Jackson Jambalaya

If the debt is being written off that means people will recieve 1099s for the discharged debt right?

Who was the person at HHS who made the misrepresentation to the City about the 20M?

Ted Henifin is a true democrat. He Lisa’s out of both sides of his mouth. What a pathetic loser. Same old, same for the peoples of Jackson.

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Looks like stokes was right !!!

Once again, truth is stranger than fiction, or you can’t make this shit up. Take your choice .

It's against state law to forgive utility bills, but breaking the law is business as usual, right?

" Da mayor been layin' up in dem clubs smokin' too much dope".

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Members of the Jackson City Council are finally getting a look at the city’s expenditures for 2021 – and the numbers are not good.

Monday, auditors went over findings in the 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which outlines the city’s financial activities for fiscal year 2021.

According to findings, the city’s water and sewer department experienced a roughly $17.6 million shortfall that year.

Meanwhile, sanitation was short about $3.8 million “and that was subsidized by $3.8 million from other funds, primarily the general fund,” said Scott Hodges, with Tann Brown and Russ CPA.

Sanitation...seems like that has been in the news.

Also you might be surprised to learn that...according to the people it hires as auditors...City of Jackson apparently has some 'issues' with accurate financial reporting...

Hodges informed the council that auditors are also delayed due to fixing major mistakes not addressed by the finance department.

“The city should be able to hand us a financial report that is accurate, and we might have to make a change here or there. But we should not be having to change two-thirds of the numbers on every page as we do,” Hodges told the council. “I didn’t bring a copy of the draft that I received with my pencil markups, but I can assure you that you will be appalled at the amount of corrections that had to be made.” https://www.wlbt.com/2023/03/07/audit-reveals-176m-shortfall-water-sewer-38m-shortfall-sanitation/

"The city should be able to..." OPINIONS VARY!!!

Fraud has ... I believe ... a legal definition.
Perhaps Ted may need to check with "The Judge" for assistance with that.

Mississippi Constitution section 100; Mississippi Code section 21-17-5(2)(g).

11:59 - This is just incompetence

5:29 a.m. I just reviewed that entire section and, unless I missed it, there is nothing there regarding forgiving water bills or other debts owed to a municipality.

Again, I might have missed it. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What a cluster-

Promises made....promises not kept.

The continuing Lumumba incompetence.

“…I can assure you that you will be appalled…” Assuring the Jackson City Council that they will be appalled is a fool’s statement.

Maybe the millions were sent to a Swiss account by mistake? It could happen, right?

Lyin Lumumba and Lyin Henifin. You can't make this s$$t up.

Only a pathological lying sociopathic Marxist can lie with a straight face to the cameras. Right Chowke?

"Equity"-the path to glory.

Henifin sees himself and his efforts as above the law. That is the bottom line.

They are "forgiving" the $13M in anticipation of the future commitment of LIHWAP funds. How far behind is the other $80M in revenue shortfall? And, when it's all done, it will be touted as a huge win for the administration and the citizens of Jackson...please vote accordingly.

And if there's a CONSPIRACY to illegally give away public funds...

Kenneth Stokes went on news camera and told people it was a scam. Lumumba went on news camera and said don't listen to Stokes!

Good job, Mr. Stokes. Appreciate you trying.

"City officials declined our request for comment."

The mayor looooved attempting to take credit for obtaining that $20 million grant for debt "relief" when it fit his narrative, but radio silence when the truth comes out... shocker! Looking forward to his Monday presser when he will find some way to blame the state for the oversight.

Did anyone ask why the city still had nearly 75% of the original funds available in the first place if they were stating they needed another $20 million? How much was the first grant that went largely unspent and how long had it been available?

I'd like to know how much the city is paying "Promise Pay" for their help with this campaign that could've been accomplished with an accounting journal entry if we're just writing off bad debts now..... absolutely ridiculous.

We already knew we couldn't trust anything that came out of Lumumba's mouth, but now we've got to worry about Ted too.

@8:32 you are correct about Henefin. A lot of that is because of his arrogance. I've met him and spent time with him. He's a very capable water/sewer guy. But there are plenty of capable water/sewer folks in this country and in this state. Henefin thinks of himself as some sort of guru that "reinvents the wheel". But the wheel doesn't need to be reinvented. We all know that a wheel rolls smoothly when perfectly round. Any other shape (square, octagon, oval) is less efficient.

