Deion Sanders — or Coach Prime, as he much prefers — was clearly perturbed when TV reporters approached him coming off the field at halftime Saturday of what was eventually a 66-24 trouncing of Grambling.
His Jackson State Tigers led the G-Men 21-17, but had been their own worst enemies after taking a 14-0 early lead. Sanders told the announcers his team had played poorly, had been out of character. He said that they not fundamentally sound. He said more. He clearly was frustrated.
Rick Cleveland
The TV announcers correctly predicted Sanders was about to give his team a tongue-lashing.
So, what did he say? Or holler?
“I was so mad I don’t remember,” Sanders said after the game.
Put it this way: Whatever he said worked.
Jackson State, with Sanders’ quarterbacking son Shedeur Sanders leading the way, out-scored Grambling 45-7 in the second half for the lopsided victory before a sun-baked yet enthused crowd of approximately 35,000 at Veterans Memorial Stadium. This was the W.C. Gorden Classic, played in honor of the late Jackson State coaching legend who led the Tigers to eight SWAC championships.
Gorden most assuredly would approve of the Tigers’ performance Saturday, especially in the second half.
Big picture: Jackson State moved to 3-0 on the young season and has now defeated three traditional HBCU powers Florida A&M, Tennessee State and Grambling by a combined score of 141 to 30. The Tigers are clearly a lot more talented than most of the teams they have played — or, for that matter, will play.
And clearly the most talented Tiger of all is the one named Shedeur, who accounted for six touchdowns and threw some of the prettiest passes you’d ever want to see. Shedeur Sanders, a 20-year-old sophomore, plays with the poise of someone much older. He plays smart. He throws accurately. He is as talented as he is resourceful. He can throw the long ball, as he did on a perfectly thrown 52-yard strike to speedy Christian Allen that resulted in an 84-yard touchdown play. He can throw short passes and intermediate, too. He can throw fast balls and he can throw with touch. And, when the situation arises, he can run with the ball, too.
Shedeur threw so well and so productively Saturday that a reporter asked his father if this was the best passing game he has had in his short college career.
“No,” Deion Sanders replied. “I did not like the first half whatsoever. He missed a couple or this game would have been over a lot sooner. He did hit them all in the second half. As he goes, we go.”
Shedeur Sanders completed 21 of 31 passes for 357 yards and four touchdowns. He scored two more touchdowns running the ball.
But the Tigers are far from a one-man gang. Sy’veon Wilkerson, a bowling ball of a running back, displayed quick feet and much strength running for 141 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.
And you should have seen the leaping one-handed catch Shane Hooks made on a Sanders pass that appeared to be overthrown until Hooks went up and snatched far above Grambling defenders.
Defensively, especially in the second half, the Tigers suffocated the visitors. They were clearly faster and apparently much stronger than Grambling, coached by former Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson. Jackson, in his first season at Grambling, apparently has a major rebuild on his hands.
“Hue Jackson is a great coach,” Deion Sanders said. “… He’s where we were that first spring season. When he gets his players in there, they will be something to deal with.”
That may be, but for now Grambling and the SWAC has to deal with the monster that Jackson State football has become. Mississippi Valley State is next up for the Tigers at the Vet this Saturday. It likely won’t be pretty.
Within Mississippi’s ever-unfolding welfare scandal, government officials didn’t just use federal funds to lavish their friends and family.
They also allegedly leveraged the money to quell their political foes, according to a defendant in the case and another individual connected to a nonprofit within scheme.
Christi Webb, director of the welfare-funded nonprofit Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, supported her friend and then-Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, in his race for governor against then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves in 2019.
To the apparent dismay of state Republican leadership, Webb hired the Democrat’s wife, Debbie Hood, in mid-2018 to run the local Chickasaw County office of the statewide anti-poverty program called Families First for Mississippi. The state welfare department was pushing tens of millions of welfare dollars through Webb’s nonprofit – $11.5 million forensic auditors found was misused over a four-year span.
But around April 2019, as the governor’s race began heating up, a local Republican lawmaker allegedly took that dismay a step further and delivered a threat to Webb: Fire Debbie Hood or lose your public funding.
“FRC will never receive another dollar from the state if you don’t fire Debbie Hood,” a north Mississippi Republican lawmaker told Webb, Webb’s attorney Casey Lott alleged.
“He explicitly said, ‘I’m the governor’s messenger,’” Lott added, referencing then-Gov. Phil Bryant.
Mississippi Today spoke with another person connected to the nonprofit who also witnessed and confirmed the lawmaker’s demand but did not wish to be named.
Bryant, who oversaw over the Mississippi Department of Human Services and appointed the welfare agency’s director, has increasingly faced public scrutiny for his role in what has been called the largest embezzlement scheme in state history.
