Plagued by water billing disasters, facing financial catastrophe due to a failure to collect water service revenue while making bond payments of $7 million per year, the city of Jackson said enough is enough and sued Siemens for $225 million yesterday in Hinds County Circuit Court. The city also sued several minority "businessmen" such as Marcus Wallace, James Covington, Tom Wallace, and Socrates Garrett for acting as "sham" contractors to manipulate the minority participation requirements. The complaint pulls no punches in opening:
15. This case involves a massive fraud orchestrated by Siemens under the guise of an energy performance contract promising $120 million in guaranteed savings for the City. Siemens was paid $90 million to install a new automated water meter and billing system and to make repairs to the City's water treatment plants and sewer lines. Siemens committed fraud with respect to who was performing the work on the project, what the system would do, and what savings the system would generate, among other things. Far from delivering on its promise of $120 million in guaranteed savings, Siemens caused more than $225 million in losses to the City.
Jackson also did something almost no government does in Mississippi: expose sham minority contractors:
18. As a further inducement for the City to enter into a contract with Siemens, Siemens also misrepresented its commitment to hire qualified, minority-owned subcontractors under an Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) plan.... As part of its pitch to secure a contract with the City, Siemens represented that it would utilize minority-owned businesses to carry out 58% (more than $52 million) of the $90 million project cost. However, Siemens never intended to hire qualified EBO subcontractors to actually perform the work. Instead, Siemens conspired with its co-defendants and used a pass through scheme in which it hired sham subcontractors and middlemen to inflate its EBO numbers and deceive the City's residents. Focused only on generating a multi-million dollar project for itself, Siemens drove up the cost of the project by using unqualified pass-through entities selected on the basis of their political connections and influence rather than their qualifications, thereby depriving qualified and competent EBO contractors the opportunity to perform the work in accordance with the law and the representations made by Siemens. (KF: Did it occur to anyone that Siemens was told who to hire if it wanted the contract? It's a question worth asking.).
Some highlights of the complaint are:
* More than half of the 60,000 water meters were installed incorrectly.
* The water meters caused a "financial disaster" for Jackson. The city loses $2 million in revenue per month and more than $20 million last year. The new system didn't cover the cost of operations and maintenance.
* The city must pay $7 million in bond payments per year. Thank you, Porter Bingham.
* Jackson wants more than $150 million to cover the costs of the deal and $75 million for lost revenue and damage to the city's bond rating.
* Siemens audited the water system in 2012 and estimated the water meters were only 86% to 94% accurate. The accuracy would decrease to 79% to 87% over the next fifteen years. The new meters would allegedly raise the accuracy rate to 98.5% , thus generating more revenue for Jackson. Jackson would also save money since it would no longer need "meter readers." Siemens estimated the savings and increased revenue would be $120 million.
* Siemens would install 60,000 water meters with remote transmitters, 4,700 back-up water meters, 60 data hub collectors, and 900 network repeaters. The company would also install software for a new billing system.
* Siemens is charging $4.5 million per year to measure Siemens' performance.
* Siemens hired U.S. Consolidated for water meter supply. Former state legislator and lobbyist Tom Wallace owns the company. Jackson alleges USC bought the water meters from the manufacturer and resold them to Siemens at a higher price. The complaint says USC was only used as a pass-through to generate more profits for Siemens while claiming to use minority sub-contractors. Siemens paid USC $19.5 million for the water meters.
* Remember Marcus Wallace and M.A.C. Construction? Who could forget Marcus Wallace standing on the steps of City Hall, surrounded by Jackson politicians and community activists, as he feigned outrage in announcing he was suing Siemens? It was all an act.
The complaint alleges Siemens said it hired M.A.C. to install water meters and make line repairs. Hemphill Construction and Pedal Valve actually performed the work for M.A.C. because the minority subcontractor "was not qualified to perform the work assigned to it on paper as part of Siemen's EBO scheme..."
* Next up in the complaint is Jackson businessman James Covington. Jackson paid his company, Ivision IT Consultants, $11 million to implement the new billing system. "Another company ended up performing the work." The complaint calls Ivision a "pass-through."
