Jackson Jambalaya

Exhausting. When is Shad going to investigate the Mayor? As blatant as
all these shenanigans are, will no body stand up to this administration ?

The Emperor better not hire any outside counsel considering that both he and Martin have repeatedly boasted her creds to do it all. She claimed to being an expert during last Thursday's special. Back it up Catoria.

Jackson is trashy enough without those ugly big old honker trash cans blowing in the wind all over the place.

Mayor LaMumboJumbo's concept of an "emergency" is like Putin and Trump's emergencies, so I guess in Putin and Trump's world, the mayor is a genius.

Let’s get the litigation started. We need discovery and that includes all the mayor’s text messages with Richards.

I’m still waiting on the City audit report. Where did the Siemens money go?

Since we're all working together, the clergy and member churches of Working Together Jackson have agreed to take up special collections for the next year to help taxpaying Jacksonians shoulder the cost of defending the city in this unnecessary and totally avoidable lawsuit. The white guilt churches have agreed to kick in double.

As long as I get to keep using my unsanitary multi-colored garbage bags. I've found if you fill the bags properly, tie 'em tight and place them just right they won't float away when the river of surface sewage flowing down my street is running high.

Thank you Mr. Fish! I checked by local news sources -- On Your side, The One to Watch, Focused on you and The C-L -- and NOT ONE had this information. Please accept a tip of my hat to you.

Mayor Lumumba will win this fight. A quality company with an experienced track record was low bidder. End of story.

Why do certain Council members want to die in the ditch to hire WM, a company whose bid was, over the life of the contract, millions of dollars higher? This is the question that needs to be asked.

Virgi,
You will never get support from me again!!! I’ve heard that a lot this past few days. Sick off you siding with mayor!!! Screw you

Hey Shad White, when the hell are you going to do something. The mayor or literally any City of Jackson department need review.

Baby Chowke knows not to leave a discoverable audit trail. His ex parte communications have likely taken place through his gmail account.

I’m still waiting on the City audit report. Where did the Siemens money go?


A lot of us are waiting on that audit report.

@9:27 this is why.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/richards-disposal-new-orleans-3?start=20

@9:16, ROFLMAO

The price of the bid is not the sole consideration. Try harder.

What does this mean for the City Council meeting scheduled for next Tuesday morning when the Emergency Order & the one-year contract with the New Orleans company are set to be voted on - again? This time, the mayor provided a copy of the contract, according to this WLBT report. Cab the Circuit Court judge issue a temporary injunction before then to stop this vote from taking place? delay Thanks for any info on what's next.

https://www.wlbt.com/2022/02/25/jackson-city-council-consider-ratifying-emergency-waste-contract-tuesday/

8:12, what is it that you want Shad to investigate? Where is the 'stealing if taxpayer dollars"?

If you are suggesting that the Mayor is doing something illegal, including for example, taking a bribe (which is what you believe but have nothing to back it up but your supposition) that is not in the Auditor's bailiwick. Such criminal activity is the responsibility of the District Attorney.

Auditor's job is to watch over the spending of tax dollars, not each and every crime a public official might commit. And thus far there has been no tax monet spent on the collection of Jackson's garbage.

9:40. check out Antar's sock puppet Grizzell (4), and the airhead, wanna-be model Lee (2), both of whom were endorsed by Lumumba (never before has a Mayor endorsed a candidate for City Council). They ain't voted against him even one time. Useless as members.

9:27, Why does the mayor insist on the 96-gallon trash cans, which is the only way Richard's is even competitive? Isn't it to make sure the contract goes to Richard's?

@10:50 AM,

It's called pay-o-al, under-the-table, greased palm or just plain BRIBE! Take your choice. Any and all are against state law.

We have two trash issues in Jackson: one is a secret contract for trash pick-up pushed by boy mayor and thrice rejected by the Council; the other is litter which feeds rodents, which in turn feed snakes.

Can some trashy people ever get Jackson nasty enough to make them feel at home?

