Senate Bill 2453 passes 37 to 13

Senate Bill 2453, crafted by Mississippi Sen. Neil Whaley, that would put certain municipally-owned utilities under the purview of the Public Service Commission passed the Senate by a vote of 37-13 Thursday, March 7.

A companion bill, House Bill 1484, identical to the senate bill, failed to make it out of committee.

Whaley said the Senate will send it’s bill to the House, the House will send it to committee to hear the bill, then the bill will be presented on the House Floor. There are 122 house members, and the Republican party has a supermajority, he said.

The bill, if passed and signed by Gov. Tate Reeves, would authorize the PSC to cancel the certificate to provide service outside a onemile radius of a municipality’s corporate boundaries upon a finding that the municipality did not provide reasonable adequate service. The legislation has a direct bearing on the Holly Springs Utility Department which has been found by the Tennessee Valley Authority as failing to meet certain regulatory standards that the affect the utility’s provision of safe and reliable electric power to its customers. A number of reporting requirements to TVA also have not been settled.

Whaley said the bill allows the Public Service Commission to initiate an investigation as to whether adequate service is being provided.

The PSC already has authority over most electric cooperatives and municipally owned electric companies, Whaley said.

He said SB 2453 brings all electric distributors that serve a one-mile radius outside the city limit under one roof with all the other electric distributors.

“This makes it an even playing field,” he said. “All would have the same set of standards and regulations.

Whaley said he thinks the fact that certain municipally owned and operated electric distributors are not being regulated by the PSC is part of the problem.

“I just want to get the problem fixed,” he said.

HSUD electric customers have complained for at least

two years of frequent and prolonged outages of electric power and of irregular billing practices at the utility.

TVA’s first and foremost recommendation, as well as the recommendation of the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, has been to hire a competent professional general manager to lead the utility out of the utility’s woes.

TVPPA’s lead assessment officer Tom Suggs has said that leadership is the number one thing that HSUD needs to address. For several years now HSUD has been without a general manager.

“You are going to need three, four or five years to really turn things around,” he said in a report before the Public Service Commission. “It can be fixed. It’s going to take some effort.”

Currently Holly Springs Mayor Sharon Gipson is running the utility following the retirement over a year ago of interim manager Donald Warren. Warren was moved up from the ranks within the department and had no experience as general manager.

TVA and TVPPA have urged the city to fill the general manager’s position with an experienced professional with utility experience.

Gipson has tried to fill the position by moving a utility lineman up in to that spot but the Holly Springs Board of Aldermen has rejected that move.

The mayor and board of aldermen have voiced opposition to SB 2453 in meetings saying the HSUD would lose much revenue that supports the operation of the City of Holly Springs and its budget.

For the record, these are the votes cast in the Senate:

Yeas—Barrett, Berry, Blackwell, Blount, Boyd, Branning, Bryan, Carter, Chassaniol, Chism, DeBar, DeLano, England, Fillingane, Harkins, Hill, Hopson,

Johnson, Kirby, Ladner, McCaughn, McLendon, McMahan, Michel, Parker, Parks, Polk, Rhodes, Robinson, Seymour, Sparks, Tate, Thompson, Whaley, Wiggins, Williams, Younger. Total — 37.

Nays—Barnett, Blackmon, Brumfield, Butler, Frazier, Horhn, Jackson, Jordan,

Norwood, Simmons D. T. (12th), Simmons S. (13th), Suber, Thomas. Total — 13.

Absent and those not voting—Turner-Ford. Total — 1.

Voting Present—Hickman. Total--1.