'm hungry.
Ooh.
I don't see any hot sauce on the table though.
I don't know if I can eat this without hot sauce.
You cannot be a mallory and not be in politics.
I have four brothers and one sister.
Between my dad, my brothers and me, we've been in more than My father served in the state legislature for 28 years.
He sorta started this whole thing.
I saw a lot of things coming up.
I saw people being evicted from their homes.
And I wanted to be in politics to try to change those things.
I am clear on the fact that I'll never be as great as my dad.
The impact that my father has had on the city of Cincinnati and on the state of Ohio is great.
What I want to be able to do is to make my father and my mother proud of the work that I'm doing.
My parents both impressed upon me and my siblings the concept that you have to give something back.
I worked at the Public Library of Cincinnati 14 years.
I served in the House of Representatives for two years.
And then I served two terms in the Ohio Senate.
Then I decided to run for the Mayor of this great city.
I'm Mark Mallory, and I'm asking for your vote on November 8th.
And I am the first directly elected African American Mayor of the city of Cincinnati.
I just wanted to tell you I asked you all to be here today.
I have decided to go undercover on the show Undercover Boss.
Really? Are you serious? I love that show.
So what are you gonna do, grow a beard? How is this gonna happen? - Dreads.
- Dreads? It's funny that you say dreads because Oh, my goodness.
What you think? Mmm.
I think I have a very recognizable face.
Everywhere that television signals go people tend to know who I am.
On any given day you will see me doing press conferences, going to ribbon cuttings, going to groundbreakings.
I'll be at receptions, at luncheons, at dinners.
So it's gonna be really challenging to keep people from knowing who I am.
I tell you who he reminds me of.
Spike Lee.
I look like spike Lee? Around--yes.
You know you gotta change the way you speak.
You just turn it down on the proper English.
'Cause, you know, just-- Yeah, man.
Well, I'm not gonna have the luxury of going away in order to do Undercover Boss.
I still have to be the Mayor while I'm doing these jobs.
So this is gonna be quite a balancing act.
Obviously I'm still gonna have my cell phone.
I'm gonna be able to use that.
There's certain things I won't be able to talk about in front of other people.
Emergency, of course.
I'll have for you reports from the City Manager, head of security, everything that you need to know.
My staff is always going to know where I am.
And if something arises, they're going to come to me, and we're gonna deal with it right then.
I think going undercover is the only way to find out what's really going on in city service.
We are going to be having a quarterly review of our budget.
There's been major pressure to lay off employees.
For me, this is an issue of being equipped to make greater arguments.
I will be able to tell the council members how those cuts would affect services, how those cuts would affect people.
While undercover, I'm gonna be going by the name of Rick Wilson.
My coworkers are gonna be told that this is a competition where two candidates will compete for the same job.
One of the things I'm known for as Mayor is that I'm skinny.
I've been skinny all my life.
So I'm wearing a fat suit.
I hope it will work.
All right.
Oh.
Right now I'm wondering, what am I getting myself into? Okay.
If I'm able to get through this entire process without being recognized, it'll be a miracle.
Today I'm at the Sanitation Division of our Public Services Department.
There are 2,800 lane miles.
In the city of Cincinnati.
That's the distance between New York City and Los Angeles.
This is the group that's responsible for picking up garbage, for clearing snow off the streets.
How you doing? You Danny? Danny Jackson.
- Danny? Rick Wilson.
- Neighborhood operations with the city of Cincinnati.
All right, all right.
During our last budget process, there was a lot of conversation about the Sanitation Division.
And I want to make sure that they're top-notch.
If they don't do their jobs right, there will be accidents, there will be traffic tie-ups, there will be problems throughout our city.
How this works is most of the time I'm getting the dead animals.
Okay.
Whatsever in the road dead, that's what I do.
So you just do dead animals and nothing else? That's it? Dead animals.
I was thinking, great assignment.
Dead animals right before lunch.
Sometimes I get two or three deers a day.
Raccoons, a lot of possums.
Squirrels.
Wow.
I really didn't want to give Danny any sense that I was the Mayor.
I changed my voice, I changed my posture.
Rick is sort of--you know, he sorta talks like this.
He's sorta laid back.
He's sorta not so much in your face.
I'm gonna go to 540 Blair.
There's a dog at the curb.
Oh, right up in there? It's gonna be tough to get outta there.
This thing is heavy.
There you go, Rick.
All right.
Just slide him on up there.
People probably don't even think about how that stuff gets removed.
Actually, neither do I.
So how was that, grabbing that dog? Oh, it was heavy, man.
- Yeah, that's dead weight.
- That's heavy.
That's dead weight, that's right.
Do me a favor, Rick.
Write this down.
Kendall Road between Bank and Central Avenue.
There's a cat in the middle of the street.
- There's a cat? - Yeah, it's a cat.
That's my neighborhood.
I live just two blocks from there.
Is west gonna be that way or that way? It's gonna be this way.
Do you have a GPS in here? - No.
- Okay.
I see him right in the middle of the street.
- Oh, right there.
- Yeah.
Oh, that's flat.
When they're flat like that, do you got a scrapper or-- - Just grab him right up.
- Just grab him up, huh? Man, guts and everything.
Squished kitty.
It looked terrible.
It was a flattened cat.
I love cats, and this was a flat cat.
There you go.
All right, two down.
There's just no way of describing having to pick up a flat cat.
What's the biggest thing you ever picked up? A deer.
That deer took this whole truck.
I couldn't even put the tailgate up.
That's the biggest deer to this day I've ever seen.
Man.
So you got, like, a winch, that's what it's called.
You gotta tell them to get you a winch, man.
- Winch.
Yeah, a winch.
- Yeah.
No, I don't have that.
I don't have that.
Yeah, go ahead.
This is 8-2.
I have a raccoon in a bag on the curb.
Yeah, that's it right there.
How you know? Saw the tail sticking out of the bag.
Oh, wow.
Well, make sure he ain't breathing there before you just grab him.
- Just kick him? - Yeah.
Make sure he stiff.
He's a stiff one.
You hungry? I gotta wash my hands, man.
I can't eat nothing after picking up dead animals.
You had your gloves on.
I can't do it.
You don't want to turkey sandwich? I absolutely had to wash my hands.
I mean, you can't go around picking up dead animals all day and eat without washing your hands.
It's the normal thing to do, even if you're not picking up dead animals.
Ooh, man, I was getting hungry there for a while, man.
- I could eat a raccoon.
- Mm-hmm.
I have gloves on.
My hands were clean before I put 'em in the gloves.
So it's part of the job.
And how many people go out and do this? - Just me.
- Just you? So you do the whole city? I do this for the whole city.
I do the whole city.
Wow.
Got a couple dead squirrels at the corner of 4th and Pike.
So what part of town did you grow up in? I grew up downtown.
But till I was, like, Danny and I actually grew up in the same neighborhood.
I couldn't tell him that, but he's a few years older than me.
But we share some of the same types of experiences.
Yeah, I got a son that works for the city.
Oh, yeah, what does he do? Sometime he goes out on the garbage route.
You just got the one son? - No, I have eight kids.
- Eight? Yeah.
Damn, bro.
Well, I felt like for the first time in I don't know how long I could talk to somebody who lives in my city and just get the real deal.
I'm thinking I might do this, like, you know, once a month or something.
You know, Ricky might just show up on a job site and see what's happening.
Oh, no.
It's nasty stuff, man.
The possum in the middle of Broadway at Court.
But I've been doing this job since I've been working here, which is, like, nine years.
I mean, it's not a hard job.
Right.
You know, the pay is not that bad.
My wife wants to go to New York.
She's never been.
I really can't afford it.
In the beginning, I couldn't.
I really can't now.
There are a lot of people that do a lot of jobs around the city that most people just would not do.
It's a job that's gotta be done.
If nobody did it, you know, our experience in a city the size of Cincinnati would be very different.
What you think? Can I sell you on trading jobs with me? Oh, I don't know about that.
You can do it.
Coming up, the Mayor goes undercover after school.
Please don't make me raise my voice.
I really don't want to raise my voice today.
And later, Rick gets an earful.
The public's lives in our hands, and we get no respect.
Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati, is undercover in his own city.
His coworkers think they're on a reality show where two people are competing for the same job in city service.
His journey continues.
Today I'm gonna be working with the Director of the McKie Recreation Center here in Northside.
We have 24 Recreation Centers across our city, and they see about This rec center also offers a program for kids from the neighborhood who need a place to go after school while their parents are still at work.
