Biloxi City Council Special Meeting on Water and Sewer Operations with H2O Innovation – August 27, 2026
Biloxi City Council Special Meeting on Water and Sewer Operations with H2O Innovation – August 27, 2026
This special meeting was held to discuss the proposed privatization of the city’s water and sewer division operations and maintenance. H2O Innovation presented their qualifications, proposed approach, and answered questions from the council and administration. No contract was voted on; the meeting was informational.
Discussion Items
- H2O Innovation Presentation: The team introduced themselves, highlighting local roots (Pascagoula, Gulfport, Ocean Springs). They emphasized their experience with similar contracts in Mississippi (Gulfport, Pascagoula, Long Beach, Laurel) and their performance benchmarks, achieving 98%–100% satisfaction rates. They described their safety culture, community involvement (over $120,000 annually in local sponsorships), and the Water Academy program that trains high school students for water/wastewater certifications.
- Key Proposal Details: The contract would be labor-only, with the city retaining ownership of infrastructure. H2O would assume management of employees, offer health insurance, a 401(k) with up to 4% match, and honor seniority/tenure. They would also purchase new equipment (budgeted at ~$500,000 annual depreciation) and install GPS tracking on vehicles. They committed to a condition assessment of all systems within 60 days and would use CityWorks for work orders and heat mapping.
- Council Questions and Administration Comments:
- Councilman Glavin asked about capital improvements: H2O funds equipment and vehicles; the city pays for materials and capital projects. H2O noted they would perform sewer/water repairs up to 12 feet deep, potentially reducing contractor costs.
- Councilman Creel asked about employee retention, CityWorks integration, billing (H2O would staff the billing office but city pays postage), and cost structure. The city manager clarified the contract is labor-only and rates remain under city control.
- Councilman Gray asked about employee benefits (health insurance, retirement) and response times for water taps (14-day benchmark with $200 fine for delays).
- Mayor expressed comfort with H2O, citing their resources and the city’s difficulty in retaining employees (currently ~10 employees in water/sewer, with 7–10 vacancies). The city manager stated the proposed contract cost is already reflected in the submitted budget and would save approximately $108,000 annually, though this is a wash considering overtime and accident risks.
Key Outcomes
- No vote was taken; the meeting was for information and education.
- The council received the presentation and asked detailed questions. The mayor indicated support for moving forward, and the city manager was authorized to negotiate a contract (though this was stated informally and not formally voted on).
- Next steps: The council will likely consider a contract at a future meeting. The administration will continue discussions with H2O Innovation.
Meeting Transcript
For being here today for a special meeting uh to discuss the operation maintenance of the water and sewer division for the city of Biloxian for related purposes. I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. So move by Mr. Creel, is there a second? Second by Mr. Glavin. Any discussion? All in favor. All right. That's a 7-0 vote for the clerk. That being said, uh Miss Labata. You got it right. Um I did. So we here today have H2O to present um their proposal to you guys. Uh a few months ago, we put up an RFP out for the operation and maintenance of our water and sewer division. Uh we've talked about this numerous times over the last few months through the budget year. And uh we've met with them, we've had discussions, we've met with the mayor, and we wanted them to just come in and talk to you guys, let you understand what they're gonna do, how they're gonna do it, and um all the things here. Y'all can ask questions as you there's no contract on the agenda today, but this is just to educate y'all and give y'all a chance to ask them some questions. All right, thank you, Mr. Bod. Thank you. Whoever would like to speak, and if you would just identify yourself if you if you're going to speak so the clerk can record your name after accurately. Thank you. Bobby. First thing I'd like to do is introduce our team if I could. Um Brian Nelson, he's from Pasagula. He actually was public works director in Pascagoula many years ago. He's our business development manager. Charlie Mitchell, he's gonna be our um proposed public works director, water and sewer director for this project. He's from Gulfport, Mississippi, born and raised. Busby, he's one of our senior area managers, born and raised in Gulfport. He runs our Gulfport contract also, which is our largest company wide. We have Daryl Wilson, he's a senior vice president, born and raised in Gulfport. His father was public works director in Gulfport and in Long Beach, Mississippi. You got anybody from Biloxi? You know. My wife's from Biloxi. Easy gentleman, easy. Go ahead, Mr. Nees. My wife's born and raised in Bilox. Her mom grew up on Lemuse Street. We'll take it. Joel Brewer's in the back row. He actually worked in Gulfport Public Work since the 90s, and now he runs our Pascagoula contract. Been with the company since it became private. I had Schober, she's in charge of our compliance. She worked for DEQ for many years, so she's actually oversees our compliance for all our water and sewer facilities treatment plants statewide, actually. And um Annie Flynn, she's our HR director on the coast. She's from Ocean Springs.
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