Henefin is very liberal and believes in big government. He can't seem to understand that the best way is often the simplest way. He wants to show his "genius". It's really simple. Produce clean water and sell it. Bill what you sell and get paid for it. Maintain the water plant and the pipes using the money that you collect. He's honestly not capable of doing that because he doesn't have business sense.

It's typical federal government. The same folks that have declared Henefin a genius or a guru (the feds) are the same folks that have us $31 trillion in debt).

You have the idiots in the white house telling the idiots in the mayor's office wrong information. What a glorious sight. It can't get any better than this. Do you think the mayor will throw his fellow radicals in the federal government under the bus. Interesting situation.

And you wonder where the $20 million will come from now, where look at our Jackson mayor's response to the mayor of Byram trying to pay $5 million to get out of Jackson's water situation. (https://www.wapt.com/article/best-home-equity-loan-rates/43316854)

Lumumba said Tuesday. "I'm not simply going to say, 'Yeah, I’ll take your $5 million,' and then later determine that what we’ve invested and what they have to buy out is actually valued at $20 million, right? So, it's a bit premature to speak to that."

Water is a money maker all other places.

Why should this out-of-towner care about the Mississippi constitution? The guv doesn’t, neither do the legislature and supreme court, or mayor mary. He’s a quick learner. Constitution be damned.

This mayor is an imbecile. I live in Jackson in the middle of this mess but every time this guy steps on his dick I still find enough humor to laugh out loud.

Some fault finders here should also include those who don't pay bills out of a sense of entitlement and especially the slum lords who may have a million dollars worth of run down hovels.

If the slum lords were forced to pay the water/sewer/garbage bills for their 10-20-50 rental properties, then these property owners could adjust rents accordingly and the City could hit 10-20-50 accounts with one stone.

Pretentious but maniacal Endorphins flow righteously in the veins and brains of civil servants who act like rulers. Both Henifin and Lumumba see their jobs as autocrats/dictators, immune from accountability.

Let's help Council members beat them down to size with shame, humiliation and the Law.

Jackson, where Kenneth Stokes is your voice of reason and moral compass.

I don't think Labamba was intentionally lying, he, as usual, didn't know what he was talking about. Ignorance and incompetence at its best.

From the WLBT article:

"According to Code Section 21-27-27, 'no free service shall be furnished by any such system, or combined system, to any private person, firm, corporation, or association.'

"The Mississippi Constitution also states that 'no law granting a donation or gratuity in favor of any person shall be enacted except by the concurrence of two-thirds of the members’ elects of each branch of the Legislature.'

"Henifin believes the Constitution as well as a state statute, is open to interpretation and does not necessarily refer to uncollectible water/sewer debt."

So now Henifin is an expert in statutory interpretation and the Miss. Constitution. That statement has Lumumba's fingerprints all over it.

I read the entire article.

How much should the average water bill be? I know my bill ( sprinkler system, two teenage girls with friends who visited, 3 baths, laundry with sink as well as washers and dryers never, ever was more than $125 a month in a drought.
The debt list starts in 2017 and doesn't specify whether interest or late fees are included in the amounts. In that time period my water bill would have been $9000 if I'd never paid AND we had no rain at all!
Frankly, with a city of 100000 back then infrastructure must have been leaking in gushes for a very long time...and every fire hydrant gushing as well... so very long in fact that white folk can't be blameless.
How about freedom of information for every Mayors water bills and Kenny's ( since he's been on the council forever). KF, you should know who the political power brokers in Jackson white and black have been...request theirs too.
And yeah, misinformation from a bureaucrat who was likely given the wrong information is not " news"...it's as common as pennies used to be.
And, NOT one of you say what you'd do to get the money and what you'd do for the children of those who can't pay? What's YOUR fiscally responsible plan? Want to jail them for more tax dollars? Litigate it court?
God, I'd not want any of you in charge of a dollar of my money! You'd never get a dollar's worth out of it, you'd spend a hundred grand trying to find a way to make the dollar buy something without any idea of what the actual return is likely to be.
And, KF, your piece didn't say if the State was responsible for the missed deadline or notified the city that a deadline existed ( was there a State deadline added?) and what was needed to meet it. That's how politicians "punish" their opponents and make them look bad. And, again, the city council seems to have been " let off the hook". Seems I remember a couple of council members who left in frustration who tried to make some headway in improving decision making but...geez they were well educated and African American.

