How we're set up

October 23, 2026.

How we charge

Our fees are fixed and quoted in writing before the work starts.

We never charge a percentage of a rate increase, a percentage of a grant award, or a fee contingent on any outcome, finding, or recommendation. An advisor who is paid more when your customers pay more has the wrong incentive. We designed that incentive out of the firm rather than promising to resist it.

The fee for a study is set before the study begins. It does not change based on what the study concludes.

Grants and free help come first

Before we bill you for advisory work, we look for money you do not have to pay back: state revolving fund programs, USDA Rural Development, ARC, CDBG, and state grant programs. We also look for assistance you are already entitled to through MTAS, CTAS, and TAUD.

We put that search in writing and give it to you whether or not it ends in an engagement with us. If free help covers your need, we will tell you so and point you to it.

No referral money, in either direction

Grand Division Advisors does not pay any person or firm for sending us work, and does not accept payment from any person or firm for sending work to them. No commissions, no finder's fees, no success fees, no compensation of any kind tied to a referral, with any firm, in any industry.

One narrow exception, stated here so you do not find it somewhere else: where we share the cost of a booth, a sponsorship, or an event with another firm, each firm pays its own documented share of the actual cost. Nobody's share is adjusted for work sent or received, and the documentation is available to any client who asks.

We do not choose your engineer

Grand Division Advisors does not select, recommend, rank, or steer clients to any engineering firm.

When a study we produce identifies capital work that an engineering firm would design or build, the study says so plainly on its own face, and it says that choosing who does that work is entirely yours. Our fee does not change based on who you hire, or on whether you build anything at all.

Beginning with our first engagement, we keep a record of every study that identifies capital work and which engineering firm the client ultimately used. We publish the running count once a year. We would rather count this in public than have someone else count it in print.

Coming from the oversight side

Ross Colona spent eight years at the Tennessee Comptroller's office in Local Government Finance, most recently managing the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation's work with water and sewer systems in financial distress.

• We work from the records available to us and the client's own books.
• Ross is screened from matters he worked on in state service, and that screen does not expire. Confidentiality is permanent.
• Every study we produce goes to the Comptroller's office for the same review as anyone else's work. Hiring us buys no shortcut with the state, and we will say so to your board out loud.
• We work alongside your recorder, your clerk, your operator, and your engineer, rather than around them.

Legislative consulting

We offer legislative tracking and direct representation before the Tennessee General Assembly. Tracking explains bills and rule changes; it does not advocate a position. Representing an approved client position requires a separate written engagement and is not included in an annual advisory subscription. When a client engages us to advocate, we register for that representation as state law requires, and advocacy begins only after the applicable registration and authorization requirements are satisfied. We do not promise a legislative result.

What we do not do

Grand Division Advisors does not provide legal advice, audit or attestation opinions, or engineering design or certifications.

How this page changes

Changing anything on this page requires the approval of the president plus a majority of the owners. Neither the president alone nor the non-operating owners over his objection can change it.

Privacy

Read our privacy notice for information about visiting this website and contacting us. Please do not share account credentials, security information, or confidential records on your first call.

Terms of use

This website provides general information about us, not advice about your situation. Using it does not create a client relationship. Read the terms of use.

Advocacy

We advocate directly, in our own name, for clients who engage us. Our work includes:

• Appearing and presenting for clients at Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation informal hearings.
• Presenting a client's case at city council and utility board public meetings.
• Lobbying the Tennessee General Assembly and executive agencies.
• Drafting letters and complaints that clients file under their own names.

Our advocacy does not require a client's attorney to participate. Where you engage us to advocate before the General Assembly or an executive agency, we register with the Tennessee Ethics Commission as state law requires. We do not promise a particular outcome.