From Behind The Badge And Into Politics: Meet Tony Griggs

Ron Lyons (00:00):

Welcome to CelinaRadio.com recorded right here in Celina, Texas, a quiet little dusty sleepy town that has absolutely nothing going on, Guys. I am so totally kidding about, of course, this is Texas and we have everything going on here. Now I'm Ron Lyons. This is CelinaRadio.com and we intend to have a good time. So put on your seatbelt and let's get started.

Ron Lyons (00:43):

Hey guys, I am Ron Lyons. This is CelinaRadio.com and we are coming to you from the great city of Celina Texas. Today. We've got another interview with one of the candidates running for Celina city council. And today is Tony Gregs turn in the hot seat. Tony was kind enough to sit down with us at loosies on the square and to answer questions that will provide a little more perspective of who Tony is behind the scenes, not just the stuff you see on the postcards and on the websites and the Facebook page and stuff like that, but just a little bit more about who the person is behind the candidate. So let's get straight to it. Guys. Here is my interview with Tony Gregs. All right, guys, I am here with Tony Gregs. Tony was kind enough of to come into Lucy's restaurant and sit down with me today and share a little bit of, kind of the behind the scenes of Tony Riggs. And Tony, tell me this. Do you come to loosies often?

Tony Griggs (01:57):
I do several times a week. I'm here at Lucy's for sure.

Ron Lyons (02:00):
Give me an idea. What is your favorite thing on the Lucy's menu?

Tony Griggs (02:05):
You know, my favorite thing on the menu has gotta be the chicken fried chicken,

mashed potatoes with gravy and the fried okra.

Ron Lyons (02:14):

I think that's maybe the one thing on the menu that I've never tried. Now. I'm a big, huge fan of their chicken fried steak. I've never had the chicken fried chicken. So I'm gonna give it a, have you had the punks meatloaf? Have you tried that?

Tony Griggs (02:28):
I have had the punks meatloaf and it is very good as well.

Ron Lyons (02:31):

Absolutely. And of course, loosies is known for their desserts for their pies. And I, I'm not even gonna get into that. I'm gonna call that personal information because I may give away a little too much of what I like in that case. And as you can tell, I'm not exact missing many meals right now, but tell me this, Tony, how, how are you? How's things going?

Tony Griggs (02:53):

You know, I've been staying very busy lately with the campaign going on. It's a, it's a good kind of busy, I'm getting to meet a lot of new people and really enjoying getting out and visiting with the people in the community.

Ron Lyons (03:09):

So tell me this election day is still coming up. We're actually in early voting right now. That started Monday. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. When, when is election day?

Tony Griggs (03:21):
So early voting will continue through May 3rd and then the election day is may the

seventh.

Ron Lyons (03:28):

Okay. So we're, we're right on the heels of that and, and we're not gonna get today into all of the platform stuff and, you know, perspectives and stuff like that. We know that all of that's already out there, if people wanna see that you can, you've probably got Facebook page, you've got, you know, any, any number of different things that are out there. But, but let's cover that if somebody did want to go and find out more about your platform or your perspectives and stuff, how would you like them to reach out to you? What can they find out there?

Tony Griggs (03:58):

You know, there's several ways that they can see what my message is all about or to contact me. My Facebook page is probably one of the best sources to find the information and that is just facebook.com/tony Griggs for Celina city council place six. In also there's been two sources that have published a voters guide where they have asked the same questions for all the candidates running. I would suggest also looking at vote four eleven.org and put your address in, it'll give you a San ample ballot with people that you could possibly be voting for. And also the Celina record has published a list of questions from all the candidates and that'll give you a good idea of information.

Ron Lyons (04:55):

Okay. That sounds good. Thank you for that. And today we're gonna have a little fun, we're gonna ask question now, if you've listened to any of the other episodes, you probably have a pretty good idea of what I might ask you, but I like to change things up just a little bit. So you might get a variation of the same question that somebody else got and that's totally fine. The idea here is to give us just a little bit of insight into the real Tony, the, the, the are some behind the campaign stuff. So before we get into that, tell me this, how long have you been in Celina?