* Last but not least is Garrett Enterprises, the well-known company owned by local power broker Socrates Garrett. He has played the DBE game like a fiddle for years. Jackson charges he received $4.6 million for "construction management and quality control services." Jackson called him a "sham" contractor and said it could not determine what services or benefit it received from his company.
* The project has been plagued by bugs and flaws. Many of the meters read water usage in gallons instead of cubic-feet, thus shocking customers with sky-high water bills. Many customers received no bills for long periods while others were overbilled.
The complaint charges Siemens lied to the city and that it was hiring phony minority contractors so it could manipulate the DBE requirements.
The case is assigned to Senior Circuit Judge Tomie Green. The complaint charges the defendants with fraud, fraud in the inducement, negligent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, negligence, breach of implied warranty of good workmanship, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Jackson seems more than $225 million in actual and consequential damages.
Attorney Winston Thompson, III and Birmingham law firm Lightfoot, Franklin, and White represent Jackson.
Kingfish note: Make no mistake, the Mayor is going after a large chunk of what is considered to be the black business community in Jackson. Most of them were cronies of Mayor Harvey Johnson.
Now, how many City Councilmen and woman voted for this crap knowing said contractors were not qualified?
74 comments:
It will be interesting to see what theory Siemens will use to remove this case to federal court.
Lightfoot, Franklin & White is a good law firm. I don't know the local attorney. This step by the Mayor is encouraging. I'd like to see Jackson get its act together about something or the other while there is still something to preserve. Time is running out.
Clean hands rule. Jackson officials know about and were a part of all these dealings. Dirty can not sue Dirty.
This is currently assigned to Judge Green. I'm crying tears of laughter.
Let's see how enthusiastic the Mayor is about flushing out who made the decision to farm out water-sewer-garbage collections, and the jobs processing those collections, initially to Detroit (and now Memphis).
Interesting move, but the city is suing the wrong people. Much in the complaint touches on the problems - but blames Seimens for what the Mayor (Harvey Johnson) did to put the deal together. All these sham 'minority contractors' were a requirement of the city (administration) if Siemens wanted the deal. Once this hits the courts, much of this will surely come out as Siemens presents its 'counter defenses'.
Mayor a little shy of stating the truth about these so-called 'minority contractors' but figured he had to get out in front because he knows that Siemens response will name them - along with the former Mayor, bond counsel, and probably others - as to the reason this project cost $90 million rather than $50 million.
Gonna be fun!
I’ve been waiting for JJ to post on this! Wow. So much to unpack:
1. Kudos to Mayor Ludumba for *finally* doing what so many of us thought was obvious and long overdue and expose this sham contract, which was a gold mine for Harvey Johnson’s buddies (I’m sure he worked out a nice cut for himself as well).
2. Let’s think back to who was on the Council at that time and supported this sham contract. Hmmm...
3. Haven't we “white folk” been screaming since the boondoggle known as the Raymond Detention Center was built 25 years ago that minority set-aside programs (that Ludumba and his ilk still favor – don’t be fooled) reward inexperience and incompetence over qualifications? Of course that's just racist, right? Well intentioned as they may be, it’s clear that certain contractors, on both the design and construction side, have used the City's EBO program to game the system FOR YEARS, making a small percentage of them rich in the process, while more experienced and qualified non-minority firms are forced to either sit on the sidelines or to cut pass-thru deals with phony, barely competent minority companies as their teaming partners, all at inflated prices for the taxpayers. Don't expect this practice to end, however.
4. I’m sure Siemens was told who they needed to team with to win the contract. See the last administration for examples.
5. Did the City’s so-called Legal Department really allow its “client” to sign a contract with no or low penalties for contractor underperformance other than a lawsuit? How was performance even measured and monitored by the City staff?
6. While I’m sure Siemens did underperform and might even be guilty of fraud, I’m also betting it will be discovered that the City failed in several of its commitments as defined in the contract. Whether that will have any bearing on the damage award, IDK.
