Party with Childers, Hood, Presley, Mims

Y'all Politics shares the details about a Monday night party featuring Democratic Congressman Travis Childers, Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, Democratic Transportation Commissioner Bill Minor, Democratic Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, and nonpartisan judicial candidate Kelly Mims (who has a picture of Haley Barbour in his campaign commercials). No word if Jamie Franks or Bob Marley were there.

A Mississippi Democrats Christmas

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Jim Hood and Brandon Presley's Political Roadshows

It isn't unusual for politicians to do tours of their districts. Heck, that is part of the power of incumbency, you get to go out and meet the voters in your official capacity. We noticed two incumbents launched tours last week: Attorney General Jim Hood and Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley.

Jim Hood is doing his "Did You Know?" tour that his office describes as a "grassroots initiative" to tell Mississippians what it is the Attorney General's Office does. The trip includes visits to Meridian, Hattiesburg, Laurel, Gulfport, Moss Point, Vicksburg, Lexington, Tupelo, Starkville, Columbus, Natchez, Clarksdale, and Batesville.

Coming up on his seventh year in office, I guess its about time people find out what he does. The commenters over at Y'all Politics have had fun with this.

Brandon Presley's roadshow is different, he is setting up regular office hours in the county's in his district. He will be counting on staff to fill these offices, not himself obviously, because many counties have the same times on the same days. For example on the first and third Tuesday of each month he will have office hours in Winston, Tate, Pontotoc, Coahoma, Monroe, and Montgomery counties all at the same time (9-11am). Assuming he staffs one of them himself, that means he'll have five Public Service Commission staffers working the other courthouse offices. He also has office hours over-lapping the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, every Wednesday of every month, and the second and third Thursday of every month.

Its a good thing Presley argued for additional staff during the session and budget standoff that the Stimulus provided $824,901 to the PSC for additional staff, they obviously are in dire need of more staff to occupy courthouses in North Mississippi.

Political Populism not Partisanship Divides PSC

I guess we could increase the alliteration to say "Presley's Political Populism not Partisanship or Posey Divides PSC."

Brandon Presley (D) is at it again. It seems every month the Northern District Public Service Commissioner not only disagrees with his colleagues, but feels he must be disagreeable. It isn't enough for him to lose a vote, he has to attempt to score political points against his fellow commissioners and mislead the press while he is at it.

June - (Y'all Politics covered it well) Presley announced he had voted against a rate hike and went on the radio to say, "The proposed rate increase is $14.5 million that comes at a terrible time for Mississippi consumers. So, this rate increase is going into effect during the hottest months of the year, and I felt that it just wasn’t a justified rate increase." Presley lost the vote 2-1. Funny though, Public Service Commission Chairman Lynn Posey (D), who was joined by Commissioner Leonard Bentz (R) in voting against Presley, released a statement announcing a reduction in rates. Eventually WLBT caught up with Presley who admitted that yes, in fact, it was a rate reduction. For this, Presley lost not only the vote, but credibility.

August - Presley "lashed out" at Posey and Bentz over the Ratepayers Bill of Rights. Again came the dueling press releases. Again Presley looked foolish as he whined about not getting his way, while his colleagues took the high road and actually praised him.

September - Time for Presley to make the scene again. This time after again losing another 2-1 vote, he fired off a press release accusing a regulated utility of effectively contributing to the hardships of "Mississippi families" as they "struggle through some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression". He proudly claimed to have cast the lone vote against this scheme. What he didn't say was his plan to pull these families out of "the Great Depression" amounted to less than $3 a month for three months. In other words, Brandon Presley envisions himself Franklin Delano Roosevelt by letting someone order not quite three things off the McDonald's Dollar Menu once a month. What would we do without him?

