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utilizing them does certainly help, as long as people read the ad, you know. So —but
<br />sure, there's no way I can stand here and guarantee one thousand percent that it was
<br />because of the picture ad. But you know, the numbers do seem to point that way. And the
<br />other thing, too, is, you know people, because they come to the meetings, and a lot of
<br />times people would have the cut -out of the ad, you know, and they actually would bring it
<br />to the meeting, you know, as far as the information that was presented. So it was obvious
<br />to me that people were definitely, definitely reading the ads. But the beautiful thing
<br />about doing this, honestly, is because I was out of office for four years, one of the things
<br />that we strived for was to put together a data base. So when we have these meetings, we
<br />try and have people give us their email and so forth. So in other words, as we continue to
<br />move on, it really makes it even easier for us to get information out, you know. For
<br />example, the smoking bill that we just —I think you were here during that time. We talked
<br />about that, and 1 just blasted out to our whole data base, what do you think about this,
<br />you know? People just responded back, and we had a tremendous response. So part of it
<br />is, you know, once people —once you get that credibility of having meetings that are
<br />productive, that make sense, that people have an opportunity to be heard, people will
<br />come. It's just growing and growing. It's an amazing thing that's happening. And for
<br />me, you know, I don't like to waste time. If we're going to have a meeting, I'd like it to
<br />be productive. So part of it is a lot of people are coming.
<br />CHAIR: And now with your positive reputation, maybe the photograph isn't necessary.
<br />It could be that, now that you've got your word out to your constituents about these
<br />meetings.
<br />YAGONG: Absolutely. I think the more you connect with your community, you know —
<br />obviously, for the campaign, for the election, it did center a lot on accessibility and
<br />communicating with the constituents. And I think that had a lot to do with my selection,
<br />quite frankly. Because it was 1 guess a very popular, very well liked person, if you all
<br />remember Dr. Holschuh. It's no easy feat to defeat an incumbent, and especially an
<br />incumbent that's a nice, very good guy. It's very difficult, but you know, it did have to
<br />center on issues. And one of the issues without a doubt was, you now, the effectiveness of
<br />going out to the community, being out in the community and being accessible. Without a
<br />doubt that was a big issue, because people knew that that's how I operate.
<br />DILL: Mr. Chairman?
<br />CHAIR: Yes?
<br />DILL: If I could just interject a comment here. I just want to reiterate publicly that this
<br />Board is convened today not to - -not to find any wrongdoing of Councilman Yagong's
<br />actions in the past, and I understand that this line of questioning that's being brought
<br />forth towards him is in an effort to clarify the issue in a general sense, and not to go or
<br />find wrongdoing of Mr. Yagong. This Board has discussed in the past about impressions,
<br />public interpretation for actions, and Councilman Yagong has also mentioned it in his
<br />testimony today that public impression right off the bat, when the word ethics violation is
<br />attached to your name in the newspaper, it does tarnish your reputation to a certain
<br />extent. And I just want to reiterate publicly we're here to study the issue in a general
<br />sense and not to find wrongdoing by Councilman Yagong. And I understand the line of
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