January 13, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Berry Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What just happened?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Ram?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
That was weird.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's like they pulled the plug on USh. We just
go on like nothing happened. Okay, yeah, all right, be
cool like Phronsie. Before we go to our next guest,
we have firefighters from Texas, including from Houston, who have
gone to California to help fight the fires. I understand
(00:51):
that with the rancorous division in this country led by
the left, the hateful bastards on the left, mostly white liberals,
but they tend to fire up their constituent groups against
their fellow Americans. So white liberals who are the core problem.
(01:15):
That aside, this is our country, these are our people,
and we're not going to let them destroy the fabric
of this country. We're not going to let them do it.
But for those firefighters who have gone to California into
a dangerous situation, I could not be more proud to
(01:40):
be from the same state as those folks. I could
not be more proud of their efforts, actions, sacrifice. And
if somebody who is involved with coordinating that can contact
me by email through the website. Michael berryshow dot com.
It comes directly to me. I would like to talk
(02:01):
to somebody about their efforts and what help they may
need and anything we can do to assist those folks.
And yeah, if anybody can get me in contact with
anyone who's out there or anyone who's coordinating that I
would sure appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
That is.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That is heroic, truly heroic and patriotic and good and honorable,
and I want to make sure that we do anything
we can to help those guys. So with government, with
the failures of government that we have seen to such
(02:43):
an extent, it is good to remember. I had a
guy email me in one of our California listeners and
he said, man, I know you're hard on Abbot because
of all his failings, but at least you got Abbot
and not Gavin Newsom. At least you got better governance.
(03:04):
And I said, that's why we have better governance. We
hold our elected officials to a high standard. We don't say, well,
at least we're not you Ganda here in America. At
least we do have a few things going for us
that's not the standard. Standard must be excellence. So Tom
(03:27):
Ramsey County Commissioner, the last of the good guys left,
the last Republican left on Harris County's County commission. We
used to have only one Democrat. Now we only have
one Republican, and you see what has become of it.
County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, welcome.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
To the program.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Good to be here, Michael, Thank.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You, Commissioner. I saw something that was posted by common
Sense Bob, which for those of you who want to
follow good citizen journalism and guys that just crunch numbers
and they may not have a newspaper or magazine or
radio station or TV station behind him. If you email me,
I'll send you back his address. But he posts under
(04:09):
Twitter under the name common Sense Bob. His name is
Bob Schote. He posted something that your office put out,
and I'm just going to scroll through it and stop
and ask you to comment on one. It's at each
point it's entitled Wasted Potential, a spotlight on Harris County's spending,
and then it goes along for a second here and
(04:29):
it says brought to your attention by Commissioner Tom Ramsey,
and then it says I'm waiting on it to scroll.
Here we go Harris County's Office of Administration now costs
you twenty four million, six hundred ninety seven, seven hundred
five dollars. The County Administrator's office was created in twenty
twenty one to serve as an administrator for Commissioner's Court
(04:53):
Commissioner Ramsey. I think that Rodney Ellis created that because
Lena had Ago is in a constant state of whacked
out and couldn't possibly run anything, so he created so
she's the public face, and he created a whole different
office to run things that he runs. How close to
(05:16):
the mark am.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I you know the intent was clearly there to creative bureaucracy.
We've never had a county administrator in Harris County. We
have the history of being the best run county in America.
So now we're paying twenty five million dollars a year
(05:38):
for an administrative office we do not need. The County
administrator makes over four hundred thousand dollars. So that administration
office is managing areas that I think they don't have
expertise in, such as the Health department, such as a
toll road, such as engineering such as flood control. So
(06:00):
it is truly a total waste of twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
How on earth did Harris County survive back when we
used to be a very efficient county. How did we
survive the dollars without a county administrator.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
We had those department had reported directly to the Commissioner's Court.
So guess what if you're head of the fluck Control
District and you're responsible to the Harris County Commissioners, that's
a pretty high calling. You better get your act together.
If you're responsible to a non elected bureaucraft that doesn't
know anything, you might be able to get away without anything.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, you list among the report the following departments now
report directly to the county administrator. And one of those
departments that you list is a new department created under
the County Administrator's office, the Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
That is a department that is managing our minority business program.
You know what that is because you saw it at
the City of Houston. So it's replicated that they manage that.
But they've also been given other responsibility which I have
(07:22):
no understanding of. They're responsible for if they weighed the
safety program of a contractor. What does the Department of
Economic Equity and Opportunity Again, another bureaucratic group. What do
they know about safety in the construction world or the
engineering world? Again, it is a bureaucracy, it's a waste
(07:46):
of money, and frankly, it's creating much problems in trying
to get things done.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
A county administrator created out a whole cloth we never
had before four hundred and eighteen four and seventeen dollars
seventy three employees according to your report, that cost us
the taxpayers nineteen million dollars at an average salary of
two hundred and sixty one thousand a person. This is
just ridiculous. Companies can't operate this way.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
County Commissioner Tom Ramsey hold with me for just a moment.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
This segment exclusively produced by Hawaiian Chad Nakanishi Aloha bro
Ha to the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Let me take you out.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So it's good to ship to give people bite sized
bits of information in a forum we can understand. So
when Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the last Republican left
down there, a stalwart says, this is how much money
they're wasting taxpayers. He says, the twenty five million dollar
(09:05):
department budget that remember, we didn't have a Harris County
administration in the past. The departments reported to your elected officials,
the county commissioners. Well, Rodney Ellis didn't want that. He
created a whole different department, a new department to oversee them.
