Jackson Jambalaya

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

These pages of "plans" are mostly surveys and recitations of problems with rough estimates of some costs associated. An authentic PLAN projects costs of materials and of contractors, referenced to actual bids or known historic estimates, actions required to implement, time sequences and phasing of the Work, recommendations by professional engineers and an accounting of City water related billing and revenue.

This mayor, who just wants to intercept a gravy train of uncontrolled largesse, must have hoped his oral flatulence, put in print, would sell Bennie T and the State and obfuscate his ineptitude.

Can't be Real

I spent as much time reading this “plan” as taken to prepare it. Looks like a Power Point slide show or desk side brief titled “How I F’d up the Water System; Now, Give Me a $BILLION”

Plans don't mean anything if they aren't put into action. And with Chokwe, we know that atleast the recruitment plan wasn't being followed.

Paid for by an indulgent Uncle Sam, right?

I would appreciate knowing more about Jackson not paying its vendors for rental water equipment, perhaps for as long as two years, which slimes Jackson's credit and reputation.

Some current vendors and experts, now helping the State for water plant fix, said they wouldn't work for Jackson for fear of not getting paid.

Jackson also needs to get beyond garbage fiasco, currently delayed by the mayor who is appealing his veto fairy tale to MS Supreme Court.

More Shuck ‘n’ Jive from the minstrel charlatan.

Marlin King (former Public Works Director and party to this report) SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED FOR INCOMPETENCE.

Not "reassigned", where he will presumably continue to focus on collecting a check in lieu of adding any discernible value.

The city desperately needs to be restructured in terms of staffing and compensation. There are way too many no-show jobs, brother-in-law jobs, assistant-to-the-assistant jobs... many of whom drive city-provided vehicles. The cost of non-value-added jobs is ASTRONOMICAL.

Meanwhile, the workers who hold this thing together (police, detectives, teachers, WATER PLANT OPERATORS...) are severely understaffed, underpaid, under-supported, and generally neglected if not abused. It's a wonder there are any left.

But no one has the political courage to right-size city government and reallocate resources where they actually add value. No, not when it's so easy to simply scream excuses of "racism!" while passing the tab to the poverty-stricken minority tax payers and lie about what's really happening.

US Water Alliance. Jacobs. Sustainability!!! Diversity!!! Inclusion!!!

We’re saved now!!! I’m so relieved!!!

I’d feel better if that that engineers looking at the plant knew what they were looking at!!!

What’s with the mayor’s 1989 plant date??? Trying to add another decade to his talking points?

Kingfish is right again!!! 1992 or 1993 is start of plant operation. Big water line to west and down 220 wasn’t finished till 1992 at least.

This isn’t a cohesive or actionable plan…it’s a document dump of 2+ year old items and correspondence, including the EPA Order. Stack all the papers together and ask for money? No one can be this incompetent. However, they can be this corrupt!

Yep, this is a bunch of shit thrown together in response to an open records request but nothing resembling a coherent plan to do anything about the unprecedented amount of federal $$$ available at this very moment

These so called “ plans” tell the story. People who think these constitute a “plan” are accustomed to underperformance (always someone or some unforeseen occurrence’s fault) and mediocrity. This looks more like a slide presentation for a gov 101 class. It’s sad to see them offer this up as proof. It proves they lack competencies, skill sets, and experience to plan and execute anything. It’s really pathetic. Did the “plan” for the zoo look like this by chance?

Wonder if the great planner Harvey J helped him on this...then went for a beer at a bar at the Farish Street entertainment district???

Still odd to me. Parts of Fewell is 100+ years old and Curtis fails!!!

NASA could have prepared a 32,000 page report compete with glossy photos and estimates from 7 CPA firms and the lions share of folks here would say:

“That’s a shitty plan….wayyyy to much detail….who is gonna do all that hard work?”

Miserable lot of you

The mayor’s “plan” is why Tate will never give the Mayor the funds to fix the mess

The summary of his plan: give us a billion or two. My sister is now certified to run the renovation

This is a "cut and paste" dream sheet hoping for the billion dollar federal lottery. It reads like a high school term paper.

Forwarding to Anna Wolfe
She will do her home work and report it

As a reminder, here is a look at what other spends Lumumba wants to make with ARPA funding including $4,000,000 more for Farish Street.

He's simply not serious about addressing the city's infrastructure problems.

How’s that ‘Free The Land!’ Plan working for ya Mayor? Appears you have No Shame, only Self Serving interests at heart. You loudly proclaim all the ‘Self Determination’ garbage on your Republic of New Afrika website, yet the Results under Your Leadership tell quite a different tale. Water dysfunctional? Check. Sewer dysfunctional? Check. Garbage pick up dysfunctional? Check. Streets with potholes? Check. Murder Capital 2021? Check. Everyone Else’s Fault? Check. Failure to pay Contracters? Check. Can’t Manage City Finances? Check. Run Businesses out? Check.

I’d say this Mayor has Managed quite well….to turn the Capital City into a 3rd World Backwater and Blame Game his way, while preying on his own people; Idi Amin school of a Shirt Shoe.

As much as the clowns on this page love to bash PERS, we don't hear a word about all of the incompetents in this water scenario being in the PERS system, just biding their time - Including the incompetent one who was just reassigned.

And just like Carey Wright, they'll jump ship as soon as they are fully vested. I picture her, like Nixon, standing at the door of an aeroplane, arms extended, peace signs waiving, exclaiming, "My job here was did!"

