Mississippi Today
Domestic violence deaths reflect families’ loss and grief
It was like seeing the writing on the wall and waiting for the worse to happen.
Family members and friends said they saw signs of physical, mental and other domestic abuse, and searched for ways to keep their loved ones safe: home security, a trip out of town, a firearm.
Some of the individuals experiencing the abuse turned to the legal system by seeking a protection order. Others looked for a way out of the harmful relationship.
But despite best efforts, some of those relationships ended in death.
Over 300 Mississippians have died from domestic violence homicides since 2020, according to an analysis by Missisisppi Today of data from the Gun Violence Archive, the Gun Violence Memorial, news articles, court records and obituaries.
That number includes not just those who experienced the abuse and those who perpetrated it, but also collateral harm to children, other adults and law enforcement caught in the crossfire. But it doesn’t reflect those who bear the pain and loss – children growing up without a parent, parents burying their child.
That has driven some survivors to become advocates and spread awareness about domestic violence.
It has touched people like Renata Flot-Patterson who lost her daughter and grandson in 2021 in Biloxi, and has gone on to organize domestic violence benefit concerts and helped create a mural that honors them.
And Tara Gandy who is teaching others about signs of abuse after her daughter’s death in 2022 in Waynesboro.
And Elisha Webb Coker, who as a teenager watched her mother experience abuse at the hands of partners and die in front of their Jackson home.
“It’s because the system is just the system,” the Gulfport resident said about the need for change around how domestic violence is addressed in the state.
“My mother was murdered in 1999,” Webb Coker said. “It’s still the same.”
The Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which represents shelters, advocates and other support for survivors and victims, is backing efforts to study domestic violence deaths, with the hopes of building a better network to help people stay safe and prevent future deaths.
What started out as a pair of bills has come down to one, Senate Bill 2886. Lawmakers will need to agree on a final proposal in conference by the end of the month and then pass both chambers before it can reach the governor’s desk.
It’s an effort that some families of domestic violence homicide victims believe can lay out patterns of abuse and responses to it and show missed opportunities to step in.
At the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi, several women directly impacted by domestic violence homicide spoke to Mississippi Today. The center is supporting the legislation and has support services including a homicide survivors program.
Prince charming turned into a monster
In the wake of her daughter and grandson’s deaths, Flot-Patterson is left with questions: Why didn’t police intervene when her daughter’s former partner had served time for aggravated domestic assault? Why didn’t the hospital hold him for a mental evaluation when he threatened his child’s life?
She would like the state to pass a law that would take threats to a child’s life seriously and require the person who makes the threat – including a parent – to undergo a mental health evaluation. Flot-Patterson would name it “Brixx’s Law.”
Her daughter Keli Mornay and her 7-month-old grandson, Brixx, were both of her babies: Mornay was the youngest of her four children and at the time Brixx was the youngest grandchild.
Mornay had a beautiful personality and poured herself into helping others, sometimes putting them before herself, her mother said. She was family-oriented and fiercely proud of her children: Brixx and his older brothers.
It was that nature that drew her into problematic relationships.
Mornay met Byrain Johnson and liked that he was older and had his own children and grandchildren. He was a hard worker who showed signs of being a good man, and Mornay wanted to help him become a better person, Flot-Patterson said.
Within two months, the relationship began to go downhill and Johnson changed, Flot-Patterson said, noting earlier signs of abuse: the time he broke Mornay’s laptop. Another time he kicked down her bathroom door and took her clothes. It escalated to threats of violence and physical abuse.
“He was like the prince charming at first and then he turned into the monster that basically ruined everybody’s lives in my circle,” Flot-Patterson said.
In February 2020 during the drive home from a trip, Johnson and Mornay argued and he beat her and left bruises, cuts and broken teeth, Flot-Patterson said. But it was her daughter who was charged with domestic violence and spent a night in jail – charges brought by Johnson, according to court records shared with Mississippi Today.
In a domestic abuse protective order Johnson filed against Mornay, he listed a number of allegations, including violence and how she filed false charges against him. A judge denied the order because Johnson did not prove the allegations.
Mornay’s charge was dropped after her parents took her to the hospital and additional information was submitted to police, including pictures of Mornay’s injuries, Flot-Patterson said.
That night in jail, Mornay was given a pregnancy test and learned she was expecting.
Flot-Patterson remembers telling her that a child would tie her to Johnson for life. Her family and friends already feared for her safety. But Mornay said a child is what she needed to get her life back on track.
