Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Trash Talk: Foote Speaks

 Jackson Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, III issued the following statement on the garbage crisis. 

Jackson just passed the one year anniversary of the Mayor’s illegal action when he gave Richard’s Disposal the notice to proceed in picking up garbage across the City of Jackson without a valid contract.  This was illegal because the Mayor abandoned the RFP Process that had begun in October 2021 after Richard’s Disposal had been voted down multiple times by the City Council in January, February and March of 2022. If the Mayor had stayed within the RFP process he would have brought forward another vendor until he got one that could get four votes from the City Council. Instead the Mayor chose to go outside the law in pursuit of a contract for his favored vendor. For this reason the City’s garbage pickup has been under the jurisdiction of the Federal Court system and Judge Kristy Johnson and Magistrate Mike Parker for nine months. Sadly, the Mayor has taken little to any action to find a garbage vendor that can get four votes from the City Council. In a cynical move he decided to wait until the last 48 hours of the Federal Court jurisdiction in hopes that the threat of ‘no garbage pickup’ flip one of the Council votes in favor of Richard’s Disposal. It is shameful to create and then use citizen anxiety as a negotiating ploy.

The Council is pursuing a legal pathway through Special Chancellor David Clark, appointed by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court to resolve the current garbage issue. The Council is seeking a Declaratory Judgement to negotiate with Vendors 2 and 3 to provide garbage collection services under a legal and valid contract. Further details on these efforts will be forthcoming.

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll say it again:

Vote them ALL out.

Anonymous said...

Somebody with sense is actually doing something. Imagine that.

Anonymous said...

@9:05 edited to add *finally doing something

Foote has been pretty worthless for a while during all of this.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Councilman Foote.

And while I'm here:
Thank you, Councilman Stokes for stating the truth.

Thank you, WJTV, for FINALLY saying the whole truth: Waste management is cheaper without the bins.

Thank you to the 3 Councilmen who continued to vote no for the illegal crud going on.

WLBT, I turned you off last night. That's it for your coverage for me. Interviewing Richard Disposal worker? Really? I searched, didn't see where you interviewed Waste Management employees when they lost this contract. Biased and just calling you out on it.

Anonymous said...

WE DON'T WANT THE 96 GALLON TRASH CANS - which is why we need to do exactly what Ashby has stated.

Anonymous said...

@9:00 AM

I am now 100% that if Jackson "voted them all out" they would elect a group as bad or worse. Jackson is a hopeless situation.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mr. Foote, and thank you to my councilman, Mr. Banks, for refusing to facilitate this mayor’s corruption. Citizens who are gullible enough to believe the mayor’s lies need to get informed on what he’s done-and refused to do-that has resulted in the collapse of literally EVERY city service under his mayor’s responsibility. Garbage is just the latest example!

Mayor Lumumba purposefully allows citizen suffering because he uses it to leverage state and federal monetary contributions to the city which he can then steer to certain vendors that he is connected to. He doesn’t care if the money helps citizens or not, as long as the money helps him!

Well this citizen is sick of paying for for poor or no services, and I’m sick of being used as a pawn by this mayor. apparently so are 4 members of the city council.

Mayor Lumumba should be in jail for what he’s done to this city.

Anonymous said...

Worst Jackson Mayor Ever.

Anonymous said...

Did an adult just step into the room?

Anonymous said...

Everything Lumumba touches turns to sewage.

Anonymous said...

The Chokster tried to intimidate Stokes last night, so now I'm sure he will go after Foote for putting out that statement. Da Mair don't like it when he's made to look bad. Fuck him!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh baby the mob gonna be after Chokwe when WM returns!

Anonymous said...

Now his lapdog Grizzell is on FB arguing with constituents.

Anonymous said...

Virgi's done.

Anonymous said...

His nibs needs a trip to the woodpile. Maybe a representative of Richards' will facilitate that.

Anonymous said...

Shockway seeking those ongoing kickbacks-

Anonymous said...

