JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jacksonians packed into City Council chambers for the special session to vote on whether Richard’s Disposal will continue to collect garbage after the emergency contract ended.

City Council chambers erupted in emotion after President Ashby Foote announced the verdict of the Richard’s’ Disposal six-year contract failing in a 3-3 and 1 abstain vote.

Richard’s Disposal employees left the special meeting frustrated and disappointed with the outcome, but for right now they still have a job.

“We’re going to hold them as long as we can and hope we can come to a resolution with the council members so we can get this garbage picked up. Yes, I will pay them,” said Richard’s Disposal Chief Marketing Officer Deidra Jones.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba became emotional and broke down as he addressed the media saying the City of Jackson can’t handle the financial obligations that the other companies are requiring.

“No, we can’t. We’re already at a deficit, right. Because of all of these emergency contracts. I want to make it clear that we intentionally did a blind scoring so that no company name would be on the bids,” he said.

Opposing council members blame the mayor for not providing alternate contracts to present to the council after Richard’s Disposal was voted down multiple times within the last year, calling his lack of planning contract steering.

“We, the City Council, have given the opinion on this over and over and over and over and over again. It’s clear. If he’s determined to steer it towards Richard, then here we are. If he doesn’t mind the garbage being piled up because there is no backup plan, it’s not on the city council. We’re doing our job. It’s on him,” said Councilman Vernon Hartley.

Councilman Aaron Banks says the mayor needs to redirect his passion in this garbage debacle and hone in on many of the major issues the city is facing.

“When we have a problem with crime, we got a problem with water. We got a problem with soup. We got overgrown parks, we got overgrown roadways, we got streets, we got potholes. We got all these other issues. And this mayor has the passion to fight about garbage,” said Banks.