“She said, ‘This baby is going to ground me.’ Those were her words,” Flot-Patterson said.
Yvonne Del Rio met Mornay in 2018 when she relocated to the Coast after divorcing a partner who she said abused her physically, emotionally and financially for over 20 years.
She said Mornay’s personality and smile radiated like sunshine, and they became close. Del Rio was also concerned about how Johnson treated her and was scared for Mornay’s safety when her friend shared her pregnancy.
As threats to Mornay’s safety escalated, her family helped her get security cameras and locks at her home.
When Brixx was several months old, Mornay went to court and was awarded joint custody with her as the primary, custodial parent.
A few weeks before their deaths, police came to Mornay’s home where Johnson had showed up uninvited, assaulted her in front of her infant and 10-year-old son and yelled at the boy.
Johnson then left with Brixx, and police and others had to negotiate with Johnson, who over the phone threatened to kill himself and the infant, before police detained Johnson and returned Brixx to Mornay, court documents state.
Police took Johnson to the hospital because of the threats he made, but Mornay told Flot-Patterson he was released without a mental evaluation or arrest.
“Me and my family have had enough and are terrified of what he may do next,” Mornay hand wrote in a May 28, 2021, petition for a domestic abuse protection order in Harrison County.
“His behavior is extremely violent and out of control.”
Mornay’s parents helped arrange for her and her sons to leave for Utah. The older boys would stay with their father and Mornay and Brixx would stay with some of her childhood friends.
The court approved an emergency protective order and within a week, it was served to Johnson.
Days later on June 6, 2021, Flot-Patterson remembers seeing a missed call from her 14-year-old grandson. She tried to reach him, but didn’t get an answer, so Flot-Patterson tried calling Mornay’s phone.
Instead of her daughter on the other end, it was Johnson, who had broken into Mornay’s home. He told Flot-Patterson he killed her daughter and that he and the children would be dead.
Flot-Patterson and her husband raced to Mornay’s Biloxi home. Police found her dead from a gunshot wound and Johnson was dead after turning the gun on himself, but not before shooting Brixx. The baby was still alive and rushed to the hospital but died before he could be transported out of state for more intensive care.
Mornay’s older sons had run from the home to safety and called 911.
“When she died, I said, ‘This baby grounded you.’ That’s the first thing that came to mind when the police told me she was dead,” Flot-Patterson recalled.
In 2021, at least 50 other people died in domestic violence incidents across the state.
Flot-Patterson learned more about the abuse Momay endured through pictures on her daughter’s phone, the text messages she sent and journal entries.
Years later Flot-Patterson still has questions about how the situation Mornay was in was allowed to escalate until it was deadly.
Johnson served nearly six months for aggravated domestic violence against another person, according to Harrison County jail records. Why didn’t police arrest him each time they were called to Mornay’s with that charge on his record? Flot-Patterson asks.
Why wasn’t Johnson held at the hospital and given a mental health evaluation after making threats to his son’s life and his own, she wonders.
During grief, Flot-Patterson dove into sharing her daughter’s story and raising the issue of domestic violence, including organizing concerts to benefit the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence and establishing a foundation in Mornay’s name.
She is at the point now that whatever she can do to bring awareness and education about domestic violence, she will do it. Flot-Patterson has had conversations with survivors and met families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“This is surreal, and I’m not the only one,” she said about meeting other families who lost someone to domestic violence. “I’m not the only one suffering.”
Memories of her daughter is all she has left
Joslin Napier didn’t want to be treated differently as she lived with sickle cell disease. The condition took a toll on her body when she became pregnant and gave birth to her son in 2019.
“She wouldn’t let her sickle cell stop her,” her mother, Tara Gandy, said. “The thing I thought was going to hurt her the most was not what hurt her.”
Chance Jones, an ex-partner, faces a capital murder charge for shooting Napier on Oct. 4, 2022, while in commission of a burglary. His indictment came on the year anniversary of her death, according to court records.
He has also been indicted for aggravated domestic violence for an incident in June 2022, when he pointed a gun at Napier and stomped on her head, according to court records. An indictment came Oct. 12, 2022 – less than a week after Napier’s death.
Napier is among the nearly 40 people who died in 2022 in domestic violence incidents in Mississippi.
Gandy declined to comment about her daughter’s case that is set to go to trial in May.
