October 16, 2025 • 30 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last email before I came in the air reads from
jayhu in Austin, Czar. So somebody walked in my office
right after I emailed you yesterday about Ted Dbiassi, and
I didn't get to listen to the rest of the
segment until I heard the podcast earlier this morning. And
(00:20):
if you weren't listening yesterday morning, that sent me an email,
just a random email. No no, no, no, that that
was from Scott Kutauch. Never mind. But what spurred the
conversation was it my friends got Kutach had sent a
picture of Teddbiassi in a tuxedo with dollar signs on
it and said, uh, jyd Junkyard dog was at was
(00:45):
a groomsman in Ted Dibiassi's wedding. You know, isn't that interesting?
Or whatever else? And then that got us going. So Jay,
who writes, So somebody walked to my office right after
I emailed you about Ted Dibiassi, and I didn't get
to listen to the rest of the segment until I
heard the podcast earlier this morning. I had the chance
encounter with Joseph Bednarski, that's Ivan Putski about ten years
(01:10):
ago when I was working as a property claims adjuster.
I had a roof claim by Joe Bednarski. I showed
up at this unassuming house in South Austin, and I
had no clue who I was going to meet. The
old feller in the satin jacket that I met in
the driveway was in his seventies and maybe five five
(01:31):
hundred and sixty pounds. He had a roof leak and
took me inside to see the damage. We walked through
this converted garage that was covered in dozens and dozens
of framed photos of this hulked up guy posing with
all the big names from wrestling and pop culture of
the seventies and eighties. I stopped to look and he says,
you recognize that guy? And I said yes, I do.
(01:52):
And he said I said, yes I do. That's the
Polish hammer and he says, yeah, that's me. Mind blown.
We talked for over an hour, the sweetest old guy.
He told me that his family fled Poland when he
was just a baby and settled in Smithville. His dad
got a janitorial job or something like that. He played
high school football and got a scholarship to Texas A
(02:14):
and I and then Canadian football, and then he got
into wrestling. So often we missed a chance and never
know who that old guy was, and about how and
about the life well lived. Sorry for the email. Much
love from Jayhu. Yeah, that's so true. That is so true.
(02:38):
It's amazing how there are fascinating people who've done fascinating
things and now they may not have that as their
day job anymore, because we all age, we're not the
person we once were. But that person has the best
(02:58):
stories and the time to tell him. There was a
Live Nation used to be part of the company that
owns our show, which is iHeartMedia, and before that, Clear
Channel and Live Nation was the concert portion of the show.
(03:20):
And there was a man in town whose name was
Alan Becker. And Alan Becker's best friend is like a
second dad to me, Barry Lewis, and Alan Becker's son,
Brian Becker, was the head of Live Nation, the CEO
of the biggest concert company in the world. And Alan
(03:43):
would always try to get his son to meet with
me because Alan took a liking to me and he
wanted his son to be friends with me. And he
would say, call Brian and tell him, and I've told
him and y'all need to go to lunch, y'all need
to be friends. And this would go on, and it
would be awkward because every time I would see Alan,
(04:04):
he would ask me if I had spent any time
with Brian. And finally, at some point Brian gave me
fifteen minutes. I went in his office and do you
need anything? No, he's a check. No, there's no ask
Your dad wanted us to be friends, and I'm happy
to in our office in the same building with him.
Two thousand West Loop. And it just fit with what
I've always said is that folks that were my age
(04:28):
coming up never had time to really invest in other relationships.
Everything was transactional because they're trying to You get an
older guy who's retired, and on the backside, they'll take time,
they'll do things for you. It's amazing how it works.
The Michael Mary Shaw the city council City of Houton,
or the City of Houston under Silvester Turner as its mayor,
(04:51):
was a cesspool of crime. You had this cabal. Sheila
Jackson Lee as the congressman, so she was doing her
best to run the federal side of these things. Sylvester
Turner as the mayor, so he's got the big pot
of money in the city of Houston. And then you
got Rodney Ellis at the county. Of course he put
(05:12):
his person in as county judge and then kick Jack
Cagle out. There is no degree of shame for these people,
nothing to hold them back. Just steal, just corrupt as
all get out. KPRC TV's Amy Davis has done a
(05:33):
wonderful job exposing a lot of the corruption in these
investigative reports she's been doing. The Houston Housing Authority, You'll
remember they had a fellow named David Northern who was
the head of it. So he was a black guy
who appears to have been just a stooge for Rodney
(05:54):
Ellis and Sylvester Turner. And then it turned out that
one of the things that Amy Davis revealed was that
there was this project for all these this public housing
and they were supposed to they were supposed to green
energy thing. They were gonna they were gonna seal these
(06:18):
houses up. They're gonna put air conditioning and seal them
up so they wouldn't leave and then be more energy efficient.
And the guy they hired was some dude from Chicago
who was supposed clothing designer. He'd never done anything like this,
and he gets paid millions of dollars and they pull
up on the scene of one of these projects. He
(06:39):
had supposedly finished their air conditioning units out out in
the yard. He couldn't figure out how to install an
You can't believe this would possibly be true, but it is.
