Jackson Mayor John Horhn issued the following statement.
The Mississippi Free Press (MFP) article on the Jackson water authority bill repeats a familiar and misleading narrative that blurs the failures of the past with the hard choices we are making now to stabilize this system and return it to accountable, local control. Our administration is focused on a simple goal: securing long‑term, sustainable funding for water operations in a structure that is subject to state ethics and procurement laws, and answerable to the people who pay the bills every month.
For years, JXN Water’s financial management has raised alarms, including repeated warnings that the utility is “currently insolvent” and cannot meet its obligations under the current model, even as it has pushed rate increases on Jackson residents. Judge Wingate has now approved a 12% rate hike while ordering a closer review of JXN Water’s finances and collections, underscoring deep concern about how the system has been run and funded. Judge Wingate has ordered a forensic audit of JXN Water, which he plans to oversee. The idea that asking hard questions about collections, spending, and debt structure is “fiscal fantasy,” as Mr. Henifin stated, ignores the reality that families in Jackson are already stretched thin and deserve clear answers before they are told to pay more.
It is especially troubling that Mr. Henifin, an unelected federally appointed manager who currently controls JXN Water and has broad discretion over no‑bid and limited‑competition contracting, is now placing his thumb on the scale to try to kill legislation that would place future water operations under a public authority bound by Mississippi law, open‑meetings requirements, and conflict‑of‑interest rules. Even the MFP article acknowledges that he has flagged the lack of guardrails against self‑dealing in the proposed authority, while he himself operates today under a structure that gives him wide latitude to award and manage contracts with far less public oversight. It should not surprise anyone that a person in that position is uncomfortable with a governance model that would require long‑term accountability to a board with majority Jackson representation, subject to the same ethics expectations as every other public body in this state.
While continuing to try to tie the current City of Jackson administration to ones from the past, Mr. Henifin is willfully omitting the fact that he appropriated sanitation fees owed to the City to make his September interest payments for JXN Water debt, without objection from the City. He has neglected to mention that it was the City who stepped up and made JXN Water's December bond payment of $5.1 million and that the Mayor personally intervened with our Congressional Delegation and the EPA in support of moving $54 million in Capital Funds to Operations & Maintenance in order to keep JXN Water afloat; neither has he mentioned that the City of Jackson is actively moving forward to re-finance a portion of JXN Water's debt to give the system breathing room.
The City of Jackson will continue to support legislation that keeps Jackson as a majority voting bloc for the authority, protects ratepayers from endless increases with no transparency, and ensures that whoever runs this system is accountable under Mississippi’s laws, not just a federal order. Jackson’s residents did not cause this crisis, and they should not be asked to accept the same insolvency and the same lack of oversight dressed up as the only responsible option.
In addition to personally overseeing the forensic audit, Judge Wingate ordered many of Mayor Horhn’s requested actions to ensure that every reasonable alternative is pursued before additional burdens are placed on residents.
1. Identify and bill unmetered and unbilled properties:
JXN Water should expedite the identification and billing of currently unmetered or unbilled properties and provide quarterly progress reports detailing:
- The number of new accounts added, and
- The specific revenue impact of these additions.
2. Restore an in-person customer service presence:
JXN Water should establish and maintain a physical, in-person site within the City of Jackson where residents can bring complaints, resolve billing disputes, and receive help understanding their bills from a professional and respectful staff.
3. Provide a clear “sample bill” to the public:
JXN Water should create and make publicly available a simple “sample bill” so residents can see, line by line, how charges are calculated and what each part of the bill means.
4. Study a fairer tiered rate structure:
JXN Water should study the feasibility of a tiered system wherer lower-volume users are better protected.
5. Pursue a vigorous, fair collections strategy for past-due accounts:
JXN Water should develop and refine a strong but fair collections strategy for the estimated $74 million in outstanding arrears, with quarterly public reports on progress. This strategy should focus on:
- Collecting from those with the ability to pay,
- Offering reasonable options for those who genuinely cannot pay, and
- Reducing the need to lean on across-the-board rate increases.
At the end of the day, the City of Jackson wants a reliable water system that is sustainably funded, ensures everyone who receives water pays their fair share, and fulfills our obligations to our residents and the federal government. Jackson families are being asked to pay higher bills into a system that JXN Water itself describes as insolvent, with little say and limited transparency about where their money goes. It should surprise no one that a man who is currently cutting and managing the contracts under this fragile setup is uncomfortable with legislation that would force accountability and public oversight. Our administration will not accept a future where the people of Jackson keep footing the bill while the same insolvency and lack of accountability continue unchanged.