Prosecutors plan to present to the jury evidence of domestic violence allegations Napier made against Jones to give the jury “a full picture of the circumstances” around her death, according to an August 2024 filing.
The state noted six times when police were called to Napier’s home about Jones within a span of six months.
When she ended the relationship in April 2022, Napier told police Jones came to her home in the early hours of the morning, banged on the door and threatened to hurt her. He broke in through the front door, flipped over her nail salon tables and shelves and took her car keys.
Napier took action, filing for a protective order against him and purchasing a firearm, court records state.
Jones was also arrested twice, in May and August 2022, accused of violating the protection order.
Gandy said there was a lot of guilt and grief their family had to face, and they continue to navigate her loss.
Napier, the only girl of her family, was a butterfly who made you feel welcomed, said Gandy. She taught herself how to do makeup and nails professionally and was in the process of getting her nail technician license.
Napier was also a loyal friend who saw the good in others – something Gandy said she taught her daughter. Like her mother, she also saw potential in others and often fell in love with that potential.
Gandy has let the pain of her daughter’s death push her into purpose. She has been spreading awareness about domestic violence, joining groups and sharing tools and resources – all of which she wished she had access to earlier to help Napier.
She’s also a domestic abuse survivor herself and uses that experience to help others.
“So I keep my daughter’s memories alive, because those are the things that I have left,” Gandy said.
‘I feel like the system failed us’
The loss from domestic violence widens with the inclusion of family violence.
Webb Coker remembers her mother, Patrice, as a smart, strong woman who taught her so much. She was a parent, but also a best friend.
Patrice Webb worked to support her family while also pursuing her dreams: to become a nurse and help people with mental health issues.
She was killed in Jackson Sept. 24, 1999 by her partner, Gregory Ephfrom, who hit her on the head, pushed her out of his car and ran her over on Powers Avenue.
Webb Coker said her mother’s death shattered the lives of her and her younger sister and brother, who were spread across the country to live with their fathers and other family members.
Looking back, she said there were missed opportunities to intervene. Her mother sought help for the domestic abuse and shared with family members, including Webb Coker, that she was scared.
“I feel like the system failed us,” Webb Coker said.
Ephrom was initially charged with first degree murder, according to Clarion Ledger stories in 1999, but weeks later that charge was reduced to manslaughter.
He pleaded guilty to a reduced sentence and received 10 years, with most of it suspended. Webb’s family thought he had served at least a year, but WLBT reported last year that he was in jail for four days.
Webb Coker was upset, but she wanted to use her grief and anger to advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, which she has experienced herself in relationships.
She is studying to become a nurse, following in her mother’s footsteps.
Webb Coker’s children ask about their grandmother and like to hear stories about her.
But it’s also been an opportunity to teach them about domestic violence and dating violence, especially because she has a 21-year-old son and five girls ranging in age from 8 to 18. Some of the older children witnessed former partners abuse Webb Coker.
“The red flags: I have to pay attention to this time,” she said.
‘These people make choices … that impact us’
Domestic violence doesn’t always involve intimate partners. Sometimes it can be between family members.
Van Marske‘s death came at the hands of his son, Noble, in September 2021. Noble, who is now 45, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in 2023 and is serving a 20-year sentence.
Marsha Schmitt carries around a folded program from Van Marske’s funeral service because she likes the picture of him. It’s a reminder of her younger brother who was a woodworker, carpenter and fisherman. He was someone she depended on.
He brought his adult son to live with him when Noble was battling addiction and having other troubles, Schmitt said.
But over the years, Noble Marske began to threaten his father. She knew her brother was scared and was trying to get his son to move out of the house, and he tried to file a restraining order. Schmitt said that was not successful, and her brother was told he could not get one because Noble lived with him.
In Mississippi, family members related by blood or marriage who currently or previously lived together can apply for a domestic abuse protection order.
“(But) my brother never believed up to the end that he would actually do it,” Schmitt said about her nephew’s threats against his father.
Van Marske went missing after Labor Day, and nearly a week later authorities searched a marsh area in Harrison County – where Noble Marske told police his father went fishing – and found Van Marske buried in a shallow grave.
In a statement given in court during her nephew’s guilty plea, Schmitt said he does not deserve to be called “Noble” because of what he did. She added, during an interview with Mississippi Today, that Noble was her mother’s name and she doesn’t believe her nephew is worthy of it.
“He chose, and that’s what’s important here,” Schmitt said about her nephew’s actions.
