As expected, Waste Management filed a motion to intervene in Lumumba v. Jackson City Council today in Hinds County Chancery Court as it tries to open a second front against Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
Jackson's garbage contract with Waste Management expired last year. The company provided garbage collection to Jackson for 30 years. Mayor Lumumba recommended a
Houston company, FCC, for once-a-week service while providing a mandatory
96-gallon garbage cart to customers. The City Council twice rejected the contract.
The two branches of Jackson government went to court but 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. Waste Management said it scored first for the proposal for twice a week without providing a garbage cart 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.
Mayor Lumumba declared a state of emergency and issued a one-year contract to Richard's Disposal that would begin on April 1.
Waste Management sued Jackson and Mayor Lumumba on February 25 in Hinds County Circuit 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 City Attorney called the petition an "empty lawsuit."
Meanwhile, the Jackson City Council rejected the Mayor's emergency order awarding a contract to Richard's Disposal and instead awarded it to Waste Management. Thus, there are two "competing" emergency awards. The Mayor awarded the emergency contract to Richard's Disposal while the City Council awarded it to Waste Management. Mayor Lumumba sued the Jackson City Council in Hinds County Chancery Court last week to break the logjam. The Mayor argues the City Council can not award contracts unilaterally but can only approve or reject the Mayor's choice of a vendor. Enter Waste Management.
Waste Management claimed it has an interest in the case since the emergency order deprives the company of providing garbage service to Jackson. The company accuses the Mayor of falsely declaring an emergency to avoid the RFP process. Waste Management argued:
While it is traditionally true that the mayor has the right to recommend contract providers and the Council approves those, in a case like this for the mayor has failed to follow the RFP process and created an "Emergency" of his own making the Mayor cannot use an "Emergency", cannot use as emergency powers to circumvent the RFP process. Declaration of an "Emergency" which does not comply with the definition of Emergency, is not a talisman that gives the Mayor unlimited power. Richard's was rejected for a second time on February 1, 2022 - eight weeks before expiration of the current contract. Waste Management has offered to extend the current contract until April 30 - this would have allowed ten weeks to complete the RFP process and complete a contract with Waste Management which was the highest rated bidder for the service now offered by Richard's for one-year (twice a week-no carts). See Exhibits C and D to the Motion for Declaratory Judgment.
In a case such as this, the City Council may act without the mayor's approval or recommendation because the Mayor has completely abdicated his responsibility to act.
The company asked the Chancellor to allow it to intervene in the case and declare the City Council has the power to issue a one-year emergency contract to Waste Management while ruling the Mayor's emergency declaration is null and void.
The case is assigned to Special Judge Jess Dickinson.
Kingfish note: It is a safe bet the Mayor will oppose intervention.
22 comments:
While Lumumba strains to feather nests.
Projection @ rate = 143 YE Murders in Jackson, MS.
WORST Mayor in history of Jackson.
Hilarious how some of Lumumba supporters thought WM actually droppedcase bc they thought he won. Please Lumumba is about to take it in the shorts. No one that hangs out with Chokwe is worth there weight in salt as a lawyer. The guy has the worst representation and it’s comical.
Waste management is 100% correct that one cannot create the emergency in order to circumvent the RFP process. This sort of thing is rampant in state government. The Auditor should appoint a team to systematically audit MAGIC for emergency contracts. They would find numerous state agency’s that are awarding the agency head’s friends contracts after declaring an emergency of the agency’s own making. Such as permitting negotiations to break down weeks before the expiration of the current contract and saying “whoops, well I guess we’ll do an emergency k
Zzzzzz...
Waste Management most certainly doesn’t need financial support for legal fees ….but I’ll gladly reappropriate my 10% tithe for the cause in this matter…God is oo our side!
If I was Judge Dickinson, I would rule in favor of Waste Management. Then I would bitch-slap Chowke, who desperately needs it.
Would be a good segue into the apparently inevitable knee-capping Chowke is frantically trying to avoid.
