After a season of unprecedented corruption involving elected Mississippi Public Service Commissioners in the late 1980s, then-Democratic Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus faced the task of appointing a successor in 1989 to fill the unexpired term of Northern District Commissioner D.W. Snyder of Eupora, following his trial and conviction on federal charges of extortion, filing false tax returns, bribery, and conspiracy.
Snyder had been entrusted with the PSC seat by voters for seven terms.
Southern District PSC Commissioner Lynn Havens resigned after facing a
federal indictment in 1988 and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy
charges in 1989.
The Mabus appointment would draw intense scrutiny as questions roiled
about the wisdom of electing public service commissioners who could
accept campaign contributions from the very utilities and other
companies they regulated. Who did Mabus appoint to step
into the post after Snyder?
State Rep. Dorlos “Bo” Robinson of Hamilton in Monroe County was
appointed. Through the prism of history, Mabus made an exemplary choice.
Robinson, a distinguished veteran of county, state, and district
politics in Mississippi, passed away peacefully at his residence in
Hamilton on May 26 at age 90.
Robinson was a veteran, a law enforcement officer, a longtime farmer and
cotton gin operator, and someone with real-world business experience in
farm credit, banking and the legislative process. He was a lay speaker
and circuit church worship leader in the
Methodist church for decades.
Those characteristics helped Robinson become a stabilizing force on the
PSC during some turbulent years involving litigation over major utility
rate hikes, changes in the powers of the PSC after the Snyder-Havens
incidents and national changes in the energy
regulatory environment.
Bo was a tall, rangy man with a soft voice and a pleasing manner. But
his easy manner did not hide the fact that he had done more than his
share of hard labor on the farm and that he had experience dealing with
those not predisposed to obey the law voluntarily.
Bo was born on his family’s farm in 1935. After graduating from Hamilton
High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a military policeman
at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and later at Manzano
Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He later served nine years in the Mississippi National Guard.
He and his wife, Betty, began their 72 years of marriage in New Mexico,
but returned to Hamilton when his father became too ill to run the
family farm. Bo was elected as Monroe County’s sheriff from 1968-72.
Eight years later, Bo was elected to the Mississippi
House of Representatives in 1980 and served until 1990 when his PSC
service officially began.
Robinson served in the PSC post until 2007, when he announced his
intention to retire from public service. At that time, a concurrent
resolution of the Mississippi Legislature was adopted by the House and
Senate honoring his life and service.
At the time of his retirement, the late Leesha Faulkner reported in the
Northeast Miss. Daily Journal, a surprise event honoring Robinson in
Hamilton that drew political luminaries from across the state including
U.S. District Judge Mike Mills, veteran State
Sen. Hob Bryan, and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Faulkner quoted Sen. Bryan as noting that Robinson “was the only man
sitting on the stage Saturday afternoon who had voted for the Education
Reform Act of Gov. William Winter's administration in 1982.”
Robinson talked to Winter about it, and the governor at the time asked
Robinson how he felt about it, said Bryan. “Bo said, ‘Governor, I'd
rather get beat for doing something than get beat for not doing
anything.’”
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
12 comments:
Thanks Sid for your essay on the Wikipedia articles you read this week.
A friend once told me how back in the old days, the Commissioners would take reps from the utilities shopping with them. The Commissioner would point at items and say I want this, I want that, etc. The reps would have to get it for them.
How absolutely third world! With that said, utilities are very inexpensive in MS compared to any other place in the USA (or world) I have lived in my life.
MS needs more men like Mr. Robinson. RIP.
... utilities are very inexpensive in MS compared to any other place in the USA ...
Without.A.Clue
Sid brings up so many good ole days Democrats. His ending with William Winter reminds me of many years ago watching him race bait a bunch of gullible Millsaps grads, as if nothing had changed at all in Mississippi since the 1960’s. Winter gave all of us in attendance that day a prime example of the white liberals Malcom X had warned us about.