So the department heads wouldn't have to come before the
(09:26):
county commissioners and answer. They would go to this person
over here that Rodney put there, and he would tell them, no, no,
you do this, you do this, because that's how he
runs things with an iron fist. Well, this twenty five
million dollars it cost to run this department, as Commissioner
Tom Ramsey points out, that's equivalent to two hundred and
(09:49):
seventy four deputies which could be used for jail detention
or safer neighborhoods for you and your loved ones. That
brings it home to two hundred and seventy four more
deputies on the ground. That's boots on the ground that
would make a difference in crime prevention and in crime solution,
(10:12):
and yet more administrators and creating a layer so that
the county departments won't report to the commissioners who you elected.
Commissioner Tom Ramsey. Before I move on from this subject,
is there anything else about the creation of this county
(10:32):
Administrator's office that would affect us, the taxpayers and the
service delivery that we expect.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think it's important to understand, and I think it
ties back to southern California. They lost their way in
terms of the basics. This is a clear indication that
Harris County is not focusing on the basics. In twenty
twenty three, six hundred people were murdered in Harris County.
Six one hundred, five hundred and thirty three people died
(11:04):
on our roads in Harris County. We need safer roads,
we need safer neighborhoods. That's where we need to spend
the money. And unfortunately that's not the priorty currently within
Harris County.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Why don't you well, you know what, before we get
to that, because I'm glad you brought up California, but
I want to address this issue. I'm getting rumors from
Commissioner's Court and bureaucrats and folks who do business down
there and other folks that Lena is on the verge
of retiring resigning, and then we can talk about who
(11:44):
that replacement would be, but that Rodney is currently actively
working on that. Would you like to speak to that?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, just you, I hear what you hear, and all
I know is last year more than thirty percent approaching
for percent of the time she was not in Commissioner's Court. Now, frankly,
we worked very well. The four commissioners were able to
get through agenda's pretty quick and get through it. So
(12:13):
I clearly, clearly there's not the desire to be at
Commissioner's Court like you would expect someone in an elected position.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And my understanding is that Ed Gonzalez is the choice
if Sheila Jackson, Lee's daughter chooses not to take it.
Would you like to comment on that?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Well, you know, this is what I understand about the process,
and I think people better pay attention to the process.
Because Lena resigned, she doesn't get to vote, so to
be the four commissioners voting on whoever's replaced, right, So
I'm one of those four. So there'll be somebody looking
(12:59):
for a third vote, whether it's Rodney looking for a
third vote or or somebody else looking for a third vote.
They'll be people looking for a third vote. If in
fact it gets to that, they'll be they'll be a
desire to try to get three votes. Well, I'm one
of those three, so we'll see how that works out.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, the rumor I'm hearing is that Ed Gonzalez is
the front runner, and unless you want to speak to that,
I'll leave that there. Uh, long time engineer, You've dealt
with public infrastructure for longer than some folks have been alive.
You have years and years, have experienced a lot of
big projects. I'm gonna make you King of La for
(13:40):
a moment. What could be done to solve the problem now,
and then we'll unwind how we got into the mess
therein already.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I mean, when you have one hundred mile an hour
Santa Ana wins coming through there, that's gonna that you got,
you got a fire going, that's gonna be a problem.
Their problem was they did not have They did not
manage the underbrush at all. They eliminated all the grazing
(14:11):
that was going on with cattle, so all the things
that would have helped mitigate the extent of this disaster
they've eliminated. They did not have reservoirs. They removed some
reservoirs to allow fish that they don't need to get
to the ocean. So there was probably one hundred things
(14:32):
from an infrastructure standpoint that they could have done to
prepare themselves for what they're experiencing now. And you know,
if you can get you and I remember what happened
in Bastrop, and we saw how fast that fire blew
through there, but we also saw how quickly it was contained.
(14:52):
And even though it was devastating to the Bastrop County,
I think in many respects it was contained. The They
could have done a lot more clearly on their water,
their water use, their UH, their management of their their
their their forests, their wood that that all of that
(15:13):
underbrush in there. There's very logical common sense you can
things you can do, and they didn't do any of them.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
How concerned are you if let me ask you, what
is the public health or public emergency that scares you
the most? If it's not wildfires or earthquakes, because we're
not Los Angeles, what is the biggest issue here? Would
it be crime that you think our government is failing at.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
As much as I'd like to talk about infrastructure. In
seventy five percent of the unincorporated area is in my precinct.
That's what we have statue to a responsibility to take
care of. And five hundred and thirty three people died
on our roads. But I've got to say crime is
still the number one issue. It is we still don't
(16:05):
have enough officers on the street. We still don't have
enough officers and the detention facility. And if Edgunzalees wants
to be County judge, I wish he would begin by
taking care of his jail, which he has not done.
And we have approved everything he's brought to Commissioner's court.
So if there's anything else that needs to be done
(16:27):
at the jail, which there is, he hadn't brought it there.
