(1)

(a) Any hearing under this chapter may be conducted by the director or an administrative law judge or an administrative hearing officer designated by the director. The presiding official may conduct the hearings in the name of the director at any time and place as conditions and circumstances may warrant. The presiding official shall have the record of any hearing prepared which the official has conducted for the director.

(b) In any pending matters under this chapter, the director shall have the same powers to subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, examine witnesses under oath and conduct the hearing, as is now vested by law in the Mississippi Public Service Commission, for hearings before it. In addition, the director may issue all subpoenas, both at the instance of the petitioner and of the director. At any hearing the director, the staff of the department, any other petitioner or any other interested person, may offer proof, present witnesses and submit evidence. At the discretion of the presiding official, comments may be taken from members of the public who are subscribers of the public water system. Witnesses who are subpoenaed shall receive the same fees and mileage as in civil actions. In case of contumacy or refusal to obey a notice of hearing or subpoena issued under this section, the circuit court shall have jurisdiction, upon application of the director or the director’s representative, to issue an order requiring that person to appear and testify or produce evidence as the case may require and any failure to obey that order of the court may be punished by the court as contempt. Failure to appear at any hearing, without prior authorization to do so from the director or the director’s representative, may result in the director finding the alleged violator guilty of the charges complained of by default. An order may be entered, including the assessment of a penalty, which, in the opinion of the director, will best further the purposes of this chapter.

(2) All hearings shall be recorded either by a court reporter or by tape or mechanical recorders and subject to transcription upon order of the director or any interested person. If the request for transcription originates with an interested person, that person shall pay the cost prior to the production of the transcription.