Kingfish note: What stirred up the Mayor was Nick Judin's interview with Henefin in the Mississippi Free Press. The JXN Water Manager spelled out his problems with HB #1677. Some quotes:
“As a whole, without major changes in this bill, it’s potentially going to drive the system right back to where it was,” Henifin said.... First and foremost were the strict rules governing rate increases and major expenditures, a last-minute amendment that requires 3/4ths of what was once a 12-member board to agree on any expenditures above $5,000,000—a fraction of the yearly budget—and any rate increases. With the board cut down to 9 members in the version that passed the House, that would mean the mayor and their two direct appointees would have an unbreakable veto over the most important decisions of the proposed authority. “ All you need is to have two holdouts and you can control everything that revolves around rates or contract awards over $5 million … which puts us right back where we were,” Henifin said. “And I’d say it won’t take long to get back into the failing water system if you can’t get the resources.”... Beyond the board, Henifin noted that basic restrictions on how the new utility operates were missing in the bill, leaving the door open for self-dealing and exploitation. No provision in the bill prevents contracts being awarded to board members themselves, or to their families or businesses. Nor does the new entity have to follow Mississippi procurement law, with its restrictions on bidding....Taken together, Henifin’s individual concerns over the proposed entity begin to coalesce into a vision of overlapping, escalating complications: Without serious backing, the new entity could face an increasingly expensive water and sewer system, with a board paralyzed against increasing revenue thanks to the input of a single elected politician, potentially cannibalized by a lack of ethical guardrails against enriching its own members and separate city funding pools, expecting salvation from a federal loan program ill-equipped to properly fund it...
44 comments:
Horhn should be ashamed that the literal cargo cult currently in control of the City of Jackson can’t maintain their infrastructure and that the feds HAD to appoint an unelected outsider to get it back functioning. And my how fast he got it back working! Meanwhile, water utilities everywhere else in the state operating as a profitable, revenue generating enterprise for municipalities (not run by cargo cults)
Mayor doesn't mention the judge called it a fiscal fantasy.
Choke Horhn Lumumba III
The mayor needs to read the order the
city signed off on that gave Ted the
authority he has.
Mayor doesn't mention what the judge wrote in his order about city opposing
his raise. Hollow protest
>Even the MFP article acknowledges that he has flagged the lack of guardrails against self‑dealing in the proposed authority, while he himself operates today under a structure that gives him wide latitude to award and manage contracts with far less public oversight.
I would like to remind Lumumba the Third that federal oversight is public oversight.
Ted's concerns are real.
Mayor has down Jxn Water every since he got mayor.
Ted just telling the truth.
Jxn Water publishes where money goes.
The mayor keeps forgetting this is none of his business. Water is now like electricity - a third party supplies it to Jackson residents. He should be grateful water and sewer are two issues taken off his plate so he doesn’t have to worry about them.
Ted's right.
10:15 Agree someone needs to remind
him.
Jackson’s residents did not cause this crisis, and they should not be asked to accept the same insolvency and the same lack of oversight dressed up as the only responsible option.
The residents of Jackson weren't running the water and sewer systems when they collapsed, but the mayors and council they elected for the past 30 years were running the city were. Through gross incompetence, fraud, cronyism and favoritism the City of Jackson did many things it should not have done, and didn't correctly do many things it should have done.
The City couldn't properly fund, operate and maintain the water and sewer systems over a decades long gradual decline.
The city was giving away free water and sewer services to thousands of residents and slumlords.
This was not only a cause, it was a symptom of the gross failure to do things correctly to any reasonable standard. If a business can't correctly bill and get paid for what it sells, there won't be a business for long.
Competent people have no reason to believe things will be different next time if the City of Jackson regains control of the water and sewer systems.
Why don't Mayor Hohrn And Rukia Lumumba demand a forensic audit of the City of Jackson so the residents of Jackson can understand what really caused these problems?
Not that they really would ever do that.
For obvious reasons.
Those in Jackson who do not pay their bills should thank the Lord that Ted is here, otherwise there would be no water at all. Those who do pay their bills should think seriously about getting the hell out of Jackson before the City gets control of the water system again. The "cargo cult" as referenced by 9:37 doesn't give a damn about the water; they just want to "be in charge". FACTS.
Incompetent politicians fail to run a business enterprise to such a drastic level that the citizen's welfare and safety is threatened. In that event outside intervention becomes necessary. It's a damn shame but it became necessary. It becomes essential that the intervenors determine the nature and the duration of the threat because the politicians will fight to get back in control as soon as possible and regain their incompetent management. However, the intervenors cannot transfer control until the threat is actually removed. In Jackson the threat has not been completely solved. That's Henefin's call, a part of his job description. The politicians do not care they see money and they want to control it. Not yet.
The mayor added things the judge didn't put in his order about things
for Ted to do.
Mayor can't even quote the judge right.
