Jackson Free Press

Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Denise Owens denied a motion for a temporary restraining order against the Jackson Public School District this afternoon. Jackson business Integrated Management Services PA filed the order yesterday, trying to halt a Monday JPS board meeting. The board is likely to choose an IMS competitor to manage its $150 million bond at that meeting.

"Having heard arguments on the matter and all premises considered, the court finds that the motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction is not well taken and the relief requested shall be denied," Owens wrote in her May 18 decision.

The JPS board voted in April to begin negotiations with California-based Jacobs Engineering and local business Preferred Management for program management of the recently passed $150 million bond.

IMS attorney Adam Stone said his client wanted the board to reconsider its preliminary decision favoring Jacobs and Preferred, but IMS needed more time to gather facts. IMS wanted the board to release information regarding the competition's bid proposal and to delay the board's next meeting until IMS had time to request and review the information to buttress its argument.

"In particular, we want information that's not proprietary regarding minority participation and local participation," Stone said, explaining that IMS wanted to see information that Jacobs Engineering had sealed by court order in April.

School board request for bid proposals demand that companies competing for the program managing contract allow local businesses to do at least 50 percent of the work. The district also requires a minimum number of minority contractors. To fit proposal demands, Jacobs Engineering is partnering with Preferred Management and local minority business owners like Socrates Garrett of Garrett Enterprises.

Stone said his client has "strong suspicions about what portions of the RFP Preferred Manangmenet Group LLC was supposed to fit," explaining that IMS questions how much local and minority participation Preferred Management would really bring.

"I have suspicions why their proposal doesn't meet specific requirements, but I can't show that because I don't have the information," Stone said.

Owens based her decision, in part, on the fact that IMS did not object when Jacobs' redacted information back in April.

"The Court takes notice that IMS failed to intervene as a party to this civil action," Owens wrote.

IMS CEO and founder John Calhoun argued that Jacobs is an out-of-state company and should rightfully take second billing to his more locally-owned business. He also asserted that Preferred Business Management was created recently for the sole purpose of helping Jacobs qualify for the JPS contract. JPS submitted its RFP in December, months ahead of Preferred Management's March 26 inception date.

"Would you want a three-month old company handling millions of dollars worth of work? I wouldn't," Calhoun said.

Attorney David Watkins, who represents the board, described the IMS argument as "a case of a disgruntled losing vendor unhappy with a discretionary decision by the local school board attempting to have a court force its wishes on the board."

The restraining order would "virtually shut down the $150 million bond program," he said. "Without this decision, JPS can't proceed with hiring architects and structuring the bond program. The delays would impact funding, hiring, construction bond costs, interest rates, raise construction costs ... irreparable harm--simply because they don't agree with a discretionary decision by the school board."

Watkins also argued that a restraining order was improper at this time. "IMS can appeal a board decision to circuit court once the board makes its decision, but the board has not even made its final decision yet," he said.

Attorney Sam Begley, who is representing Jacobs Engineering and Preferred Management, called IMS' efforts to get a restraining order "a stalling tactic."

"What they really want, your honor, is to delay the (board's) vote in anticipation of the change in the composition of the board," Begley said.

Begley was referring to an attachment in his rebuttal containing an April JFP article reporting that Chief of Staff Marcus Ward had threatened to pull JPS Board Vice President Jonathan Larkin's name if he did not support IMS in the board's April vote. Ward denies that allegation.

Larkin voted in favor of IMS' competitors in April. Shortly after, Mayor Frank Melton sent a memo to council members asking them to withdraw Larkin's name for consideration for re-nomination.

"They anticipate a change in the board that will favor their client," Begley said. "That's what all this is really about."

Calhoun told the JFP in April that the mayor had a right to pick board members who want to favor local vendors, and maintains that the board should boot Jacobs and hire IMS if they intend to follow through with promises to contract locally.

Begley accused Calhoun of omitting key information.

