Leonard Muzyn's TVARS Blog

November 28, 2017 DeWitt Burleson, TVARA Valley Wide President TVARA Board Directors TVARA Chapter Officers Dear Mr. Burleson, Directors, and Chapter Officers, Few have recognized just how underfunded TVARS has become and that your TVARS benefits have already eroded. This was brought about by inadequate TVARS funding requests and TVA under-funding over the last 10 years. TVA planning does not fully recognize the need for adequate annual TVARS retirement funding. Without adequate funding requests and a TVA catch-up plan, we both fear and anticipate additional cuts. Most at risk are long term TVA employees and retirees who depend on a pension. A TVARS Board Member’s job is to clearly represent funding needs and the benefits required for all members, not just a specific group. We are asking whether retirees support the priorities in this plan. Broadly stated these priorities fall into two groups, governance and funding. Current governance allowed the funding to fall t...

On Monday November 6, a Special TVARS Board meeting was held to discuss and vote on a proposed rule amendment to improve TVARS governance and provide more accountability to TVA retirees. Sam DeLay, Jim Hovious and I proposed an amendment which provides for election of the TVA retiree director (the 7th director) by all TVA retiree members of the system. It ensures that the 7th director seat will always be occupied by a TVA retiree. The 7th director is key to ensuring that the TVARS Board follows good governance practices and meets the needs of all TVARS constituents. Our proposed amendment also stipulates that the 7th director must be free of any financial ties or business relationships with TVA, with the exception of receiving a TVARS pension. The actual proposed amendment can be read here . A roll-call of those in attendance was taken: PRESENT:  Sam DeLay; Jim Hovious: Leonard Muzyn ABSENT:  Brian Child; Allen Stokes; Wilson Taylor; Tammy Wilson We were un...

Mr. Pat Brackett, TVARS Executive Secretary 865-632-8578 pdbrackett@tva.gov I spoke with TVARS Executive Secretary Pat Brackett today and he said that TVA Retirees can contact Allen Stokes or other TVARS Board Directors through TVARS. If you send an email, you may want to call for confirmation that your email was received and that it was delivered to the appropriate TVARS Director. It is likely that emails from outside TVA become trapped in spam filters.

Sam DeLay, Jim Hovious and I called for a Special Meeting to be held on November 6 to discuss and vote on amending the TVARS Rules to improve TVARS governance and provide more accountability to TVA retirees. We propose that the TVA retiree TVARS Board Director (the 7th director), currently selected by the other 6 directors, instead be elected by the entire retiree population commencing with the term beginning November 1, 2018. This is the term immediately following the expiration of Allen Stokes’ current term. We also propose to amend the rules to stipulate that the 7th director be free of any financial ties or business relationships with TVA, with the exception of receiving a TVARS pension. These proposals would: ensure that the board always has a full complement of seven members, including a TVA retiree; and reduce the likelihood of a conflict of interest arising with the 7th Director. Four votes are required to approve our amendment. We hope that the current TVA retiree d...

On Monday October 30, with less than 36 hours remaining in Tony Troyani's term, and with retiree member Allen Stokes ignoring my request that he attend, the TVARS Board voted 4-2 against allowing all retirees to vote for the retiree TVARS Board member (aka the 7th member). The meeting was specifically called by Wilson Taylor, Tammy Wilson and Brian Child to occur prior to the expiration of Tony Troyani's term to vote on their proposal to change the rules to keep Allen Stokes on the TVARS Board indefinitely. Jim Hovious and I proposed retiree voting as an amendment by substitution to the original proposal, allowing it to be voted on first. Voting FOR retiree voting:  Leonard Muzyn; Jim Hovious Voting AGAINST retiree voting:  Tony Troyani, Wilson Taylor, Tammy Wilson, Brian Child ABSENT:  Allen Stokes Sam DeLay, the employee elected member who defeated Tony Toyani, stated in his campaign statement that he supported allowing retirees to vote for the retiree board mem...