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Florida's investor-owned utilities sent their usual contingent of lobbyists to hobnob earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Too bad that not a single Florida commissioner showed up.
It just so happens that four of the Florida Public Service Commission's five sitting commissioners face a probe by the state's Commission on Ethics for allegedly accepting utility company money when they hosted the regional gathering in Miami two years ago.
Utilities have acknowledged sponsoring a golf tournament and a luncheon at the Miami meeting. This year's meeting was in Charleston, S.C. It, too, included luncheons and a golf tournament. But the South Carolina Public Service Commission, which hosted the meeting, says none of the events was utility-sponsored.
The four PSC commissioners targeted by the ethics investigation - Braulio Baez, Rudy Bradley, Terry Deason and Lila Jaber - declined to comment on why they opted out of this year's confab. In fact, the commission won't even confirm the existence of the investigation.
A fifth commissioner, Charles Davidson, wasn't appointed to the PSC until after the Miami meeting. Davidson said he hasn't been attending the regional meetings, focusing instead on the annual meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.