But I would say safe neighborhoods remains our number one problem.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I would agree Harris County Commissioner Tom.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Rands asking no body for nothing.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Michael Berry Show continues all strode it ass on mainstream,
walked down a fly stairs. Kevin, you're on the Michael
Berry Show.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Go ahead. I mean, I know it's a rhetorical question,
but you know who elected Rodney as king of Harris County.
To be able to make all these backwards backroom deals.
What qualifications does Shila Jackson Lee's daughter have other than
(17:22):
her stupid name? Not one? But yet we allow people
like Rodney Ellis, who's been a crook all his life,
who didn't pay his bar tabs when he would come
into Downy Street pub, and yet we let him just
run the county like it's his own deal. Why vote?
(17:45):
This is why people don't want to vote, because they
know that idiots like this are just gonna make all
the damned decisions. All right, now I'm done.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Kevin, I will let you answer your own question. When
Rodney Ellis didn't pay his tab at Downing Street, why
didn't y'all prosecute him for it?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Because we knew that the repercussions that would come from
that same thing with the what's the state farm guy
that's uh oh, what's his name starts with a B?
He used to never pay his tab either either way,
I'll think of it. He's a state rep. But you know,
(18:25):
we didn't want the repercussions of what would come, you know,
from us doing that. I didn't agree with it, but
you know, ownership didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh, Uh, well, I guess my point is, I'm not
blaming you for the problems of the county. We don't
know that there would be problems until we do prosecute him.
And I'm not saying it was your decision. You weren't
the owner. I know that, But realistically, Rodney has risen
(18:58):
to dominate the count for the very same reason that
the owners of the place you worked at did not
prosecute him. Because nobody wants to be the tip of
the spear, nobody wants to confront evil. They simply say, oh,
nothing could be done, we'd get in trouble. That's the
(19:21):
way things are. As a result, it becomes the way
things are. And you know that was true of Sheila
Jackson Lee. People used to ask me, how does Sheila
Jackson Lee get away with bullying these preachers and bullying
all these various people. And I would tell the story
(19:45):
of my friend Tim Belton. Tim Belton was chairing some
black tie gala fundraiser for some disease cancer society or something,
and Sheila Jackson Lee comes in late and my friend
Tim Belton, who is no shrinking Violet, is up and
(20:08):
he's welcoming the guests and of various people when they
moved on to this, and he gets a note handed
to him by one of her staffers said, call Sheila
Jackson Lee, call Congress. Why not up to speak? She
wants to speak. And he turned and said, we're not
having speeches by politicians into the microphone and he gets
(20:31):
another note. It says, well, can you please recognize or
it just tells him recognize. We recognized elected officials who
were here earlier, who had responded to our request to
let us know if you were going to be here.
So no, we won't be recognized anyone else. Well, she
was humiliated. I mean, if she had any shame, she doesn't.
(20:53):
She is shameless. But everyone there knew what had happened
and they couldn't believe it. And there were people there
at a black tie gala who are CEOs of companies
who were scared to death that was going to cause
the organization problems.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
This is.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
This is be careful what I say on this one occasion.
How best to say this? There are a lot of
white people who are scared to death of black pullice
and they won't dare speak out against them because they
(21:39):
are black. Rodney has these people so scared, and for
the same reason that the ownership of Downing Street, as
you noted, for the same reason they wouldn't prosecute him, Oh,
because that would have hit the newspapers, and that would
have caused him so many problems. You see a famous
(22:01):
person that gets arrested for DWI and they're clearly smashed,
and it makes the news and the persons humiliated, and
terrible things happen, And well, do you know that for
every time that happens, there's three times at the same
guy doesn't get arrested because an officer says, man, if
(22:26):
I arrest him, I'll get in trouble. Because they're afraid
to do their jobs. The reason Rodney gets away with
what he gets away with is because he's a bully
and because he's very smart. There are also people with
whom he is very close, friends who run interference for
(22:46):
him for a long time. He and Jeff Cohen, who
used to be the publisher of the Houston Chronicle. He
now has his own little operation going. He works for
the Arnold family and they're billionaires and everybody thinks that,
you know, because they're billionaires and they're so important. But
he has made Look, I've said this for years. I've
(23:08):
known Rodney a long time, twenty five years. He is
an extraordinarily smart guy. He didn't get to be fabulously
wealthy as a state representative that pays seventy two hundred
dollars a year. He didn't get to be fabulously wealthy
off of that salary. He didn't get to be a
(23:28):
guy who travels to multiple states. People tell me all
the time they were in Africa and they saw Rodney
they were in I told me the other day that
they were on a trip to Bangkok and there they
were in this nice hotel, the top hotel in Bangkok,
and there's Rodney Ellis and he's checking out and he's
(23:48):
there on some sort of a work trip. Because the
guy's around him, Well what's he doing? Or people will
say they saw Rodney in Beaumont with the top Planet's
attorneys in Beaumont. He doing there is what does that
have to do with the county business? I don't know.
He's a very smart guy, extraordinarily smart, extraordinarily conniving, extraordinarily
(24:12):
good at at at seeing pockets of government money and
finding ways to get that spent. He's the one who
hand picked Lena Hidalgo. He's the one who hand picked
Leslie Brionez. Brionis, by the way, was working for the
Arnold family, which is where Jeff Cohen has set up shop.
