Jackson Jambalaya

These lobbyists posing as pastors need to have their tax exempt status revoked.

Best job in Jackson, the attorney for the city council.

The mayor is basically saying that he will hold the citizens of Jackson hostage if he does not have his way. Under this form of government the mayor has certain contractural powers which the council can only approve/disapprove. If he chooses gridlock the people of Jackson will have no services. He can live with that, can the city council? It's cutthroat stuff.

Isn’t this going to Mississippi Supreme Court soon?

Bitter political squabbling and the people suffer as a result. All talk, no action!

If I'm the council, I start defunding the positions that fall under the mayors office and are being used for his purposes to take shots at the city council.

Omari and Martin have both broken decorum on multiple occasions, and the communications team has just become the propaganda arm of the Mayor. Save the money and remove the people that are enabling that ego.

The city council is just playing by the new rules set by the mayor- do whatever the hell you want. The court moves too slow to stop it, and the vendor has the leverage to cut off service once the wheels are set in motion, so just make a handshake deal with a vendor you like and blame the other branches of guvment if things go sideways. Fortunately in round 2, WM is not likely to go sideways.

KF: Can Mayor prepare a prejudiced list for RFP to not include WM?

City council never voted to pay Richard's. Mr. Incredible was wrong in his reporting. That's what Ashby says.

It's against IRS regulations for clergy to lobby, but some special categories/protected classes likely get a pass.

9:44 is right and I have been flabbergasted that NO ONE will publicly call out the mayor on this— including the council!!

The spoiled child mayor has COMPLETELY controlled the narrative even what he says are total lies! And the public believes them because they don’t hear anything different!

Council needs to GROW A SET and call the mayor out!! The reason this issue isn’t settled is because the mayor REFUSES to bring the winning bid (from WM) forward for approval! Richard’s Disposal DID NOT have the winning bid!!!!

This is just a fascinating situation, and I applaud Chokwe for realizing that in the current governmental structure, the mayor has all the power, the council has none. You tell me what is in the city charter that can stop the mayor from keeping Richards in this "interim" position for many years? Council is too scared to call the bluff and have trash start piling up.

I guess council could decide to stop funding any positions that are not contractually bound, and are at the discretion of the mayor. That would be an interesting development.

9:38 "...pastors need their tax exempt status revoked."
Agree and the city despot-mayor elevates the "connected" political preachers for a bigger take.

Actually Chokwe, you should know the law and know you are wrong. You will rot when this is over.

1) Fast forward 2 weeks.

2) Council votes to accept proposal and approve Richards contract.

3) Richards is paid, in arrears, every dime Richards says is owed.

4) Reporters scramble to report the obvious, tripping over each other.

5) Mayor enters black windowed car and rolls a joint.

6) Stokes orders three dozen more caps.

7) Kingfish shares a cigar with Meghan West.

8) Salter writes column during MSU work hours.

9) Cowboy Hat mounts mule at Fairgrounds.

Tate and state leaders need to step up and push back on our crybaby mayor. Delbert hosemann lives in NE Jackson and needs to come out against this idiot Lumumba. Delbert can’t lead though. He won’t voice an opinion

Doesn't Chokwe have more important things to do like screw up a water treatment plant?

Honestly, could it be any more obvious that there is something shady going on with this Richard's deal?

PittPanther - Defending ACC Chumps, actually the power, rest with the money. I'm not surprised you don't understand that, that falls inline with the marxist mayor's supporters.

A poster above said it correctly, the city council needs to stand up to the little dictator. Use the power of the purse to push back against the radical troublemaker.

This entire bunch is dirty and crazy.

I’m just waiting for a member of the State Legislature to have the balls to introduce a bill to allow Election Recalls.

11:27. You forgot. Everyone flies first class to Paris to celebrate.

Mayor Lumumba +2000 points
JJ, Councilman Stokes, Foote, and Banks -1500 points

Chokwe just can’t stop winning!

Some here do not realize that Richard's has no contract going forward, only has terms of a settlement. Which includes a settlement payment, ongoing settlement payment for settlement obligation to pick up trash for same rate...until...
The settlement expires when SCMS rules on mayor's veto of a no vote. Once mayor is ruled to not have a veto, RFP process might start again.

@11:29 Thank you for stating the obvious.

Does the RFP statute or law require that, if the Council rejects the first bid submitted by the Mayor (Richards), then the Mayor shall, must, or has to submit the second bid (Waste Mgmt) ?

I believe the Supreme Court will agree with Judge Roberts' ruling that the Mayor cannot veto the Council's rejection of the Richards' bid, and assuming the Supreme Court does that, will the Mayor then be required under the law to then submit the Waste Mgmt bid to the Council ?