Again, Posey follows up with a statement of his own. It seems Presley left out a major item...a rate reduction! In addition to the rate reduction, the PSC deferred some returns to ratepayers for a quarter to help stabilize rates. During that deferment, ratepayers will be earning interest at the prime rate plus one percent. Presley somehow neglected to mention that as well. Posey said, “In my judgment, this plan will reduce the burden on customers by providing reasonable rates with stability and eliminating dramatic fluctuations in bills which customers have not budgeted for. Since natural gas costs are now at their lowest in several years, I think it is wise to prepare now for these costs rising next spring when electricity usage goes up.”

Posey argued for rate stability. Something most families and businesses appreciate when it comes to a budget. That is not partisanship. That is being reasonable.

This is not a partisan split. Posey is a real Democrat. Bentz is a real Republican. But they also respect their roles as quasi-judicial regulators. Presley on the other hand sees this as his opportunity to exercise his political ambitions. That is unfortunate to ratepayers and to Mississippi.

Our advice to the media in the future is to wait on the truth from Posey and Bentz before jumping on the populist spin of Brandon Presley.

Presley Lashes Out when PSC Modifies His Campaign Promise

Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley ran on a campaign in 2007 to enact "Presley's Plan" which included a ratepayers bill of rights that would "punish scam artists" and "make utility bills easy to read" and require live people to answer the phones when you call with a question. Here is his campaign commercial.



Last week, the other members of the Public Service Commission decided to study a ratepayers bill of rights, but it wasn't Presley's prepared one. The Jackson Free Press said, "Presley lashed out at fellow commissioners Lynn Posey and Leonard Bentz" and grew furious when he discovered that his fellow commissioners refused to give his bill an up or down vote."

There are three members on the commission. Two of them had a different idea in mind. So when Presley made his motion, there was no one there to second it. No motion is in order without a second. But Presley flipped out. As the Jackson Free Press reports Presley whines:

"So if a commissioner makes a motion to vote and somebody doesn't want to do it then we don't have to vote on it, because you don't want to take a vote on it? Is that really how this works?" he demanded. "We've spent all this time putting this proposal together and nobody wants to take a vote on it? If you're against it, just vote on it. What are you afraid of?...If you want to vote against this ratepayer's bill of rights, if you want to vote against people who can have their power cut off in the winter time or the summer time, then let's do it, but this is not fair. I circulated this proposition four months ago and nobody's said a word against it until today, and now today we've take this little shift and say we're going to ask the companies to tell us what they think we ought to do to protect ratepayers? I don't understand it."

Then came the press releases. Presley's statement described the PSC as making a "curious move" and said "Honestly, I am stunned." Presley wants to write the document but the other commissioners want input from the utilities. Presley called this "asking the fox to protect the hen house." Later he appeared "On Deadline with Sid Salter to say, "I'm just stunned and disappointed...It makes me sick that we set on this for six months...The key comes down to who is leading on this issue, we were elected to lead...that's our job and its just a minor little bit of a disagreement."

The other commissioners were more conciliatory and even praised Presley.

Central District Public Service Commissioner Lynn Posey said in his press release:

Today, the Mississippi Public Service Commission declared its intent to consider the adoption of additional and/or amended rules under their jurisdiction, more specifically a “Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights.” The proposed rule would affect the existing “Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service.” Commissioner Posey stated that, “It has always been this Commission’s intent to adopt a “Ratepayers Bill of Rights” since the idea was first offered by Commissioner Presley, but the majority of the Commission felt that this was the appropriate way to handle this matter.” Additionally Posey stated that, “Commissioner Presley and his staff are to be commended for their efforts in this matter,” and that he “looked forward to their continued input as the Commission moves forward with this project.”

Southern District Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz said in his press release that the current proposed bill of rights just needs "tweaking":

“We have been looking closely at a way to adopt a Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights that will be beneficial to each and every Mississippian. The current Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights that has been proposed still needs some tweaking. We have a good outline for a Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights in front of us, but we need to make sure that if it is adopted, that the items that are in it work to protect all ratepayers. For example, we need to look more closely at the protections for Senior Citizens, and some of the guidelines for termination of services.”