It’s amazing how stupid the people are that are running the bold new city…

Why didn't the little local jackass get the CMPDD to assist with providing "a Plan" for the water system??? Then at least on its surface the plan might garner a little traction with the State leadership. By the way where has the CMPDD been with assisting the City of Jackson? How many grants have the CMPDD successfully administered? They are always about "timely start, timely completion" you know. wink wink

Mississippi basically is just a third world country tucked inside the United States.

9:58, you lost me at NASA. You are right, we'd say the same thing. Have you kept up??

Willful neglect and dereliction of duty all the way to system collapse is......SABOTAGE!

In other news, ANOTHER 2 billion dollars was just approved to be sent to Ukraine

I’m just looking forward to drinking dignity water.
$200,000 to redo the restrooms at ob Curtis?

Thank-you @ 10:57. When you look at one line item ("Water/Sewer Fund Balancing") you see in bold print how incompetent this mayor and administration are. What should be a source of revenue for the city (water) is a money loser. Because he and his administration cannot even get the bills out. He would be fired from any company in the world for that performance alone.

The saddest part is that Chokwe and his braintrust are so stupid that they probably think that releasing this was a win.

Actually, the saddest part is that 80% of the electorate responsible for voting this incompetent jackass will accept his "plans" as the only necessary counterpoint narrative to establish his great leadership. He knows his uneducated audience very well.

The publisher of the Northside Sun Wyatt Emmerich ripped Lumumba apart in his newspaper. Page 4 A Sept. 8,2022 The title "Resign Lumumba!".
The mayor has failed on three points Water, Garbage, & Crime.

This crisis has cost the people of Jackson a million dollars per day.
The easiest solution to this whole mess would have been for the people of Jackson to have elected a competent leader instead of a scion of sound bites & political blather!

8:31 times 1 million

That is the problem with almost every industry and while we fight about skin color or gender the problem is Non Value Adding Employees draining budgets while the Value Adding Employees get fed up, over worked and leave.

Its really that simple in most all cases like this.

“The saddest part is that Chokwe and his braintrust probably think that releasing this was a win.”, why yes, yes they do.

There are voices in the background saying, see we told the world we had a plan.

@8:10 AM Let me break that down for you.

Materials: $15,000
Labor: $20,000
Profit: $100,000
Palm grease: $65,000

No, she won't.

@ 5:27 - "And just like Carey Wright, they'll jump ship as soon as they are fully vested."

Nope. Being "fully vested" doesn't mean you can draw a retirement check. It currently takes 8 years to be vested, and 30 years (or age 60 and vested) to be eligible to draw benefits.

@8:58 - Thank you very much. It appears we do have a plan so let’s move forward. Come on dignity water.

It is amazing that they are using the Capitol St. photo on their report. Capitol St. has to be the worst design in the history of street designs. It had a water leak shortly after opening. As long as the city hires the same 2 or 3 firms for everything, they will continue to get bent over and piss poor drawn-out results.

Sure, this is a plan, yet, what was needed two years ago was an action plan with the steps and timelines to fix the plant. If you knew 2 years ago you needed new pumps, what is the delay in purchasing? I think Lumumba purposefully let this crisis fester for two reasons. One, for the State or Feds to have to step in to pay for the repairs so the people can keep getting free water. Two, to create a racist trope to help drum up the masses and whip the media into a fury since that is the only thing he and his democratic helpers are good at.

One day, maybe, they will learn when you point a finger, 3 are pointing back at you.

We have been working with the mayor for a year on the Jackson Animal Shelter and it has been a nightmare. He thinks having all of the dogs euthanized is how you handle lost and homeless dogs. That's exactly what he's now doing and it is very sad.

What has the City of Jackson done with their ARPA funds?????

Dignity water in America's most radical city run by a racist administration. What could go wrong?

Chowke is going to give credit to the 8th grader who put that cut-and-paste plan together, right?

What has the City of Jackson done with their ARPA funds?????

Answer here.

What does CMPDD mean

Central Mississippi Planning and Development District

Convenient that they stuck the page with "other observations" (that includes summary statements around the plant suffering from lack of maintenance) in the back of the data dump (pg. 106/114) when the rest of that report begins on pg. 2...

Many of these alleged "plans" refer to needing to create a plan. Ex. in the Strategic Capital Infrastructure Improvement Plan (pg. 56) "Task 22 - Submit a Plan for all of the Membrane Trains. Plan shall include a status for each membrane train and its components, a listing of all items that are in need of repair/replacement, the plan for addressing these..." Did the COJ provide any of these "sub-plans"?

The letter from AJA on pg. 52 references a Volume 2 of the Strategic Capital Infrastructure Improvement Plan which they noted includes the data, research and cost estimates related to the specific projects. I did not see this included in the information provided. Is there a reason it would not be subject to the records request?

I would be interested to compare the cost estimates in "Volume 2" to those included in the presentation on pg. 85, as the total for the water treatment priorities listed is only $36.2 million (for OB Curtis + Fewell) and the total only gets close to $500 million if you include the water distribution system (~$35M) wastewater treatment/sewer priorities, bridge replacement, drainage priorities, and road resurfacing. Just curious what plan the mayor can point to that totals the $1-2 billion he keeps making reference to.

10:19 I’m not surprised that he would do that. I can only imagine how the zoo animals are faring. The mayor doesn’t even care about his own constituents.

Just curious. Did any media post the plans?

@Kingfish this is why independent media is so important. Thank you for posting the plans.

Plan was not buried.

The city provided 6 different documents. I combined them all together and gave you a table of contents to keep it simple.