Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Mayor Sues City Council Again

Update (3/23): Circuit Judges Wooten and Green recuse themselves. Case is reassigned to Circuit Judge Faye Peterson. 

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba opened another front in his court fight against the Jackson City Council.  Hizzoner filed an emergency petition for writ of mandamus in Hinds County Circuit Court yesterday against the City Council.

Mayor Lumumba claims the City Council has not approved the minutes since September 2001:

5.         Despite numerous requests by the Mayor since the beginning of his tenure as duly elected mayor for a timely presentation of minutes in accordance with Miss. Code Ann. §21-8-17*, the City Council's consistent  failure to timely present its minutes to the Mayor, and to adopt and approve its minutes, remains an ongoing issue.
The Mayor claims he needs the minutes to perform his job.  He also argues he can not reject or approve any "actions taken by the City Council without being presented the  minutes."  

Waste Management's attorney Chase Bryan entered an appearance in the case today.  The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten. 

* Kingfish note: Interesting this code section is cited.  It merely states the Mayor's duties: 

(1) The mayor shall enforce the charter and ordinances of the municipality and all general laws applicable thereto. He shall annually report to the council and the public on the work of the previous year and on the condition and requirements of the municipal government and shall, from time to time, make such recommendations for action by the council as he may deem in the public interest. He shall supervise all of the departments of the municipal government and shall require each department to make an annual report and such other reports of its work as he may deem desirable. No member of the council shall give orders to any employee or subordinate of a municipality other than the council member's personal staff.

(2) Ordinances adopted by the council shall be submitted to the mayor and he shall, within ten (10) days (not including Saturdays, Sundays or holidays) after receiving any ordinance, either approve the ordinance by affixing his signature thereto or return it to the council by delivering it to the clerk of the council together with a statement setting forth his objections thereto or to any item or part thereof. No ordinance or any item or part thereof shall take effect without the mayor's approval, unless the mayor fails to return an ordinance to the council prior to the next council meeting, but no later than fifteen (15) days (not including Saturdays, Sundays or holidays) after it has been presented to him or unless the council upon reconsideration thereof not later than the tenth day (not including Saturdays, Sundays or holidays) following its return by the mayor, shall, by a vote of two-thirds ( 2/3) of the members present and voting resolve to override the mayor's veto.

(3) The mayor may attend meetings of the council and may take part in discussions of the council but shall have no vote except in the case of a tie on the question of filling a vacancy in the council, in which case he may cast the deciding vote.

 There is a more specific statute that covers the adoption of the minutes.  Section 21-15-33 of the Mississippi Code states: 

The minutes of every municipality must be adopted and approved by a majority of all the members of the governing body of the municipality at the next regular meeting or within thirty (30) days of the meeting thereof, whichever occurs first. Upon such approval, said minutes shall have the legal effect of being valid from and after the date of the meeting. The governing body may by ordinance designate that the minutes be approved by the mayor.

It shall not be necessary for each ordinance to be signed so long as it appears on the minutes of the municipality, which minutes shall have been signed by the mayor or a majority of the governing body of the municipality and certified by the municipal clerk.

Jackson ordinance Section 2-61 states: 

 Pursuant to MCA 1972, § 21-15-33, the mayor is authorized to review the municipal minutes presented by the city clerk and sign the minutes as his act of approval of such minutes. If the mayor is absent from a meeting, the minutes shall be approved by signature of a majority of all councilmembers.

The minutes have not appeared on the City Council website since September 22, 2021.  What is interesting is the approval of the minutes has not appeared on the City Council agendas nor minutes this year. 


56 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does seem this Mayor is grasping at straws.

I'm starting to actually believe the New Orleans gangs have given him a final warning.

Hope I'm wrong.

But watching his expressions & body language during that
(Zoom hearing)... he looked very "sick to his stomach".





Anonymous said...

A creditor of jackson should file suit in bankruptcy court and move to have the city placed into involuntarily bankruptcy.

Have a bankruptcy judge decide all related to issues.

Anonymous said...

