Skop's complaint led to FDLE investigation into PSC, report says

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released its final report today in its investigation into the Public Service Commission and concluded, as expected, no criminal wrongdoing. Download PSC Report

What is newsworthy is that PSC Commissioner Nathan Skop was the one who first brought the issue to state investigators on Aug. 4, before the Herald/Times first broke the story about commissioners using Blackberry PINs to communicate with the utilities they regulate. The investigation also began before former PSC lobbyist Ryder Rudd admitted to the newspaper that he attended a Kentucky Derby party at the home of Florida Power & Light vice president Ed Tancer.

Skop "expressed concerns,'' the report said, and provided email in which aides "were exchanging their Blackberry" PINs and the PINs of PSC commissioners with Florida Power & Light officials. "The complainant advise this this caused two concerns. First, it was against PSC policy for commissioners to speak directly to utility representatives about any pending agenda issues. The exchange of PINs created the appearance of impropriety between the PSC and the utility company. Second if communication...was occurring, there may be possible violation of both Public Records and Sunshine Laws.''

Consumer advocate recommends stripping PSC staffers of their power

The state consumer advocate today proposed that the Public Service Commission take a radical step and remove the ability of staff to formally recommend how the regulatory panel should  rule in pending cases, such as the massive rate cases now before it by Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy.

The recommendation by Public Counsel JR Kelly came Tuesday in a day-long staff workshop on how to improve the integrity of the process given recent developments that show that PSC staff are too cozy with the utilities they regulate. Right now, PSC staff prepare a detailed recommendation on pending utility issues that lays out how the commission could rule. Since the PSC frequently adopts the staff recommendation with little modification, utilities attempt to influence staff and routinely work to develop relationships with them.

"The commissioners are vested with the power, more importantly, the responsibility, to make the final decision,'' Kelly said. "The more we make the process transparent to the public, the more [the public] will understand, the less confusion there will be and the more they will appreciate the job of the public service commissioners have to do."

Jeb's op-ed bashing of Crist is part of mounting campaign

Mustering all the fear of Armageddon, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warns in an op-ed in the Tallahassee Democrat this weekend that if Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy don't get their rate increases a reliable energy grid could be "threatened." He blames "populist politics,'' translation: Gov. Charlie Crist, who has repeatedly said he opposes a rate increase in the midst of this economy. 

Our guess is this was not written by the circumspect and careful Jeb that we know. (If only in real life he used lines like: "With power, the cash registers open and close.'') Instead, it is part of FPL's mounting effort to seek broad support for its rate increase that includes a major television campaign launched last week. See this from CEO Armando Olivera getting behind PSC integrity, this Letter to the Editor, and this op-ed counter-punch.  (Progress Energy officials tells us it's not involved, although its rate decision will preceed FPL and could set the stage.)

Jeb raps Crist, defends proposed rate increases

Jeb Bush never actually mentions Charlie Crist in this  Tallahassee Democrat column , but he clearly is taking a shot at Charlie Crist for vocally opposing FPL's requested rate increase. Seems to us the first time the former governor has publicly criticicized current leadership in Tallahassee:

The well-publicized pronouncements made outside this quasi-judicial process have already sent a warning signal to the capital markets that will be necessary to finance these large, long-term investments. The growing perception in Florida is that regulatory decisions will be based on poll-driven sentiments in spite of long-term benefits. When decisions crucial to the profitability and viability of a business enter the realm of chance and politics, the incentive for investment in new or expanded endeavors evaporates, along with the jobs and tax revenue that come with it.

Bennett blasts PSC for 'lack of oversight' in replacing top lawyer

State Sen. Mike Bennett sent an angry letter to the state's five Public Service Commissioners this week, "appalled with the lack of oversight'' in the general counsel selection process when it let agency executive director Mary Bane "change the rules as you go in order to accommodate candidates who failed to meet the deadlines.''

"With the recent bad press and unhappy climate surrounding the PSC, I would think that every effort would be made to ensure that rules are being followed and that the hiring process is fair, open and able to withstand public scrutiny,'' Bennett wrote.

He noted what the Herald/Times first reported, that the process was moved from the state's People First application process to allow for additional applications to be submitted after the deadline.

"I believe it is the responsibility of the PSC to operate in complete fairness according to a predetermined process,'' Bennett wrote. "...Such behavior lends itself to a perception of  'cronyism,' and that kind of perception does not lend itself to public trust."

Kiser and Twomey up for PSC's top lawyer job

Public Service Commission Executive Director Mary Bane said Friday that applications for the agency's general counsel position are now closed. For the third time.

Making it to the list of applicants to be selected by the PSC's five commissioners are former state Sen. Curt Kiser, now a Tallahassee attorney and lobbyist, and former PSC attorney and utility lawyer Mike Twomey. The agency has extended the deadline so many times, Kiser said he was frustrated.