The former governor, who has not been charged with a crime, wielded control over how the welfare agency and its partner nonprofits spent federal welfare funds, Mississippi Today has uncovered in its ongoing investigative series “The Backchannel.” And Bryant even appeared to help NFL legend Brett Favre and a nonprofit official write a grant to skirt around federal regulations, according to text messages first published by Mississippi Today this week.
Bryant’s attorney in the civil case, Ridgeland-based attorney Billy Quin, declined to comment Saturday for this story. Quin is a former special assistant attorney general under Hood, and the attorney publicly supported Hood for governor in 2019, social media posts show.
Jim Hood’s 2019 campaign manager Michael Rejebian confirmed the account on Saturday. He said that after Debbie Hood learned of the threat, the campaign began trying to run down what happened and, “we came to the conclusion that Tate (Reeves) had his fingers in it.”
“It didn’t surprise us because that’s his M.O.,” Rejebian said.
Ultimately, the Hood camp did not make Debbie Hood’s treatment an issue in the race because “she did not want this to be a distraction to the campaign and what her husband needed to do,” Rejebian said.
Rejebian called Debbie Hood a conscientious person who took the job at the Family Resource Center to help people, and that she wouldn’t have known about the funding structures.
But the questions about what happened to Debbie Hood, Rejebian said, prompted murmurs about what was really occurring at Families First, which would less than a year later be exposed for being the vehicle of millions of dollars worth of theft.
Shortly before the alleged threat to the nonprofit leader, Bryant had met with the local lawmaker, Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican from Guntown.
McMahan also had direct contact with former welfare agency director John Davis about the agency’s spending decisions, text messages obtained by Mississippi Today show, and he took a special interest in helping secure funding for the Autism Center of North Mississippi — a payment auditors later found improper. When reached for comment for this story, McMahan denied ever threatening Webb’s funding.
“I never said that. I don’t remember ever saying. I don’t even remember a conversation like that at all,” McMahan told Mississippi Today. “… I’m troubled that that’s been said, when I was working on behalf of the autism center to get them their funding restored, and Families First, too. I would have liked to have seen Families First get their grant back. But I’m really troubled by it.”
The Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing Webb for misusing nearly $4 million from the federal program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, a block grant that officials targeted for widespread misuse during the Bryant administration. The civil lawsuit attempts to recoup back roughly $24 million from 38 individuals or companies. While Webb faces civil charges, she has not been accused of a crime. Because of the ongoing criminal investigation, Webb spoke to Mississippi Today entirely through her attorney for this story.
Davis is facing several criminal charges, including bribery and fraud, related to welfare spending. His attorney did not return calls to Mississippi Today for this story. Mississippi Today could not confirm what BC in his text stands for, but two sources believed it could be a typo.
Bryant, who is not included in the civil lawsuit, has so far escaped any charges – civil or criminal.
The state’s civil lawsuit as well as parallel state and federal criminal investigations, both of which could eventually ensnare new figures, are ongoing.
Attorney General Jim Hood performed at about the same levels among African American voters who went to the polls as did Mike Espy in the 2018 U.S. Senate special election runoff. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Hood was a viable Democratic candidate — a rarity in Mississippi — in the 2019 race against then-Lt. Gov. Reeves. Reeves, now governor, also communicated with Davis about Webb, according to text messages Mississippi Today obtained, and seemed to support Davis’ treatment of Webb.
“Tate Reeves just called me said he wanted me to know they don’t give two shits about the BC or Christi to keep doing what I’m doing. Boom,” Davis texted Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., his close associate, in March of 2019. Phone records show Davis also saved Reeves number two days after this text.
Around this time, Reeves also met with Davis about MDHS partnering with Reeves’ fitness trainer Paul Lacoste – another target of the civil suit. Two days after the meeting, Davis asked his deputy to find $2.5 million for the nonprofit funding the Lacoste project, calling it “the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue,” Mississippi Today first reported.
Lacoste cut an ad endorsing Reeves for governor later in the year.
“It is totally accurate to say that Tate Reeves ‘does not give two s**** about’ the players in this conspiracy and that is why his administration is suing to recover misspent TANF dollars from before his time as Governor,” said Reeves’ deputy chief of staff in external affairs Cory Custer in a statement to Mississippi Today on Saturday. “Interesting revelations in this story: Jim Hood’s wife was working at one of the entities that received misspent TANF dollars? The same AG that signed off on contracts in question? The same Democrat that Mississippi Today has completely ignored in your reporting of this scandal?”
Mississippi Today has reported on at least four occasions that the lease agreement allowing for $5 million in welfare funds to be used on the construction of a volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi — a purchase Reeves’ staff has thus far chosen not to pursue in the state’s civil suit — was approved by the Attorney General’s Office, as is routine for such agreements.
