Executive News
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02/12/1998
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TML Board of Directors - TML has replaced two board members who recently lost elections. Councilman Yusuf Hakeem of Chattanooga replaces R. C. Hutchins of Clinton; and Councilman Jerome Rubin of Memphis replaces Mayor Don Farmer of Milan.
Tracy Gardner - Tracy has resigned to accept a secretarial position with Smith Mortuary in Maryville. It is much closer to home and will reduce her commute to about ten minutes. Tracy has been with MTAS since 1989. I'm not sure we will ever know how many city codes she has produced in the last nine years.
MTAS planning process - Thank you for participating in the short interview conducted by John Teresko as part of the MTAS planning process. He will summarize the responses so the management team can review them in a meeting we have scheduled for February 25 & 26. At that point, we will decide what the improvement projects will be and how many design teams we will appoint.
Electric Utilities - During the first week of January, MikeT and Pat facilitated a two-day strategic planning retreat in Nashville for the Tennessee Municipal Power Agency (TMPA). This Agency was authorized by State legislation last year. They differ from other, related agencies like TMEPA (which is the lobbying arm for city electric power providers) and TVPPA (which is the 7-state association of TVA power providers) because they are authorized to buy and sell power. There are about 60 members of TMPA, each representing a city-owned power utility (of which there are 63). There were about 27 of these members in attendance at the retreat.
Working with Pat and MikeT, the group developed several goals.
1. Position themselves to become self-sufficient when deregulation or partial requirements contracts become reality.
2. Conduct a feasibility study for a statewide/regional billing system.
3. Develop the capability to be an "Independent Services Operator".
There were other goals, but these were the most significant. Since it is well know that TVA will be deregulated, probably next year, this group will likely be the source of buying and selling power to systems in Tennessee. Thus, this early strategic planning should help position them to provide quality services to city residents after the very complex deregulation of TVA is complete. We were very happy to be a part of this process and hope that this leads to a productive relationship between MTAS and the city-owned electric power utilities in the future.
Recruitments - We have had interviews for the Public Works Consultant (Ed's position) and the Utility Operations Specialist in Jackson. We are checking references and doing the paperwork. We hope to have someone selected for each position soon.
We are advertising for two positions: the Utility Finance Consultant in Knoxville (Al's old position); and a new Utility Management Consultant in Nashville.
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