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Rebuilding trust: How Ted Henifin hopes to repair the relationship between Jacksonians and their water system

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Rebuilding trust: How Ted Henifin hopes to repair the relationship between Jacksonians and their water system

Eager to spread the news of a massive federal investment in his city’s drinking water system, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called several town hall events over the last few months to update his constituents.

But to the residents in attendance, the $800 million coming to Jackson is far less tangible than the problems right in front of them, as many directed the same, commonly heard refrains towards Lumumba: What is with my water bill? Why am I being charged for water that’s unsafe to drink? Who’s going to fix the sewage spewing onto my lawn?

“I’m being charged for water I’m not even using,” one man said at a Forest Hill High School town hall in February, saying the water he was being charged for was leaking across his yard.

A woman in attendance said her monthly bill went from $55 to over $200, which she eventually just refused to pay. At another town hall in December, a resident said he got a bill in the thousands even though the water from his tap was brown.

Unable to speak to each person’s problem, Lumumba echoed a hopeful sentiment: While the city didn’t have the resources it needed before, it does now, and help is on the way.

While much has happened for the future of Jackson’s water since last fall – a federal takeover that placed a third-party team in control of the system’s improvement, the $800 million investment provided through several federal funding streams, a grant program that’s already eliminated $8 million in resident’s water bill debt in less than a week – the process of restoring trust among residents in what comes out of their taps is a long road ahead.

“I mean we’re going on, what, 40 years of distrust in Jackson’s water system?” said Brooke Floyd, a coordinator with the JXN People’s Assembly.

Floyd, a Jackson native, mother, and former teacher, said she distrusted the water even as a child, recalling her grandparents boiling the water for as long as she remembers.

“People are centering this on (the current) administration, but this is a deep-seated distrust that goes for years,” Floyd said. “So, I think it’s going to take some time for residents to understand, and it’s going to take some showing; you have to show people that the billing is going to get straightened out, and that our water is safe and that the pipes work, all those things.”

Last November, a federal judge appointed Ted Henifin to be the one in charge of lifting Jackson’s water system into a state of self-reliance.

Henifin recently sat down with Mississippi Today to talk about his game plan, as well as rebuilding trust in a water system among the people who have to pay for it.

Henifin said restoring credibility comes down to three changes: fixing the billing system, providing consistent water pressure by replacing small water lines and finally clarifying the existence of lead in Jackson’s distribution system.

Henifin’s plan

After working for 40 years in Virginia, it wasn’t until getting to Jackson that Henifin realized being a municipal utility worker could earn him public notoriety.

“People will recognize me pretty much everywhere I go, which is a little weird,” Henifin told Mississippi Today at his office. “I’ll be going out to dinner and people will say, ‘Oh, you’re the water guy.’”

But Henifin is in a city where such basic services – whether it’s garbage pickup, sewage disposal or drinking water – regularly leave residents without guarantees. He’s also in a position where few very, if any, municipal water professionals have ever sat.

In one of the largest federal interventions of a local utility system in American history, the U.S. government equipped Henifin with far-reaching authority that allows him to bypass local and state regulation, as well as nearly a billion dollars to spend on projects and a $400,000 personal salary.

His new title is chief executive officer of JXN Water, a nonprofit established to carry out the federal order put in place in November.

Although he’s heading a non-public entity that can avoid public record laws and government procurement rules, Henifin said he’s committed to transparency.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba speaks to Jackson residents concerning the city’s water during a town hall meeting at Forest Hill High School in Jackson, Miss., Feb. 1, 2023.

At the December town hall, Henifin waited afterwards to greet attendees, handing out his phone number to anyone who asked. While he said connecting with people directly is important for him to build credibility with Jackson residents, he admitted it’s been a little overwhelming at times trying to get back to everyone who reaches out.

But restoring trust is more than just being a personable face. Henifin said he wants residents, who will have to fund the water system once he’s left and the federal money has dried up, to feel that they’re paying into something worthwhile and that they’re being charged fairly.

“The billing system’s not helping us whatsoever at the moment, sending out terrible bills and continuing to struggle answering calls,” he said. “The trust-building where (residents) connect to us, which is really billing, is the big piece.”

While it’s a widely accepted practice for cities to charge customers based on how much water they consume, Jackson hasn’t had a reliable metering system in place for years due to the fallout from a failed Siemens contract, and residents are constantly burdened with inconsistent or incorrect bills.