That's the amazing thing. Well. Amy Davis's report finds that
a close friend of mister Northern, who was head of
the Houston Housing Authority, Chris Senegal, bought the Pleasant Grove
(07:01):
Missionary Baptist Church property known as the Dome Church at
fifty nine to ten for six point seven million dollars
in December of twenty twenty. Just over two years later,
Housing Authority had Northern, the head of the Housing Authority,
(07:21):
pays Senegal eleven point four million dollars for a tidy
five point seven million dollar profit for the property that
currently sits vacant with no development plans. Senegal is so
connected that Mayor Sylvester Turner even declared Christopher Senegal empowerment day.
Current HHA President Jamie Bryant is dumbfounded over the deal
(07:44):
by Northern. The story from kprctv's Amy Davis.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I'm trying to figure out why you're so resistant to
talk about the church.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I don't have what's the need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
And we care it at This is doctor Sheldon Jackson,
senior pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Most know
it as the Dome Church, right under the freeway where
fifty nine and I ten intersect east of downtown in
fifth Ward.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
You have noticed the Dome Church is now gone. We
wanted to know who bought it, who benefited and why.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
If I could tell you why, I'm interested in talking
to you about it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
NNE, and I interested where you interesced you. Okay, so
this is open.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Why did we purchase a piece of land when there
was no real plan for it?
Speaker 6 (08:36):
That's a great question, and I, unfortunately I don't have
a I don't have an answer for the.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
Why and whether anybody benefited off it or not.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Jamie Bryant is the new president of the Houston Housing Authority,
hired after the former president resigned under investigation, accused of
orchestrating a shady contract scandal. Too Investigates revealed gave millions
to unqualified contractors who never completed the war were But
before that scandal, there was this.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
I have been working on a project just on the
other side. I purchased this church campus with a small
group of investors.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
That's the voice of Chris Senegal. In one of his
own marketing videos he shared on YouTube, he bills himself
as mister Buy the Block, a developer who buys up
properties in historically black neighborhoods that would otherwise be snapped
up by private investors. When ties in the church's offering
plate were no longer enough to pay the church's mortgage,
(09:29):
Senegal purchased this property in December twenty twenty for six
point seven million dollars. Even before the deal closed, he
published renderings of a brand new apartment complex built around
the church's old stone facade, and he announced he was
partnering with the Houston Housing Authority.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
This is the other big project I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
It's gonna be a multifamily apartment complex three hundred units
in partnership with the Housing Authority.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Social media post revealed Senegal was tight with then HJA
president David Northern and hh board chairman Laurent Snowden, both
before and after the deal, but now two years later,
no one's talking. We have knocked on doors, poured through
public records, called and emailed every person involved in the
sale of the property. Northern now leads the housing authority
(10:14):
in Flint, Michigan. Snowden, who signed the deal, still lives
in Houston. When we stopped by his home, were resorted
to speaking into his ring doorbell. You're in the story,
so I'd like to give you an opportunity. I'd like
to hear what you have to say. Public records show
this new apartment complex Senegal pitched just didn't work. Housing
Authority staff only gave the property fifty four points out
(10:36):
of a possible one hundred for low income housing potential,
no access to good schools, jobs, or grocery stores. But
instead of just walking away, the Housing Authority purchased the
property outright, paying Senegal eleven point four million dollars, nearly
five million more than Senegal paid just two and a
(10:56):
half years earlier. These closing documents reveal three companies, all
owned by Chris Senegal, walked away with three point three
million dollars profit, and after closing, HHA discovered one hundred
and thirty two thousand dollars Senegal owed in back taxes
he never paid, and that same month the city declared
October fifth, Chris Senegal Empowerment Day.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Is very disheartening.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
This single mom of two waited four years for housing assistance.
She believes the millions spent here could have helped thousands
of others.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Maybe open up that weight list to help other families
that have been waiting for in years.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Last December, as Northern was on his way out, Ahha
paid another six hundred and forty thousand dollars to demolish
the church.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Really, the tragedy in what you just described is that
ultimately the losers here are going to be low income
people who need housing.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Ben Martin works with Texas Housers in Austin, a nonprofit
whose goal is to make sure low income Texans have
access to affordable housing.
Speaker 7 (11:57):
It's really important for the public trust that the housing
Authority is able to articulate where they're going with this
property and what the plan is for it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
ATT President Jamie Bryant tells me he's still figuring out
what to do with this property and ten others purchased
by the last president properties not helping anyone with housing.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I like to go back to that pastor why I'm
want talk to you what I wanta told you about
we we did a deal? You said, what?
Speaker 8 (12:29):
What?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Well, I'm gonna told.
Speaker 7 (12:30):
You about bizarre of talk radio the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
If you look into every single program at Harris County
and at the City of Houston, you would find so
many hundreds of millions of dollars adding up to fraud.
(12:54):
And when you look at the characters, you would find
that there's the same cast of characters that keep moving
from the city to the county, to one of in
the past, one of the federal agencies, to the Houston
Community College, to Metro. It's just it's just a little circle.
