With the municipally owned utility under scrutiny following its response to Winter Storm Fern, public disclosures and biographical information reveal three members of the Nashville Electric Service (NES) Board of Directors are tied to other organizations who also work with NES.
NES Board Chair Delta Anne Davis, who was appointed to the board in 2021 and was named its chair last year, is also a law professor at Vanderbilt University. During the year before Davis (pictured above, right) joined the board, Vanderbilt entered into a renewable energy partnership with NES and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) through the TVA’s Green Invest program, which led to the selection of Silicon Ranch to build a new solar facility for the university’s power requirements by TVA.
When NES announced its new board chair in August, the company wrote that Davis previously, “led civil and criminal litigation at major firms, directed the Southern Environmental Law Center’s local office, and chaired multiple city sustainability initiatives while serving as Nashville’s First Lady from 2007–2015.” Davis is married to former Mayor Karl Dean.
NES confirmed that Davis disclosed the conflict of interest in an audit published last October, declaring she is, “not involved in the selection or supervision of any work or services performed by Vanderbilt University for NES.”
A second board member, Pinnacle Financial Partners Chairman and Founder Robert McCabe Jr., has been on the board since 2009, and as with Davis, the audit confirms McCabe (pictured above, left) disclosed his services to the board, and that he recused himself from the 2020 decision by NES to provide banking services for the power company following a competitive bidding process.
According to the report, NES obtained a $25 million line of credit from Pinnacle, and pays about $60,000 per year in bank service fees to the company.
NES additionally wrote, “McCabe will not be involved in any board decisions involving NES and Pinnacle Financial Partners.”
The third board member with such connections is Clifton Harris, who has served on the board since 2022, and disclosed that he is President and CEO of the Urban League of Middle Tennessee (ULMT), which received a donation from NES.
According to the audit, Harris (pictured above, middle) did not participate in the decision, which complied with the company’s donation policies. It also stated that NES previously donated to the nonprofit before Harris was appointed to the board.
While NES did not confirm the amount donated to ULMT, the audit notes the board must approve any donation over $10,000.
ULMT was additionally part of the grant awarded to NES and Metro Nashville by the U.S. Department of Energy during the Biden administration.
It was during the broadcast of the August 5, 2025 episode of the ULMT program, Urban League Live, which airs in Nashville on NewsChannel 5, when NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin explained to Harris that the company employs “species specific trimming” during normal vegetation management.
“We care about the canopy. We have to live here too,” said Broyles-Aplin during the interview. “I don’t want us out destroying the canopy.”
She told Harris, “We do species specific trimming… We take a lot of pride in making sure that we are cutting the trees in a healthy fashion.”
After The Tennessee Star resurfaced the interview last week, the remarks from NES’ chief executive were referenced in a floor speech by U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday, who additionally referenced reporting that shows NES slashed its tree trimming and vegetation management spending by $7 million in 2024.
“But between 2023 and ’25, the utility’s leadership cut funding for tree trimming services by $7 million,” said Blackburn. “The reason? As the NES CEO told local media in August, and I’m quoting, ‘We care about the tree canopy. We have to live here too.’”
In public remarks, NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin has contradicted the company’s annual report showing a $7 million cut to tree trimming services. The company told The Star on Thursday that it is still working to explain this discrepancy, but is prioritizing power restoration for its customers.
During her speech, Blackburn ultimately said those responsible for the NES response to Winter Storm Fern, “should be fired, and should be replaced with competent leadership.”
Her speech came shortly after U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), whose district includes part of Nashville, called for state lawmakers to take control of NES, dissolve the board, and begin a thorough audit.
Both calls for action followed the Tuesday confirmation by Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) that the General Assembly was considering its options.
“[NES’] lack of a strategic disaster relief plan, pro-tree canopy policy and being more concerned about a DEI contract renewal – all of which jeopardized public safety – requires executive management to be fired and the board to be replaced,” stated Sexton on Tuesday. “The General Assembly will explore every option available with the stance NES cannot stay the same.”
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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].
Photos “Robert McCabe,” “Clifton Harris,” and “Delta Anne Davis” by Nashville Electric Service.
Spoken like someone with zero background in critical thinking
LOL oh no, a donation to NES from the company dude works for!
You’re reaching.
Yeah, have NES go cutting trees is Belle Meade by the hundreds this spring, and see how that is received.
Is anyone surprised about the serious conflicts of interests or the lack of utility service experience? It is the same old good old boy network that thrives in such appointed boards. I encourage the state to take over control even though that will be only a slight (maybe) improvement.
What happened recently in Nashville from Fern is the same reason CA burns and destroys millions of trees, vegetation and animals that live in their forests. They care more about the fake scam of sustainability (UN Agenda 21) than they do about the actual trees, vegetation, loss of property and lives they destroy with their archaic policies. Because of her tree hugging leftist brainwashed ideology the very trees she says she wants to protect were destroyed because of her warped sense of entitlement. Sustainability is NOT about protecting anything. It is all about control and slowly moving populations into the city centers where they can be monitored and controlled. Deeming large areas of land off limits. If Nashville and CA would properly manage the forest and trees to maintain them and protect them from fires and storms due to poor management the wild fires in CA and the damage done in Nashville would never have happened. They are willing to allow wild fires in CA that end up destroying the very thing they say they are trying to protect. Does that make any logical sense to any rational person? There needs to be some people fired over what happened in Nashville.
Sounds like a 21st century liberal “good ol’ persons” network.
As I thought, none of these board members have experience in the public sector utility service business. Chairwoman especially should never be appointed to a any type of boy because she comes from academia and as we all know they live in worlds of theory.