Nashville Electric Service ratepayers have shelled out more than $147,000 to fund around-the-clock security for the utility’s top executives, and the tab is still growing.
Since February 1, off-duty Metro Nashville police officers have been stationed outside the homes of NES CEO Teresa Aplin-Broyles and Chief Operating Officer Brent Baker. Aplin-Broyles receives 24-hour coverage at her Nashville residence, while Baker gets 12 hours of daily protection at his home. Security has also been added at NES headquarters on Church Street. A single invoice covering just half of February already totaled $147,000, with officers billing at $88 per hour.
The security arrangements come directly in the wake of the utility’s widely criticized response to a winter ice storm earlier this year, which knocked out power for tens of thousands of Nashville-area customers for more than a week. Both executives were front and center at public press conferences during that outage, and both have faced significant public backlash since.
NES’s public relations firm told WSMV4 Investigates that at least 13 credible threats have been made against leadership and are currently under investigation. Separately, Metro Nashville Police Department confirmed 11 specific instances of threatening, harassing, or doxing behavior directed at NES and its employees, with no arrests made at this time. The discrepancy in numbers between NES and MNPD has not been explained.
Among the details provided by the NES PR firm: Aplin-Broyles has faced heavy email harassment since the storm and sent a cease and desist letter in early March. Her son was reportedly approached and harassed in their driveway about two weeks ago. She is also scheduled to testify this week at a sentencing hearing connected to a separate death threat she received last year. On top of that, NES headquarters saw 11 vehicle break-ins, which prompted the added security presence on Church Street.
NES also paid for off-duty officer coverage at its board meeting on February 25.
Metro Councilwoman Courtney Johnson called out the lack of transparency surrounding the spending. She argued that the executives should be covering the cost of their own personal protection.
“It just seems more and more I’m seeing just a very flippant attitude on how we spend ratepayer and taxpayer dollars,” Johnson said.
The home security contracts for both the CEO and COO are set to expire at the end of March.