(13:15):
And you'll find a city councilman who move over to here,
and and then their staff. Then they're their chief of
staff or there. One of their employees moves over into
this and and they're all in charge of the you know,
their government affairs, director of of Metro or one of
these organizations, and and they're they're all self dealing with
(13:41):
each other, all of them. Millions and millions and millions
and millions of dollars a fraud, and nothing is done
about it. Absolutely nothing is done about it. And it's
a culture. It's what took down Detroit, it's what took
down Baltimore.
Speaker 8 (14:01):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Culture of self dealing that these people have and assist
each other, and then they bring in their little outside
buddies that you'll hear these names that just keep coming
up again and again and again, and it's the same
group of people. But I did enjoy. I thought the
(14:23):
pastor was a woman at first. I don't know if
you did play that clip again. I swear I thought
the pastor was a woman.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I'm trying to figure out why you're so resistant to
talk about the church.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I don't have what's the need of me talking to
you about a situation that we made and recarry it out?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
This is tom, what's the need of me talking to
you about a situation we made? I don't even know
what that means. I'm not even I always enjoy when
somebody is trying, Oh oh, I'm talking to the white
folk on TV. I got to use some big words.
There's a there's what's that? Yeah, that's in Deuteronomy? Yeah, exactly?
Speaker 9 (15:10):
The uh, what was.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
What was it Damon Wyans uh or Wyans one of
those guys had a maybe it was Jamie Foxx had
a bit on in Living Color? Do you remember that? Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What we are trying to ascertained is the complexity of
the mountainous uh due toontomy of the uh uh complication.
And it's just it's just trying to throw out words
too in some odd ways sounds smarter. You played again
(15:47):
started over?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
What's the need to be talking to you about a
situation and that we made and we carry it up.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
This is doctor Sheldon Jackson, a senior pastor of Pleasant
Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Most know it as the Dome Church,
right under the freeway where fifty nine and I ten
intersect east of downtown in fifth Ward.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
You ain't noticed the Dome Church is now gone. We
wanted to know who bought it, who benefited.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And why if I could tell you why I'm interested
in talking to you about it.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Honey, and I interested where you interest you? Okay, so
this is open.
Speaker 10 (16:26):
Why didn't we prota interested?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And why you interested in us making a situation. It
reminds me of that character Big Mama, Big Mama, who
was it.
Speaker 10 (16:40):
Are I just a Bible salesman, Schry, Let's go back
and finish.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I'm sorry being Rally's name, pleasing meet you, Sherry.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, Mamma, you didn't tell me you had a man.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I ain't got no man.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
Why she got every man in this town slipped from
all like a bunch of domes.
Speaker 8 (17:03):
I do Do I smell some greens?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Yeah? Come on in, there's plenty for everybody.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh no, no, not then you know you can't eat
no breeze?
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Grease give you gas?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Something wicked.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Last time I have been over fu grees, I had
to rewall paper.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's hear the pastor one more time, Jim.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Talk about the church.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I don't ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
What's the need of me talking to you about a
situation that we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
This is doctor Sheldon.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
It's a situation that we made and we carry it out.
We we we had an involvetation in a transactional UH demonstration.
Speaker 10 (18:00):
Us internalize the flatulation of the matter by transmitting the
effervescence of the Indonesian proximity in order to further segregate
the crux of my venaria infection. If by me retain
(18:21):
my liquids.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Here for one moment, I'd.
Speaker 10 (18:23):
Like to continue the redundance of my quote unquote intestinal
tract see, because to preclude on the issue world domination
would only circumvent, excuse me, circumcised the revelation that reflects
the afrodisiatic symptoms which now perpetrates the jericho's activation.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, here, what's the need of me talking to you
about a situation that we made and recarry it out.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's what the city of Houston has devolved in, a
group of insiders and their friends, all trying to find
ways to take money that is paid in by you
and figure out how to wait to launder that to
(19:21):
get it for themselves. It's you know, A cynical person
might say, well, all that we've talked about is the
delta between the six point seven million dollars paid to
the church by the by the housing authority and then
(19:43):
the eleven point four million dollars that it was repaid.
That's what a cynical. A cynical person would say, Well,
you know, there's four point seven million dollars right there
that the taxpayers paid for. A cynical person might say,
(20:05):
what if all six point seven that was supposedly paid
to the church didn't stay with the church. What if
that property wasn't worth three hundred thousand dollars? What was
that property? Because if it's not being used as a church,
why was it purchased to scrape and rebuild? We already
(20:29):
know that the score by the housing Authority for the
property as to amenability to being a public housing was
a fifty four out of one hundred, which is apparently
quite low. So why was it purchased and why was
it purchased If it was scored low? It was scored
(20:51):
low so nobody would swoop in and buy it, and
then it was purchased for the sole purpose of making
the profit two years later. But a cynical person might say,
what if all that money didn't go to the church.
(21:11):
What if that property that was only worth I don't know,
five hundred thousand dollars a six point seven million dollars
purchase price. Part of that was kicked back to some people.
So the profit, short term profit on this deal was
far more than it looks like on paper. Why I'm
gonna talk.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
To you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
About about a situation that that was made.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I don't hear it. I need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we made and we
carry it out.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I think that's gonna be my standard reply to everything.
