Nashville Electric Service (NES) on Monday told The Tennessee Star that FINN Partners provided its services free of charge during the municipally owned utility’s response to Winter Storm Fern, which left thousands of customers without power for over a week.
Without disputing reports indicating NES entered into a contract worth up to $10 million with the New York-based public relations firm, a NES spokesman told The Star, “FINN Partners has been providing pro bono services (i.e. storm-related communications, customer messaging, media strategy, press coordination etc.) to NES throughout the duration of Winter Storm Fern.”
Though the spokesman did not confirm how much the company amount spent with FINN Partners firm prior to the storm, the public relations firm’s states that it worked with NES to promote a solar park, energy efficiency, and the Music City Solar program, all during former Mayor Megan Barry’s initiative that aimed “to make Nashville the greenest city in the Southeast.”
FINN Partners also celebrated its promotion NES’ response to another winter storm in December 2023, which led to footage from an NES facility airing on cable.
Confirmation that FINN Partners provided free assistance to NES during the response to Winter Storm Fern comes after Mayor Freddie O’Connell criticized its communications with the public in a statement reported on February 1.
“I and members of the mayor’s office staff and other key Metro leaders met with NES leadership to reiterate: neither the pace of power restoration nor the communications surrounding it has met my expectations. Nor those of Nashvillians,” said O’Connell. “What I learned today is that NES is unequipped to communicate about a crisis.”
O’Connell has called a commission to study the storm response, though its report may not be concluded until February 2027.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday called for NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin to resign over the company’s storm response, declaring its latest press conference insufficient, after first saying that the company’s executives should be fired and replaced in a speech on the Senate floor last week.
Also on Monday, U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) urged the Tennessee General Assembly to reshape the utility company’s governance to include representation for customers who live outside Nashville, where the mayor appoints NES board members who can be fired by the Metro Council via a super majority.
Ogles previously urged state lawmakers to take direct oversight of the NES, dissolve its board, and begin a company audit, and State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) confirmed last week that legislators were evaluating options “with the stance NES cannot stay the same.”
While NES acknowledged FINN Partners’ recent pro bono work in its Monday response to The Star, the company has yet to answer several other inquiries, including when it expects its after action report to be completed and whether the document will be available to the public.
The company has yet to explain why Broyles-Aplin and NES spokesmen have contradicted the company’s 2024 annual report, which reflected a $7 million cut to tree trimming and vegetation management, and instead claimed the budget has repeatedly increased. The Star has requested the budget and expenditure figures for the past five years.
NES also did not respond to a question seeking clarification on the agenda for the recent board meeting, which included a recommendation to renew the contract for a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Nashville Electric Service Worker” by Nashville Electric Service.
Another indicator of woke going broke management. Public Relations for free during a storm.
Just tell the truth and fix the problem.
Look into NES paying in lew of taxes to METRO government it is in the millions of dollars. Cut your budget saves money to pay to metro at end of year. So cutting your tree trimming and maintenance saves money so at end of the year gives more money to metro this degrades the NES system.