Hi, I'm looking for Karen.
- She's here.
- All right.
When you've got a $60 million deficit like we had last year, you've gotta make decisions about what's gonna go away.
And in that last budget, we cut out two recreation centers.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- You hear for the job? - Yes.
Okay, I'm gonna take you so you can hang your coat up.
- Okay.
- Okay? Okay, everybody listen up.
Let me just tell y'all right now.
I don't want to see any telephones.
If I see a telephone, it's mine.
Does everybody understand that? You want me to have this? No.
- Then I don't wanna see it.
- Okay, okay.
It has no business here.
My mother is a pretty tough disciplinarian.
So it kinda reminded me of being a kid when I heard that first yelp.
This is Mr.
Wilson, and he's gonna be working with us today.
All right, I want you to give him the same respect that you give to me.
Does everybody understand that? Yes, ma'am.
We're gonna go down and do volleyball first.
And then we'll have cooking class, okay? So I need you guys to line up at the door for me.
Don't ask me 1,001 questions.
Just wait and see.
Is that everybody? Please don't make me raise my voice.
I really don't want to raise my voice today.
Watch where you're going, not where you've been.
Maurice, stop it.
So listen.
Put that ball down.
If you shoot it, you will sit down.
Well, I expect my older kids to help with the little kids.
And let your little people be up front.
Don't hog the ball.
Little people, come up front.
We playing as a team, we're playing together.
So you hit it once, hit it to somebody, so somebody can help it over.
Does everybody understand that? - Yes.
- All right.
I go to schools and I speak, and I go places where kids are, but this is really the first time I've gotten to spend a lot of time dealing with kids in a long, long time.
Hit it over.
Good hit! You gonna play.
Oh, I gotta play too? You gotta play.
The whole point of when I play with them is for them to play as a team, to play as a group.
So that means you see the little one's gonna get it.
You know that she's not gonna be able to get it over.
You gotta be there to help her.
You gotta have each other's back.
Now you gotta back up your player.
When one of your players hits the ball, you gotta step this way to make sure it gets over the net, okay? Why don't we let her serve? She didn't get a turn.
Get it over, Kayla.
Nice serve.
Hit it, hit it.
Oh, nice recovery.
Take it, relay.
Help him.
Help him, help him, help him, help him.
That's it.
I'd rather lose y'all playing as a team.
Oh.
All right.
Good teamwork.
Very good.
Rick's trainable.
As trainable as most men can be, you know? I think he was a little bit apprehensive at first.
I think he'd need more time to develop his own style.
All right, now we gotta go setup for cooking class.
All right.
I'll get somebody for y'all.
Don't be--come back here.
Today we're gonna have a cooking class.
We're making pigs in a blanket.
- Pigs in a blanket.
- Pigs in a blanket.
We gonna put a triangle on each plate.
- I see, okay.
- Okay? So how long have you worked here? I been with recreation Wow.
I actually have a degree, and I practiced social work for the first, like, Why'd you get outta that? 'Cause I decided to have a child.
- Oh.
- She's 19.
I just put her on the road to college.
If you'll fill that full of water.
All right.
What do we do with this pot of water? Putting hot dogs in it.
So how many different programs do you work on? I kinda sponsor the basketball team.
And I have another program that I do in the summertime.
It's called a job readiness program.
Okay.
It's a pilot program I'm trying to get funded.
It's for kids that are, like, going to be 12 and 13.
Okay.
I expose them to all kinds of different jobs.
We did bricklaying.
We did roofing last year.
The parents pay them $50 a week.
And they have to open up a savings account.
They have to save half the money.
Okay, so I'm gonna go down.
Anyone that was playing volleyball with us.
Yeah, I want the six youngest, okay? Okay.
All right, let's see here.
And it seemed like there were I couldn't remember who was in the group.
I didn't know who was the youngest.
Hold up, everybody stop! Please stop bouncing the basketball.
Karen is a Saint in my mind.
It's kinda tough work.
I need six, only six.
Oh! I couldn't do it.
There's no way.
You all right, miss Karen? Dang.
Y'all did that on purpose, but that's okay.
You know, I come across that I'm hard on them and everything, but they know I love them.
What I do is I'm trying to help to give them some things that they may not get at home.
Some of them just need a little love.
Some of them need discipline.
But they're really pretty good kids.
Take a hot dog, put it on there, and put your cheese in there, and roll it up.
Boy, just pick it up.
You wanna grab yourself a hot dog there.
Just place it right there on the end.
What do you guys think of miss Karen? - Yeah, she's nice.
- Is she tough on you? When we don't listen and do what we're supposed to do, she gets on us for that.
For some kids, you have to be kinda tough to get through to 'em.
You've got to have people that understand the particular kids that they're dealing with and what it takes to get them motivated.
Karen is that person.
You've heard about the city layoffs and they were gonna cut police? It's been in the news, yeah.
Well, with the budget cuts, I don't know how many people we're gonna have to lay off.
We closed down two centers.
Oh, really? Two centers are gonna close.
Yeah.
It really did not feel good at all.
You know, we put policy into place, but we don't always see the end result.
A lot of times when people talk about taxpayers and citizens, they forget that children are citizens too.
The kinds of programs that go on every day are gonna be missed.
Those kids won't have access to good people like Karen.
So this is a real issue that we really need to be concerned about.
And what do you say? - Thank you.
- All right.
All right.
Excuse--uh, uh, uh.
You need to spit that gum out too, sir.
Coming up, the Mayor hears the truth.
You got City Council who wants to cut our budget.
Whether he wants to or not.
The public's lives in our hands, and we get no respect.
And later, Rick gets recognized.
- Good morning.
- Hi, how are you doing? Hey.
Her face lit up like she knows me.
Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati, is undercover in his own city.
His journey continues.
The city owns and operates more than 3,000 vehicles.
This maintenance facility takes care of all of those vehicles and all of that equipment.
Hi.
I'm Rick Wilson.
I'm here to see Steve.
One of the things that we had to do in this last budget was to delay the purchase of some new vehicles.
That means the existing vehicles we have are goona have to run for a little bit longer.
- You Steve? - Yeah Steve, how are you? - Rick Wilson.
- Rick Wilson.
Good to meet yah.
- I'm a mechanic for the city of Cincinnati.
- Okay.
My big think that I do for the city is the motorcycles.
- Okay.
- First thing we do when we do an oil change on a motorcycle is start it up.
Kinda getting the oil flowing.
One thing you wanna remember at all times this is somebody's life in your hands, right here.
So obviously the first thing for an emergency vehicle is you want to make sure all the lights are operational.
There's your horn.
Siren.
All right, so that's that.
Rick, you ready to get dirty? Let's get dirty.
You gotta get down on your knees, man.
Put your knees on these pads.
Don't be afraid to-- you're gonna get dirty.
You're gonna get--yeah.
I used to work on cars years ago, back when I had to, when I didn't have any way of paying for it myself.
Slide the pad under it.
It's not gonna burn you though, but it might-- grab that outta there, 'cause it's gonna get covered in oil.
I don't know what he does for a living, but I'd say Rick doesn't work a lot with his hands.
Just--there you go.
Whoops, there it went.
Mechanic hands? No, he's got soft hands.
Right here, see this one right here? - Right, right.
- That's your transmission oil.
Same thing.
So is your favorite to work on bikes? - Oh, absolutely.
- Why is that? It's a hobby of mine.
This particular bike here, this is actually, it's a good friend of my younger brother's.
Oh, okay.
You know, so I've known this guy personally for years.
And it helps to know who the rider is too.
Okay.
Some of my guys are worse on their rear brakes.
Some of them are worse on the clutches.
Steve takes personal pride and some real ownership in his work.
I mean, obviously this is the kinda work that, you know, at the end of the day your knuckles are all busted up, your hands are bleeding, and, you know, you might get a few burns and some scratches.
And he's the kinda guy that just says, "you know, it's all part of a day's work.
" That's the kind of commitment that I'm looking for from city employees.
Yeah.
Yeah, I love it.
As you can see, the sarcasm there.
Just put it on the bench.
Mechanics are the bottom of the totem pole anywhere you go.
You got City Council who wants to cut our budget.
If you was working on a three-year-old car or a 13-year-old-car, which one is gonna cost you more to keep on the street? - That 13-year-old car, for sure.
Well, you go tell City Council that, will you? You know? Nobody realizes it, man, but fleet services is the backbone of the operation.
Costs $12 million to run fleet services.
So, you know, the high-and-mighties up at council, well, we farm it out, we'll save $12 million.