Tony Griggs (05:30):

So I first came to Celina in 2010 when I came to work with the Celina police department in 2016 my family and I moved here to, to Celina.

Ron Lyons (05:43):

Okay. So you and I share something in common law enforcement and we also share something else in common now, real estate. And, and so I, I'm gonna ask you a question that I haven't asked anyone else because they couldn't answer it, but which is crazier, the real estate market now, or law enforcement,

Tony Griggs (06:03):

You know, the real estate market is doing some, some really unusual things that we haven't seen here in the past. But law enforcement nationally has really taken to some turns that are not in the best interest of the public. Now

Ron Lyons (06:20):

I, and, and I agree with that. So what I'm gonna do, the, the thing that I always ask is that win, lose, or draw. However, the election turns out, I would love for you as everyone else that I've interviewed to come back on the show. And let's talk about something that we couldn't really talk about on the show. And in this case, I'd love to talk to you about law enforcement, the current status of law enforcement, what it takes to be an officer today, would you be willing to come back at some time in the future and talk about law enforcement?

Tony Griggs (06:48):
Absolutely. That's one of my, you know, favorite subjects having served as chief of

police here in Celina. I have a lot of interest in that in area, so I'd love to do that.

Ron Lyons (06:59):

Okay. Then I think we'll certainly done and I love that I've actually had such an interest in law enforcement ever since I still write for law enforcement magazine. I've, I've ha owned some law enforcement related businesses and stuff, but none of that's what we're here for now. We're gonna get down to the serious stuff now. Okay. The really serious stuff. And I mean, even, and more serious than the chicken fried chicken favorite subject back in school,

Tony Griggs (07:23):

You know, my favorite subject now I'm talking about into college now, I think you know, back when I was in high school you know, I was interested in some of the business type courses. But my favorite set in college dealt with leadership and management.

Ron Lyons (07:42):

Wow. That's very interesting. So if I, if my favorite subject was PE or recess, does that, am I a disadvantage now? I, I, I think I don't answer that. I think I am. Alright, let's talk about this. So why obviously is amazing. We all have a passion for, we all

care about it. That's why we do what we do, but if you could live anywhere else in the world right now, let's just pretend Celina doesn't exist. Where would Tony Riggs live?

Tony Griggs (08:09):

You know, if Celina didn't exist, I'm, I'm definitely gonna be here in the state of Texas. And there's probably a number of places that I might choose here to live Texas prior to moving to Celina. I lived in McKinney and you know, lived there for a number of years and, and really enjoy the, you know, McKinney community as well.

Ron Lyons (08:32):
So you might actually stay local. You're not gonna take off to like Italy or something

like that. You're gonna, you're gonna be right here, basically close to close to home

Tony Griggs (08:40):
Home. Absolutely. I'm gonna stay right here.

Ron Lyons (08:42):

I like it. That, that means you're well invested in this community, in this area and that sort of thing. And, and let's talk about that real quick on, on a slightly more serious note salon is growing like crazy. What, what do you, you think about all the growth?

Tony Griggs (08:56):

You know, it's Celina is in the growth corridor, as we know, and you know, for many decades we've watched the growth follow north on Preston road and the Dallas north to way and the growth I think we have to balance. And a lot of times I talk about with community harmony and that's, we have to look for managing that growth properly, and what's gonna be advantages for the people that live here. We don't want to put disadvantages on the people that live here because of the growth. So what benefits will it bring if we manage it properly? I think we can look for those benefits.

Ron Lyons (09:37):

Okay. I like that. Give me an idea now, now, and, and this is where I'm testing those ninja police skills and, and, and can skills. I'm gonna see how quickly you can change directions on me. If you had to write a book about yourself tomorrow, you have to write a book about yourself. What's the title of the book

Tony Griggs (09:54):
Leading policing in the 21st century.