Lil Choke hijacked a TownHall at the Stokes initiated West Jackson MBE church last night, where Stokes made a short speech to be followed by questions from the audience. Instead, our little emperor barged in and bushwhacked the podium, would not accept questions from the assembled citizens. What a childish, petulant wastrel of a mayor!

If the meeting had been in an airliner on a runway at the Jackson airport, our mad marxist mayor would have forced them to Havana.

Anonymous said...

I have reached the conclusion that the mayor is a drama queen. Never has a city, any city, had so much drama about everything.

Anonymous said...

Remember, y’all voted for this shit.

Anonymous said...

I’m no fan of Lamumba or Stokes, but last night’s meeting was nothing but grandstanding by Stokes. He he called the meeting to see how his constituents felt about the situation. Everyone knows how they feel. They just want their trash picked up and they don’t care who does it. You didn’t need a town hall meeting to know that.

Anonymous said...

Virgi ain't done. Too many Belhaven residents adore her. They don't care.

Anonymous said...

Now the Mayor is meeting with the State Auditor? Would love to be a fly on the wall for that! If he thinks he can drag the State into his mess he has overestimated his hand...

Anonymous said...

I’m sorry but how many vendors does Foote think are clamoring to pick up Jackson’s trash? The mayor could have sought RFPs over and over until one met with the Council’s approval? That is his solution?

Lumumba seems to have overstepped here and I have no interest in apologizing for him. But it is absurd to suggest that he is the one grandstanding when the Council is insisting on making this a turf battle to the detriment of city residents. No one in their right mind will want this contract at this point, and then what? The city is over a barrel and will have to accept the terms of whoever is willing to step in, while trash piles up.

Bush league all around.

Anonymous said...

They just want their trash picked up and they don’t care who does it.

Too bad that Lumumba isn't listening to them. He needs to follow the law.

Anonymous said...

@11:05, so her Ward is only composed of Belhaven? Catch up.

Anonymous said...

@9:16 - only problem with your statement is that WJTV is wrong about WM being the cheaper bid without the bins. The WM without bins price is higher than Richards without bins and even a little higher than Richards with bins, however WM would still be considered the "lowest and best" or "highest scored" bid for 2x/week without carts in spite of this because the Richards scores were so low in the other areas (references, plan for performing, qualifications, etc.).

You can see the "other" scored categories and results in this article: https://www.wlbt.com/2023/04/03/councilman-backs-90-day-contract-with-richards-until-new-vendor-chosen/ and KF has posted the link where the results of the RFP were presented multiple times but I'm too lazy to go back and find it again.

Outside of KF, I've actually found WLBT reporting to be the most "unbiased" on the issue.

For the record, I'm for WM 2x week without carts, but just tired of seeing misinformed statements about the cost when it's all publicly available info.

Anonymous said...

Haven’t cities, counties and municipalities been contracting w vendors to get trash picked up for their citizens for over a century now? This is nothing new and quite honestly one of the easiest services to provide your citizens. Only Jackson could screw it up.

Anonymous said...

I remember when towns and cities had their own waste disposal departments.

Anonymous said...

Many here miss that our little Caligula-Nero tyrant refused for months and months to plan for and solicit three RFPs, which was his lawful mayoral duty. He just waited til last minute, threw single vendor slop at the council and said: "Eat that shit right now or starve".


Now the whole city is force fed the mayor's shit show and not for the first time.

Anonymous said...

"they just want the trash picked up..." Yep, we see exactly how much so many constituents care about how much it will cost to pick up trash. Outside of accepting the degree of city ineptitude that now exists and the "citizens" who voted for it...

Who cares about quality of service, or how they perform where they presently do the same type of service? I would still like to know how a company that cannot handle the service for New Orleans can do better in a smaller place like J-town?

What do they care if they have to spend over $100 to buy a huge and heavy trash can? And what do they care about eventually all these hoppers lose their jobs since all Richards has to do is grease a few palms to substitute automatic lift trucks to pick up those carts?