Later, Bentz appeared on Sid Salter's radio show after Presley and said:

"We're not that far apart on this deal...The commission is united and we're working towards the goal of protecting the ratepayer and you know we've also got to keep the lights on in the state of Mississippi and we're going to continue that goal."

Regarding Presley's "fox guarding the hen house" allegation Bentz told Salter:

"But we do need input. We need to know how many cutoffs they've had. We need to know who's paying their bills, who's not paying their bills. We need inputs from them. We need inputs from the ratepayers."

And regarding the appearance of animosity from Presley, Bentz said:

"Brandon Presley is my friend. Lynn Posey is my friend. Commissioner or not. And we're going continue to be friends. we're going to have differences of opinions. We're not going to fight about it. We're going to cast our vote and move on. You've seen that at the Commission. There has not been a lot of rancor at the commission. We've tried to move forward in a good positive direction and hopefully we'll continue to move in that direction in the future."

Y'all Politics asked, "Are PSC Commissioners Lynn Posey and Leonard Bentz distancing themselves from Brandon Presley?" It appears it might be the other way around. Posey and Bentz want to get input from all parties on a regulation while Presley wants the input to come just from him. He would take his ball and go home if this wasn't his only playground in town. Stay tuned for what happens next.

Special Session: Jim Hood tries to protect his PSC agenda

Sid Salter wrote about the politics involved over the Public Service Commission's efforts to increase the size of government during the recession in the Clarion Ledger. Or, as the Neshoba Democrat described it, "Bloating and corrupting the PSC." The press and the people of Mississippi are on to the PSC's attempt to increase the size of government.

So what does the other side do? They say when you want a job done right you've got to do it yourself. Tired of the Public Service Commissioners fumbling away his agenda, today Jim Hood comes out in the Clarion Ledger to fix things. You know things are bad when he has to get up and do the work himself.

This is just an attempt to ultimately put the independent Public Utilities Staff back under control of the Public Service Commission, which in the words of Brandon Presley, would be a "ginamic step forward."

Jim Hood always comes out when his agenda at the PSC seems to fall apart. Watch the video here and you'll see Tyrone Ellis speaking at the end. Then, strolling out of Speaker McCoy's office (16 seconds left on the video count) comes Attorney General Jim Hood, a crony, and bringing up the rear comes Brandon Presley, tagging along behind big Jim.

Sid Salter saw through Jim Hood's political smoke and Hood lashed back at him today. But it is clear to anyone observing, what the politics behind today's special session really are.

Dems vs Reality

Mississippi Democrats criticize Haley Barbour for going to Iowa and New Hampshire instead of working on the budget. First, he is not the Democrat controlled legislature which has failed to produce a budget. They are blaming Haley for not doing their own job. Second, where was this outrage when their budget conferee and CHAIRMAN of Medicaid, Dirk Dedeaux, skipped budget meetings to go to DISNEY WORLD?

The Mississippi Democrats also salute Brandon Presley for his recent appointment to this national board. Shocking, but Y'all Politics is reporting that Presley and the Public Service Commission recently retained that organization under contract. I guess the Democrats really ought to congratulate him, he is learning the Democratic methods early and well.

Billion Dollar Set Backs for Jim Hood

Last week was a bad one for Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. First, Hood lost before a three judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over a billion dollar lawsuit accusing Memphis of stealing Mississippi's water.

Apparently Hood is looking to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Either way, Mississippi will get its day in court and Memphis will have to answer and account for its theft of Mississippi's water," Don Barrett, lead counsel for the state, said in a text message Friday afternoon.

Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood, who filed the suit, said the ruling addresses only the proper court for the case, not its merits.

"We look forward to stopping the flow of our pure water to the Memphis pumps and recouping restitution for the loss of Mississippi resources," he said in a statement.

Oh yeah, lead attorney Don Barrett is a long time trial lawyer handling asbestos, tobacco, firestone tires, ford gas caps, vioxx - but very notably head of the Katrina Litigation Group (along with the Scruggs Firm and others). I tell you what, a contingency fee on a billion dollars is a nice deal if you can get it. It must be nice to be like Hood's family.