Whatever remains of Lumumba's rhetoric agenda is dead on arrival the rest of this term. We'd be so lucky if he accepted an invite from Uncle Joe Dementia to board the sinking Federal ship.

Anonymous said...

it’s all about the missing benjamin’s now..

i’m sure the boyz from new orleans know how to penetrate a gated compound..

Anonymous said...

What would it take to start moving the state Capitol to Forest or some other city???
This clown show has gone on long enough….

Krusatyr said...

Does Audio/Video recording of Council meetings exist? If complete from beginning to end, thence archived chronologically, AV recording is superior to written minutes.

Anonymous said...

They haven’t even approved minutes until six months? So when they do present minutes for approval, who can remember what was said 6 months ago? Council members better read those minutes carefully!

Anonymous said...

5:57 PM
Yep. https://www.jacksonms.gov/city-council-videos/

Anonymous said...

No water, no sewer, no minutes. And Gunn and Hoseman can't get along with a super majority backing them up. Perhaps the Russians are screwing with the brains of everyone in Jackson.

Anonymous said...

I live in Madison (city), and I just want to thank the mayor for the improvement of my property’s value during this disfuncianial administration which increases the value of my estate.

Anonymous said...

Typically, the first order of business in a county supervisor's or city council's meeting it to approve the minutes of the most recent meeting. So, nobody has questioned the absence of minutes for twenty years? And nobody has needed to reference them for any purpose?

Somebody been spreadin' raw boo boo upon dem minutes. What we have here is a need for a scavenger hunt.

Don't nobody got no minutes, Kenny likes seconds said...

I've been a member and or officer in several organizations/clubs that hold meetings, and part of the meeting requires, usually right off the bat, for the minutes of the previous meeting to be read and approved. It's a part of the meeting process. Apparently not so in Chowke's Rules of Disorder. So just WHO is tasked with the job of "keeping the minutes" in the City Council? THAT is who needs to be looked in to, and what they were instructed to do/NOT do by whom. It is often said when it comes to the person recording the minutes,
"the pen is mightier than the sword". Right?

FREE THE LAND!
FREE THE HUH?
F*CK DAT!
HAUL DUH GARBAGE!
HAUL DUH GARBAGE!

By any means necessary.

Anonymous said...

803, thanks for your insight based on your experience with membership in many organizations.

Question: Was even one a public body? An institution that was governed by statutes? As noted above in the language that JJ included in his post, there is no requirement that (1) the minutes of the previous meeting be read; (2) or that they be approved.

That might have been the situation in the meets that you participated in, as is true for many organizations, but it is not what is required of the City Council in a Mayor/Council form of government.

And - I'll bet that you should hold your popcorn a little while longer before you pop it all; you might want to save some for tomorrow and Thursday before you crucify the Clerk of the Council who is the one that prepares the minutes.

And no - the pen is not mightier than the sword when you are dealing with an organization that all their meetings have been recorded and posted on the new modern internet. That adage was not said about a person keeping the minutes (it was much deeper than that, but also probably over your head).

But again, appreciate your input for whatever value it might have had.

Anonymous said...

He’s going to have a hard time explaining how all the other council orders were executed, if he couldn’t function without the minutes. Is the Council Clerk considered “personal staff” of the council, or is the position considered no different than other city jobs? If it’s the latter, wouldn’t the mayor supervise the position, and be responsible for the failures? Who sets the agenda?

Anonymous said...

It is extremely difficult to explain incompetence to incompetent people.

Anonymous said...

I do recall that kingfish noted the lack of minutes, in a previous post. Chockey does read this blog and it’s where he got the idea for this lawsuit.

Macy said...

@5:28.

There is a special chapter of the Bankruptcy Code, Chapter 9, that deals with municipal bankruptcies. I honestly do not know if that chapter permits the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition. I suppose that I could look it up...

I do like the idea, however. You need multiple unpaid creditors for an involuntary filing against an individual or company.

Kingfish said...

City Council has its own clerk.

I'm pretty sure leg would have to change law for a muni bk to take place.

Justice for Jackson said...

