JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Jackson Mayor John Horhn says the city is working to comply with a federal judge’s subpoena seeking information on how the Siemens settlement funds were used.
On Monday, Horhn held his first press conference since taking office, where he fielded multiple questions from reporters, including questions on the Siemens settlement.
“Judge Wingate has asked for a voluminous amount of records regarding the deployment of the Siemens funds. He also reached out to the attorneys to handle the Siemens settlement and asked for information from them,” he said. “We’re complying with all of the subpoenas the judge gave the city.”
Last month, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate issued subpoenas to approximately 18 individuals and entities seeking records on how Jackson spent $89.9 million in settlement funds from the company.
[READ: Where did Jackson’s Siemens settlement money go? Records raise new questions]
Among the items, Wingate is seeking all financial documents, legal and contractual records, audit reports and public disclosure, and federal agency communications regarding the use of the funds.
3 On Your Side has filed an open records request for the information being submitted by the city. We will provide an update once we receive it.
The first subpoenas went to Lightfoot, Franklin & White, Winston J. Thompson III and Associates, Barry W. Howard, Ice Miller LLP, Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin, the Jackson Mayor’s Office, the Department of Public Works, and several state and federal agencies.
The groups were required to respond to the court’s request by Friday.
Said Horhn, “It’s a lot of information, and we are in the process of going through that information and getting the judge everything he wants.”
In 2013, Jackson awarded Siemens Corporation an $89.9 million energy performance contract to completely overhaul the city’s billing system.
Work included replacing all of the city’s water meters, installing new software at the billing office, and installing a series of transmitters and repeaters to allow meters to communicate with that office.
However, the new system never worked, and Jackson sued Siemens and its subcontractors in 2019. The firm settled with Jackson in 2020, agreeing to repay the city the $89.9 million in contract costs.
[READ: Where did Jackson’s Siemens settlement money go? Records raise new questions]
Wingate has been asking questions for months about how Jackson spent those funds. He says he wants that information before approving a proposal for a second water rate increase from Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin.
[READ: Judge wants answers on Siemens settlement before ‘saddling the public’ with rate hikes]
Henifin asked for the increase earlier this year, saying JXN Water was running out of money.
At a recent status conference, the third-party manager says he currently has about $29 million in invoices that he cannot pay.
Those contractors include Jacobs Solutions, the firm brought on to run the city’s two surface water treatment plants.
Horhn says he went on record opposing the increase and the current $40 water availability charge added to most residential bills.
“Just to qualify for getting water, you have to pay a $40 availability fee, and a lot of residents have a lot of push back on that,” he said.
“We’ve got to come up with some solutions, though. From what the third-party manager, Mr. Henifin, is telling us, JXN Water is out of money on the O&M part, the operations and management part of the EPA funds.”
Horhn was referring to the $150 million in technical assistance funds the city received as part of a Congressional spending bill passed in late 2022.
Henifin has relied on those funds to cover day-to-day costs while he works to improve collections from billing.
As of July 31, collection rates were still hovering around 71 percent, and the $150 million had dried up.
JXN Water has an additional $450 million from the same omnibus spending bill, but those funds can be used only on infrastructure projects.
Henifin previously told Wingate he was seeking Congressional approval to reallocate about $36 million of that to be used for O&M needs.
Said Horhn, “We think most of that money is still there. The question is can you move it a portion of it to cover O&M?”
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