NASHVILLE – The Senate Education Committee on Thursday delivered another stinging rebuke to Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed nominees for the new University of Tennessee system board of trustees.
Nashville attorney and lobbyist Melvin Malone’s nomination failed when he received only four of the five required votes from the nine-member GOP-run panel.
Chairwoman Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, then asked Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who is handling the confirmations, to send the resolutions for Sharon Pryse, Bill Evans and Brad Lampley to a general subcommittee, often a symbol of death for bills and resolutions going nowhere.
Pryse, Evans and Lampley are all members of the current UT system board, which Haslam, a Republican, is seeking to refashion with his UT Focus Act approved this month by the GOP-run General Assembly.
On Wednesday, Raja Jubran, the current UT board vice chairman and a personal friend of Haslam, a Republican, withdrew his name from contention when it became clear that lawmakers would not approve him.