Jackson lawmakers like Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber are going to have to get creative to meet the budget needs of a city under an EPA consent decree. Trip Burns
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Jackson is about to go on a diet, and not of the South Beach variety.
The city council voted Monday, Aug. 5, to approve a claims docket that included a $125,072.02 payment to WEI/AJA, the company that is overseeing Jackson's compliance with a consent decree from the Environmental Protection Agency. It made up just 6 percent of the total amount of payments for last week, but a similar item is in each and every claims docket that has been put before this council.
The consent decree is going to cost Jackson more than $350 million over the course of 17 years. That number is big enough to heavily impact every budget the city passes from now until then, and maybe further.
That's one reason Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber said last week he's excited that he and his colleagues will have early input on the budget the mayor will eventually submit to the council.
"We want to have a seat at the table as the budget is being set," Yarber said. "Usually, the budget is prepared and submitted to the City Council for approval, and I think by bringing us in early, we can come up with a budget that we can all have input on, and we can all be accountable for."
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba is doing just that. He's invited both Yarber and Budget Committee Vice Chairman DeKeither Stamps, Ward 4, to sit in on budget meetings. On Monday, Stamps described the mayor's office as "more than inviting."
"It's been great," Stamps said. "I've sent (a staffer) to sit in on the meetings to keep me up on what the issues are, and I know Mr. (Charles) Tillman (Ward 5) has sat in on some meetings. We're going to be very involved going forward."
At Monday's special meeting of the council, Melvin Priester Jr., Ward 2, asked for a full schedule for past and future payments that have gone toward the consent decree. Yarber seconded that request, saying it would go a long way in helping him make decisions as Budget Committee chairman.
Lumumba said he'd be glad to provide that list as soon as he can get it together.
"We have two years to come up with the plan for how we are going to pay for it," Lumumba said. "Obviously, we want to take care of (forming a plan) long before that deadline, and (this year's) budget is going to be a big part of that."
Last year's budget of $277.3 million represented a $10.3 million, or 3.9 percent, increase over 2011's budget of $267 million. At the time, former-Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. called Jackson's financial outlook "very sound" and praised departments heads for keeping an eye on their budgets.
But many of those department heads left with the Johnson administration, and some haven't been replaced, yet. Some won't be replaced before the start of the new fiscal year, on Oct. 1—the deadline for the city council to approve Lumumba's proposed budget.
"I've been through the process with different administrations, and it's been handled several different ways," Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon, Ward 7, said Monday.
"It certainly eases the process when the council, or at least the budget chairman, is involved early on. I see no indication that won't occur this time. Mayor Lumumba has said that he wants transparency and to involve the council. Plus, he's coming into a new job, and I would imagine he would welcome any help he can get."
The city faces other financial hurdles as well. In the same claims docket that showed the consent decree payment, the city had listed a $446,738.65 payment to Rankin County-based Hemphill Construction for work on the Fortification Street renovation project. A week ago, the city council denied the Department of Public Works' request for an additional $151,000 to fix complications director Dan Gaillet said Hemphill Construction found after starting work.
Stamps said his vote against the project was based on partially on his worry over how the city will make consent-decree payments.
Lumumba said after his election that he did not want to raise taxes, but with the consent decree payments, ongoing city projects such as Fortification Street and the school bond issue, cuts or tax raises may be the only way to balance the budget.
"It's a challenge," Barrett-Simon said of balancing this year's budget. "We'll have to do the best we can to comply with the decree. We won't know how big of an impact this is going to have until we get the actual numbers, but it will be significant."
Comments
justjess 10 years, 8 months ago
@Tyler Cleveland
"Lumumba said after his election that he did not want to raise taxes, but with the consent decree payments, ongoing city projects such as Fortification Street and the school bond issue, cuts or raises may be the only way to balace the budget."
The Former Mayor, Harvey Johnson, in his final speech at the Smith-Robinson Museum, said that he was leaving the office with a balanced budget. I'm wondering why it was such a rush to fire Department Heads who could have been an asset for this Administration's transistional period and the tasks would not look like visually impared men and women struggling in the dark. Mayor Lumumba admitted that he was not aware of the magnitude and involvement of the job as he asked a judge to be dismissed from his "last case".
According to this article, a check was approved for $125,072.02 for payment to WEI/AJA , the company that oversees the City's compliance with a concent decree from the Environmental Protection Agency; An action that seems to bring financial grief to the Council; however, the Council did not have a problem-evidenced by a 7 - 0 vote - to hire Judge Tommy Green's son as the City's CAO {I can't remember his first name). The cost of this hire was $80,000/yr and all of the job duties and responsibilities are a carbon copy of the duties and responsibilities for the Mayor of Jackson. It is interesting that this was a position only used by Mayor Frank Melton as he made it crystal clear that his focus would be law enforcement,"all a mayor has to do is stamp papers". REMEMBER????
I'm trying to consider all factors as it relates to this newly elected Administration and it is my sincere hope that it will be a success; however, when my neighbor brings over an invitation for a fundraiser sponsored by Mayor Lumumba at the Hilton Hotel to retire the campaign debt for Mrs. Regina Quinn and the picture of City Hall is a part of the invitation - my heart began to race and I simply say, NOT AGAIN!.
Just saying.
darryl 10 years, 8 months ago
justjess, big thumbs up!
Knowledge06 10 years, 8 months ago
justjess, you are incorrect about the CAO position. Otha Burton served as the CAO for the City of Jackson from 1998-2005 during Mayor Johnson's first 2 administrations. Sean Perkins served as Senior Assistant CAO during Mayor Johnson's last term. He split the full CAO duties with Thelman Boyd who was deputy CAO. Just saying....
justjess 10 years, 8 months ago
OK, fine. What about the other stuff?
Just asking.
aeroscout 10 years, 8 months ago
Mayor Johnson, the public works administrators, and the civil engineer contractors failed the city. It would be instructive to know the 'bad advice' of the engineers and politicians who swallowed the environmental solutions that got us in this mess. The two lakes group made the kool-aid that the ruling class, citizenry, and city fathers swallowed in regard to the best plans to develop the Pearl River instead of protecting the water quality and the city treasury.
tyler.cleveland 10 years, 8 months ago
Jackson's water quality is just fine. I believe we just received a 4.6 out of 5 in a rating by the EPA, and our budget has been balanced for four years. The interesting aspect of this, going forward, is how the new mayor and council will handle these new budget issues. Will they be able to balance the budget without raising taxes or cutting services? We will know soon enough, because the budget should be finalized in the next two weeks so it can be debated at a public hearing.
Knowledge06 10 years, 8 months ago
The Mayor and City Council of Jackson are going to have to be realistic regarding the consent decree with the EPA. The residents of Jackson will have to be informed that water rates and possibly taxes will have to be increased in order to pay for these required improvements. It's better to let them know now so they (we) can be prepared. The City of Shreveport is currently in the same situation with an EPA consent decree. They are looking at apprx $350 million dollars worth of work in order to comply. They will be voting next week to approve their agreement with the EPA. Further, the City of Baton Rouge signed their consent decree with the EPA 11 years ago and at that time they predicted the cost would be around $600 million dollars. To date they have spent almost $1.3 billion dollars and they are still not complete. As part of their agreement, their water rates increase 4% EVERY YEAR in order to pay the costs of the consent decree and their is no sunset on that annual increase. The leadership of Jackson doesn't have to look very far for examples of what they will need to do.
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