Ron Lyons (09:57):

I like it. We get that. That's a well thought out answer. And I, and, and for the record, I didn't give you any of these questions in advance. This is a hundred percent

off the cuff you could have just now said Mickey mouse and something else. Literally you you're, you're unprepared for these questions. Am I right?

Tony Griggs (10:12): You're correct.

Ron Lyons (10:13):

Okay. <laugh> all right. Let's let's on to another really, really fun question. If somebody was gonna explain what kind of person you were back in school, how would they describe Tony Gregs? Let's just take it to high school. What kind of high school guy was Tony Gregs?

Tony Griggs (10:32):

You know, in high school, I was probably a little unusual for, for that age of a, of a student. My brother and I started a business when I was 16 years old. And during time at school, I actually carried a briefcase. So you can imagine how, how that looked. And you know, the law enforcement side of me was there then as well. So as far as following rules and, and people knew that but it was a little unusual to see, you know, the high school student with the briefcase. But we ran a manufacturing company that dealt with wood products at my brother and I started. And, you know, I was just a maybe a little bit more on that professional side then.

Ron Lyons (11:24):

Okay. Well, that's very interesting. Tell me this, if you could go back to your 18 year old self right now and give yourself some advice or tell yourself something based on what you know right now, what would you say to yourself? You

Tony Griggs (11:37):

Know, I, I think when you're 18, You, you think you have some goals, but I would probably say, think your goals out better and really look to what you're gonna have to accomplish to get there and, you know, set some goals for education and pursue those. And just, you know, just keep in mind that things will work out and just keep pursuing your goals.

Ron Lyons (12:03):

If you could take someone in history and sit down over a cup of coffee and go right over here to summer moon and have anybody from history around the world, not just this country, but anyone from history to sit down with, who would you like to sit down with and share a cup of

Tony Griggs (12:20):

Coffee? You know, I think what comes to mind is Ronald Reagan and I've always admired Ronald Reagan during my military career I was honored to guard president Reagan when he came to OSA airbase in Korea. And I actually got to be part of his guard detail again with I police department. But I always admired him. He was a great

American statesman. And I think just a great communicator. Every body was pulled into him.

Ron Lyons (12:56):

I, I want to ask you this, just because a, again, something that you can answer that maybe a lot of, well, not, maybe I don't, I don't think anyone else I've talked to could answer, but if you had somebody right now one of these young people interested in getting into the law enforcement right now, what would be your advice to somebody thinking about getting into law enforcement right now?

Tony Griggs (13:18):

So, you know, a lot of times what we hear now with the current environment, it's, it's just something that a lot of times they're not interested in getting into. And I think, and what I've told a lot of them in the past is you can handle this job. You just have to be trained correctly and have the right attitude about it. So pay attention to your training learn, well, the training will never stop. When you're going through field training in those areas, just pay attention. And it's, it's leadership of the

departments have to have the responsibility now to train these officers differently. There has to be more things in, in the way they, they train in their procedures and the policies to make sure that we keep them safe.

Ron Lyons (14:09):

So I've always been a believer that every 10 years we, as people go, go through a significant change. So right now I'm 53 years old, the 53 year old version of me is somewhat different than the 43, the 43 than the 33. And certainly the 33 than the 23 and the 23, then the 13. And I think that cities departments, everything changes with time. So would you say right now that somebody coming into law enforcement that it's definitely a different place than it was 10 years ago?

Tony Griggs (14:45):

It absolutely is. And, you know, everybody has seen a lot of the things that take place. You're seeing it on the news. You're seeing some areas of the country where the police are not respected. The, they have nobody there, that's looking out for their interest or backing them up throughout the, the government entities that they're involved with. And, and that's that really takes away from their ability to do their job and their motivation and desire to stay with those departments. You know, those things didn't exist to that extent 10 years ago.

