City Council meeting ends abruptly with no garbage resolution after Richard's files lawsuit

Jackson residents will remain without a garbage collection service after the city council failed to reach agreement Monday in a contentious meeting that ended abruptly with an announcement that Richard's Disposal Inc. is suing the city.

The special city council meeting ended eight minutes after it was convened Monday as Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba pulled from the agenda a measure for the council to reconsider awarding Richard’s Disposal Inc. a six-year garbage collection contract.

The meeting, that some longtime observers of the Jackson City Council said was the most contentious in decades, came as the city had endured 10 straight days without curbside garbage collection as opposing sides have continued to spar over the contract.

Lumumba asked the council to entertain an “emergency discussion” pertaining to his decision to pull the item, but Ward 6 councilman Aaron Banks raised a point of order, saying no such emergency discussion was included on the agenda.

“This is not an effort to create any more conflict or strife,” Lumumba insisted, asking the council to trust that they would want to hear his explanation. He said that the decision to pull the item was based on a recommendation of city attorneys.

City Attorney Catoria P. Martin then took to the lectern in an attempt to explain the decision.

637398463 Richard s Lawsuit Complaint by USA TODAY Network on Scribd

“Richard’s Disposal has made the determination that they are filing suit against the City of Jackson," Martin said. "They are appealing this decision of the city council and so therefore that is the reason why I'm recommending to the administration and to the council, that we pull that item.”

“What decision?” Ward 1 Councilman and President Ashby Foote asked rhetorically, given that the motion to award the contract to Richard's failed on April 1, making the vote technically a non-action.

During an April 1 meeting, Foote, Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley opposed the contract. Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee, Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell and Ward 7 Councilwoman Virgi Lindsay supported it, while Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes abstained. The contract needed four affirmative votes to be adopted.

Before Martin could further explain why the mayor was pulling the contract, Foote abruptly gaveled out the meeting.

“OK, she has pulled Item 1, meeting is adjourned,” Foote said. As he exited the chamber many in the standing-room-only crowd there to support Richard’s erupted in jeers and shouts.

“The council meeting is over, now I will speak to the residents and members of the press,” Lumumba said as council members Lee, Stokes, Grizzell and Lindsay remained to listen.

Lumumba said in light of Richard’s litigation, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court, “Right before we came to order,” he would attempt to negotiate another shorter-term emergency contract with the firm to immediately resume garbage collection.

Lumumba said in an attempt to appease council members who have filed a separate lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court to bypass the mayor’s office and negotiate a waste collection contract independently, he would include language in the emergency contract voiding his proposed emergency contract terms if and when the Chancery Court rules in favor of the council.

Lumumba said he hopes to have his proposed emergency contract ready for council action as early as Wednesday, April 12.

Alvin Richard Jr., president and CEO of Richard’s Disposal Inc., was among those attending Monday’s meeting.

“I don’t understand why we have been treated the way we have been treated,” Richard said, defending his employees as having proven they can do a good job. He said all Jackson employees remain on the payroll and are ready to go back to work. Asked whether his firm might consider a shorter-term emergency contract even while suing the city, Richard said, “We’ll consider it.”

The council did take one vote Monday, on a late-added agenda item to dismiss the council’s lawsuit should a settlement be reached prior to the April 17 hearing. The item failed on a 4-3 vote.

“This was thought about at great length over the weekend,” Lindsay said. She expressed hope there “could be some sort of settlement among us before this has to go to court.”

Noting that Lumumba had reached out to all three vendors participating in last year’s RFP and that only Richard’s had agreed to honoring the terms, Lee added, “We feel that the mayor has done his job.”

The motion failed along similar lines to the rejection of Richard’s contract with Foote, Stokes, Hartley and Banks opposed. Lee, Lindsay and Grizzell voted in favor.

The council was told thus far $200,228 had been spent on attorney fees in that case and that only $400 currently remains in the budget for such fees.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has notified the city it is in violation of the statewide garbage collection law for cities and could face a fine of up to $25,000 per day, according to the mayor’s office which sent the following statement to the media Monday in regards to the letter:

"The City of Jackson received a letter from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality with a notice of violation in regard to trash collection in the city. In that letter, MDEQ has requested that we revise our current Solid Waste Collection Action Plan.

“We knew that our plan for garbage drop-off was an imperfect solution. We also knew that it was a temporary solution. City leaders already have a meeting in place with MDEQ set for Wednesday. It is our hope the City Council will vote to resume curbside garbage pickup before that meeting.

"We know that our residents are suffering and we are working diligently to resolve this ongoing dispute,” Lumumba stated.

After Monday’s meeting adjourned approximately 60 members of the public remained, asking Lumumba and other city officials dozens of questions regarding their trash pickup.

The dialogue included a brief shouting match between Stokes, Lumumba and Jackson Advocate newspaper contributing editor Earnest McBride who asked why three black Democrats (Stokes, Hartley and Banks) were siding with the council’s white Republican (Foote) in opposing Richard’s contract.

Stokes, the only councilman opposed to the contract who remained in the chamber to listen to questions, objected to the question and blamed Richard’s for parking their waste trucks early during the contract at Hawkins Field. He said the bad smell and water runoff from those trucks had adversely affected residents adjacent to the airport in his ward.

“There is no way Richard’s would have put those trucks in a white neighborhood,” Stokes said.

Richard’s supporters in the audience weren’t buying the argument, though. Lumumba said that although the trucks were moved from the airport under a Federal Aviation Administration request, the trucks were empty when parked there. He said there had been no complaint from MDEQ regarding the location of the trucks and that no harm to adjoining neighborhoods had been proven.

Another resident, Diane Nelson, complained that her private dumpster at her business was being overloaded with other people’s trash, now requiring daily pickup. She said that has increased her costs by $800 weekly. Lumumba said the city would work toward giving a credit to residents on their waste collection bills, but that it would be illegal for the city to assume the increased costs of a private dumpster. He suggested better fencing and no trespassing signs might be the best deterrent to keep people from illegally using private dumpsters.

As of late Monday, time had not yet been scheduled for an emergency council meeting Lumumba has promised to call for Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS city council considers Ricahard's contract one more time