This case is also interesting because Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has said he wants to get involved in it, too.

Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley said he'll push for the PSC to get involved in water rights litigation between Mississippi and Memphis.

Presley told the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors Tuesday the regulatory agency needs to represent water customers in a lawsuit alleging that Memphis is taking Mississippi's water.

"I think the PSC has to have a role in that case," Presley said. "It's on the minds of everybody in DeSoto County to make sure we've got that water supply here."

Presley said the previous PSC didn't act on the water rights lawsuit in time to be a party to it. He said the case is scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court in Oxford in February.

Whatever the outcome, he anticipates the case will be appealed, and the PSC will get an opportunity to file a friend of the court brief.

The second big lost came to Hood's challenge of Mississippi Power's $2 billion Kemper Coal Plant, unanamously rejected by the three members of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Hood, the Sierra Club, and two independent power producers (Entegra Power Group and Magnolia Energy) all had filed challenges to stop this new facility and the PSC rejected them all. It was a good win for Mississippi Power.

The Clarion Ledger and the Neshoba Democrat both editorialized this as a victory for more energy and more jobs.

Brandon Presley on Nettleton Biodiesel Then and Now

Patsy Brumfield is on the trail of some alleged biodiesel crooks.

When backers of Biodiesel of Mississippi swept into [Nettleton] in 2003, people saw hope in the jobs of the future. They heard something new about making diesel fuel in a different way, in a world where countries go to war over oil supplies. They saw a glimmer of a way to change from the struggling furniture industry or just small-town, mom-and-pop work.

By the time the alternative industry went awry and burst their bubble of optimism, creditors were left holding the bag to the tune of at least $489,000. If you look at who really got paid, it was the lawyers and the accountants in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding that ended officially April 4.

Few people contacted about their experiences with Biodiesel want to talk on the record about their experiences with the company and its indicted owner, William T. “Tommy” Tacker.

Tupelo’s Lynn Blanton isn’t so bashful.

“Tacker is completely crooked,” said Blanton of NESCO, an electrical company, which Biodiesel still owes $12,923.

“Tacker is a good talker,” Blanton recalled. “I don’t ever expect to see anything” recovered on the debt.

“A good talker” is how many describe the man who came to town with a publicly announced plan to invest $16 million in a dormant grain elevator site. The 14-acre site had been idle for more than a decade on the south side of town. Tacker proposed to make biodiesel fuel from soybean oil there, and bring about 50 jobs in this town of 2,000 on the Lee-Monroe county line. He said this plant would be different from others, more efficient, because he would use hydrogen to power it and store 2.3 million gallons on site.

Then-Mayor Brandon Presley said he was excited about the potential for his hometown. “I think from the beginning, they believed they could do it,” Presley remembered. Today? “Be very cautious,” Presley advises any community where bioenergy promoters come a’knocking. “This is an emerging technology and all sorts of people are trying this.”

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Nettleton facility was sold to Universal Bioenergy North American Inc., which was bought in January 2007 by Universal Bioenergy Inc.

Robbie Wilbur, a spokesman at DEQ, said Universal Bioenergy never completed the process to operate in Nettleton.

What happened at Biodiesel?

If anybody knows with certainty, they aren’t talking about it.

Presley, now the Mississippi Public Service Commission’s northern commissioner, said his hometown may have come out better than anybody else in the deal – the town sold the property to Biodiesel for $50,000 and retained a revenue-producing telephone cell tower at one corner.

As of Jan. 1, 2007, Biodiesel of Mississippi Inc. appears to have been administratively dissolved for the final time.

“I really hate that,” Presley said last week. “A lot of big dreams for new jobs got dashed.”

