Nashville Electric Service, NES, has hired state and local lobbyists as the utility company continues to deal with the fallout of an ice storm that left thousands without power for almost two weeks and put its chief executive on the hot seat.
The lobbyist contracts, first reported by the Nashville Business Journal, have begun appearing in publicly required filings.
Mark Cate, the head of Stone Rivers Group and former chief of staff to former Gov. Bill Haslam, filed with the state that he started working with NES on Feb. 9. The NBJ has also reported that Gov. Bill Lee’s former chief of staff Blake Harris’ firm BHA strategy was hired as another lobbyist, but Harris has yet to file a notice with the Tennessee Ethics Commission…