No, you're not.
It's gonna cost you money.
We do a lot of things that the public doesn't see.
You got your first responders, police and fire.
When other departments are overwhelmed or they're short on manpower, they come to us.
These guys in this garage, they plow the streets.
We manned the pumps at Lunken Field when the flood was coming.
The big Queen City Barrel fire, we had mechanics on duty fueling fire trucks.
We're basically the second responders.
So what would it take to fix some of that stuff? Particularly on the communication, what would it take to fix that? Come on down like you, Rick.
Let me put you in a blue shirt.
Let's--see what I do.
They ain't gonna do it.
It's politics, man.
You hit a good button there, man.
That was a good one.
I see.
Steve really gave me an earful.
He was just talking from the heart.
I mean, he was really bringing it, about how he feels, and it kinda knocked me back on my heels.
A guy in his position really wants to be heard.
He wants people to understand that he knows what he's talking about.
And right now I don't get the sense that he feels that way.
That's something that has to change.
I have had a long day.
And sometimes I just want to be by myself.
But when you're the Mayor, your job is never done.
And right now I have to attend a very important event.
Today we are doing the ribbon-cutting on the new tallest building in our city.
All right.
These are some serious scissors, man.
Look at this.
Do we get to keep these, you think? No.
I'm in downtown Cincinnati.
And I'm gonna be running around today with a parking enforcement officer, and we're gonna be writing tickets to parking violators.
We've got about all throughout town.
They're usually in business areas.
And the point of having parking meters is to get people to turn over the spaces.
So that way other people can get in, spend money in the retail establishment.
That's what we want.
Hello, hello.
Good morning.
- I'm looking for Arnneater.
- Right here.
Good morning.
Hi, how you doing? - Hey.
- Good to see you.
Same here.
How you doing? And she looked at me, and her face lit up like she knows me.
My name's Rick Wilson.
Rick, okay.
Welcome to the meter shop.
Thank you.
And she just went on, so I wasn't sure if she knew who I was or not.
- So here's your equipment.
- All right.
Okay, this will be your belt.
What is this? Is this some kinda stick? Can I hit people with this? No, no, no, no.
You have to be commissioned for that.
We just got this to make you look good, but you really can't use this, okay? And I go in to put all that equipment on.
And I'm wondering, does she know me? Does she realize who I am? You know what, my wife says that.
She says that, but I keep telling her I don't think I do.
But she says that.
But you do.
Okay, so we gonna walk around here.
Since I threw out the wife thing, she seems to have gotten off of it pretty quickly.
So I think I've convinced her.
- We have one.
- We got one.
All right, so you stand clear.
Stand over there, because if they come and be nasty and wanna back over you or whatever-- Right, you want to be out of the way.
Yeah, that has happened before too.
- Has it? - Oh, yeah.
Okay, you key it in here.
It's in violation.
Push "e.
" Expired meter.
Okay.
Okay? This is a four-door.
You push "4.
" You scan down.
You do the make, which is a Honda.
Just slide it on here.
And try to do it gently, because, you know, they'll come out and say, "hey, they broke my window, they cracked this.
" You know what I'm saying.
Anything to get out of a ticket.
Yep, that's definitely expired.
All righty.
I'm gonna let you do all of this.
I'm not gonna tell you anything.
All right.
No pressure, but try not to mess up.
Try not to mess up, huh? Okay, I think I have the help page on here already.
Oh, that don't sound good.
Okay.
So 2-3-2-- Slow down.
Uh-oh.
- Wait a minute.
Oh, this don't sound good.
If you don't know what you're doing, you could jam it up and freeze it.
I really thought he broke the machine.
I think your fingers might be too fat or something.
Okay.
All right.
Well, here's another one.
Oh, yeah, we busy today.
We are busy today.
Did I mention it's important that you kinda speed it up? Okay.
I'm working on that.
After his fifth ticket, you'd think he'd wanna kick it in and speed it up.
He didn't.
And this person's got a sticker on their car that says, "I love Cincinnati.
" I hope they'll still love Cincinnati.
Well, yeah, but guess what.
You can't sit at a meter and expect not to pay it.
Not yet.
If somebody say, "hey, hey, here I come," don't touch nothing.
Once you touch this next button, there's no going back.
- You might let 'em go? - I will let 'em go.
- You'll let 'em go.
- I will.
So if it were me I would say that had to give me, like, a Kit Kat or a Hershey's.
- No, no, no.
- Hershey Bar or a Reese's-- - no, no, no, you can't do no Kit Kats.
You can't do nothing, no.
None of that? You know, you try to make as many friends as you can and be polite.
Now if this car were stolen, would this automatically tell me? Why not? No, unless you say, "I wanna run a search.
" That's your choice.
So you think you're gonna like doing this job though? There's a lot of walking involved.
It's kinda cold today.
Oh, yeah.
So you have family? I have two boys and two girls.
Right now my oldest son, he's in a nursing home.
- He's in a nursing home? - Yeah, he has cerebral palsy.
He's 28.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
All righty.
I had him, like, three months too early.
And his motor skills hadn't fully developed 'cause he wasn't getting oxygen to his brain.
I mean, I didn't know that.
He's total care though.
He can't really do anything for himself.
He's confined to that chair.
We all getting old, so we can't really lift him, you know? So how do you transport him? That's why my son is in a nursing home, because they wouldn't help me.
I finally got on social security, and I pleaded with them people, "can you build me a wheelchair ramp?" They wouldn't do that.
I told 'em, "just keep the check.
I just need help with him.
" Nobody should ever go through that.
You know, leaving their child 'cause they can't take care of 'em.
- Yeah.
- He didn't understand that.
I mean, it's just-- a mother should never have to do that.
And, uh When Arnneater told me about her son, I figured I need to tell her who I am.
I mean, it was a pretty emotional moment.
So I figured I would let her know.
So earlier you asked me why I looked familiar to you.
Yeah.
Why'd you ask me that? 'Cause you look like our Mayor.
I am the Mayor.
Oh, my God.
Did you see my face when you walked in? I did see your face.
But cool.
I think this is neat.
Yeah, I wanted to let you know.
You know, 'cause I figure you were sharing a lot of things with me, and, you know, I didn't want you to be in a situation where, you know, who am I talking to kinda thing.
So Yeah.
You ever hear that old saying if it look like a duck, walk like a duck, it is a duck? Yeah, the Mayor's a duck.
But the wig thing look good.
You ever think about going dread like that? Well, if I could grow hair completely, you know.
But I can't do that at this point.
Yeah, but it looks good on you.
Arnneater really impressed me, because she's going through so many tough situations.
And she continues to be in a good spirit.
If she can give a person a break on giving them a ticket, she does that.
She said if she can make somebody's day by smiling and being nice to them, that's something she wants to do.
That just tells me she's a great person.
Yeah, she just made it.
She just made it.
- Yeah, she just made it.
- All right, good job.
I'm gonna take her license plat down and write her up later though.
No, don't do that.
Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
You ever do that? No.
- You know? - No.
Coming up, Mark's coworkers think they're coming to city hall to cast their vote.
Do I feel that he can do my job? No.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? My undercover assignment is about to come to an end.
So I'm ready to report to the City Directors all the things I've found.
Shawn, if you guys can meet me at the hotel.
I'm just a few minutes out.
I'm probably ten minutes out.
Want to go over some things as soon as I get there.
I'll see you in a few minutes.
Hey, guys.
Sir.
I got a bunch of things I wanna go over.
Arnneater is a parking enforcement officer.
They've got a nice little handheld unit that they're able to put the license plate of the car in that they're giving the ticket to.
I don't know whether or not that system is connected with the Police Department System to automatically tell us if a car is stolen.
If that linkage is not there, we need to make that linkage.
- Absolutely.
- It'd be a great opportunity for parking enforcement officers to be able to assist the police department in finding lost and stolen vehicles.
Can you check that out for me? I'll call the chief.
That'd be great.
Next, Karen.
Karen works for McKie Recreation Center.
Karen's got a job readiness program where she's taking teenagers and putting them in situations where they're learning how to have a job.
I've got a question as to whether or not that program is throughout the recreation centers or just at McKie.
If it's only at McKie, I want some version of it to be spread across the entire city.
Danny is a truck driver with sanitation.
Danny is the only guy that goes out on a truck all day every day to pick up dead animals.
But one of the things I noticed that Danny needs is GPS.
It'll save time, it'll save gas.
And in the end, it'll make him more efficient.
Shawn, get in touch with Margo.
Have her work with Drew, the head of Public Services.