Patsy failed to mention that Universal Bioenergy was a campaign contributor to Brandon Presley as late as April of 2007.Here is what Brandon Presley had to say several years ago about biodiesel in Nettleton (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal March 6, 2003):

Nettleton Mayor Brandon Presley joined Mississippi agriculture commissioner Lester Spell on an August trip to St. Louis that laid the groundwork for the plant. "This will actually be the largest alternative fuel plant, production-wise, in the United States once it's up and running," said Presley, who along with aldermen negotiated a donation of the site to Nettleton from Bunge North America's grain division. "(Bunge) saw it as an opportunity for the city and a proactive move environmentally for this to be the first plant of its type. And it was just a piece of property that wasn't doing them any good."

Presley said he couldn't forecast a percentage increase in soybean production generated by the plant, but the benefits would be tangible for farmers. "They're going to be getting a better price for their beans," he said. "And they'll be able to truck them here locally instead of sending them somewhere else."

"No farmer will have to put up any money to form a cooperative," Presley said of the biodiesel refinery. "There's not any risk out there for the farmer." An edge for biodiesel is it doesn't require transportation back to the petroleum industry for further refining. An additive, ethanol must be blended with gasoline before its market-ready, Presley said. "This biodiesel can be used automatically," he said.

Besides Tacker, the venture includes silent investment partners from Tennessee, Presley said.

Spinoff businesses are likely from byproducts, Presley said, with catfish and pet food factories and a vitamin-enriched water product possible. Truck traffic related to the venture is expected to bring a truck stop and 24-hour restaurant to Nettleton, he said.

Despite Presley's optimism and assurances, this did not become "the largest alternative fuel plant" in the U.S.; it didn't help soybean growers; there were no spinoff businesses: no "catfish and petfood factories," no "vitamin-enriched water" products, and no "trucks top and 24-hour restaurant."

Scruggs? Patterson? Balducci? Uh, pay no attention. Hey - look at Entergy!

Tuesday Dickie Scruggs plead guilty in another judicial bribery case. Friday, Steve Patterson and Timothy Balducci will be sentenced for their role in the first judicial bribery case. A couple of guys who received tens of thousands of dollars from these now felons don't want you thinking about that. Instead, they're attacking someone who hasn't been shown to have done anything wrong, and in fact, has newly realeased evidence that they're doing things right.

Brandon Presley and Jim Hood don't want you thinking about corrupt trial lawyers. They want you thiking about Entergy Mississippi.

Last year, the Mississippi Public Service Commission hired Walter Drabinski of Vantage Consulting to conduct a performance audit of Entergy Mississippi to review "activities related to providing energy, capacity, and ancillary services for all customer classes of EMI." The report said because "almost all procurement of fuels, energy and related planning is performed by Entergy Services Inc. (ESI), much of the work, including interviews and data gathering were done through ESI." Basically, Drabinski had the run of all the records of Entergy Mississippi and Entergy Services.

The report is generally good for Entergy as explained over at Y'all Politics. Naturally, like any company would, they announced the good news in a release saying:

Overall, we’re encouraged by the findings. The way we project fuel costs and true up fuel cost recoveries, provide the commission with sufficient fuel filing data and plan for Mississippi’s future energy needs were all noted as practices that serve our customers well. We’ll pay careful attention to the report’s critique of our method for recovering fuel costs. Matters like these are under consideration at the commission and we’ll continue to fully support their review. This report shows the importance of review and analysis of the business practices of Mississippi utilities, as is conducted by the independent experts on the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff, as well as the commissioners.

That is a rational, measured, reasonable response.

Cue the demoagogues.

Jim Hood says:

Entergy is at it again, issuing press releases that are not true. The report itself states that Vantage Consulting did not review any procurement decisions and did not make any judgment as to the prudence of any purchase. In fact, the audit recommended additional audits because they found Entergy’s accounting was “likely to be innaccurate”. The PSC will likely be issuing documents tomorrow which will totally expose Entergy’s mis-representations. We will have a true court ordered audit one day. We will find exactly the same thing as the audit in Louisiana; that Entergy overcharged customers.