God bless you KF for your reporting. You’re the only real journalist left in Jackson. I don’t agree with all of your positions but I do appreciate and respect your efforts.

Anonymous said...

rode by chockwe house couple time earlier...two jpd cars in covenant lot....?

8:03 here back at ya Chowke said...

Yes. From what I have found, the Official City of Jackson City Council Website lists the City Council Clerk as one "Jane Smith" and you can reach her by phone at 111-111-1111. Interesting enough, ole Jane apparently forgot to post the minutes of 15 City Council meetings from May 4, 2020 through December 21, 2020. I guess the Boy Ruler figures ever'thing he and the Council did back then was okie dokie. Right?

Anonymous said...

I'd say Choke Way has a case. How can the Executive take action without documented orders?

Anonymous said...

Whatever the mayor has gotten himself into… it’s very clear he doesn’t have a plan-b to get out. It’s the ga-bich contract.. or else!!

Anonymous said...

His ass Is definitely on the line. There’s no sane executive official who would declare all out war on the legislative branch with 3 more years left in office unless there was a possibility of not seeing 3 more years .

Anonymous said...

At 5:57 - Please spend twenty minutes reading some of the many articles and descriptions (available via your search engine) of minutes. While some of them do mention that recordings (audio and/or video) can be used as an attachment to the minutes of a meeting, none suggest a substitution.

Among all the links I have read (even those recently written), I find such words as; list, type, written, write, notes and documentation. In fact, much of the minutia you will find in video/audio should NOT be included in minutes.

I would also suggest that if you were to roll a video machine into a courtroom and tell the judge you're about to play a three-hour video that serves as minutes of a meeting....he would throw you out of the room.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the Mayor sign the minutes? Oesn"t the Ccity attorney review them for Mayor first? Doesn't the City Clerk, not the council clerk,keep the minutes? The Mayor may have inadvertqntly sued himself?

Anonymous said...

He has obviously groveled to the NOLA knee-breakers to give him one last chance.

Anonymous said...

I think @7:40 is right - doesn't the Clerk work for the Mayor and hired by him?

Kingfish said...

There are two clerks. The Municipal Clerk works for the Mayor . The City Council voted to split the duties a few years ago. The City Council has its own clerk and she is responsible for the minutes.

Anonymous said...

A good corporate lawyer can tell you that crafting minutes is an art form. It’s all about who authors the minutes.

Anonymous said...

The lower number of comments on this specific post for the endless garbage saga makes me think we really do just become numb to the idiocy.

Which is sad and true on both sides of the political aisle.

It feels like we all are being conditioned to just accept sub-par lives while being governed by the mentally ill.

Be it from Palazzo or Lumumba.

(Insert dog in kitchen on fire meme saying "this is fine")

Anonymous said...

KF, who is the "City Council Clerk" ? Doesn't each member have their own clerk and is this person someone else?

Anonymous said...

Like him or not it's more or less a fact that the minutes aren't kept or distributed properly . See, when you replace retiring underpaid employees who do 98 % of the work, those kinfolk you hired to replace them ain't doing shit. And this is a problem in many counties. Taxpayers beware.

Kingfish said...

Shanekia Mosley is the City Council Clerk.

Anonymous said...

>The minutes have not appeared on the City Council website since September 22, 2021.

Well that's demonstrably false. Here's the Council minutes from all of 2021: https://www.jacksonms.gov/2021-council-agendas-and-minutes-2/

Here's the 2022 Coucil meeting Minutes: https://www.jacksonms.gov/council-agendas-and-minutes/

In fact it goes all the way back to 2013.

Anonymous said...

Agree with 9:43 in general.

But at my office we have been able to hire one new young person to do the work that was spread out across 3 elderly employees in many cases.

The labor pool has endless lazy losers. But if you do find the decent ones in the mix and pay them fairly you tend to get better results.

Of course none of this logic applies to public sector since nepotism and political favors are the only hiring criteria.

Anonymous said...

@9:38 PM
KF, we all Know this is you posting anonymously.

Whether Forecaster said...