Have them utilize technology to make Danny's job easier.
- Okay, okay.
- Sounds good.
- Great.
Thanks, guys.
- Let's do it.
The reason I ran for public office in the first place was to continue the work of my father.
Yeah, I need to talk to the Chief of Police.
- Yeah, Shawn Butler.
- Please, it's Arlen.
The reason he got into politics was to help people, to bring a voice to those whose voices are not often heard.
It's great.
Well, the Mayor thinks that this is the type of program that every recreation center in the city of Cincinnati needs to have.
My dad has taught me over the years to make sure you stay connected with the people who are on the front lines.
Because they are the ones that have the real perspective on what's really happening.
You can't go through an experience like I've gone through over the last week and not be changed in some way.
So when it's time to have conversations about the budget, you know, some of these people's faces are gonna pop into my mind.
This was a good week for me and a good week for Cincinnati.
Now it's time to let the people that I've been working with know exactly who I am.
I'm Steve, I'm here for my 4:30 appointment.
If you're asking me, do I feel that Rick can do my job? No, I don't think he can.
Well, right now I'm a little nervous.
You know, it's a lot of big people in City Hall that has a lot of power, so when you're down here you gotta kinda walk on eggshells.
Hello.
Hi, how are you? You know who I am? No.
Really, I don't.
- Mayor Mark Mallory.
- Okay.
Mayor of the city of Cincinnati.
Have we met before? I met you at the luncheon for the summer work program.
Well, we also met the other day.
Oh! You know what, actually I was thinking, he looks awfully familiar to me but-- - yeah, you had me.
It's kinda like Undercover Boss, huh? Exactly like Undercover Boss.
Oh, okay.
Cool.
I've never seen this show.
Well, I would encourage you to watch it.
Steve, I got to tell you.
You gave me an earful.
Yeah, I know I did.
You kicked me around a little bit, you know? You busted my knuckles up, you know? Yeah.
Well, Steve, I really appreciate what you do for the city.
I want you to hear that from me as the Mayor.
I'm gonna talk to the City Manager and see if there's a way that we can get some of these issues resolved.
I know there's that annual car show that happens out there.
Right.
But I want to have a showcase of equipment that really puts out to the general public the variety of things that you guys work on.
I'm gonna be there.
I wanna bring City Council there.
So that they can meet you, and they can meet the rest of your team.
People need to know the importance of your work.
I'm gonna make sure that happens.
Okay? Okay, all right.
- All right.
- Not a problem.
You said you have a motorcycle yourself, right? Yes, sir.
Now, you know, bikes are probably like cars and boats.
You have one but you want another one.
Absolutely.
I've talked to some of the friends that I have in the corporate world, and they want to commit to giving you $10,000.
You can use that to buy a bike if you can get it.
You can travel, pay for whatever you wanna pay for.
Okay, I'm not gonna tell him no.
Fantastic.
It's a wonderful day for fleet services.
I can go back to work tomorrow and let the guys know that we're gonna be heard from here forward.
Karen, I think you just do a fantastic job.
You really have a command of those kids.
But you have a compassion that really comes through as well.
Thank you.
You talked about the summer job program that we have through the recreation department.
You are preparing young people for the work environment.
So what I'd like to do is have that job readiness program spread throughout more of our recreation centers, as many of them that we can get it to.
Wow.
That's wonderful.
You work so hard for these kids.
And I get the sense that you don't do a lot of things for yourself.
So I've talked to a good friend of mine who wants to give you a $10,000 gift card that you can use anywhere.
Like, even to help pay my daughter's tuition? - Absolutely.
- For real? - Yes.
- Oh, my gosh! This is--oh, lord.
I can't believe this.
I'm gonna cry.
I now can pay my daughter's tuition, and that is wonderful.
I'm just overjoyed.
I'm just very blessed.
And I don't know what else to say.
I'm just-- oh, I'm just--oh.
Overjoyed.
Danny, you have a great sense of humor about yourself.
Thank you.
And you're just very committed to what you do.
You told me a lot of crazy stories.
One that stuck out with me was when you told me about the big deer that you had to drag out of the woods.
I did.
So when we were in the truck, we sorta joked about getting a winch for your truck.
But that's something I'm actually gonna do.
I'm gonna make sure that every truck that you might go out on has a winch on it, so that you don't have to go through that.
The other thing I noticed, I really think you should have a GPS unit in your car.
I think it would make it a lot easier for you.
And the kinda system that I'm looking to get into place would allow the dispatcher to put the information into a computer, and it would automatically send it to your GPS unit.
So you don't have to be out in the field trying to put in an address while you're driving.
- Well, I appreciate that.
- It's not a problem.
I appreciate that, for real.
I've been telling people about you.
I've been telling people about the way you approach things.
And they want to do something special for you.
So I've gotten one of them to pay for a trip for you and your wife to go to New York for a week.
- Really? - All expenses paid.
- Oh, cut it out.
- Yes.
- For real? - Yes.
And on top of that, you know, New York is the kinda place that costs a little bit of money.
So we're gonna give you $3,000 spending money.
Man, you gonna make me, serious, start crying.
Come on.
I can't wait to tell my wife.
I can't wait to get outta here to call her up to tell her.
She's gonna be ecstatic.
Well, hello.
Hi.
Good to see you again.
Arnneater, you're on the front line out there.
And you're in a job that doesn't really make people excited to see you.
Exactly.
You know what, I think you're a special person.
Thank you.
I just want you to know how much I appreciate the work that you do for the public.
Thank you.
I wanna do something for you.
You told me about your son.
Yeah.
Yeah, he has cerebral palsy? Yeah.
Well, I have some friends that want to help out.
Okay.
And buy you a van that has a wheelchair ramp in it.
So that you and your husband can take your son out and not have to pick him up out of the wheelchair to get him into the car.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
I wanna thank you for your service.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I've truly given up on people trying to help me.
I stopped asking, I just-- and I always thought of the Mayor as being one of the people that didn't understand the little people, the working people.
And I'm a crybaby.
I'm sorry.
I've called together a large group of city employees to tell them exactly what I've been doing over the last week.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Mayor of the great city of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory.
Hello, hello.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I want you to know that as the Mayor of the city of Cincinnati, I've had the opportunity to go undercover and work alongside some city workers.
Because if we're gonna be providing all these services to the citizens of our city, we need to know how to do it best.
And we don't always know.
I've got some clips that I want to show to you tonight, so let's take a look at 'em.
- Uh-oh.
Wait a minute.
I think your fingers might be too fat or something.
Get off your butts, put your pens down, and come see what we got going on.
They ain't gonna do it.
It's politics, man.
- You hungry? - I gotta wash my hands, man.
I can't eat nothing after picking up dead animals.
You had your gloves on.
You know, I decided to do this because sometimes public employees get a bad rap.
People say you don't work as hard.
They say you're not as committed.
They say you don't have as much passion as people in the private sector.
I found out firsthand that is not true.
And I want you to hear from me right now, right today, that I'm extremely proud of the work that the employees of the city of Cincinnati provide on a daily basis.
I thank you for coming tonight.
Thank you for your work.
And keep making me proud.
Thank you very much.
My parents talked about the importance of public service, the importance of giving back to the community.
I found that to be the case in every person that I worked with when I went undercover.
People ask me all the time, who are your heroes? And for me it's just my mother and father.
They are the folks that really inspire me to do what I do every day.
I hope that I'm making my mother and father proud with the work that I'm doing here.
I think there are great things in Cincinnati's future.
We're in the middle of a rebirth.
We are investing in our neighborhoods.
People are actually moving into the city of Cincinnati.
Our population is increasing for the first time in 50 years.
Cincinnati's on the move.
Many of them wonder if our corporate and elected leaders have the answers to our problems.
In these tough times, some bosses are taking radical steps to discover how to improve their companies.
Each week, we follow the head of a major organization as they work undercover alongside their own staff.
Tonight, for the first time we go undercover with an elected official-- the Mayor of Cincinnati.
Rick Wilson, good to meet you.
The Mayor will trade in his key to the city and fine dining for a wrench and roadkill.
There's just no way of describing having to pick up a flat cat.
By working on the front lines of public service, he'll get an inside look at his own city.
If you was working on a three-year-old car or a 13-year-old-car, which one is gonna cost you more? That 13-year-old car.
Go tell City Council that, will you? And he'll discover the unsung heroes that make his city run.
I felt like for the first time I could talk to somebody who lives in my city and just get the real deal.
