Quite a few Hinds County residents are furious after Waste Management notified them this week there will be some major changes in how their garbage is collected. Although customers are mad at the company, it was the supervisors who agreed to these terms in the contract.
Waste Management sent out this email.
Bagged up your pine straw? You're out of luck. Need another cart? No problem. Waste Management will provide another 96-gallon cart but, there is always a "but", the customer has to lease the cart at $11.67 per month. Thus the customer will pay a grand total of $864 over 6 years if he gets another cart.
Customers are understandably mad at Waste Management, however, it is the Hinds County Board of Supervisors who agreed to the contract. No attempt was made to modify these terms.
If the cart is stolen, Waste Management will replace it free of charge - if the customer provides a copy of a police report to the company. Sheriff Jones is just going to love that new chore. However, the deal gets even better.
Hinds County customers pay for garbage collection through their property taxes. State law caps the taxes used for garbage collection at seven mills as long as Hinds County's population was over 250,000 residents. Hinds County's population fell below 250,000 in the last census. Thus, Hinds County must reduce the millage to six mills, a reduction of $430,000 in dedicated property tax revenue. The county is going to pay an additional $1 million to meet the terms of the contract.
The approved contract is posted below.
Kingfish note: The Supervisors took the contract "as is" and didn't try to change any of the terms. However, the Board was not in much of a position to negotiate. The Board dallied when the old contract expired. Waste Management agreed to a 90-day extension in March. The Board continued to dally when it suddenly "found" another proposal by a local politically-connected competitor and started considering it the week the extension expired. Waste Management said it would not agree to another extension. Hence the new contract and its terms.
14 comments:
So, when is WM going to push that kind of new contract onto the cities of Rankin County? And if they do, are our supervisors going to pay enough attention to push back on stuff like that??
With such greasy palms how were those supervisors even able to hold the contract in their hands?
10:16, I think think was hardly a push. It looks more like a default. Richard's must have been whispering some big promises.
So, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors stuck the county with one last act of incompetence on their way out the door.
In this day and age and all things considered, I don't think this is a particularly bad deal. Nothing is free; everything costs money; costs are never static.
This should have cost McGowan his primary.
10:16 contracts are not pushed, they are agreed upon. Or not. That, by definition, is a contract...when two or more parties agree to something. Here endeth the lesson.
I wondered why the board of supervisors did such a bad job - or no job at all - of communicating such a big change in garbage collection to residents. Turns out, it's apparent no one on the board read the new contract - looks like they didn't know until WM posted its flyer on Facebook. Vern Gavin's wandering explanation on local TV news set a new low for explaining things.
Three, possibly four supervisors are on the way out in January. And they have bound the next board with an unpopular contract. Hmmm. Wonder why they agreed to such a WM friendly contract at the 11th hour?
If you watch the Jacksonians 4 Jackson Facebook livestream of their meeting with Lumumba, he actually mentioned the automated arms with respect to the Richard's contract he was/is pushing *with* the carts. He said he wanted Richards because it was the cheapest, but also because they would have 2 hoppers per truck (this is in addition to the driver) and said with the 96 gallon carts, they use an automated arm to pick them so it's really easy (paraphrasing). Not sure why he thinks they'd need 2 hoppers with automated pickups, but found it more interesting that he finally mentioned the automated arms to begin with.
Don't get me started on some of his other responses/excuses to questions posed. Tried to blame the former 3rd party auditor (and current auditor) for the financials being consistently late, credited himself for getting the federal funding for water, etc.
Actually, at 6 mills, the taxes for garbage collection for a $250,000 home is only $150 per year. Compare to the amounts added to the water bills in the cities. $150 per year is quite the bargain. The owner of a home worth $125,000 pays half that.
Attn 8:27 PM. Thanks mayor Lamumba for that explanation.
There was a time when an investigation would have taken place. Brings back memories of when a “sting” was set up to arrest Hinds Supervisors in the 70’s for placing culverts and gravel at homeowners residences to gain access from the main roads. Correct me if I am wrong but, several supervisors had to serve time. But, they were white.
So what do people do with their bagged up pine straw
@ There was a time when an investigation would have taken place. Brings back memories of when a “sting” was set up to arrest Hinds Supervisors in the 70’s for placing culverts and gravel at homeowners residences to gain access from the main roads. Correct me if I am wrong but, several supervisors had to serve time. But, they were white.
That would be the Operation Pretense FBI sting in the 1980s. It was statewide and not just about culverts and driveways. The investigation resulted in felony convictions or guilty pleas involving 56 of the 410 supervisors in twenty-six of the state's eighty-two counties. More than a few guilty former supervisors were left unscathed, apparently because former officials didn't interest the feds. And yes, I knew some of them.
And regarding the cans:
https://www.wapt.com/article/hinds-county-supervisors-vote-to-stop-distribution-of-garbage-bins/45550855
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