Jackson Jambalaya

There are actually decent odds that this did, indeed, take two hours for Jackson city workers to do. I'm curious as to whether it was one person taking two hours, or 10 people taking 12 minutes.

You won't often see a politico work as hard as Tony Yarber at undermining their own prospects for re-election.

9:13 AM Tony Yarber will get reelected. People in Jackson love him.
He fighting whitey who is taking away a vote at the airport. Whitey is the cause for the bad roads, crime, water, & poor schools. The mayor is standing up against whitey who is questioning him by charging these outrageous fees. Go Tony! Go!

I wish I could see a breakdown of how much money is supposed to be spent. Then I would like to see how much is spent on DIRECT labor and how much on supplies (Asphalt, concrete etc.)Good old boys system and Madison County accounting.

Rest assured they will fail miserably on keeping the timelines they outlined. The website will be for crap and too much spent on PR. The best PR in infrastructure is dirt turning. Burns McDonnell are the real engineers and they are in Kansas. And wow - Triple Bottom Line - fancy! Based on everything they will get their sticky little fingers into, why do we need a Public Works department? This is just a campaign slush fund for the 4 amigos on the council and the Mayor. Why do we need an oversight engineer to dole out work when we are using tax dollars for a Public Works department that is supposed to do this? Let's see the City has a Public Works department with engineers? Check. GIS? Check. Public Relations staff? Check. Personnel dept? Check. The ability to subcontract? Check. Absolutely a waste of money!

Are you surprised? Remember it is Jackson.

Not sure Yarber can win again 9:35 without the votes of Jackson's whiteys.

Yarber got elected, but has the same staff that's been in place for decades. It's not like Yarber came in and hired thousands of new city workers. These are the same dunderheads who were there for Chokwe, Johnson (one and two), and Melton.

What exactly did Yarber do to change the behavior of all these city employees? Apparently nothing. He put a few new department heads on place, but it's not like they can go around firing everyone - they have to work with what they got. So in this new world of transparency as proposed by Yarber, we instead get the same behaviors we've between seeing for decades.

Is anyone surprised at this?

The water dept. HAD an engineer, but he opened his mouth.

At 9:35...
NE Jackson white votes and money elected Tony Yarbor... you must have no political awareness or hangout out with the bunch of Hoddy toddys at river hills or Jackson cc.

If it was attached to the minutes why would you pay for it in the first place?

Have you overlooked Yarber's designation of Muslim Contribution Month in Jackson? Now THAT is actually NEWSworthy.

One of my buddies who is in law enforcement said "We need a wall built now north of the Ridgeland City Limits and make Jackson and Ridgeland pay for it." Hmmm.....

gotta buy those rocks, bricks, and sticks with money from somewhere

Millions will be spent on professional services before a single shovel of dirt is turned or a pound of asphalt is laid. Trust me.

The sales tax money is going to pay for 'public relations'? I thought this 1% was ONLY for infrastructure! Doesn't the city have a public works division?

OH! I see! This is so that Yarber can skim off some of this public money to pay off his campaign manager from Atlanta. Now it makes sense. Guess that is why this one contract has gotten done while all the contracts for actually doing something (streets, sewers, water, etc.) are still not underway.

Where the hell is the oversight that is supposed to be seeing to the spending of this extra money? Yarber keeps bitching that they are the problem; looks to me like its his incompetence and taking care of his buddies that is the real problem.

What's Butler Snow's total take from state and local governments in MS each year? They're probably subsidized more than any other single company in the entire state.

Not to mention that program management contracts are completely useless and a total waste of money.

Don't normally agree with Pitt but he's right on this. Govt workers, city, county, state & federal, all know they can give the minimum at the slowest pace with the worst attitude and never fear losing their jobs. This cancer grows and swells, never to reduce.

What the hell? A million dollars for so-called "program management"? We already have a public works director that gets paid more than any other city employee - AND - has her own publicly supplied body guard. We have a public works department full of folks who are supposed to be managing the various programs.

Other than paying off the Mayor's buddies and contributors, why the hell are we wasting money on a bunch of so-called engineers (who only exist to be the 'minority partner' of engineers that actually do the work) when we should be putting asphalt in the potholes and replacing the waterlines that continue to break.

This city is headed to see if they can beat Detroit to the bottom. But Yarbor's buddies and his whores will do go along the way.

Without 'Blight' the council would not have much to do?

3:31 - She has a bodyguard? First I have heard of this, but I want it to be true.

Kishia Powell is HOT!

3:31 pm Followed by Chicago.

This contract merely models those contracts Madison had with Rudy. No different.

6:54pm, when she first got here I might have agreed with you. Powell was pulled together and looked really good.

But when she gave the "lead in the water" press conference, with her hair undone and wearing a fleece jacket, I was done. The job has clearly sucked the life out of her.

Not surprised by the chicanery of Mississippi politicos confessing to an embrace of transparency while conveniently avoiding the discussion that they've errected an expense barrier to that same transparency. Also very disappointed by Mayor Yarber's bunker mentality. He could have been different.

11:03am, you said Yarber's term "could have been different." To be honest this is exactly what I expected from him, and why I didn't vote for him.

The job is too big for Yarber. Things got complex, and his response is to "turtle." Retreat into his shell.

Yarber was and is just a good old country boy from Souf Jackson. Ill-exposed, never been anywhere, never seen anything but Jackson. Has no experience to draw on when things get difficult.

Where is Yarber's base of power? Who can he turn to when he needs help?People say that NE Jackson (meaning "white people") got him elected. They're certainly not helping him now. Yarber is on an island, with the waters rising around him. Everyone is abandoning him, and getting ready for the next elections.

Yarber is that individual who "doesn't know enough to know he doesn't know"!

It was take a chance on Yarber or elect Dulumba Jr. which only would have continued the looting of Jackson begun by his father. Shudder to think about the irreparable damage which would have been done with a green Antar heading up the coterie of Kush oddballs and Detroit rejects Chokwe lavished with city employment. "Brother Kali" makes Bernie Sanders look like a right-wing fiscal conservative.

All you lesser Goobers who are dissin' on Yarber need to realize that Chockwe, the younger, stands in waiting. Keep your powder dry!

Won't be Chokwe Jr next election, it will be Priester Jr.

That's what you said last time. Junior is going to be four years older and four years wiser and four years more radicalized. Priester will wind up posing for 1960s era high school year book photos featuring Buddy Holly glasses.