How will his coworkers react when they find out he's really the Mayor? As the Mayor of the city of Cincinnati, I've had the opportunity to go undercover.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Known around the world as the home of the Bengals, the Reds, some of the world's best chili, and even as the setting of a classic TV sitcom.
The Cincinnati region is home to 2.
1 million people.
And when it comes to leadership, they all look to one man.
I'm Mark Mallory.
I'm Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
You know, the official job of the Mayor is defined in the Cincinnati Charter.
It says the Mayor is the official representative of the city and that the Mayor plays a role in the budget process.
Beyond that it doesn't really define the structure of the job of being Mayor.
That's really up to whoever the person is that sits in this seat.
So the job of Mayor as I see it is to make sure that the city is running efficiently as possible, that we are creating jobs, keeping the citizens safe, and creating a great environment for our citizens to live in.
All right, you guys ready to eat? - Yes.
- I'm hungry.
Ooh.
I don't see any hot sauce on the table though.
I don't know if I can eat this without hot sauce.
You cannot be a mallory and not be in politics.
I have four brothers and one sister.
Between my dad, my brothers and me, we've been in more than My father served in the state legislature for 28 years.
He sorta started this whole thing.
I saw a lot of things coming up.
I saw people being evicted from their homes.
And I wanted to be in politics to try to change those things.
I am clear on the fact that I'll never be as great as my dad.
The impact that my father has had on the city of Cincinnati and on the state of Ohio is great.
What I want to be able to do is to make my father and my mother proud of the work that I'm doing.
My parents both impressed upon me and my siblings the concept that you have to give something back.
I worked at the Public Library of Cincinnati 14 years.
I served in the House of Representatives for two years.
And then I served two terms in the Ohio Senate.
Then I decided to run for the Mayor of this great city.
I'm Mark Mallory, and I'm asking for your vote on November 8th.
And I am the first directly elected African American Mayor of the city of Cincinnati.
I just wanted to tell you I asked you all to be here today.
I have decided to go undercover on the show Undercover Boss.
Really? Are you serious? I love that show.
So what are you gonna do, grow a beard? How is this gonna happen? - Dreads.
- Dreads? It's funny that you say dreads because Oh, my goodness.
What you think? Mmm.
I think I have a very recognizable face.
Everywhere that television signals go people tend to know who I am.
On any given day you will see me doing press conferences, going to ribbon cuttings, going to groundbreakings.
I'll be at receptions, at luncheons, at dinners.
So it's gonna be really challenging to keep people from knowing who I am.
I tell you who he reminds me of.
Spike Lee.
I look like spike Lee? Around--yes.
You know you gotta change the way you speak.
You just turn it down on the proper English.
'Cause, you know, just-- Yeah, man.
Well, I'm not gonna have the luxury of going away in order to do Undercover Boss.
I still have to be the Mayor while I'm doing these jobs.
So this is gonna be quite a balancing act.
Obviously I'm still gonna have my cell phone.
I'm gonna be able to use that.
There's certain things I won't be able to talk about in front of other people.
Emergency, of course.
I'll have for you reports from the City Manager, head of security, everything that you need to know.
My staff is always going to know where I am.
And if something arises, they're going to come to me, and we're gonna deal with it right then.
I think going undercover is the only way to find out what's really going on in city service.
We are going to be having a quarterly review of our budget.
There's been major pressure to lay off employees.
For me, this is an issue of being equipped to make greater arguments.
I will be able to tell the council members how those cuts would affect services, how those cuts would affect people.
While undercover, I'm gonna be going by the name of Rick Wilson.
My coworkers are gonna be told that this is a competition where two candidates will compete for the same job.
One of the things I'm known for as Mayor is that I'm skinny.
I've been skinny all my life.
So I'm wearing a fat suit.
I hope it will work.
All right.
Oh.
Right now I'm wondering, what am I getting myself into? Okay.
If I'm able to get through this entire process without being recognized, it'll be a miracle.
Today I'm at the Sanitation Division of our Public Services Department.
There are 2,800 lane miles.
In the city of Cincinnati.
That's the distance between New York City and Los Angeles.
This is the group that's responsible for picking up garbage, for clearing snow off the streets.
How you doing? You Danny? Danny Jackson.
- Danny? Rick Wilson.
- Neighborhood operations with the city of Cincinnati.
All right, all right.
During our last budget process, there was a lot of conversation about the Sanitation Division.
And I want to make sure that they're top-notch.
If they don't do their jobs right, there will be accidents, there will be traffic tie-ups, there will be problems throughout our city.
How this works is most of the time I'm getting the dead animals.
Okay.
Whatsever in the road dead, that's what I do.
So you just do dead animals and nothing else? That's it? Dead animals.
I was thinking, great assignment.
Dead animals right before lunch.
Sometimes I get two or three deers a day.
Raccoons, a lot of possums.
Squirrels.
Wow.
I really didn't want to give Danny any sense that I was the Mayor.
I changed my voice, I changed my posture.
Rick is sort of--you know, he sorta talks like this.
He's sorta laid back.
He's sorta not so much in your face.
I'm gonna go to 540 Blair.
There's a dog at the curb.
Oh, right up in there? It's gonna be tough to get outta there.
This thing is heavy.
There you go, Rick.
All right.
Just slide him on up there.
People probably don't even think about how that stuff gets removed.
Actually, neither do I.
So how was that, grabbing that dog? Oh, it was heavy, man.
- Yeah, that's dead weight.
- That's heavy.
That's dead weight, that's right.
Do me a favor, Rick.
Write this down.
Kendall Road between Bank and Central Avenue.
There's a cat in the middle of the street.
- There's a cat? - Yeah, it's a cat.
That's my neighborhood.
I live just two blocks from there.
Is west gonna be that way or that way? It's gonna be this way.
Do you have a GPS in here? - No.
- Okay.
I see him right in the middle of the street.
- Oh, right there.
- Yeah.
Oh, that's flat.
When they're flat like that, do you got a scrapper or-- - Just grab him right up.
- Just grab him up, huh? Man, guts and everything.
Squished kitty.
It looked terrible.
It was a flattened cat.
I love cats, and this was a flat cat.
There you go.
All right, two down.
There's just no way of describing having to pick up a flat cat.
What's the biggest thing you ever picked up? A deer.
That deer took this whole truck.
I couldn't even put the tailgate up.
That's the biggest deer to this day I've ever seen.
Man.
So you got, like, a winch, that's what it's called.
You gotta tell them to get you a winch, man.
- Winch.
Yeah, a winch.
- Yeah.
No, I don't have that.
I don't have that.
Yeah, go ahead.
This is 8-2.
I have a raccoon in a bag on the curb.
Yeah, that's it right there.
How you know? Saw the tail sticking out of the bag.
Oh, wow.
Well, make sure he ain't breathing there before you just grab him.
- Just kick him? - Yeah.
Make sure he stiff.
He's a stiff one.
You hungry? I gotta wash my hands, man.
I can't eat nothing after picking up dead animals.
You had your gloves on.
I can't do it.
You don't want to turkey sandwich? I absolutely had to wash my hands.
I mean, you can't go around picking up dead animals all day and eat without washing your hands.
It's the normal thing to do, even if you're not picking up dead animals.
Ooh, man, I was getting hungry there for a while, man.
- I could eat a raccoon.
- Mm-hmm.
I have gloves on.
My hands were clean before I put 'em in the gloves.
So it's part of the job.
And how many people go out and do this? - Just me.
- Just you? So you do the whole city? I do this for the whole city.
I do the whole city.
Wow.
Got a couple dead squirrels at the corner of 4th and Pike.
So what part of town did you grow up in? I grew up downtown.
But till I was, like, Danny and I actually grew up in the same neighborhood.
I couldn't tell him that, but he's a few years older than me.
But we share some of the same types of experiences.
Yeah, I got a son that works for the city.
Oh, yeah, what does he do? Sometime he goes out on the garbage route.
You just got the one son? - No, I have eight kids.
- Eight? Yeah.
Damn, bro.
Well, I felt like for the first time in I don't know how long I could talk to somebody who lives in my city and just get the real deal.
I'm thinking I might do this, like, you know, once a month or something.
You know, Ricky might just show up on a job site and see what's happening.
Oh, no.
It's nasty stuff, man.
The possum in the middle of Broadway at Court.
But I've been doing this job since I've been working here, which is, like, nine years.
I mean, it's not a hard job.
Right.
You know, the pay is not that bad.
My wife wants to go to New York.
She's never been.
I really can't afford it.
In the beginning, I couldn't.
I really can't now.