(24:33):
They brought him over from being the publisher. And you
want to know how inter they seen this whole thing
is or incestuous. Jeff Cohen, who was the publisher of
the Houston Chronicle, his wife was the attorney representing Lena
Hidalgo during all that mess. Another way that Rodney Ellis
(24:57):
runs things and things just keep managing to go his
way is that his wife. You look at all the
affordable housing that's being built with this guy, Lance Gillian,
another one of the white you know, kind of the
Jeff Cohen type, the powerful white guys that enable Rodney go.
Look at how many boards Rodney's wife serves on, and
(25:18):
how many scandals there are associated with that Tonight tonight
when you need to escape from the every day escaped
of the Michael Arry Show. So Greg Abbott just sent
a press release out today from his office. Anyway, on
(25:43):
his letterhead says Governor Abbott orders flags to full staff
in honor of Inauguration Day. And I thought Okay, why
were they not at full staff? Already? Reminder, because people
(26:04):
seem to get this wrong a lot on land, a
flag is at full or half staff. On a ship, seriously, ramon,
we're trying to do a serious show here and be
considered serious people, and you got.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
On a ship, it flies at half masted or full mast.
But Governor Greg Abbott today ordered all flags to be
raised to full staff. Now when I read that, my
immediate reaction was, why were they at half staff? They're
(26:48):
to fly at full staff except in extenuating circumstances. Governor
Greg Abbot today ordered all all flags to be raised
to full full staff at the Texas Capitol in all
state buildings on January twentieth. So he announced today that
(27:14):
a week from today, we're gonna go ahead and put
them up to full staff. So why were they at
half staff? Governor Abbott said, quote. Texas continues to mourn
(27:34):
with our fellow Americans across the country over the passing
of former President Jimmy Carter. Here's the next part. President
Carter's steadfast leadership left a lasting legacy that will be
(27:57):
felt for generations to come. Which together as a nation,
we honor by displaying flags at half staff for thirty days. Okay,
that is absurd. You know there's something in this country.
(28:22):
There's something about, first of all, the worship of elected officials.
How many great Americans do we do that for veterans?
Do we do that for service members who go into battle,
risking it all and die? Do we do that for
(28:43):
good Samaritans who die? We have a new show sponsor
coming on and his father is a story you read
in the news a few years ago. His father saw,
I believes a bel Air police officer being attacked by
(29:03):
a turd, and his father jumped in to try to
help the officer. The officer was murdered, and his father
was murdered being a good samaritan. That's the ultimate. If
you see something, say something. Did we fly the flag
(29:27):
at half staff? We didn't create monarchy because George Washington
believed when they offered it to him, that true self
governance meant that you didn't have classes of men, including royalty.
This idea that a president is better. You got these
(29:52):
people who wank off on university faculties to being a
presidential historian and all this respect fact that is due
to the president it's too much. It's too much. What
about the everyman? What about the people who fight the wars,
fight the fires, fight the criminals? What about those guys
(30:17):
thirty days for Jimmy Carter, bunk. I'm not mourning the
death of Jimmy Carter. That just be very clear. I
am not mourning.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Ramon.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Can we get Jimmy Carter again? Saying that Donald Trump
was an illegitimate president, Tell me again, how well? You know,
he might not have been a good president, but he
was a great ex president. You know, he was the
longest he was an ex president, a former president, longer
than anybody in American history. And he did good work.
(30:49):
He nailed a hammer while the camera was there and
went home. He was a good man. He was a
decent man. A lot of Republicans love to tell you
this because that way when they criticized Democrats for their
awful policies, they can go. But I don't dislike all Democrats.
I will admit Jimmy Carter was a good man.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You found out that the Russians did interfere in the election,
and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if
fully an investigator would show that Trump didn't actually win
the election in twenty sixteen. He lost the election and
he was put in the office because a Russians interfere
on his behalf.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So do you believe President Trump is an illegitimate president?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Face on? What I just said was, I can retract.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That is the ultimate election denier. That was in January.
That was in December of twenty sixteen, eight years ago.
So he wasn't in the full dementia and he wasn't
in the shape as when they rolled out his dead
body for the one hundred one hundredth birthday flyover, and
(32:09):
all the Republicans had to gush. Republicans cannot gush enough.
They love the opportunity, love the opportunity to tell you
what a good man. Jimmy Carter was such a good man.
He declared that Donald Trump, who lawfully won the election
(32:34):
with your votes, was an illegitimate president. He denied your vote.
He's the ultimate election denier. That's not good man, that's
a threat to democracy. I just read that the Webster
Food Town, which used to be the Randalls Ramon, has
(32:56):
closed its doors, and that was the grocery store that
Boris Yeltsen went to. That he said, I knew that
communism would fail. I knew the Soviet state would fail.
When I saw how many oranges and apples and bananas
you could, I knew that we couldn't keep the Soviet
(33:16):
people from learning about the Russian people from learning about
all these options. And when they found out what an
American grocery store looked. That was the Randalls in Webster,
which later became Webster Foodtown and that has now closed.