“These people choose. And we have to remember that their choices impact us.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Presidents are taking longer to declare major natural disasters. For some, the wait is agonizing
TYLERTOWN — As an ominous storm approached Buddy Anthony’s one-story brick home, he took shelter in his new Ford F-250 pickup parked under a nearby carport.
Seconds later, a tornado tore apart Anthony’s home and damaged the truck while lifting it partly in the air. Anthony emerged unhurt. But he had to replace his vehicle with a used truck that became his home while waiting for President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration so that federal money would be freed for individuals reeling from loss. That took weeks.
“You wake up in the truck and look out the windshield and see nothing. That’s hard. That’s hard to swallow,” Anthony said.
Disaster survivors are having to wait longer to get aid from the federal government, according to a new Associated Press analysis of decades of data. On average, it took less than two weeks for a governor’s request for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. It’s taking more than a month, on average, during Trump’s current term, the AP found.
The delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses, temporary lodging and home repairs. Delays in disaster declarations also can hamper recovery efforts by local officials uncertain whether they will receive federal reimbursement for cleaning up debris and rebuilding infrastructure. The AP collaborated with Mississippi Today and Mississippi Free Press on the effects of these delays for this report.
“The message that I get in the delay, particularly for the individual assistance, is that the federal government has turned its back on its own people,” said Bob Griffin, dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany in New York. “It’s a fundamental shift in the position of this country.”
The wait for disaster aid has grown as Trump remakes government
The Federal Emergency Management Agency often consults immediately with communities to coordinate their initial disaster response. But direct payments to individuals, nonprofits and local governments must wait for a major disaster declaration from the president, who first must receive a request from a state, territory or tribe. Major disaster declarations are intended only for the most damaging events that are beyond the resources of states and local governments.
Trump has approved more than two dozen major disaster declarations since taking office in January, with an average wait of almost 34 days after a request. That ranged from a one-day turnaround after July’s deadly flash flooding in Texas to a 67-day wait after a request for aid because of a Michigan ice storm. The average wait is up from a 24-day delay during his first term and is nearly four times as long as the average for former Republican President George H.W. Bush, whose term from 1989-1993 coincided with the implementation of a new federal law setting parameters for disaster determinations.
The delays have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. Former Democratic President Joe Biden, in his last year in office, averaged 26 days to declare major disasters — longer than any year under former Democratic President Barack Obama.
FEMA did not respond to the AP’s questions about what factors are contributing to the trend.
Others familiar with FEMA noted that its process for assessing and documenting natural disasters has become more complex over time. Disasters have also become more frequent and intense because of climate change, which is mostly caused by the burning of fuels such as gas, coal and oil.
The wait for disaster declarations has spiked as Trump’s administration undertakes an ambitious makeover of the federal government that has shed thousands of workers and reexamined the role of FEMA. A recently published letter from current and former FEMA employees warned the cuts could become debilitating if faced with a large-enough disaster. The letter also lamented that the Trump administration has stopped maintaining or removed long-term planning tools focused on extreme weather and disasters.
Shortly after taking office, Trump floated the idea of “getting rid” of FEMA, asserting: “It’s very bureaucratic, and it’s very slow.”
FEMA’s acting chief suggested more recently that states should shoulder more responsibility for disaster recovery, though FEMA thus far has continued to cover three-fourths of the costs of public assistance to local governments, as required under federal law. FEMA pays the full cost of its individual assistance.
Former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, who served during Trump’s first term, said the delay in issuing major disaster declarations likely is related to a renewed focus on making sure the federal government isn’t paying for things state and local governments could handle.
“I think they’re probably giving those requests more scrutiny,” Gaynor said. “And I think it’s probably the right thing to do, because I think the (disaster) declaration process has become the ‘easy button’ for states.”
The Associated Press on Monday received a statement from White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in response to a question about why it is taking longer to issue major natural disaster declarations:
“President Trump provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him. Gone are the days of rubber stamping FEMA recommendations – that’s not a bug, that’s a feature. Under prior Administrations, FEMA’s outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience. President Trump is committed to right-sizing the Federal government while empowering state and local governments by enabling them to better understand, plan for, and ultimately address the needs of their citizens. The Trump Administration has expeditiously provided assistance to disasters while ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely to supplement state actions, not replace them.”
In Mississippi, frustration festered during wait for aid
The tornado that struck Anthony’s home in rural Tylertown on March 15 packed winds up to 140 mph. It was part of a powerful system that wrecked homes, businesses and lives across multiple states.
