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Vanity: How Jackson, MS Lost Its Water Service
Vanity

Posted on 09/04/2022 9:56:24 AM PDT by TigerClaws

There is a another side to this catastrophe that has not been reported in the national news.

* Half of the plant was built in 1992. The other half in early 2007. It is NOT an old plant. It was not maintained and allowed to fall apart. Buy a Lexus but don’t replace the oil, transmission fluid, and timing belt and see what happens after 200,000 miles or so. The plant is no different.

* The city entered into a bad deal with Siemens in 2013 to replace all water meters for some new-fangled ones that would allegedly bring in more money. What it really was was a $90 million bond deal that allowed the Mayor to pass out the bond fees to his friends and stuffing minority subcontractors who weren’t licensed or qualified down Siemens’ throat. The meters didn’t work and blew up the water/sewer billing system. Bond services aren't subject to bidding laws so its an easy way to give your lawyer and consultant friends a quick $50-200,000 which the Mayor did.

* As happened when New Orleans under Landrieau installed new billing system software, thousands of residents got crazy bills or no bills at all. The Yarber administration literally told people not to pay their bills and instituted a moratorium on cutoffs. When you tell people you won’t terminate service no matter what, guess what? They don’t pay their bills. It never occurred to leadership to tell customers to pay a monthly minimum. 14,000 customers had stranded bills (no bills at all) if that tells you anything. Lumumba continued the moratorium on cutoffs. A moratorium has been in place half the time he has been in office.

* This resulted in a water/sewer department that made a profit of $7 million a year to losing $20 million a year. Public utilities are usually a money maker for cities. A city has to work real hard to lose money on these services but lose money Jackson did.

* Media says white flight decimated city finances. Uh huh. Check the city audits. On the overall budget side, the city is getting more revenue than ever. Read that sentence twice. It gets more money than every. It’s just losing nearly $20 million on its utility. The audits are on the city website.

* The city sued Siemens and settled for $90 million. $30 million went to attorneys, including the Mayors friends at a Birmingham law firm that did the real legal work and his Jackson lawyer friend, Winston Thompson, who is a criminal defense lawyer and had no business being on the case. $14 million shored up the water/sewer finances. Some was used to repaid the $90 million bonds and their ever ticking interest rates. Some was spent on other stuff.

* None of the Mayor’s staff have any management experience. He was a criminal defense lawyer in a two man firm. His Chief of Staff was a professor at JSU. His first Chief Administrative Officer was a music professor at JSU. His current CAO came from Energy but from the marketing department, not operations. The Public Works Director who was JUST reassigned after the flood was an architect. They are down to one engineer in public works and his speciality is roads and traffic. The previous Mayor had two knuckleheads for a CAO as well. One was a former deputy who never ran anything but was his bud while the other one never ran anything either. Getting the idea?

* They got caught two weeks ago not even posting online the openings for the Class A Water operators they so desperately need. They don't have Class A operators but can't seem to advertised for the jobs. They fail performing basic management tasks in the water/sewer dept.

* Worst off all. They Blew off the Health Department of years. MSDH finally called the EPA in winter of 20. EPA inspected plant in Feb. 2020. EPA was appalled at how poorly maintained and staffed the plant was. The EPA placed the city under an emergency administrative order. The Mayor hid it from the City Council, media, and public for over a year until yours truly busted it in the. Media. The Mayor refused to discuss it in the open but would only discuss it behind closed doors with the Council. He even blamed the public and media for being ill informed about it when he is the one who covered it up and refused to discuss it.

How incompetent is the leadership? A fire took place at the plant April 2021. 9 months later, several pumps were still down. The problem was the electrical panel controlling said pumps was damaged in the fire and not replaced. He blamed supply chain issues. The media filed FOIA's w/Health Dept. and found out the city had not even ordered the panel until the state told it to order the part and gave it a 30 day deadline in December. The city finally ordered the part on the last day of the deadline in January. The part arrived around May.

The city repeatedly blew off EPA mandates and deadlines in the order and continues to do so.

The plant did not flood. Period. The problem is the flooding upriver changed the chemical composition of the water entering the intakes at the reservoir. The lack of staff and failing equipment meant the water leaving the plant was barely treated.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: jackson; nlz; siemans; vanity; water
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Dem incompetence. Media coverup.

Get this to Hannity and Tucker, please.

1 posted on 09/04/2022 9:56:24 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Nope. Racism caused it apparently.


