Jackson’s Tuesday City Council meeting devolved into a shouting match between Ward 3 Councilmember Kenneth Stokes and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
During a discussion of a motion to set up a grants division for the City of Jackson, Stokes and Lumumba got into an explosive argument that ended with Stokes calling Lumumba’s Chief of Staff Safiya Omari a “thief” at least three times as Jackson Police Department’s Interim Chief Joseph Wade made his way to the front.
The Council members were voting on whether to set aside $250,000 to hire a grants compliance officer, a grants specialist and a program administrator in hopes of applying and bringing more grant money to the city. The new division will take that responsibility away from various city departments who have been having to apply for their own grants, which is a long and specific process.
The discussion stopped when Stokes said former City of Jackson employee Keyshia Sanders pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud after stealing tens of thousands of dollars in grant money intended for artistic projects in the city. Stokes said the Council should not move forward with setting up a grants division until they figure out who was accountable in the scheme. Stokes claimed that $1 million of public funds was still missing.
Sanders, the city’s former Constituent Service Manager, “pleaded guilty to violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, for engaging in a wire fraud scheme to fraudulently induce the disbursement of grant money for her own benefit,” according to a Clarion Ledger report citing court officials announced in a press release. “The scheme involved the use of fraudulent invoices that caused the grant’s fiscal agent to disburse funds to Sanders in clear contradiction to the terms of the grant and Sander’s role as a City of Jackson employee.”
Stokes said he needed answers for the public.
ERIC SHELTON/CLARION LEDGER
“People telling us about grant money going here, grant money going there and now we’re going to put some more people dealing with grants and money that’s coming to the city when the Council will not and have not had direct oversight,” Stokes said. “It’s not right for government. It’s not right for people who ask us questions: ‘What about this?’ And we have to say we don’t know. We need to be able to have a paper trail and give them a copy so that government will be open, so that people can trust government.”
Immediately after Stokes’ comments, Omari said: “I just want to state for the record that there is no $1 million missing and that is misinformation and if Councilman Stokes wants some clarification he needs to be very specific about the missing money. With regards to the Keyshia Sanders event we have discussed that, we have discussed it in executive session and we’d be happy to discuss our role in that again in executive session. But I want to make it clear: there is no missing $1 million.”
Lumumba said in a raised voice to Stokes that the money that was stolen was not public money and that the City Council never voted on it. He also told Stokes that the only reason he knew about the stolen money was because his administration “investigated it and brought it to your attention.”
“But for that! But for that! But for that! You would not know anything about it,” Lumumba said. “So the fact that you continuously try to make an allegation of impropriety of this administration, which you’ve weaponized our honesty. You want to know why you didn’t know about the $600 million coming from the omnibus bill? It’s because I couldn’t trust you. It’s because I couldn’t trust you. That’s why!”
Stokes and Lumumba continued in a heated back and forth about setting up an investigation on the matter on the next City Council agenda. Stokes said that the $1 million that was missing “is COVID-19 money.”
City Attorney Catoria Martin quickly walked to the front of the room to stop the exchange because the city “has a pending lawsuit on this matter and recommended “that if we continue this conversation we go into executive session.”
The City Council then voted, 4-3, to set up the grants division. Councilmembers Angelique Lee (Ward 2), Brian Grizzell (Ward 4), Aaron Banks (Ward 6) and Virgi Lindsay (Ward 7) all voted in favor. Councilmember Ashby Foote of Ward 1, and Ward 5’s Vernon Hartley and Stokes voted against.
But the argument continued.
Hartley explained his reasoning for voting against the measure saying he wanted to see more organization and more of a plan for the grants division than what was presented to him at the meeting. He did, however, acknowledge that he had pushed for a grant division in the past.
“As Council, we’re into planning. We’re supposed to be looking into organizational charts. There is no organizational chart for grants,” Hartley said. “I have not seen an organizational chart for this proposal here. I have not seen how it’s going to communicate with those other departments. I haven’t seen any of that. So, reservations? Yes. I have plenty.”
Hartley said with the lack of organization — as well as the investigation that Stokes mentioned — that he would like the Council to “put a pin in this until we can fully develop the layout and fully develop a plan to present to City Council members.”
Omari fired back at Hartley that the Council was told last budget season what the role of each one of the grant division’s positions would be.
“I don’t understand why you feel like you, Councilman Hartley, have to be involved in the details of something that you don’t understand at all,” Omari said. “You asked for this! You were the main person who kept saying ‘Where’s the grant office?’ This is ridiculous!”
Banks also confirmed that Council members had been working toward setting up a grant division for about a year.
Still, Stokes wasn’t convinced. In a press conference after the meeting, he vowed to start an investigation looking into the stolen grant money.
“The Council don’t know what’s all the particulars. And that’s why I said we need to investigate, so we know all the particulars. Who did what, who knew what. She didn’t do it by herself,” Stokes said. “I have on the next agenda an item for an investigation.”
Stokes said that he plans on hiring “a private person” to do the investigation, because, he said, he believes the Council has that authority under Mississippi law.
In his own press conference after the meeting, Lumumba said: “There is no $1 million missing.” He said he wouldn’t go into details and would talk about it at a later time.
The mayor, along with Banks, also announced that the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials will be coming for the city’s Juneteenth celebration on June 19. A little over 100 leaders will be holding a public forum at The Westin Hotel. Registration is still open at www.nlc.org for those who want to attend.
“It’s going to be more than just having a conference. It’s going to be also a convening on how nationally our colleagues want to help Jackson in their fight and their mission to become the city that everybody wants us to be,” said Banks, who is also the president of the national caucus.
Source : Clarion Ledger