Jackson Jambalaya

Who is the company that won? I assume an entity closely connected with Yarber?

The elected officials are so crooked that it is very hard to take seriously anything they say. The same could be said about any company wanting to do business with the city of Jackson.
Any company wishing to do business with Jackson should know about the automatic kick backs and under table payments. A company that realizes this can add the amount needed for these things to their actual bid and does not have to be the lowest bidder.

I hope UCI sues the city - and the taxpayer - did we assent to paying more for services in cases like this?I didn't think so.

Why is having a minority contract so important? We are not under a consent decree. Curious what percentage of the tax base is white.

@12:48 Are you saying there are NO HONEST businesses who work for the City of Jackson? Seriously? That is just not true.

2:01, any business that will give kick backs and money under the table is just as guilty and crooked as those who demand these things. Jackson has a rule about mentoring being one part of the contract. Mentoring is just the most recent way of giving kick backs and under the table pay backs. For a company to get a contract with the city of Jackson they must agree with mentoring and minority hiring. Therefore any company doing business with Jackson is a crooked business.
The simple answer to your question is YES, I am saying there is NO HONEST businesses who work for the city.

I had no idea the mayor is so crooked. He's a slick talker for sure

The mayor made a lot of sense.
Bottom rail on top now master.

Putting the house on the market next Spring. Can't take it anymore. If you stay in Jackson it's either because of your protective bubble or you just can't get out.

How do I sign up to be a mentor, seems like there's some good money to be made.

@4:00.. No, No. You want to be the mentoree! The mentor actually has to do some work. The mentoree just has to "learn" how to do the work and how to cash the hundreds of thousands of dollars of checks.

Granted, you probably have to tithe your earnings as a mentoree, but hey, as long as you can keep your day job and nobody is going to give you a test on what you learned, then sharing in the wealth is ok. As long, of course, and the fibees aren't looking in.

Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me -- I think I'm going to shoot for a sure thing, let me get back to sending this email to Nigeria.

There is another key skill at which the mentee must become proficient.

3:50. good luck.Each day you wait, it will get harder to sell.

The Gary, Indiana of the south, here we come.

Wonder what donner kay would do?

The minority contracting requirement they city has in place is hurting the people it's "designed" to help: tax-paying blacks in the city of jackson. What it really does is (i) drastically increase the cost of work to the city, at the expense of the tax payer (many of whom are lower income minorities) and (ii) only lines the pockets of a few select minorities who have donated, both legally and illegally, to the mayor. It is a total sham, nothing more than a legal kickback scheme, and the new young educated minorities in jackson are beginning to figure it out...now the black man is screwing them...

I say this as a life long resident of Jackson......but Mr. Mayor, and Jackson, how is this "living on a island" / only using Jackson business working out for us? Community is a 2 way street, with your citizens, and surrounding suburbia.

Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm the fact!!

An RFP is a Request for Proposal not a Response for Proposal.

More to the point, this project,which is basically loading,trucking and disposal,i.e.construction related should be subject to standard bid laws and not allowed under "professional services" which is where an RFP is typically used.The City of Jackson has learned how to skirt the public bid laws by using RFP when in reality they should not be allowed to do so-

Finally, anyone that knows anything about RFP's understands that when the RFP is developed, the criteria and weighting/scoring of said criteria is written to support the desired outcome thus the scoring is very subjective.

UCI should seek its day in court- it is unheard of to negotiate with the 2nd lowest bidder to get a price closer to the lowest bidder-oh, unless you are bidding in a third world country!!

Jackson is an island alright; but not the kind people want to visit. Remove any emotional attachment you may have and take a hard look at the streets, the shuttered businesses, the listless folks shuffling around, etc., I always get the sense that something bad is about to happen. Now think about how the city is being run (into the ground), and the panoply of excuses substituting for action, and the incompetence being suffered in the name of "fairness." People come to Jackson only out of necessity; either to earn a paycheck or receive services from businesses who are too entrenched to move. I avoid Jackson at all cost and honestly can't remember the last time I went to Jackson when I wasn't taking care of government business or visiting someone in the hospital.

The city seriously needs to get its shit together or there will be nothing/nobody left.

Guess what Mr Mayor. My address doesn't say Jackson. Therefore it just wouldn't be right to bother spending any of my money there. Invest where you live, indeed...

How is it legal for the city to put out a bid that only allows minorities to bid on it? Have they never been sued by a white owned contractor for not allowing them to bid if the meet all the requirements except being black owned?

It's a good thing that corruption only occurs in Jackson city government. If Jackson didn't provide an adequate smokescreen, we may have to get mad online about suburban shenanigans.

Serious question here...if whites are the minority in Jackson, why aren't white businesses considered for minority contracts?

Because minorities are determined by the macrocosm of the U.S. instead of the microcosm that is the south or Jackson, MS for that matter. In the overall population of this country, blacks are still the minority.
Minority status has absolutely nothing to do with the demographics of Jackson.

1:02, not speaking in favor of these types of procurements, but the idea is to help those minorities that have historically been discriminated against for hundreds of years. Whites, even in Jackson, don't meet that standard. I believe the key phrases are along the lines of "creating a level playing field" by helping eliminate "vestiges of discrimination" such as lack of access to necessary licenses, capital, bonding capacity, etc.

2:21 I am so beyond fricken sick to death of hearing about what happened hundreds of years ago. If the owner of these minority company's is that old then we can talk. That phrase "creating a level playing field" is the most outrageously STUPID STUPID remake. There is no such thing and in NO WAY can be "created". He who is trying has already inherently made it "un-level".
The absolutely ONLY way to have as fair bidding process as possible is to have a silent bid and if the lowest is an unqualified company then go to the next. NOONE should know who the companies are doing the bidding. If it ends up being minority -so be it--if not better luck next time--learn and move on.
The complete lack of any kind of self respect in a job well done (I got this job because I am the best and it was not GIVEN to me) over just give me give me because I can not compete BLOWS MY MIND!!!!!

1:47 It is important because apparently no minorities qualify to work in JXN unless they are given the job. Why are there no minority companies upset that for all practical purposes the mayor is saying YOU are not good enough to do it on you own. Here is your hand out!

3:21 The mere fact that you look at things with that slant totally encapsulates the whole problem and why minorities will never make it on their own worth.

10:44 Yet another example of where is Waldo--HOOD? You know the states legal eagle-the keeper of the law--the ever watchful "i will go after corruption" guru. Oh wait, with were he keeps his head he may not know what is going on around him. Some body go pull his head out so he can look around. I am sure he will put a stop to the corruption IF only he know.

I CAN NOT express how PISSED i am listening to yarbers condescending crap aimed at the "white" lawyer. I am perfectly ok if yarber wants to continue to spout that crap; however, what is good for the goose.... Whites should be able to say the same things about their "whiteness". Let a white contractor get up and say, I do not feel like working over in west jxn because the blacks in that area may steal my equipment off the truck or I just do not want to hire a black dude to work for me or I do not want any more blacks in my area (as stokes said about whites being annexed into his district).
HOW many riots and looting and building would be burned???

Listening to yarber has REALLY REALLY ticked me off.

The mayor is simply stating his opinion and the opinion of the citizens of Jackson. Their opinion is a black owned company cannot compete against a white owned company. I am sure many people not living in Jackson agree with him.

Come to think of it, the original Jackson 5 was from Gary, Indiana.