Nashville mayor names nine-member winter storm commission, presses for NES assessments

Mayor announced the formation of a nine-member winter storm commission on the city's response to Storm Fern and said she wants a thorough accounting of what went wrong.

"We need accountability. We also need recovery," the mayor said, adding that she invited NES leadership and regional partners to participate. She said the commission will include NES and the Office of Emergency Management and will examine how partners interacted operationally with Metro government.

The mayor said she is awaiting NES's independent assessment and described early NES cost estimates from the storm as "110 to $140,000,000," remarks she offered while answering reporters' questions about utility bills and relief measures. She said NES appears to be pursuing an accelerated assessment of its own and that the mayoral commission's final report is due in August.

Asked whether NES rates will rise, the mayor said the commission will examine the issue and that early conversations suggest NES is "exploring every possible financial tool" to keep ratepayers from being impacted. She declined to answer for state lawmakers' public criticism of NES leadership, saying she had invited NES into the room to hear frustrations directly.

The mayor framed the commission as part of a larger recovery effort, saying she wants to see both the utility's independent work and the commission's findings before drawing conclusions.

The next procedural step identified at the briefing was the mayor's expectation that NES and her commission produce separate assessments that can be compared; no formal action or vote was taken at the event.