Don't feel like paying your water bill in Jackson? Well, fugetaboutit. The city of Jackson cut off water cutoffs over a year ago even as the water system loses millions of dollars every year.
The Public Service Commission issued a 60-day moratorium on water cut-offs on March 18, 2020 in response to the Covid-19 shutdowns.
The Lumumba administration took that ball and ran with it as Jackson continued the moratorium after the PSC version expired. The Mississippi State Department of Health reported in November Jackson did not "have an officially adopted cut-off policy for customers who do not pay their water bills." The moratorium is still in place despite the wreckage that is the financial state of the Jackson water/sewer system.
The Health Department inspects Jackson's water treatment plants every year and issues a report every November as well. The report contains a "Financial Capacity Assessment." The assessments reports whether Jackson has a cut-off policy for non-payment of water bills.
The 2016 and 2017 reports state Jackson had no water cut-off policy. The Health Department reported Jackson had a disconnect policy in 2018 and 2019. The Health Department inspected the plants in February 2020 and reported the city was still terminating water services for non-payment. However, the November 2020 inspection revealed Jackson kept the moratorium in place after the PSC moratorium expired.
Meanwhile, the water/sewer system's accounts receivables have skyrocketed over the last five years as customers no longer fear going without water if they don't pay their bill.
As non-payments and uncollected bills went through the roof, the cash on hand went to hell.
This is how you operate at a loss of $17 million although the Mayor said recently it was $20 million.
Ward 4 Councilman De'Keither Stamps said the Lumumba administration did not notify the City Council of the extended moratorium.
Kingfish note: The Mayor said at a recent press conference that the water department was losing $20 million per year. Any wonder why?
23 comments:
it's water under the bridge_
how come you ain’t never sayin anything nice about Jackson or Mayor Lumumba?
How did Net Operating Income nearly double from 2015 to 2016? Looks like where the billing system went haywire and started overbilling customers. From 2017 to 2019, most of these erroneous billings were not collected.
"Pretty Sure" that FREE THE WATER is under the "By any means necessary" part of the FREE THE LAND plan.
@2:41p- Why doesn’t the Mayor ever DO something nice for the city? His policies and (in)actions are further DESTROYING Jackson. Please name ONE thing he has done that truly benefits the growth or prosperity of Jackson. We’ll wait...
they are watering down the truth
So, the only other time in the last 20 years the city's water system operated at a loss was in 2013. I wonder who was mayor back then . . .
@ 3:07
Cocoa with the Po Po and You Too get the Boo Boo.
Your figures only go thru 2019. Imagine what they will look like when they eventually release 2020. But who knows when that will be. I hear Hinds County hasn’t released a CAFR since the new board was sworn in and they fired the administrator. Last numbers they posted were from 2018.
Maybe we should all stop paying to hasten the time it takes for the City's forthcoming bankruptcy and then hopefully a federal conservatorship ensues.
@2:41pm.
Please come visit & do a good deed for Jackson: rename it.
Jackpot
Jackbones
Jackaride
Bustass...
Accommodations include Hobait Hotel and Boot Hill Acres.
2:1 PM
Because there's nothing nice to say about the Clown on Chief.
I guess it didn’t matter whether or not I spent 20+ hours trying to straighten out my $2500 erroneous water bill…
Chockweed Labumba can't be concerned about Jackson. He too busy hob-nobbing with the vice president wife & Bennie Pokie Thompson.
@4:05 PM - you forgot Jackwagon.
I met a lady who had worked for the Jackson water Dept. The mayor of this town that I was visiting on official state business, introduced us and asked her to tell me a story. The story was if you complained about your water bill they just deleted you from the billing cycle. This story was told to me in 2018. She had worked for the city of Jackson several yrs prior.
Has there ever been a successful effort ANYWHERE getting customers to pay for government services rendered that were previously assumed to be free? Good luck with that. Great Society indeed!
Anyone who thinks Chowke is going to start actually billing for water (and sewer and garbage) before June of 2025 hasn't been paying attention.
Meanwhile, over in Vicksburg, George Flaggs is unhappy about crime in his city so what does he do? He takes decisive executive action and is replacing the VPD command staff.
Lumumba will never be a leader.
9:18am: I genuinely wonder if a George Flaggs type ran for office would Jackson vote for him or would Bow Tie McTalkAlot still win in a landslide.
Sadly, I think that Jackson has the exact leader it wants and the result would be the same.
Flaggs is human. He has his strengths and weaknesses just like all of us. But in summary, he does a good job. He is far and away a better mayor than Lumumba. If Flaggs was mayor of Jackson, he would work at it and make some improvements. He wouldn't fix it all, because he's not a miracle worker. But he would accomplish something. Flaggs does a good job.
The white libs wouldn't vote for him. Eichelberger and Brandon used to call him a Tom on Cottonmouth
It's like a bunch of half wit 10 year olds are running the city.
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