You have to know times are tough for yellow dog Democrat opinion writer/professors like Sid, when they have to keep going back to their party’s good old days, and their party’s good old days politicians.
But we should all know why, since today:
Democrats are twice as likely to say they have poor mental health - while Conservatives are more than twice as likely to say their mental wellbeing is “excellent.”
Democrats have to shamefully use chaos and crime to create the flight required to gain, then keep control of cities like Jackson, MS forever, with a one-party system of government.
Democrats must keep their silence when innocent children are killed via stray bullets (2 in 10 days in Jackson, MS), or even shot in the face/murdered in cold blood, in what has become known as a child killing capital and one of the most dangerous cities in the US.
Democrats have to pretend it’s okay for boys to beat up on girls in women’s sports.
Democrats must believe in free housing and healthcare for those entering our country illegally, while hard working tax payer American’s struggle with paying rent, buying a first home, etc.
Democrats have to love criminal illegals so much they will do anything possible to keep them in our country.
When thugs with criminal records have their civil liberties violated, Democrats have to weep and gnash their teeth with pretend holier than thou outrage, then sit by quietly while the burning and looting occurs, and at least 25 people are killed, including an innocent 8-year-old Secoreia Turner.
But - when a holocaust survivor Jewish woman in her 80’s “gets burned alive by a radicalized immigrant,” the Democrat “media yawns and the “anti-racism” advocates scroll by in silence.”
Snyder's influence followed him to prison. Without any problem he was able to get a relative a nice position at a state agency. First time that particular position had every been filled 'off the street'.
As a native of Hamilton, I grew up knowing "Mr. Bo" and his family. He was an exemplary man and a tremendous asset to his family, church, community, and state. Mr. Bo knew the difference between right and wrong, a trait we so desparately need more of these days. We could use some more Bo Robinson's.
Perhaps the only decision made by Mabus that improved MS.
@10:38 You remind my of those old pull-string talking dolls. You repeat the same thing in every comment.
You really need to:
1.) get a life
2.) get a clue
3.) get a grip
" Snyder's influence followed him to prison. Without any problem he was able to get a relative a nice position at a state agency. First time that particular position had every been filled 'off the street'.
@10:48 AM:
You are correct.
I worked with this D W relative.
He was a nice guy and a great employee.
No doubt he got the job because of D W Snyder, but if he knew any details
about D.W's corruption .... it was never mentioned.
The Snyder guy turned out to be a better choice than many "in house" slackers that wanted the job.
But I do appreciate Sid bringing back memories of late 1980's
Democratic drama. (Snyder, Mabus,Winter and others).
No doubt a 40 year old Delbert was lurking in that mix back then... "taking notes".
At 10:48 AM
REPLY
"
6:48 PM sounds like someone that’s not ever had to deal with any of the violent crimes resulting from Democrat Party policies and their infatuated love of criminals; so he/she is therefore just tired of hearing about them. The old attitude of “these tragedies aren’t affecting me, so just let the poor people deal with those pains,” right?
It’s a textbook response from a typical elitist leftist Democrat. Especially those living safely behind gates, maybe even safely in the Republican controlled burbs, and who knows, maybe even sending their babies - to elite private schools.
Let us not dare offend the 6:48 PM’s by talking about Democrat immoralities, but instead, keep listening to ole yellow dog Sid, telling us all about the good old Democrat days, and all about their good old days Democrat heroes.
And we can also expect ole Bill, and the judge briber funded paper, to continuously give us their fake outrage, weeping and gnashing their teeth; but only when politically convenient, of course.
And the silence from these leftist Democrat propagandists? It will almost certainly be deafening when it comes to the holocaust survivor Jewish woman in her 80’s - being “burned alive by a radicalized immigrant,” when the next child is murdered in cold blood or killed via a stray bullet in their crime infested Democrat controlled cities, and the next 13-year-old is forced into a vehicle and raped by a migrant that should not have ever been in this country. Crickets.
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1
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