If Jackson is going to beg the state for money, perhaps it should first bill the state for money. The city of Jackson has not billed the Veterans Home in west Jackson in 2021. JJ reported on March 17:
Jackson did not bill the State Veterans Home on Lindbergh Street for water and services for four years. Four years. Let that sink into your head for a moment. The Mississippi VA can pay its water bills but it must have a water bill before it can um, pay the bill.
Jackson received a grand total of eight payments in 2015 and four payments in 2016. Jackson did not bill the Veterans Home from December 2016 to December 2020. The facility has not received a bill in 2021....
The Mississippi VA's accountant said water bills are paid within eight days of receipt of the invoice. He said he asked Jackson more than once why it was not issuing a regular bill. A city employee said the bill is "stranded" in the system. Translation: the bill is just floating around somewhere in byteland playing Tron. The current "stranded" bill will cover half of December, January, and February. State law bars the agency from making a payment without an invoice.
JJ submitted a public records request to Mississippi Veterans Affairs for all water/sewer invoices received from the city of Jackson in 2021. The Mississippi VA replied:
Between January 1, 2021 and the date of this letter (June 16, 2021), MSVA has not received water/sewer bills from the City of Jackson for the Mississippi Veterans Home at Jackson located at 4607 Lindbergh Dr., Jackson, MS.Jackson's water/sewer system operated at a loss of $17 million in 2019.
Kingfish note: How many years has Jackson been fixing its billing system? Harvey stuck Jackson with this disaster and Jonathan Lee warned any and all who would listen. But never fear, Marshand is here. If Jackson doesn't bill, it can't collect. If it can't collect, it can't make money.
35 comments:
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pogo
No one in Jackson seems to recognize basic business principles of accounts receivable, and accounts payable.
And where the hell is Stacey Pickering? Isn't he in charge now?
At this point, any less incompetence would be disappointing.
It’s so gratifying to be so right about the idiots that Jackson residents have put in power the last 20 years.
Let it crumble. It fail. Jackson has zero redeeming values. Bye bye!
Has anyone attempted to put a dollar value on the revenues lost due to billing malfunction, or straight-piping, or failure to institute collection proceedings, or water line leaks, or pump failure, or ....
About two years ago one of the investors in the Westin Hotel downtown told me they hadn't received a water bill since they opened. I wonder if they ever got one? If I was owed that much money from a client ready, willing and able to pay, I believe I would send someone down there with a clipboard and read the meter. Hell, even the guy mopping the floors could do that. "Hey Joe, run down to the Westin and then the Vet Home and copy down six digits on this clip board and bring it back to me. I'll buy you lunch on the way back".
Stranded in the system? **Sigh** Write the damn thing out by hand and hand deliver it.
This is no doubt only one piece of the puzzle. No doubt there are other state agencies and companies not receiving water bills either.
Suicide. That is an apt description.
Somehow, somewhere, some way, this is all caused by racism. Institutional and otherwise.
This is part of Lumumba's "everything is free" plan.
Water free.
Police free.
Accountability free.
I'm waiting for Crime free.
What the hell does Stacey have to do with it?
It was a boondoggle in the first place, but there are people out there who can manage the problems. The mayor and his underlings will not hire them. It's that simple. Believe it or not, it's not just about race. Black or white, competence and management skill is not sought after even though it is absolutely necessary. Millions of dollars have been lost simply because the people given the jobs of handling the accounts would rather ignore procedure they haven't mastered than to reveal their shortcomings or ask for help. In the meantime, they remain docile and more importantly, cheap. The sad part is that when they finally HAVE TO employ the expertise to fix the mess it will cost twice as much.
I live in Northeast Jackson and haven't received a water bill since June of 2019. However, I have been mailing a check (my own estimate which is higher than the old monthly amounts) to the P. O. Box in Memphis, Tennessee. I guess I am grateful that the City found someone in Memphis with those rare and advanced skills of opening an envelope. Can you imagine four more years of this?
Which racism is causing this? Environmental or institutionalized???
at 6:20 AM
What does Pickering have to do with it? He isn’t in charge of Jackson.
An agency can’t expend money for services without an invoice. Learn about accounts payable and GAP
It is hard for me to believe this is real life.
Utterly shocking that there are so many people willing to tolerate such sub-par living conditions and leadership.
(My sincere condolences to the ones who cannot afford to leave.)
at 6:20 AM
What does Pickering have to do with it? He isn’t in charge of Jackson.
An agency can’t expend money for services without an invoice. Learn about accounts payable and GAP
Don't worry, the minute his agency gets a bill from the City of Jackson, they'll be in the works to build a new facility in Rankin or Madison County.
The city of Jackson has been billing me based average use over the past year, but they have not read the meter in many months. The building is not in use so no water is being used. I have requested a meter read several times, but they have not done so. I quit paying the bill several months ago and will not pay until they read the meter. I have never seen so much incompetence in an agency before.