Mississippi’s governor requested a federal disaster declaration on April 1. Trump granted that request 50 days later, on May 21, while approving aid for both individuals and public entities.
On that same day, Trump also approved eight other major disaster declarations for storms, floods or fires in seven other states. In most cases, more than a month had passed since the request and about two months since the date of those disasters.
If a presidential declaration and federal money had come sooner, Anthony said he wouldn’t have needed to spend weeks sleeping in a truck before he could afford to rent the trailer where he is now living. His house was uninsured, Anthony said, and FEMA eventually gave him $30,000.
In nearby Jayess in Lawrence County, Dana Grimes had insurance but not enough to cover the full value of her damaged home. After the eventual federal declaration, Grimes said FEMA provided about $750 for emergency expenses, but she is now waiting for the agency to determine whether she can receive more.
“We couldn’t figure out why the president took so long to help people in this country,” Grimes said. “I just want to tie up strings and move on. But FEMA — I’m still fooling with FEMA.”
Jonathan Young said he gave up on applying for FEMA aid after the Tylertown tornado killed his 7-year-old son and destroyed their home. The process seemed too difficult, and federal officials wanted paperwork he didn’t have, Young said. He made ends meet by working for those cleaning up from the storm.
“It’s a therapy for me,” Young said, “to pick up the debris that took my son away from me.”
Historically, presidential disaster declarations containing individual assistance have been approved more quickly than those providing assistance only to public entities, according to the AP’s analysis. That remains the case under Trump, though declarations for both types are taking longer.
About half the major disaster declarations approved by Trump this year have included individual assistance.
Some people whose homes are damaged turn to shelters hosted by churches or local nonprofit organizations in the initial chaotic days after a disaster. Others stay with friends or family or go to a hotel, if they can afford it.
But some insist on staying in damaged homes, even if they are unsafe, said Chris Smith, who administered FEMA’s individual assistance division under three presidents from 2015-2022. If homes aren’t repaired properly, mold can grow, compounding the recovery challenges.
That’s why it’s critical for FEMA’s individual assistance to get approved quickly — ideally, within two weeks of a disaster, said Smith, who’s now a disaster consultant for governments and companies.
“You want to keep the people where they are living. You want to ensure those communities are going to continue to be viable and recover,” Smith said. “And the earlier that individual assistance can be delivered … the earlier recovery can start.”
In the periods waiting for declarations, the pressure falls on local officials and volunteers to care for victims and distribute supplies.
In Walthall County, where Tylertown is, insurance agent Les Lampton remembered watching the weather news as the first tornado missed his house by just an eighth of a mile. Lampton, who moonlights as a volunteer firefighter, navigated the collapsed trees in his yard and jumped into action. About 45 minutes later, the second tornado hit just a mile away.
“It was just chaos from there on out,” Lampton said.
Walthall County, with a population of about 14,000, hasn’t had a working tornado siren in about 30 years, Lampton said. He added there isn’t a public safe room in the area, although a lot of residents have ones in their home.
Rural areas with limited resources are hit hard by delays in receiving funds through FEMA’s public assistance program, which, unlike individual assistance, only reimburses local entities after their bills are paid. Long waits can stoke uncertainty and lead cost-conscious local officials to pause or scale-back their recovery efforts.
In Walthall County, officials initially spent about $700,000 cleaning up debris, then suspended the cleanup for more than a month because they couldn’t afford to spend more without assurance they would receive federal reimbursement, said county emergency manager Royce McKee. Meanwhile, rubble from splintered trees and shattered homes remained piled along the roadside, creating unsafe obstacles for motorists and habitat for snakes and rodents.
When it received the federal declaration, Walthall County took out a multimillion-dollar loan to pay contractors to resume the cleanup.
“We’re going to pay interest and pay that money back until FEMA pays us,” said Byran Martin, an elected county supervisor. “We’re hopeful that we’ll get some money by the first of the year, but people are telling us that it could be [longer].”
Lampton, who took after his father when he joined the volunteer firefighters 40 years ago, lauded the support of outside groups such as Cajun Navy, Eight Days of Hope, Samaritan’s Purse and others. That’s not to mention the neighbors who brought their own skid steers and power saws to help clear trees and other debris, he added.
“That’s the only thing that got us through this storm, neighbors helping neighbors,” Lampton said. “If we waited on the government, we were going to be in bad shape.”