Johnny Cochran alive and well, back in Mississippi. Yeah, ya'll are on to some real barnstorming reform with Winston (roll eyes)
The city of Jackson has wasted all of the money they have collected and now they want Siemens to pay for it. The hope is that Tommie Greene will give the money to the city, and she probably will try to. This will involve millions in legal fees for the city before this scheme makes its journey through the court system, but who cares? There is no doubt in my mind that Siemens was forced to use local, minority, and unqualified labor instead of Siemens trained labor subcontractors. But, WHO CARES!
Socrates Garrett lives at 314 Meadow Road, Jackson, which is a McMansion of 5+ acres, but this property is not even listed in the Hinds County landroll list.
This is his mailing address in the landroll list for Madison Co. on some remote property east of Canton.
I wonder why this property isn't publicly listed?
Did Baby Chok recently wake up one morning and realize that city hall's contracts are corrupt?
Well, Junior must not want to stick around for another stint as mayor, cuz going after these folks will make some enemies.
The game Harvey Johnson and his cronies played was designed to enrich a few choice individuals using "minority participation" as the vehicle no council person had the guts to question. The jack ass council dared not question these guys credentials for fear of appearing to question the participation mandate itself. That's the game. In Jackson, the first qualification for participation is always "connections" not the ability to perform the contract specifications. Now the city is placed in the ironic position of admitting how it cheated in the game in order to blame it's teammate for the loss. Blaming Siemens puts the city in the dubious position of selling the admission that they are a bunch of unsophisticated hics tricked by a multi-national contractor working in concert with the city's own good ole boys. There is an appropriate phrase, "Hoist with his own petard".
I applaud the city for actually filing suit, though I'm afraid it might be too late. We'll see what the city's legal team is made of when they respond to what are sure to be motions to dismiss, based on the statutes of limitations, and what kind of follow through they have as the case proceeds through discovery, assuming the city can survive on at least some counts.
If the local defendants are dismissed, then the case can be properly removed to federal court. Unless and until that happens, I believe any removal would be considered fraudulent by any of the judges of the Southern District of Mississippi.
I'm skeptical of the competency of any law firm that is in any way associated with Carlos Moore, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief until I see what they do.
Hope Tommie Green is on board or Seimens will get a blessing. But, I have to play the devil's advocate here. Winston Thomas III seems like a minority pass through to the predominately white run Lightfoot.... firm. Based on what I can find, they will do they heavy legal lifting. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Atty Winston Thompson is as unqualified a lawyer to run this as his buddy, RSS, is at being a successful trial lawyer. Is there no pool of respectable lawyers the city could have gone to? Watch him fall flat on his face when the defense lawyers start responding-
Cynical Sam
You are not smart. If you didnt post incorrect statements nobody would know but when you cant even navigate the Hinds County Landroll its obvious...U DUMB
Siemans seeks to bifurcate itself from the local clowns and remove to federal court. Just tossing that out there.
JudGe Green will have to recuse herself as her son was once the city's CAO and is currently still working in another capacity with Jackson. There's one more reprieve for Siemens.
@Cynical sam: 314 meadow rd is on Hinds County's land roll and it ain't no Mcmansion - try again.
Harvey Johnson may have negotiated the deal, but the deal was wholly executed by the first Lumumba Administration. The Lumumba administration is to blame. Instead of abandoning the deal, Lumumba bemoans how terrible it is and then ceremoniously cuts his own crew in on the pork.
I dislike Harvey as much as the next guy, but he doesn't get the credit for this one. Deals got cut, politics got made, and the people lost. Plain and simple. Not sure what's left to sue over when your complicit in the dirty dealings.
It looks like Siemens is going to have to pay for taking advantage of the idiots leading Jackson. Lumumba deserves credit for calling this out, even if he can't afford to point out that the minority hiring aspect was simply the company playing by the rules of the game required to get the job.
In a somewhat related side note, I understand the new downtown Westin hotel has never received a water bill from the City.
