Jackson First Consul Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued the following statement.
"In the interest of transparency, we are releasing the following internal communication between the Mayor’s Office and the City Council regarding the ongoing garbage collection issue.
Our objective is clear. We want our residents to know that we have taken enormous efforts to secure a garbage collection contract. We have gone through three separate RFP processes in the last several years. A slim majority of the City Council has refused to accept the contract of the top-rated vendors in the last two RFP processes. First, it was FCC Environmental and now it is Richards Disposal.
Despite the litigation and the looming deadline on the emergency contract, we now know Richard’s has proven it can do the job of garbage collection in Jackson and at a much more affordable rate than that of the other vendors. Richard’s is the only one willing to honor its price on the RFP. Therefore, there are no other options or other companies to negotiate with. These savings are noted in the attached letter. Additional information can be found on our Facebook page.
We also feel compelled to refute a false narrative that has been created among some council members and their attorney that the Mayor has done nothing. As noted in the letter, the Mayor reached out to the council president four months ago to try to resolve this issue. He even sent letters to the vendors to confirm if they would honor the original RFP prices.
The battle over a garbage contract has been an extremely unfortunate situation. But it was avoidable. The selection of a successful company that could and is now doing the job, while saving the City millions in taxpayers dollars, is in the best interest of Jackson residents. That is who we serve.”
36 comments:
You got the council you deserve Mayor.
That letter is so much better if you'll read it using Baby Chok's voice in your head.
"Your honor, we not only deny the allegations, but we deny the alligator!"
- Algonquin J. Calhoun
That’s way too long a statement when the mayor could have just said “my way or the highway.”
The statement “we serve the taxpayers” is farkin appalling
The mayor did not write that. How do I know? Because he didn't end each sentence with "right?"
There is a much bigger issue here than Trash! They all want a piece of the $$$. Why in the hell you think they ran for their respective offices. It damn sho ain’t to help the citizens of Jackson!
What is Lamumda’s favorite word? You guessed it, it is “transparency”.
Chuckles has something up his sleeves . Soon as the counsel approved Richards for the contract. Mr.Chuckles is going to try to raise the rates. Slapping the great citizens in the face yet again. None of the other contractors wants to honor the old outdated RFP because the cost has went up, and the current inflation rate. The only reason (Richards, Mr.Chuckles, Socrates, and Pimp Pickett) is surviving now is because they are getting there employees from halfway houses paying them a low rate.
As an attorney who passed the bar on the first try (Chok will get it), this man is completely out of his league.
This was his plan all along and it is painfully obvious to everyone. Shameful.
Any of you all ever walk into the movie theater after the show had started and watched it till the end and then stayed until it started over? Then watched it from the start until it came to the part where you initially walked in?
Well, that's how we ought to feel right now. This is where we came in months ago. Are we going to watch the damned thing all over again? How many times?
at the outset of the garbage fiasco the Mayor was proud to say that he can walk the fine line, he knew how to operate in this complex legal space. Mr. Mayor, the MS Supreme Court has corrected you. The city is desperate for strong Leadership vs. posturing. Let's move on from garbage and focus on water, crime and infrastucture with all the omnibus $$ to save our Capitol City
Water
Sewer
Trash
Potholes
Crime
Nothing gets accomplished in Jackson. The wheels on the excuse bus keep going round & round.
Y'all can play your blame game all you want, I'm living comfortably in Rankin County.
8:47. Add library, zoo, airport, schools, JRA, JPD, JFD on and on. Everything he touches turns to shift.
Kudos to the City Council members that are calling BS on Lil Antar.
Please change the heading of this website as follows:
Jackson Jambalaya -
A website of commentary on the cultural jackassery at Jackson City Hall.
[If you stopped here looking for anything else, please move along.]
Remember this is the moron that claimed after the state Supreme Court ruled against him… this doesn’t change anything!!! Now you know why he never made it as a lawyer.
"The wheels on the excuse bus keep going round & round."
You left out the part saying, with the flat tire thump, thump, thump sound.
5:06 there are a lot of activists, organizers, agitators, etc that have law degrees that couldn't hack it. Apparently, they aren't hard to obtain.
5:06 AM is 100% correct.
Mayor Clarence V. Royce, the fictional mayor of Baltimore, on the HBO series, The Wire, would be so proud of Mayor Lumumba.
So, what do y’all think? The mayor is getting kickbacks or keeping from getting whacked…or both? Or some other form of bribery? There has to be some form of nonsense going on behind the scenes.
Please people, try to stop pretending that one man controls government functions at any level. That is just not true.
Nor is it true that the problems happened overnight or over weeks or months or a few years.
The city council has NOT made it clear what changes they would make in the RFP process even when the 96 gallon can stopped being other than an option. Waste Management should know that not everyone who withdrew from competing on that RFP is dead.
You want o report on corruption in government? There's your story.