I don't thing incompetency in and of itself is unlawful.

I read the reviews for Richards by people living in New Orleans. They are mixed, some like them, some don’t. This is what I expected.

The issue is are they competent to do the job? Of course they are. If both Richards and WM are competent to do the job, which both are (and there are many things negative written about WM, too), you go with the lower bid, which was Richards, by millions of dollars over the life of the contract.

This should be an easy win for Mayor Lumumba. Also, I will be very surprised if Judge Kidd issues an injunction. WM can’t come close to proving the elements necessary to obtain an injunction.

1:25. thanks councilperson lindsay for your clarifications

meanwhile, in the real world, WM is preparing to win any and all legal challenges and cases involving the garbage contract.

looks like some people in the mayor's administration will be getting kneecapped..

Those who assume that this mayor is motivated by simple financial greed like most contemporary politicians are barking up the wrong tree. His motivations are far more complicated than that. You must understand his ideology and the fact that he finds it impossible to accept it's failure. He's fighting the fight and he needs allies who are hard to find in Jackson, black or white.
Shad won't find anything on this guy....yet.

Nobody wants the 96 gallons cans. Richards isn't lowest without.

@1:25 can you provide a link the reviews you read? Thanks in advance.

Check with NOLA about the quality of service by Richards. It is lousy! The mayor is playing games to steer the deal and I would bet some kickback!

11:41 - ok. If as you say it is any of the 'titles' you say, then if it happened it is against the law.

And again I will try to impart you with knowledge of the authorities - that would be the province of the District Attorney, not the State Auditor.

See if you can understand the difference. Stealing taxpayer dollars - Auditor. Taking bribes from a company/individual, illegal and criminal - District Attorney.

Now while you and I may believe that what is happening includes that illegal activity, I have nothing to base it upon except my gut feeling and common sense of watching what is happening. Whether the DA would accept that as enough to investigate (which i think should be done) is his call. But even then, there would have been no 'stealing or misappropriating of taxpayer dollars'. Ergo - not the State Auditor,

Get it now or will you again on this post or whatever the next time JJ has a post about the incompetence of Jackson's government ask the question "Shad White, where are you?"

1:25, your second paragraph is wrong as to state law and as stated in the RFP itself.

You don't go with "the lowest bid" you go with "the lowest and best bid".

There were several requirements of the RFP that the bidders had to provide and were, as stated in the RFP, used to evaluate the proposals. Price was only one of the requirements, and in fact was the lowest value on the evaluation scale.

Secondly, Richard's response was the best bid for twice a week with carts. WM was the best bid for twice a week without carts. The Mayor has taken the "with carts" as his choice and what he has presented to the council. If he wasn't willing to consider a bid "without carts" he should not have included that option in the RFP (he/his staff put together the RFP, not the Council.)

But now that the responses have been received and evaluated, he has (based on his actions) decided that the only option is "with carts" - appears he has made that decision because that is the only way he can either (1) award to Richards, or (2) not award to WM. It would have been interesting if Richards had been the lowest on both - seems it would have made the Mayor's case a stronger one. But that's not the situation today, just as it wasn't last October when he tried to award to FCC and refused to consider WM. His problem evidently is that state law would not allow him to put into the RFP words like "WM IS NOT ALLOWED TO RESPOND" because that is clearly his intent.

Question is: Why is Baby Chock so adamant about not willing to deal with WM?

@9:27
I’m a taxpayer and I employe over 65
People in Jackson. I care that’s why it matters. If Richard was white he wouldn’t have a chance
Stop promoting Chokwe. He lives a few houses down from me and has a child in private school with my child and I see him often… no one in the business community or at JCC thinks he’s worth a sh!t… so go bury your head as your obviously misinformed on Richards and legal bidding.

