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PSC ethics case is postponed

The ethics commission splits on whether to pursue charges against PSC officials who attended a conference subsidized by regulated utilities.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published September 2, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A short-handed Commission on Ethics deadlocked Thursday on whether to pursue ethics charges against three members of the Florida Public Service Commission and a former member.

The case, which has highlighted the question of whether state utility regulators are too cozy with companies they regulate, was postponed until the panel's next meeting Oct. 14.

Commissioners Braulio Baez, Rudy Bradley and Terry Deason and former commissioner Lila Jaber face charges related to their attendance at a 2002 Miami Beach conference at which regulated utilities subsidized some conference expenses.

A retired school administrator from Stuart, Lloyd Brumfield, filed complaints against the four, claiming their attendance violated a ban on PSC commissioners receiving gifts from the utility companies they regulate.

The attorney for the group, Mark Herron, argued that new ethics rules passed by the Legislature in the spring clarified state law to allow PSC members to attend conferences paid for in part by utilities.

The House sponsor of the legislation was Rep. Ken Littlefield, R-Wesley Chapel.

"We believe it would be appropriate for the commission to exercise its discretion to determine that the public interest would not be served by proceeding further," Herron argued.

Linzie Bogan, the ethics commission attorney who is prosecuting the case, disagreed. "If the Legislature had intended for this law to apply retroactively, well, they could have said so."

Bogan said the four can't apply a new law to conduct that occurred before that law passed. He cited a 1995 state Supreme Court decision, State Farm vs. Laforet, that Bogan said bars retroactive application unless the Legislature specifically said otherwise.

All four PSC officials attended the meeting Thursday at the Capitol but left immediately after the commission's 3-3 vote. Only Baez spoke briefly to reporters.

"I don't think retroactivity is the issue. It's whether it was a clarification or not. The statute clearly said that it was clarifying. That's all I've got to say," Baez said as he walked away.

Commissioners Michael Carr, Charles Lydecker and Tom Scarritt voted to continue to pursue the case. Commissioners Joel Gustafson, Norm Ostrau and Catherine Whatley voted for Herron's motion to dismiss the charges. Three on the nine-member panel were absent.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]