The city of Jackson attacked Waste Management's "empty lawsuit" Thursday in Hinds County Circuit Court. Waste Management sued for an injunction against Jackson after Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued an emergency one-year contract to Richard's Disposal of New Orleans.
The city argues in the motion to dismiss that Waste Management has not suffered an injury since the City Council did not award a contract. No contract means no injury. Jackson cites Mississippi Code section $11-51-75 in support of the motion:
Any person aggrieved by a judgment or decision of the board of supervisors of a county, or the governing authority of a municipality, may appeal the judgment or decision to the circuit court of the county in which the board of supervisors is the governing body or in which the municipality is located. A written notice of appeal to the circuit court must be filed with the circuit clerk within ten (10) days from the date at which session of the board of supervisors or the governing authority of the municipality rendered the judgment or decision. Upon filing, a copy of the notice of appeal must be delivered to the president of the board of supervisors or to the mayor or city clerk of the municipality and, if applicable, to any party who was a petitioner before the board of supervisors or the governing authority of the municipality.
Jackson's garbage contract expired last year. Mayor Lumumba recommended a
Houston company, FCC, for once-a-week service while providing a
96-gallon garbage cart. The City Council twice rejected the contract.
The two branches went to Court and settled as Waste Management agreed to
provide garbage service for another six months.
The Lumumba administration re-issued an RFP for the garbage contract in October 2021 after the Mayor and City Council could not agree on a contract. Waste Management said it scored first for the proposal for twice a week without providing a garbage contract to customers. However, Richard's Disposal of New Orleans offered to provide the same service with 96-gallon garbage carts at a lower price. The Mayor recommended the City Council award the contract to the Crescent City company. The City Council twice rejected the contract after a great deal of contentious debate.
The Mayor declared a state of emergency and issued a one-year contract to Richard's Disposal.
Waste Management sued Jackson and Mayor Lumumba on February 25 and asked the Court to issue an injunction against the city. Waste Management said the Mayor refused to recommend another company after the City Council rejected Richard's Diposal. The company asked the Court to enforce the RFP and cancel the Mayor's declaration of an emergency. The complaint argued no emergency exists and any claimed emergency exists because the Mayor "slow-walked the process and refused to negotiate" with other vendors. Waste Management petitioned the Court to allow the City Council to act for the city and reach an agreement with the company because of "the Mayor's failure to act."
The complaint attacked the legitimacy of the state of emergency declaration. Thus the Mayor posits the lawsuit should be trashed because the City Council has not awarded a contract but the Waste Management petition attacks the execution of the emergency contract with Richard's Disposal.
23 comments:
No one cares
Waste Management didn't 'lose' a contract. It expired. There IS no contract with Waste Management. One was not withdrawn.
Regardless of how we feel about this clown show...Chokwe wins this one.
Break out the crayons for this group of empty suit lawyers
KF:
Well written 'summation', above.
Will both actions be heard together?
Will Dickerson hear both?
When do you expect the hearing (s)?
This trash saga is dirtier than a LSU coaching staff short on talent. Follow the money.
A sensible person must ask “why is the mayor acting so irrational and desperate to award the multi million dollar contract to Richards when WM is doing an outstanding job”. A logical explanation is the mayor has already spent the bribe money.
Dismissal and then stay the proceedings. Children playing adults
It appears that Stokes has accepted Richard's Disposal will begin trash collection on 4/1/22 and is now advocating for local minority owned businesses to be included.
Stokes, "allow legitimate black businesses to do work with the City through Richard’s."
It's getting down to the wire. Baby Chowke is looking over his shoulder for the New Orleans leg breakers to pay him a visit, right?
"Waste Management said it scored first for the proposal for twice a week without providing a garbage contract to customers. However, Richard's Disposal of New Orleans offered to provide the same service with 96-gallon garbage carts at a lower price."
I'm not sure that's right. WM's bid beat the Richard's bid for the existing service, but the Richard's bid barely edged out WM on twice-a-week-with-cart. But I don't think it's the case that Richard's offered to perform the same twice-a-week service for a lower price than WM and throw in free garbage cans boot.
Anyone one notice the mayor's life-style? The million dollar house, the expensive automobiles, his 5th avenue clothes? Kind of hard to do one a $100K salary, just saying!
@ 6:13 AM
They're not challenging anything related to the prior contract. This is essentially a bid protest, except solid waste contracts by statute are done by an RFP process. The mayor most likely can't issue an RFP, issue a contract for the services covered by the RFP under a claimed emergency, and avoid review of the process. That said, there's a lot of discretion under an RFP for determining the best proposal, so they may still have trouble winning.
The minutes from the council meeting give plenty of room for WM to bring action. Hence the reason Martin was screaming at them to go into executive session. Richards may very well begin pickup on April 1, but that won't dismiss the WM suit. Plain and simple, the city (mayor), CHOSE to violate state purchasing laws, the moment he declared an emergency and gave a contract to Richards. Given the actions with the previous RFP, that Richards was given a contract to provide services that mirror the current contract with WM, and that WM already has a local presence to continue providing services, it will be hard to explain the need for an emergency, or how the emergency vendor was chosen. Surely discovery will show that the "emergency contract" was being negotiated prior to the emergency being declared, given how quickly it was executed.
I'm betting the details will be what unravels this ball.
10:19 is a typical troll. I'm not a fan of the Mayor, can't stand the guy, but to call his house a "million dollar" house is pure trolling. It's a nice house, in a nice area, but hardly worth a million. The tax roll value, which is always low, is $419,000. In todays market, his house is worth $650,000, give or take. Once again, another guy/gal who loves to troll on this site and spew out meaningless accusations.
Lumumba's rhetoric to the vast majority of his constituents who live far below the level of his lifestyle, and not behind the protection of a gate with a JPD officer always nearby, is the trolling that should alarm you the most.
It looks to me like Chokwe II has been trying to outsmart the law and the courts to get his way. Maybe there's a financial motivation, or maybe it's just a petty, ego-driven power struggle. Either way, it looks like amateur hour to me.
Stokes has been around the block enough to get his people a piece of it, regardless of which way it goes.
And the citizens of Jackson are dumped on again as more and more reputable businesses like Waste Management write the city's business off as not worth it.
One would definitely think the Feds would have their interest peaked when a politician becomes so adamant about awarding a contract to a particular vendor.
12:07 said: "Lumumba's rhetoric to the vast majority of his constituents who live far below the level of his lifestyle, and not behind the protection of a gate with a JPD officer always nearby, is the trolling that should alarm you the most."
And just why should this be a surprise? The "squad" pushed to de-fund the police yet they hire private cops. Marxist leaders always live much better than the people they "serve."
If I was WM, I'd wash my hands of this forever, stand back and as "Gunny Highway" says, watch the cluster fuk unravel!!!!
Well done jackson!!!!
March on "little Putin". I'd like to see what's on his list for the next thing he is going to FUBAR.
Well...looks like all you bleacher-attorneys figured this one wrong...seein' as how WM has dropped it's lawsuit (which never should have seen the light of day).
10:48am
Maybe do a little more research on those said land rolls and tell us how his house was owned by a bank when he lived in it and then mysteriously he then was the owner of it.
@11:18 - are you saying he had a mortgage on his house. That’s just crazy talk.
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