
Jackson Mayor Can’t Override Council On Garbage Contracts, Mississippi Supreme Court Rules
Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba cannot veto the Jackson City Council when it votes down a motion, the Mississippi Supreme Court declared in a ruling today.
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Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba cannot veto the Jackson City Council when it votes down a motion, the Mississippi Supreme Court declared in a ruling today.
Richard’s Disposal, the company that collects garbage for the City of Jackson, will continue providing services to more than 150,000 residents in Mississippi’s capital city for now after U.S. Southern District of Mississippi Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker mediated a temporary settlement.
Garbage collection service operations in Jackson are set to “cease” indefinitely in two days after the New Orleans, La.-based Richard’s Disposal announced this afternoon that it is suspending garbage pickup in Mississippi’s capital city starting Saturday.
For the second day in a roll, the breakdown in operations at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Center in Jackson, Miss., has caused water pressure reduction throughout the capital city, disrupting activities as the city and state declared a state of emergency.
Investigators accessed missing University of Mississippi Student Jimmie “Jay” Lee’s Snapchat conversations, seen here, with an account called redeye_24, where the owner of the account asked Lee to meet early on Friday, July 8, 2022.
Special Chancery Court Judge Larry E. Roberts ruled on July 8, 2022, that Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba cannot veto a no-vote of the city council. The ruling is the latest in the ongoing face-off between the mayor and the city council regarding setting up a garbage-disposal contract for the City.
The Jackson City Council repeatedly voted down awarding a contract to Louisiana-based Richard’s Disposal after the mayor presented it following the request-for-proposal process and again for a one-year emergency contract at an emergency meeting on April 1, 2022.
Working Together Jackson, a nonpartisan organization, responds to the garbage-disposal debate by asking city leaders to immediately approve the contract with Richard’s Disposal.
In a recent lawsuit, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba asked the Hinds County Chancery Court to declare that the council cannot negotiate a contract nor amend his order for a local emergency, and that he has the prerogative to negotiate emergency contracts and present the same to the council.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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