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Berry Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What just happened?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Ram?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
That was weird.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's like they pulled the plug on USh. We just
go on like nothing happened. Okay, yeah, all right, be
cool like Phronsie. Before we go to our next guest,
we have firefighters from Texas, including from Houston, who have
gone to California to help fight the fires. I understand
(00:51):
that with the rancorous division in this country led by
the left, the hateful bastards on the left, mostly white liberals,
but they tend to fire up their constituent groups against
their fellow Americans. So white liberals who are the core problem.
(01:15):
That aside, this is our country, these are our people,
and we're not going to let them destroy the fabric
of this country. We're not going to let them do it.
But for those firefighters who have gone to California into
a dangerous situation, I could not be more proud to
(01:40):
be from the same state as those folks. I could
not be more proud of their efforts, actions, sacrifice. And
if somebody who is involved with coordinating that can contact
me by email through the website. Michael berryshow dot com.
It comes directly to me. I would like to talk
(02:01):
to somebody about their efforts and what help they may
need and anything we can do to assist those folks.
And yeah, if anybody can get me in contact with
anyone who's out there or anyone who's coordinating that I
would sure appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
That is.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That is heroic, truly heroic and patriotic and good and honorable,
and I want to make sure that we do anything
we can to help those guys. So with government, with
the failures of government that we have seen to such
(02:43):
an extent, it is good to remember. I had a
guy email me in one of our California listeners and
he said, man, I know you're hard on Abbot because
of all his failings, but at least you got Abbot
and not Gavin Newsom. At least you got better governance.
(03:04):
And I said, that's why we have better governance. We
hold our elected officials to a high standard. We don't say, well,
at least we're not you Ganda here in America. At
least we do have a few things going for us
that's not the standard. Standard must be excellence. So Tom
(03:27):
Ramsey County Commissioner, the last of the good guys left,
the last Republican left on Harris County's County commission. We
used to have only one Democrat. Now we only have
one Republican, and you see what has become of it.
County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, welcome.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
To the program.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Good to be here, Michael, Thank.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You, Commissioner. I saw something that was posted by common
Sense Bob, which for those of you who want to
follow good citizen journalism and guys that just crunch numbers
and they may not have a newspaper or magazine or
radio station or TV station behind him. If you email me,
I'll send you back his address. But he posts under
(04:09):
Twitter under the name common Sense Bob. His name is
Bob Schote. He posted something that your office put out,
and I'm just going to scroll through it and stop
and ask you to comment on one. It's at each
point it's entitled Wasted Potential, a spotlight on Harris County's spending,
and then it goes along for a second here and
(04:29):
it says brought to your attention by Commissioner Tom Ramsey,
and then it says I'm waiting on it to scroll.
Here we go Harris County's Office of Administration now costs
you twenty four million, six hundred ninety seven, seven hundred
five dollars. The County Administrator's office was created in twenty
twenty one to serve as an administrator for Commissioner's Court
(04:53):
Commissioner Ramsey. I think that Rodney Ellis created that because
Lena had Ago is in a constant state of whacked
out and couldn't possibly run anything, so he created so
she's the public face, and he created a whole different
office to run things that he runs. How close to
(05:16):
the mark am.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I you know the intent was clearly there to creative bureaucracy.
We've never had a county administrator in Harris County. We
have the history of being the best run county in America.
So now we're paying twenty five million dollars a year
(05:38):
for an administrative office we do not need. The County
administrator makes over four hundred thousand dollars. So that administration
office is managing areas that I think they don't have
expertise in, such as the Health department, such as a
toll road, such as engineering such as flood control. So
(06:00):
it is truly a total waste of twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
How on earth did Harris County survive back when we
used to be a very efficient county. How did we
survive the dollars without a county administrator.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
We had those department had reported directly to the Commissioner's Court.
So guess what if you're head of the fluck Control
District and you're responsible to the Harris County Commissioners, that's
a pretty high calling. You better get your act together.
If you're responsible to a non elected bureaucraft that doesn't
know anything, you might be able to get away without anything.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, you list among the report the following departments now
report directly to the county administrator. And one of those
departments that you list is a new department created under
the County Administrator's office, the Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
That is a department that is managing our minority business program.
You know what that is because you saw it at
the City of Houston. So it's replicated that they manage that.
But they've also been given other responsibility which I have
(07:22):
no understanding of. They're responsible for if they weighed the
safety program of a contractor. What does the Department of
Economic Equity and Opportunity Again, another bureaucratic group. What do
they know about safety in the construction world or the
engineering world? Again, it is a bureaucracy, it's a waste
(07:46):
of money, and frankly, it's creating much problems in trying
to get things done.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
A county administrator created out a whole cloth we never
had before four hundred and eighteen four and seventeen dollars
seventy three employees according to your report, that cost us
the taxpayers nineteen million dollars at an average salary of
two hundred and sixty one thousand a person. This is
just ridiculous. Companies can't operate this way.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
County Commissioner Tom Ramsey hold with me for just a moment.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
This segment exclusively produced by Hawaiian Chad Nakanishi Aloha bro
Ha to the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Let me take you out.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So it's good to ship to give people bite sized
bits of information in a forum we can understand. So
when Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the last Republican left
down there, a stalwart says, this is how much money
they're wasting taxpayers. He says, the twenty five million dollar
(09:05):
department budget that remember, we didn't have a Harris County
administration in the past. The departments reported to your elected officials,
the county commissioners. Well, Rodney Ellis didn't want that. He
created a whole different department, a new department to oversee them.
