JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The City of Jackson’s garbage contract with Waste Management is expected to expire on April 1, 2022. The Jackson City Council is now facing a secondary lawsuit.
The council met behind closed doors on Thursday, March 24 for almost two hours before deciding on a new attorney to represent them in the latest lawsuit. Attorney Sam Begley will represent them in Circuit Court.
On Monday, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba filed a lawsuit against councilmembers. He claimed they haven’t produced written minutes from the previous meetings. The mayor said without those minutes, he has been unable to make wise and timely decisions.
Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 1, said he believes the mayor’s claim is “disingenuous.”
“We’ve been keeping up with the minutes. We got behind during that time period, and now we’re trying to catch up and hopefully have all the minutes produced by the end of today, if not tomorrow, in which case just may be a moot case at the Circuit Court level. But we’ll see,” said Foote. “We’ve had a lot of meetings. We’ve had more meetings than we usually have because of all the special meetings.”
Martin & Martin will represent the City Council in Chancery Court in the first lawsuit that was filed against them regarding the garbage collection.