“The Governor has no memory of ever calling John Davis and doesn’t really know Christi Webb. (Evidently—like the team at Mississippi Today—she was a big Hood supporter.),” Custer continued. “But people have been throwing around Tate Reeves’ name in claiming authority for years, and it certainly looks like Davis was one of the people who often did so.”
Tate Reeves smiles as he speaks to his supporters during his election watch party at Table 100 in Flowood, Miss., Tuesday, August 6, 2019. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Davis had also reprimanded Webb, Lott said, after the nonprofit director refused to continue pushing money to DiBiase, a retired WWE wrestler, and his family members. Davis was intent on showering the DiBiases, to whom he’d grown close personally, with welfare funds. Speaking through Lott, Webb told Mississippi Today that the DiBiases did not supply the nonprofit with proof of what they were accomplishing under their grants, which totaled over $5 million from the nonprofits at MDHS, and Webb had objected to funding them further.
In September of 2018, on the same day Mississippi Today sent several emails to the agency questioning its TANF spending, Davis held a meeting with several agency and nonprofit employees, Lott said. Davis told the group that the nonprofits should not share any documentation about monitoring or auditing its subgrantees to MDHS, Lott said.
“He explained that he was in charge of the money, and he could do whatever he wanted to do with it,” Lott explained. “He said he only answered to the Governor.”
A year earlier, the state contracted with Webb’s nonprofit, Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, to administer the multi-million dollar Families First program in the northern part of the state, and Mississippi Community Education Center, the nonprofit founded by Nancy New, one of the key figures in the scandal, to run the southern half. Reeves filmed a campaign ad at New’s private school in Jackson New Summit School in 2019.
Founder of Mississippi Community Education Center Nancy New, who has pleaded guilty to fraud, bribery and racketeering, speaks in a 2018 video promoting the Family First Initiative. She was joined by Christi Webb, director of the Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, who partnered on the initiative. Credit: Courtesy Family First Initiative YouTube
New also recently alleged in the civil lawsuit that then-Gov. Bryant directed her to make $1.1 million in payments to former NFL quarterback Brett Favre in 2017 and 2018, supposedly to promote the Families First program.
“So many high-ranking officials were actively involved in this program and knew exactly what he (Davis) was doing with the money,” Lott said. “And he (Davis) openly says he answers to no one except the governor. Well, that means you’re talking to the governor about it … I think he (Bryant) was actively involved in it.”
In early 2019, Davis notified organizations who received grants from the agency that due to “budget concerns,” their funding would be cut significantly. Webb’s initial $10.6 million award would be reduced to $5 million. Family Resource Center had received $16.8 million the previous fiscal year, according to a Mississippi Today review of state expenditures.
While Webb pushed out much of her funding to secondary partners, the organization itself did provide some services to needy families, such as parenting classes, which parents are sometimes court-ordered to attend in order to get their children back from state custody.
After receiving notification of the funding cut, Webb announced that her organization would have to lay off 100 employees and close more than half of its 18 centers.
“You just don’t realize how much good work they were doing,” McMahan told Mississippi Today Saturday. “They were providing most of the social services to the courts, to the local court system. They were providing GED education. They were funding the autism center. They were supporting a lot of other charities through their subgrants.”
In February of 2019, Davis’ deputy Jacob Black said that because of the cuts to welfare subgrantees, he was able to find an additional $2.5 million for New’s nonprofit, in part to pay for what Davis called “the Lt. Gov’s fitness issue” – $1.3 million in funding to Reeves’ fitness trainer Paul Lacoste.
Shortly after that, according to Davis, Reeves made the remark that he “don’t give two shits” about Webb.
When Mississippi Today asked Lott about the comment, Webb responded through Lott, “That does not surprise me in the least.”
“I knew they didn’t care about me. I knew I was at their mercy,” Webb said, according to Lott.
In March of 2019, after Webb had complained about her nonprofit’s funding cuts to local officials, including McMahan, the lawmaker met with Davis to discuss funding to Webb and the autism center — payments auditors would later say violated federal rules.
Former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services John Davis
“I asked John Davis to meet with me on several occasions. And he wouldn’t. And finally, I said, ‘I’m coming to Jackson to meet with you.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’ll only meet with you–’ he said, ‘That’s fine, we’ll just meet at the governor’s mansion.’”
McMahan said Bryant agreed with the mission of the autism center and told Davis to “help Sen. McMahan if you can, but follow the law,” McMahan said.
After the meeting, McMahan texted Davis, “Thank you for all of the information. I’m so glad we took time to meet yesterday. That was very helpful. Also, I appreciated the governor’s positions.”
“Yes sir,” Davis responded. “We will continue to make good things happen. I am determine how we can bear help those who lost a job as well. So, if any of those 60 call you, please tell them to reach out to me as well.”
