Jackson Jambalaya

How much is a typical bill now for water service in Jackson (total bill, including wastewater and garbage)?

Holy moly, Let's see if Ted gets the attention of the Judge, Mayor and Council now that he has stated he will intercept sales tax revenues.

Wingate is fiddling (going on wild goose chases for Siemens clawbacks that'll take years to see any fruition if any at all) while Rome burns. Shame on you for playing with our accessibility to water - an obviously vital part of life

Ted tried to warn them.

I don't see a real solution anywhere in that synopsis report. If people won't pay their damned bill, it won't really matter how much the rate is increased.

Too damned many people dependent on the gubment. You just can't untrain that lifetime of dependency.

I had no idea the Health Department loans money. What manner of money-pot does that non-profit agency have?

Ted had control, and was
given that control to run Jxn Water several years ago and was doing quite well. Then, Bennie at the behest of several people had the authority for Ted to pay his contractors and all related expenses taken away from him. This is exactly what Bennie wants because some of his cohorts could not make the grade to perform the work.

Ya gotta have leaders who know how to lead, knowers who know what to do, and doers who know how to do it. Over the years, Jackson water has had fewer and fewer of these critical functions.

Drink cake.

Monkey Island at the zoo appears to have plenty of water.

@3:11pm: As a household of 1 with what I consider to be pretty typical water use for 1 person, my monthly bill is usually somewhere between $90-95 depending on how much I'm watering outdoors. This total consists of the $37/month fixed charge for garbage collection/sanitation + $40 water availability fixed charge + ~$13-18 variable charge for my actual water use. Wastewater/sewer is no longer broken out separately from regular water use. The year prior to the rate change my bills averaged around $65/month but fluctuated more significantly month to month than they do now.

I don't normally complain about underpaying for something, but what has become abundantly clear to me in the last few years is how much Jackson was undercharging for water and sanitation prior to the federal takeover (for those who paid anything at all). In 2021 for example, my August bill was only $34.16: $19.20 for garbage collection/sanitation, $3.56 for water and $11.40 for wastewater/sewer. That entire bill wouldn't even cover the sanitation portion of today's bills - when you couple that with those who had inaccurate bills or just chose not to pay at all, it's no wonder they've been operating at a deficit for so long!

Bennie has nothing to do with Ted's job.

Bennie has no control over Ted or his
contractors.

Jackson has been a Clown Show for decades. Elections have consequences and the idiots in Jackson keep electing incompetent idiots.

Can’t pay a f’ing water bill but wants to run an airport. OK.

Let the sh*thole rot.

Mine is $92 and I live alone.

redirecting 54 million. Good. Should have been done in February.

Try beer

Jackson is only a embarrassment for Mississippi

How does Jackson Water intercept sales tax revenues? How would they perform this?

As the Jackson water billing process falls off a cliff, Mayor Horne had all the name signage replaced at the airport with-in a week of taking office. These is the mayor priority.

Take the 40$ fee off and then an increase, Stop all the commercials and bid out the contracts. No bonuses for employees, collect from non paying customers. Ted knew what it was when he signed on.

So glad I sold my house in Jackson 9 years ago. My water bill & garbage bill is $ 35.00 a month. Best decision I ever made. I reckon Jackson is made up of 95% renters now.

7:08 how you know he doesn't bid out?

5:49 can't do it without Congress ok.

The judge will not agree to a raise, just
wait and see. I doubt he does anything.

The judge will agree with the city and
not let Ted have the raise.

Let's through some money at a leaking "chimpanzee monkey moat" at the Jackson zoo.

Typical City of Jackson crap.

Horn has been in charge for a while now .. .

Nothing's changed yet.

I wonder where Judge Wingate’s investigation of the Siemens money stands.

I would think he’d tap that fund first.

Perhaps but if the judge isn’t careful he’s going to have a real mess on his hands. Like no water in the pipes again.

Jackson's water issues should have been Horne's FIRST "all hands on deck" priority on his agenda once elected.....a shit storm is a'comin'. Talk about a powder keg.

Jackson's water/sewer system "barreling towards insolvency" is due to the Democrats purposeful tactic of lawlessness via soft on crime policies in order to create the flight required to take and keep control of cities like Jackson forever.

This Democrat tactic eroded the tax paying base via population declines (steady for decades now in Jackson), property devaluations and businesses closing or relocating.

