U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan, III remanded a lawsuit filed by the West Rankin Utility Authority against Jackson back to Rankin County Circuit Court today. West Rankin sued Jackson in April for the return of funds it paid to Jackson for treatment of its wastewater. West Rankin claimed Jackson misspent the funds after it audited how the funds were spent. Jackson tried to remove the lawsuit to federal court.
Jackson argued the dispute was related to a federal consent decree between Jackson and the EPA over the treatment of Jackson's wastewater. Judge Jordan said nice try but no dice as he ruled the two parties were disputing a contract and the dispute had nothing to do with the consent decree. It must go back to state court since there was no federal dispute.
JJ reported in May:
West Rankin argues that the two parties agreed in 2002 that West Rankin would pay Jackson to treat its wastewater. However, West Rankin claims that it is not supposed to pay for
the city's years of sludge mismanagement which directly resulted from the city's failure to repair severe breaks, cracks, and holes in the City's wastewater collection system.West Rankin also argued that at times the influx of storm water casued the amount of wastewater and sludge "delivered to the Savanna Plant to
at times exceed 163 million gallons per day, which greatly exceeds the Plant's average daily treatment capacity which is 46 million gallons of wastewater per day.
West Rankin stated that the holding capacity of the storm cells at Savanna decreased by 70% because of sludge accumulation in the system and the city's failure to address these problems. It says the "continued mismanagement" was the subject of a consent decree between the city and EPA.
The complaint accuses the city of charging some of the costs to implement the consent decree against West Rankin. It argues that West Rankin is responsible for paying for the treatment of its wastewater, not paying for costs associated with Jackson's alleged negligence in maintaining its system.
West Rankin also asks the court to decree that Jackson can not recover any costs associated with the consent decree against West Rankin as its wastewater directly enters into the Savanna plant and avoids the storm cells. Earlier post with copy of complaint.
Here is the audit. Read the last comment in this post. Pretty interesting.
7 comments:
Jackson was swinging for the fence and got lucky with a strike on this one!! Phony Yarber, K. Powell (I forget which derivation of Kishia she goes by), and Aqualaw are in way over their heads....they've got the Guv against them. All there needs to be said at this point is...WHEN'S THE RIBBON CUTTIN'???
This lawsuit is a waste of taxpayer money ! Like Congress, these guys don't seem to know their job is to deal with reality and work together to solve problems not exacerbate them.
When it comes to Jackson there is no working together to solve problems. Jackson can't even work to solve its own problems.
Why has the City of Jackson's legal team not requested a change of venue? This is ridiculous. The City of Jackson needs to get rid of Gail Low(&Eerie) and Monica Joyner. The Legal Department is incompetent and so it the Mayor of Jackson and his cronies. The City Council should request an investigation of Tony Yarber, Jason Goree, Gus McCoy, City Legal, and entire Public Works Department, an JRA. This mess is certainly out of hand and they rubber stamp everything the Mayor does. Are they all in cahoots with this non-sense? Where is the Feds when you need them. Maybe the State Auditor should get involved as well. There is definitely a problem with this picture.
Jackson is going to take a blood bath in Rankin County.
-Concerned Citizen
Over 3 million to rent emergency/temporary pumps, 36,000 per month in management fees to someone with no details as to what is managed, almost 200,000 in automobile leases, to borrow from Key & Peele, "Where do my dookie go?"
Everyone is a stakeholder in this mess, pay attention and demand accoutabilty. If the current crew cannot or will not answer, we find a new plumber.
This is ludicrous. Can Jackson impeach it's Mayor?
State law does not allow a city to impeach it's Mayor. It does not even allow a city to impeach its mayor.
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