Two years in as President of the Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA), Allen Potter received high marks on his annual evaluation.

At the March meeting of the TUA Board of Directors, the President’s Evaluation Committee went over the results of the President’s evaluation. Board member Patty Dean said the committee, consisting of her and board member Daryl Welch, had completed its annual evaluation of Potter, and said the board recognized and appreciated his dedicated leadership over the past year.

“Whether communicating with the Board, staff, or customers, Mr. Potter consistently demonstrates highly effective communication skills, a positive attitude, and a deep understanding of the issues facing Tullahoma Utilities Authority and the utility industry,” Deen said. “He has cultivated strong respect among community leaders and regional industry partners, positioning TUA to continue as an industry leader.”

Deen said Potter received an average evaluation score of 4.96 out of 5 from the members of the board, accompanied by overwhelmingly positive feedback. She added that the results reflected strong confidence in Potter’s leadership and a deep appreciation for his commitment to both TUA and the community.

“He has consistently proven to be driven, forward- thinking, and committed to advancing the strategic initiatives established by the board,” she said. His leadership continues to strengthen TUA’s mission and enhance the organization’s ability to serve our community.”

From the results of the evaluation, Deen said the President’s Evaluation Committee would recommend that the board approve a salary increase of 7%, in addition to the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). She noted that with the adjustment, Potter’s compensation will be slightly above the 50th percentile of CEO salaries, based on the most recent TVPPA (Tennessee Valley Public Power Association) and APPA (American Public Power Association) salary surveys for utilities of similar size to TUA.

When the motion to approve the President’s Evaluation Committee recommendation was opened to discussion, Deen said she and Welch had a good discussion when going over Potter’s evaluation and thanked the board for doing the evaluation.

“There are a lot of aspects that go into this evaluation process. Getting feedback from staff, looking at his overall performance, where he’s come to us, where he’s taking TUA,” Deen said. “He’s really situated TUA in just a forward position among utilities in our area.”

Deen explained that the 7% salary increase and COLA would bump Potter from just underneath the 50th percentile to just slightly above it. She noted that they looked at previous presidents’ salaries, she noted that the increase would have Potter right at about where the former TUA President, Brian Skelton, was when he left the utilities authority two years ago.

“Considering just the number of areas, with wastewater, fiber, and everything that TUA does, the complexity of the organization and the advancements and the plans for the future that Mr. Potter brings, we thought that was a reasonable figure for an increase in salary for next year,” Deen said.

When asked for his comments, Welch said while he’s still new to the board and TUA, he couldn’t tell them how informative Potter had been since he joined.

“He’s receptive to phone calls,” Welch said. “He might get tired of me asking some questions but he’s done a good job and he deserves to be compensated for it.”

TUA Chairman Mike Stanton praised Potter for implementing a strategic plan and said while the salary increase sounded nice, TUA was actually catching up with other utilities.

“His initial salary was well below the 50th percentile of CEOs who manage utilities of our size,” Stanton said. “We’re getting back to where we need to be, closer anyway.”

With no further discussion, the board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation. Following board member comments, Potter thanked the board for their trust in him and their feedback. He said since taking the reins and implementing the strategic plan, he said the most important thing that came out the plan was the core values of TUA.

“What I realized is when we strive to uphold those core values, as in our entire team, the day-to-day work and technical side of that takes care of itself if you’re meeting those core values,” Potter said. “That really is the driver behind the productivity and the team that we’re building here.”

He added that it was easy to forget where TUA was two years ago, when not only the president left, but there was a whole change as vice presidents and senior staff retired and or left.

“It was a complete turnover of senior staff,” Potter said.

During that time was also when TUA took on both AMI and NISC projects at the same time, which he said was not smart.

“I’m just being truthful,” Potter said in response to some laughter from the room. “We did AMI 15 years ago, but we weren’t doing an enterprise software transition at the same time, and they work handin- hand with billing and the metering numbers.”

Potter said while he would like to accept all the recognition, he gives credit to all the employees at TUA for the utilities authority’s success in the past few years.

“We got a good team,” he said.