"IMS isn't the sole company in on their bid. They entered into a joint bid with Parson's, out of California. Truth is, no local company could manage a $150 million bond proposal," Begley said.

Larkin said that the board will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, its regularly scheduled time.

Previous Comments

ID

92597

Comment

How many of you think that Judge Denise Owens is now on Melton's mess list? There's goes another independent-thinking black woman getting in the way...

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-18T19:52:17-06:00

ID

92598

Comment

Just hang on, Melton will have the fix in shortly. Mark my words.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2007-05-18T20:26:46-06:00

ID

92599

Comment

Yeah, L.W. and Ironghost....this could be a tipping point. This judge's brother [twin, I believe] is non other than attorney Dennis Sweet, who represents the Ridgeway Street property owner. This one will be worth watching.

Author

JenniferGriffin

Date

2007-05-18T21:23:07-06:00

ID

92600

Comment

Oh yeah, I was trying to remember who she was related to. All I have to say is...dum da dum dum duuuuum! It's on.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-18T21:28:37-06:00

ID

92601

Comment

Go Denise another "Loud Mouth" woman. Melton the hater eat dirt.

Author

jada

Date

2007-05-19T01:32:38-06:00

ID

92602

Comment

An investigation (by Melton) will now be launched against Owens for "corruption inside her office". Remember, anyone who disagrees with FM is "corrupt" and "must be investigated" for "wrongdoing".

Author

blu_n_a_redstate

Date

2007-05-19T21:27:06-06:00

ID

92603

Comment

SINCE many of you have not received a true classical education AND we ARE talking about Melton......here ya go. you can thank me after you read this. Start on paragraph XXIV. Trust me. start there. Pour a drink first. This is fun reading. Melton's idol

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-05-19T22:06:45-06:00

ID

92604

Comment

In line with L.W.'s question...how many of you think that Mayor Melton even cares about Judge Owens' order? How about another angle - how many of you are considering whether IMS is even better qualified than PMG, LLC to manage the project?

Author

cityofjacksonms

Date

2007-05-19T22:11:56-06:00

ID

92605

Comment

cityof, I understand qualifications, and I would like to know more about that, but a final decision was already made. If every decision made by the school board could easily by blocked, overturned or reversed, how much authority would they have left?

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-19T23:04:54-06:00

ID

92606

Comment

Oh, and Kingfish, I can't read all of that now. I'll have to wait until daylight because that stuff will give me nightmares. :-)

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-19T23:06:39-06:00

ID

92607

Comment

"be" blocked, not "by" blocked. I'm sleep deprived. Good night.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-19T23:07:45-06:00

ID

92608

Comment

have a drink when you do. Its fun reading.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-05-20T00:07:56-06:00

ID

92609

Comment

Well, IMS is probably not better than Jacob's. Face it, the other company picked a better out-of-state company to work with. IMS can't do it without help, so obviously they need to try and find better partners next time. I'm sure IMS has gotten plenty of contracts or projects where they are not the most qualified firm of those who put in bids. In fact from going through their site, they are not the "lead" managers on several projects, and seem to have plenty of work around the state. They need to get over themselves.

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-05-20T10:13:55-06:00

ID

92610

Comment

Does Kenny, Tillman and the rest of their tin-foil brigade know about this project IMS did? Hawkins Field Runway Improvements Project

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-05-20T10:20:47-06:00

ID

92611

Comment

I don't know enough about Hawkins Field, but I do know this: IMS is also be responsible for coordinating and assisting JMAA... That's just wrong. I usually send emails to webmasters to let them know if they need to correct a typo, but I don't feel comfortable doing it this time.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-20T11:58:48-06:00

ID

92612

Comment

LW that is too funny! LOL!

