News release from the governor’s office
Nashville – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today announced the appointments of 176 Tennesseans to 75 boards and commissions.
“Serving on a board or commission is an important responsibility, and I thank these Tennesseans for their commitment to serve our state,” Haslam said.
Appointment terms are varied due to differing statutory requirements or term limits determined by specific qualifications. The appointments are: Continue reading
Tag Archives: boards
List of recent Haslam appointments to boards & commissions
News release from the governor’s office:
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today announced the appointments of 120 Tennesseans to 50 boards and commissions.
“These Tennesseans are giving their time and talents to help make our state better. I am grateful for their willingness to serve and their commitment to our state,” Haslam said.
The governor continues to evaluate the state’s complete range of boards and commissions to ensure Tennesseans have a government that is responsive, effective and efficient.
Appointment terms are varied due to differing statutory requirements or term limits determined by specific qualifications. The appointments are: Continue reading
Nashville mayor appoints first TN transgender person to government board
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville Mayor Megan Barry appointed a transgender woman to the Metro Human Relations Commission — an apparent first for Tennessee.
The Nashville’s Metro Council on Tuesday confirmed all 20 of Barry’s board nominations, including voting unanimously to appoint Dr. Marisa Richmond to the Metro Human Relations Commission, media outlets reported.
According to the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, Richmond is the first transgender person in the state’s history to be named to a local government board or commission.
Richmond is a Nashville resident, a professor in the history department at Middle Tennessee State University and former president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition.
“Marisa Richmond is a dedicated community leader who is a champion for equality and has been at the forefront of the discussion over transgender rights in Nashville and Tennessee,” Barry, a Democrat, said in a statement. “She will be a strong voice on the Metro Human Relations Commission for making sure Nashville remains a warm and welcoming city for all.”
The 17-member commission oversees the human relations department, which is tasked with resolving discrimination complaints and carrying out educational programs in a number of areas.
“I was thrilled and I was honored,” Richmond said of the distinction. “I think it’s the right step in the right direction for Nashville. Especially in contrast to what the state is doing — Nashville and the rest of the country is moving forward even as the state is refusing to. I think it’s a real positive development for Nashville.”
State Museum board picks new chairman
News release from Tennessee State Museum
NASHVILLE— May 13, 2016— The State of Tennessee Museum announced today new officers were elected to the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission at the commission’s quarterly meeting held Monday, April 11, 2016. Nashville real estate investor and developer Tom Smith, Chairman of Smith/Hallemann Partners, was elected as Chair of the 14-member Commission whose primary purpose is to oversee the operations of the State Museum. Nancy Baker De Friece, a Bristol native, was re-elected as Vice Chair.
In addition to serving as the new Commission Chair, Smith also serves on the Governor’s New Museum Task Force, which is involved with the development of a new $160 million State Museum facility to be located in downtown Nashville’s Bicentennial Mall. Ground was broken by Governor Bill Haslam and other state officials on April 6, 2016. Smith was appointed to the Commission by Governor Haslam in 2012. He has previously served as the chair of the Commission’s Audit Committee and Chairs the Search Committee which is overseeing the new museum’s succession planning. Smith succeeds Deputy House Speaker and State Representative Steve McDaniel who will remain as a Commission member.
Smith is active in real estate and private company investments in Nashville and Cincinnati, Ohio. He also serves on the Investment Committee of Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.
The public can now find out more information about upcoming Commission meetings, Committee meetings and agendas, as well as the background of Commission members, at the Tennessee State Museum website at: www.tnmuseum.org/commission.
A ‘seismic shift’ in legislative control over state government rules
With generally strong backing from the business lobby, Tennessee legislators made a theme this year of curbing the power of state departments and agencies while enhancing the General Assembly’s oversight of their rules and regulations.
The move with perhaps the greatest long-range consequences came with passage of HB2068 by Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville.
The bill, signed into law by Gov. Bill Haslam despite concerns from several of the departments he oversees, makes it more difficult to promulgate rules and regulations. And it makes clear that the Legislature, acting through the Government Operations Committees of the House and Senate, has absolute authority to reject any rule that a majority want to overturn.
As Daniel put it: “The primary effect of this bill will be to eliminate the liberal construction of the Administrative Procedures Act.” Currently, the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act (UAPA) contains provisions that say, more or less, that if there’s a doubt about the authority of an administrative agency, the dispute will be resolved in favor of the agency having the authority to act.
