For the first time, KUB Board of Commissioners has a female majority | Georgiana Vines

Women will make up the majority of the KUB Board of Commissioners in January, with the new chairperson also expected to be a woman.

The “women power,” as one of the commissioners described it, at the Knoxville Utilities Board comes at a time when 15 out of 49 managers, including the chief administrative officer, are women.

It’s a bit unusual in a business generally considered male-dominated.

Cynthia Gibson, general counsel at Bush Brothers & Co. in Knoxville, was selected from a slate of six by Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon and approved by Knoxville City Council in November. When she takes office in January, she will replace the Rev. Dr. Jerry Askew, interim CEO of the Knox Education Foundation, former president/CEO of the Alliance for Better Nonprofits and the archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee.

Askew has been on the board since 2016. In 2020, Kincannon agreed to a compromise plan to not appoint current KUB members to consecutive terms, after environment and economics activists attempted to get City Council to change KUB’s charter through a referendum. The group wanted to reorganize the board so current seven-years term would be reduced to four and an environmentalist and low-income representative would replace two current members.

KUB supplies electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater services to nearly 473,000 customers in Knoxville and parts of seven surrounding counties.

“I’m really impressed with the vision and how they work to make a difference in the community,” Gibson said about the utility and its management in an interview Wednesday. She said she was particularly impressed with KUB taking broadband into rural areas because she grew up in rural Andrews, North Carolina, and knows the importance of its availability.

“Also its sustainability program (is important). It is part of my responsibility at Bush. I’m also impressed with its environmental stewardship,” she said. Gibson also has responsibility for legal, external affairs and corporate development at Bush, and formerly was executive vice president/chief legal and business affairs officer for Scripps Network Interactive before its sale to Discovery in 2018.

She joins Adrienne Simpson-Brown, Claudia Caballero, Kathy Hamilton and Celeste Herbert to form the female majority on the board. Also serving are Ron Feinbaum and Tyvi Small.

Simpson-Brown, chief of the U.S. Probation Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, is current vice chair and has been nominated to become the new chair, replacing Askew. She previously served as deputy chief of the U.S. Probation Office, sentencing guideline specialist, supervising U.S. probation officer and assistant deputy chief U.S. probation officer. She joined KUB’s board in 2018.

Herbert said former CEO Mintha Roach is responsible for women being tapped for management jobs, and current president/CEO Gabe Bolas “has supported that as well. The number of staff members in senior management who are women is stunning.”

Susan Edwards, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, said women have roles as a director of construction and in engineering, public relations and corporate services/diversity.

Herbert praised Edwards for having the job of chief administrative officer.

Edwards also said KUB has hired its first female lineworker in history. Amber Ray was featured on WBIR-TV in March after graduating from the Tennessee College of Applied Technology’s powerline technician program and accepting the KUB position in a lineworker apprenticeship program in January.

∎ TVA BOARD NOMINEES CLEAR SENATE: Six people nominated by President Joe Biden for the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors were approved in a voice vote on Wednesday, thus assuring the board will continue to have a quorum going forward.

Five of the six had been approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Sept. 29, following a hearing in April, and the sixth, Beth Pritchard Geer of Bentwood, was approved 11-9 by the committee on Nov. 29. Geer is chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore.

Inaction by the Senate would have resulted in only three members remaining on the nine-member board come January.

The others approved besides Geer are Michelle Moore, Richmond, Virginia; Robert Klein, Memphis; William Renick, Ashland, Mississippi; Adam Wade White, Eddyville, Kentucky; and Joe Ritch, Huntsville, Alabama. Ritch previously served on the board and was chair 2014-17.

“We’re excited to have Beth, Bobby, Michelle, Bill, Joe and Wade add their diverse perspectives to the TVA team. We look forward to them being sworn in as TVA directors in the coming days and help us further strengthen TVA’s ongoing mission of service to the 10 million people of our seven-state region,” said Ashton Davies, a TVA media relations spokesperson.

Carl Tobias, Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond School of Law, monitors Senate action on judicial appointments primarily but also has been keeping up with board appointments like those for TVA.

He said Thursday the fact that the Biden administration had worked with Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican minority leader from Kentucky, on a bipartisan slate of nominees is a “classic deal.”

“You want a fully functioning board. There was no reason not to approve (the nominees),” he said.

U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, both Republicans representing Mississippi, issued statements saying they were “pleased” Biden had nominated Renick for the board.

∎ UPDATE ON CONTROVERSIAL U.S. ATTORNEY NOMINATION: Casey Arrowood, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee, was nominated by the Biden administration to be the U.S. Attorney, but no action was taken by the Judiciary Committee this year.

Arrowood, who has served in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, has drawn criticism from Asian communities and advocates since he was the prosecutor who helped mount an espionage case against Dr. Anming Hu, a University of Tennessee professor, as part of former President Donald Trump’s “China Initiative.” A federal judge in Knoxville acquitted him of fraud charges filed after the espionage investigation against him fell apart.

Arrowood’s nomination will have to be resubmitted by the White House to be considered in the next Congress, or the Biden administration can decide to submit the name of someone else.

Fox News Digital reported that Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, was stalling the confirmation process. Hirono’s office declined to speak to Fox News Digital, but Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a member of the Judiciary Committee who backs the nomination, said the Democratic side of the aisle was opposing it.

Blackburn said it is a "shame" that Democrats are stonewalling Arrowood's "well-qualified" appointment for "prosecuting a potential CCP spy." (CCP is short for Chinese Communist Party.)

The U.S. Attorney’s position, which traditionally changes with presidents, is being filled by Francis M. “Trey” Hamilton III, a career federal prosecutor, by appointment of federal judges in the Eastern District. The office’s website says Hamilton will serve “until the vacancy is filled by a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed nominee.” Hamilton succeeded Doug Overbey, who served as U.S. Attorney during the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved Biden’s selection of Henry C. Leventis to be U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee on Dec. 15, and Kevin G. Ritz was confirmed as U.S. Attorney for the Western District on Sept. 22.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Georgiana Vines: KUB Board of Commissioners has a female majority