There are a lot of people that do a lot of jobs around the city that most people just would not do.
It's a job that's gotta be done.
If nobody did it, you know, our experience in a city the size of Cincinnati would be very different.
What you think? Can I sell you on trading jobs with me? Oh, I don't know about that.
You can do it.
Coming up, the Mayor goes undercover after school.
Please don't make me raise my voice.
I really don't want to raise my voice today.
And later, Rick gets an earful.
The public's lives in our hands, and we get no respect.
Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati, is undercover in his own city.
His coworkers think they're on a reality show where two people are competing for the same job in city service.
His journey continues.
Today I'm gonna be working with the Director of the McKie Recreation Center here in Northside.
We have 24 Recreation Centers across our city, and they see about This rec center also offers a program for kids from the neighborhood who need a place to go after school while their parents are still at work.
Hi, I'm looking for Karen.
- She's here.
- All right.
When you've got a $60 million deficit like we had last year, you've gotta make decisions about what's gonna go away.
And in that last budget, we cut out two recreation centers.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- You hear for the job? - Yes.
Okay, I'm gonna take you so you can hang your coat up.
- Okay.
- Okay? Okay, everybody listen up.
Let me just tell y'all right now.
I don't want to see any telephones.
If I see a telephone, it's mine.
Does everybody understand that? You want me to have this? No.
- Then I don't wanna see it.
- Okay, okay.
It has no business here.
My mother is a pretty tough disciplinarian.
So it kinda reminded me of being a kid when I heard that first yelp.
This is Mr.
Wilson, and he's gonna be working with us today.
All right, I want you to give him the same respect that you give to me.
Does everybody understand that? Yes, ma'am.
We're gonna go down and do volleyball first.
And then we'll have cooking class, okay? So I need you guys to line up at the door for me.
Don't ask me 1,001 questions.
Just wait and see.
Is that everybody? Please don't make me raise my voice.
I really don't want to raise my voice today.
Watch where you're going, not where you've been.
Maurice, stop it.
So listen.
Put that ball down.
If you shoot it, you will sit down.
Well, I expect my older kids to help with the little kids.
And let your little people be up front.
Don't hog the ball.
Little people, come up front.
We playing as a team, we're playing together.
So you hit it once, hit it to somebody, so somebody can help it over.
Does everybody understand that? - Yes.
- All right.
I go to schools and I speak, and I go places where kids are, but this is really the first time I've gotten to spend a lot of time dealing with kids in a long, long time.
Hit it over.
Good hit! You gonna play.
Oh, I gotta play too? You gotta play.
The whole point of when I play with them is for them to play as a team, to play as a group.
So that means you see the little one's gonna get it.
You know that she's not gonna be able to get it over.
You gotta be there to help her.
You gotta have each other's back.
Now you gotta back up your player.
When one of your players hits the ball, you gotta step this way to make sure it gets over the net, okay? Why don't we let her serve? She didn't get a turn.
Get it over, Kayla.
Nice serve.
Hit it, hit it.
Oh, nice recovery.
Take it, relay.
Help him.
Help him, help him, help him, help him.
That's it.
I'd rather lose y'all playing as a team.
Oh.
All right.
Good teamwork.
Very good.
Rick's trainable.
As trainable as most men can be, you know? I think he was a little bit apprehensive at first.
I think he'd need more time to develop his own style.
All right, now we gotta go setup for cooking class.
All right.
I'll get somebody for y'all.
Don't be--come back here.
Today we're gonna have a cooking class.
We're making pigs in a blanket.
- Pigs in a blanket.
- Pigs in a blanket.
We gonna put a triangle on each plate.
- I see, okay.
- Okay? So how long have you worked here? I been with recreation Wow.
I actually have a degree, and I practiced social work for the first, like, Why'd you get outta that? 'Cause I decided to have a child.
- Oh.
- She's 19.
I just put her on the road to college.
If you'll fill that full of water.
All right.
What do we do with this pot of water? Putting hot dogs in it.
So how many different programs do you work on? I kinda sponsor the basketball team.
And I have another program that I do in the summertime.
It's called a job readiness program.
Okay.
It's a pilot program I'm trying to get funded.
It's for kids that are, like, going to be 12 and 13.
Okay.
I expose them to all kinds of different jobs.
We did bricklaying.
We did roofing last year.
The parents pay them $50 a week.
And they have to open up a savings account.
They have to save half the money.
Okay, so I'm gonna go down.
Anyone that was playing volleyball with us.
Yeah, I want the six youngest, okay? Okay.
All right, let's see here.
And it seemed like there were I couldn't remember who was in the group.
I didn't know who was the youngest.
Hold up, everybody stop! Please stop bouncing the basketball.
Karen is a Saint in my mind.
It's kinda tough work.
I need six, only six.
Oh! I couldn't do it.
There's no way.
You all right, miss Karen? Dang.
Y'all did that on purpose, but that's okay.
You know, I come across that I'm hard on them and everything, but they know I love them.
What I do is I'm trying to help to give them some things that they may not get at home.
Some of them just need a little love.
Some of them need discipline.
But they're really pretty good kids.
Take a hot dog, put it on there, and put your cheese in there, and roll it up.
Boy, just pick it up.
You wanna grab yourself a hot dog there.
Just place it right there on the end.
What do you guys think of miss Karen? - Yeah, she's nice.
- Is she tough on you? When we don't listen and do what we're supposed to do, she gets on us for that.
For some kids, you have to be kinda tough to get through to 'em.
You've got to have people that understand the particular kids that they're dealing with and what it takes to get them motivated.
Karen is that person.
You've heard about the city layoffs and they were gonna cut police? It's been in the news, yeah.
Well, with the budget cuts, I don't know how many people we're gonna have to lay off.
We closed down two centers.
Oh, really? Two centers are gonna close.
Yeah.
It really did not feel good at all.
You know, we put policy into place, but we don't always see the end result.
A lot of times when people talk about taxpayers and citizens, they forget that children are citizens too.
The kinds of programs that go on every day are gonna be missed.
Those kids won't have access to good people like Karen.
So this is a real issue that we really need to be concerned about.
And what do you say? - Thank you.
- All right.
All right.
Excuse--uh, uh, uh.
You need to spit that gum out too, sir.
Coming up, the Mayor hears the truth.
You got City Council who wants to cut our budget.
Whether he wants to or not.
The public's lives in our hands, and we get no respect.
And later, Rick gets recognized.
- Good morning.
- Hi, how are you doing? Hey.
Her face lit up like she knows me.
Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati, is undercover in his own city.
His journey continues.
The city owns and operates more than 3,000 vehicles.
This maintenance facility takes care of all of those vehicles and all of that equipment.
Hi.
I'm Rick Wilson.
I'm here to see Steve.
One of the things that we had to do in this last budget was to delay the purchase of some new vehicles.
That means the existing vehicles we have are goona have to run for a little bit longer.
- You Steve? - Yeah Steve, how are you? - Rick Wilson.
- Rick Wilson.
Good to meet yah.
- I'm a mechanic for the city of Cincinnati.
- Okay.
My big think that I do for the city is the motorcycles.
- Okay.
- First thing we do when we do an oil change on a motorcycle is start it up.
Kinda getting the oil flowing.
One thing you wanna remember at all times this is somebody's life in your hands, right here.
So obviously the first thing for an emergency vehicle is you want to make sure all the lights are operational.
There's your horn.
Siren.
All right, so that's that.
Rick, you ready to get dirty? Let's get dirty.
You gotta get down on your knees, man.
Put your knees on these pads.
Don't be afraid to-- you're gonna get dirty.
You're gonna get--yeah.
I used to work on cars years ago, back when I had to, when I didn't have any way of paying for it myself.
Slide the pad under it.
It's not gonna burn you though, but it might-- grab that outta there, 'cause it's gonna get covered in oil.
I don't know what he does for a living, but I'd say Rick doesn't work a lot with his hands.
Just--there you go.
Whoops, there it went.
Mechanic hands? No, he's got soft hands.
Right here, see this one right here? - Right, right.
- That's your transmission oil.
Same thing.
So is your favorite to work on bikes? - Oh, absolutely.
- Why is that? It's a hobby of mine.
This particular bike here, this is actually, it's a good friend of my younger brother's.
Oh, okay.
You know, so I've known this guy personally for years.
And it helps to know who the rider is too.
Okay.
Some of my guys are worse on their rear brakes.
Some of them are worse on the clutches.
Steve takes personal pride and some real ownership in his work.