What? Are we talking about the same thing? Its like an economics professor made a point and for rebuttal someone brought in a dancing monkey. If only he had something to throw.

"With respect to the touting of these findings, I think Entergy needs to put down the pom-poms and pick up some reading glasses." - Brandon Presley's statement

Yep, like RoM said, Jim Hood said to jump and Brandon Presley asked how high.

Well, we put on our reading glasses and picked up the report and this is what we found.

Drabinski's executive summary says, "This audit looks primarily at current policies, procedures, processes, systems, organizations and strategies to determine if they are appropriate. Historical data is used to provide a baseline of results and to test proposed changes in policy...Our objective was to provide clear and independent information that can be used by all stakeholders in guidance on issues related to fuel procurement such as the Fuel Adjustment Clause (FAC) and long-term energy planning...Vantage received unfettered access to all appropriate people and data."

Some special interest groups in the state would profit by forcing Entergy to buy unregulated independently produced electricity. But Drabinski warns that such dependence on unstable producers is ill advised and notes it is unnecessary as there "is no evidence that EMI mismanages its power plants."

The report suggests Entergy Mississippi should continue to use projected fuel costs for fuel adjustment charge. Brandon Presley had argued they should go to actual fuel costs in recovery instead. No wonder Presley doesn't care for this audit.

The report suggests Entergy Mississippi move from quarterly rate adjustments to monthly rate adjustments. And it recommends Entergy Mississippi increase the number and scope of internal audits. If you want to read the report yourself, here it is courtesy of Y'all Politics.

Finally, everytime you turn around, Hood and Presley want another audit. But according to Drabinski, "The information provided by [Entergy] each quarter allows the Mississippi Public Utility Staff to conduct an adequate review needed to confirm the accuracy of the data in calculation." So what else do they want? Oh yeah, pay no attention to the Scruggs/Patterson/Balducci behind the curtain!

Presley Contributors to be Sentenced Feb 13

RoM had this great piece about contributors to Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley: Presley's Dirty Money.RoM notes that Steve Patterson contributed $11,500 to Presley and Timothy Balducci contributed another $5,000. $18,000 more came from other members of the Patterson Balducci firm.RoM doesn't list the contributions to Presley of $2,500 from Cotton Plant of Como, LLC and $2,500 more from Cotton Plant Thoroughbreds, LLC. Steve Patterson's Cotton Plant Consulting, Inc. is listed at the same address as those two LLCs so its a good chance that those contributions ($5000 total) also come from Patterson.

Now Patterson and Balducci will be sentenced on February 13.

More than a year after pleading guilty in a judicial bribery scandal that took down then-prominent lawyer Dickie Scruggs, former state auditor Steve Patterson and disbarred New Albany lawyer Tim Balducci will be sentenced Feb. 13. The two were the first to plead guilty to their roles in attempting to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey to rule in favor of Scruggs in a legal fees dispute.

Dickie Scruggs also gave Presley $5000.

Scruggs, Patterson, and Balducci did not give to the other Public Service Commissioners. Only Presley. The question is, "WHY?" And why has Presley not divested himself of these tainted funds?

Speaker Fails to Deliver for Presley and Hood

Y'all Politics has a great post on Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley and Attorney General Jim Hood working together to return to the Public Service Commission structure back to the days when commissioners could freely engage in corruption without the bureaucratic nightmare that exists today. Afterall, with Jim Hood there to protect us, there is no need for an independent Public Utilities Staff or a trustworthy PSC. And Presley thinks politics is like bacon, everything (including utility audits) is better with a good dose of it. And by the looks of him, Presley really loves politics. (Be sure to check out the video at the post to see Presley tagging along behind Hood behind Utilities Chairman Tyrone Ellis.) The most fascinating aspect of the whole thing is that they convinced the Speaker to rush their bill from committee to the floor and it failed on a procedural vote.

UPDATE: The measure passed the House the following day.