96 gallon cans are designed for mechanical arms OR all garbage bagged within, too heavy for one man to lift full (mechanical arm won't work for all the curb parkers and no one bags all their garbage) {IF you use mechanical arm truck you will LOOSE at least one worker per truck reducing the number of jobs available! PLUS loose bags/bundles outside can are often left behind}
What is the reason they WANT 96 gallon cans?
I've lived with both and can't handle weight of 96gal can and much prefer two guys who'll grab bags and bundles outside can.

@2:21 PM https://www.yelp.com/biz/richards-disposal-new-orleans-3

Waste Management will win in court.
Discovery will be very telling, as all of the Mayor’s (and Dr. Omari’s) text messages and emails will become public (on all their phones).

Mar 1 Jxn City Council Agenda, item 24, pp 89-90

Appears to have newly deleted a requirement for 96 gal rolling waste receptacles in boy mayor's preferred "contract". Richard's Disposal gets a guarantee of payment for "start up costs"? This really sounds like a Socrates styled, up front, shake down fee.

WM has treated my neighborhood so well for so many years I don't want a rude, half-assed NOLA mafia garbage outfit doing a sloppy job here.

9:27 AM
Probably because they're smart enough to realize that WM is the larges waste management company. With the second largest being Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Management_(company)

>With 26,000 collection and transfer vehicles, the company has the largest trucking fleet in the waste industry. Together with its competitor Republic Services, Inc, the two handle more than half of all garbage collection in the United States.[5]

[5] - https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/8220818/a-strategic-case-analysis

4:45, You are correct on the purpose of the provided cans, whether they be the ridiculous 96 gallon ones that Chocke wants, or if they used the 65 gallon ones used by some other communities. And you are correct that with the curb parkers, etc this is not going to be successful here.

But - you are incorrect about your theory that we would loose at least one worker per truck, reducing the number of jobs available. WHY? Because Chocke put a requirement into the RFP that even with the bigass cans, every truck would be required to be 'manned' by TWO hoppers at all times. His complaint is that WM has at times only had one hopper on a truck and that to him is not acceptable. It should be the decision of the contracting company to determine what it requires to be able to provide the service mandated by the contract - how many trucks, how many employees per truck, etc. But Chocke wants, and has announced and bragged, that he wants this utility service to be a jobs program. Thus, the requirement for two hoppers.

That's what makes this whole fiasco so ridiculous. Chocke insists on using the proposal based on carts (which should do as you say and reduce the number of workers ergo the overall cost) AND ALSO having two rather than one hopper.

Makes one wonder - what is the reasoning? Only the Shadow knows, but a hint may be found in the proposal submitted by FCC last October which was based on mechanical arms and cans. The listed EBO (read: Minority Subcontractor) supplier for the cans was a newly formed company owned by --------------- the wife of major financial contributor to Chocke and owner of the M Bar.

Since Richards is a minority company, he did not have to list the required percentage of minority sub-contractors/suppliers. The question of who is supplying the bigass carts for Richards is not known; maybe because it became a (justifiable) issue on the FCC contract.

Don't know this to be fact, but sure seems like a possible 'reason' for his insistence on using the proposal that requires carts. BTW the proposal for collection without carts removes his argument that Richards is the best bid; using those responses to the RFP, WM is the best. Wonders never cease.

Council has played into his hands by, in effect, admitting there is an emergency. If this thing winds up in court, nobody can ever again play the 'there's no emergency' card.

War is soooooo boring.

I love the legal prognosticators on here that boldly proclaim that it is guaranteed that Judge Winston Kidd is going to rule against the Mayor in favor of WM. Any real lawyer who regularly goes to Hinds County Circuit Court, like I do, knows that such a prediction is laughable.

4:14, so which bid is lower, WM’s without carts or Richard’s with carts?

4:32, the white people who belong to the Jackson Country Club, voted for Trump, and get all their news from Fox News don’t like the Mayor? That is a real shock to me.

Kidd is a weak judge. I'd be surprised to see him rule against the Mayor.