I mean, obviously this is the kinda work that, you know, at the end of the day your knuckles are all busted up, your hands are bleeding, and, you know, you might get a few burns and some scratches.
And he's the kinda guy that just says, "you know, it's all part of a day's work.
" That's the kind of commitment that I'm looking for from city employees.
Yeah.
Yeah, I love it.
As you can see, the sarcasm there.
Just put it on the bench.
Mechanics are the bottom of the totem pole anywhere you go.
You got City Council who wants to cut our budget.
If you was working on a three-year-old car or a 13-year-old-car, which one is gonna cost you more to keep on the street? - That 13-year-old car, for sure.
Well, you go tell City Council that, will you? You know? Nobody realizes it, man, but fleet services is the backbone of the operation.
Costs $12 million to run fleet services.
So, you know, the high-and-mighties up at council, well, we farm it out, we'll save $12 million.
No, you're not.
It's gonna cost you money.
We do a lot of things that the public doesn't see.
You got your first responders, police and fire.
When other departments are overwhelmed or they're short on manpower, they come to us.
These guys in this garage, they plow the streets.
We manned the pumps at Lunken Field when the flood was coming.
The big Queen City Barrel fire, we had mechanics on duty fueling fire trucks.
We're basically the second responders.
So what would it take to fix some of that stuff? Particularly on the communication, what would it take to fix that? Come on down like you, Rick.
Let me put you in a blue shirt.
Let's--see what I do.
They ain't gonna do it.
It's politics, man.
You hit a good button there, man.
That was a good one.
I see.
Steve really gave me an earful.
He was just talking from the heart.
I mean, he was really bringing it, about how he feels, and it kinda knocked me back on my heels.
A guy in his position really wants to be heard.
He wants people to understand that he knows what he's talking about.
And right now I don't get the sense that he feels that way.
That's something that has to change.
I have had a long day.
And sometimes I just want to be by myself.
But when you're the Mayor, your job is never done.
And right now I have to attend a very important event.
Today we are doing the ribbon-cutting on the new tallest building in our city.
All right.
These are some serious scissors, man.
Look at this.
Do we get to keep these, you think? No.
I'm in downtown Cincinnati.
And I'm gonna be running around today with a parking enforcement officer, and we're gonna be writing tickets to parking violators.
We've got about all throughout town.
They're usually in business areas.
And the point of having parking meters is to get people to turn over the spaces.
So that way other people can get in, spend money in the retail establishment.
That's what we want.
Hello, hello.
Good morning.
- I'm looking for Arnneater.
- Right here.
Good morning.
Hi, how you doing? - Hey.
- Good to see you.
Same here.
How you doing? And she looked at me, and her face lit up like she knows me.
My name's Rick Wilson.
Rick, okay.
Welcome to the meter shop.
Thank you.
And she just went on, so I wasn't sure if she knew who I was or not.
- So here's your equipment.
- All right.
Okay, this will be your belt.
What is this? Is this some kinda stick? Can I hit people with this? No, no, no, no.
You have to be commissioned for that.
We just got this to make you look good, but you really can't use this, okay? And I go in to put all that equipment on.
And I'm wondering, does she know me? Does she realize who I am? You know what, my wife says that.
She says that, but I keep telling her I don't think I do.
But she says that.
But you do.
Okay, so we gonna walk around here.
Since I threw out the wife thing, she seems to have gotten off of it pretty quickly.
So I think I've convinced her.
- We have one.
- We got one.
All right, so you stand clear.
Stand over there, because if they come and be nasty and wanna back over you or whatever-- Right, you want to be out of the way.
Yeah, that has happened before too.
- Has it? - Oh, yeah.
Okay, you key it in here.
It's in violation.
Push "e.
" Expired meter.
Okay.
Okay? This is a four-door.
You push "4.
" You scan down.
You do the make, which is a Honda.
Just slide it on here.
And try to do it gently, because, you know, they'll come out and say, "hey, they broke my window, they cracked this.
" You know what I'm saying.
Anything to get out of a ticket.
Yep, that's definitely expired.
All righty.
I'm gonna let you do all of this.
I'm not gonna tell you anything.
All right.
No pressure, but try not to mess up.
Try not to mess up, huh? Okay, I think I have the help page on here already.
Oh, that don't sound good.
Okay.
So 2-3-2-- Slow down.
Uh-oh.
- Wait a minute.
Oh, this don't sound good.
If you don't know what you're doing, you could jam it up and freeze it.
I really thought he broke the machine.
I think your fingers might be too fat or something.
Okay.
All right.
Well, here's another one.
Oh, yeah, we busy today.
We are busy today.
Did I mention it's important that you kinda speed it up? Okay.
I'm working on that.
After his fifth ticket, you'd think he'd wanna kick it in and speed it up.
He didn't.
And this person's got a sticker on their car that says, "I love Cincinnati.
" I hope they'll still love Cincinnati.
Well, yeah, but guess what.
You can't sit at a meter and expect not to pay it.
Not yet.
If somebody say, "hey, hey, here I come," don't touch nothing.
Once you touch this next button, there's no going back.
- You might let 'em go? - I will let 'em go.
- You'll let 'em go.
- I will.
So if it were me I would say that had to give me, like, a Kit Kat or a Hershey's.
- No, no, no.
- Hershey Bar or a Reese's-- - no, no, no, you can't do no Kit Kats.
You can't do nothing, no.
None of that? You know, you try to make as many friends as you can and be polite.
Now if this car were stolen, would this automatically tell me? Why not? No, unless you say, "I wanna run a search.
" That's your choice.
So you think you're gonna like doing this job though? There's a lot of walking involved.
It's kinda cold today.
Oh, yeah.
So you have family? I have two boys and two girls.
Right now my oldest son, he's in a nursing home.
- He's in a nursing home? - Yeah, he has cerebral palsy.
He's 28.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
All righty.
I had him, like, three months too early.
And his motor skills hadn't fully developed 'cause he wasn't getting oxygen to his brain.
I mean, I didn't know that.
He's total care though.
He can't really do anything for himself.
He's confined to that chair.
We all getting old, so we can't really lift him, you know? So how do you transport him? That's why my son is in a nursing home, because they wouldn't help me.
I finally got on social security, and I pleaded with them people, "can you build me a wheelchair ramp?" They wouldn't do that.
I told 'em, "just keep the check.
I just need help with him.
" Nobody should ever go through that.
You know, leaving their child 'cause they can't take care of 'em.
- Yeah.
- He didn't understand that.
I mean, it's just-- a mother should never have to do that.
And, uh When Arnneater told me about her son, I figured I need to tell her who I am.
I mean, it was a pretty emotional moment.
So I figured I would let her know.
So earlier you asked me why I looked familiar to you.
Yeah.
Why'd you ask me that? 'Cause you look like our Mayor.
I am the Mayor.
Oh, my God.
Did you see my face when you walked in? I did see your face.
But cool.
I think this is neat.
Yeah, I wanted to let you know.
You know, 'cause I figure you were sharing a lot of things with me, and, you know, I didn't want you to be in a situation where, you know, who am I talking to kinda thing.
So Yeah.
You ever hear that old saying if it look like a duck, walk like a duck, it is a duck? Yeah, the Mayor's a duck.
But the wig thing look good.
You ever think about going dread like that? Well, if I could grow hair completely, you know.
But I can't do that at this point.
Yeah, but it looks good on you.
Arnneater really impressed me, because she's going through so many tough situations.
And she continues to be in a good spirit.
If she can give a person a break on giving them a ticket, she does that.
She said if she can make somebody's day by smiling and being nice to them, that's something she wants to do.
That just tells me she's a great person.
Yeah, she just made it.
She just made it.
- Yeah, she just made it.
- All right, good job.
I'm gonna take her license plat down and write her up later though.
No, don't do that.
Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.
You ever do that? No.
- You know? - No.
Coming up, Mark's coworkers think they're coming to city hall to cast their vote.
Do I feel that he can do my job? No.
But how will they react when he reveals the truth? My undercover assignment is about to come to an end.
So I'm ready to report to the City Directors all the things I've found.
Shawn, if you guys can meet me at the hotel.
I'm just a few minutes out.
I'm probably ten minutes out.
Want to go over some things as soon as I get there.
I'll see you in a few minutes.
Hey, guys.
Sir.
I got a bunch of things I wanna go over.
Arnneater is a parking enforcement officer.
They've got a nice little handheld unit that they're able to put the license plate of the car in that they're giving the ticket to.
I don't know whether or not that system is connected with the Police Department System to automatically tell us if a car is stolen.
