Saturday, June 15, 2019

FOOD FIGHT: Siemens Edition

James Covington fired back at Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba on Facebook Thursday after the city of Jackson called him a "sham" contractor in a lawsuit filed against Siemens: 


This will be the only statement that I will offer concerning the Mayor of the City of Jackson suing black businesses at this time, at the advice of wise legal counsel.

It’s a sad day in our city when we have a Fake African American mayor who clearly does not understand the history and struggles of black businesses in our city. Since his election, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has made a conscious decision to do all that he can to destroy black businesses that it took decades for their owners to build.
First he dismantles the city’s Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) program. A program that black businesses and the first African American mayor of the city of Jackson, Harvey Johnson fought so hard to establish and a program that gave the mayor the legal right to do business with minority businesses at unprecedented levels. Then he selectively prosecuted black businesses, which had no contracts with the city, while refusing to prosecute white businesses and protecting two other black businesses with close ties to his Malcolm X Grassroots Movement organization and his late father.

As it relates to my company, iVision IT Consultants not being qualified, I would willingly place my company’s capabilities and my body of work up against those of Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba any day at high noon at City Hall. While on the one hand he suggests that the billing system was not properly installed, yet the city turns around and hires the same subcontractor that was involved in the project as iVision’s subcontractor. Not once, but twice. In fact, they are working at the city as I speak.

The citizens of Jackson should be troubled by the mayor’s action and they deserve answers to the following questions: Why didn’t you sue any of the white contractors involved in the project? If iVision’s work on the billing system was not up to standards, why did you turn around and hire his subcontractor twice? Why did you dismantle the city’s EBO program? What percentage of the city business has your administration awarded minority businesses during the two years you have been in office?

James Covington, CEO
iVision IT Consultants, LLC
james.covington@me.com


They city of Jackson sued Siemens and several minority-owned subcontractors for damages of $225 million this week.  The complaint labeled iVision and others as "sham" contractors used to help Siemens "manipulate" the city's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.  The city said it paid iVision $11 million to implement a new billing system for water/sewer collections.  The complaint called iVision a "pass-through" company and said "another company ended up performing the work."   Earlier post on lawsuit.

Stay tuned.




19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooo....high noon. He must be serious.

Anonymous said...

Welp, there goes Clueless Chuckway’s snowball chance in hell of getting re-elected. Maybe he’ll go back to practicing law and finally break his miserable career 0-4 losing streak in cases in the 4 years that he practiced before he was elected.

Anonymous said...

Stupid language, but some of the comments warrant consideration. Are there other contractors or subs who should be sued in addition to those named? Is the City currently using a Covington sub, and if so, who is it and on what project? Street committee says daddy Lumumba substituted several of his own friends or whatever into the Siemens deal. Did they all performed at an acceptable level?

Sounds like the litigation will have all sorts of twists and turns. Popcorn?

Anonymous said...

He is suing Siemens, is that a white business?

Anonymous said...

It is understood from the inception that Mr. Covington and the other political brothers of Harvey, Chokwe Sr., and Yarber are not real craftsmen or technically trained to do this work. They simply hire another "subcontractor" to do the real work that they are subcontracted to do themselves under the minority participation. Covington is simply pointing out the fact that the real work, acceptable or not, was performed by the same company that the city will use anyway, so why not sue them. If nothing else, this lawsuit has resulted in a relatively frank discussion of the bullshit shakedown that the whole thing really amounts to. It's object is to create a new class of millionaires, if the work gets done, good, if not, so what? repeat the process. The taxpayers were getting screwed by the racists in the first place so what difference does it make if they get screwed a little more in the name of wealth redistribution. Thanks Covington.

Anonymous said...

This Lumumba guy just doesn't get it does he? Jackson is hopeless. Make your money. Help your buddies make their money while you can, before their is no money left to be made. Back in the day when a cowboy died, they took his boots and everything else. Covinton is simply pointing out, that no white guys should be wearing Jackson's boots! Hey Chokwe, play ball!

Anonymous said...