What exactly should Shad investigate? He can't just stick his nose into it just because the Mayor and City Council are squabbling over a contract. Someone needs to provide actual hard intel to him or file a complaint. His hands are also tied when it comes to municipalities. He can't investigate them as he can counties and state agencies.


The price of the bid is only part of the score.

As for requiring two workers WITH automation, there is a term for it: featherbedding.

How can WM not be a minority company? WM services my city and I have never seen a white hopper on a truck, never, and there are two trucks, one for trash and one for recycled material. They also do a great job and don't leave trash on the street that spills.

And 8:45, Sir Winston Kidd is probably the most reversed and remanded judge throughout the state. WM certainly won't have a problem with an immediate appeal to COA/SC, and if needed an interlocatory over the need for a TRO.

Thanks for your supporting the theory that Sir Winston Kidd would certainly not rule against a black Mayor and a black company. But if he ever bothered to rule on the law it would make the case more interesting.

Yes, Sir Winston is not as bad as Dame Tommie when it comes to criminal yukes, but that is because he doesn't get those cases generally until they are asking for PCRs. But there his royal record is not that good either.

As to your second question,since obviously you are a mouthpiece for the Mayor, the question is "Lowest and Best" - as defined by the RFP. That's the document that outlined how the responses would be scored and ranked. The LAB responses are all three within decimal points on with carts (between 79 and 81) and without carts the spread is larger.

In our system of government, the choice is not totally up to the Executive (in this case, Baby Boy Mayor). The Council gets to inject its wisdom into the final decisions, although they don't get to (1) develop the RFP; (2) appoint the members of the evaluation committee; or (3) decided what gets offered to them. But this is not the same as the Life Cereal commercial from the early 70's when the boy mayor gets to feed it to the Council and expect them to eat anything.

And to your last point, I'm not a JCC, but I am a 'white people' who lives and pays taxes in Jackson. I did not vote for Trump (for whatever that has to do with this discussion). Nor did I vote for the equivalent idiot that is in the WH today. I didn't want either. And, I don't watch FNN. Nor do I watch CNN, MSNBC, or any of the other cable channels. My issues is not "liking" the Mayor. I don't like his choices, concepts, and methods of operations. BUT, what does any of that have to do with the selection of a garbage collector?

Thanks, 7:43. The wife of the owner of the M Bar, who is a major contributor to Lumumba II, gets to supply the ridiculous and completely unnecessary 96-gallon garbage cans that no one but the mayor wants.

So, it appears the mayor is using a black-owned business to avoid having to reveal the provider of the cans, which caused major push-back when a different company last fall revealed the provider of the cans to be the wife of said campaign donor. Presumably, the can vendor is just a middle-man who gets a cut solely for being a part (an unnecessary part) of the supply chain for a product the public does not want.

Now this whole fiasco makes sense (in a deranged and corrupt sort of way). What took you so long to lay it out for us?

"..the white people who belong to the Jackson Country Club, voted for Trump, and get all their news from Fox News don’t like the Mayor? That is a real shock to me."

The above comment is so typical of the thought process (mentality) of so many black people today. They can't think or comment beyond the ends of their noses and see everything through the prism of race. The mayor is black, so any opposition to his policies has to be based on the fact that he is black.

I'm white, retired with a very nice (earned) pension and retirement plan, do my own yard-work, never belonged to a country club, don't watch cable news and get most of my news right here on this blog...including the news that nothing ever changes when it comes to the assessment of a white person by a black person with a keyboard.

This makes me sad. Why would the mayor break the only city service that works properly? Money should not be the only consideration. Don't know what weight it is given in the RFP. But I would rather pay $2 for a functioning light bulb than $1 for a burnt out one.

There are not traditional winners or losers as in a normal negotiation, where it best tht a win/win is acheived. The customers in the city are the losers. Political camps are fighting to win the most n corruption and paybacks. The actual service provider gets modest profit and employees who need jobs, while risking prison time dealing with the system. Makes me wish the old time NJ style Mafia was calling the shots, Jackson might get better service.

