“Imagine if you will…” is how Rod Serling introduced each surreal episode of the popular Twilight Zone TV series years ago. It seems a good way to frame the recent data dump on the Jackson City Council by JXN Water’s “CEO” Judge.
The data were detailed compilations of the problems, mismanagement, customer abuses, and costs the CEO Judge and his Water Czar Chief Operating Officer have observed during their three year tenures — but have not fixed. The dump was the Judge’s way of saying: “No Mas. I’ve had enough. I’m giving the ball to the City Council.” If the City Council is smart, it won’t take the ball. In this episode of the Twilight Zone, the head coach who picked the team, called the plays, and managed the clock now walks to the sideline, points to the scoreboard, and asks the owner to take responsibility for the loss. So his legacy is a detailed post mortem about the turnovers on plays he called. For three years, the court‑designed JXN Water regime controlled the essentials: who got the big contracts, how billing and collections worked, what got classified as a “fixed cost,” when customers got shut off, when and how much to increase rates, when the city got paid, and when bondholders got their money. That’s not consulting. That’s governing. Those are decisions, not observations. When you make decisions, you own them. You don’t disown them by describing their consequences. The Judge’s recent memo to the mayor and council reads like something an outside auditor might write about a broken system: “We note unremitted sanitation collections.” “We observe that the City has made water‑sewer bond payments.” “We recommend reviewing contracts, improving collections, and operating within revenues.” It is tidy, technical, and detached. But it’s not candid about who had the authority to change those things while they were happening. And didn’t. Take sanitation. Over two years, customers paid millions in garbage fees that did not reach the City on schedule. That is not a mystery the Judge uncovered in some forensic dig. It’s a practice under the management structure he created and supervised. Calling it a “reserve” for deposits after the fact does not change the basic fact that money billed and collected for sanitation did not go promptly where customers assumed it was going: to the City’s sanitation fund.
Or look at bond payments. Water and sewer bonds are supposed to be paid from water and sewer revenues. Yet the City’s general fund — the same pot that pays for police, fire, and basic services — had to step in to make those payments when they came due. That did not happen behind JXN Water’s back. It happened due to a contract and spending regime that treated bond reserves as negotiable while millions went out the door every month to “fixed cost” vendors.
Then there are the no-bid contracts themselves. The Judge’s own memo lists a stack of large,
recurring deals for plant operations, distribution, meters, and sewer work that together consume
essentially all of JXN Water’s monthly collections. That lineup did not appoint itself. Those
players were scouted, signed, and kept in the game under court‑blessed management. When
you declare those obligations “fixed,” everyone else’s — from bondholders to city taxpayers to
rank‑and‑file employees — become variable.
This is where Charlie Munger’s wisdom fits: “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the
outcome.” The incentives in Jackson’s water world were straightforward. Contractors were put
first in line for cash. The City’s general fund was treated as the a kitty for bond debt. Sanitation
transfers were not locked into an automatic, reconciled pass‑through system. Shutoffs and
strong arm collections were used when cash got tight. But there was no matching discipline on
where the cash went.
Given those incentives, the outcomes now being “reported” were predictable. They were baked
in.
None of this is to make the Judge the fall guy. What happened was a legendary jurist stepped
onto a field he didn’t fully understand, trusted his chosen managers, and assumed that good
intentions plus emergency powers would produce good results. When things went sideways, he
did what many powerful people do when they are over their heads: he doubled down. More
Cowbell. Higher rates. And finally he offered a careful narrative of what went wrong — as
though he were an unaccountable observer or consultant.
Real accountability would say: under this regime, we chose these contracts; we set these
priorities for cash; we allowed these payment patterns and non-payments to develop; and we
did not correct them in time. It would say we tried. But on what matters to the City —
remittances, bond discipline, sustainable operations, reasonable rates, responsive customer
service — we failed.
