AM Show Hr 1 | The Class Action Lawsuit Against CenterPoint

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Good morning, Captain, Good morning, Captain, Good morning, Captain,
Good morning, captain, good morning, good morning Captain. To the morn
out and say wake up sunshine andshare this rain good an in contain smiling,

(00:26):
so we see post were hurry seehere and the going down tonsbree everybody
see good morning, good morning,good bye captain, good morning captain.

(00:49):
By break up the listeners, sharethis. We will be talking about the
Republican National Convention last night and thisweek. I think last night was a

(01:10):
very very strong night. I alwaysworry how many people will actually watch.
You know that the base will watch. You know that the people who are
activists and grassroots supporters will watch.Your hope is that those who are undecided,

(01:34):
and yes there are those who areundecided or unmotivated, those who might
vote Republican, but they're going towatch and it may spur them to action,
to actually do something. You hopethat enough of those folks watched,
because if they did, I thinkthe message is powerful. I think the

(01:56):
message is that this represents America.Crime victims, taxpayers, veterans, police
officers, small business owners, parentswho've lost their child to a drug overdose

(02:19):
trafficked by illegal aliens, honest,decent folks who've just had enough. But
first, let's talk about what's goingon locally. So far, at least
six people in Harris County have diedfrom the heat post barrel, bringing the
death toll to eighteen. KHOU reportson a particularly heartbreaking story in the Museum

(02:46):
district. Happened to be here todayinterviewing folks about losing power over the last
week or so and living without itin this weltering heat. That's when our
story about a power outage became somethingmuch bigger. Debris from hurricane barrel lines
the street outside this sixty zero condocomplex, surrounded these days by big,

(03:07):
nice, newer homes like this,But it's the sweltering misery inside that was
more difficult to capture today. It'sdangerous, needless to say. As we
interviewed resident Chesley Crohne just before noon, what address are you looking for?
Houston Fire showed up along with anEMS crew, rushing to an upstairs unit
where saving a life was no longeran option. Yeah, like a few

(03:31):
others here, I'm told, thewoman who was not terribly old but did
have health issues, stuck it outover the last week and sweltering heat.
She's renting from my daughter, soI beg to check out her and she
couldn't answer, So therefols unlocked thedoor and found her. And it's just

(03:53):
spent hot and miserable and I'm justsecond emotional. Neighbors wish they could have
done more, but hopeful their storyhas an impact it missus, I mean
missus sadder visit their muge like that. I'm told Centerpoint contractors showed up at

(04:13):
least twice in as many days,these crews arriving after repeated calls from neighbors
and an email from US. Theproperty manager reporting to me late this afternoon
that the power was finally back onat the end of a very trying day.
So the power restored hours after thislady's body discovered inside her unit.

(04:34):
Her identity not confirmed at this hour. Neighbors tell me her adult children live
out of state. Remember when SylvesterTurner had an official poet laureate for the
City of Houston. Houstonians showed upto city council yesterday, outraged over the

(04:59):
powerges and the wasteful spending. Foxtwenty six with the story packed off by
our cities continuing vulnerability to life threateningstorms. Residents spoke out against what they
see as non essential luxury spending,like the twenty five million dollars currently earmarked
for new art basics. First,no more spending on the arts until everybody

(05:26):
has trash pickup and sewage hookup.That's a resident of Euston veryl highlighted that
city infrastructure is currently not resilient.We don't know what's coming down the pike.
We may have to lay off workersa year from now. This item
sixteen is the epitome of fiddling whileRome is burning. The number one job

(05:49):
of the city is to keep itsresidents safe. Do your job, protect
the people, invest in life savinginfrastructure. Meantime, eight days after Burrell
made landfall, Center Points still underheavy fire for the power outage that followed.

(06:09):
Fox twenty six contributor Bill King saysthe multi billion dollar power company must
explain why it didn't do more tokeep trees out of the wires. This
is largely caused by trees falling overonto lines. This is not the infrastructure

(06:29):
failing. The sense of power polesgoing down and all that. That's a
very very small, discreete set ofthe problem. I think what we need
to try to take a look atis how well did Centerpoint do on improving
their vegetation management since two thousand andeight. Two thousand and eight was when
Hurricane I hit and there was astudy that showed that this was a major

(06:53):
problem. It was authored by noneother than Paul Hobby. You know this
frustration over Centerpoint. Our attention hasbeen distracted for a moment by the assassination
attempt, the death of Corey Comparatory, the wounding of two others, the

(07:15):
failure of the Secret Service, thedeification of the Secret Service, the excitement
over the presidential race. But Ithink this one's going to leave a mark
on Centerpoint. I think they willhave to make changes, and I think

(07:38):
there's going to be a reckoning beforethat. And that's a good thing.
That's a good thing. Out ofthis should come some good. Out of
this should come some handwringing as tohow this was allowed to happen. But
first we're going to have to learnsome things. What does Centerpoint Energy do

(08:01):
with the money they raise? Maybethey have a perfect defense, but it
sure appears that they have a culturethat is hiding the information that the public
deserves to know sometimes it takes alawsuit to dislodge this sort of information.