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Wildeman from Hartford, Connecticut.
Update 98/25: This story has been updated to include a White House statement released after publication.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Presidents are taking longer to declare major natural disasters. For some, the wait is agonizing appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This article presents a critical view of the Trump administration’s handling of disaster declarations, highlighting delays and their negative impacts on affected individuals and communities. It emphasizes concerns about government downsizing and reduced federal support, themes often associated with center-left perspectives that favor robust government intervention and social safety nets. However, it also includes statements from Trump administration officials defending their approach, providing some balance. Overall, the tone and framing lean slightly left of center without being overtly partisan.
Mississippi Today
Northeast Mississippi speaker and worm farmer played key role in Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina
The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina slamming the Mississippi Gulf Coast has come and gone, rightfully garnering considerable media attention.
But still undercovered in the 20th anniversary saga of the storm that made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and caused unprecedented destruction is the role that a worm farmer from northeast Mississippi played in helping to revitalize the Coast.
House Speaker Billy McCoy, who died in 2019, was a worm farmer from the Prentiss, not Alcorn County, side of Rienzi — about as far away from the Gulf Coast as one could be in Mississippi.
McCoy grew other crops, but a staple of his operations was worm farming.
Early after the storm, the House speaker made a point of touring the Coast and visiting as many of the House members who lived on the Coast as he could to check on them.
But it was his action in the forum he loved the most — the Mississippi House — that is credited with being key to the Coast’s recovery.
Gov. Haley Barbour had called a special session about a month after the storm to take up multiple issues related to Katrina and the Gulf Coast’s survival and revitalization. The issue that received the most attention was Barbour’s proposal to remove the requirement that the casinos on the Coast be floating in the Mississippi Sound.
Katrina wreaked havoc on the floating casinos, and many operators said they would not rebuild if their casinos had to be in the Gulf waters. That was a crucial issue since the casinos were a major economic engine on the Coast, employing an estimated 30,000 in direct and indirect jobs.
It is difficult to fathom now the controversy surrounding Barbour’s proposal to allow the casinos to locate on land next to the water. Mississippi’s casino industry that was birthed with the early 1990s legislation was still new and controversial.
Various religious groups and others had continued to fight and oppose the casino industry and had made opposition to the expansion of gambling a priority.
Opposition to casinos and expansion of casinos was believed to be especially strong in rural areas, like those found in McCoy’s beloved northeast Mississippi. It was many of those rural areas that were the homes to rural white Democrats — now all but extinct in the Legislature but at the time still a force in the House.
So, voting in favor of casino expansion had the potential of being costly for what was McCoy’s base of power: the rural white Democrats.
Couple that with the fact that the Democratic-controlled House had been at odds with the Republican Barbour on multiple issues ranging from education funding to health care since Barbour was inaugurated in January 2004.
Barbour set records for the number of special sessions called by the governor. Those special sessions often were called to try to force the Democratic-controlled House to pass legislation it killed during the regular session.
The September 2005 special session was Barbour’s fifth of the year. For context, current Gov. Tate Reeves has called four in his nearly six years as governor.
There was little reason to expect McCoy to do Barbour’s bidding and lead the effort in the Legislature to pass his most controversial proposal: expanding casino gambling.
But when Barbour ally Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, who presided over the Senate, refused to take up the controversial bill, Barbour was forced to turn to McCoy.
The former governor wrote about the circumstances in an essay he penned on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina for Mississippi Today Ideas.
“The Senate leadership, all Republicans, did not want to go first in passing the onshore casino law,” Barbour wrote. “So, I had to ask Speaker McCoy to allow it to come to the House floor and pass. He realized he should put the Coast and the state’s interests first. He did so, and the bill passed 61-53, with McCoy voting no.
“I will always admire Speaker McCoy, often my nemesis, for his integrity in putting the state first.”
Incidentally, former Rep. Bill Miles of Fulton, also in northeast Mississippi, was tasked by McCoy with counting, not whipping votes, to see if there was enough support in the House to pass the proposal. Not soon before the key vote, Miles said years later, he went to McCoy and told him there were more than enough votes to pass the legislation so he was voting no and broached the idea of the speaker also voting no.
It is likely that McCoy would have voted for the bill if his vote was needed.