In addition to Democrat cities like Jackson becoming a murder capital (child killing capital according to Councilman Kenneth Stokes)…..BLM, Defund the Police, Abolish the Police, the Democrats support or burning, looting & killing, their joy at this most recent assassination, provides us with undeniable proof beyond any reasonable doubt, that Democrats are the party of lawlessness evil.

It’s time to stop rewarding evil behavior. It’s time for reap what you sow Laissez-faire policies that punish those that destroy cities like Jackson, MS. Until then, look for more "barreling towards insolvency" stories in Democrat cities like Jackson, MS.

6:13 the mayor has no authority over the water.

12:00 Siemens money is gone .

Ted tried to warn the judge. He didn't
listen.

Don't fool yourself, and if you do, you can't fool ME. A black, lifelong congressman from the poorest state in the nation which practically grew up in Jackson, can influence quite a few people in Washington.

Hennifin, like the Constitution, is simply a minor irritant and inconvenience to Bennie.

If this is turned back over to the COJ then again more $$ will disappear. Depending who is on Federal appropriations committee then yes I agree, Senators have much direction in who & how contractors are paid. Why do you think COJ can’t hire contractors that are competent.

How much, if any, of a tax goes to a Convention and Visitor's Bureau??? If so, i would like to see a redirection of those funds since this is an emergency sitch.

I have been posting this over and over. When Ted came to power, he should have made it the first priority to collect. Raising accounts receivable from 50% to 71% is ridiculous. He is losing $3,000,000 - $4,000,000 per month since he got there. Do the math over the time he has been there. $36,000,000 per year for 4-5 years adds up.

7:45 Jxn Water had to rebuild the billing
system from scratch.

The city was legally obligated to raise the rates when they had the water but
they didn't. It might be different if they
had.

TL;DR JXN Water isn’t God and the only way any progress has been made was federal money. Bye, Ted!

What might help is Ted selling the building they won’t let us into for any customer service and cutting the ridiculous advertising expenses. It’s not like we can buy water from another competitor, so what’s that about?

Y'all think we could have squeezed more than $90mil out of Siemens or nah?

Ted has made some mistakes. But goodness, he is being asked to make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. Ted has done an admirable job considering the issues faced. He did bring in some contractors that are expensive, and some services that other water providers don't utilize at all (Horne CPA to help with billing and data for example). But smaller companies were scared to get involved, and he's trying to rebuild a system. It's a massive undertaking. The problem is that years of mismanagement let it get this way to start with. It's easy to Monday Morning Quarterback some of Ted's decisions, but he inherited a disaster. I will take Ted over the incompetent buffoons that were the Jackson city council, several Jackson mayors, several Jackson public works directors, etc.

Now, at the end of the day who will be paying for all this-US!

@8:42 - absolutely, considering the damages were far in excess of what the city paid for that contract, but i doubt anyone involved wanted that case to go to discovery. i'm not an attorney but i think lumumba was short-sighted and settled too soon just to be able to brag about getting "all" of that money back.

I don’t understand why Wingate just doesn’t pull the bandaid off now and raise rates to a level where they are sustainable to pay for operations and debt service. That’s what’s coming anyway… every day you prolong it just increases the amount you’ll have to raise it in the future to cover past debt.

If/when the water company increases the collection rate, apply that money towards eliminating the debt and funding infrastructure.

Yes, it will be a large increase… but what other options are there? If you don’t pay the debt service, the city and water authority are both cooked.

@8:53, have you forgotten that the COO and Billing Exec are former CoJ Public Works talent?

There was $30m of that $90m that went into pockets instead of fixing the issues.

@8:53am I completely agree. John Horhn and Ted Henefin are competing in the "hardest jobs in America" category right now. I don't envy either of them, but I am thankful for both. Let's all pray that Ted stays. The mayor and the water czar have massive expenses and little resources, I can't imagine either getting much sleep at night. Here we finally have people turning the ship around and plenty will still complain and have negative remarks. Sad!

It seems obvious that the Siemens wild goose chase is just a diversion. Horne and the incoming administration may be opposed, but he should know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't daylight. They will have to reconcile the debt and find the water line to operate the system. Period.

By the way, did we ever find out what happened to all of that Siemens money? It won't right the ship, but it'd certainly be interesting to shine a flashlight under some of those rocks.