(08:22):
Tony Busby has filed a lawsuit thathe's hoping to develop into a class action
into Centerpoint Energy on behalf of therestaurants who were harmed by them. He's
our guest coming Operations. Our familyhas clothed the men in your family to
Michael Berry's show Schowitz a family traditionin Houston since nineteen oh two. Sunlight

(08:45):
is the best disinfectant, but sometimesfolks like to keep the curtains closed.
We have a lot of questions aboutthis storm. Were proper preparations made,
was the vegetation kept away from thelines? Did Centerpoint meet its duty to
its consumers or just its shareholders?What was done afterwards? Why wasn't this

(09:13):
done? This? And we couldsee with our own eyes a lot of
things that didn't make sense or worse, and Center Point didn't seem to want
to speak, but they've had alot of heat applied and more on the
way. Tony Busby is our guest. Welcome to the program. Tony,
tell me about the lawsuit that youhave filed or are filing in what you
hope to accomplish so we filed thelawsuit a day ago against Center Point,

(09:41):
of course, on behalf of agroup of restaurant tours here in town and
also in Galveston. And what wehope to accomplish is to find the answers
to those very questions you posed.And at this point you're not going to
invest a lot of time and energy. It's preliminary unless you suspect based on

(10:03):
what you're hearing or seeing that somethingis wrong. What are some of the
things that trouble you most well?I mean the overarching thing is is and
again you know, I'm a capitalist, so I don't have a problem with
companies, private companies making money profitfor shareholders. I don't have a problem
with a CEO if he's smart enoughand he has a silver tongue and he

(10:28):
can convince his board of directors topay him thirty seven million dollar compensation package.
God blessing. But the overarching problemis that despite the fact that Centerpoint
has shown six point five billion dollarsin profit year after year with about a
seven percent increase, they have notCenterpoint has not taken those moneies and invested

(10:52):
in infrastructure, knowing full well thatwe are in Houston, Texas on the
Gulf Coast, that we continue toget these storms. We were told that
they will continue to get worse.That's the bigger problem there. So that
raises a question what would a reasonableelectricity provider do? Then the more immediate

(11:13):
question, of course, is thequestions that you raised, which is what
did they do leading up to thestorm? Knowing full well again that we
were told that this is going tobe one of the more active hurricane seasons,
knowing for almost two weeks that therewas a storm in the Atlantic.
As the storm got closer, whatdid they do, how did they prepare,
what did they tell people? Andthen once the storm hit, what

(11:35):
did they do during the storm andthen in the aftermath. I mean,
we've already heard about the various linemenwho came from all across the country trying
to help as part of some sortof sharing agreement, and how they were
just sitting in parking lots, croolinterjets because Centerpoint didn't really have a plan
and hadn't really worked out how topay these people properly per diem and all
that stuff. We've heard about that. So we're going to get to the

(11:56):
bottom of all of this. Youmay recall during the free some years ago
that every electricity provider in Texas forthe most part, including the power generators
and everybody ar Cat included, we'reall sued on behalf of hundreds of people
who died as results of power outages. That case has continued to worm its

(12:16):
way through the court system. Ultimatelyar Caught was, which you know is
a semi semi public semi private entity, was dismissed. But the key there
is Center Point. Although it's soughtdismissal claiming that it could only be regulated
by the Public Utility Commission, thepublic Court said that ain't right. That

(12:37):
in fact, you can be suedfor negligence, you can be sued for
gross negligence, you can be suedfor intentional misconduct. And so that's kind
of the basis of this case thatCenterpoint just did not act in a reasonable
fashion. And so we're gonna we'regoing to be able to talk to the
CEO and explore all parameters of thisand get some answers. I'm encouraged course

(13:00):
that you know, from looks likeevery level of government has been calling and
calling for answers and calling for investigationsand denouncing centerpoint from the mayor all the
way up to lieutenant governor and thegovernor. But I think we all know
that we've heard those kinds of thingsin the past. Once everybody has power
and people move on to the nextissue that they have to deal with,
we kind of all forget about itto the next storm is brewing out there