I have a friend who attended Jackson State with me 30+ years ago. He is a well respected building contractor now living in New Orleans after operating in Atlanta and Nashville. He has secured several government contracts as a general and sub-contractor. His work is impeccable. I wanted him to build a building for me but he was too busy. Now retired, he wanted to come back to Jackson and work but has told me he "doesn't need the bullshit". It's sad that Jackson has not insisted on top notch work rather than crony connections to dole out minority set aside jobs. If they did the ultimate result would be: top notch work. I guess it's not that important.
I think Siemens would have included specific minority contractors and their functions in its proposal and the CoJ would have had to certify they were qualified/legitimate before award. And it appears the CoJ has an Equal Business Opportunity department devoted to this function. And this dept. might have also had to approve any changes to the minority contractors involved.
Winston can catch them but can’t clean them-
After reading the complaint, it seems pretty clear that minority contractors were just a means to an end for "Siemens and McNeil."
If 1:29 is right and Judge Green recuses herself, I think this case could be good experience for Judge Faye Peterson. It promises some interesting issues involving the rules of civil procedure (mandatory v. permissive joinder of parties and claims, 3rd party practice), and should be pretty intensive on motion practice. So far, Judge Peterson seems willing to learn, which (in my opinion) means she has the potential to be a good judge.
This is going to be extremely entertaining. As an owner of several large commercial properties in Jackson the water issue has been a thorn in my side for many years.
I have kept documentation where I have been economically harmed from all of this water billing... lost sales, etc. It would be great if I could recover from somebody for all of this corrupt disaster.
The statute of limitations does not run against a municipality.
This will no where and will take years to do so.
Wow this hurts with an issue as important as this. All of these So called black leaders saying they cared about Jackson etc. and they sold Jackson down the road for $$$$$. How much more of this Bull is going on.
Kudo's for the city of Jackson actually doing something now. I feel like their hands were forced to call their cronies out. I can assure you a company like Siemens covered their bases in this and will have a lot more and better documentation as to what went on in this. I have said it all along, the blame needs to, and will most likely get put on the pimps. MAC & Associates, Marcus Wallace. I bet, when you get to looking into it, that his insuring companies and bonding companies a) aren't A Rated and adequate enough & b) didn't have a clue he was tackling a job such as this. If I were to bet, I would bet you're not going to get much out of them. $1,000,000 at the very best. He couldn't get bonded(credit/experience) and had to bond back through Hemphill on another project, now that bond has been called. I'm sure he isn't (and can't get)bonded for half of the $90mil. Mr. Wallace was a sham, doesn't have a clue what he is doing, despite his wall of certifications, and everyone has seen it coming. I can assure you that Siemens didn't hire MAC & Associates because they wanted to, they did it because they had to. Folks, this is exactly what DBE participation gets you. If you want to really expose some stuff, look at a majority of the DBE required jobs. They are full of pass through DBE's subcontracting the work out to a legitimate operation and raking a large chunk off the top. Like MAC, DBE participation is a joke.
I stand corrected by 2:07. "Statutes of limitation in civil cases shall not run against the state, or any subdivision or municipal corporation thereof . . . " Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-51.
This move had to have gotten Bennie's blessing. There will be many ripple effects as the black power structure sorts this all out. I regret how much fodder there is here for the racists, but may I say that it's about damn time.
Defense depositions will be brutal in this one. Criminal charges will follow after the can of worms start turning on each other. Having been up close and personal over there for years, this has been the "way of the city" since the city went to the council form of government and became a majority black governed city. No surprises except were Mayor Lumumba white, all absolute HELL would be breaking loose, from Jesse to Al.
Marcus Wallace, the Mayor of Edwards, lives in Madison. FACT.
If Siemens were some podunk minority enterprise hurriedly thrown together in order to score a contract, this lawsuit might have a shot.
However, they're a long time, well respected, professional organization with quality work over a century in their portfolio. Plus they have a union, which will play against the minority city hall crowd.
The morons at city hall and their hungry lawyer are only assuming Siemens will throw in the proverbial towel and quickly settle.
