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Ethics panel dismisses charges against PSC regulators

By JONI JAMES
Published October 14, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Three years after Florida regulators attended a Miami Beach conference partially-underwritten by utility companies they regulate, the state Commission on Ethics voted Friday to dismiss all charges that the regulators broke state law.

In a 7-1 vote that drew sharp rebuke from one of its newest members, the ethics commission decided it was pointless to pursue prosecution of the four current and former Public Services Commissioners.

The reason: The 2005 Legislature wrote a new exemption to the PSC gift ban to specifically allow such hobnobbing at utility-sponsored conferences.

"If we go ahead and prosecute this, these will be the only people ever prosecuted because the Legislature has changed the law," said ethics commissioner Norm Ostrau, a West Palm Beach attorney who was a member of the 1990 Legislature that passed the law prohibiting PSC commissions from accepting "anything" from a business the commission regulates.

"Clearly there has been a change in legislative thinking," Ostrau said.

The decision prompted one of four accused, former PSC Commissioner Lila Jaber, to shed tears of relief. She and PSC Commissioner Rudy Bradley, who also attended the meeting, left without speaking with reporters. Neither of the other two commissioners who had faced charges, Braulio Baez and Terry Deason, were present at the meeting.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 17:53:34]