Unfortunately, just last night, the City of New Orleans was devastated by tornados. Now whether or not New Orleans Mair LaToya declares an "Emergency" and whether or not she grants an "Emergency Contract" to hometown Richards Garbage to clean up the mess is yet to be seen. If she doesn't put Richards to work that tells you something. If she does put Richards to work, he probably won't be able to send his equipment and personnel to Jackson to get started in 8 days. Stay tuned garbage fans!

Kingfish said...

Did you actually open that link for 2022? Because all it has are agendas and board packets, not actual minutes. None. Zero. Nada.

If you actually opened the link you posted to the 2021 minutes you would see no minutes were posted for City Council meetings that took place after September 22.

Anonymous said...

@10:01 - Minutes are different from agendas and packets; I see some agendas and packets post-Sept 2021, but not minutes. .

Anonymous said...

Well that's demonstrably false.

Your assertion is demonstrably bunk, incorrect, wrong.

Rats! said...

Only the Chowke fans in The Fondren and The Belhaven actually believe that there will be garbage services in Jacksistan on April 1, and the April Fool's Joke will be on y'all.

Note to self: buy garbage bag futures.

10:01 AM is Shill said...

@10:01 There are NO MINUTES for 2021 starting on September 27, only agendas!!!!

There are NO MINUTES for 2022, none, nada, niente, zero!!!!

Anonymous said...

So when will they start filming the redo of Goodfellas, Jackson style? Wonder who'll play the mayor.

Anonymous said...

KF The mayor's attorney was hired to obtain a declaratory judgment stating that under state law and in these circumstances he had the authority to declare an emergency and execute an effective emergency contract. That's all.
They argue that point but then try a back door attack on the council's failure to follow administrative procedure (minutes) It means the judge has got to decide whether the minutes are relevant. That alone could now be an emergency situation. It could be a pivotal issue either way and it could turn out to be a damn good tactic for the mayor's "emergency" whether you like him or not.

Anonymous said...

May have been asked, but how much has this cost the city due to this azz hat's actions?

Anonymous said...

Wow. All because lone of the owners is black
Would this be happening if Richards were a white male?

Kingfish said...

Yes. See FCC.

Now what would happen if the Mayor dropped his 96 gallon garbage cart requirement?

Anonymous said...

Would bet a bonafide poll (defensible sample) of Jacksonians who pay for garbage service would be > 70% against the 96-gallon cans. Have no doubt that Grizzell, Lee and Virgi are significantly on the wrong side of their districts on that question. Lumumba still hasn't produced an iota of proof that the Council asked for the cans.

Lumumba: Fact: The contract would include twice a week pick up and with a cart to make the City more sanitary and remove the eyesore of multi-colored garbage bags in our neighborhoods. The cart option was selected by the City Council after discussion with their residents.

Anonymous said...

"The Wire" was modeled after Jackistan, not Baltimore. You read it here first.

Krusatyr said...


Verify: Richard's dropped the 96 gal personal dumpster inclusion in their latest iteration, and their twice weekly pick-up went to $15/mo which matched the preceding twice weekly WM proposal of same service for same price?

Of course everyone knows Richard's cannot match WM quality, so not the same service except by subjective description.

Dickinson has quite a Lamumbian knot to unravel.

Anonymous said...

Are the two patrol cars/officers in baby chowke's compound there to repel the Huns crossing his moat?

Anonymous said...

People are furious with Virgi!!! The traitor. What a gimp.

Anonymous said...

Are the two patrol cars/officers in baby chowke's compound there to repel the Huns crossing his moat?

Apparently they are watching out for strangers who look a lot like Luca Brasi or Danny Trejo. You never know.

Anonymous said...

It looks like NOLA is in the process of revamping it's garbage situtation, makes you wonder if Richard's may be "out" in NOLA. https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_67d161b6-7555-11ec-9f6a-b7cd66c138c7.html

Anonymous said...

Krusatyr, RD only walked away from the 96 gal cans for the purposes of the emergency contract. Lumumba wants yet another RFP.



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