As part of a debt relief program – funded through a new social safety net grant created under the CARES Act – Jackson last week began offering to correct water bills for customers who felt they were given incorrect charges. In less than a week, the city corrected $8 million in residents’ debt.

Recognizing the damage the broken water meters had done to the whole system’s credibility, Henifin in January laid out a novel approach in a financial proposal he was required to submit by the federal order: charging residents based on their property value. He conceded then that, as far as he knew, the only city to try something similar was Milwaukee with its wastewater system.

According to an analysis he presented, this system wouldn’t change much for the lower-income and average rate-payers: the median single-family household would see a $50 monthly bill; lower-value property owners would pay slightly less; and and higher-value owners would pay slightly more, with bills capped at $150.

What would change, Henifin explained, is that residents would be getting the same bill amount every month, taking away the monthly mystery that has haunted Jackson customers since the Siemens fiasco.

But on Wednesday, lawmakers passed a bill in the Senate that would ban charging customers for water in a way that doesn’t include consumption. The bill is headed back to a committee for further debate.

Henifin called out the Legislature’s efforts to interfere during a recent town hall at Millsaps college.

“There are so many things we pay for that aren’t directly connected to our use,” he. “We all pay for schools, not all of us have children. We all pay for trash, some people put out tons of trash, some people only put out a bit.

“We’re just stuck in this, ‘water has to be based on consumption’ mindset, but so many other things that are for society we pay for without even giving it much thought, because it’s all about a community that’s supporting the other members of the community.”

Lumumba has yet to comment on the idea, saying he hasn’t seen Henifin’s proposal.

The JXN Water CEO will spend the next few weeks and months at roundtables with community members to hear their thoughts on his idea, among others he put in his January financial plan.

Trusting the water

In 2015, test results for lead in Jackson’s water system showed samples above the “action level,” or legal limit, of 15 parts per billion (ppb). Just months later, the state Department of Health found that nearly a quarter of homes it tested had lead levels above 15 ppb.

The Environmental Protection Agency has since required the city to issue quarterly notices to residents, reminding pregnant women and children to take extra precautions before drinking the water. The EPA requirement is still in place for Jackson because the city has yet to complete a corrosion control plan to ensure no lead or copper dissolves into the water during the treatment process.

“How can you have trust if you have to have that statement on everything you put out about the water?” Henifin said.

He said the system to complete the corrosion control, which the city has put off completing for years, should be in place this summer, which would then allow the city to stop sending the quarterly notices.

But even after fixing the treatment process, the city will still have to ensure there’s no lead in the water lines of the distribution system. Henifin said he has a contractor set to do an inventory analysis of Jackson’s piping to determine if there are any lead service lines, and said that information should be presented to the public within a year.

Jackson is facing multiple lawsuits that allege the city exposed residents to lead, including one representing 600 children that alleges a coverup dating back to 2013.

Danyelle Holmes, National Social Justice Organizer with the Poor People’s Campaign, said that even with the city upgrading its water lines, there is still a concern of the presence of lead in the city’s homes, especially in poorer neighborhoods where pipe replacements are less feasible.

“If they’re old pipes they need to be replaced,” Holmes said. “We know that in south Jackson, and in west Jackson as well, a large portion of those homes are old homes, and those are the homes that we’re concerned will be disproportionately affected.”

In the city’s latest quarterly notice, it disclosed that during the July-December testing period it found the 90th percentile of results showed 6 ppb of lead; while 15 ppb is the legal limit, health experts say that no amount of lead is safe to consume.

Last year, a series of tests conducted by the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting found positive results for lead throughout Jackson, with the highest being about 6 ppb at Jackson State University.

Restoring pressure: replacing lines, plugging leaks

Because of leaks throughout the distribution system, the city of Jackson loses about half of the water that it treats and puts out everyday. On average, water systems around the country lose about 15% of the water they put out.

Water pumped from a hole dug by a water maintenance crew on Pascagoula Street in Jackson to repair a broken waterline Saturday. Crews continue to repair waterlines across the city in order to restore water to homes after severe winter storms crippled the city and state.

Henifin’s team, led by former Jackson planning director Jordan Hillman, is finding major leaks throughout the city, he said, in some cases by detecting chlorine in puddles that wouldn’t otherwise be there. He projects that, through contracted work, they’ll be able to fix some of the larger leaks within the next two years.