I'm just gonna have a cut and paste reply every
time somebody asked me a question, what's the need to
be talking to you about a situation that we made
carried out? Give me that again.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I don't have what's need to be talking to you
about a situation and that we made and we carry
it out.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Hey, were you negotiating your exit from this position while
you were still employed on company time?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Let me talking to you about a situation and that
we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
There is an allegation that you and miss Lewinsky are
known to each other in the biblical sense. Is it's true?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
What I don't have what's need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we made and we
carry it out.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Scott writes, maybe we should also wonder how much and
to whom the contract to clear the property was awarded to.
Let me tell you were on the right track. If
you look at City, Houston, Harris County, Metro, all of these,
(23:22):
and you look at where money is spent from the
law firm that does the bond deal to the mowing contract.
And for some reason it seems like there is always
more corruption for things that are overtly for poor people,
you know, food programs and housing programs and low income
(23:48):
neighborhood stuff. You'll remember under Sylvester Turner there was a
lady who was put in charge of the water department
within public worse and she had no idea what she
was doing. And remember they were sending out water bills
to people and it would be a six seven eight.
(24:11):
It was a fourteen thousand dollars water bill in one case.
And unlike a lot of credit cards, you could float
for a while. But in this case they in this case,
I can't find my glasses, Jim, oh, well, in this case,
(24:32):
they shut off your water. So you're in a bit
of a panic. If you can't you can't find, you can't,
you can't pay your bill right off. You're you're in
a bad way because you can't, you know, while you
negotiate with it. Hey, I normally have an eighty dollars
(24:53):
water bill, and in this month at six thousand dollars,
and I've had two plumbers come out, and there's no league.
There's a problem who knows exactly what happened. They're all
sorts of different answers, but they go straight to the television,
to the TV reporters, and these stories start appearing, and
(25:13):
so then they dig into who the woman is, who's
in charge of it all, And all the while they're
telling people, you know, don't water your yard you we're
short on water, don't do this. Pressure's down. And then
there are water mains that are busted and just gushing
rivers into the roads, just gushing rivers of water into
(25:36):
the roads, while they're telling everybody else don't use your
water because we're short on water and we're low on pressure.
And all the while everybody's thinking, what in the hell
is going on? And then they get the woman. They
finally corner the woman and she starts crying, and she
basically gives this sort of sob story like it's not
(25:59):
my fall, I shouldn't have been in this job, I
don't know what I'm doing. That's reassuring. And then we
find out that her brother, she's given a contract to
her brother. He's going to be the guy that was
going to fix the water mains. And at some point
they show up and they start asking him questions about,
(26:20):
you know, these projects that he got, none of which
have been completed, but he's been paid exorbitant amounts of
money to do so. And it turns out he doesn't
even own a truck. That was what his defense was,
I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even own
a truck. I'm not sure how that would change anything,
but it definitely reflected the fact that he was probably
(26:42):
not out working on water mains. Lord knows what he
was doing. Somewhere across town. Some dude was was ordering
corvasier doubles like a boss during the day, and people
will say, wonder what he does for a living, Wonder
how him, Wonder how him to make money?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I don't have.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
What's the need to be talking to you about a
situation that we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
City of Houston officials up very upset, outraged. It's been
described as are Harris County commissioners, state reps, state senators.
Oh yes, they're all very outraged. Now. No, no, not
over millions of dollars squandered and continually squandered. No, that's
not to worry. They're very upset, not over the fact
(27:33):
that story ran last week of a woman that her
vehicle was destroyed. She drove across a five foot long pothole,
so it was like a crater. I'm not worried about
that either. Crime rate, and I don't worry about all
that taxes, bond rating, none of that. They're very upset,
very upset that they had painted a rainbow in the
(27:59):
crosswalk in Montrose and it has been ordered to be removed.
You can't have political paintings in the middle of the
street on the asphalt. And John Whitmer says, there's probably
a young man in Pasadena this morning, a gay young
man that hasn't come out of the closet, and the
(28:21):
rainbow means something to him. It's not just the Montrose community,
it's our region, it's our state, it's our society. Is
he driving over to Montrose? Is he driving through the
intersection in Montrose? Is he gonna stop and back up
(28:43):
in the intersection over the rainbow crosswalk.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm a queer
as a three dollar bill. My daddy's gonna hate me.
My mother's gonna be so disappointed. She always wanted grandkids.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Oh my god,
I'm just I don't know what to do. They don't
want no homeo for a kid. It ain't mile Oh
wait a second, wait a second? Is that?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Wait a second?
Speaker 8 (29:17):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Is that a Is that a rainbow in the crosswalk?
Speaker 9 (29:31):
Oh my god?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I thought I was going through all this alone, and
now I realize no, no, there's a rainbow in the crosswalk.