So the department heads wouldn't have to come before the
(09:26):
county commissioners and answer. They would go to this person
over here that Rodney put there, and he would tell them, no, no,
you do this, you do this, because that's how he
runs things with an iron fist. Well, this twenty five
million dollars it cost to run this department, as Commissioner
Tom Ramsey points out, that's equivalent to two hundred and
(09:49):
seventy four deputies which could be used for jail detention
or safer neighborhoods for you and your loved ones. That
brings it home to two hundred and seventy four more
deputies on the ground. That's boots on the ground that
would make a difference in crime prevention and in crime solution,
(10:12):
and yet more administrators and creating a layer so that
the county departments won't report to the commissioners who you elected.
Commissioner Tom Ramsey. Before I move on from this subject,
is there anything else about the creation of this county
(10:32):
Administrator's office that would affect us, the taxpayers and the
service delivery that we expect.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I think it's important to understand, and I think it
ties back to southern California. They lost their way in
terms of the basics. This is a clear indication that
Harris County is not focusing on the basics. In twenty
twenty three, six hundred people were murdered in Harris County.
Six one hundred, five hundred and thirty three people died
(11:04):
on our roads in Harris County. We need safer roads,
we need safer neighborhoods. That's where we need to spend
the money. And unfortunately that's not the priorty currently within
Harris County.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Why don't you well, you know what, before we get
to that, because I'm glad you brought up California, but
I want to address this issue. I'm getting rumors from
Commissioner's Court and bureaucrats and folks who do business down
there and other folks that Lena is on the verge
of retiring resigning, and then we can talk about who
(11:44):
that replacement would be, but that Rodney is currently actively
working on that. Would you like to speak to that?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, just you, I hear what you hear, and all
I know is last year more than thirty percent approaching
for percent of the time she was not in Commissioner's Court. Now, frankly,
we worked very well. The four commissioners were able to
get through agenda's pretty quick and get through it. So
(12:13):
I clearly, clearly there's not the desire to be at
Commissioner's Court like you would expect someone in an elected position.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And my understanding is that Ed Gonzalez is the choice
if Sheila Jackson, Lee's daughter chooses not to take it.
Would you like to comment on that?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Well, you know, this is what I understand about the process,
and I think people better pay attention to the process.
Because Lena resigned, she doesn't get to vote, so to
be the four commissioners voting on whoever's replaced, right, So
I'm one of those four. So there'll be somebody looking
(12:59):
for a third vote, whether it's Rodney looking for a
third vote or or somebody else looking for a third vote.
They'll be people looking for a third vote. If in
fact it gets to that, they'll be they'll be a
desire to try to get three votes. Well, I'm one
of those three, so we'll see how that works out.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, the rumor I'm hearing is that Ed Gonzalez is
the front runner, and unless you want to speak to that,
I'll leave that there. Uh, long time engineer, You've dealt
with public infrastructure for longer than some folks have been alive.
You have years and years, have experienced a lot of
big projects. I'm gonna make you King of La for
(13:40):
a moment. What could be done to solve the problem now,
and then we'll unwind how we got into the mess
therein already.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I mean, when you have one hundred mile an hour
Santa Ana wins coming through there, that's gonna that you got,
you got a fire going, that's gonna be a problem.
Their problem was they did not have They did not
manage the underbrush at all. They eliminated all the grazing
(14:11):
that was going on with cattle, so all the things
that would have helped mitigate the extent of this disaster
they've eliminated. They did not have reservoirs. They removed some
reservoirs to allow fish that they don't need to get
to the ocean. So there was probably one hundred things
(14:32):
from an infrastructure standpoint that they could have done to
prepare themselves for what they're experiencing now. And you know,
if you can get you and I remember what happened
in Bastrop, and we saw how fast that fire blew
through there, but we also saw how quickly it was contained.
(14:52):
And even though it was devastating to the Bastrop County,
I think in many respects it was contained. The They
could have done a lot more clearly on their water,
their water use, their UH, their management of their their
their their forests, their wood that that all of that
(15:13):
underbrush in there. There's very logical common sense you can
things you can do, and they didn't do any of them.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
How concerned are you if let me ask you, what
is the public health or public emergency that scares you
the most? If it's not wildfires or earthquakes, because we're
not Los Angeles, what is the biggest issue here? Would
it be crime that you think our government is failing at.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
As much as I'd like to talk about infrastructure. In
seventy five percent of the unincorporated area is in my precinct.
That's what we have statue to a responsibility to take
care of. And five hundred and thirty three people died
on our roads. But I've got to say crime is
still the number one issue. It is we still don't
(16:05):
have enough officers on the street. We still don't have
enough officers and the detention facility. And if Edgunzalees wants
to be County judge, I wish he would begin by
taking care of his jail, which he has not done.
And we have approved everything he's brought to Commissioner's court.
So if there's anything else that needs to be done
(16:27):
at the jail, which there is, he hadn't brought it there.