7:43 p.m.:

My money is on WM shedding some light on the relationship between the contractors and the mayor. They probably have the groundwork done and will treat discovery as bonus points.

KF: could the SoS use the WM discovery as grounds to investigate?

I got a question, if Omumba is successful in awarding the new contract to the New Orleans company, what we gonna do with the trash cans we have now???

I thought cascade provides the carts.

Now we’re making progress towards reality: As KF said, Judge Kidd will probably not rule against the Mayor,when he ultimately rules, which may be many months from now. WM will not have an automatic right to appeal; they will have to convince the MS Supreme Court to grant interloc.- granted like 19 percent of the time last time I looked. I do agree with whoever said the Sup. Court often reverses Judge Kidd, but the odds of WM getting to the SC soon are quite low.

In the meantime, Richards will be picking up our garbage.

It’s very telling that nobody wanted to answer this simple question: Which bid is lower, Richards with carts or WM without carts? Your silence is answering my question.

The City of Jackson should have a waste management department. The employees would benefit from the PERS retirement and receive a pension. Contracts do not do this.

The zoo was proposed to be contracted out.

I was at the Jackson Airport and when I paid my parking I asked the tellers if they were contract or employees. They proudly responded employed by The City of Jackson.

This contract business is nonsense to empty trash.

My understanding is RD had the lowest price but not the best overall score. Feel free to correct me. Ever heard of lowballing?

Story on WLBT and in the relevant Council agenda documents show RD's proposal no longer includes the 96 gal containers but RD will take containerized trash, bagged trash, bulky (eg: mattress) trash AND loose trash (litter?).

No way that outfit is gonna do all that for just under $2 per stop ($15/mo).

Court discovery needed.

... RD's proposal no longer includes the 96 gal containers ...

Only for the proposed one year "emergency" service.

Your silence is answering my question.

So YOU don't know the answer. Your laziness is answering our questions.

What silence? This website reported more than once that Richard's had the lowest price. In fact, it is in this post if you bothered to actually read it.

This may help you.

WLBT story on scoring of proposals

To clarify, Richard's only has part of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. This will be the first contract where it covers an entire major city.

"I got a question, if Omumba is successful in awarding the new contract to the New Orleans company, what we gonna do with the trash cans we have now???"

Simple - stick them inside your new gargantuan trash cans and drag them to the curb ;-)

Experienced waste company, already responsible for part of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is the lowest bidder by millions over the life of the contract. WM, with a mouth full of sour grapes, files suit against the Mayor and draws Judge Kidd.

Come April 1, Richards is going to be picking up our garbage.

If it works …..don’t fix it! This is a corrupt mayor
making a corrupt deal to line his pockets. It’s all about race and not qualifications

Read the comments on Richards Disposal New Orleans on Yelp!!

Simply put, when RD cannot fulfill their contractual obligations they will go to the mayor and council and ask/request/demand more money. And THAT’S what O’Lumumba wants, and his share will come off the top!

Lumumba is all about reverse discrimination!!! I mean affirmative action

I emailed Virgi about yard waste pickup in the half a dozen trash cans I use for that purpose. No answer from her and it's never been explained, as far as I can tell. Anyone know the answer to my question about picking up regular cans of yard debris or are they only picking up the 96 gallon can?
I'm on the side of WM simply because it's a known quantity, it works and I feel like I'm paying a fair price. In fact, I expect it to go up thanks to inflation. Regardless, I don't need the City to screw up the only service that WORKS.

1.5 out of 5 stars but the poster @1:25 PM above believes that's just enough modicum of competency to make it good enough for Jackson.

When you think about it, Lumumba's tenancy and stewardship of city services has been a race to the bottom across the board.

There can be little dispute that there has never been a worse administrative Mayor in Jackson's history.

@7:13
Screw Virgi!!!I helped get a lot with campaign while she ran… never again and that list is growing longer each day with people supporting her that now are running