City not suppose to be involved in Ted's
job. Mayor can't understand that.
Mayor Idiot is fully aware that he has not Authority over the water....but he has to posture as if he does - to satisfy his Idiot Constituency. Now he can tell them, "I tried" - fully knowing he has not power over the situation - but he can't tell them that.
Horhn is a politician not a businessman, there is the problem. The mayor supports the people in an entirely different way than Ted. Either you want a dependable water system or to feel empowered to the cause of people. There are a lot more problems the mayor should concentrate on, problem is those don't play out with the same weight politically for him.
Joel Carter not on board with mayor.
Mayor whining.
"and answerable to the people who pay the bills every month"
Except those who live in Ridgeland and Byrum, right?
The mayor talks like Jackson had nothing do with racking that Siemens bond debt, like it's all Ted Henifin's fault/responsibility.
But did the city even comply with Judge Wingate's subpoena for documents on how the city spent the $60 million it netted from the Siemens lawsuit, or is it still fighting it? I'll be interested to read the results of the court's investigation.
And just 8 months into his first term, John Horhn expects everyone to forget the last 14 years and give the city the benefit of the doubt, after a federal judge found that the city has "a culture of not paying" its bills.
This kind of gaslighting statement does nothing but undermine the mayor's credibility.
Why isn't he doing his own job?
If you want suffrage you also have to accept the consequences of bad electoral choices as the responsibility of the voters. The water problems are literally the fault of the voting population of Jackson..
Is there anywhere we can go online and
find out how mayor spends money?
Horhn did not pen this. It was obviously ghost written.
New mayor, same as old mayor.
The struggle is real. Right?
Sometimes the quotes and paraphrasing work better for the case you are trying to make when you just make them up!
Mayor doesn't realize how bad this makes the city look. Has he paid city
water bill?
I say give it all back to the City of Jackson.
They can either have reliable water and sewer service, or they can have their ethnic pride and dignity.
They can’t have both because they royally screwed this one up themselves and their current shortsighted behavior betrays that they will be right back in the same sinking boat within a year.
Yes it's very clear Horhn did not write that, as he is not capable. The same grift that existed with Lumumba is still trying to get its tentacles back in everything.
I really wish Henifin would pack it in and leave it to these delusional retards (sorry....they are). With all the continual fighting among fools, the system would collapse. They....(yes Othor, THEY)....cannot govern.
"Mr. Henifin is willfully omitting the fact that he appropriated sanitation fees owed to the City to make his September interest payments for JXN Water debt, without objection from the City."
I thought JXN Water kept that money to pay the city's $5 million water bill from the zoo, and the city fought like crazy to get it back, but lost.
Whoever wrote that statement needs to be fired. They are clearly a vestige of the Lumumbas, and are undermining the new administration's credibility with obvious BS.
What Sister R doin?
I kept saying that hohrn would be as bad as chokwe but no one would listen to me
The monkey moat is symbolic of COJ incompetency: $6.5M(+/-) city debt for a leaking zoo exhibit. Jackson needs a monkey swinging across a moat as it's official City symbol.
2:18 As critical as I am of Jackson's recent leadership I cannot bring myself to hate these people so badly that I want to see the city fail. In fact I would love to see it succeed greatly. I do not think it is on the right track but people like Henefin can contribute to it's comeback. I hope. Why don't you?
Som folks just can't get right.
Horhn's marxist criticism emphasizing "fairness" sounds like a resurrection of (political) 'E-Code' exemptions from paying for water. Hennifin, who, despite his expertise, efficiency and possibly deserved $400,000 salary, nevertheless has previously wanted to base water rates on home values that would only exacerbate the entitlement attitude for Jackson deadbeats who don't pay their water bills, in full and on time. Instead a monthly $40 "hook-up" fee is charged reliable paying customers and reduced to $20 for the entitlement class.
Do we need for Jxn Water to put a lien on these people's phones, internet service and cars to get them to pay attention? Nobody is entitled to water they won't pay for!
Love how Horhn talks about HE want to get the $54 million.....
Sept 2025, Henifin report to Judge. Mr. Henifin wants to redirect $54 million of the federal appropriation towards operations. The report says doing so would help the system for 18 months at current deficit levels. However, such a redirection requires Congressional approval. Mississippi's Congressional delegation is working on the request.
https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2025/09/water-wars-barreling-towards-insolvency.html
The absolute best recap of Jackson’s water problem, from Sept 2022
https://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2022/09/how-jacksons-water-system-collapsed.html
Horhn is a waste of everyone's time. Exactly the same as Lumumba.
Consider Jackson's governance for 15 years and justify hope. Consider the whole Monkey Moat fiasco and the bribery situation of the previous COJ mayor and of the current Hinds DA and rationalize hope.
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