But I would say safe neighborhoods remains our number one problem.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I would agree Harris County Commissioner Tom.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Rands asking no body for nothing.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Michael Berry Show continues all strode it ass on mainstream,
walked down a fly stairs. Kevin, you're on the Michael
Berry Show.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Go ahead. I mean, I know it's a rhetorical question,
but you know who elected Rodney as king of Harris County.
To be able to make all these backwards backroom deals.
What qualifications does Shila Jackson Lee's daughter have other than
(17:22):
her stupid name? Not one? But yet we allow people
like Rodney Ellis, who's been a crook all his life,
who didn't pay his bar tabs when he would come
into Downy Street pub, and yet we let him just
run the county like it's his own deal. Why vote?
(17:45):
This is why people don't want to vote, because they
know that idiots like this are just gonna make all
the damned decisions. All right, now I'm done.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Kevin, I will let you answer your own question. When
Rodney Ellis didn't pay his tab at Downing Street, why
didn't y'all prosecute him for it?
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Because we knew that the repercussions that would come from
that same thing with the what's the state farm guy
that's uh oh, what's his name starts with a B?
He used to never pay his tab either either way,
I'll think of it. He's a state rep. But you know,
(18:25):
we didn't want the repercussions of what would come, you know,
from us doing that. I didn't agree with it, but
you know, ownership didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh, Uh, well, I guess my point is, I'm not
blaming you for the problems of the county. We don't
know that there would be problems until we do prosecute him.
And I'm not saying it was your decision. You weren't
the owner. I know that, But realistically, Rodney has risen
(18:58):
to dominate the count for the very same reason that
the owners of the place you worked at did not
prosecute him. Because nobody wants to be the tip of
the spear, nobody wants to confront evil. They simply say, oh,
nothing could be done, we'd get in trouble. That's the
(19:21):
way things are. As a result, it becomes the way
things are. And you know that was true of Sheila
Jackson Lee. People used to ask me, how does Sheila
Jackson Lee get away with bullying these preachers and bullying
all these various people. And I would tell the story
(19:45):
of my friend Tim Belton. Tim Belton was chairing some
black tie gala fundraiser for some disease cancer society or something,
and Sheila Jackson Lee comes in late and my friend
Tim Belton, who is no shrinking Violet, is up and
(20:08):
he's welcoming the guests and of various people when they
moved on to this, and he gets a note handed
to him by one of her staffers said, call Sheila
Jackson Lee, call Congress. Why not up to speak? She
wants to speak. And he turned and said, we're not
having speeches by politicians into the microphone and he gets
(20:31):
another note. It says, well, can you please recognize or
it just tells him recognize. We recognized elected officials who
were here earlier, who had responded to our request to
let us know if you were going to be here.
So no, we won't be recognized anyone else. Well, she
was humiliated. I mean, if she had any shame, she doesn't.
(20:53):
She is shameless. But everyone there knew what had happened
and they couldn't believe it. And there were people there
at a black tie gala who are CEOs of companies
who were scared to death that was going to cause
the organization problems.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
This is.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
This is be careful what I say on this one occasion.
How best to say this? There are a lot of
white people who are scared to death of black pullice
and they won't dare speak out against them because they
(21:39):
are black. Rodney has these people so scared, and for
the same reason that the ownership of Downing Street, as
you noted, for the same reason they wouldn't prosecute him, Oh,
because that would have hit the newspapers, and that would
have caused him so many problems. You see a famous
(22:01):
person that gets arrested for DWI and they're clearly smashed,
and it makes the news and the persons humiliated, and
terrible things happen, And well, do you know that for
every time that happens, there's three times at the same
guy doesn't get arrested because an officer says, man, if
(22:26):
I arrest him, I'll get in trouble. Because they're afraid
to do their jobs. The reason Rodney gets away with
what he gets away with is because he's a bully
and because he's very smart. There are also people with
whom he is very close, friends who run interference for
(22:46):
him for a long time. He and Jeff Cohen, who
used to be the publisher of the Houston Chronicle. He
now has his own little operation going. He works for
the Arnold family and they're billionaires and everybody thinks that,
you know, because they're billionaires and they're so important. But
he has made Look, I've said this for years. I've
(23:08):
known Rodney a long time, twenty five years. He is
an extraordinarily smart guy. He didn't get to be fabulously
wealthy as a state representative that pays seventy two hundred
dollars a year. He didn't get to be fabulously wealthy
off of that salary. He didn't get to be a
(23:28):
guy who travels to multiple states. People tell me all
the time they were in Africa and they saw Rodney
they were in I told me the other day that
they were on a trip to Bangkok and there they
were in this nice hotel, the top hotel in Bangkok,
and there's Rodney Ellis and he's checking out and he's
(23:48):
there on some sort of a work trip. Because the
guy's around him, Well what's he doing? Or people will
say they saw Rodney in Beaumont with the top Planet's
attorneys in Beaumont. He doing there is what does that
have to do with the county business? I don't know.
He's a very smart guy, extraordinarily smart, extraordinarily conniving, extraordinarily
(24:12):
good at at at seeing pockets of government money and
finding ways to get that spent. He's the one who
hand picked Lena Hidalgo. He's the one who hand picked
Leslie Brionez. Brionis, by the way, was working for the
Arnold family, which is where Jeff Cohen has set up shop.