Trying to play " who do you like best?" or " Choose up sides" is how you get snookered. Those are games for children, not grown-ups!
Put up or shut up with facts about or suggestions to improve the process. It's the process Stupid!
In the fascist twilight zone of this little emperor's mind, core responsibilities of civic duties are ignored, even despised, until basic service is rancid with neglect, then in the real world the Governor or the feds take over, businesses shut down and leave town, institutions drill their own water wells, the State Supremes unanimously and the auditing firm decisively prove him an idiot wastrel, even as this fake mayor is content to whine and wallow in his own 52 million gallon shit show.
@9:11am:
We in Jackson tolerate what is known as a Strong Mayor, Weak Council form of government. For this to work in a responsibly governed City, the Mayor must be a practical planner, duty fulfilling leader and an achiever who wants his city to grow and prosper in a real world sense, not a marxist madman who shirks his duties in favor of his mental disorder, like a Caligula or a Nero or a Lamumba.
For a comparison, examine the past 25 years of remarkably steady leadership from Mayor Magee, gradually bringing Ridgeland up and up, with only a slight few trips sideways. All employees of the City of Ridgeland that I have met, including Cops and Engineers, are proud to work there and genuinely respect, even admire Mayor Magee.
9:11 is from the Mayor's regime. You can bet on that.
9:11 AM the City Council has made it clear that they want twice weekly collection with no mandatory fixed single cart. RDI was not the RFP winner in that mode.
@9:11
Thank you Sistah Souljah errr Rukia.
The RFP process requires the "lowest and best bid." Everyone who wants Richards to take the job go for cost but do not undertake the "best" part. Richards was the least cost, but they wanted to saddle everyone with a huge garbage can that not everyone could handle (especially the elderly and physically challenged citizens). And as for reputation, if Richards is so good how come they got booted out of making collections for their own home town (New Orleans)? WM may not be the cheapest but definitely more experienced.
Mayor needs a mathematics refresher as well as a law refresher. A "slim" majority is still a majority under the law. Maybe he should join the Trump campaign that believes losing by a slim majority is not a loss at all.
9:11, literally ONE MAN refused to allow anyone but Richard's to win the bid.
One single person ruined that.
And your refusal to accept that he is to blame for this or anything sounds very much like Chuckles himself.
I hope someday you demand better for yourself. You don't deserve the crap hole that you live in. And only you can fix it. A great start would be leaning what real leadership looks like.
@911 - you leave out one detail, a very important detail.
Once the 96 gallon carts were omitted, Richards was no longer the lowest and best bid; at that point, WM score was the best.
This was not a request for quotations, but a request for proposals. As such, the entire response is evaluated with price being one of several factors evaluated and rated.
Richards had the lowest score on the twice a week with carts response. WM had the lowest score on the twice a week without carts. The Mayor has not been able to get around that hurdle, even though the evaluation team that did the ratings were all appointees of his administration.
He presented the Richards' proposal for 2x with; and it was turned down. He cannot present the Richards' proposal for 2x without, because he cannot present it as being the best response. And he refuses to present another option. He got around this dilema for a year by awarding the contract under his so-called "emergency". (Must be neat to be able to create one's on emergency; lets you get around state procurement laws by refusing to do anything timely. )
Mayor's only option offered today is the 2x with carts; ergo Richards. The Council has said they do not want carts; ergo they will not approve the Mayor's proposed contract.
Ball bounces back to the Mayor's court - and his only option is to propose a 2x without carts under the old RFP and enter into negotiations with WM - something he is loath to do.
And - little said, with Richards 'agreeing' to honor their earlier response, and despite all the Mayors jabbering about inflation, rise of fuel, etc - the RFP provided for a CPI price adjustment yearly, so his favored partner would not be suffering as suggested but would receive a hefty increase in price. Just as WM or any other vendor would, of course, and entitled to do. But Mayor Jabberwokky wants to hide that detail in his 'transparent' campaign about the cost of the contracts.
I seem to remember a COJ stipulation that jobs not be affected. The Richard's bid included the carts so that the truck could lift and dump. With the COJ's requirement, they had to add a headcount to each truck. Is THAT the bid being referenced, or the original that did not include this mandate?
The city council is and has been ineffectual since I've lived in MS.
Their public meetings are chaotic because their rules are all but non-existent.
The few competent members willing to actually learn something about an issue or policy don't last. They give up in frustration.
They do love being seen and heard pandering to any fool who appears before them. They don't ask intelligent questions. Only one tried to explain issues to his constituents.
But, Lord knows this crew is always "camera ready".
In Jackson public meetings are a waste of time. You have to remember these are the same people who voted for these fools.
The point is sometimes being missed. The State Auditor should prepare now to follow the money and track political donations from the Richards entities and friends. to our fine mayor. This is the quid pro quo and it has now been embedded in our local city government.
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