(13:22):
in the gulf. So the reasonfor the lawsuit is these restaurant tours are
are fed up, like all ofus are. And the reason we started
with restaurants is because in the restaurantbusiness, in order to survive, you
have to know your numbers. Imean you really have to know them.
And the restaurant tours that are kindof leading this case are people that have

(13:43):
been in this business for a longtime. They're respected, they're known,
they have influence, and so Ithought that was a good place to start.
And it's your intention to expand thatand get a class certified. At
least that's your hope. That's thehope. You know, the class action
as you you know better than mostgetting a class action certified in the state
of Texas, especially in the statecourts, is very difficult. But times,

(14:07):
as they say, are changing.So we're going to test that and
see if we can get a classcertified, because again, a class action,
you know, one, two,ten, fifteen people seeking to be
a class representative. Rather than suingon behalf of fifteen thousand individual restaurants,
you know, you can sue onbehalf of ten or fifteen seeking to represent

(14:28):
all. But that being said,I can tell you ever since the word
got out that this case was beingfiled, our phone and my phone email,
et cetera, has been burned upby every restaurant you've ever heard of
who want to be a part ofthis. So we're already about two hundred
restaurants who have signed up and stilllooking at probably two hundred more from all

(14:52):
over this area, from Galveston,of course, all over Houston. So
you know, it may be thatwe can't get a class action certified because
of the current state of the law. But even if that's the case,
we're going to have to to threefour hundred individual restaurant tours who can continue
to press this case. You saidsomething that I think would surprise people the
extent to which it's true. Ifyou're going to be a successful restaurant,

(15:16):
you have to know your numbers,and so these are people who can show
you their loss. When you talkabout damages, what kind of things are
we talking about for these restaurants.Well that's the key there, the reason.
You know, the people that you'veheard heard about like denverg Ronnie Killing,
people like that, who whoevery timethey open a new concept, it's

(15:37):
reported about and talked about, andthey're considered some of the leaders, not
just in Houston, but in thestate and the country. They know when
they don't open, they know exactlyto the dollar what they're losing that day.
They know what their cost of goodsare, they know what their cost
of labor is, they know allthese things. It's just something that they
know, and that's the reason they'vebeen able to be successful. So when

(16:00):
they're out of power for eight days, ten days, they can tell you
to the dollar what they've lost.And you know, that's for a lawyer
that's refreshing because a lot of timesin cases like this, your focus not
only you know on the liability,but you're trying to figure out you give
me these docus, give me this, give me that, so I can
try to get it to an accountantto try to calculate your damage. Well,

(16:21):
I don't have that problem with thesefolks, and it makes it a
lot easier and a lot a lotmore streamlined to press the case like this.
This is not what we used tocall the soft tissue damages. This
is real, and it's in blackand white, and there's the numbers,
and there's what it costs. Ihope this lawsuit will make Center Point better.
I hope this lawsuit will bring alot of answers. I hope this

(16:42):
lawsuit will make whole, if notcold, then will assist many of the
people who were harmed by what maywell turn out to be Center Points negligence
and failure to meet their duty.And we look forward to talking to you
as it progresses. Tony Buzby,thank you, Thank you. More details

(17:04):
on the Republican National Convention last night, which I think I was supposed to
perfect as you could hope for includingMichael Berry hu only a sound warehouse.
I'm about to get so much hatefor this, and you know what,
fine, I don't care real talk. I wasn't really a Trump supporter,

(17:30):
definitely not a Clinton supporter, andI wouldn't vote for Biden. I was
going to set out this election becauseneither option was that great to me.
But after watching what unfolded in Pennsylvaniaand everyone asked him, why aren't people
running? Do you know why?Because the Trump supporters represent the non one

(17:51):
percent. They're the soldiers on thefront lines. They are the cops out
there handling all these rallies and VI. They're the EMTs saving you when you
overdose. They're the nurses holding yourhand. They're the teachers taking care of
your children and being underpaid. AndI always thought Trump was a sexist,

(18:14):
racist jerk, name calling, butyou know what, watching the way he
carried himself yesterday, picking himself up, chanting to the crowd that he was
okay and to fight, enchanting USAthat was a thing of beauty. Is
twisted as it sounds, I knowit really was a thing of beauty.
It's a miracle that hundreds of otherpeople weren't injured or killed in a stampede.

