New administration brings hope for one-percent tax work
In January 2014, nearly 90 percent of voters in Jackson cast ballots in favor of a new tax, with the promise revenues from the assessment would be used to repave roads, fill potholes, and fix water and sewer lines.
That vote was for the Jackson one-percent infrastructure sales tax. Support for it cut across all ethnic and socioeconomic lines and brought people of all backgrounds together.
Four years later, residents are still united, but now in frustration with broken promises of a tax that hasn’t lived up to the hype.
Since its inception, many of the streets the city promised to repave with one-percent revenues have been untouched, and much of the money that could have gone to immediate needs has been spent on engineering future projects.
Additionally, for three years the tax’s one-percent oversight commission and city leaders have been plagued by mistrust and infighting.
As a result of that mistrust, the commission passed spending rules in 2017 that not only tied the administration’s hands, but likely violated state law.
The commission was put in place to oversee how Jackson spends the tax. Under state statute, the 10-member panel is responsible for drawing up a long-range master plan and ensuring the city spends tax dollars in accordance with it.
To date, though, no long-range plan has been approved.
Despite challenges, local leaders have high hopes Jackson and the commission have turned a corner.
With the election of Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba last June, commissioners and city leaders have apparently hit the “reset” button, as evidenced by the lack of arguing at recent commission meetings.
Additionally, commission members have voiced their support for the mayor’s appointment of Robert Miller as new public works director.
Miller, for his part, recently discussed the city’s efforts to craft a much-anticipated long-range plan that will not only map out the city’s needs, but also how future improvements will be financed.
“This is what we needed in the beginning,” commission Vice Chair Duane O’Neill said after the February meeting. “This is exactly where we want to be.”
Northside restaurant owner Jeff Good was part of the team that helped push the tax in 2013 and 2014.
He, too, has been frustrated with how the tax has been rolled out, but is hopeful the city’s new administration is moving in the right direction.
“There’s no question there’s been dysfunction over the last three years. But it’s obvious (the new) mayor and his team are committed to doing the right thing,” he said. “I have confidence in it now.”
The tax went into effect on March 1, 2014. Since then, it has generated approximately $53.2 million. Of that, about $38 million has been obligated.
Prior to its approval, residents were told a large portion of the funds would be used to repave city streets.
However, many of the projects promised by the first Lumumba administration were never funded.
The tax was passed under the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. Lumumba died days before the tax went into effect.
Among projects, the late mayor proposed spending $57.4 million to repave approximately 160 miles of city streets.
A Web site established in support of the tax showed that in Ward Seven, streets to be repaved included Roxbury Road, Robert Drive, Douglass Drive, Eastwood Drive, Pinewood Drive, Eastline Drive and Roxbury Court.
In Ward One, streets included Kristen Drive, Tracewood Drive, Hartline Drive, River Thames Road, Runnymede Road, Petit Bois Street, Twin Lakes Circle, Sedgwick Drive and St. Andrew’s Drive.
However, none of those streets were included in the first-year master plan, which was passed under Lumumba’s successor, Tony Yarber.
And only one street, Eastwood Drive, was included among roadways repaved as part of a $9.8 million neighborhood street repaving contract funded by the tax in 2016.
While no long-range plan has been passed, the commission has approved projects in a piecemeal fashion.
In 2015, the commission signed off on a one-year plan drawn up by the Yarber administration, which included $13.7 million in expenditures.
Much of the spending in that plan, about $6.7 million in round numbers, went to engineering and program management services.
In 2016, the commission did not approve a master plan, per se, but signed off on $15 million for road resurfacing, in part, so Jackson residents could see their tax dollars put to work.
Contracts were awarded to APAC-Mississippi ($9.8 million) for neighborhood street repaving and Superior Asphalt ($4.7 million) for milling and overlaying major thoroughfares.
Work on those contracts wrapped up earlier this year.
In 2017, the commission allocated $6 million for the North State Street and West County Line Road reconstruction projects, but held off on approving any major work until projects in the first-year plans could be “reconciled.”
In February 2017, the commission learned that work had not started on nearly half of the first-year projects. Additionally, board members were told that hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for specific work had been reallocated to cover cost overruns on other projects.
“There were dozens (of projects) on the year-one list. Some got started, but because of all the money spent on engineering, some were not,” Commissioner Ted Duckworth said.
The first-year plan included 38 projects.
As of last February, work had not started on 17. A year later, commissioners still were in the dark on whether those remaining projects had moved forward.
Duckworth has asked for a project reconcilation numerous times but has not gotten one.
“I’ve never seen a final list of what’s open and what’s not,” he said. “When you look at what we’re charged with doing, reconciling expenditures, that’s our job. That’s why I’ve brought it up.
“I’ve requested it almost every meeting.”
Perceived misspending and a lack of openness has been a major point of contention between commission members and former city officials.
Yarber was constantly at odds with the oversight officials regarding the commission’s duties and responsibilities.
The mayor believed the commission had no say in how the city spent one-percent dollars, as long as they were spent on approved projects.
District 26 Sen. John Horhn, author of the bill creating the tax, backed up Yarber’s claims in a 2017 interview with the Sun.
“The commission has two functions: working with the city, it must establish a master plan ... and it must monitor the implementation of the plan,” he said. However, the senator agreed there needed to be better cooperation between the commission members and officials in the administration.
Yarber and the commission were also at odds over program management services and whether one-percent funds could be used as leverage for long-term debt.
As part of the first-year plan, the commission approved spending up to $840,000 for program management.
In December 2015, the city council approved bringing on IMS Engineers to serve in that capacity.
Like Yarber, the consulting firm had a rocky relationship with the commission. In 2016, IMS was criticized by oversight leaders for not moving fast enough on implementing one-percent projects.
Additionally, the firm was criticized for not preparing for monthly commission meetings, and for not responding to commission requests for information. Adding to that, in early 2017, IMS was named as one of the firms involved in Yarber’s “pay-to-play” scandal.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, former city employee Stephanie Coleman said the city attempted to steer major contracts to various Yarber campaign contributors.
In all, three firms submitted proposals to serve as one-percent program manager. IMS was awarded the contract, despite receiving the third-highest score during the evaluation process.
Coleman, who served as the city’s Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) officer, voiced her concerns about the problem, and was told she would lose her job if she didn’t perform sexual acts, she said in the court filings.
IMS’ contract was for one year, with the option to extend the agreement for an additional two one-year periods. The commission never approved funding for a second year.
As for using one-percent debt as leverage, Yarber told the city council last spring that he wanted to use one-percent revenues to issue a $90 million line of credit. He told the council the city could so without commission support.
Citing concerns with the mayor, commissioners passed spending regulations last March that governed, among other things, program management and the city’s ability to leverage one-percent dollars for debt.
The relationship between the commission and city officials has been much less contentious following the election of Lumumba’s son, Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
The new mayor also has considered using one-percent dollars to leverage debt, but has stated he wants to include the commission in the process.
Additionally, at the commission’s February meeting, it appeared Jackson was finally moving forward in crafting a long-awaited master plan.
The plan will map out improvements for the next 12 years and the key component of how to pay for them.
“(A) capital improvement plan without a financing plan is just a wish list,” Miller said. “We don’t do wish lists.”
