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7th Director Search Committee recommends instant runoff Retiree Voting; TVA says NO

Report from the 7th Director Search Committee – Sam DeLay, Chair

Please add this to the minutes for the meeting, June 6, 2019 as item A-6647, or the appropriate number.

The committee met on June 5, 2019 and discussed the election progress and the prospects for another round of interviews, currently proposed for July 2019 by the TVARS Executive Pat Brackett.

It was recognized that the Board would likely not be able to reach consensus on the candidates to make a selection of the 7th Director and the committee recommends another path for electing the 7th director.

The committee recommends modification of Section 3(2)(a) of the Rules and Regulations of the TVA Retirement System to amended to delete the language marked through and to add the language underlined to enable retirees to elect their own representative.

As part of the items for this meeting, “Attachment – Description of Instant Runoff Voting” TVARS' election service provider proposed an Instant Runoff process which is fair and would enable the election of one of the current retirees who applied for candidacy of the 7th director to proceed immediately.

As the attachment states and has proposed to TVA:

Instant Runoff Voting offers the benefit of being able to quickly determine the winning candidate from a multi-party election process.

With Traditional Voting, a voter marks their selection with an X or check mark. Often times, a candidate does not receive a majority of votes. When this is the case, a second election is held (runoff election) with the top two candidates.

• Instant Runoff Voting: Rank any number of candidates in order of your preference
• Traditional Voting: Vote for one option

Why choose IRV over traditional methods? The primary benefit of IRV is that it removes the need to hold a second election (runoff). Because the voter lists their second (and third choices, etc.), the same ballot is used to automatically calculate a runoff election.

How IRV works: 1. Candidates with first choice rankings are counted. If the candidate with the most first ranked votes reaches the majority, we can stop here. We have a winner! 2. If no candidate receives a majority of those votes, then the candidate receiving the fewest number of votes in the first round is eliminated. The votes for that candidate are then redistributed, going to their second choice. 3. This process continues until a candidate receives a majority of votes cast and is elected. 4. If any of the candidates are tied at the end of the first count, the tie is broken by using a count of second choice votes, using only the second choice votes of the tied candidates. Any subsequent ties in later counts are to be broken by the previous count of the tied candidates.

What is Instant Runoff Voting? Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a form of voting where voters rank their preferred candidates.

Therefore: The committee recommends adoption of the following rule for electing the retiree 7th Director. This will eliminate any current or future impasse on the timely selection of a 7th director.

Section 3(2)(a) of the Rules and Regulations of the TVA Retirement System is amended to delete the language marked through and to add the language underlined as follows:

SECTION 3

3. Administration of the System

 2. a. The board shall consist of seven members, three of whom shall be elected by and from the membership of the System, three of whom shall be appointed by TVA, and one of whom shall be a retiree selected by a majority vote of the other six elected by the retired members of the System effective with the term beginning November 1, 2018.  Except for the members of the initial board who were designated for staggered terms of one, two, and three years, respectively, the term of each director shall be three years.  Each term shall be deemed to expire with the end of the day preceding the respective anniversary date of the establishment of the System, and all appointments and elections except those made to fill vacancies for unexpired terms shall be effective on such anniversary dates.; provided however, in the event the three elected directors and the three appointed directors do not select a seventh director by the expiration of the seventh director’s term, then the current sitting seventh director (i) shall continue to serve as a member of the board for an additional one (1) year or until such time as the six directors select the seventh director by a majority vote, if earlier, and (ii) during such continuation period, such seventh member shall be restricted from voting on amendments to these Rules and Regulations and the Deferral Plan Provisions, with the exception of any amendments required by IRS rules or related to the tax-qualified status of the System and Deferral Plan.  Any vacancy on the board shall be filled by election or appointment, as the case may be, for only the unexpired portion of the predecessor's term.

THIS 7th Director Search Committee takes the following action:

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED ACTION IS APPROVED by the Committee, JUNE 5, 2019:

Sam DeLay, Committee Chairman
Jim Hovious, Committee Member


Results of June 6, 2019 TVARS Board vote on committee recommendation:

Sam: YES
Jim: YES
Mike: YES
TVA Appointed Member A: NO
TVA Appointed Member B: NO

3 YES and 2 NO

Motion does not pass because it takes 4 votes   

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