TVA chairman should be held accountable for his spending
While John Shumaker’s brief tenure as president of the University of Tennessee exploded over his excessive travel expenses, TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough has gotten away with his extravagant travel policy.
He has spent almost $1 million on air travel in the past 30 months, mostly on TVA’s corporate plane; $472,000 of that was to commute to and from his home in Tupelo, Miss., to TVA’ s corporate office in Knoxville.
That accounting should prompt McCullough to change his mind about staying in Tupelo for the duration of his nine-year term. Instead, he should move to Knoxville for the balance of his term, or give up his position. He cannot credibly ask ratepayers to pay for his self-indulgent decision to keep his old home and his new job — unless he is willing to foot his travel bill himself.
McCullough came under fire several months ago for the unseemly cost of his arrogant assumption that, because he is chairman of a utility that operates in seven states, he need not make the traditional move to TVA’ s corporate headquarters.
Even with the release of the TVA inspector general’s report outlining his air travel costs — $931,768 overall during the past 30 months, including $472,000 for his Tupelo-to-Knoxville and back routine — he said he still planned to maintain his home base in Tupelo.
He said he would rely more on commercial and auto trips to get to TVA’s Knoxville headquarters but that he was entitled to maintain his residence in Mississippi because Tupelo is part of the TVA service area.
That’s too presumptuous and arrogant by half. If McCullough is not prepared to demonstrate prudent leadership in such a large fiscal matter, he should not keep his job.