SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn — The Mississippi Public Services Commission has opened an investigation into the Holly Springs Utility Department after years of complaints from residents.
"The city is subsidizing the utility district. Which tells us there’s no money. There’s no money to help,” said PSC Chairman Chris Brown.
Worse yet, the commission says city leaders have refused to provide access to the utility’s facilities and personnel, denying their jurisdiction granted by the state.
Brown says preliminary investigations have found numerous issues with HSUD. Those issues include scarce employees, overgrown vegetation on equipment and no operational redundancies.
“It ran without a manager. Nobody was running the utility district for over a year. The mayor of the city did not really pursue to hire a manager,” Brown said.
Confusing, enormous bills with little response from the utility have become commonplace for Holly Springs residents for months.
A public hearing on the issue has been set for the morning of Jan. 7 in Jackson, Mississippi.
“We want as much information as we can. To get as much color of what's going on and the suffering that that that this is causing the people, as well as [lost] economic development opportunity,” Brown said.
The commission is hopeful this marks the start of real change. HSUD did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.