Two members of the DeKalb Utility District (DUD) Board of Commissioners face the end of their terms on the board this fall.
The board is comprised of five members, Jimmy Womack, Joe Foutch, and Hugh Washer, (from DeKalb County) Roger Turney, (from Cannon County), and Danny Bass (from Smith County).
Turney’s term will expire on August 31,  and Womack's term will expire on October 31. Each board member serves a four-year term, and the terms are staggered.
Tennessee Code Annotated dictates that the DUD board submit three prospective nominees for each position in order of preference. The board voted last week to submit the names of Turney, Chris Blackburn, and Winfred Gaither, in that order, to the mayor of Cannon County, and the names of Womack, Jimmy Herndon, and Paul Blair, in that order, to the DeKalb County Mayor.
The law allows for DUD customers to submit names for consideration by the DUD board, but a public notice was published last month, and no names were offered by customers.
Tennessee Code Annotated dictates that  the county mayor has the authority to appoint one of the three nominees to vacant positions on the board or reject all of the nominees. If the county mayor rejects all three nominees, then the board of utility commissioners must submit three additional nominees to the county mayor for consideration. If the county mayor rejects these nominees, then the process would continue until the position is filled.
In exception to the general provisions in the statute, however, any order “either appointing or rejecting a list of nominees shall be entered of record on the minutes of the county legislative body and a certified copy of the order shall be furnished to the board of (utility) commissioners and to the appointee; provided, that upon the rejection of any entire list of nominees by the county mayor, the board of (utility) commissioners shall continue to submit new nonidentical lists of three (3) nominees to the county mayor within sixty (60) days after each such rejection until such procedure shall result in the vacancy being filled for the remainder of the term or for the new term, as provided in this section.”