Soon after the meeting, Lott said, the lawmaker demanded Webb fire Debbie Hood or lose her center’s funding.
“You can’t tell me he didn’t get those instructions at that meeting,” Lott said.
McMahan denied discussing anything about Debbie Hood with Bryant.
Following the alleged threat, Webb relayed the news to Debbie Hood, who after an emotional meeting agreed to voluntarily resign, Lott said. Jim Hood did not return calls to Mississippi Today.
Within weeks of Debbie Hood’s resignation, MDHS sent Webb an email on May 24, 2019 notifying her that Family Resource Center’s grant award would be increased by $1 million, according to an email obtained by Mississippi Today.
The state’s database of public expenditures reflects payments to FRC of $1.3 million in February of 2019 and $500,000 in June of 2019, as well as many other smaller payments. MDHS didn’t always send Webb’s nonprofit their funds directly, but New’s nonprofit sent Family Resource Center $500,000 on April 18, 2019, according to a ledger from the New nonprofit. Despite the proposed cuts and threats, FRC still received a total of $10.1 million in fiscal year 2019, expenditure reports show. MDHS also notified the nonprofit in December of 2019 that it had won an additional welfare grant for the following year, but the department never moved forward with the contract after arrests in February of 2020.
As many governors do, Bryant kept a reasonable distance, at least in public view, to the decisions of his agency directors.
“He (Bryant) has done a good job of semi-insulating himself so he can plead ignorance but like you say, it’s very disingenuous for a (former) state auditor to say he didn’t know where the money was coming from. Especially in a state as poor as Mississippi, it’s clear all that money was not coming from state coffers,” Lott said. “As far as him (Bryant) directing the way the funds were to be spent, I’m gonna say no doubt he did that, but I think he gave John Davis that direction. And then John Davis sent it downhill from there. And so Christi wasn’t directly privy to that.”
New and Webb mostly took their direction from Davis, meaning he may potentially have the most direct testimony about Bryant’s role in the misspending scheme. New has pleaded guilty to a favorable deal that could keep her out of state prison, and allow her to serve any time in the welfare case concurrently to her sentence in a separate federal case related to defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education, in exchange for her cooperation with prosecutors.
Davis is still pleading not guilty, and must decide to either cut a deal in coming months or go to trial, currently scheduled to begin on Nov. 28.
Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital may begin negotiations with the University of Mississippi Medical Center over a potential lease of the rural, 29-bed hospital and all of its operations, including its nursing home, clinics, emergency department and ambulance services for the two counties.
After seeking out potential buyers earlier this year, the community hospital received lease proposals from UMMC and Delta Health System. The committee that evaluated the proposals, which included representatives from both counties and the community hospital, chose the Medical Center over Delta Health System, which has its own financial problems and recently closed the only neonatal intensive care unit in the Mississippi Delta.
“Due to the economics of the hospital, particularly during COVID, they sought a partner that would strengthen their ability to serve the community,” said Charles Weissinger, attorney for the Issaquena County Board of Supervisors and one of the Issaquena County representatives on the committee that evaluated the lease proposals. “They went through a request for proposal process and the University of Mississippi Medical Center provided the best hope for results going forward.”
UMMC declined to comment for the story.
Details of the proposal submitted by the Medical Center are not publicly available due a provision in state law that exempts “records directly relating to prospective strategic business decisions of a public hospital.”
Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, like many rural hospitals across the country, has struggled to stay afloat for years due to low patient volumes. The two counties have a collective population of fewer than 6,000 people.
To cut costs, the community hospital, which has 125 full-time employees, has been pooling its resources with small hospitals across the state over the last few months to buy supplies at a discounted wholesale rate. Though the arrangement is beneficial for all the involved hospitals, it’s not enough for Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital to remain viable in its current state, Weissinger said.
The community hospital is jointly owned by Sharkey County, which owns two-thirds of the hospital, and Issaquena County, which owns the remaining one-third. The board of supervisors of both counties have greenlit entering into negotiations with the Medical Center to finalize a deal, but the hospital’s board of trustees must also sign off on the plan for negotiations to begin. Their next meeting will be Sept. 29.
UMMC’s efforts to expand have played out amidst its public and contentious fallout with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, the state’s largest private insurer.
Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital, like UMMC, has its own history of legal battles with Blue Cross. In 2017, the insurer sued the community hospital over an alleged lab testing scheme that cost the insurer nearly $10 million.
Under the alleged scheme, two Texas-based lab testing companies ordered lab tests for Blue Cross customers in other states and were allowed to submit reimbursement claims to the insurer for the tests by using the hospital’s name and billing information, though the tests were not performed by the hospital’s own laboratory.
The community hospital allegedly received kickbacks from the two Texas companies as part of the deal, which Blue Cross claimed was used to take advantage of the favorable reimbursement rate the hospital received from the insurer for lab tests due to it being small and rural..
