As the ongoing feud between Holly Springs and the Mississippi Public Service Commission continues over how the municipality’s public utility is being run, one commissioner says the city owes millions of dollars to both the state and a power provider.
Northern District PSC Commissioner Chris Brown revealed on Mornings with Richard Cross that Holly Springs is more than $4 million in the hole with his agency due to fines imposed on the city for an alleged lack of adequate power service to its customers.
Brown added the amount the city owes to the Tennessee Valley Authority is much larger, coming in at $18 million.
The city managed the Holly Springs Utility District until mid-August, when a state judge appointed a receiver to run the system. Prior to the receiver’s appointment, HSUD had garnered a reputation for frequent power outages, unresolved grid issues, and unpaid bills.
The money HSUD owes the Tennessee Valley Authority, which the largest public provider in the U.S., stems from wholesale power costs and disputes that have yet to be resolved. The money owed to the PSC is the result of a series of daily $12,500 fines the commission began imposing in September 2025. Brown, who chairs the commission, said it imposed the fines to send a message that providing less-than-acceptable service to customers would not be tolerated.
HSUD spans more than 1,600 square miles, serves approximately 13,000 customers – most of whom do not live within Holly Springs city limits – touches multiple Mississippi counties, and extends into Tennessee.
“When we levied the fine, we wanted to show them that we’re serious. You cannot have the status quo. The people deserve better,” Brown said. “Everybody knows that it cannot stay the way that it is. I just want the people of Holly Springs to know that the status quo is not an option for us. We are pushing every lever we have to try to enact change.”
Brown noted that the fines could be dropped by the commission if it determines that HSUD has reversed course and is correcting issues that have been highlighted by customers and detailed in an independent firm’s scathing 75-page report alleging that several years of mismanagement caused HSUD to spiral into a deteriorating state.
Dropping the fines would be significant for a city of roughly 6,400 residents, as the taxpayers would ultimately bear the cost if the commission moved to collect the money.
“The $12,500 a day, when we move to collect that, it’s not going to be on the counties to pay it. It’s going to be on the city’s residents to pay it,” Brown said. “We’re using that as a hammer to say, ‘Okay, y’all have to get this right or we are going to move to collect that money, because you’re not going to continue to misappropriate money and not fix the system.’”
Brown, however, is not entirely confident that the receiver, whom he and his fellow commissioners did not endorse, is the right fit for the job.
On Aug. 18, Chancery Judge Larry Little named Michael Watson — not to be confused with Mississippi’s secretary of state — as the receiver of HSUD. According to Brown, Watson had been too close to the situation for the commission’s comfort.
The commission noted that Watson had worked with the city of Holly Springs for the previous nine months regarding its utility system and alleged that no meaningful progress had been made. Brown specifically expressed concerns that the receiver is too close to Holly Springs leadership and will not make the necessary changes.
“Nothing against the man himself. He’s just compromised. And so, he already has in his mind how it’s supposed to run and how it’s running now,” Brown said. “Our contention was that he’s not going to change it and he’s got too many headwinds because he’s supposed to be working for the judge and the court system, and not the city.”
The commission instead recommended Frank Simon as receiver. Simon is a professional court receiver with a 30-year track record of successfully rehabilitating failing entities, the commissioners told the judge.
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Brown, though, believes the commission’s wishes were denied in part because of what he described as an impressive court performance by Holly Springs’ legal team.
The commissioner said the city’s attorneys successfully convinced the judge, in his view, that the system is not in as bad shape as it has been made out to be and that Watson’s existing rapport with local officials would be more beneficial than bringing in a new face.
“The attorneys for the city did a very good job of minimizing how bad the system is, and basically painted a picture that it doesn’t need triage, but that it just needs a couple of band aids,” Brown added. “Those are just not the facts. I was up there all weekend and the vegetation is still everywhere. You can drive down I-22 and there’s vegetation all the way up an HSUD pole. You don’t have to go far to see that very little progress has been made. And those people are still suffering.”
The PSC has filed a motion asking Little to reconsider his decision, with Brown saying the move was based on allegations that the city purposely misled the court. Brown, who described Little as an honorable judge in how he handles cases, is convinced the commission can persuade the court to reverse its ruling once the full picture of HSUD’s alleged failures is presented.