(18:40):
And watching the way he picked himselfup, that man is a true
leader. And I know I'll gethate for it, but you know what
Trump twenty twenty four was that Ramaswamispoke last night and I thought he had
a very, very good message foryoung people that Republicans don't always target or

(19:08):
specifically focus on, and I thoughtthis message was compelling. Success is unifying,
Excellence is unifying. That's who weare as Americans, That's who we've
always been. To those of youwatching this at home tonight, I'd like
to deliver a message that the mediadoesn't want you to hear from the Republican

(19:29):
Party. Our message to black Americansis this. The media has tried to
convince you for decades that Republicans don'tcare about your communities, but we do.
We want for you what we wantfor every American. Safe neighborhoods,
clean streets, good jobs, abetter life for your children, and a
justice system that treats everyone equally,regardless of your skin color and regardless of

(19:53):
your political beliefs. Our message toevery legal immigrant in this country is this,
you're like my parents. You deservethe opportunity to secure a better life

(20:14):
for your children in America. Butour message to illegal immigrants is also this.
We will return you to your countryof origin, not because you're all
bad people, but because you brokethe law. And the United States of
America, who was founded on therule of law, our message to millennials,

(20:41):
speaking as one myself, Yes,it's true our government sold us a
false bill of goods with the IraqWar and the two thousand and eight financial
crisis, loading up our national debtthat falls on our generation's shoulders, telling
us that if we took out collegeloans, we'd somehow get a headstart on
the American dream when it hasn't workedout that way. But we can't just
be cynical about our country because theUnited States of America is still the last

(21:04):
best hope that we have, andwe deserve a better class a politician,
one who actually tells us the truth, even if it comes with some mean
tweets from time to time. Andour message to gen z is this,

(21:27):
you're going to be the generation thatactually saves this country. You want to
be a rebel, you want tobe a hippie, you want to stick
it to the man. Show upon your college campus and try calling yourself
a conservative. Say you want toget married, have kids, teach him
to believe in God and pledge allegianceto their country. Because you know what,
Fear has been infectious in this country, but courage can be contagious too.

(21:51):
That too, is what it meansto be an American. And you
know what, if you're at homeand you we disagree with everything I just
said, our message to you isthis. We will still defend it to
the death, your right to sayit, because that is who we are
as Americans. We are the countrywhere we can disagree like hell and still

(22:12):
get together at the dinner table atthe end of it. That is the
America I know. That is theAmerica we miss. That is a very
aspirational message that goes down into thecracks and sinews of the American populace,

(22:33):
and I think begins to appeal tosome people who may not for whom the
message may not resonate. I haveseen that some prominent conservatives with large platforms
have been angry that this or thatperson has spoken at the Republican Convention.

(23:00):
A woman I never heard of whosupposedly developed the SlutWalk. I didn't know
this. She's a black woman.I guess that in the past she has
been engaged in porn or whatever else. She came forward to give her message
that she's supporting Trump. And therewere some folks with big platforms who were

(23:22):
very upset that we're sliding toward Gomorato quote slouching toward Gomora, to quote
Robert Bork's book, that she shouldn'tbe put forward. There are others who've
called it pandering. There are otherswho've called it whatever else. And I
get the impression that some people onour side don't want to win. They

(23:47):
only want the votes of people justlike them, the morally righteous. We
don't want those people over there becausethey don't live as clean and good at
as us, and they weren't atchurch on Sunday. Well, I want
to win this damn election. TheMichael Berry Show, you're doing what I

(24:14):
do? Will it all kinds along? To say? Jan in Kingwood,
you're on the Michael Berry Show.Go ahead, Jan, good morning.
How are you well? It's beennine days now and I still have no

(24:34):
power. I'm in Kingwood, sectionKingwood Place, Village, Section three in
the Kingwood area, and ironically,there happen to be many many senior living
facilities that are in this in thisarea also without power. And you know,
it's been nine days now. I'musing a cooler with ice in it

(24:56):
as my refrigerator. Luckily, Iwas able to already have some water in
a pure you know picture, becausewe're also on a blow of water van.
I mean, this is ridiculous.It's like more in the third world
country. This is really crazy.It is crazy, and it is frustrating

(25:21):
to the point of being infuriating.Because it's twenty twenty four. Our systems
should be better. You don't failto pay your bill. If you did,
did cut your power off, andyet it would appear Centerpoint has failed
to do their job, and Ithink they're I just want to also add

(25:42):
this. I actually saw a messageon mixture dot com for FEMA applications for
disaster relief, and I was ableto fill it out on my cell phone
because luckily I have an old fashionedphone that I can plug into the wall.
But I'm on my cell phone rightnow. But I actually saw a