Siemens has a conundrum. They chose to pay the bribes which were demanded, and profited handsomely. They can't possibly admit that or raise it as a defense, though -- which severely hamstrings their ability to fight the suit. They can't admit they hired sham / pass-through subs at the City's direction because, again, that knife cuts both ways.
Their best bet will be to blame everything on Socrates. They'll say he was the dealmaker with the clean record (all true) and they relied on him to deal with the City. They'll say that if bribes and kickbacks occurred, they knew nothing about it.
Is it even remotely possible the FBI hasn't already gone over this deal with a fine tooth comb? If they couldn't find a way to nail Siemens, don't bet on the City of Jackson.
The bottom line is since the government started allowing (requiring) minority set asides the whole bid process is a sham. Sure, there are many minority contractors the perform excellent work, but the bottom feeders are the ones crying to get their piece of the pie. The results have been clear for years: substandard work. Let the bid and contract award process go back to "lowest and best" and then each GC can subcontract to contracts that are reputable and trusted by them.
Jackson said, "We demand minority owned businesses be included."
Business said " we have many qualified minority owned contractors whom we partner with."
Jackson said, "meet your "New Partners", the ones on our approval list!
4:49PM wrote, "However, they're a long time, well respected, professional organization with quality work over a century in their portfolio. Plus they have a union, which will play against the minority city hall crowd."
Siemens has already been sued and settled at least one case for quite a sum and is/was? in the midst of at least one more. I have not read the filings in any, including this one, but IIRC they are at least broadly similar charges - that Siemans did substandard work and the city suffered losses because of it. It may be a case of opportunists going after deep pockets, but IIRC, the settlement was in the $100 mil range, which makes me think Siemens either knew it some (legitimate) culpability or it knew it basically clean but was going to get homecooked out of even more.
If it is the latter, that is not good for Jackson because now it will be forced to stop the gravy train regardless of the cost. If the former, Jackson may be in early enough to get something out of Siemens before they either begin to really fight or call it.
4:40. See 4:00. Almost all city government based criminal charges begin with a civil suit, where deposition leeway is all over the map. Watch and see. We are talking fraud in a major way. Harvey Johnson started this bullshit and I bet his cocky, arrogant ass is a 10 penny nail right now.
Don't you know there was some big money changing hands, dirty hands from years gone by. Every project Jackson tries is sabotaged by too many "do nothing" companies, just feeding from the gravy train. There seems to be to much waste, and not enough watchful eyes. This water situation won't be settled for years, attorney fees will easily top the million dollar mark...
Are there no competent attorneys in Jackson?
Just another shakedown.
This has all been planned out carefully. In the end, Jackson gets a few bucks and everyone goes back to business as usual.
Nothing is fixed, or changes.
"Are there no competent attorneys in Jackson?"
Unfortunately, every one of them had previous obligations fulfilling their contracts to dance lead with the Bolshoi...
Remove it and allege fraudulent joinder (or its new name).
If it sticks in district court then hoist the city with its own petard.
Duplicitous suit imo
The city complains of what it required.....
Lightfoot should know better
RE: 314 Meadow Road, y'all are correct. Google Earth led me astray, as the address shows the property behind it, which is on Hanging Moss.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I do know how to use property records, and I am also aware that they are updated once a year.
I think the district courts are looking harder at what has been termed "fraudulent removals." I know of at least one case where a district judge issued an order to show cause why the case should not remanded to the state court, before a motion to remand was even filed.
For what it's worth, I wonder whether the city's new-found willingness to act was prompted by an as-yet-unreported investigation of some sort.
Appears to be two sides to this. The water meter case, which the City may have good claims. And the minority set aside sham, which the City has demanded for years. While it may be possible that the City demanded that only certain minorities be used, my experience over about twenty five year was that the City wasn't corrupt in demanding the use of specific contractors, but they were demanding minority contractors in areas where qualified minority contractors did not exist. It would be wonderful if as a result of this action the City would finally stop this minority contractor scam. After doing this for about 30 years it is quite evident that the result is not a large increase in qualified minority contractors. Instead, it spawned a pool of folks trying to game the system.
