Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Trash Talk: Mayor Fires Back at City Council

The Mayor and City Council sparred over the expiring garbage contract yesterday although they didn't do it face to face.  Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued the following statement yesterday:  



The Mayor’s Office of the City of Jackson stands by its decision to provide Jackson residents with quality garbage collection service at a fraction of the cost of other vendors. 
 
We continue to follow the conclusions of the evaluation committee which determined that Richard’s scored the highest for twice a week pickup with a cart (trash bin). In fact, Richard’s is the most affordable bidder on ANY of the garbage collection options presented to the council. 

I have no personal benefit from the selection of Richard’s as the top vendor in the evaluation process. I remind residents that FCC International was also voted down by this council despite being selected as the top-rated vendor.  We’ve reached out to the council in an effort to move this process forward. Our letter to the Council President went unanswered.

The bottom line is that we intend to support what is in the best interest of our residents. Richard’s continues to prove it can do the job in trying circumstances. They beat out the other two vendors in the evaluation process. The numbers don’t lie.”


The Lumumba administration posted the following message on the city Facebook page: 



However, the Mayor conveniently left out the scores of the bids, thus ignoring his own process. There is a reason bids are scored.  Scoring prevents a company from "low-balling" to get a contract only for the customer to later find out it can't provide the service without raising the prices.  City Council President Ashby Foote held a press conference yesterday to discuss the garbage contract.  WLBT reported: 

At a press conference on Monday, Council President Ashby Foote says if trash begins to pile up, it can be blamed on the mayor.

“He’s the executive. He’s got to get four votes,” he said. “He wants to come out and make the case, he’s welcome to do that. But it’s his obligation to get four votes for a vendor.”

In a statement, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he stands by his decision to recommend Richard’s Disposal, saying it’s the best option for the city of Jackson....

That contract expires on March 31, with no one waiting in the wings to take over.

Foote says it’s the mayor’s responsibility to bring the council a new option to consider – one that can garner a majority vote from the council.

“You go back a year ago, we voted down Richard’s numerous times. And there was the opportunity to bring up one of the other vendors,” Foote said. “He chose not to do that. He chose to abandon the RFP and give Richard’s a contract.”

An RFP is a request for proposals. Cities issue these requests when seeking out professional services, like trash hauling.

Richard’s was one of three firms that responded to the October 2021 RFP for garbage collections.

The New Orleans-based service provider received top scores for a proposal to provide twice-a-week trash collections that required customers to have a special 96-gallon trash can.

Foote questioned the RFP process, saying the mayor did not choose the lowest and best bidder, but the bidder based on the lowest price.

“This really is a best and lowest competition. The mayor has chosen to just focus on price and nothing else,” he said. “But we think that’s a mistake. And that’s where we really... the majority of the council has differed with the mayor on that particular point.”

City documents show Richard’s received the top score for the twice-a-week option with arts, but only after cost was factored in. Article




Kingfish note: Dear Mayor, we don't want a damn cart.  Quit trying to shove one down our throats.  Keep in mind the WM twice a week option without a cart scored the best.  


27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish the Mayor would publish half as many crime stats as he does infographs that contain misleading data.

Anonymous said...

Do you know how long a nice garbage cart would stand in front of your house before being stolen, then forcing you to buy another expensive cart, etc, etc.? There are a few “gated” communities where this issue can be slowed down, but not many.

Anonymous said...

Boring. Move on.

Anonymous said...

Where did WLBT pull the scores noted in their article... I agree with what they are explaining in the text, but the scores they show in the chart don't agree with the screenshot above - I might be missing something.

Agree with @10:29 on the crime stats. The mayor is very selective about when he wants to play Mr. Transparency.

Anonymous said...

Geez... The City Council needs to quit letting the Mayor dictate the narrative. Get out there and tell your constituents that garbage service stops because this child doesn't get his way. Also, why are both sides dicking around with proposals that are almost two years old - it was confusing in the first place and now the pricing is stale. Don't public bid laws require going back to the vendors? Sanitation fees are going up any way you look at it. I don't know anyone who wants a 96-gallon bin. We've got a steep driveway and can just manage a 64-gallon bin when full.

Anonymous said...

The biggest pile of trash in Jackson is the one that has Mayor as his title. Seriously. This entitled jerk expects us to believe he is committed to quality service at the lowest price, and has no "personal benefit" from giving Richard's the contract at all costs. All of which is a load of bull manure.

Anonymous said...

Chowke is nothing but a grifting, lying, Marxist, racist, narcissistic, insecure charlatan.

As has been penned on this great blog hundreds of times...get out while your home still has some value.

On a small scale, Jackson is following the same path as Venezuela, Cuba, etc., i.e. no government accountability, remove the middle class, and make the Marxist ruling class even stronger.

Anonymous said...

Worst Jackson Mayor Ever.

Anonymous said...

Jackson population

1960: 144,422
1970: 153,968
1980: 202,895 (peak population)
1990: 196,575
2000: 185,260
2010: 173,514
2020: 152,846
2021: 149,761
2030: 131,385 (projection @ current rate of decline)
2040: 108,698 (projection @ current rate of decline)

Anonymous said...

1058, the Council isn't ducking around with the old EFP. They don't have the authority (unless the Court in response to their request this week) allows then to bypass the Mayor.

