Jackson MS councilman's ordinance would ban rehiring Richard's Disposal. See why

The introduction of an ordinance that would have prohibited the city from awarding any solid waste contracts to Richard's Disposal Inc., died on the floor without a vote at the Jackson City Council's Tuesday meeting.

The potential ordinance was placed on the agenda by Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, who complained that the city's trash collection services, as well as issues with litter, have gotten worse since Richard's Disposal took over.

"Our streets are trashy, our neighborhoods are trashy … when we ride through our wards we all can see it. The past performance is poor," Stokes said.

Richard's Disposal Inc. is currently under a 1-year emergency contract with the city that is set to expire on March 31. Richard's Disposal also has filed two lawsuits against the city: one for not granting the company a long-term contract, another attempting to block the city's latest trash collection request for proposals.

See Richard's Disposals lawsuits: Richard's Disposal filed a lawsuit to block the latest RFP issued by the city. See more

As soon as Stokes' item was presented at Tuesday's meeting, Ward 6 Councilman and Council President Aaron Banks suggested that the council discuss the matter in a closed, executive session then send the introduced ordinance back to a committee for further deliberations.

Banks said he had concerns that Stokes' ordinance could have an effect on the city's RFP for garbage collection, which was responded to with bids from two companies. One of those companies is Richard's Disposal.

A lengthy discussion ensued, but most of it did not focus on Stokes' ordinance. Stokes, Banks, Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley — the same council members who voted against Richard's Disposal for a long-term contract with the city last year — all said they were upset that a selection for a garbage collection vendor had not been chosen for the council to vote on yet.

On Jan. 18, Lakesha Weathers, the city's solid waste supervisor, told the council a recommendation for a new garbage collection vendor would be made either by Feb. 1 or at their next meeting, on Jan. 30. That did not happen.

On Feb. 20, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba announced a vendor for a long-term garbage contract had been selected by the panel of six within the city's Solid Waste Division. The panel is charged with recommending a vendor to the mayor. Lumumba refused to name which company was selected, saying he wanted to discuss the selection with the council before making the pick public.

"Here we are again the same place we were last year being goaded into a situation … When you don't give the city council a choice, you're not giving your people a choice," Hartley said, who also voiced support for Stokes' ordinance. "This thing could've been done six, eight months ago and it wasn't."

Jackson Trash Crisis timeline: Council will vote on a new garbage vendor in the coming weeks. How did we get here? See more

"I've put the garbage RFP on the agenda over the past 10 months 16 times because I don't want to fail this time and I don't want us to have excuses to the citizens who are the main victims of this," Foote said.

Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee, who voted in favor of Richard's Disposal last year, also criticized the mayor's administration for waiting until the last minute. But Lee voiced opposition to Stokes' ordinance.

"Let's say that Richard's wins the bid, and we as a council pass an ordinance saying that they won't be able to pick up garbage, where will that leave the people? We will once again be in another garbage crisis," Lee said.

Council members also brought up the recent fines from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which were issued for the city's failure to have garbage collection services for two weeks last April. There were concerns that if a garbage collection vendor isn't chosen by April 1, the city will have to pay more fines to MDEQ.

Currently, the city faces a fine of $375,000 that must be paid within 90 days, according to an order agreed upon on Feb. 16 with MDEQ's Commission on Environmental Quality. The order also states that if the city fails again to secure another garbage collection within a two-year window, a fine of $525,000, which has been set aside in abeyance, will also have to be paid immediately to the MDEQ upon written notice.

See more on MDEQ's fines: Jackson gets 4 MDEQ violations and is being fined for April's trash crisis. See how much

Lumumba was not present at the council's meeting. Safiya Omari, the mayor's chief of staff, came to his defense.

"I just want to say that there's been quite a bit of action in regards to the situation," Omari said. "Several months ago we had a solution where a lawsuit would be dismissed, our fines with a certain governmental agency would have been mitigated and we thought we had a vote and that settlement was backed out of at the last minute by the council. The representation that nothing has happened on behalf of the administration to resolve this situation is categorically false."

Omari is referring to statements Lumumba made back in November when he decided to move forward with a new trash RFP. At the time, the mayor explained that he decided to move forward with the RFP after negotiations broke down with the council about extending the current emergency trash contract with Richard's Disposal until 2025.

City Council on RFP: Without Mayor Lumumba present, Council votes to issue trash pick-up request for proposals

In those negotiations, the mayor said that if the contract with Richard's was extended, the trash company would drop the current lawsuit they have against the city. Richard's is suing the city saying they were denied a long-term contract back in April.

"A majority of the council had indicated that they agreed with that, only for a slim minority to throw confusion in the process and they (the council) backed away from that agreement," Lumumba said at the time.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS councilman wants to ban rehiring waste management company