Ultimately, nearly $34 million in misrepresented claims were submitted to Blue Cross, according to court filings, though the insurer only paid for $9.8 million of them before discovering the arrangement.
After a month and a half of Jacksonians needing to boil their water for consumption, the Mississippi State Health Department finally lifted the advisory at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Gov. Tate Reeves announced the news shortly after, cautioning there’s a long road ahead to ensure similar water system failures don’t occur again in Jackson.
“While we have restored water quality, this system is still imperfect,” Reeves said. “We cannot perfectly predict what may go wrong with such a broken system in the future.”
When asked by reporters about the next steps for managing the capital city’s drinking water, Reeves laid out the possibility that Jackson will not regain control of the system after the state declared a public health emergency and took it over.
“To the residents of Jackson, I would simply say, I don’t think it’s very likely that the city is going to operate the water system in the city of Jackson anytime soon, if ever again,” the governor said.
Reeves reiterated that any decision to remove the water system from city control would have to go through the state Legislature.
State officials first took control of operations and emergency repairs at Jackson’s primary treatment plant, O.B. Curtis, after the governor’s announcement on Aug. 29 that the plant was on the verge of failure.
The state is also taking the next steps to contract a project manager to handle equipment issues at O.B. Curtis, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency executive director Stephen McCraney explained. The request for qualifications window closed Thursday at noon, and MEMA will review applications before it picks a vendor.
The goal for the contractor, Reeves said, is to increase redundancies at the plant in the case of future equipment failure.
Before Jackson residents return to drinking water straight from their taps again, the Mississippi State Department of Health says they should first run their faucets for three to four minutes to allow clean water to recirculate. Residents can visit MSDH’s website for a full list of next steps after a boil water notice.
However, the department also warned Thursday that pregnant people and young children are still advised to follow precautions before using or consuming tap water.
The state’s announcement on Thursday that it was lifting the boil water notice suggested a lack of communication with City of Jackson officials.
On Wednesday, the city said in its daily update that full sampling required to lift the notice had not yet started, and that officials were still investigating when sampling could begin. Per state health requirements, the state health department has to record two straight days of clean samples to lift the notice.
When asked by a reporter for clarification, Reeves said, “I don’t read the city’s daily reports and I don’t think you should either.”
After another reporter asked what he meant by that, Reeves refrained from further criticizing the city, only saying that he recommends people use MEMA’s updates for the latest information on the water system.
MSDH Director of Health Protection Jim Craig also reminded Jackson residents, particularly young children and pregnant people, to take precautions consuming and using tap water because of the potential for lead in the water system until the city finishes the necessary corrosion control in the distribution system.
“Although the majority of home lead testing performed to date identified no lead or lead below the action level set by the (Environmental Protection Agency), the health department is continuing its recommendations as a special precaution, especially for households with young children or pregnant women,” Craig said.
Jackson businesses that have been racking up costs to stay open through the water crisis can now apply for low-interest loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Applications are due June 14. Gov. Tate Reeves applied for the loan program earlier this week.
The loans are available to businesses and nonprofits that experienced economic losses as a result of the total or near water pressure loss following the Pearl River flooding in late August. Businesses in Hinds, Claiborne, Copiah, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, Warren and Yazoo counties are eligible.
“These low-interest loans will go a long way to support our Jackson businesses and help them make it through the ongoing water crisis,” Reeves said. “I’m committed to ensuring that we both restore clean water to the city and relieve the burdens of this crisis for Jacksonians.”
The loans are intended to assist businesses through the recovery period, can be up to $2 million per applicant, and will not have an interest rate above 4%. Applicants may apply online at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ela or call (800) 659-2955.
When the latest emergency in Jackson’s long-running water crisis hit — most of the city lost water again from a combination of broken or ill-maintained machinery and flooding — state leaders began talking of intervention.
And one of the first ideas floated in backroom discussions was creating a “regional authority” to oversee and overhaul waterworks for Jackson and, ostensibly, other areas, particularly those surrounding areas already on the capital city’s system.
This would make sense. Regionalization and consolidation of water and sewer services has been a trend nationwide. Regionalization appears to help garner favor — and funding — from Congress and environmental agencies. Studies by experts say regional approaches allow systems to comply with stricter standards, connect unserved communities to water and sewerage and, importantly, save customers money using economies of scale for upgrades and repairs.
Jackson’s chamber of commerce has called for creation of a regional water authority. And there’s growing sentiment among many Mississippi leaders that someone other than the city of Jackson should run or help run the system. But so far, talk of a regional authority for Jackson and surrounds has gained little traction, particularly with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and leaders in areas around Jackson.