1:44 The reason Westin isn't billed for water is because the city forced them to connect their supply line down West St all the way to Capital St. This is so they would tap into a line that wasn't 100 years old and wouldn't be left with the red clay sediment in their water like the rest of us in the neighborhood.
Impermissible joinder / fraudulent joinder
I will say this...Alabama lawyers have no clue about the use of fraudulent joinder as the doctrine is not viable in the 11th circuit while the 5th circuit revels in it with some approval.
Lightfoot will be incensed when they see this and horrified when they discover it’s a viable procedural
Move here. If anything it can delay proceedings for years especially if Wingate gets a hold of it.
Get your nerd glasses and some popcorn.
"I am shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on in this establishment!"
It's very possible that employees have been the problem all along. Yes, the minority set-asides were stupid and a waste of money, but those were the rules that the City made and they were the ones who signed the contract.
https://www.wjtv.com/news/local-news/jackson-water-and-sewer-workers-linked-to-helping-customers-cheat-water-bills/2072875747
Here’s an analogy for how I see this....Please, one of y’all lawyer types set me straight.
Porsche sells you a finely engineered machine. You take the keys and over the next few years, you and your shade tree mechanic buddies turn that automobile into an oil leaking, exhaust smoking, raggedy ass money pit. Now you want to sue Porsche because it’s not the same as when you took possession of it??
Same? Different?
If Siemens and various Jackson pols and pals did engage in anything criminal, Siemens has the resources to negotiate a corporate penalty/fine in lieu of any of its people going to prison. I doubt any potential Jackson defendants do. This could rapidly turn into an example of "never demand justice - you might get it." The funny thing is that Mayor Chippedbeef probably doesn't know as much as he thinks he does, but Siemens knows exactly what went down and what its potential exposure is just as certain people in Jackson know what their own exposure is. It will be very interesting watching this thing play out.
Christ almighty at the shills. I don’t even live in Jackson and can see what a disaster this deal has been and will continue to be.
It took a cabal of corruption to pull something like this off. A more local smaller version of Kemper, but with gov’t money.
I look for some people to go to jail before any monetary damages are paid to anyone. This is criminal, even if the result was voted in because the people who did it were hoodwinked or crooks. It matters not.
Difference is that the Porsche you bought never had 4 tires or an engine that worked. It just sat there and never ran. If not for the slick salesmen, you would never have brought it as they promised it would run with no problems & full warranty and would save you gas money because it's so efficient. Yea, it efficient because it wont even start.
6/13/19 @ 5:54 a.m. The employee thing isn't new. This has been a consistent problem going back years before Siemens from what I hear. The problem, IMO, is there has been so much turnover and loss of talent in Public Works that they haven't been able to get a handle on the theft going on in the field, and the folks in charge have busy dealing with other crises to really put an end to it all.
The city's argument is that Siemens, even if it was forced to include unqualified MBEs as pass through entities which caused the price to almost double, still had an obligation in the end to see that the meters worked as advertised. If Siemens couldn't accomplish that - for whatever reason - they shouldn't have signed a contract saying they could and taken the city's money. Sure, there was a shakedown (of taxpayers) to funnel money to unqualified minority businesses, but that only caused the contract to cost more. It didn't make the meters fail. If Siemens didn't trust the minority contractors, they should have added another $30 million to the cost of the contract to pay for competent contractors to come in behind them and fix it. But they didn't do that, because they wanted to get the contract.
Re: @ June 12, 1:58pm
“If 1:29 is right and Judge Green recuses herself, I think this case could be good experience for Judge Faye Peterson. It promises some interesting issues involving the rules of civil procedure (mandatory v. permissive joinder of parties and claims, 3rd party practice), and should be pretty intensive on motion practice. So far, Judge Peterson seems willing to learn, which (in my opinion) means she has the potential to be a good judge.”
Not only that, she has about 10% of the open caseload as the other three judges. Thanks Judge Sclafani for cleaning up Judge Gowan’s docket for Judge Peterson.
