Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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On Thursday Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger threatened to incarcerate Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson, City Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen and other city leaders over the City's failure to award a waste water contract pursuant to a Court Order issued by Judge Yerger. The Clarion-Ledger reported:

“If the city has failed to comply with this court’s orders …, the court will consider the same to be a willful and deliberate violation of this court and will hold (the city) in civil contempt of court, with the possible penalties of monetary fines and jail time to be assessed against any responsible municipal representatives,” Yerger wrote in the order signed Thursday.

Courtroom observers indicate that Judge Yerger was livid during the hearing and dressed down the City's attorneys for over an hour in what some described as a tantrum.

On Friday the Jackson City Council quickly voted to comply with Judge Yerger's Order:

In a Friday evening meeting, City Council members voted 5-1 in favor of starting the transition from Jackson Water, a partnership of Pennsylvania-based Severn Trent Services and Jackson-based Garrett Enterprises, to New Jersey-based United Water Services.

Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Swan Yerger had threatened to throw city officials in jail unless they acted on his orders to reassign the contract.

I can't really tell from the articles, but it appears that Judge Yerger ordered specific performance in a breach of contract action and that the City failed to comply.

Judge Yerger's actions came just a few weeks after the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the judge in a case involving the City.

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You can flush a toilet again in Jackson this week as the City has emerged from last week’s water crisis caused by freezing temperatures and bad pipes. The talk has now shifted to the City’s decaying infrastructure and what should be done to prevent the next water crisis. Being skeptical of the City’s ability to replace the existing water system, I would rather see Jackson planning for the next disaster.

There was a needless delay in getting water restored last week because Mayor Johnson decided to go at it alone for a couple of days before getting help from other area municipalities. That shouldn’t happen next time the pipes break. Jackson should have an agreement with other area municipalities where the cities agree to send in crews when one city is overwhelmed by breaks, such as happened to Jackson last week.

Next, leaders of Jackson and other area cities should plan for other disasters that will happen sooner or later. Will will see a bad tornado in Central Mississippi in the next 30 years. Wherever it hits the local government will need help. Why not make plans for that contingency now? The same goes for floods (Jackson is over-due for one), ice storms, etc…

Time is of the essence in a time of crisis, and just having a list with the phone numbers for everyone to call for help will save time. In addition, it will help to have help quickly on the way from other cities who were not hit by the disaster.

Jackson may not be able to fix the bad water pipes, but it can learn from the water crisis how to better deal with the next crisis.

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When a crisis hits you find out what kind of leadership you have. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour passed the leadership test. In contrast, Louisiana’s leadership failed and were not up to the task.

With Jackson in a water crisis its citizens are finding out that like Louisiana’s leaders after Katrina, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson is not up to the task. There are literally out-houses on Capital Street (see picture) and throughout Jackson as businesses try to stay open without plumbing. But most restaurants, all schools and many other businesses must stay closed.

Meanwhile, Mayor Harvey Johnson continues to refuse to hire private contractors to help:

Johnson said the city has taken quotes from private contractors, but so far the city has elected to go with its own crews and the help supplied by other governments. The mayor repeated his analogy comparing the crisis to other natural disasters.

"If we had ice on the ground, people would be much more understanding," he said. "We have a disaster. It's just not one you can see."

Johnson said citizens need to understand the damage to the water system requires a great deal of resources from the city, "one of which is time."

Yesterday Jackson had only four crews making repairs. With the help from other cities the number climbed to ten. That’s nowhere near enough, particularly since there are private crews ready to step in.

Johnson’s analogy to an ice storm is half right. People would understand, but they would also see power company crews from all over the nation in the city fixing the problem. People would know that Entergy was doing everything possible to fix the problem. Here, Harvey Johnson is telling us that he is not doing everything possible. People are mad not because they can't see the problem, people are mad because they can see that not enough is being done to fix the problem. Johnson just doesn't get it on multiple levels.

Closed businesses means a loss of sales tax revenue for Jackson. Not hiring private contractors does not save Jackson money. It costs Jackson money. Even worse, it causes people to not trust Mayor Johnson:

 Try telling [Johnson's B.S.] to west Jackson retiree Chrestene James, 66, who was one of many to see the last drop of water trickle away Monday morning, leaving her household of five dry.

"This is a mess. This is a mess," she said. "We can't even take a deep freeze. I'm disgusted."

 

We can’t take a deep freeze and we can’t do what it takes to fix a disaster. Pitiful leadership. Just pitiful. 

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Business in Jackson is at a stand-still today because of the water crisis. The City’s reaction to the crisis reinforces public scepticism about the City’s leadership. Today's Clarion-Ledger states:

 Four city crews, augmented by workers from other departments, were working in 12-hour shifts - and [Mayor Harvey] Johnson said he was evaluating prices from private contractors that likely will have to be hired. Johnson said he could not estimate how long it would take or what it will cost to fix the breaks.

Four crews? Water lines are broken all over the City and we have four crews on it? While Harvey Johnson thinks about getting more help? Words cannot describe how ridiculous that is.

The City of Jackson needs to follow the example of utility companies after storms and call in all available outside help to fix the broken water lines. That’s what you do in these situations. You don’t perform a study to see how cheaply you can get the job done. The City not being operational costs the City sales tax revenue and causes the City leadership to lose the confidence of the people. That further fuels the exodus from Jackson.

If Harvey Johnson ran a power company, people would still be waiting to get their lights on after Katrina.