10:01am
As does the Governor and some members of the City Council and every slum landlord in the city.
Also,nobody seems to remember the broken pipes and water wasted in two office buildings downtown, right?
For God's sake, stop focusing on black/white and partisan BS and focus on what is needed to get good government. It ain't some "pretty boy", it's systematic change and good laws!

Has 12:48 tried telling his Mayor to take that same attitude and dropping the race BS and just fix it? Because it seems all the COJ residents get big mad at Tate but they still lurve them some Lamumba.

And if you want the State's help, how come y'all don't want it for the CCID and capital police expansion?

How can we "good government" folks know, in the future, when YOU approve of our/state help or not? Its confusing.

6:24, the state constitution provision and the statute cited, while using flowery legalese, actually prohibit the forgiveness of any debt owed to any government entity. To forgive a debt is akin to “pledging the state’s credit” under those provisions, so says a long line of court cases. As a government lawyer, this is one of THE steadfast and unchanging principles we learned. (It also meant, for example, that no govt contract could contain a “hold harmless” agreement.) So for a city-owned utility to forgive debts owed to it is a violation of the state constitution and the relevant statute because it is a pledge of the government’s credit.

I only had two working brain cells left, after reading, or attempting to read, @March 15, 2023 at 12:42 PM, one of those has sadly died.

@12:42/12:48 Not sure what point you're trying to make about water gushing for a long time... I believe the table you're referring to is showing that the balance of uncollectible customer receivables for water/sewer services has more than doubled since 2017 (uncollectible balance increased by $51.7M between the end of fiscal year 2017 and the end of fiscal year 2021). As far as the average water bill, I want to say a recent article mentioned the median for households being $50, but I don't think that includes the wastewater/sewer portion.

If you're wanting to calculate the collection rate for water/sewer, you can use this older article that contains the related revenue for 2017-2020. https://www.wlbt.com/2022/05/16/auditors-jacksons-siemens-settlement-gone-city-spent-money-based-revenues-it-knew-wouldnt-come/

I'd also prefer you not be in charge of a dollar of my money and vice versa, so that's one thing we agree on! In terms of my "fiscally responsible plan", due to the lack of transparency from our city officials, it's a little difficult to develop a plan based on the limited information I have, but I would start by separating the outstanding receivables that are "disputed" due to the Siemens meters from those that should be straightforward (trash fee and minimum wastewater fee) - residents should have to pay the trash fees and wastewater minimums or face cutoffs (that are actually enforced this time). If a resident cannot afford the balance on their account, they should take advantage of the payment plans available. For disputed charges, I'd be in favor of determining a reasonable minimum monthly fee that would be multiplied by the number of months that have gone unpaid, and include that in the adjusted balance owed. My opinion is that if the city completely writes off these balances and does not enforce cutoffs, we will be in a similar situation down the road, regardless of how "equitable" the billing structure is, albeit the uncollectible amounts might be lower due to making some residents pay even more for the same service.

I have no information on the "deadline" other than what was in the article, however I have full faith that if there is any blame to be placed on the state (or even if there isn't), the Mayor will shout it from the rooftops at the first opportunity. So stay tuned!!

Mayor: ruins the water utility beyond repair

Jackson residents: hOw CoUld tAte dO tHiS tO Us??!!???

Lumumba to Henifin about 4 months ago:

"C'mpn, I'll show you how things really work around here."

Will the Judge tell Henifin “No, you may not violate Mississippi Laws and give away water.”

Henefin and Lumbumba both knew they were lying out of their teeth. Astonished that nobody knows the name of the person who supposedly insinuated an idea and then Henefin ran with it. Crock of Shit. He should be fired immediately.

$400,000.00 a year apparently doesn't buy as much as it once did.
As of 8:30pm 3/15/2023 the relief is back on.
Where does one look for a concrete solid "not going to change tomorrow" answer as to what the hell the truth is?

6:24, water bills are addressed specifically in Code section 21-27-27. There are also a few dozen AG opinions, in many contexts, saying that public officials may not forgive debts owed to the entities that they serve.

Keeping digging that hole of spin Ted. Only people falling for your bullshit are the same fools who think Lumumba walks on water and his sycophants in the local media.

Who exactly “forgave” the debt. The city water system is not a corporation, is not independent, it is a proprietary fund of the city of Jackson. Only the Mayor and Board can write off a bad debt and to do so is illegal. So, who ordered the debt written off, who pushed the button or pulled the switch. Who created the secret accounts for no billing. Where the hell is the state auditor and attorney general. Jeez