The realpolitik is a true regional water system would be a tough sell in the Jackson Metro Area. It would appear no other cities want to be in a regional water authority with Jackson, and state leaders are unlikely to force it. A regional authority, as it stands, would more likely include only Jackson and some small systems in Hinds County and be run largely by the state, with Jackson having some say, but not control over the system.
After Hurricane Katrina destroyed systems, Mississippi Gulf Coast governments formed regional water authorities and a large regional wastewater authority and it helped them pull down hundreds of millions of federal dollars to rebuild and expand. It took some doing, politically, with local governments reluctant to give up any autonomy. But ultimately then-Gov. Haley Barbour and legislative leaders sold them on the concept.
Across the country, as aging large or poorly amortized smaller systems struggle to meet regulations and finance upgrades, there’s been a realization they can’t afford it on their own. There’s power in numbers, and economies-of-scale savings for residents. Sometimes, there’s special money available for regionalization.
Some states, such as North Carolina, incentivize consolidation. Others, such as California, force it. Kentucky has long been a leader in water system regionalization, and since the 1970s has reduced its more than 3,000 water systems to less than 800.
Some cities, such as Detroit and Harrisburg, Pa., have used regionalization to navigate water crises like Jackson’s with some success.
But for Mississippi’s capital city, the trend is going the other way — other cities or areas served by its water and sewerage have either left or are trying to. Some large institutions have dug their own wells, and others are considering it. Jackson has run regional sewage operations for Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties since 1973, but recently, West Rankin Utility Authority pulled out and has built its own new plant to serve Brandon, Flowood, Pearl, Richland and other areas.
Byram wants out
“I have concerns this thing has finally hit bottom, and we need a change, need to move on,” said Richard White, mayor of Byram, a relatively new city bordering the capital city and served by Jackson’s water system. “… We need to be dealing with development, parks and recreation, not having to worry about our water. We’re going to move forward with our own system.”
White said being on Jackson’s water system has provided nothing but frustration for residents of the fledgling city of about 13,000 people to Jackson’s south, with water outages and boil-water notices, bills for some Byram residents double those inside Jackson and reported breaks taking Jackson weeks to repair. Plus, Byram has no representation or say in how the system is run.
State Sen. David Blount, who represents parts of Jackson and Byram, said that whatever solutions are found for Jackson’s water crisis, “It is essential for me that the people of Byram have a voice.”
“After Hurricane Katrina a lot of people in Mississippi felt like we weren’t being heard in the national conversation because so much focus was on New Orleans,” Blount said. “Obviously, the people of Jackson deserve attention, but the people of Byram cannot be forgotten in this … There are people in Byram paying more than double, and getting worse service, if that’s imaginable.”
For Byram residents and businesses further than one mile outside Jackson’s city limits, the Public Service Commission sets their rates, and they are commensurate with what Jackson residents pay. But for those within one mile — a large portion of Byram’s most populated area — the Jackson City Council sets their rates.
“That 1 mile is at double (Jackson’s) rates,” White said. “I heard from one family — they have two small children — that was getting bills for $200 a month for water … Then I’ve got other people who call me all the time and say they haven’t gotten a bill in six months.”
Byram leaders have hired an engineering firm to price a buyout of Jackson’s water pipes in the city and installing new wells and tanks and petitioned the Public Service Commission for its water independence. White said that given a green light, Byram could have its own system up and running within a couple of years. Byram already has its own sewerage. He said that given Jackson’s problems in maintaining its system, Byram would be doing it a favor by peeling off.
White said joining a regional authority with Jackson would be a nonstarter for Byram and, “That may be too much government, too, creating a new group.
“We want out.”
Clinton creates regional authority, but not with Jackson
Clinton, Jackson’s neighbor to the west with a population of more than 28,000, has its own infrastructure issues.
To meet wastewater discharge regulations, the city needs to build a 19-mile, $97 million pipeline to the Big Black River by 2030, largely because Jackson and other areas are already discharging more treated (and sometimes untreated) wastewater than the Pearl River can handle.
Mayor Phil Fisher and other city leaders have been working on this issue for years. They have a concise plan and have secured about $25 million in funding “from several separate pots” so far and believe they have matters in hand. They hired a lobbyist to help secure funding from Congress. They are forming a regional authority with neighboring cities of Bolton and Raymond, who would face similar wastewater issues if left on their own.
“Congress appears to prefer an authority rather than Raymond and Bolton just feeding into Clinton,” Fisher said. “You need a coordinated effort that makes sense and answers a bigger need. From Bolton’s and Raymond’s perspective, they need an authority, they could never come up with the match for any of this, and even Clinton’s too small for that. Coming together allows us a chance to work as a group and plan, and then Congress looks at that with a lot more enthusiasm than if Raymond just showed up and said (environmental regulators) have an issue and we need money and put it together really quick.”
