By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
The phrase – here we go again – alerts us all to buckle up and be prepared for a repeat of something we have already endured. Hearing those words typically makes us cringe and quickly divert our attention to something else.
In the case of trash collection in our Capital City, there has been a lot to cringe at, but we need to stay focused and make our voices heard. We must not forget that at the heart of this costly controversy is a predominantly African-American Jackson City Council working overtime to keep an African-American contractor from picking up our trash. Just ask yourself what that’s all about – sooner or later your answer will come.
Richard’s Disposal was ordered to proceed collecting Jackson’s trash on an emergency basis April 1, 2022. The emergency conditions were created by two primary factors: 1) for months a majority of the Jackson City Council kept voting against a long-term contract with Richard’s – who had the lowest bid in a blind review of RFP bids – instead clearly wanting Waste Management to continue their costly decades-long solid waste collection services, and 2) the existing contract with Waste Management had expired – leaving the City with no trash vendor.
Don’t forget that Jackson City Council sued Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, claiming over-reach of his authority, and the mayor sued back. They were all still in Court when the one-year emergency contract with Richard’s expired March 31, 2023.
With neither the council or the mayor relenting, our trash began to pile up on April 1, 2023. Our trash piled up for 17 days with our elected leaders unable or unwilling to compromise.
As reported previously, it was Ward 6 Council member Aaron Banks, who conceded and changed his long-held opposition to anyone other than Waste Management picking up our trash. Through reversing his vote, a one-year contract was agreed to, and Richard’s began picking up our trash again for a one-year period.
Richard’s Disposal, Inc. never forgot that a majority of council did their best to ice them out of a long-term contract. Ten days into the 17-day period when trash was piling up, Richard’s filed suit for not being awarded a long-term contract. That suit has yet to be settled.
A new Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued by the Mayor of Jackson twelve days ago. Bidders have until December 18, one week before Christmas, to submit their proposals. But now we have a new wrinkle – Richard’s Disposal filed suit the day before Thanksgiving asking the Hinds County Circuit Court to “block Jackson’s newest request for proposals and award the firm a temporary contract,” per WLBT reporting. The new RFP contains language that, depending on the outcome of Richard’s April 10 lawsuit, could mean any potential award from the new RFP process could be terminated.
So much energy, effort and taxpayer dollars have already and continue to be expended. Why you ask? Because a majority of Jackson’s majority-black city council members refused to award the black contractor from Louisiana a long-term contract. They wanted the white-owned multi-national corporation, Waste Management, to continue their decades-long and very expensive services.
Ward 1 Council Member Ashby Foote is one of three council members who have consistently supported the status quo, thereby preventing a black company from having a long-term trash collection contract. Now he is counting on Jacksonians having a short memory. In talking to WLBT about the new RFP process and the Richard’s lawsuit – attempting to change the narrative – trying to flip responsibility away from the city council and onto the mayor, he said, “The attorneys for Richard’s seem to be doing the best they can to create a legal hairball out of the garbage situation. Their attorneys portray them as victims of the city council. It is the administration that has acted outside the law and created the quagmire that now entangles city government.”
On WJTV’s Mississippi Insight program broadcast, November 19, 2023, host Byron Brown asked his guest, Ashby Foote, many questions about the new RFP process. Fortunately, it was on my DVR, and will soon be posted on Youtube for all to see.
When Byron Brown asked – ideally with a six-year contract what are you hoping to spend? Foote responded, “Obviously the lesser the better you want to spend, but you also want to get a reliable vendor that can show up every day to pick up garbage when there is supposed to be garbage picked and be there at a time when the residents expect…” He spoke also about the added expense of emergency contracts, “the last eighteen months has been the most expensive garbage collection the city’s ever had.”
At no time in the interview did he take a morsel of responsibility for his role in contributing to the additional legal expenses for the taxpayers. In flimsy discourse he tried to cast Richard’s Disposal as unreliable.
If you closed your eyes and listened, he could well have been mistaken for a Waste Management spokesperson, as opposed to a City of Jackson council member concerned about what’s best and cheapest for all of Jackson. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what The Honorable Judge Adrienne H. Wooten has to say about it.
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