Surely down the line Richards will say they have to automate because the hoppers are injuring themselves by lifting 300 pound cans several hundred times a trip...

In the end these "citizens" don't care what it really costs because Daddy Chowke and Grandaddy Bennie will figure out some way to have federal dollars (from non-citizens) to pay for it all (and grease more palms while at it).

These "citizens" are looking at the initial costs and not considering the long term. Not looking at long term costs is how Jackson got into the mess it is in now. In that way they are exactly getting the city government they continue voting for...

And as for those who say I am outside the city, I have lived in what once was one of city's best Northeast neighborhoods for 47 years, but with each day I am looking outside to suburbs with functional leadership.

Anonymous said...

I see on WJTV's website, in the article about last night's town hall meeting, that the Mayor said:

"If you want to know, 'Mayor, why won't you just go with the next vendor ? Why won't you just go with the next vendor ?', one it's in breach of our contract, and two, it's going to cost you more."

Bullshit. What contract would it be in breach of to propose another vendor ? There is no contract with anyone at this time. There is and was no contract with Richards. (The Supreme Court said the Mayor's so called and self-created emergency contract was void because the Mayor didn't have the authority. ) And even assuming Richards did have a contract, that contract expired on March 31. Despite the Mayor's claim, that proposing another vendor would not breach any contract. In fact, the law requires that once the first vendor/proposal is rejected, the Mayor should submit the next vendor/proposal to the Council.

And, Mayor, it will cost less to go with the option/proposal with no carts, than to go with carts. The Mayor keeps saying he wants to save money and lower the cost to residents, but yet he keeps proposing the bid with carts which is more expensive than the bid without carts. If you want to lower the cost, Mayor, why did you not submit the proposal with no carts ? Maybe because Waste Mgmt scored better on that bid, not your favorite Richards ?
The majority of the Council does not want carts, and carts are more expensive, so why do you keep submitting that more expensive option, which is contrary to what you say about wanting to cut the cost.

Anonymous said...

We live in Belhaven and Virgi is done.

When you can’t respond to mail about crime and do what you do regarding garbage, there are consequences.

KZ said...

Well done Ashby. Really wish national news would pickup on this and the water crisis, but that does not fit the national agenda

Anonymous said...

1:15 PM
Is anyone running against her?

Anonymous said...

At this point, none of the statements, town halls, facebook post, etc. make any sense. Grown men serving as examples of how not to act. Now, pick up my garbage.

Anonymous said...

oh look a squirrel....
all a shell game to hide the agenda.

Anonymous said...

Take your garbage to the mayors home. He’s the sole reason Jackson is in such a mess

Anonymous said...

1:15. Virgi is a shell of herself. Seems this job is too big for her.

Anonymous said...

That a plan but while waiting on response from the court, which may or may not rule in favor of the Council, who is going to pick up the trash that citizens are paying for monthly?

Anonymous said...

Please relocate State employees and government services out of Jackson. Quit wasting my tax dollars in a corrupt City. Can the rest of the state leave Jackson?

Anonymous said...

3:58, I agree. It’s time to move state government to a city/town that is safe and actually functions. No water and no garbage pick up is a very bad look for the center of state government. It’s time to look at other options since it does not appear that Jackson will ever get its act together. It’s a shame on so many levels.

Anonymous said...

Against coordinated and consistent sensible opposition, the mayor will either wither or totally jump the rails. Halfway to the latter already.

Anonymous said...

It’s time to start the recall campaign on Lumumba. Are the residents of Eastover and Belhaven tired of keeping Jackson afloat with high taxes and seeing no results. Time to sell and get out.

Anonymous said...

So, as a home hospice nurse I know that many of those bags are filled with, what is the term in the common vernacular; oh yes “ boo boo”. Personal waste from diapers etc are part of common pick up…..lots of incontinent people in the “ radical”; “bold new city”, “city with soul”….or any other term you want to use to describe our suffering capitol city…..I will be careful where I tread

Anonymous said...