Fisher said he believes Clinton’s detailed, long-range planning for the project and using a regional approach will allow the project to move forward, including with help from a state infrastructure matching program.
And instead of looking at the large wastewater project as a problem, Fisher said it’s an opportunity for Clinton and surrounding areas.
“That’s going to be 19 miles one way to the Big Black, paralleling I-20,” Fisher said. “So going both ways, that’s going to be 38 miles of mostly unused land that that can be converted to residential, commercial, retail development. All it’s lacking is water and sewer. We have trucking, rail, the port in Vicksburg and if Hinds County would ever build it we’ll have air. This land along I-20 could become the largest and most valuable economic development area maybe in the Southeast.”
Fisher said at least one small rural water association has expressed interest in joining in with the authority’s sewerage and he believes others would follow suit and, “I envision one day all coming together under one water association.”
But not with Jackson.
Fisher said that, given Jackson’s water and sewage problems, it wouldn’t make sense financially or politically for Clinton to join in with its larger neighbor.
“I think I would be run out of town if I made that proposal,” Fisher said. “The only way I could see anyone joining an authority with Jackson would be if they had an equal number of votes on running it, no matter their size.”
But Fisher said it’s in Clinton’s — and the entire state’s — best interest for Jackson’s water and sewer issues to be resolved.
“Nationwide, people don’t know that Jackson and Clinton have two separate systems,” Fisher said. “… Last year, Jackson was No. 1 in murder rate per capita. People are seeing the water crisis now. It makes it difficult for surrounding cities to go out and make a good story. Jackson needs to fix its problems, quit finding excuses or finger pointing or getting up at a press conference and criticizing others.”
But Fisher, whose city has for years used a private company to manage some sewer operations but still owns the system, provided a warning to his neighboring city about full-scale privatization.
“If you sell your system, they’ll buy it, but the hook is, you get money up front and they won’t change the rates for five years, but then it’s Katy bar the door,” Fisher said. “Then, you’ll have the legislative mindset with city leaders: ‘Hey, I didn’t raise your rates, they did.’ Everybody elected will have something to hide behind, but at the end of the day the city loses control over rates.”
Jackson opposed to giving up control
At least publicly, the only common denominator idea for fixing Jackson’s water crisis mentioned by Gov. Tate Reeves, Lumumba and others is privatization, at least of operations and maintenance of Jackson water. But privatization comes with a cost, usually borne by water customers.
Studies have shown that privatization can leave residents with higher water bills, poor service and loss of control to fix problems. One study by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch recently showed investor-owned utilities typically charge 59% more for water and 63% more for sewer service than government utilities.
Nationwide, many cities that turned to privatization years ago are now ending their contracts, taking their utilities back over and partnering with neighboring communities.
Mayor Lumumba has said he has talked with a company about contracting out operations and maintenance of the system, but is adamant he doesn’t want the city to lose ownership or major control of the system. He has in the past accused state leaders of wanting to use privatization as a power and money grab against Jackson, and he said private companies don’t do work out of benevolence, but “They want to extract a profit from you.”
He has also expressed skepticism about joining a regional authority.
Some leaders and pundits have discussed an outright state takeover of the system, but legally and politically that would be arduous, and as some have pointed out, the state has no real expertise in running a water system or manpower on hand to do so. As one observer recently put it, that would be “like getting a D student to do your homework for you.”
Another option proposed has been a temporary receivership, perhaps overseen by the Public Service Commission until problems are resolved.
Jackson’s legislative delegation hasn’t endorsed a specific solution, but most share Lumumba’s opposition to the city losing ownership or control of its system.
“I was actually having a conversation at lunch today about regionalization,” Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said last week. “I’m not sure if that’s the best route. I’m still researching it … But that’s an issue, anyone wanting to work as a region. Didn’t Rankin County just come off of our sewer? That’s another blow, $3 million to $5 million. You’ve got Byram wanting to leave. I’m hearing the Country Club of Jackson is trying to do its own water well, and Jackson State. Honestly, the attitude of those folks out there is they don’t want anything to do with us in the first place, and the only way they would join us is if they have a majority of board members — and that would be an entire fight all over again.”
“If there is any private company brought in, I would still support the city owning it,” Bell said. “At the end of the day, if it makes sense for someone to run it under contract, that’s one thing. But just having the state take over… .”
State Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, said he’s mostly been focused on resolving the current emergency with water, and that any talk of long-range solutions “is in the very early stages.”
“Whatever we do has to be inclusive and well thought-out and very deliberate,” Horhn said. “… I lean towards the city being able to hold onto its assets, but it’s very clear it needs to outsource operations. The mayor himself has let it be known he’s been in contact with a third-party administrator”
As for creation of a regional authority to run the system, Horhn said, “All that’s above my pay grade. But I favor the city being able to retain ownership of its assets.”