"This process has been strung out so long, it appears that the deadline for the job is not really a deadline at all,'' he said.

The vacancy was created in September when Booter Imhof left after less than a year at the agency and returned back to the Legislature, where he had been a long-time staff director in charge of utility issues. His departure came at the height of the agency's turmoil over improper communications between agency staff and commissioners and the utilities they regulate.

Verizon agrees to settle with PSC for $2 million

Telephone giant Verizon Florida agreed to refund customers $1.75 millon and pay the state another $250,000 Tuesday as a result of a settlement agreement with the state's utility regulators who wanted to punish the company for poor service.

At the urging of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollumn and AARP, the Public Service Commission in January accused Verizon of failing to restore landline phone service to customers in 2007 and 2008 and for failing to provide discounts to customers eligible for the state's Lifeline program, the financial assistance program for the elderly and low income Floridians.

A PSC analysis found that Verizon failed to follow through on repairs on its landline phones, resulting in extended phone service outages for customers. There were 262 apparent violations in 2007 and 194 in 2008. 

The commission agreed to split the $250,000 going to the state, with $125,000 given to promote Lifeline Assistance, the discount telephone program gives eligible customers credits of up to $13.50 per month on local phone bills, and $125,000 given to the state's General Revenue Fund. The money given to Lifeline was sought by the legislature's Hispanic Caucus in a letter to the commission on Monday from caucus chairman Rep. Steve Bovo, R-Hialeah.

Verizon also agreed to provide Lifeline discounts to all eligible customers who request the discount and receive regulated telecommunications service packages.  Verizon had previously denied Lifeline discounts to customers that purchased the company’s bundled packages. Verizon customers eligible for Lifeline service should contact the company, or visit the PSC’s Web site to sign up, www.floridapsc.com.

PSC rejects staff plan, forces do-over on energy goals

Signaling another shift in direction at the Public Service Commission, state utility regulators ordered its staff back to the drawing board Tuesday to come up with "more robust" energy conservation goals that reward customers for using less energy.

The panel unanimously agreed to postpone the decision after Commissioners Nathan Skop and Nancy Argenziano chastised the staff for setting the energy goals too low. By law, the commission must set a conservation goal for electric companies to meet each year for the next five years, and then come up with a plan or reward them financially for exceeding the goal or punish them for failing to meet it.

Skop accused the staff of coming up with a plan that tries "to align with everything the utilities wanted.'' He said the conservation goals recommended by PSC staff were so low that companies like Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy could easily meet them and then obtain the financial reward for little effort.

"I'm all about carrots,'' he said. "But I'm not going to set financial rewards so low an ant could climb over it.''

Public counsel wants PSC to operate like judges

Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, the lawyer who represents the public before the Public Service Commission, told the House Energy and Utilities Committee today that he supports making the PSC more like a judicial body, instead of the quasilegislative, quasijudicial body it is.

"We should take a very strong look at commissioners acting like the judiciary,'' he said. He said the PSC should be required to operate like the Division of Administrative Hearings, the judicial board that handles consumer complaints and disputes with state agencies. 

The commissioners' staff, Kelly said, should also be required to abide by the same rules that ban communications between PSC commissioners and the utilities they regulate, just like the staff of judges do. "That is an absolute must,'' Kelly told the panel.

The House committee spent two hours getting a primer on the ethics rules governing the PSC and its staff in response to news reports about the open access many representatives of the regulated utilities appear to have with the staff at the state utility board.

Progress Energy tells regulators: We'll wait for rate increase

Progress Energy told state utility regulators Monday that it is willing to wait until the Public Service Commission decides on the company's rate increase rather than take the temporary boost in rates they are allowed to get under state law.

Progress Energy is entitled to have its proposed $500 million increase in base rates take effect on Jan. 1 and then, if the PSC approves a lower rate, refund the difference to customers with interest. Progress is seeking to raise rates 31 percent, or $9.66 per 1,000 kilowatt hour of electricity used, and the PSC is scheduled to vote on it on Jan. 28.

If the PSC agrees to delay the rate change, electric bills will remain "relatively flat temporarily giving our customers some short-term price relief during this down economy,'' said Vincent Dolan, president and CEO of Progress Energy Florida.

The PSC last week voted to delay its decision on both Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light's rate increase requests until January when two new commissioners appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist will be in office. Regulators can approve, reject or modify the rate increase sought by both companies. The new base rates are expected to take effect on customer bills for the March billing cycle.

“We want to balance our real need for a base rate increase with the commission’s desire to take more time and to allow the new commissioners to vote on this case,'' Dolan said.

FPL rates will remain flat during the interim because they are governed by a 2005 settlement agreement with the PSC.

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