JXN Water withholds sanitation fees in response to city’s $6.4M water bill, official says
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Another hearing could be in the works for JXN Water and the city of Jackson.
That’s according to interim Chief Administrative Officer Pieter Teeuwissen, who told the City Council on Wednesday that the utility is withholding Jackson’s sanitation money after Jackson racked up a $6.4 million water bill.
“He says he’s not going to remit the garbage fees back to the city,” he said. “He’s just going to hold it to cover all of our water bills.”
[READ: ‘This house of cards is going to tumble’: Henifin sounds alarm on JXN Water finances]
Teeuwissen was referring to Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin. He says Henifin notified him of the decision via email on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what that’s going to do with the budget folks and paying the garbage contract. I will tell you we already have had a preliminary discussion… about decoupling our billing sanitation from Mr. Henifin.”
Teeuwissen told council members he has yet to run that idea by the mayor.
Henifin was appointed manager over Jackson’s water system in November 2022.
As part of his duties, he is responsible for billing and collections, which includes collecting fees for residential trash collections.
Court records indicate Henifin is supposed to remit those fees back to the city once they’re brought in.
Jackson, in turn, is responsible for paying for trash pickup directly.
The city brought on Richard’s Disposal in 2024 for approximately $891,000 a month.
In response, Teeuwissen suggested Ward One Councilman Ashby Foote not pursue an amendment to pay a portion of the city’s water bill.
Foote made a motion to allocate $3.5 million in general fund money to pay on the city’s $6.4 million water bill. However, the motion was not approved.
[READ: City official suggests options for repairing major water leaks at Jackson Zoo]
“I’m not comfortable with him unilaterally deciding over people who have run for office and been elected,” Teeuwissen said. “I understand I’m appointed. All of the rest of these folks need to understand that they were appointed… and that y’all and the mayor ran for office.”
“It looks like we’re going to end up over there before Judge [Henry] Wingate, arguing about the proposed offset.”
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2025 WLBT. All rights reserved.