Despite his no vote, the Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper ran a large photo of McCoy and hailed the Rienzi worm farmer as a hero for the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post Northeast Mississippi speaker and worm farmer played key role in Coast recovery after Hurricane Katrina appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article presents a factual and balanced account of the political dynamics surrounding Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in Mississippi, focusing on bipartisan cooperation between Democratic and Republican leaders. It highlights the complexities of legislative decisions without overtly favoring one party or ideology, reflecting a neutral and informative tone typical of centrist reporting.
NEW ALBANY — After five hours in a courtroom where attendees struggled to find standing room, the Mississippi Public Service Commission voted to petition a judge to put the Holly Springs Utility Department into a receivership.
The PSC held the hearing Thursday about a half hour drive west from Holly Springs in New Albany, known as “The Fair and Friendly City.” Throughout the proceedings, members of the PSC, its consultants and Holly Springs officials emphasized there was no precedent for what was going on.
The city of Holly Springs has provided electricity through a contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority since 1935. It serves about 12,000 customers, most of whom live outside the city limits. While current and past city officials say the utility’s issues are a result of financial negligence over many years, the service failures hit a boiling point during a 2023 ice storm where customers saw outages that lasted roughly two weeks as well as power surges that broke their appliances.
Those living in the service area say those issues still occur periodically, in addition to infrequent and inaccurate billing.
“I moved to Marshall County in 2020 as a place for retirement for my husband and I, and it’s been a nightmare for five years,” customer Monica Wright told the PSC at Thursday’s hearing. “We’ve replaced every electronic device we own, every appliance, our well pump and our septic pumps. It has financially broke us.
“We’re living on prayers and promises, and we need your help today.”
Another customer, Roscoe Sitgger of Michigan City, said he recently received a series of monthly bills between $500 and $600.
Following a scathing July report by Silverpoint Consulting that found Holly Springs is “incapable” of running the utility, the three-member PSC voted unanimously on Thursday to determine the city isn’t providing “reasonably adequate service” to its customers. That language comes from a 2024 state bill that gave the commission authority to investigate the utility.
The bill gives a pathway for temporarily removing the utility’s control from the city, allowing the PSC to petition a chancery judge to place the department into the hands of a third party. The PSC voted unanimously to do just that.
Thursday’s hearing gave the commission its first chance to direct official questions at Holly Springs representatives. Newly elected Mayor Charles Terry, utility General Manager Wayne Jones and City Attorney John Keith Perry fielded an array of criticism from the PSC. In his rebuttal, Perry suggested that any solution — whether a receivership or selling the utility — would take time to implement, and requested 24 months for the city to make incremental improvements. Audience members shouted, “No!” as Perry spoke.
“We are in a crisis now,” responded Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown. “To try to turn the corner in incremental steps is going to be almost impossible.”
It’s unclear how much it would cost to fix the department’s long list of ailments. In 2023, TVPPA — a nonprofit that represents TVA’s local partners — estimated Holly Springs needs over $10 million just to restore its rights-of-way, and as much as $15 million to fix its substations. The department owes another $10 million in debt to TVA as well as its contractors, Brown said.
“The city is holding back the growth of the county,” said Republican Sen. Neil Whaley of Potts Camp, who passionately criticized the Holly Springs officials sitting a few feet away. “You’ve got to do better, you’ve got to realize you’re holding these people hostage, and it’s not right and it’s not fair… They are being represented by people who do not care about them as long as the bill is paid.”
In determining next steps, Silverpoint Principal Stephanie Vavro told the PSC it may be hard to find someone willing to serve as receiver for the utility department, make significant investments and then hand the keys back to the city. The 2024 bill, Vavro said, doesn’t limit options to a receivership, and alternatives could include condemning the utility or finding a nearby utility to buy the service area.
Answering questions from Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps, Vavro said it’s unclear how much the department is worth, adding an engineer’s study would be needed to come up with a number.
Terry, who reminded the PSC he’s only been Holly Springs’ mayor for just over 60 days, said there’s no way the city can afford the repair costs on its own. The city’s median income is about $47,000, roughly $8,000 less than the state’s as a whole.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The post PSC moves toward placing Holly Springs utility into receivership appeared first on mississippitoday.org
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents a factual and balanced account of the situation involving the Holly Springs Utility Department and the Mississippi Public Service Commission. It includes perspectives from various stakeholders, such as city officials, residents, and state commissioners, without showing clear favoritism or ideological slant. The focus is on the practical challenges and financial issues faced by the utility, reflecting a neutral stance aimed at informing readers rather than advocating a particular political viewpoint.
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