Damn you WM!!! I want to watch the trash pile up in front of KF’s house! Why can’t you just give up?
This was a good decision by WM. While it is not a given that it will be permitted to intervene, it is likely that it will be allowed to do so seeing as how the issues in its suit in circuit court are substantially the same as the one in chancery court. Contrary to Lumumba's statement, WM does have standing to contest this issuance of an emergency order because Lumumba has tried to use that in order to avoid the consequence of the city council's voting down the Richard's contract. WM would have been the contractor. This decision to dismiss without prejudice the suit in circuit court is a good one for at least three reasons. First, it avoids the circus of having two suits about the same thing running at the same time in different courts. That alone would have caused a number of problems, with the possibility of judges reaching different results. It is a good thing because the chancery court suit will not be before a "local" judge, and especially not the the circuit court judge. Since all of the chancellors recused themselves, the possibility exists now to have an actually unbiased judge, or at least one who can't be "gotten to". And don't think for one moment that Lumumba's people would not have tried to get to a judge they could influence. It is a good thing because the circuit court judge to whom the circuit court case was assigned is not the brightest bulb in the house. I expect the mayor's attorneys are going to fight hard to prevent this intervention. However, from what I have seen of them, they are mostly trained in theatrics than law. If the time ever comes when this case settles down to the actual legal issues, I don't think they will fare well. It is one thing to play for the television cameras, create scenes in city council meetings, but that kind of thing usually backfires on you in a court proceeding where you have to actually have to present substantive arguments. Having stayed up with a baby all night is not such an argument.
@8:53 PM
I can’t stand no internet gangster. Put down the candy and let the little boy go.
Hm. Who do you think will read this manifesto? Not I. @10:00 PM
@10pm:
Good comment. Hysteria by theatrical women might sway some juries, probably not this judge.
Riddance of this self glorifying brat of a mayor is necessary to redeem Jackson, perhaps this episode will commence the public shaming he deserves.
Ideologues are unmoved by 'public shaming'.
@11:16
I did, and found it to be a sound, unbiased and intelligent analysis.
Understand when someone is fascinated with Dick and Jane books, and See Sally Run stories, reading "manifestos" can be tricky at times. Maybe move up to Hardy Boys before you start trying to intercede in intelligent analysises.
@9 hours 53 minutes
“Ideologies.”
Say it with me...
“Ideologies.”
“IDEOLOGIES.”
Louder.
I saw baby chowke at a Dollar General store buying more crying towels and having a major meltdown, like a toddler shopping with mom.
My opinion: The mayor's fragile ego insists on being the smartest person in the room, which may be OK if he were actually as smart as he thinks he is. As it stands, it just guarantees mediocre representation.
@10:17
a rigid adherent to an ideology and 9:53 uses the word correctly. Lamumba is an ideologue of a marxist apartheid ideology who neglects his duties to be a responsible leader because managing others to effect positive results is hard work, whereas acting the brat and squealing for handouts and attention is fun for him, as he play-acts imperious ruler of Jackson.
@10:57
ideologue
[ˈīdēəˌlôɡ, ˈidēəˌlôɡ]
NOUN
ideologues (plural noun)
an adherent of an ideology, especially one who is uncompromising and dogmatic.
"he doesn't consider himself a political ideologue, preferring to arrive at conclusions pragmatically"
@11:51 AM - I fixed it for you.
"My opinion: The mayor's fragile ego insists on being the smartest person in the room, which may be OK if he were actually as smart as he thinks he is. As it stands, it just guarantees mediocre representation, right?"
10:17...Listen up! Ideologies are things. Idealogues are people. Write it on the board 100 times. Then stay after school to dust erasers.
Ideologies, as things, can't be moved, but they can be adopted, held or changed. Ideologues, being people, can be move or not moved, as in having their opinion or standing or ideology shifted....or not.
@6:03 PM
“Stay after school.”
They didn’t have a letter high enough to grade me in school.
"They didn’t have a letter high enough to grade me in school."
More than a few scholars have hollered that as they stepped off the bus at Parchman.
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