(26:03):
thing on nextour dot com about applyingfor disasterly from FEMA, which I did
luckily last night. And I don'tknow, you know, they asked to
have you know, property damage,is their food damage, et cetera,
and so forth. And the thingsthat I've been reading in the remarks that
are that are on that website isthat most people got seven hundred and fifty

(26:23):
dollars right off the bat, likethey were. They were first denied and
then they got seventy seven hundred andfifty dollars for food repayment and stuff like
that. So I would say Iwould suggest people look look into FEMA,
you know, making an application.Yes, I'm just looking at the temperature

(26:44):
today in Kingwood to see what thehigh would be, and it looks like
it says it's ninety two degrees witha almost seventy percent humidity. It's I
don't know what else to tell you, Jane, it's very frustrating. Are
you by yourself? Yes, Iam, and my two cats cats,
God bless you. I'm a catlady. So what are you doing?

(27:08):
I mean, do you what areyou doing to cool down? Are you
leaving the house? Are you goingsomewhere? Well, yes, I'm doing
that. But also ironically, Ihave a small business myself of dog sitting
and the house where I'm dog sittingright now for another day or two.
They got the power back like twoor three days ago, so I'm going

(27:30):
back to that house. So actuallyI'm lucky enough to be in the house
that had air conditioning. Well,there's a blessing, there's a silver lining
in the middle of all of this. Plus at playing, I'm playing with
two beautiful dogs, Collie dogs andthe gorgeous So it's but their backfences down
also, so I can't just letthem out. I'm actually have to walk
to the dogs through the yard,through the business. I mean, so

(27:55):
it's only something. Yeah, itdoesn't it feel like it. Well,
you are strong and you are asurvivor and you're going to get through this.
Thank you for sharing your story.Jan I'm glad to know you're out
there. Rob, you're on theMichael Berry Show. Go ahead, sir,
good morning. Thank you for alwayssaying what needs to be said.
Thank you that being said, thislawsuit against Center Point, I full agreement.

(28:22):
Somebody needs to be held accountable.But when the lossuit is wonts to
prevent them from passing that cost onto the consumer? Well, that is
certainly an option. They have arate they have a rate setting policy that
has to go through the PUC.So certainly that is that is a fear.

(28:45):
Where where will they get this moneyfrom from? To me, the
most important thing is not in someway punishing Center Point as an entity or
their shareholders. To me, themost important thing is to get answers to
questions, which we simply will notget short of a lawsuit. They will

(29:06):
not answer an investigation. They willnot answer politicians. They will simply stonewall.
They are absolutely going to stonewall becausethey don't want you to know.
But if this, if this developsinto a if this develops into a full

(29:27):
blown lawsuit, if we have depositionsand and and I guess first be interrogatories
and then depositions, and this thingmarches forward, and they have to,
under penalty of law, either takethe fifth plead the fifth based on their
own behaviors, but they're going tohave to provide documents that are then one

(29:51):
thing about buzzby. If you're agood plainiffs attorney, and look, you
need good planets attorneys. You know, we none of us liked the ambulance
chaser. None of us wanted ourdoctor driven away because he was doing his
job. And frankly, some timesa patient doesn't survive, that's God's choice,

(30:14):
not ours. They can still showreasonable care. We didn't want our
small business to be driven away becauseof a slip and fall or a fake
slip and fall. And we allknew the stories of the ambulance chaser who
was simply putting people out of businessand making harder to do business. And
I think that with tort reform,the pendulum swung back a different direction,

(30:34):
different direction. I think that thecaps on medical harm medical malpractice are probably
too restrictive. I've seen people whowere the victims of medical malpractice and now
you can't get a lawyer to takethe case because by the time they pay
for experts and the planet's attorney,there's not much left in damages for anyone.

(30:59):
There's no meat on bone, andthat means that there's no accountability.
The most important thing for me isnot any damages. You could end up
in cases like this, as oftenhappens, with little or no damages.
You could have a j and OVafter a frustrated jury. Can you imagine
if this was tried before a jury. Can you imagine a jury of Houstonians

(31:22):
who were hearing this case with anopportunity to stick it to center point.
My goal most important is that thetruth emerge. I think people like Jen
who've been sweltering in the heat fortwelve days, who've dutifully paid their bills,
deserve answers and that's not going tohappen because Centerpoint willingly comes forward and

(31:48):
says, here are the decisions thatwere made. Here are the communications during
that time. Here are the decisions. Here are the choices we made.
We cut this neighborhood off to servethis one because we were told to by
by who who gave you that directive? How did you allocate your resources?

(32:09):
How quickly did you allocate your resources? What did you fail to do?
Did you live up to your due? I think I think Houstonians deserve to
know that h