If that linkage is not there, we need to make that linkage.
- Absolutely.
- It'd be a great opportunity for parking enforcement officers to be able to assist the police department in finding lost and stolen vehicles.
Can you check that out for me? I'll call the chief.
That'd be great.
Next, Karen.
Karen works for McKie Recreation Center.
Karen's got a job readiness program where she's taking teenagers and putting them in situations where they're learning how to have a job.
I've got a question as to whether or not that program is throughout the recreation centers or just at McKie.
If it's only at McKie, I want some version of it to be spread across the entire city.
Danny is a truck driver with sanitation.
Danny is the only guy that goes out on a truck all day every day to pick up dead animals.
But one of the things I noticed that Danny needs is GPS.
It'll save time, it'll save gas.
And in the end, it'll make him more efficient.
Shawn, get in touch with Margo.
Have her work with Drew, the head of Public Services.
Have them utilize technology to make Danny's job easier.
- Okay, okay.
- Sounds good.
- Great.
Thanks, guys.
- Let's do it.
The reason I ran for public office in the first place was to continue the work of my father.
Yeah, I need to talk to the Chief of Police.
- Yeah, Shawn Butler.
- Please, it's Arlen.
The reason he got into politics was to help people, to bring a voice to those whose voices are not often heard.
It's great.
Well, the Mayor thinks that this is the type of program that every recreation center in the city of Cincinnati needs to have.
My dad has taught me over the years to make sure you stay connected with the people who are on the front lines.
Because they are the ones that have the real perspective on what's really happening.
You can't go through an experience like I've gone through over the last week and not be changed in some way.
So when it's time to have conversations about the budget, you know, some of these people's faces are gonna pop into my mind.
This was a good week for me and a good week for Cincinnati.
Now it's time to let the people that I've been working with know exactly who I am.
I'm Steve, I'm here for my 4:30 appointment.
If you're asking me, do I feel that Rick can do my job? No, I don't think he can.
Well, right now I'm a little nervous.
You know, it's a lot of big people in City Hall that has a lot of power, so when you're down here you gotta kinda walk on eggshells.
Hello.
Hi, how are you? You know who I am? No.
Really, I don't.
- Mayor Mark Mallory.
- Okay.
Mayor of the city of Cincinnati.
Have we met before? I met you at the luncheon for the summer work program.
Well, we also met the other day.
Oh! You know what, actually I was thinking, he looks awfully familiar to me but-- - yeah, you had me.
It's kinda like Undercover Boss, huh? Exactly like Undercover Boss.
Oh, okay.
Cool.
I've never seen this show.
Well, I would encourage you to watch it.
Steve, I got to tell you.
You gave me an earful.
Yeah, I know I did.
You kicked me around a little bit, you know? You busted my knuckles up, you know? Yeah.
Well, Steve, I really appreciate what you do for the city.
I want you to hear that from me as the Mayor.
I'm gonna talk to the City Manager and see if there's a way that we can get some of these issues resolved.
I know there's that annual car show that happens out there.
Right.
But I want to have a showcase of equipment that really puts out to the general public the variety of things that you guys work on.
I'm gonna be there.
I wanna bring City Council there.
So that they can meet you, and they can meet the rest of your team.
People need to know the importance of your work.
I'm gonna make sure that happens.
Okay? Okay, all right.
- All right.
- Not a problem.
You said you have a motorcycle yourself, right? Yes, sir.
Now, you know, bikes are probably like cars and boats.
You have one but you want another one.
Absolutely.
I've talked to some of the friends that I have in the corporate world, and they want to commit to giving you $10,000.
You can use that to buy a bike if you can get it.
You can travel, pay for whatever you wanna pay for.
Okay, I'm not gonna tell him no.
Fantastic.
It's a wonderful day for fleet services.
I can go back to work tomorrow and let the guys know that we're gonna be heard from here forward.
Karen, I think you just do a fantastic job.
You really have a command of those kids.
But you have a compassion that really comes through as well.
Thank you.
You talked about the summer job program that we have through the recreation department.
You are preparing young people for the work environment.
So what I'd like to do is have that job readiness program spread throughout more of our recreation centers, as many of them that we can get it to.
Wow.
That's wonderful.
You work so hard for these kids.
And I get the sense that you don't do a lot of things for yourself.
So I've talked to a good friend of mine who wants to give you a $10,000 gift card that you can use anywhere.
Like, even to help pay my daughter's tuition? - Absolutely.
- For real? - Yes.
- Oh, my gosh! This is--oh, lord.
I can't believe this.
I'm gonna cry.
I now can pay my daughter's tuition, and that is wonderful.
I'm just overjoyed.
I'm just very blessed.
And I don't know what else to say.
I'm just-- oh, I'm just--oh.
Overjoyed.
Danny, you have a great sense of humor about yourself.
Thank you.
And you're just very committed to what you do.
You told me a lot of crazy stories.
One that stuck out with me was when you told me about the big deer that you had to drag out of the woods.
I did.
So when we were in the truck, we sorta joked about getting a winch for your truck.
But that's something I'm actually gonna do.
I'm gonna make sure that every truck that you might go out on has a winch on it, so that you don't have to go through that.
The other thing I noticed, I really think you should have a GPS unit in your car.
I think it would make it a lot easier for you.
And the kinda system that I'm looking to get into place would allow the dispatcher to put the information into a computer, and it would automatically send it to your GPS unit.
So you don't have to be out in the field trying to put in an address while you're driving.
- Well, I appreciate that.
- It's not a problem.
I appreciate that, for real.
I've been telling people about you.
I've been telling people about the way you approach things.
And they want to do something special for you.
So I've gotten one of them to pay for a trip for you and your wife to go to New York for a week.
- Really? - All expenses paid.
- Oh, cut it out.
- Yes.
- For real? - Yes.
And on top of that, you know, New York is the kinda place that costs a little bit of money.
So we're gonna give you $3,000 spending money.
Man, you gonna make me, serious, start crying.
Come on.
I can't wait to tell my wife.
I can't wait to get outta here to call her up to tell her.
She's gonna be ecstatic.
Well, hello.
Hi.
Good to see you again.
Arnneater, you're on the front line out there.
And you're in a job that doesn't really make people excited to see you.
Exactly.
You know what, I think you're a special person.
Thank you.
I just want you to know how much I appreciate the work that you do for the public.
Thank you.
I wanna do something for you.
You told me about your son.
Yeah.
Yeah, he has cerebral palsy? Yeah.
Well, I have some friends that want to help out.
Okay.
And buy you a van that has a wheelchair ramp in it.
So that you and your husband can take your son out and not have to pick him up out of the wheelchair to get him into the car.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
I wanna thank you for your service.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I've truly given up on people trying to help me.
I stopped asking, I just-- and I always thought of the Mayor as being one of the people that didn't understand the little people, the working people.
And I'm a crybaby.
I'm sorry.
I've called together a large group of city employees to tell them exactly what I've been doing over the last week.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Mayor of the great city of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory.
Hello, hello.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I want you to know that as the Mayor of the city of Cincinnati, I've had the opportunity to go undercover and work alongside some city workers.
Because if we're gonna be providing all these services to the citizens of our city, we need to know how to do it best.
And we don't always know.
I've got some clips that I want to show to you tonight, so let's take a look at 'em.
- Uh-oh.
Wait a minute.
I think your fingers might be too fat or something.
Get off your butts, put your pens down, and come see what we got going on.
They ain't gonna do it.
It's politics, man.
- You hungry? - I gotta wash my hands, man.
I can't eat nothing after picking up dead animals.
You had your gloves on.
You know, I decided to do this because sometimes public employees get a bad rap.
People say you don't work as hard.
They say you're not as committed.
They say you don't have as much passion as people in the private sector.
I found out firsthand that is not true.
And I want you to hear from me right now, right today, that I'm extremely proud of the work that the employees of the city of Cincinnati provide on a daily basis.
I thank you for coming tonight.
Thank you for your work.
And keep making me proud.
Thank you very much.
My parents talked about the importance of public service, the importance of giving back to the community.
I found that to be the case in every person that I worked with when I went undercover.
People ask me all the time, who are your heroes? And for me it's just my mother and father.
They are the folks that really inspire me to do what I do every day.
I hope that I'm making my mother and father proud with the work that I'm doing here.
I think there are great things in Cincinnati's future.
We're in the middle of a rebirth.
We are investing in our neighborhoods.
People are actually moving into the city of Cincinnati.
Our population is increasing for the first time in 50 years.
Cincinnati's on the move.