Speaker 9 (29:42):
This is my sign I'm going to be ok Wait
are they removing the rainbow? Are they erasing the one
thing that made all of this okay? Why are they
doing this?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
That's hurt. I don't hear. What's the need of me
talking to you about a situation in that we may
Last email before I came in the air reads from
jayhu in Austin, Czar. So somebody walked in my office
right after I emailed you yesterday about Ted Dbiassi, and
I didn't get to listen to the rest of the
segment until I heard the podcast earlier this morning. And
(00:20):
if you weren't listening yesterday morning, that sent me an email,
just a random email. No no, no, no, that that
was from Scott Kutauch. Never mind. But what spurred the
conversation was it my friends got Kutach had sent a
picture of Teddbiassi in a tuxedo with dollar signs on
it and said, uh, jyd Junkyard dog was at was
(00:45):
a groomsman in Ted Dibiassi's wedding. You know, isn't that interesting?
Or whatever else? And then that got us going. So Jay,
who writes, So somebody walked to my office right after
I emailed you about Ted Dibiassi, and I didn't get
to listen to the rest of the segment until I
heard the podcast earlier this morning. I had the chance
encounter with Joseph Bednarski, that's Ivan Putski about ten years
(01:10):
ago when I was working as a property claims adjuster.
I had a roof claim by Joe Bednarski. I showed
up at this unassuming house in South Austin, and I
had no clue who I was going to meet. The
old feller in the satin jacket that I met in
the driveway was in his seventies and maybe five five
(01:31):
hundred and sixty pounds. He had a roof leak and
took me inside to see the damage. We walked through
this converted garage that was covered in dozens and dozens
of framed photos of this hulked up guy posing with
all the big names from wrestling and pop culture of
the seventies and eighties. I stopped to look and he says,
you recognize that guy? And I said yes, I do.
(01:52):
And he said I said, yes I do. That's the
Polish hammer and he says, yeah, that's me. Mind blown.
We talked for over an hour, the sweetest old guy.
He told me that his family fled Poland when he
was just a baby and settled in Smithville. His dad
got a janitorial job or something like that. He played
high school football and got a scholarship to Texas A
(02:14):
and I and then Canadian football, and then he got
into wrestling. So often we missed a chance and never
know who that old guy was, and about how and
about the life well lived. Sorry for the email. Much
love from Jayhu. Yeah, that's so true. That is so true.
(02:38):
It's amazing how there are fascinating people who've done fascinating
things and now they may not have that as their
day job anymore, because we all age, we're not the
person we once were. But that person has the best
(02:58):
stories and the time to tell him. There was a
Live Nation used to be part of the company that
owns our show, which is iHeartMedia, and before that, Clear
Channel and Live Nation was the concert portion of the show.
(03:20):
And there was a man in town whose name was
Alan Becker. And Alan Becker's best friend is like a
second dad to me, Barry Lewis, and Alan Becker's son,
Brian Becker, was the head of Live Nation, the CEO
of the biggest concert company in the world. And Alan
(03:43):
would always try to get his son to meet with
me because Alan took a liking to me and he
wanted his son to be friends with me. And he
would say, call Brian and tell him, and I've told
him and y'all need to go to lunch, y'all need
to be friends. And this would go on, and it
would be awkward because every time I would see Alan,
(04:04):
he would ask me if I had spent any time
with Brian. And finally, at some point Brian gave me
fifteen minutes. I went in his office and do you
need anything? No, he's a check. No, there's no ask
Your dad wanted us to be friends, and I'm happy
to in our office in the same building with him.
Two thousand West Loop. And it just fit with what
I've always said is that folks that were my age
(04:28):
coming up never had time to really invest in other relationships.
Everything was transactional because they're trying to You get an
older guy who's retired, and on the backside, they'll take time,
they'll do things for you. It's amazing how it works.
The Michael Mary Shaw the city council City of Houton,
or the City of Houston under Silvester Turner as its mayor,
(04:51):
was a cesspool of crime. You had this cabal. Sheila
Jackson Lee as the congressman, so she was doing her
best to run the federal side of these things. Sylvester
Turner as the mayor, so he's got the big pot
of money in the city of Houston. And then you
got Rodney Ellis at the county. Of course he put
(05:12):
his person in as county judge and then kick Jack
Cagle out. There is no degree of shame for these people,
nothing to hold them back. Just steal, just corrupt as
all get out. KPRC TV's Amy Davis has done a
(05:33):
wonderful job exposing a lot of the corruption in these
investigative reports she's been doing. The Houston Housing Authority, You'll
remember they had a fellow named David Northern who was
the head of it. So he was a black guy
who appears to have been just a stooge for Rodney
(05:54):
Ellis and Sylvester Turner. And then it turned out that
one of the things that Amy Davis revealed was that
there was this project for all these this public housing
and they were supposed to they were supposed to green
energy thing. They were gonna they were gonna seal these
(06:18):
houses up. They're gonna put air conditioning and seal them
up so they wouldn't leave and then be more energy efficient.
And the guy they hired was some dude from Chicago
who was supposed clothing designer. He'd never done anything like this,
and he gets paid millions of dollars and they pull
up on the scene of one of these projects. He
(06:39):
had supposedly finished their air conditioning units out out in
the yard. He couldn't figure out how to install an
You can't believe this would possibly be true, but it is.