Under the Strong Nayor governance we have in Jackson, only the Mayor can issue a RFP. And the Council can only deal with (vote up or down) proposed contracts presented by the Mayor.

The better question is - why is Lumumba dicking around with thos old RFP? He has know for a year that Richards' contract ended this week; why hasn't he done something proactive to deal with this issue?

Anonymous said...

GUARANTEE you Lumumba, you leave us stranded on collection day and bags of my garbage will be placed outside of your gate.

147,758 said...

The current population is estimated at 147,758.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/jackson-ms-population

Anonymous said...

Mayor, if the scoring of the prior bids is not relevant or helpful, then why did you and your staff score them to begin with?
Yes, Richards had the best score for 2 day a week pickup WITH a cart, but the City Council members have let you know, more than once, that neither they nor their constituents want the cart. So who cored best for 2 day a week pick up WITHOUT a cart ? That would be Waste Management by your own scoring. So why do you refuse to submit the Waste Management contract to the Council for consideration ? You've yet to explain why you refuse to do so or why you insist on Richards.

The reality is that every bidder's price will change due to inflation over the past 2 years since their bids were submitted. (Richards says it will honor it last quote from 2021, but yet also says it reserves the right to increase its cost once it gets the contract, i.e the old bait and switch.)

The truth is a new RFP should have been issued months ago and new quotes obtained months ago. The City Council had already rejected Richards more than once. Then Richards sued the City, which understandably put a bad taste in the Council's mouth such that it doesn't want to deal with Richards any more. It was more than obvious that the Council would not approve any new contract with Richards. But once again, rather then issue a new RFP and get new quotes, the Mayor refused to do that and has, once again, put the City in this position of having no garbage pick up come April 1.

Anonymous said...

Dar Mayor Transparency:

If you want to say you're so transparent, why did you hide the EPA letter from the City Council and citizens of Jackson for over a year (and coincidentally until after the election) ? Why have you not released the crime statistics for the past 2 years ? Why did it take your staff over a year to produce the City's financial records for its annual audit ? And why did you fail to appear for the meeting to address that audit and its results ? Spare me the b...shit about "wanting to be transparent".

Twitter Yappy Dog said...

Cha-ching, cha-ching. Property values up here in Madison County keep going up. Chokwe Antar Lumumba is doing a great job!

Anonymous said...

Wonder what the Mayor did for RDI to have hold of his short hairs?

Anonymous said...

With these flyers and being created and posted to official accounts, it could be argued that city resources are being used for a political campaign...

It could be rapidly solved by the council defunding the participating positions.

Anonymous said...

The poor citizens of Jackson do not understand what it means to be "the most radical city in the country". It means you will challenge the "powers that be" every day and accept any sacrifice to establish a new order. This is part of that. When you elected Chokwe and the New Afrika gang this is what you get.

Anonymous said...

The point of all this is to not have garbage collection come March 31st. I mean, who here doesn't love an emergency contract?

Anonymous said...

Chokwe be trying real hard to protect his kneecaps.

Anonymous said...

Marxist playbook: create an emergency (garbage) so that you can save the little people by whatever means necessary and thus gain even more control over the serfs.

Anonymous said...

I think my appetite for this flavor of Jackson drama is satisfied.
Reading about the trash drama feels redundant at this point.
Suppose the same could be said about water.
And crime.

It's just endless. And really depressing.

Anonymous said...

It may be time to temporarily tolerate the real putrid miasma of this mad marxist mayor: let the trash and rats pile up in the streets for the visuals in the media which will damage him more than it will the Council. Let's show the media how bad Lil Choke stinks!

We don't want his monster 96 gallon trash cubicles for our 15 gallon twice per week garbage! Every responsible bill payer in the city already has at least a couple of 32 gallon trash cans. I have two Rubbermaid Brute 32 gallon cans which are rugged enough for thirty years, easy to carry and easy to wash, which can stack atop each other for a small footprint in my garage.

WM did a better job in our neighborhood for consistent pick up than Richard's has, especially for taking short limbs and other small liftable items which Richard's never takes. I think WM had more trucks and more crews to enable dependable service.

Anonymous said...

The city of Jackson is right back at the same place they were before. The city council still holds the purse strings. Last time the city council said they would not pay any trash collector that did not have a contract with the city. The city council did not stand behind their word. They did pay a trash collector that did not have a contract with the city.

As far as I know the city of Jackson still has the same mayor and the same city council. What makes anyone thing things will be any different than it was before? The mayor still thinks he is going to force the city council to do what he wants. He already knows the city council has no balls. They will cave just like they did before.

Anonymous said...

1:58 has nailed it. This nickel and dime 'city of Jackson' shit must be easy to come by and that's why it's front-stage every day all day long. Nothing investigative needed. And nothing is satisfying to 90% of the viewers of local blogs.

Obviously, "Somebody" thinks this repetitive crap will satisfy the little girls sent out by sponsors to recruit ad contracts.

Anonymous said...

This battle to save a few bucks sure has cost millions

that's some solid management right there

Anonymous said...

Negotiating advice to the Jackson City Council from the legendary W.C. Fields:

1) Be evasive.

2) Be inscrutable.

3) Tell him to go fuck himself.



That is all.


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