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-05-20T12:34:48-06:00

ID

92613

Comment

it's my understanding that a city or county board or commission only has as much power as it's allowed to have. it's all about politics - and, unfortunately, it's small-time politics in this neck of the woods. the Jackson city council has much more power than they want to let on (or more than they know). instead of bickering among themselves and picking verbal fights with the mayor & his staff, they can simply deny payroll for any line they so choose. i bet that cutting someone's payroll for a pay period or two would get their point across just fine. a few weeks pay from some of those "extra" ACAOs would fill a bunch of potholes around the city. :-p

Author

cityofjacksonms

Date

2007-05-20T16:51:28-06:00

ID

92614

Comment

Kingfist, what a parallel! How do you come up with all of the STUFF? I didn't pour a drink first and now my head is spinning. (LOL). Judge Owens is now on the same wagon with Judge Freen and D.A. Faye. I'm sure melton promises a bumpy ride for her but, I think that Owens can handle it.

Author

justjess

Date

2007-05-21T09:57:54-06:00

ID

92615

Comment

I said start on paragraph XXIV for a reason. Just thought I would post on here Melton's hero. Rest of it is pretty good and um, interesting reading.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-05-21T10:00:50-06:00

ID

92616

Comment

Kingfish, I finished reading it while sipping my bottled water, and all I have to say is, WHAT THE...? The day I see a man being paraded through the streets of Jackson with his severed hands hanging off his neck is the day I know that it's time for the National Guard to take over. What a visual...

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-21T11:26:51-06:00

ID

92617

Comment

When a different man than he had intended had been killed, through a mistake in the names, he said that the victim too had deserved the same fate. He often uttered the familiar line of the tragic poet [Accius, Trag., 203]: --- "Let them hate me, so they but fear me nah, I don't see any similarities.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-05-21T11:32:54-06:00

ID

92618

Comment

Ooh! Ooh! (Horshack impression) How about this: With regard to lawyers too, as if intending to do away with any practice of their profession, he often threatened that he would see to it, by Heaven, that they could give no advice contrary to his wish. Whoomp, there it is.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-21T13:20:26-06:00

ID

92619

Comment

hehe. Keep reading, you'll see more and more gems like that in there as well as more similarities. by the way, if you like that account, the rest of that author's stuff is pretty damn good as well.

Author

Kingfish

Date

2007-05-21T13:22:38-06:00

ID

92620

Comment

It's very interesting how the loser (IMS) fails to promote their partner (Parsons) as being a NY company and all the while talks about Jacobs being from CA. Both companies needed partners because neither had enough experience in this type of business. Other interesting notes - someone should talk to Iraq veterans (including one of our City Council members) about what Parson did for them in Iraq. It wasn't just KBR or Haliburton who fleeced this country out of billions! And someone should find out why the lead engineer from IMS for a "building" program is a road engineer formerly with MDOT and has no building construction training while the lead local contact from PMG is intimately familiar with the buildings of the school district because he worked with them in the last bond program in the 90's. Makes you wonder who IMS is paying off - especially with the latest delay caused by the school board's president.

Author

onewhoknows

Date

2007-05-22T07:46:10-06:00

ID

92621

Comment

The onewhoknows seems to be hitting the nail on the head. Here's the link to the other School Board story that has some more information about the Bond issue and IMS.

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-05-22T08:04:38-06:00

ID

92622

Comment

According to WLBT, IMS is trying to get a copy of the other company's bid. I sure hope that the Board doesn't allow this to go on. It's bad enough they had to give them any of their bid proposal. All IMS wants to do is to try to find something wrong and use it against them. But, Then we should get look at IMS's proposal too. The whole point is to NOT let your competitor see your bid proposal. Duh! Why is IMS all of sudden better? Is it because they line the pockets of elected officials? This is not good because in the future when a company gets out bid by another then they can use this ruling to try and stop projects or fight smaller companies into the ground until the big company gets the project.

Author

pikersam

Date

2007-05-22T09:31:27-06:00

ID

92623

Comment

This is not good because in the future when a company gets out bid by another then they can use this ruling to try and stop projects or fight smaller companies into the ground until the big company gets the project. Yep. Bullying at its best.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2007-05-22T19:37:57-06:00