No

And so this OmniAir's, uh, flights, you know, that, it popped up that that was, um, part of the deal, and we said, "Look..." Um, we went to them and, uh, I think as a large group, you know, and I started talking to colleagues very quickly after it came, became apparent Omni was part of their assets.

We just said, "We're not gonna deal until you guys get rid of Omni." And, um, we wanted about 10 other things, too.

Uh, profit share, we wanted, um, an asset transfer fee, and about eight other things that would change the planning and put money into our pocket for the first time.

But what we said was, "We're gonna stand firm against your c- uh, asset transfer unless you get rid of OmniAir." And I think they got the message pretty early on.

Um, you know, whether they thought we were serious or not, uh, we were able to still negotiate on all these other items at the same time, and as we were going back and forth, they said, "Look, we'll, we'll make a commitment." Now, they m- I'm sure they made the commitment because they were gonna make money off of it, and they said, "Hey, the, whatever the cost of Omni is, that's probably less than what we can make off the meters." I'm sure it's all about financial calculations.

But the fact was that, um, the council held firm and, and that was our number one priority, was to get rid of, um, ICE, uh, OmniICE as we called it, OmniAir, off the table first.

Yeah

Uh-huh

Um, I'm standing there in the alley, and I, I remember calling up my brother and I said, "Hey, there's a bunch of acronyms on some of these papers, and this looks pretty shady." And I said, "What does A- uh, ADIA stand for?" And he said, "Oh, uh, that's Abu Dhabi Investment Agency." And I said, uh, the meter system has been essentially sold off.

They had flipped it over to Abu Dhabi Investment Agency without telling anyone

Yeah?

Yeah, I agree with you.

You know, when you're going across a, um, a bridge or something and, you know, you kinda put the money in for the, uh, E-ZPass, that's, you know, kinda quick, but when you're having to drive around the city and anywhere you pull up, and you're putting money into that box, and you're thinking, "Okay, hardly a dime of this is going to the city," um, that's money right outta your pocket for the next, you know, uh, what is it? 60-plus years.