Bill HaslamNASHVILLE – Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday announced he has named Burns Phillips as the new commissioner of the troubled Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
“I am very grateful to Burns for taking on this role,” Haslam said of Phillips, who had been serving as acting commissioner after the abrupt departure of then-chief Karla Davis shortly before an audit critical of the department’s operations was released.
Haslam said in a news release that Burns has “both public and private sector experience and has served in multiple departments at the state level, and I appreciate his willingness to continue serving at Labor and Workforce Development.”
On Tuesday, Phillips won praise from members of the Legislature’s Fiscal Review Committee as he gave a departmental review.
“It sounds like things are moving in the right direction,” Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, the panel’s chairman, told Phillips.