Leonard Muzyn's TVARS Blog

A notice was sent to my TVA e-mail inbox exactly 24 hours and 1 minute before the July 30, 2015 meeting was scheduled to begin.  I was on leave and did not see this notice until after the meeting occurred.  At this meeting, the board voted 5-1 to approve the conflict of interest waiver, overturning the vote held the previous week.  Please see my previous discussion of these meetings here .  This meeting notice appears to violate the TVARS Board’s own governance policy: 3. Special Meetings: The Board is authorized to schedule additional meetings, if deemed necessary, upon the call of the Board Chair or three members of the Board, after giving appropriate notice to all Directors. The date for special meetings shall be determined by the availability of the majority of Directors.  Where circumstances permit, the Board shall try to provide at least 72 hours notice for special meetings. Please see the complete TVARS Board Governance Policy here . The meeting...

Chris Christie, Partner, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings (“Bradley Arant”) is representing the TVARS Board in the current lawsuit over the 2009 pension benefit reductions (“pension lawsuit”).  TVA is another party to the pension lawsuit.  Kevin Newsom, another Partner with Bradley Arant, has been asked by TVA to provide legal services to TVA on a matter unrelated to TVARS.   Chris Christie asked the TVARS Board for a conflicts waiver as required by applicable legal ethics rules. The conflict of interest arises from Bradley Arant being paid by TVA for services while some of TVA’s interests are counter to TVARS’ interests in the pension lawsuit.  Given the vast resources at TVA’s disposal, which could be used to influence those wishing to begin or expand their business relationships with TVA, I do not believe the TVARS Board should grant the conflicts waiver.  I am concerned with the possibility of such influence that a conflicts waiver would allow.  That the ...

On September 15, 2015, the retirees and employees of TVA appealed the August 19, 2015 final judgment to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Sixth Circuit encompasses the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Please see the Notice of Appeal here .