PSC commissioner says Holly Springs utility owes about $22 million; judge names a receiver the commission opposes
Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown said the Holly Springs Utility Department owes more than $22 million — over $4 million to the Public Service Commission in accumulated fines and roughly $18 million to the Tennessee Valley Authority for wholesale power. Brown made the remarks Sept. 1 on SuperTalk Mississippi’s “Mornings with Richard Cross.”
The commission began levying fines of $12,500 a day in September 2025 over what Brown described as inadequate power service, he said, and the running total accounts for the more-than-$4 million figure.
The Holly Springs Utility Department, owned and operated by the city, serves about 13,000 customers across more than 1,600 square miles in several Mississippi counties and into Tennessee — a territory far larger than the city itself, which has roughly 6,400 residents.
On Aug. 18, Chancery Judge Lawrence Little appointed Michael Watson — a consultant the city hired last year — as receiver over the utility. Little’s written order gives the receiver broad authority to correct system failures, rebuild substations, clear overgrown rights-of-way and stabilize the metering and billing systems, along with control over the electric department’s assets, employment and contracts.
The commission opposed the appointment. It has said it will file a motion asking Little to reconsider, arguing that placing Watson in charge “does not change who has been running this utility,” and it has requested a forensic audit. Brown said the commission had recommended a veteran receiver, Frank Simon, and contended that the city had misled the court about the condition of the system.
“Our contention was that he’s not going to change it and he’s got too many headwinds,” Brown said of the appointed receiver.
Brown described the daily fines as leverage. “When we levied the fine, we wanted to show them that we’re serious,” he said. “You cannot have the status quo.” He said the fines could be dropped if the utility corrects the failures documented in an independent 75-page report on the system, but warned that if the commission moves to collect, the cost would ultimately fall on Holly Springs residents.