Ron Lyons (15:21):
Absolutely. And tell me this, if, if it's true that basically every decade or so

everything changes, what does the line of look like in 10 years?

Tony Griggs (15:30):

You know when I was chief of police we did a lot of planning and research and training. I had a Sergeant that somebody asked him, you know, what is policing gonna look like five, 10 years down the road? And he said, he thought about it. And he said,

it's gonna look like this line of police depart. And I think we were far advanced in some of the things that we were doing that were preparing the department and the officers for the future

Ron Lyons (16:02):

And, and gimme an idea what are we missing in Celina right now? Like, what do we need? And I, and I'm thinking in terms of like a business or a, you know maybe some sort of a, a facility or a, or anything along those lines, what, what are we missing right now in Celina?

Tony Griggs (16:19):

You know, I think what people like the most Are the places that we create where they can have entertainment. So where we have loosies and tender we have the Celina of star restaurant. I think people would like to see some, maybe a, a little bit more variety of these type restaurants and establishments. Just to give them more to do here locally, if you come down on the square, almost anytime at night, everything here is packed and there's waiting lines. So we have room to expand those kind of, kind of businesses, and the people would enjoy that.

Ron Lyons (17:01):
So tell me this and, and a little pivot here. What is Tony Greg's biggest pet Eve?

Tony Griggs (17:06):

You know, I, I think I like to have things organized and <affirmative> so when I see things that are taking place that maybe weren't well thought out weren't planned and the different options that could happen. Had it been fully looked at those kind of things bothering?

Ron Lyons (17:27):

Well, I like, I would like to sit here and say that I agree with you on that. And I live my life that way. That's, that's really not ex exactly the case. My, my life is pretty much organized chaos and, and I just hope and aspire to one day to be more well planned and organized and stuff like that. But that's, that's a, that's a down the road thing for me right now. Right now. I'm just living in chaos. But tell me this, I'm gonna pop a few real quick questions to ask you something I haven't done with anyone else yet. And there are probably one word answers, but then I may ask you to expand on it a little bit. Okay. Favorite color red. Okay. Why red?

Tony Griggs (18:04):
When I think of red, it brings me to the, to the flag and combined with blue. So

they're red, white, and blue, and that's kind of how I associate red.

Ron Lyons (18:14):
Nice and favorite number.

Tony Griggs (18:16):
I'm gonna have to say 31.

Ron Lyons (18:17):
Okay. Significance of 31.

Tony Griggs (18:20):

So when I was with the Irving police department, I worked at a department store at Irving mall. Part-Time security and security's number was 31. That's where I met my wife.

Ron Lyons (18:37):

Well, <laugh> all right. You just literally scored some big points. So there's a good man for you right there. That's that's you done now when your wife list and says gonna be that's, that's it right there and all the women out there gonna be like, okay, I like this. Tell me this favorite movie,

Tony Griggs (18:52):

You know, a favorite movie. Unfortunately I don't have a time to watch a lot of movies, but one that the family gets together and we watch every year is the it's a wonderful life with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, I believe. We all love that movie.

Ron Lyons (19:11):
So that, is that kind of like a Christmas or holiday tradition for you? Is that what that

is?

Tony Griggs (19:16):
It is we look forward to that, you know, every Christmas,

Ron Lyons (19:19):
If you had a choice between being a wellknown actor or a well known singer, which

do you become, you

Tony Griggs (19:26):
Know, I think I would become a well known singer. Cause I think that's where I, I lack

the ability. So that would be interesting.

Ron Lyons (19:32):
Okay. Well <laugh> so are you, are you a fan of karaoke? Do you ever come to loosies

and do the karaoke thing?