That's the amazing thing. Well. Amy Davis's report finds that
a close friend of mister Northern, who was head of
the Houston Housing Authority, Chris Senegal, bought the Pleasant Grove
(07:01):
Missionary Baptist Church property known as the Dome Church at
fifty nine to ten for six point seven million dollars
in December of twenty twenty. Just over two years later,
Housing Authority had Northern, the head of the Housing Authority,
(07:21):
pays Senegal eleven point four million dollars for a tidy
five point seven million dollar profit for the property that
currently sits vacant with no development plans. Senegal is so
connected that Mayor Sylvester Turner even declared Christopher Senegal empowerment day.
Current HHA President Jamie Bryant is dumbfounded over the deal
(07:44):
by Northern. The story from kprctv's Amy Davis.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I'm trying to figure out why you're so resistant to
talk about the church.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I don't have what's the need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
And we care it at This is doctor Sheldon Jackson,
senior pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Most know
it as the Dome Church, right under the freeway where
fifty nine and I ten intersect east of downtown in
fifth Ward.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
You have noticed the Dome Church is now gone. We
wanted to know who bought it, who benefited and why.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
If I could tell you why, I'm interested in talking
to you about it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
NNE, and I interested where you interesced you. Okay, so
this is open.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Why did we purchase a piece of land when there
was no real plan for it?
Speaker 6 (08:36):
That's a great question, and I, unfortunately I don't have
a I don't have an answer for the.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
Why and whether anybody benefited off it or not.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Jamie Bryant is the new president of the Houston Housing Authority,
hired after the former president resigned under investigation, accused of
orchestrating a shady contract scandal. Too Investigates revealed gave millions
to unqualified contractors who never completed the war were But
before that scandal, there was this.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
I have been working on a project just on the
other side. I purchased this church campus with a small
group of investors.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
That's the voice of Chris Senegal. In one of his
own marketing videos he shared on YouTube, he bills himself
as mister Buy the Block, a developer who buys up
properties in historically black neighborhoods that would otherwise be snapped
up by private investors. When ties in the church's offering
plate were no longer enough to pay the church's mortgage,
(09:29):
Senegal purchased this property in December twenty twenty for six
point seven million dollars. Even before the deal closed, he
published renderings of a brand new apartment complex built around
the church's old stone facade, and he announced he was
partnering with the Houston Housing Authority.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
This is the other big project I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
It's gonna be a multifamily apartment complex three hundred units
in partnership with the Housing Authority.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Social media post revealed Senegal was tight with then HJA
president David Northern and hh board chairman Laurent Snowden, both
before and after the deal, but now two years later,
no one's talking. We have knocked on doors, poured through
public records, called and emailed every person involved in the
sale of the property. Northern now leads the housing authority
(10:14):
in Flint, Michigan. Snowden, who signed the deal, still lives
in Houston. When we stopped by his home, were resorted
to speaking into his ring doorbell. You're in the story,
so I'd like to give you an opportunity. I'd like
to hear what you have to say. Public records show
this new apartment complex Senegal pitched just didn't work. Housing
Authority staff only gave the property fifty four points out
(10:36):
of a possible one hundred for low income housing potential,
no access to good schools, jobs, or grocery stores. But
instead of just walking away, the Housing Authority purchased the
property outright, paying Senegal eleven point four million dollars, nearly
five million more than Senegal paid just two and a
(10:56):
half years earlier. These closing documents reveal three companies, all
owned by Chris Senegal, walked away with three point three
million dollars profit, and after closing, HHA discovered one hundred
and thirty two thousand dollars Senegal owed in back taxes
he never paid, and that same month the city declared
October fifth, Chris Senegal Empowerment Day.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Is very disheartening.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
This single mom of two waited four years for housing assistance.
She believes the millions spent here could have helped thousands
of others.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Maybe open up that weight list to help other families
that have been waiting for in years.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Last December, as Northern was on his way out, Ahha
paid another six hundred and forty thousand dollars to demolish
the church.
Speaker 7 (11:42):
Really, the tragedy in what you just described is that
ultimately the losers here are going to be low income
people who need housing.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Ben Martin works with Texas Housers in Austin, a nonprofit
whose goal is to make sure low income Texans have
access to affordable housing.
Speaker 7 (11:57):
It's really important for the public trust that the housing
Authority is able to articulate where they're going with this
property and what the plan is for it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
ATT President Jamie Bryant tells me he's still figuring out
what to do with this property and ten others purchased
by the last president properties not helping anyone with housing.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I like to go back to that pastor why I'm
want talk to you what I wanta told you about
we we did a deal? You said, what?
Speaker 8 (12:29):
What?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Well, I'm gonna told.
Speaker 7 (12:30):
You about bizarre of talk radio the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
If you look into every single program at Harris County
and at the City of Houston, you would find so
many hundreds of millions of dollars adding up to fraud.
(12:54):
And when you look at the characters, you would find
that there's the same cast of characters that keep moving
from the city to the county, to one of in
the past, one of the federal agencies, to the Houston
Community College, to Metro. It's just it's just a little circle.
