Jackson, Mississippi’s Waste Collection Service Could End After Local Officials Fail To Agree On Contract Plan

A long-running dispute between the mayor and council members has left the city without a collection contract for months.

Jackson, Mississippi, is on track to lose residential waste collection service after Oct. 8, according to the mayor’s office, because the hauler performing service for more than six months has not been paid.

Louisiana-based Richard’s Disposal has been servicing an estimated 150,000 residential customers, as well as certain government buildings, twice per week since April 1. Richard’s has not been paid to date in the wake of a long-running dispute between the Jackson City Council and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

“I would like to thank Richard’s Disposal, their 70 local employees, and Mr. Alvin Richard for their dedicated service over the past six months,” said Lumumba in a Thursday statement.

“They have met all the obligations of their executed contract and have gone above and beyond the terms of the agreement. It is unfortunate that the Jackson City Council has failed to ratify the executed contract and allow for payment for services rendered. The citizens of Jackson have paid and continue to pay for the solid waste collection, and they have received the services but, due to inaction by the Jackson City Council, my administration is legally unable to pay Richard’s for services rendered.”

A dispute over the city’s collection contract, and who has the authority to make decisions about it, stretches back into 2021 and has involved multiple rounds of requests for proposals and emergency contracts.

WM had previously been Jackson’s residential hauler, but Lumumba favored a proposal from FCC Environmental Services to take over last fall. The council rejected this plan, and WM continued service under an emergency arrangement that expired in April. At the time, Richard’s Disposal began service under a separate emergency contract that the mayor awarded by overriding a veto from council members. This prompted a lawsuit over the mayor’s authority that is now being considered by the Mississippi Supreme Court on appeal.

Richard’s filed a federal lawsuit against the city this summer to seek payment. According to a Wednesday court filing, Richard’s says it is owed more than $4 million for service provided from April through August.

Lumumba maintains that Richard’s is the most cost-effective option for residential collection among all recent proposals and says it’s not reasonable to expect them to provide service without pay.

“I don’t know many companies that would do it. I would venture to say that our prior provider would not have done it for six months without being paid,” he said in a Thursday press conference livestreamed by WAPT.

Council President Ashby Foote has said he’s hopeful a legal settlement can be reached between all the parties involved, according to the Clarion Ledger, with the possibility to avoid service interruption.

In the meantime, the city is advising residents to try and reduce their waste, freeze seafood waste to avoid odors and continue utilizing drop-off sites for household hazardous waste. The city is also exploring the potential for waste drop-off locations, a strategy recently utilized to collect plastic water bottles during the city’s water crisis. Jackson does not have curbside recycling, after canceling that service in 2019.

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