If not, here's what I foresee happening and how the Council should respond:

Previously the Council rejected the Mayor's proposed Richards' bid, so then the City had no garbage collection. The Mayor then tried to invoke the emergency situation powers to again submit the Richards' bid, which the Council rejected again. Despite the Council having expressly told Richards to cease and desist and that it would not pay Richards, Richards started doing the work anyway, and then sued the Council to get paid. I think the Council would have won that lawsuit since the Council had made it clear to Richards that it had no valid contract and that it would not be paid. Despite knowing the Council did not and would not approve any contract with Richards, the Mayor once again shirked his responsibility and did not restart the RFP process to get someone else in here to do the job who might be approved by the Council. Richards then threatened to stop picking up the garbage, leaving the City / Council with no one to do it. So the Council got coerced into settling with Richards in order to have someone continue pick up the garbage pending the Supreme Court ruling on the veto issue.
Again, I believe the Supreme Court will agree with Judge Roberts and say that the Mayor cannot veto the Council's rejection of Richards. And it's extremely obvious that, having ignored the Council's prior warning and now having sued, the Council will never approve any contract with Richards, ever. So, once the Supreme Court issues that predicted ruling, then Richards will have no deal, and Richards will once again threaten to stop picking up the garbage, which will once again leave the City with no one picking up the garbage. The Council should say it now, loudly, and over and over that if that occurs...It will be on the Mayor 100% and the Mayor's fault 100% that there is no one picking up the garbage in the City because the Mayor has failed to get other bids for other companies to step in and do the job in order to prevent any such emergency from happening again. The Mayor knows or should know that the Council will never approve Richards, and his failure to be finding another garbage company in the meantime will be his fault and his fault only. Otherwise, despite the Supreme Court's predicted ruling, the Mayor will make zero effort to find another company to do the job, and Richards will keep collecting the garbage without a contract as it has been doing, and will again sue the City to be paid, again under the threat that they will stop and the City is left with no one doing the job again, the same situation we're in now. This will keep happening over and over and over if the Mayor refuses or fails to submit a bid from another provider.
So the Council should make sure the Mayor knows without any doubt that they will never approve of Richards. If the Mayor then fails to restart the RFP process and find another provider, any emergency or failure to have the garbage picked up will 100% be the Mayor's fault period end of story. He'll try to BS his way out of that situation, but anyone with half a brain will see it is his fault and his fault only. (Sadly most, if not all, the people who support or will support the Mayor any way don't have half a brain, so they won't see it as his fault no matter hw clear it will be.)

Chowke better enjoy the winning while it lasts, because it won’t. I think he’ll end up facing criminal charges before this is over. What he’s doing with garbage collection is basically extortion: give Richard’s the contract or else (I’ll let garbage pile up in the streets).

I’ll make another prediction. If the council gives in and awards Richard’s the 6 year contract (despite RD not having the winning bid), we will soon begin experiencing once a week trash pickup while paying for twice a week. Frequently missed pickups was one of the complaints against RD when they worked in New Orleans. I hope the council isn’t that dumb.

If there is an attorney on here, explain this for me please because I'm so confused. How can any city council in the state of Mississippi pay a vendor (in this case, Richard's) when there never was an approved contract between the city and the vendor? I realize in this matter, the city council met behind closed doors & decided to pay Richards, but how can they legally pay Richards?

Chowke may not be a rocket surgeon, but he is dozens of IQ points smarter then the tools on the city council.

That's right, 12:41! Lumumba won the homicide race, the raw sewage release, the no-water marathon, the garbage pile-up, and the veto-eating contest. He can't stop winning!!

9:57 You are right & start cutting salaries or cut positions to help with funding the shortfall. 10:54 You are not too smart!

Ashby Foote West Point Honor grad is also highly intelligent so I’d say he’s way smarter than Lumumba. Not saying that bc he’s white or Republican so don’t start with the race crap

@2:52 PM - It would appear that only you have raised the race card.

There’s plenty of lawyers here — how does the system of checks and balances work? There’s gotta be on. Right? Right??

Citizens should sue the council for paying an unauthorized and fraudulent bill. They have become accessories to extortion and fraud. We are the victims

The Council will not approve Richard’s. The Mayor will not offer another vendor. The trash will start piling up. The people they are supposed to represent will suffer. The NAACP will file a complaint saying the problem is all the State government’s fault due to racism. Nobody except Kingfish will be willing to step up and say it is the fault of Jackson leadership.

As long as the City Council agrees to pay Richards, then they will continue to pick up trash with or without a contract. The council should never have paid them.

A formal contract is not necessary. Richard’s provided the services, the residents accepted the services, Richard’s is entitled to be paid. The amount is subject to discussion, because the so-called contract rate may not control in this situation.

Well, yes and no. The wrinkle was the Council notified RD before it started collecting garbage that it would not pay for the service nor was it authorized to pick up garbage. It would have been interesting to see how the Court ruled with that little twist thrown in. Without that notification, you are completely right. I've read AG opinions saying just that and I think (could be wrong) there are court cases on it as well. However, telling them beforehand is a little bit different.

Notice Stokes said he voted no on paying RD.

All RD "rebate checks" will be mailed to Chowke.

It should have never come to this. All of this should be made into a documentary on how not to run a city.

Why all the animosity of the mayor toward the city council, and the council toward the mayor? It is utterly ridiculous that these two public institutions are suing each other.

Does anyone really believe Chowke's claim that he was sick and thus didn't attend the legislative committee meeting re: Jackson's crime?

It was my understanding that the city council authorized RD to continue garbage pickup in a fairly recent order. If they agreed to that, I don't see how they could not pay them for their previous work.

Damdest thing I've eve seen. No a Mayor can't protest a No Vote of the Council. The 1st Special Judge totally screwed this situation up. It's time mate Law Officials sort this out & bring to a conclusion. The Mayor is way in one his head-. Kenny Stokes sounds like a Rocket Scientist in this situation. It's time to conclude the Circus-

What the heck free the land .... Water you can drink and Garbage pick up ....Chuck Sucks