Jackson Jambalaya

I can perhaps see a justification for a disparity in billing between residential and commercial, but do not respect Hennifin's penalty for not using Food Stamps (EBT). All residents in Jackson pay the same rate for electricity, cell phones, natural gas, cars, plane tickets, etc; why is price of water service, specifically, subject to socialist manipulation? I have not swallowed any Jackson water out of the tap for about 6 years. I will continue buying potable spring water in gallon jugs.

I understand your point on the EBT. So much time, money, and court appearances have been spent on that. 7000 receiving water and not being billed. Has that ever been corrected? Apartment complexes not paying their bills? Is there some reason those owners haven't been sued out of existence to get the money?

Multi-Millions of dollars uncollected and never will be.

"If you can't raise the revenue required to do the job right, then you shouldn't have it..." and "if you've got a City Council that is not going to approve rate increases, then you should not be running a water system..." Amen, Ted. Where in the hell is the State Legislature? They didn't even bring a bill forth in the 20245 session did they?

This may be a little off subject, but is the artesian well that was located at the old Primos Northgate location still producing water? I remember in the late 60's and early 70's my uncle going up there regularly filling up 5 gallons jugs. Guess you could consider that our early version of bottled water.

Don't think for a moment that those apartment complexes just stopped paying in the last couple of years.

It appears Ted doesn’t have the spine for this job. The non-paying customers should have been cut off long ago starting with the biggest users. Lumumba was using revenue owed to the city to buy votes by giving away free water. Letting people continue to get free water accomplishes nothing, but cutting off the non-paying customers at least lowers the load on the water treatment plants.

The man knows what he's talking about and it's astounding to me that so many are confused about the difference in rates. Ted has no control over that aspect, and every one of you know it. That is a political decision. This city is too stupid to understand that this isn't a water system upgrade. It's a fucking remediation brought back from the verge of complete collapse with money that we didn't have to do it.

Raise 'em. I pay the highest now, but if I'm going to stay here, I'll pay the increase. Just please don't give this system to another bunch of fuckers that are going to make me wake up to a dry tap again. Mind you though, I'm not gonna' be cool with ridiculous annual increases like this. Just get it solvent.

Did Ted say it was going to take many years to replace the 2 inch pipes that should be 6 inch pipes? So, that means he will be long gone before that work is done aka it won't ever get done?

@4:41, so you want the apartment complexes summarily cut off even though the people living there have been paying for water, regardless of whether the amount they're paying is/has been correct?

Ted says $115M per year for O&M. Who does his math???

60,000 meters at $40 = $29M. He’s says 18MGD should be water sent out from plants. At $10/1,000 gallons ($7.5+/- ccf) = $65M.

He can’t get to $115M let alone the $145M for entire budget.

I listened to the entire podcast. Good discussion. I believe the system is far better than it was a few years ago. There is still work to be done, but it’s good to see it going in the right direction.

8:43. You and I could have fixed it with upwards of $200M!!!

The state will have to take over. 5,000 connections will be shut off. Rates for remaining customers will triple.

100% correct answer 9:52!!

I think Ted is a smart man. I think he is dedicated to this job (goodness knows you would have to be to endure the bullcrap and attacks). I think he walked into a horrific situation, with some wanting to help and some wanting to screw him. His original plan to use some of the Government money to pay off debt was brilliant, and then killed by the Government. I think he took a wrong turn when he was trying to get lower meter payments for some (by going through the courts). Shutting off water to non payers is a must. The apartment complexes--that's a hard one. owners stole the money and left the tenants high and dry. Wish there was some way to get meters on the individual apartments so the tenants could pay their own water bills.

Appreciate Ted hanging in there. What an awful job. Thank goodness Wingate is the judge. He's called out more shenanigans than anything we could have imagined.

This mess can not go back to the city of Jackson.

State should have taken over Jackson 10 years ago just like Detroit. Hell...even Stokes suggested that at one point. Now everyone will pay for the collapse of Jackson whether they live here or not.

Perhaps Henifin could put more focus on getting the billing system working properly? I pay every month, but I do not receive a bill. I've called JXN Water twice - both times I get a bill that includes several months of usage for the time period that I didn't receive a bill but then the next month comes and no bill again.

@11:11 am, I had the same problem. I signed up for electronic billing notices and so far, no more problems. I still snail mail a check to pay my bill, but at least I get a bill this way. Don't know if they weren't mailing my bill or if the post office was losing it. Jackson post office issues are nearly as epic as the Jackson water issues, so who knows...

Third world city. (Karen comments in 3, 2, 1).