Remember, y’all voted for this shit!

Anonymous said...

5:21, there is no option for recall. The bill to allow recall died in the state legislature last session. I guess there were too many politicians that were afraid they might get recalled, too.

Anonymous said...

Can’t the city council initiate action on an agreement with a vendor? Council or WM draft a contract, offer a motion to adopt, and (maybe) pass it. The mayor certainly could veto, but why wouldn’t they try?

Anonymous said...

10:56/7:14: Stop being a d*ck.

Let's not forget that Lumumba jammed this up for a year while he appealed a ruling telling him that he can't veto a non-action, which should be obvious to all without the need for legal research.

Anonymous said...

On Wednesday's WAPT news one of the city's outstanding citizens declared "we don't deserve this." Well lady you deserve all of this, just like all the rest of the city residents that voted the Little Nero back into office who did nothing but fiddle and demand his way while the city imploded.

So many people were suckered into not actually thinking about who could do the job, instead selecting a journeyman lawyer running on his late father's coattails.

Because of this short-sighted decision process Jackson continues to burn down while the majority of residents refuse to hold anyone they put in charge responsible.

No m'am, if you elected Chokwe twice and expect others to pick up the pieces, then you deserve all the problems brought forth, including pushing who pays the bills out of the city.

Anonymous said...

Chancellor Clark was appointed on Feb 8 to preside over the Coucil’s efforts to reach a solution, and the Chancellor has the power to expedite the case and issue injunctions immediately. The ball is in his court.

Anonymous said...

This ridiculous stalemate is hurting our property values. It’s clearly the Mayor’s fault. It’s like he’s deliberately trying to destroy our city.

Anonymous said...

10:04, y’all voted for Lubumba right? Right?

Anonymous said...

All woke leftists deserve the misery they demand!

Anonymous said...

Why won't someone ask what Richards is greasing the mayor's palm with if they get the contract?

Anonymous said...

54 comments, so far. And they all use different words to say the same 3 things.

Click-Bait is often denied by the Blog Admin.

Anonymous said...

I can’t read minds, but I get the vibe a lot of people in Virgi’s neighborhood don’t like her. I wonder if she realizes that. She’s lucky her ward goes into south Jackson.

Will Virgi’s son’s restaurant fail the way Campbell’s did?

Somewhat normal people tend not to run for politics. Maybe that will change in Jackson.

Anonymous said...

9:22 AM, not a chance. Jackson is not going to change without being forced. The people in Jackson are very happy living like they do. They do not see any reason to change.

Anonymous said...

The good Mayor is breaking many laws which would force him out of office. He just has not been caught yet. I wonder how the garbage company it paying him.

Anonymous said...

i'm late on this question but.....

is there going to be TRASH collection on Good Friday?? Easter Monday??

asking for a friend

Anonymous said...

If I was the mayor, I would get some bids from the others.

They are going to be more expensive (because Richards is lying and will increase dramatically) within weeks of (again) forced placement.

As mentioned, nobody wants this contract now. Nobody is going to score better now or even try to score better, no matter.
So the mayor could have followed procedures, gotten several and then declared RD the winner and he could have avoided all this.

I think he enjoys slapping others around, getting the press and winning in the end.
All while his adoring voters worship him and live in filth. What a guy!

Anonymous said...

I very much appreciate Virgi Lindsey. Having lived in Jackson 10 years, I recently learned that Waste Management has strong political pull in this state. Evidently, this is the reason four council members back WM. Richard’s has better service, trucks, and they provide better benefits for their employees. Let’s not forget when the city was paying Waste Management for recycling. It was revealed they were tossing recyclables in the city dump. The mayor is far from perfect but neither are the four Council members who have blown this out of proportion. Of course the courts sided with the four council members - the courts in this state are stacked with Conservatives of a certain party.

Anonymous said...

7:00. You are FOS.


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