The bill effectively flips that. The presumption now is that the agency does not have authority and must establish that the rule is necessary through “convincing” evidence. During debate, Democrats said the move is an unprecedented revision to the UAPA, a model law that has been adopted to govern administrative operations in all states, though each state can make modifications.
Continue reading
Museum board opens meeting on ‘succession planning’
In a change of plans, the board overseeing the Tennessee State Museum will hold an open meeting for discussion of procedures in selection of a new museum executive director rather closing the session to the public.
Tom Smith of Nashville, who chairs a museum board committee on “succession planning,” initially announced the March 28 “workshop” would last eight hours and would be held behind closed doors.
That brought a protest last month from former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, a member of the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission as well as the board of directors for the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government, and Smith recently notified members that the plan had been changed.
“We are retooling the session to take out the items related to all museum personnel and instead just have a session related to strengths we envision in a new executive director,” Smith wrote in an email. “Since we won’t be working on all of the museum’s personnel analysis we can and will make this an ‘open meeting’ and all who care to can attend.”
Ashe, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland, lauded the change.
Continue reading
Ashe protests closing of museum board ‘workshop’
Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, recently appointed to the board of directors of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, is protesting a closed meeting planned by another board where he serves as a member.
The board governing the Tennessee State Museum, officially known as the Douglas Henry State Museum Commission, has scheduled an eight-hour “workshop” March 28 on selection of a new museum executive director to succeed Lois Riggins-Ezzell at some point.
In an exchange of email with Tom Smith of Nashville, who chairs a museum board committee on “succession planning” that set up the workshop, Ashe said the meeting should be open to the public. Smith said that it should not and suggested Ashe was being unreasonably critical. Ashe provided a copy of the email exchange to a reporter.
Continue reading
Haslam revives council on homelesness
News release from the governor’s office
NASHVILLE –Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ Commissioner E. Douglas Varney, by the authority of Governor Bill Haslam, is reconstituting the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, with the aim of not just reducing but eliminating homelessness among veterans, the chronically homeless, families, and children.
“When he was mayor of Knoxville, Bill Haslam realized the high cost and impact homelessness has on neighborhoods, communities, governments and entire cities and regions,” said Commissioner Varney. “He saw the need and addressed it. Governor Haslam realized it takes a coordinated effort to bring about change, both in policy and how we perceive individuals who struggle with homelessness.”
Continue reading
Haslam names Duncan, Kustoff to Board of Parole
Gov. Bill Haslam has appointed relatives of two prominent Republican political figures — U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. of Knoxville and former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff of Memphis — to seats on the state Board of Parole.
The appointees, listed along with 102 people appointed to 64 different state boards and commissions in a gubernatorial news release last week, are Zane Duncan, a son of the congressman, and Roberta Kustoff, wife of the political activist who headed former President George W. Bush’s Tennessee campaign before being appointed U.S. attorney by Bush.
David Kustoff recently said he is considering whether to seek election as Tennessee’s male representative on the Republican National Committee, succeeding the current Tennessee National Committeeman, John Ryder, who must step down later this year because of an RNC term-limits rule.
Members of the Parole Board are paid a salary of $95,000 per year to sit in panels and decide whether state prison inmates should be granted parole. The panel’s chairman — currently former state Rep. Richard Montgomery of Sevierville — gets $109,334.
Duncan and Kustoff replace two members of the parole board appointed by former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, former state Rep. Ronnie Cole of Dyersburg and Patsy Bruce of Nashville.
Haslam also reappointed Tim Gobble, a Republican who formerly served as Bradley County sheriff, to a new six-year term on the board. Gobble was originally appointed to the board by Haslam in 2013 to fill out an unexpired term.
—
Note: The referenced release on Haslam board and commission appointments is posted HERE.
Haslam’s latest appointees to boards, commissions
News release from the governor’s office:
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (has) announced the appointments of 102 Tennesseans to 64 boards and commissions.
“I am grateful to these men and women for their willingness to serve and for their commitment to our state,” Haslam said.
The governor continues to evaluate the state’s complete range of boards and commissions to ensure Tennesseans have a government that is responsive, effective and efficient.
Appointment terms are varied due to differing statutory requirements or term limits determined by specific qualifications.
—
Note: To see the whole list, click on this link: boardappointments