By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher
It’s the March Metro Council meeting and before Lynchburg’s legislative body gets down to business, Chairwoman Amy Cashion needs to get a few things off her chest. At the February meeting, a couple of audience members heckled throughout — talking out of turn, inserting snide remarks, and being, in a word, just plain rude. This month Amy will have none of it — something she makes plain as she reads from prepared remarks prior to the meeting.
“Attending a public meeting is an opportunity to participate in civic life. We can share perspectives and listen to others,” she begins — setting the stage. “Good audience etiquette ensures the meeting runs smoothly, respectfully, and productively. So, I would like for you guys to listen attentively without interrupting, avoid side conversations or distracting behaviors, and refrain from making negative gestures, facial expressions, or comments while others are speaking. Please, wait to be recognized by the chair or the vice chair, if he’s running the meeting … We want to treat each other with respect and courtesy. Remember that our goal is constructive dialogue, not confrontation. So, with that being said, Miss Lacy, can you call the roll?”
And just like that, she’s set the tone, and the county’s business proceeds without shenanigans. It’s less schoolmarm than doesn’t “suffer fools” — something that’s become increasingly necessary lately.
Amy Rhoton Cashion moved to Lynchburg at the age of 15 years old. She didn’t attend Moore County High School but feels like she might as well have because most of her high school and college friends hail from Moore County.
“One of those friends asked me recently why I didn’t attend a recent class reunion,” she jokes.
She graduated from Motlow State and played on the local community college’s first softball team along with folks like Jeanie Early, Michie Shelton, and LeEllen Bedford. She and Early eventually roomed together at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis in computer information systems. She went on her first date with her now husband, Ed Cashion, with college friends and MCHS alums Troy Harper and Ben Bryant.
“I think I’ve just always been around,” she smiles.
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The Only Woman at the Table
Amy’s not much for tracking time. When asked how long she’s served on the Metro Council, she says she thinks she’s at least in her third term — though she’s considerably sharper on those who came before her. She learned to chair under former Metro Council chairs Coleman March and Denny Harder. She served as pro tem under Harder before ultimately taking the gavel herself.
When she first joined the council, she was the only woman seated at the table. Penny Smith had served before her, but not concurrently. Sandy Lewis joined her for a while, then Sunny Rae Moorehead. The composition has shifted over the years, but Amy has remained constant — the institutional memory of the body, the one who knows where the bodies are buried, procedurally speaking.
By day, she’s a systems analyst for Canvas, a government contracting firm, where she’s been nearly a year after spending 27 years at Jacobs. She’s always been drawn to process — how systems work, how things fit together, how you build something that holds. It’s not hard to see that same instinct at work on the council’s dais, where she runs a meeting the way she’d architect a workflow: clearly, efficiently, and without unnecessary noise.
When someone around the table states the obvious or asks a redundant question — often just to hear the sound of their own voice — they sometimes get a knowing look. Exchanges sometimes end with a simple, “yes, ma’am” — even from grown men.
Not really interested in authority
There are limits to that power, though, and she’s quick to say so. People often assume the council has more authority than it does — that they “let” projects come in that the public objects to.
“We often have nothing in place to stop it, really,” she says plainly. “You don’t get to pick and choose. You have overarching rules that you have to work within.”
The budget, she adds, is probably the most misunderstood item of all.
She describes her approach to the chair’s role simply: give people the information and let them make their own informed decisions. She tries to be fair. She generally likes to give folks a chance to be heard. And she’s never been particularly interested in the trappings of authority.
“I have to be no-nonsense because I’m not smart enough to keep track of anything else,” she says — and laughs. It’s a deflection wrapped in a truth. The no-nonsense part is real. The rest is just her being modest.
Public service is a family affair
She’s not the only public servant in the household. Her husband, Ed, currently exists as the longest sitting member of the Moore County School Board — a role he’s held for many years. Amy says both she and Ed have served because they believe these things matter. Though Ed won’t seek re-election this term, Amy says their shared conviction hasn’t wavered: show up, be reasonable, think clearly, care about the people around you, and set an example for the kids watching.
“Be good stewards. Care for other people. Be an example for good,” she says.
As for whether she’s consciously shaped the culture of how public meetings in Lynchburg are conducted — she’s not sure she’d frame it that way. She tends toward being passive, she’ll tell you. But somewhere in the years of showing up, running a clean meeting, and refusing to let a room get away from itself, something took hold.
“I hope that the way I have handled myself has maybe trained or influenced folks in the way that they conduct themselves,” she says. “It hasn’t been a conscious thought. But maybe there has been some good done.”
No-nonsense, no interest in authority, due north set on being a good example — that seems like something we could all use more of these days. •
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