(24:33):
They brought him over from being the publisher. And you
want to know how inter they seen this whole thing
is or incestuous. Jeff Cohen, who was the publisher of
the Houston Chronicle, his wife was the attorney representing Lena
Hidalgo during all that mess. Another way that Rodney Ellis
(24:57):
runs things and things just keep managing to go his
way is that his wife. You look at all the
affordable housing that's being built with this guy, Lance Gillian,
another one of the white you know, kind of the
Jeff Cohen type, the powerful white guys that enable Rodney go.
Look at how many boards Rodney's wife serves on, and
(25:18):
how many scandals there are associated with that Tonight tonight
when you need to escape from the every day escaped
of the Michael Arry Show. So Greg Abbott just sent
a press release out today from his office. Anyway, on
(25:43):
his letterhead says Governor Abbott orders flags to full staff
in honor of Inauguration Day. And I thought Okay, why
were they not at full staff? Already? Reminder, because people
(26:04):
seem to get this wrong a lot on land, a
flag is at full or half staff. On a ship, seriously, ramon,
we're trying to do a serious show here and be
considered serious people, and you got.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
To do that.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
On a ship, it flies at half masted or full mast.
But Governor Greg Abbott today ordered all flags to be
raised to full staff. Now when I read that, my
immediate reaction was, why were they at half staff? They're
(26:48):
to fly at full staff except in extenuating circumstances. Governor
Greg Abbot today ordered all all flags to be raised
to full full staff at the Texas Capitol in all
state buildings on January twentieth. So he announced today that
(27:14):
a week from today, we're gonna go ahead and put
them up to full staff. So why were they at
half staff? Governor Abbott said, quote. Texas continues to mourn
(27:34):
with our fellow Americans across the country over the passing
of former President Jimmy Carter. Here's the next part. President
Carter's steadfast leadership left a lasting legacy that will be
(27:57):
felt for generations to come. Which together as a nation,
we honor by displaying flags at half staff for thirty days. Okay,
that is absurd. You know there's something in this country.
(28:22):
There's something about, first of all, the worship of elected officials.
How many great Americans do we do that for veterans?
Do we do that for service members who go into battle,
risking it all and die? Do we do that for
(28:43):
good Samaritans who die? We have a new show sponsor
coming on and his father is a story you read
in the news a few years ago. His father saw,
I believes a bel Air police officer being attacked by
(29:03):
a turd, and his father jumped in to try to
help the officer. The officer was murdered, and his father
was murdered being a good samaritan. That's the ultimate. If
you see something, say something. Did we fly the flag
(29:27):
at half staff? We didn't create monarchy because George Washington
believed when they offered it to him, that true self
governance meant that you didn't have classes of men, including royalty.
This idea that a president is better. You got these
(29:52):
people who wank off on university faculties to being a
presidential historian and all this respect fact that is due
to the president it's too much. It's too much. What
about the everyman? What about the people who fight the wars,
fight the fires, fight the criminals? What about those guys
(30:17):
thirty days for Jimmy Carter, bunk. I'm not mourning the
death of Jimmy Carter. That just be very clear. I
am not mourning.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Ramon.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Can we get Jimmy Carter again? Saying that Donald Trump
was an illegitimate president, Tell me again, how well? You know,
he might not have been a good president, but he
was a great ex president. You know, he was the
longest he was an ex president, a former president, longer
than anybody in American history. And he did good work.
(30:49):
He nailed a hammer while the camera was there and
went home. He was a good man. He was a
decent man. A lot of Republicans love to tell you
this because that way when they criticized Democrats for their
awful policies, they can go. But I don't dislike all Democrats.
I will admit Jimmy Carter was a good man.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
You found out that the Russians did interfere in the election,
and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if
fully an investigator would show that Trump didn't actually win
the election in twenty sixteen. He lost the election and
he was put in the office because a Russians interfere
on his behalf.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So do you believe President Trump is an illegitimate president?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Face on? What I just said was, I can retract.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That is the ultimate election denier. That was in January.
That was in December of twenty sixteen, eight years ago.
So he wasn't in the full dementia and he wasn't
in the shape as when they rolled out his dead
body for the one hundred one hundredth birthday flyover, and
(32:09):
all the Republicans had to gush. Republicans cannot gush enough.
They love the opportunity, love the opportunity to tell you
what a good man. Jimmy Carter was such a good man.
He declared that Donald Trump, who lawfully won the election
(32:34):
with your votes, was an illegitimate president. He denied your vote.
He's the ultimate election denier. That's not good man, that's
a threat to democracy. I just read that the Webster
Food Town, which used to be the Randalls Ramon, has
(32:56):
closed its doors, and that was the grocery store that
Boris Yeltsen went to. That he said, I knew that
communism would fail. I knew the Soviet state would fail.
When I saw how many oranges and apples and bananas
you could, I knew that we couldn't keep the Soviet
(33:16):
people from learning about the Russian people from learning about
all these options. And when they found out what an
American grocery store looked. That was the Randalls in Webster,
which later became Webster Foodtown and that has now closed.
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