Sid Salter

By Sid Salter
Columnist
After a season of unprecedented corruption involving elected Mississippi Public Service
Commissioners in the late 1980s, then-Democratic Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus
faced the task of appointing a successor in 1989 to fill the unexpired term of Northern
District Commissioner D.W. Snyder of Eupora, following his trial and conviction on
federal charges of extortion, filing false tax returns, bribery, and conspiracy.
Snyder had been entrusted with the PSC seat by voters for seven terms. Southern
District PSC Commissioner Lynn Havens resigned after facing a federal indictment in
1988 and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in 1989.
The Mabus appointment drew intense scrutiny as questions roiled about the wisdom of
electing public service commissioners who could accept campaign contributions from
the very utilities and other companies they regulated. Who did Mabus appoint to step
into the post after Snyder?
State Rep. Dorlos “Bo” Robinson of Hamilton in Monroe County was appointed.
Through the prism of history, Mabus made an exemplary choice.
Robinson, a distinguished veteran of county, state, and district politics in Mississippi,
passed away peacefully at his residence in Hamilton on May 26 at age 90.
Robinson was a veteran, a law enforcement officer, a longtime farmer and cotton gin
operator, and someone with real-world business experience in farm credit, banking and
the legislative process. He was a lay speaker and circuit church worship leader in the
Methodist church for decades.
Those characteristics helped Robinson become a stabilizing force on the PSC during
some turbulent years involving litigation over major utility rate hikes, changes in the
powers of the PSC after the Snyder-Havens incidents and national changes in the
energy regulatory environment.
Bo was a tall, rangy man with a soft voice and a pleasing manner. But his easy manner
did not hide the fact that he had done more than his share of hard labor on the farm and
that he had experience dealing with those not predisposed to obey the law voluntarily.

Bo was born on his family’s farm in 1935. After graduating from Hamilton High School,
he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a military policeman at Lackland Air Force Base in
San Antonio, Texas, and later at Manzano Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He later served nine years in the Mississippi National Guard.
He and his wife, Betty, began their 72 years of marriage in New Mexico, but returned to
Hamilton when his father became too ill to run the family farm. Bo was elected as
Monroe County’s sheriff from 1968-72.
Eight years later, Bo was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1980
and served until 1990 when his PSC service officially began.
Robinson served in the PSC post until 2007, when he announced his intention to retire
from public service. At that time, a concurrent resolution of the Mississippi Legislature
was adopted by the House and Senate honoring his life and service.
At the time of his retirement, the late Leesha Faulkner reported in the Northeast Miss.
Daily Journal, a surprise event honoring Robinson in Hamilton that drew political
luminaries from across the state including U.S. District Judge Mike Mills, veteran State
Sen. Hob Bryan, and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Faulkner quoted Sen. Bryan as noting that Robinson “was the only man sitting on the
stage Saturday afternoon who had voted for the Education Reform Act of Gov. William
Winter’s administration in 1982.”
Robinson talked to Winter about it, and the governor at the time asked Robinson how
he felt about it, said Bryan. “Bo said, ‘Governor, I'd rather get beat for doing something
than get beat for not doing anything.’”
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.