City rebuilds HSUD piece by piece

The Holly Springs Mayor and Board of Aldermen, with Mayor Charles Terry serving as interim general manager, is putting the utility back together, bit by bit with held help of professional consultant Michael Watson.

The board of aldermen approved a motion to search for a general manager at the December 2 meeting. The Tennessee Valley Public Power Association will assist the city in locating qualified managers to apply for the job.

The board authorized and approved TVPPA’s proposal to lead the search at the December 2 meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen.

All aldermen were in attendance.

Several measures were approved to improve meter reading, finish audits and monthly reports to TVA, to decrease outages and to clear right of way at the meeting.

Looking at the longer prospect of reestablishing Automated Metering Infrastructure at the HSUD is also underway.

Rebuilding will be measured and deliberate.

Watson recommended the city approve Katama Technologies proposal to procure a new Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI metering system) to read electric, water and gas meters at the utility.

He said he provided an overview to the board of what the proposed services cover. He said Katama’s owner and he have over 15 years working relationship at a prior utility, and they jointly own an unrelated business.

Katama Technologies provides management consulting and specializes in technology planning, implementation and support to municipal utilities all over the United States.

Watson said Katama knows systems inside and out and knows the pitfalls that will more than make up for headaches down the line.

Board attorney John Keith Perry Jr. advised that no bid is required since the proposed services falls under professional services.

The board tabled the discussion to be taken up in executive session.

Upon exiting executive session, no motion to contract with Katama was announced.

In the matter of completion of past due audits, Watson recommended ATA accounting to help with the audits and to develop business processes needed to keep financial reports up to date.

ATA would support the audit and help prepare the audits quickly in order to get HSUD and the city in good standing with the state of Mississippi’s audit department, Watson said.

“We need an outside view because we don’t have written institutional memory,” he said.

He asked the board if ATA can start work in December on the audit supports and monthly reports.

“It will take six months to get it done,” he said.

Ward 4 alderman Patricia Merriweather asked if the audits would cover city audits, too.

Watson said the person who would help complete the audits has a good working contacts with the Mississippi Department of Revenue and has experience working with other municipal utilities and can help speed up the audit process.

Mayor Terry said the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 audits will be covered.

Watson added that the HSUD is required to file monthly financial reports to the TVA. The monthly reports are a few months behind. The November financial report to TVA may be ready by Christmas.

He said he wants to be able to close out the monthly reports to TVA in a timely manner.

Merriweather asked who will be working to get the monthly financial reports done.

“Harris (Chawanna), myself and Charles Terry,” Watson said.

Alderman-at-large Dexter Shipp asked who would sign the agreement with ATA accounting.

Watson suggested the accounting service be bid on an hourly basis rather than a lump sum.

“It’s incumbent on us to monitor hours to ensure performance. I believe asking for a lump sum price would cost the city more. You would pay more than by the hour,” Watson said.

Merriweather asked if a monthly update would be available.

Watson said an update will provided every two weeks.

Discussion ended, the board approved a motion to approve a proposal from ATA.

Next, Watson asked for approval to renew a meter reading contract with Jolly Meters of New Albany.

Specifically, he asked to approve a 90-day extension of the current contract with Jolly Meters then get a yearly contract, then month to month contract until manual meter readers are no longer required.

Jolly currently provides two manual readers to the HSUD.

“We’re all up to date on meter reading right now,” he said.

“Yeah!” cried Merriweather.

A roll-call after the vote provided a 3-2 in favor of hiring Jolly with Ward 1 alderman Sandra Hodges and Ward 2 alderman Andre Jones voting nay.