(13:15):
And you'll find a city councilman who move over to here,
and and then their staff. Then they're their chief of
staff or there. One of their employees moves over into
this and and they're all in charge of the you know,
their government affairs, director of of Metro or one of
these organizations, and and they're they're all self dealing with
(13:41):
each other, all of them. Millions and millions and millions
and millions of dollars a fraud, and nothing is done
about it. Absolutely nothing is done about it. And it's
a culture. It's what took down Detroit, it's what took
down Baltimore.
Speaker 8 (14:01):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Culture of self dealing that these people have and assist
each other, and then they bring in their little outside
buddies that you'll hear these names that just keep coming
up again and again and again, and it's the same
group of people. But I did enjoy. I thought the
(14:23):
pastor was a woman at first. I don't know if
you did play that clip again. I swear I thought
the pastor was a woman.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I'm trying to figure out why you're so resistant to
talk about the church.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I don't have what's the need of me talking to
you about a situation that we made and recarry it out?
Speaker 1 (14:45):
This is tom, what's the need of me talking to
you about a situation we made? I don't even know
what that means. I'm not even I always enjoy when
somebody is trying, Oh oh, I'm talking to the white
folk on TV. I got to use some big words.
There's a there's what's that? Yeah, that's in Deuteronomy? Yeah, exactly?
Speaker 9 (15:10):
The uh, what was.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
What was it Damon Wyans uh or Wyans one of
those guys had a maybe it was Jamie Foxx had
a bit on in Living Color? Do you remember that? Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
What we are trying to ascertained is the complexity of
the mountainous uh due toontomy of the uh uh complication.
And it's just it's just trying to throw out words
too in some odd ways sounds smarter. You played again
(15:47):
started over?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
What's the need to be talking to you about a
situation and that we made and we carry it up.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
This is doctor Sheldon Jackson, a senior pastor of Pleasant
Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Most know it as the Dome Church,
right under the freeway where fifty nine and I ten
intersect east of downtown in fifth Ward.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
You ain't noticed the Dome Church is now gone. We
wanted to know who bought it, who benefited.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And why if I could tell you why I'm interested
in talking to you about it.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Honey, and I interested where you interest you? Okay, so
this is open.
Speaker 10 (16:26):
Why didn't we prota interested?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And why you interested in us making a situation. It
reminds me of that character Big Mama, Big Mama, who
was it.
Speaker 10 (16:40):
Are I just a Bible salesman, Schry, Let's go back
and finish.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I'm sorry being Rally's name, pleasing meet you, Sherry.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, Mamma, you didn't tell me you had a man.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I ain't got no man.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
Why she got every man in this town slipped from
all like a bunch of domes.
Speaker 8 (17:03):
I do Do I smell some greens?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Yeah? Come on in, there's plenty for everybody.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh no, no, not then you know you can't eat
no breeze?
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Grease give you gas?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Something wicked.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Last time I have been over fu grees, I had
to rewall paper.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's hear the pastor one more time, Jim.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Talk about the church.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I don't ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
What's the need of me talking to you about a
situation that we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
This is doctor Sheldon.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
It's a situation that we made and we carry it out.
We we we had an involvetation in a transactional UH demonstration.
Speaker 10 (18:00):
Us internalize the flatulation of the matter by transmitting the
effervescence of the Indonesian proximity in order to further segregate
the crux of my venaria infection. If by me retain
(18:21):
my liquids.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Here for one moment, I'd.
Speaker 10 (18:23):
Like to continue the redundance of my quote unquote intestinal
tract see, because to preclude on the issue world domination
would only circumvent, excuse me, circumcised the revelation that reflects
the afrodisiatic symptoms which now perpetrates the jericho's activation.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, here, what's the need of me talking to you
about a situation that we made and recarry it out.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's what the city of Houston has devolved in, a
group of insiders and their friends, all trying to find
ways to take money that is paid in by you
and figure out how to wait to launder that to
(19:21):
get it for themselves. It's you know, A cynical person
might say, well, all that we've talked about is the
delta between the six point seven million dollars paid to
the church by the by the housing authority and then
(19:43):
the eleven point four million dollars that it was repaid.
That's what a cynical. A cynical person would say, Well,
you know, there's four point seven million dollars right there
that the taxpayers paid for. A cynical person might say,
(20:05):
what if all six point seven that was supposedly paid
to the church didn't stay with the church. What if
that property wasn't worth three hundred thousand dollars? What was
that property? Because if it's not being used as a church,
why was it purchased to scrape and rebuild? We already
(20:29):
know that the score by the housing Authority for the
property as to amenability to being a public housing was
a fifty four out of one hundred, which is apparently
quite low. So why was it purchased and why was
it purchased If it was scored low? It was scored
(20:51):
low so nobody would swoop in and buy it, and
then it was purchased for the sole purpose of making
the profit two years later. But a cynical person might say,
what if all that money didn't go to the church.
(21:11):
What if that property that was only worth I don't know,
five hundred thousand dollars a six point seven million dollars
purchase price. Part of that was kicked back to some people.
So the profit, short term profit on this deal was
far more than it looks like on paper. Why I'm
gonna talk.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
To you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
About about a situation that that was made.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I don't hear it. I need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we made and we
carry it out.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I think that's gonna be my standard reply to everything.