Can you imagine Siemens having only a 42% role in the work trying to control the other 58% made up of the usual pack of thieves that were forced upon them.
June 13, 2019 at 9:12 AM makes a potentially good point, but...
Full disclosure, I have not seen the contracts involved so this is admittedly speculative. If Siemens can show it relied upon Jackson to provide competent subs and the contract called for those subs to be responsible for the proper install and functioning of the meters and Jackson knew (or can be reasonably charged with knowledge) the subs it put forth were had that duty, what Siemens may have suspected about the ability of the subs should be not relevant. If the customer-required subs (the minority contractors required by Jackson) were the ones with the duty, Siemens cannot have failed in its duty because it had none (or at least its duty was limited) and Siemens could have additional defenses that could include detrimental reliance, adhesion, etc. Basically, it will be a difficult legal argument for Jackson to convince a judge that it demanded/forced Siemens to do something and when that something caused a problem, Siemens had the duty to not do it the Jackson demanded it be done. If someone hires a painter to paint their house fluorescent pink, the painter suggests that fluorescent pink is not a good choice at all, the homeowner insists and then, the homeowner's association demands it be repainted an approved color, the homeowner doesn't have much of a case against the painter for breaching his duty to refuse the homeowner's insistence.
I hope this somehow nudges the city closer to bankruptcy, which seems to be the only out for all the mess it's in.
Sure, these guys are qualified for a $90M contract! Did Siemens just find em on the street before that council meeting?
https://images.app.goo.gl/xWZYHhbsZs3WRwVMA
11:24 it matters not that the prime contractor did only 42% of the work. Sometimes a prime contractor does only 10% of the work. What matters is that 100% of the money is paid to the prime contractor. If the subs and suppliers don't perform, the prime contractor should not pay them until they do. That's what makes the world go around in construction - if you don't do your job correctly I won't pay you.
Jackson should take the Trump route and just not pay any of their bills. It's so fool proof even a 73 year old in a 190 year old body can do it. After that, they just need to lie about not paying and then blame the reporters who call them out on it as "Fake news libtards".
Ya know . . . on the surface . . . the concept of a percentage of minority contracts is not a bad theory.
The problems start when these "minority" companies put their own "minority" status above quality work.
By no means am I saying all minority owned companies are guilty of such, but it's the old "A few bad apples & public perception" reality.
My first year out of college I was placed at Garrett Enterprises by the staffing services company I was using. After spending most of my first morning being paraded around to his various business partners as a shiny new object I declined the posting and didn’t return after lunch. It was obvious to me that they didn’t provide any goods or services and I was floored to learn that he wanted me there to do accounting work when my experience and degree were focused on information systems not accounting or bookkeeping. I was not at all surprised to see Socrates Garrett and his company involved in this fraud. In fact, I am more shocked that it took 17 years since my encounter with him for someone to file fraud charges.
this guy is a genious it took him 4 hours to understand a business. I wonder why he didn't have a job upon graduation
I’m a lady, not a guy (nice for you to presume what sex I am) and it’s called professionalism and class. I waited until an appropriate break to depart.I guess I shouldn’t expect an internet troll to understand how to act appropriately in that situation. Regardless, I am surprised it took so long for Socrates Garrett’s sham to be litigated.
Everybody downtown ever knows Socrates Garrett, Andrew Jenkins, Leroy Walker, Howard Catchings, Frank Dixon, Elmore Moody, Ben Minnefield, Porter Bingham, Harvey Johnson, John Calhoun and about 3 others are bogus as a 3 dollar bill, and have been playing this game for years. The whole system is rigged. FACT: JSU starts a new Engineering Department so AA's can get involved in city contracts. How may new engineering companies are now in effect and participating? ANSWER: NONE.
Amazing how a commenter can make a blatantly slanderous post against several minority contractors in Jackson with no facts to back them up and NO ONE call them on it in 3 days! Sounds like someone who is angry that the gravy train no longer fills their trough the way it did pre-1997.
All of the Hinds County judges have recused themselves. Will be interesting to see who gets appointed to handle the case.
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