In football terms what happened is this. The head coach kept a losing team on the field for three
seasons. Then he told the team owner: “Good news. I’ve diagramed why the fumbles and
interceptions and back-to-back-to back losses happened. Your ball now. Good luck.”
The City Council shouldn’t take ball on those terms.
It should insist on a different handoff. Where the books are reconciled. Where every sanitation
dollar collected is either in the City’s account or explained by a hard, auditable rule. Where bond
payments come first, not as a surprise bailout from the general fund. Or are restructured.
Where “fixed cost” contracts are subject to real competition and don’t exceed revenues the
customer base can support.
Jackson does not need another Twilight Zone episode where responsibility floats in the air and
no one ever quite touches it. It needs something more radical for this city: a clear line between
who makes decisions, who benefits from them, and who’s responsible when they go wrong.
And leaders who will say: “Those were my calls. My mistakes. My bad.”
This post was authored by Kelly Williams, Chairman of Bigger Pie Forum.
This post was sponsored by Bigger Pie Forum.
19 comments:
Just another reason why I moved out of Jackson almost 30 years ago
Kelly has lost all perspective.
In each of these pieces, Kelly keeps implying the costs of running the system are too high, yet never explicitly lays out which costs of the contractors are too expensive and which contractors will do those tasks for a cheaper price, proving JXN Water is being too irresponsible with its contracts.
City council doesn't have anything to do
with jxn water. He's not corrected his
misformation about jxn water in earlier
articles. Crap . Why do you print this?
Meter contract was entered into by the
city.
He's pushing crap.
City only made one bond payment
Ted has explained over and over about
Jacob contact.
Kelly is pissed off because his water bill is going up and he's acting like JXN Water caused all this. Maybe he'd like to go back to the boil-water days?
JJ what ball is he giving to the city council?
@10:47, he's the Soc Garrett of NEJax.
Does Mr Williams suggest that we go back to letting our Mayor, City Council, Socrates Garrett and his bottom feeders as well as all of the other people that have mismanaged and neglected the system for years run it again?? Is he promoting Rubia and her entourage to run our corrupt and disfunctional water system? I didn't see specifics or solutions provided by him either. Mr Henefin has done more with what he has had to work with in his time than anyone Mr Williams could put in to run it. Also, Jacobs engineering is the country's leading water system engineer and will run circles around any plan that Mr Williams could propose.
As a life long Jacksonian, I have faced the fact that we will have to go through some struggles to fix the mess our city leaders created by neglect, ignorance, incompetence and corruption! Actually, my water bill and service are consistent and accurate now that Jxn Water has taken over.
System has been mismanaged since Kane Ditto. Remediating 30+ of deferred maintenance and administrative incompetence doesn't happen overnight and won't come without some pain.
It's going to take a little longer for this to be "water under the bridge."
Therre's also a significant additional cost to quickly reliably remediate problems when the water and sewer (and trash, police, fire etc) system has been entirely broken by the combination of gross mismanagement and massive financial irresponsibility over the course of decades.
At least the bigger pie has water that is drinkable, there's not booboo water in his yard, and his trash gets picked up.
Also Chokwe has a trial date.
There are so many analogies mixed into this screed, I just gave up trying to sort out the arguments he was trying to make.
It’s obvious he’s trying to criticize the federal judge and the receiver, but that’s about it.
Frankly, this is like a term paper written by a stoned college student the night before it was due. He thinks he it’s brilliant at the time, but it’s just a mess the next morning.
The distribution contractors only get paid when they go out and do each job.
The Siemens settlement funds were taken by the city and not used to pay down the related bond. So, COJ can't complain about being responsible for making the bond payments now. LeMumbles and the do nothing Council used that $$ for nice murals and such instead of paying down water debt.
Used to not really have an opinion of Bigger Pie Forum. The articles involving Jxn Water have changed that. What junk. That group has just lost any confidence I may have had in their writing. Now when I see Bigger Pie Forum, I'll just skip it.
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