Jackson’s troubled water system failed in late August, leaving about 250,000 people served by the system with little or no water pressure for several days.
Though pressure has been restored city-wide, the drinking water supply is still not safe to drink. Meanwhile, the city has been under a federal consent decree since 2013 because of its failing and unsafe sewer system.
With state and federal leaders at the table discussing long-term solutions to the Jackson’s water and wastewater systems, many are first trying to determine the full extent of the systems’ problems.
Each year, the city of Jackson is required to file financial reports to its bond debt holders. These reports contain a great deal of information about the state of the systems.
Jackson’s water and sewer debt is rated as “junk bond,” and the city, along with Newark, N.J., is one of very few large municipal systems not rated as investment grade debt. The city has about $191 million in revenue bond debt outstanding.
The city made its financial reports for debt holders last year, with data through Sept. 30, 2020, but is behind on filing this year.
Some highlights of the reports:
Overview
The city water system covers about 150 square miles and serves a population of about 250,000 people in Jackson, Byram and other parts of Hinds County. The city also supplies water to the Nissan Plant and its suppliers near Canton through a contract with the state.
The city operates three wastewater treatment plants and provides sewer services to Jackson, as well as to parts of Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties.
In 1973, the Jackson Metropolitan Regional Water Quality Management Plan was adopted for Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties. Jackson has a contract with the city of Ridgeland for sewerage, with Ridgeland having contracts with other entities in Madison County for sewage treatment.
After many years of Jackson treating western Rankin County’s sewage, the West Rankin Utility Authority has built its own new plant to serve Brandon, Flowood, Pearl, Richland, the Jackson Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, the state hospital and other areas. This will mean a loss of up to $3 million to $4 million a year for the Jackson sewer system.
Water and sewer customers
(Year: water customers/sewer customers)
2016: 51,884/43,820
2017: 57,183/48,430
2018: 53,733/47,706
2019: 54,063/47,987
2020: 55,079/46,609
Largest water customers
(As of Sept. 30, 2020)
Premium Water (water bottling plant in Byram)
Jackson Public Schools
Double G Coating, Inc.
Griffin Industries
City of Jackson Zoological Park
Merit Health (former Hinds General Hospital)
Entergy Mississippi
City of Jackson Wastewater
Century Pacific
Autumn Trace GN LLC
Water customers outside of city
(As of 2020)
About 11% of Jackson’s water customers are outside its city limits.
Outside city limits (within 1 mile): 2,050
Outside (beyond a mile): 4,070
Businesses/institutions with their own water wells
(As of 2020)
Baptist Health Systems
Conceptual Designs Inc.
EP Engineered Clays Corporation
Jackson Country Club
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Tougaloo College
St. Dominic Hospital
McCarty Farms
Veterans Administration
MS Material Co.
Premium Water plant
Sources of water
Jackson has two main sources of water for the system: the O.B. Curtis surface water treatment plant that draws from the Ross Barnett Reservoir, completed in 1993, and the Fewell Plant, originally built in 1914 and most recently upgraded with a $12.4 million project in 2008, which draws water from the Pearl River.
The city also has two ground water well systems. In 2014, with the completion of the Maddox Road Booster Station, all city customers began receiving drinking water from surface treatment (from the reservoir and river). But due to an emergency with pressure loss in 2015, the ground water system was reactivated and remains in use.
Repairs and upgrades
In 1997, the city commissioned a water and wastewater master plan, according to disclosures the city must make to water system bond holders. It called for $375 million in capital improvements to the system by 2012. This included $180 million for the water system and and $195 million for wastewater.
Since then, through 2021, the city has completed or begun projects totaling $148 million for water and $76 million for wastewater.
In March 2013, the city entered into a consent decree with the EPA and MDEQ on its wastewater, which requires upgrades originally estimated to cost $400 million over 17.5 years. In 2013, the cost was estimated at $800 million. Last year, city and state officials said the consent decree capital costs for the sewer system are estimated at $945 million.
Fines, fees and reprimands
Jackson’s troubled water and sewerage system has faced litigation, consent decrees, fines and reprimands from various regulatory and other entities.
In 2010, after violating environmental regulations for its Savanna Street Wastewater Plant, the city paid a civil penalty of $240,000 in four installments of $60,000 and pledged make improvements. In 2012, the city paid a fine of $22,500 for sewage violations from its Presidential Hills plant.
In 2013, the city and EPA entered a consent decree in federal court over violations of the Clean Water Act and state pollution control laws. The city has paid a civil penalty of nearly $438,000 and agreed to make improvements, only a portion of which have been done.
Mississippi Today has partnered with WJTV to provide video of press conferences regarding Jackson’s water crisis. Gov. Tate Reeves gave an update at 1:10 p.m. on September 15.
