Middle Tennessee Electric President/CEO Chris Jones joins Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland on the latest edition of “The Insider” to highlight the benefits and accomplishments of MTEs merger with the former Murfreesboro Electric Department (MED).
On July 1, 2025, MTE issued an Annual Report update letter from Jones to McFarland, highlighting the benefits and accomplishments on the five-year anniversary of the merger.
The merger transaction provided the City with approximately $302.35 million over 15 years to help fund infrastructure and other long-term public projects to facilitate economic development with Council approval. The City manages these funds through the Murfreesboro Community Investment Trust. Since the Trust was established, the City has received over $60 million for City projects, such as roadways and parks. Additionally, investment in non-profit organizations serving the community has doubled to nearly $500,000 this fiscal year. Contributions from the Trust to the City and non-profit partners are expected to continue to increase for decades into the future.
“The report enumerates a number of accomplishments and benefits we have done of our two former great utilities becoming one into an even better utility,” said MTE Pres./CEO Chris Jones. “This was fundamentally about these proceeds from a transaction going to the City of Murfreesboro for it to use however it chooses to, but from a utility standpoint as two utilities coming together you get a better utility as a result of that process.”
This edition of Insider features:
- Jones explains why the annual report provides an update of the merger with benefits and accomplishments of the two electric utilities, becoming one with even better service
- Each year, in annual payments, MTE writes a check to the City for more than $17 million. In July, MTE delivered its fifth of fifteen payments for the transaction acquiring MED
- Mayor Shane McFarland shares how the merger has benefited the City’s electric customers, taxpayers, non-profit agencies (strategic partners), and the electric utility
- The City of Murfreesboro manages the proceeds from the sale through the Murfreesboro Community Investment Trust through a board of citizens with expertise in finance and another Committee on Contributions that recommends investments in non-profit organizations
- MTE sponsors the annual July 4th Fireworks ‘Celebration Under the Stars,’ an initiative of MTE to add value to the Murfreesboro community
- As an electric utility cooperative, MTE, in association with TVA, pledges to the City’s economic development fund to make a difference in the community it serves, including a $250,000 to help revitalize Broad Street
- Mayor McFarland discusses how the merger eliminated public confusion about two utility services in the City. The elimination of duplication has made the one utility more efficient
- A property swap between MTE and the City provided land more conducive to a community park (Veterans Park) for Murfreesboro and land better suited for economic development to MTE
- New initiatives, technological upgrades, and an MTE bill paying app have been implemented after the merger bringing the utilities and its separate customers and employees together. The app shows customers how their electricity is used on a 15-minute interval basis
- Innovations through systems control, solar generation, a Tesla battery storage substation, and infrastructure upgrades are ongoing features of MTEs commitment to public service as a top-rated utility, made possible, Jones emphasized, by the economies of scale in joining with MED
“People will go back and see it as one of the most pivotal and best decisions that Murfreesboro City Council has made,” said Mayor Shane McFarland. “We started talking about this in 2016 and it was a tough conversation. We ended up at the time having to table it and stopped talking about. When I was elected to a second term, I indicated we still needed to talk about it. It was a lengthy process, but we structured a deal where the money comes into the City under a state-approved Charter revision to restrict how the City uses the proceeds.”
The only way the Murfreesboro Community Investment Trust could be changed would be for the City Council to submit a Charter change for the State legislature to approve and a public referendum.
McFarland added, “Fifteen years from now, the residents will see $250 million-plus that is going to continue to grow funds as a benefit to the taxpayer. Ultimately, the ratepayer and the taxpayer end up benefiting because we are able to use those funds as a revenue source and keep the principle in place.”
This latest edition of “The Insider” is available via Podbean, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Amazon Music/Audible, iHeartRadio, Player FM and Samsung devices. Access podcasts on the City of Murfreesboro’s website at www.murfreesborotn.gov/podcast. All Videos and Podcasts can be found at www.murfreesborotn.gov/videos.
“The Insider,” hosted by Mike Browning, originates from City Hall. Award-winning CityTV producer Michael Nevills produces the podcast. Murfreesboro CityTV can be found on Comcast Channel 3 and 1094, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, YouTube, Mobile Devices, and the City website www.murfreesborotn.gov/citytv.
The Community Investment Trust (CIT) Board of Trustees, established in 2021 from the proceeds of the sale of the City’s electric department to MTE and City Charter, meets regularly to advise on investments of the proceeds. A separate Committee on Contributions recommends funding of qualified charitable organizations from a portion of the proceeds. The CIT Board of Trustees approves the distribution which is approved by City Council. For the fiscal year FY26, $490,696 was distributed to twenty-nine (29) charitable organizations.
Members of the Trust’s Board of Trustees are: Kevin Gentry, chair, Shawn Applegate, Anne C. Davis, Stephen F. Flatt, Rick LaLance, Lee M. Moss, and Richard C Stone, Jr. Members of the Committee on Contributions are: Carl D. Montgomery, chair, John A. Hinkle, Jr., Lynn Lien, Lyle Lynch, Wade Hays, Ronnie Martin, Collier Andress Smith.
The J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey has ranked MTE in the top 10 percent of all utilities nationwide for the past three years. MTE’s goal is to be in the top 5 percent.
For information about MTEMC, including the full 5-year merger report, visit www.mtemc.com.