Tony Griggs (19:41):

So I come to loosies and watch the karaoke but I probably am not gonna get up and do it

Ron Lyons (19:48):

<Laugh> well, if you ever do, decided to do that, definitely shoot me a text first. I'm I'm going to, I'm gonna get a front row seat so that I can watch that. And, and, and that's just, you know, because I'm the same way I would. Absolutely. I think I may have attempted karaoke once, but I may have been slightly under the influence of something at the time. And that was probably 30 years a go. And I, I don't think it's happened since, and I don't think it will. So tell me this. Do you have any hobbies, anything that you love to do?

Tony Griggs (20:19):

So, you know, hobbies, I do a lot of yard work and I enjoy doing it myself and taking care of the plants and those it's very relaxing to get out and, and, and do that. That's one of my hobbies. I do have several, you know, collections that I spend some time with, but not, not that much time. You know, with collections like stamps and cos and different antiques, things like that.

Ron Lyons (20:48):
Would you say you're a fan of history?

Tony Griggs (20:51):
Oh, AB absolutely. I believe you know, I've always enjoyed history. We have to

understand the past and, and learn from the past.

Ron Lyons (21:00):

I like that. And tell me this, if if you had your choice Ray right now, and you could do anything else in your life besides what you're doing for a job, what would another profession be for you?

Tony Griggs (21:14):
You know, if it was something completely different. I think I would enjoy teaching on

the college level.

Ron Lyons (21:23):

That would be very, very interesting. I would certainly take your class. I would come to it, but cuz I think folks like you who have had a lot of positions in life and experienced things, especially in law enforcement, since I'm such a fan you have a lot of wisdom to impart and I think that that's good, but anyways, why Celina? What, what do you love? What are your thoughts about Celina? Tell me,

Tony Griggs (21:48):

So when you think about Celina, it's, it's the people here and when I came here in 2010 as a police officer as you probably know, there were no, no backup. You were often by yourself on shift. I was never really worried that if I got into trouble, people here would come assist me and you know, to meet the people here that really formed the history you know, this, this really great people and the generosity of the people

in Celina is unbelievable. You know, as police chief, we sponsored like blue Santa.
You wouldn't believe the number of times that a citizen would stop by and say, here's a check for 5,000. I just want you to give it out to people in need for me. I want to remain anonymous and it's just, it's unbelievable. So it's the people here that you really enjoy that make the community

Ron Lyons (22:47):

Absolutely. Tony again, thank you sir. So much for coming on the show. I know everyone's time is critically, you know squeezed right now with everything going on and it's valuable, so much respect and thank you for doing this and two things. One I'm gonna expect you to come back on the show and two I'm gonna push you. I I'm, I made inform a political action committee to see if we can get you required to come see karaoke at loosies. Okay. So let's, let's just we're planning on two things. Okay.

Tony Griggs (23:21):
I'm gonna have to practice a little bit, but we'll work on that. All right.

Ron Lyons (23:24): Thank you, sir.

Ron Lyons (23:29):

All right guys, that is, is Tony GRS and Tony, thank you so very much for coming and doing the interview, sitting in loosies and kind of going through all of our questions. It, it certainly helps people understand a little bit more about the person behind the candidate and a big, huge thank you to loosies on the square. They have been absolutely fantastic in this entire process. They've let me set up shop a few times in there and probably entertain the people who are eating at the same time, but doing the podcast set up in the back and it's just been fantastic. Loosies is definitely one of my favorite places to go and I would encourage anybody visiting Celina, Texas to stop by loosies on the square and see what it's all about. It's kind of the epitome of small town, Texas. It's perfect. If you want to get a FLA of Celina.

Ron Lyons (24:27):

So guys that's that's one more interview done. I've got another one coming up with a school board candidate and then I'm not a hundred percent sure about two more candidates that may not actually come on the show and that's totally fine. Like I said, much respect, but to the, those who have been on the show, thank you so very much. And to you the listener, thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. If you do us a huge favor, share this on your social media, tell your friends about it. It's CelinaRadio.com. And as soon as this little election cycle is over, we're back to business as usual. Bring you everything that is amazing about the line of Texas. But anyways guys, as usual, God bless, and I'll see you on the next show.