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

The City of Jackson is facing another lawsuit in regards to garbage collection.

Richard's Disposal, the garbage company currently working under an emergency contract, is suing the city for a second time. The company was at the center of April's trash crisis that saw members of the Jackson City Council at odds over awarding a long-term contract and left residents without trash pick-up for 17 days.

The new lawsuit, which was filed last week, is asking the court to block the city's latest request for proposals for trash pick-up that was issued by Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba in early November.

A new RFP shouldn't be issued until a decision is made in the appeal Richard's filed against the city back in April, according to the company's latest lawsuit against the city. The garbage company filed an appeal saying they were wrongfully denied a long-term contract.

"The City's decision must be overturned, and the 2023 RFP must be canceled pending a decision on Richard's appeal in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also states that the city's decision to issue a new RFP must be overturned, because, "Richard's has already submitted the most qualified proposal" for the October 2021 RFP, which was accepted by the city and denied by the Council.

Richard's claims the Jackson City Council is acting outside its scope of powers. Throughout the lawsuit, Richard's attorneys say the company was wrongfully denied the contract, because the Council's "preferred vendor" is Waste Management.

"The Council violated statutory authority by disapproving the contract for Richard's in an attempt to usurp the executive function of the Mayor and exercise that function by forcing him to select Waste Management, its preferred vendor, rather than the vendor chosen by the Mayor as required by governing law," the lawsuit states.

This is how the RFP process works: The mayor issues the RFP through the city's solid waste division. A panel of six in that division will evaluate each company that responded to the RFP, then selects the best option based on which company fits the criteria best. The mayor then presents the contract to the Council who have to give final approval through a vote.

Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote had choice words for this latest lawsuit and called on the city's legal department to "step up."

"I think it is incumbent on the city legal department to step up and address this latest effort by Richard's Disposal to preempt the effort by Jackson's city government to perform its duties as laid out in state law. In layman's terms, this (the lawsuit) is hogwash," Foote said. "This is the biggest contract Jackson's governing authorities let and now we have a garbage company from Louisiana trying to get a judge to intervene and give them a contract worth over $40 million."

Council seeks dismissal: City Attorney 'in conflict' with Council seeking dismissal in Richard's trash lawsuit

Foote said Richard's Disposal is trying to convey themselves as "victims" with the filing of both lawsuits.

"They (Richard's Disposal) want to dictate that the Council shouldn't have any say in this matter and I strongly disagree," Foote said. "We are part of the governing authority for the City of Jackson, and it's the governing authority, according to state statute, that determine and select the garbage vendor for the city and for the long-term contract."

He said the RFP process is the legal way to select a vendor and award long-term contracts and now Richard's "is trying to ask a judge to keep the city from going through an RFP process."

City responds to latest lawsuit

In April, the city and the Council agreed on entering into a 1-year emergency contract with Richard's for garbage collection, effectively ending the trash crisis. Since then, Council members have urged Lumumba to issue a new RFP to try to avoid a similar scenario when the contract ends in April 2024.

Lumumba had refused, citing "ongoing litigation" with Richard's — referring to the company's first lawsuit against the city — as his reason not to issue an RFP. The mayor finally agreed in early November after the city Council voted on a resolution ordering him to do so and after negotiations broke down with Council members about extending the contract with Richard's to 2025.

In response to Richard's latest lawsuit, City Spokesperson Melissa Payne shared the following statement:

"The administration has been consistent in recognizing this process is in litigation. It is for this reason that we sought to resolve this matter through negotiation with both the Council and Richard's Disposal. It was only after the Council backed away from the negotiations, that we reluctantly issued the RFP. Despite the recent allegation that we crafted this RFP for a particular vendor, what we've done is consistently fought to protect the interest of residents and the City of Jackson by securing contract that will be at the lowest price possible for quality garbage services."

At the Nov. 21 city Council meeting, Foote was one of the Council members who brought up issues he had with the latest RFP. Specifically, he had a problem with a provision in the RFP that said any new contract could be subject to termination depending on the outcome of the lawsuit between Richard's Disposal and the city.

"That is going to be a real problem for companies to make bids and to stand by their bids and at the same time there's a potential out there that they'll have to walk away because of the uncertainty of a court ruling coming down," Foote said.

He said the provision is a form of "weaponizing the RFP" to the benefit of Richard's Disposal because other companies may now not want to submit a bid.

"And now they've (Richard's Disposal) filed another lawsuit for a temporary restraining order against the RFP … they're trying to manage the government. They're just a vendor; they aren't elected officials," Foote said. "The elected officials are elected to mange city government and now they're trying to have a judge come in an overrule the city government's RFP to determine a long-term garbage contract. That's outrageous."

Foote brought up a provision that says any garbage company who submitted a bid must have trucks that are no older than two years old. That provision seems "intended to disqualify a lot of minority, equal-business-opportunity participants that work with garbage companies, who may not have newer trucks" Foote said.

"There's a number of those companies in the City of Jackson who have good businesses … but I think almost all of those would be disqualified with that provision that says all your vehicles need to be two-years-old or newer," he said. "I have a real problem with putting a provision in there that disqualifies the local minority businesses that have been operating in Jackson for a really long time."

Foote also raised issue with the provision that says the winning garbage company must also supply garbage carts for residents. He said there are a lot of older residents in the city that may not have the capacity to wheel out the carts each week.

Lastly, there's a provision that says each garbage truck must have two workers on the back of every truck and if the city catches a truck without that many, then they are subject to a fine of $1,000 per day. Foote said that is a form of "micromanaging the companies … there the ones who collect garbage as a profession."

"To have a stipulation like that I think is onerous and ends up resulting in a higher cost for bids because the vendors have to calculate in the cost for fines," Foote said.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Richard's Disposal sues City of Jackson over latest RFP issuance