By Othor Cain
Contributing Writer
It’s no secret Jackson has problems with its infrastructure. Those problems include decade old pipes, an aging water system, crumbling roads and bridges and a Public Works Department tasked to fix the problems.
Now, the leader of the Public Works Department, where staffers have been fired for stealing water and employees coming under fire for poor customer service, has called it quits.
Kishia Powell, Jackson’s first female public works director resigned her position last week from a department already understaffed.
“I thank the DPW team for their hard work and diligence and know that it will continue,” Powell shared through a city-released press statement. “Many thanks to the mayor for his support as I make my way home.”
The journey home to Baltimore, where Powell is from will be delayed at least for a few years as she announced Tuesday that she had accepted a job with the city of Atlanta as its Watershed Management commissioner. “I’m excited to be getting back in a position to totally focus on water,” Powell said after making her resignation announcement at the city council meeting.
Powell will take her talents to another department that is overshadowed with problems. Last week, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed fired JoAnn Macrina, whom Powell is replacing as commissioner. The department she joins contributed to the city being placed under a federal consent decree.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the city is poised to pay $378,000 in fines for spewing more than 147 million gallons of sewage-tainted water into the Chattahoochee River and various creeks throughout the region during the past seven years.
The proposed settlement with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division also covers 216 other permit violations, such as the Department of Watershed Management’s failure to monitor water conditions up and down stream from treatment plants and exceeding permitted levels of effluent discharge for a variety of substances, from ammonia to fecal coliform.
Powell leaves her $150K post in Jackson just a month short of two years on the job and one year away from the next mayoral election.
City leaders say the timing of her departure is crucial. “We have got to finally admit that we have some serious issues in our Public Works Department and with some of the projects that we have underway,” said Councilman Tyrone Hendrix. “With an upcoming election, we’ve got to make sure we get the right person, and I’m not so sure that doesn’t mean putting someone in that position on an interim bases because we don’t know who the next mayor will be.”
Powell’s last day on the job is next Tuesday.
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