Maybe the mayor is not aware of the problem. Is it possible he doesn’t follow city council meetings, read newspapers, watch tv, listen to the radio, talk with friends and “advisors”,listen to his “advisors”,check his mail (I assume he is suppose to get a bill on his real property)? I would love to see a record of his personal water bill payment history.
After my mom passed, she started receiving $150 per month water bills. NO one was at her house, but Jackson water said she was using that much per month. It took forever to have the water cut off. I paid the final bill just to get the city to leave me alone.
I don't know the answer, but seems like no one running Jackson does either. And they don't care. It is sad. I have fond memories of Jackson when I was younger. Now I hate to step across that line.
"I have never seen so much incompetence in an agency before." Why are you picking on one group? The whole damn town from Top down is incompetence.
I would love to see the results of any audit of public works and the water department for Jackson. Do they have any accountants?
Also, the City of Jackson's website appears to be down.
There are these crazy things downtown called parking meters. Did you know that they are designed to take coins ? Coins that are supposed to be used to pay for city things ! Strange thing is many do not work, many are pulled from the ground and many sit full with no one to empty them ! What the ..............I know , right ?
Your mom may have passed, rest her soul, but the sewer and garbage services were still provided even if you didn't use any water.
The culture that has run the city for the last 20 years doesn't care about any of this. Collection of water fees, making parking meters work, making efforts to curtail exploding crime......those are simply not issues of concern, because the culture about which I speak places no value on an orderly society. There are AMPLE examples that bear out that position in this state, country, and internationally.
I hope no one expects this will get better. It only gets worse from here.
at the tune of $150 per month empty when it was $55 while she was in the house?
You might possibly, hypothetically, theoretically, or actually have a point.
I guess I didn’t notice until today after reading this, but 2 of my nice rental props in N.E. Jackson haven’t received a bill since 2017.
The only hope for Jackson is a state takeover orchestrated by a team including the Speaker, Lt.Gov, Auditor, and a majority of the City Council.
"Utterly shocking that there are so many people willing to tolerate such sub-par living conditions and leadership."
This would assume people are logical which is quite the assumption. All these dumba$$ voters see is that Chokwe hits all their liberal talking points in press conferences: racism, poverty, anti-police, orange man bad, masks saved us all, etc, etc. As long as Chokwe keeps hitting up the talking points, he'll keep being re-elected as results do not matter to those brainwashed by narratives.
Chokwe hiding the EPA order didn't even move the dial- shameful for people who supposedly care about the poor.
@10:47a- You are preaching the truth!! The people running these departments are beyond incompetent and have been for years. These incompetent "leaders" hire even more incompetent people and the cancer grows. The "it's not my problem/fault" culture in Jackson has brought us to where we are today. Couple that with the lack of common courtesy and Jackson presents itself as a real gem.
I don't know how the mayor speaks with a straight face. All I can figure is that he is not a visual observer, because it's genuinely shocking to me that he cannot see the damage he's caused/causing. How does a seemingly intelligent person become this indoctrinated and backwards? How does he not see his failures in policies, infrastructure, and law enforcement and how those things have affected tax revenue, crime, insurance rates, and growth in the city. I mean, it should be a BLINDING red flag if you have to hide your crime statistics and official government docs because they don't support your narrative.
The only hope left is that he will realize the bullshit he spews doesn't match his physical surroundings, because, as we have already seen, the majority of voters in Jackson are too ignorant to stand for change that will actually benefit their quality of life.
@That'sMisterDeplorableToYou- I'm hoping your statement about racism was sarcasm. The only racism that could potentially be involved is self-inflicted racism, which could be better described, as you stated, as suicide.
When voters cannot differentiate between empty political promises and the facts of the lives they are living, it leads to emotional voting. How could any single voter in Jackson still have believed a word the mayor said? If a person is incapable of observing their surroundings and processing reality, their incompetence is not caused by racism. It is caused by either stupidity, ignorance, or self-destruction/suicide.
I completely agree with you about creating and hand delivering water bills! How can someone be in charge of that department and continue to make excuses for poor, ineffective performance? How can that department head even attend a budget meeting and not get eaten alive?? Do people really sit around and accept lazy excuses from a department that is essentially costing the city millions?? I could not, and would not, ever perform my job at that level of laziness or ignorance. I guess it's just a different type of work ethic that I'll never understand.
To all of you people who keep saying that the State needs to take over Jxn: Why in the name of all that is holy would they WANT to? I highly doubt there is any law that allows it anyway.
If you are in jxn and paying your water bill, you are the sucker. People talk about no benefit of living in jxn, and the benefit is right in front of them!
I think 12:57 makes some excellent points. I wonder about the people who voted twice for Lumumba as much as I marvel at those who voted for Trump a second time. The only way either of those groups of voters make any sense to me is if they voted out of fear of what the other guy might do if he was elected.
Maybe they gave the checks to Bob Miller, or Keisha?
Kingfish: That was cute, but, WHERE'S Tron?
Post a Comment