Bill could pull HSUD’s certification
A bill introduced by Sen. Neil Whaley, if passed by both houses of the Mississippi Legislature and signed by Gov. Tate Reeves, would authorize the Public Service Commission to cancel a municipality’s certificate to provide service greater that one mile outside its corporate boundaries.
The breakup of such certification requires a finding that the municipality did not provide reasonably adequate service.
SB2453 passed the committee Thursday, Feb. 22, and now goes to the floor of the senate.
Whaley said if the bill clears the senate then the same procedure to enact the bill will go before the Mississippi House.
A hearing at the PSC would be required to assess whether the utility is rendering reasonably adequate service in any area covered by the utility’s certificate.
The bill requires that the PSC enter and order specifying in what ways the utility has failed to provide adequate service and to order that the failure be corrected within a reasonable time.
Several municipalities, including the Holly Springs Utility Department, may fall under the purvey of the bill.
If the utility fails to comply with the Commission’s order, it’s certificate may be revoked and cancelled by the Commission.
The former Commissioner for the Central District, Brandon Presley, warned at a public hearing in Ashland in
April 2022 that the legislature could revoke certification of the Holly Springs Electric Department because of widespread outages following a storm that were not corrected in a timely fashion leaving many Ashland and Benton County residents without power for weeks.
He said at the press conference he called in Ashland that the Mississippi Legislature has the power to certify and to cancel a certificate if a finding shows the utility is not providing reasonably adequate service to its customers.
SB2453 gives the PSC full authority upon finding a utility is not providing reasonably adequate service one-mile outside its municipal boundaries, to order cancellation of the area extending outside the onemile perimeter beyond the municipality’s boundaries.
HSUD serves customers in Marshall and Benton counties.
The bill provides that the commission, on finding any privately owned water or sewer system or any municipally electric utility that is unwilling to adequately serve its customers outside its one-mile boundary, or has been abandoned by its owner, or that has grossly inefficient management or that is irresponsible or unresponsive to the needs of its customers, may petition the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County or the chancery court of any county the utility resides, to attach the assets of the system under the sole control and responsibility of a receiver. The court then may appoint a receiver - a responsible individual, partnership or corporation or political subdivision to operate the system, and to preserve the assets.
In such cases the receiver will assume the responsibilities and obligations of the municipality with regard to any existing wholesale power contract.
The bill, if it passes, takes effect July 1, 2024.
The South Reporter requested interviews with several aldermen regarding SB2453.
Alderman-At-Large Dexter Shipp and Ward 1 alderman Bernita Fountain agreed to be interviewed and provide answers to the following questions.
Q. Do you think the leadership at HSUD has failed?
Shipp said the lack of a general manager and of audits were main points of failure in leadership.
Fountain said the leadership at HSUD had some major challenges.
“I still have hope we can turn this situation, this grid, around,” she said.
Q. Will the board of aldermen change the leadership at HSUD?
Shipp said yes, he believes the board of aldermen will change the leadership at HSUD.
“I’ve been trying for a long time to get someone with a utility background in the general manager’s spot,” he said. “I’m trying to get a general manager and an engineer who has experience in utility operations.”
“Yes,” Fountain said. “I feel this leadership at HSUD needs to be changed to ensure better service to our customers. They deserve better service for what they are paying for. I want to assure we put people in place to provide better services to our customers.”
Q. If HSUD loses its certificate to operate, what will it’s strategy be?
Shipp said the city will do anything in its power to keep HSUD’s certification intact.
He said, as an alderman, he would fight the loss of certification if it went to the courts.
“I would fight it in the courts to the end. I also hope the state can find us some funding to make improvements in the system,” he said.
Fountain said she is very concerned if the city loses certification with HSUD.
“It (HSUD) has belonged to the city for so long, it would be a tragedy to lose HSUD,” she said. “We’ve put so much into trying to provide service for our people and it has been a major part of the City of Holly Springs. I would hate to lose that.”
Q. Is there anything you believe you could have done differently as an aldermen to prevent this condition at HSUD from taking place?
“This is just our time,” Shipp said. “This problem existed all along, accumulated over the years.”
He said stress put on the system by storms, the GE metering system failure and the age of the system contributed to problem.
“Sooner or later it would happen,” he said.
Two big contributors to the system’s vulnerabilities are the inadequate maintenance of the substations over the years and inadequate upkeep of the right-of-ways, Shipp said.
“Absolutely,” Fountain said. “Yes, I would have done several things differently as an alderman looking from hindsight. I believe we should have kept searching for people to place in charge. I also believe we should have hired a contractor at the time we let one go to keep the rights-of-ways up. I believe we thought we were doing things at the time, but looking back, I should have made better decisions. We were trying so hard to compromise with the new leadership that I allowed myself to make decisions I regret.
“I regret letting go of the people in HSUD, the veterans, and i other departments as well. I do want to say as a veteran alderman, it really has been a weight to work these past three years, but I am still hopeful because of the duty of the City of Holly Springs, that we can pull ourselves out.”