I'm just gonna have a cut and paste reply every
time somebody asked me a question, what's the need to
be talking to you about a situation that we made
carried out? Give me that again.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I don't have what's need to be talking to you
about a situation and that we made and we carry
it out.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Hey, were you negotiating your exit from this position while
you were still employed on company time?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Let me talking to you about a situation and that
we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
There is an allegation that you and miss Lewinsky are
known to each other in the biblical sense. Is it's true?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
What I don't have what's need to be talking to
you about a situation and that we made and we
carry it out.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Scott writes, maybe we should also wonder how much and
to whom the contract to clear the property was awarded to.
Let me tell you were on the right track. If
you look at City, Houston, Harris County, Metro, all of these,
(23:22):
and you look at where money is spent from the
law firm that does the bond deal to the mowing contract.
And for some reason it seems like there is always
more corruption for things that are overtly for poor people,
you know, food programs and housing programs and low income
(23:48):
neighborhood stuff. You'll remember under Sylvester Turner there was a
lady who was put in charge of the water department
within public worse and she had no idea what she
was doing. And remember they were sending out water bills
to people and it would be a six seven eight.
(24:11):
It was a fourteen thousand dollars water bill in one case.
And unlike a lot of credit cards, you could float
for a while. But in this case they in this case,
I can't find my glasses, Jim, oh, well, in this case,
(24:32):
they shut off your water. So you're in a bit
of a panic. If you can't you can't find, you can't,
you can't pay your bill right off. You're you're in
a bad way because you can't, you know, while you
negotiate with it. Hey, I normally have an eighty dollars
(24:53):
water bill, and in this month at six thousand dollars,
and I've had two plumbers come out, and there's no league.
There's a problem who knows exactly what happened. They're all
sorts of different answers, but they go straight to the television,
to the TV reporters, and these stories start appearing, and
(25:13):
so then they dig into who the woman is, who's
in charge of it all, And all the while they're
telling people, you know, don't water your yard you we're
short on water, don't do this. Pressure's down. And then
there are water mains that are busted and just gushing
rivers into the roads, just gushing rivers of water into
(25:36):
the roads, while they're telling everybody else don't use your
water because we're short on water and we're low on pressure.
And all the while everybody's thinking, what in the hell
is going on? And then they get the woman. They
finally corner the woman and she starts crying, and she
basically gives this sort of sob story like it's not
(25:59):
my fall, I shouldn't have been in this job, I
don't know what I'm doing. That's reassuring. And then we
find out that her brother, she's given a contract to
her brother. He's going to be the guy that was
going to fix the water mains. And at some point
they show up and they start asking him questions about,
(26:20):
you know, these projects that he got, none of which
have been completed, but he's been paid exorbitant amounts of
money to do so. And it turns out he doesn't
even own a truck. That was what his defense was,
I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even own
a truck. I'm not sure how that would change anything,
but it definitely reflected the fact that he was probably
(26:42):
not out working on water mains. Lord knows what he
was doing. Somewhere across town. Some dude was was ordering
corvasier doubles like a boss during the day, and people
will say, wonder what he does for a living, Wonder
how him, Wonder how him to make money?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I don't have.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
What's the need to be talking to you about a
situation that we made and we carry it out.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
City of Houston officials up very upset, outraged. It's been
described as are Harris County commissioners, state reps, state senators.
Oh yes, they're all very outraged. Now. No, no, not
over millions of dollars squandered and continually squandered. No, that's
not to worry. They're very upset, not over the fact
(27:33):
that story ran last week of a woman that her
vehicle was destroyed. She drove across a five foot long pothole,
so it was like a crater. I'm not worried about
that either. Crime rate, and I don't worry about all
that taxes, bond rating, none of that. They're very upset,
very upset that they had painted a rainbow in the
(27:59):
crosswalk in Montrose and it has been ordered to be removed.
You can't have political paintings in the middle of the
street on the asphalt. And John Whitmer says, there's probably
a young man in Pasadena this morning, a gay young
man that hasn't come out of the closet, and the
(28:21):
rainbow means something to him. It's not just the Montrose community,
it's our region, it's our state, it's our society. Is
he driving over to Montrose? Is he driving through the
intersection in Montrose? Is he gonna stop and back up
(28:43):
in the intersection over the rainbow crosswalk.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm a queer
as a three dollar bill. My daddy's gonna hate me.
My mother's gonna be so disappointed. She always wanted grandkids.
Speaker 8 (29:00):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Oh my god,
I'm just I don't know what to do. They don't
want no homeo for a kid. It ain't mile Oh
wait a second, wait a second? Is that?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Wait a second?
Speaker 8 (29:17):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Is that a Is that a rainbow in the crosswalk?
Speaker 9 (29:31):
Oh my god?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I thought I was going through all this alone, and
now I realize no, no, there's a rainbow in the crosswalk.
Speaker 9 (29:42):
This is my sign I'm going to be ok Wait
are they removing the rainbow? Are they erasing the one
thing that made all of this okay? Why are they
doing this?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
That's hurt. I don't hear. What's the need of me
talking to you about a situation in that we may
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