Socrates Garrett is one of the worst. After the April 2008 tornadoes Melton persuaded a Louisiana businessman whose career was in cleaning up after disasters to come here and clear infrastructure. The guy did it but then the Council awarded the contract to Garrett who only had a few trucks. Garrett subcontracts it to the La. guy. Melton promises to make up the difference so that the La. guy doesn't lose money on the deal. La. guy does the vast majority of the work. Garrett gets paid for it. City reneges on deal with La. guy. It is so disgusting.

What The Hell? said...

1:04 - Please tell us what 'racists' you are referring to in your post. Since everybody involved in this scenario is black, which is/are the racist(s)?

Burke said...

I kept waiting for a substantive defense, as in Covington's company has the requisite skills, etc., but it's all race cards. The low point comes when he says his company can do the job as well as the Mayor can do it! Is the Mayor competing for work with Covington's company?

He says it's the last time he will say anything about his being sued. I hope it's the last time he holds himself out as qualified until he actually is qualified.

Full speed ahead, Mr. Mayor.

Bon Voyage said...

"A Fake African American mayor": that's the code phrase for "he aint Black enough!" The gig is up. Won't be long (oh hell, who am I fooling) before the overwhelming "minority" voting population of The City of Jackson realize that it's one thing to be one race, but a self proclaimed devout Marxist has no place anywhere. Not Jackson, not Mississippi, not anywhere in the U.S. of A. Period. And that's a good thing. Can't they just put him on the plane to Paris for the Airshow with the Airport Board and leave him in Paris?

Anonymous said...


I have to confess, the Mayor may be a lot smarter than I have given him credit for.

Going after scam artists isn't very healthy for a politician, but it looks like he's not pulling any punches. Maybe these are simply political enemies, we'll see. But, there's a lot of homeboys that have been screwing the city and it seems the mayor has given them the finger.

Can he "clean up, the f--k up"? Stay tuned, we'll find out.

Anonymous said...

Well by the time I was ready to post, everyone else hit the highlights:

Mayor, don't you get it? Support black businesses despite anything else.
Covington self-admits he was using a subcontractor to do his work. Pretty much affirms that he couldn't do the work. IVision was incorporated that same year.
Jackson is lost.

But, while the City has rehired the same subcontractors, the question to ask is, did Convington as the lead contractor hinder the subcontractor's ability to do good work? Did he pay on time? Did he make unrealistic requests or not allow certain items to be approved to keep his profits up?

And @2:37 pm, it is racist for blacks to call for only supporting black companies, just as it is racist for white leaders to only steer contracts to white companies. Egyptians (Arabic people of color)call the Sudanese the N-word. See people of color can be racists too. See how that works?

map maker said...

I am just glad that I live over 600 miles from this hell hole.Each day it get deeper and deeper in an mess that can not be fixed. All the current Mayor is trying to do is save himself from more legal problems.

Anonymous said...

So, Mr. Convington, the past history of "black businesses" in Jackson gives you the right to screw the citizens of Jackson in the present? And any black leader of Jackson who calls you out on it is "Fake African American," i.e., not really black? Your post begs the question of what "real black" means to you.

Anonymous said...

This guy got the advice of “wise” legal counsel? And wrote that missive? Outline his arguments. Pathetic from the not black enough start and on through the overlooking the fact that Siemens is hardly a black business. The whole situation is awful.

Anonymous said...

4:39 WTF would somebody living 600 miles away feel obliged to comment on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Dang would you folks please try and give Lumumba a little credit? This can’t be an easy thing for him to do but clearly he is trying to do the right thing. He is probably Jackson’s only hope.

Anonymous said...

@5:43, He has the wrong skin color for that to happen on this site. Try somewhere not so racist if you want to read something besides the usual rantings of the radical right racists.

Anonymous said...

Let’s get things right IVision sucks, but they did what they where paid to do. Get the Minority contract cause the did none of the work. Classless and ignorant. This project was set to fail from the start, and it is getting worse. Seiners will not lose in this. No performance base incentives in the original contract. The billing system, lack of field techs, and blinded leaders in public works is the reason the water project is failing.


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