2 posted on 09/04/2022 10:01:16 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: TigerClaws

But, Jackson is about 80% black and they voted him in. Indeed, it’s been black Democrat mayors since the late ‘80’s. And when you promise the electorate a guaranteed income paid by the city in order to get into office, you’d think they’d be asking where their allowance is. But no, they don’t. They don’t call him to task, but just keep putting him into office. The mayor and his administration have no clue how to run a business and this article kinda sums his failures and the voters’ stupidity quite nicely. Maybe now that they can’t get a drink of water from their taps, they might get sufficiently miffed to throw him out.


3 posted on 09/04/2022 10:04:22 AM PDT by econjack (I'm not bossy. I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: TigerClaws

Really good info, thanks for taking the time to post it... but waisist whites did this.


4 posted on 09/04/2022 10:06:17 AM PDT by AAABEST ( NY/DC/LA media/political/military industrial complex DELENDA EST)
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To: TigerClaws

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/0d538925-f918-434e-b3b7-3f3b28a76997


5 posted on 09/04/2022 10:14:22 AM PDT by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: TigerClaws
Dem incompetence.

BLACK democRAT incompetence.

6 posted on 09/04/2022 10:16:06 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: TigerClaws
Thanks for sharing that information. It seems like yet another example of politicians who lack any of the necessary character, technical and management skills to do the job correctly after getting elected.

Instead of directing the operation of their city they just reward their political allies with jobs and steer the cities income towards rewarding their allies, friends, and relatives.

It works until the working systems they inherited fall apart from neglect and poor management.

7 posted on 09/04/2022 10:17:46 AM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: TigerClaws
The Mayor hid it from the City Council, media, and public for over a year until yours truly busted it in the Media

Are you "yours truly?"

If so, this is what REAL journalism looks like. Why does it have to be a vanity/anonymous?

Is this story getting out in MS and elsewhere??

8 posted on 09/04/2022 10:21:35 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: TigerClaws

Bad local management by the Dems. The population if the city has declined greatly.

So blame it all on the Republicans at the state.


9 posted on 09/04/2022 10:27:02 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: TigerClaws

The Mayor spend all his time making the city the most radical in the world and closer to Africa


10 posted on 09/04/2022 10:33:28 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: TigerClaws

Bookmark


11 posted on 09/04/2022 10:40:45 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: freeandfreezing

Good post. That’s a perfect description of what Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela. Indeed, that’s where Biden and his cast of crooks and incompetents are heading us.


12 posted on 09/04/2022 10:42:51 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: All

Jackson is now 82% black.

This is also an example of the Curley Effect. Named after a Boston- area politician, the idea is to create dysfunction to drive out your political opponents and cause more dysfunction. We see it in most Dem run major cities now.

https://www.econlib.org/archives/2012/05/curley_effect_i.html

A FR poster told me about this only this year. But pretty much explains the Soros DAs and general devolving of our major cities.

Regarding the water. Biden this week blamed …. The white republican Mississippi governor.


13 posted on 09/04/2022 10:52:00 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Democrats love chaos for the simple reason it is easier to be corrupt when things go bad. All these “bad” things are not a problem but a feature for Democrat controlled cities.


14 posted on 09/04/2022 10:53:54 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: PGR88

I’m not “yours truly.”

I got this in an email and it is circulating on social media within the state.

Yes. “Real journalists” need to do an expose on this.

Purpose of the vanity here was to get it to the Tucker and Hannity producers who visit this site as well as citizen journalists and alt media types.


15 posted on 09/04/2022 10:53:58 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Bookmark 🔖


16 posted on 09/04/2022 10:54:00 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: TigerClaws
Thanks for taking the time to post this.

Exactly as I figured. Local corruption and graft at every step.

17 posted on 09/04/2022 10:58:37 AM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
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To: Drew68

Yes.

Here’s a handy snapshot of Jackson MS corruption:

https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2022/09/flashback-friday-real-snapshot-of.html


18 posted on 09/04/2022 11:02:12 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: econjack

US taxpayers will get the bill.


19 posted on 09/04/2022 11:05:39 AM PDT by Old Yeller (A nation of sheep, produces a government of wolves.l)
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To: libstripper

Yes. Hugo was once popular with most of the middle class as the country’s traditional elites were grossly incompetent and corrupt. Hugo was like the dog that caught the car. He didn’t know what to do. He should have called on the U. of Chicago Econ Dept and if he had Venezuela, which is a really rich nation, would be a flourishing and happy place. Instead he listened to academics from the national university who sold him on ‘economic justice’ and ‘anti-imperialism’ as the keystones of his program.


20 posted on 09/04/2022 11:12:27 AM PDT by robowombat (Orth,He looks like the sex all y one )
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