The other issue, though, is the city’s small diameter water lines. The modern standard is that water lines should be at least 6 inches in diameter; Jackson, though, has over 100 miles of lines smaller than that.

Henifin projected it’ll take between five to 10 years to make the necessary fixes, with the goal of doing about 20 miles of replacements each year.

“Hopefully soon after we’ll get the anecdotal stories that people say, ‘Wow, the water’s great, it’s no longer discolored,’” Henifin said. “So, if we get a couple of those stories out by fall, I think by next year we could have some movement towards trust building if (we fix) the billing system, pipe replacement, and we get the corrosion control. Those three things should help to at least begin to build some trust.”

Optimistically speaking, Henifin added, if his team of contractors plug enough of the city’s leaks, Jackson could reach a point within the next year where it wouldn’t need the century-old J.H. Fewell, one of the system’s two treatment plants. City officials have for years hoped to retire Fewell, which would save Jackson “significant money” from not having to operate it, Henifin said.

What’s next

Pending the legislative session and feedback from upcoming community roundtables and city leaders, Henifin hopes to have the new billing system in place by October.

On Tuesday, Henifin also mentioned early talks of Jackson’s wastewater system, which is under an EPA consent decree, joining the drinking water system in the federal stipulated order. But he said that decision is at least a few weeks away.

Looking ahead, Henifin is already thinking about how he plans to leave the city. In his January proposal, he looked at the various options for long-term governance, and suggested the best option would be placing the water system under a corporate nonprofit, similar to JXN Water but with a board of governors made of local constituents.

Under that model, Jackson would retain ownership of the water system assets, and contract out its services. Henifin said while he hadn’t thoroughly researched it, he didn’t know of any water systems in the U.S. with a similar model.

He added that he didn’t think it’d be wise to give the city back full control of the system, citing local politics and obstacles in issuing contracts. He said he’s had that conversation with Jackson leadership, and thinks they may come around to the idea at some point.

“I don’t believe the city has demonstrated that they’re able to do this,” Henifin said. “With a track record like that, what would make any of us think that changes just because there’s an influx of federal dollars?”

On Wednesday, proposed legislation to create a state-controlled regional authority over Jackson’s water system died in the House.

Floyd, the coordinator with JXN People’s Assembly, said she’s encouraged by the work Henifin has done so far, and thinks he’s serious about winning over residents’ trust.

“There’s going to be a lack of trust with whoever is (running the water system),” Floyd said. “I don’t think people are really that worried with (Henifin) being from wherever and coming from the outside. When is the water going to be fixed and when is my bill going to be fixed? That’s the number one concern for everybody.”

In conversations with those affected by the ongoing water crisis, Henifin said he’s been surprised by the empathy he’s gotten from Jacksonians.

“The folks have very high expectations that I might be able to make a difference, but they also seem willing to be patient,” he said. “Much more so than if I was in their shoes and had lost water pressure for weeks during the summer and again at Christmas. I’ve found it actually to be increasing my personal pressure to succeed because so many people have been really nice about encouraging me.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday

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mississippitoday.org – @alxrzr – 2025-04-25 16:04:00

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.

A truck sits in high water after the owner parked, then boated to his residence on Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg as a rising Mississippi River causes backwater flooding, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”

The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.

A rising Mississippi River causing backwater flooding near Chickasaw Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.
Old tires aligned a backyard as a deterrent to rising water north of Vicksburg along U.S. 61, Friday, April 25, 2025.
As the Mississippi River rises, backwater flooding creeps towards a home located on Falk Steel Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”

The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Flood waters along Kings Point Road in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.

“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”

NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.

The boat launch area is closed and shored up on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The boat launch area (right) is closed and under water on Levee Street in Vicksburg as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
City of Vicksburg workers shore up the bank along Levee Street as the Mississippi River rises, Friday, April 25, 2025.
The old pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Vicksburg, Friday, April 25, 2025.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:07:00

Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed. 

They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them. 

Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother. 

“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.” 

Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023. 

Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board. 

The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition. 

A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities. 

Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board. 

In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties. 

The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more. 

From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths. 

“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said. 

Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.

A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents. 

Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed. 

In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.

Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records. 

Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson. 

Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.  

He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media. 

Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary. 

Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents. 

At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.

“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-25 15:06:00

A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.  

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice. 

The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other. 

The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts. 

But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents. 

The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.  

Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals. 

Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation. 

The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power. 

The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court

The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans. 

The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district. 

It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week. 

While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races. 

The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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