The Arnold Line Water Association is considering its options after the Mississippi Public Service Commission refused Arnold Line’s exceptions to keeping its rules during a July 6 hearing, water association attorney Anna K. Rush said Wednesday morning.
Arnold Line President C.R. Dixon said the water association board met Tuesday night and considered its next action, which could include filing a suit in Chancery Court.
The action restores an order that says Arnold Line must change its water association’s rules to comply with PSC rules. The water association has 20 days from receipt of the decision to comply with the order, which was delivered Monday. Daniel Forde, a spokesman for PSC Southern District Commissioner Sam Britton, said the water association faces fines after the 20-day deadline to make changes.
However, if the water association decides to appeal the PSC decision, Arnold Line can file suit in Chancery Court. Rush said she hoped to have a decision later this week on what the water association will do.
“As of right now, we are taking it under advisement,” she said.
Dixon said earlier this week that the association is standing fast in its decision to keep its current rules.
“Someone told me that if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile,” he said, referring to the Public Service Commission. “They know they don’t have the authority to change the internal rules of an association.”
Dixon said the three Public Service Commissioners have been stressing Arnold Line’s customer service as the linchpin to the association’s problems.
This process began in October 2016 in which a case was opened and letter sent by the PSC to the organization regarding certain changes to its billing and quality of service issues. Arnold Line responded that it would not comply with these suggested changes. An evidentiary hearing was then set by the PSC on Jan. 10, 2017, in which the commission heard legal arguments from Arnold Line.
After consideration, the hearing examiner issued a recommended order that included changes that the commission ordered.
However, Rush said in the response that the association would not follow the hearing officer’s ruling because the Public Service Commission lacks jurisdiction to require such changes, among other rules.
Arnold Line’s exception to this order led to the proceeding June 4 when Arnold Line had the opportunity to present its case before all three Public Service Commissioners.
After more than an hour of discussion and questioning in which Arnold Line stood fast in its position that the Public Service Commission had no authority to interfere in its internal affairs, Southern District Commissioner Sam Britton, Central District Commissioner Cecil Brown and Commission President Brandon Presley of the Northern District voted unanimously to uphold the arrangements in the recommended order.
