Peeling the Onion
🧅 Recent TN sunset audits · Right-on-red ban withdrawn · General Jackson Showboat's last launch · Much more!
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Tennessee sunset audits find oversight problems at Commerce and Insurance, and fewer issues elsewhere.
Tennessee’s sunset law sets an end date for several state agencies. When that date approaches, the Comptroller’s Division of State Audit reviews the agency’s performance, and the General Assembly’s Joint Government Operations Committee uses that review to recommend whether to continue, restructure, or terminate it.
This morning, the Comptroller released three audits for the Department of Commerce and Insurance, the Department of Environment and Conservation, and the Tennessee Public Utility Commission, which are all set to terminate June 30, 2027. Of the three, Commerce and Insurance performed the worst, with six findings and three observations, after a clean audit in 2022. TDEC and the Utility Commission each have just one finding.
Commerce and Insurance This audit covers July 2022 through June 2026, and the department’s biggest insurance problem is oversight of health insurers’ provider networks. It hasn’t finished writing rules and, until recently, didn’t have written procedures for checking whether networks are big enough. Only 2 of 11 insurers filed the required annual reports in 2024–2025. Exams of captive insurance companies (insurers a business sets up to cover its own risks) are also behind: 17 of 25 sampled exams were late or overdue. The Fire Marshal’s office had weak supervision of home inspections, contracted inspectors, and complaints. Thirteen percent of sampled home inspections were late, one by 343 working days, and nearly half the complaint files that called for a contractor’s corrective-action plan lacked the plan itself or proof it was received and approved.
Environment and Conservation TDEC’s audit covers October 2022 through June 2026 and has one confidential IT finding, two observations, and one matter for consideration. Of the four findings from the 2022 audit, three are fixed, and the state’s water-discharge permit backlog is the lowest in its eight-state EPA region. X-ray machine inspections remain a partial problem. An internal policy let inspections slip past legal deadlines, and it was only corrected in July 2026. Auditors also flagged that the dashboard for the $1.35 billion in federal pandemic-relief (ARPA) water-infrastructure money doesn’t show how close projects are to being finished. They also noted that the state added 14 new parks in the past four years, even though a 2018 assessment found $521 million in maintenance needs at existing parks.
Public Utility Commission The audit of the Utility Commission covers July 2020 through June 2026, and its single finding actually bundles together several violations of the Open Meetings Act. Twice, in 2022 and 2024, commissioners went into closed session to discuss reappointing the executive director. They also didn’t post detailed agendas for internal meetings, and although commissioners took part remotely, the commission didn’t record the meetings or give the public a way to listen in. The commission’s own lawyer said it wasn’t aware of the law changes. Commissioners also filed 15 of 41 required conflict-of-interest disclosures late. Rate setting, gas pipeline safety, and consumer complaints all came back clean, and the commission says it has already made most fixes and is writing formal procedures.
The Comptroller released all three audits ahead of today’s public hearings before the Commerce, Labor, Transportation, and Agriculture Joint Evaluation Committee of the Government Operations Committee, where the body is recommending whether to extend the existence of each department.
✹ OPINION: TENNESSEE SHOULD TREAT GAMING AND ESPORTS AS A WORKFORCE OPPORTUNITY
Gaming is now a major economic and technological force. Tennessee should be preparing students to compete for the jobs it creates.
From Michael Torrence
For too long, gaming has been treated as a distraction from education or a hobby students should eventually outgrow. That view no longer reflects the world our students are entering.
Gaming is now a major economic and technological force. A 2026 report from the Entertainment Software Association found that the U.S. video game industry generated or supported nearly $96 billion in economic activity and more than 250,000 jobs in 2025. Those jobs extend far beyond professional players. The industry depends on software developers, cybersecurity specialists, network engineers, graphic designers, animators, sound engineers, broadcasters, marketers, event producers and business professionals.
Tennessee should be preparing students to compete for them.
As president of Motlow State Community College, I lead an institution serving more than 7,000 students across 4,500 square miles and 11 counties. Our responsibility is not only to help students earn a degree. It is to recognize where the economy is headed and create pathways that connect students to those opportunities.
Esports can be one of those pathways.
🌾 Fall Festival at Brewington Farms RidgeRunner is hosting its first fall festival on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10am to 4pm in Whitleyville, marking the ribbon-cutting for farm operations. Expect hay rides, a petting zoo, face painting, regional vendors, food and music, plus tours of the remaining lots in Brewington and Hawkesbury. It's free; RSVP to get the address and itinerary. (RSVP here)
HEADLINES
- 🚦 Sepulveda withdraws right-on-red ban after NDOT agrees to ban turns at 14 intersections. After months of delays and debate, Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda plans to withdraw her bill to restrict right turns on red. It had already been scaled back from a near-citywide ban to a few dozen downtown intersections. She agreed to pull it after NDOT committed to ban right on red at 14 intersections within two weeks, study more in the coming months, and add leading pedestrian signals at some crossings. (Banner)
- 🚢 General Jackson Showboat retiring after 41 years. Opry Entertainment Group is retiring the General Jackson, Tennessee’s only paddlewheel showboat, due to ongoing maintenance problems that have disrupted its schedule. The 300-foot, 1,000-passenger boat has been on the Cumberland since 1985 and is one of the last working paddlewheelers in the U.S. It will run one final Christmas season, with its last voyage on December 15. (Tennessean)
- 👮 Metro Council votes this week on seeking $4.2M from the state to keep 56 school resource officers. The grant would keep 56 existing SROs in place for the 2027-28 school year rather than add new ones. It comes from a state program created after the Covenant School shooting. Every high school has two or three officers and every middle school has one, but only seven elementary schools have a dedicated SRO, so some parents are pushing for an officer in every building. (WSMV)
✹ EARLY VOTING TRACKER
🗳️ Who's Voting Where Through Day 4 of 14: 305,844 early votes statewide, 37,758 in Davidson County. Our early voting tracker updates every morning with counts for all 95 counties, compared with the 2022 and 2018 midterms. Pick your county or look at the whole state to see where turnout stands (See the tracker)
DEVELOPMENT
- Old West End Piggly Wiggly site under contract for 15-story tower (NBJ)
- CPS Land and Parks 360 pay $6.42M for 15 acres for phase two of Brentwood’s Cielo (NBJ)
- New images released for Voce project (Post)
- November construction start set for mixed-use Chestnut Hill building (Post)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎤 Dave Chappelle @ Bridgestone Arena, 7:30p, $59.30, Info
🪕George Clark Shifflett III & His Big Country Orchestra @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
🎸 Sons of Legion w/ Kenny Sharp @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $43, Info
🎸 Hooked @ The Eighth Room, 6:30p, Free, Info
+ lively open mic competition with rotating guest panel
🎸 Twang Tuesday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.