Mayor Lumumba updates public, takes questions at a recent town hall
During a 2-hour town hall Tuesday evening, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba updated the public on some of the city’s future infrastructure projects, while also answering questions on a myriad other issues.
Speaking to the few residents in attendance — most of the pews at the Redeemer Church were filled with city employees, department directors and police officers — Lumumba started off the town hall talking about how the city is using a 1% sales tax for paving city streets. The city earns approximately $13 million per year from the tax, which was approved by over 90% of voters in 2014.
“We took that $13 million that we were getting annually each year, and we went to the market and we went to banks and we said, ‘Listen, if you can give us more money upfront, (which is) the only way that we’re going to be able to do these big (road) projects, then we will show you a consistent line of funding that we can pay you back,” Lumumba said, adding the claim that this was the first time in Jackson’s and Mississippi’s history that a 1% sales tax has been leveraged.
In response, Lumumba said the city received a $50 million bond to use on repairing the city’s roads. The mayor said residents will start to see work on neighborhood roads as the weather gets nicer for paving season.
In October, the Jackson City Council voted to approve phase one of the city’s “Street Resurfacing Project,” which is repaving a total of 31 neighborhood streets in Ward 3 and Ward 7.
“Our first priority was to deal with major thoroughfares,” Lumumba said. “Now as we get into spring, you will start seeing other areas where neighborhood streets will be paved.”
Similarly, Lumumba said the city is trying to leverage the state’s modernization tax, which gives the city a percentage of money when Jacksonian’s order things off the internet, to fix issues with the stormwater system.
“The state legislature a couple of years ago decided that they would start taxing the goods and services that were purchased online and coming to the state,” Lumumba said. “We now get money off of what Jacksonians buy online ... out of that tax we get in the neighborhood of $10 million per year.”
The plan is to leverage that $10 million, just like what was done with the 1% sales tax, so the city can receive a bond to acquire even more money for stormwater projects, Lumumba said. The hope is to have an additional $30 million by mid-May, he said.
Mayor Lumumba speaks on Ted Henifin
After speaking on infrastructure issues, Lumumba touched on his relationship, or lack-there-of, with federally appointed Third Party Water Administrator Ted Henifin after a resident asked why the two don’t speak to each other.
Last week, Lumumba said he hasn’t talked to Henifin since June 2023 during a status hearing called by United States District Court Judge Henry Wingate. The judge summoned both Lumumba and Henifin to court.
The hearing was called after Lumumba said the city was still “several months away” from full confidence in the water system. He made the comments during a press conference he hosted announcing the launch of free water filters for pregnant women and women with children under the age of 5.
“He (Ted Henifin) calls Judge Wingate and he says, ‘Judge Wingate, they’re trying to undermine me. They’re passing out water filters so that people think Jackson’s water is dangerous,’” Lumumba said at the town hall. “They summoned me to court to explain why I was passing out water filters, and I told the judge, ‘I’m not apologizing for helping the people of Jackson.’”
Lumumba said he passed out the water filters after the Mississippi Department of Health sent a letter saying the city has not completed a corrosion study for the water system, so there could potentially be elevated levels of lead in the water.
“Those letters say that pregnant women and children under the age of 5 could be particularly vulnerable to that (elevated levels of lead),” Lumumba said. “Do I believe that there is an elevated presence of lead in our water system? Nothing has been demonstrated to me that proves that. But if our objective is to not only fix the water system, but rebuild confidence in the water system, then we’re trying to do everything we can to rebuild that confidence.”
“Ever since that point, he (Henifin) has refused to communicate with us,” Lumumba said.
On Wednesday, JXN Water shared a statement with the Clarion Ledger regarding Henifin’s meetings with the city. Part of the statement reads that the stipulated order only states Henifin must meet with Jackson’s director of the Department of Public Works.
Here is the full statement by JXN Water:
“JXN Water is committed to meeting all requirements of the Interim Stipulated Order which include the requirement to ‘regularly consult with the Director of Public Works on all aspects of complying with this Stipulated Order and advise, consult and collaborate with the Director of Public Works and consult with EPA and MDEQ on matters that may, in the judgment of the ITPM, materially impact the Sewer System.’ The ITPM holds weekly meetings with the Director of Public Works as schedules permit. The Interim Stipulated Order has no similar requirement for regular meetings with the mayor.”
While the city has had trouble securing a public works director for nearly a year now, Henifin told WAPT on Wednesday that, “I meet regularly with the public works director, or whoever that person is supposed to be, because we really haven’t had a public works director in a long time.”
Homelessness, housing, lawsuits and other issues
● After being asked what is being done for the city’s homeless population, Lumumba double downed on his goal to get the city to functional zero homelessness by the end of 2025. That means he wants the city to get to a place where no person is unhoused or on the streets of Jackson for more than 30 days, unless it is by their choice.
● Lumumba reiterated his support for the “Safe Place, Safe Space” transitional housing project for the homeless being built on Capers Avenue.
● He briefly called out state legislators’ most recent attempt to take over the city’s water system, saying they had “a deliberate indifference towards the needs of the city of Jackson,” until the city received $800 million in federal dollars to fix the system.
● Lumumba reaffirmed the plans to use part of a $10.3 million lawsuit the city won from Zurich-American Insurance Group to fix the city’s crumbling libraries.
● Lumumba urged those interested to come work for the city and become lifeguards for the city’s pools and zookeepers at the Jackson Zoo, two jobs desperately needed to keep both open for the summer.