The city of Jackson has some but not all the money it would need should it have to pay Richard’s Disposal the full amount it is owed in order to settle the lawsuit Richard’s has pending against the city.
That’s what City Council member Virgi Lindsay of Ward 7 learned when she asked the question during a Sept. 28 city council meeting.
“A judge could rule we have to pay Richard’s in full,” she said. “My question is, ‘Is the money there?’”
The answer, Lindsay learned, was the city has some of the funds but not all that could be needed. The garbage collection fee residents pay leaves a budget shortfall, which the city has to subsidize.
Richard’s filed suit in July in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi seeking $1.6 million in restitution for picking up Jackson residents’ trash.
Richard’s began work in Jackson on April 1 after Waste Management’s emergency contract expired. The Jackson City Council argues that it never approved a contract with the company and legally cannot pay Richard’s.
The Jackson City Council voted on July 5 to increase the garbage collection fee from $20.80 a month to $37 a month. City residents have garbage collection twice a week but no curbside recycling.
The fee for residential garbage collection and disposal is $37 a month, an increase of $16.20 from the previous $20.80 fee, as of Aug. 5. The fee also foots the bill for the operation of the city’s Solid Waste Division of the Department of Public Works.
The increase in the fee for residential trash collection in Jackson was needed, according to the ordinance that the council introduced on June 21 and approved on July 5, because “the current user charge is insufficient during the fiscal year to pay the cost of the city’s emergency agreement for residential solid waste collection, to pay the anticipated cost of a new agreement for residential solid waste collection, and to pay the operating costs of the Solid Waste Division of the Department of Public Works.”
