Lame duck Fla. PSC member resigns early
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – One of two Public Service Commission members whom Gov. Charlie Crist has refused to reappoint resigned Monday so her successor can take office before the panel rules on rate increases being sought by the state’s two largest power companies.
Commissioner Katrina McMurrian resigned effective immediately.
Crist last week declined to reappoint McMurrian and Commission Chairman Matthew Carter when their terms expire Jan. 2 amid allegations that some of the five commissioners and staff members have been too cozy with the utilities they regulate.
Crist, who is opposed to the base rate increases of about 30 percent each being sought by Florida Power & Light Co. and Progress Energy Florida, instead named two appointees without experience in utility regulation.
The governor has asked the commission to delay action in both cases until the new members take office, which McMurrian noted in her letter of resignation Crist.
“I respect this request and want to ensure that the new Commission is positioned to set the course for the agency, one guided by different leadership,” McMurrian wrote.
Carter said through a commission spokeswoman that he had no intention of resigning before his term expires.
One of new appointees is David Klement, 69, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus and a former Bradenton Herald editorial page editor.
The other is Pensacola accountant Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, 44, part owner of a bar and package store in Cantonment and former chief financial officer for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Crist’s general counsel, Robert Wheeler, immediately asked the Legislature’s Public Service Commission Nominating Council to send the governor at least three nominees for appointment on an interim basis as required by state law.
When he announced the appointments he did not specify which of the new commissioners would replace each of the outgoing members.
McMurrian last month refused to step down from the FPL case although she had dinner in March with a company executive and others participating in an economic conference in New York.
She noted Florida law permits commissioners to “attend conferences and associated meals” as long as they aren’t sponsored by regulated utilities.
Commissioner Nancy Argenziano’s chief adviser resigned at her request and aides to Carter and Commissioner Lisa Edgar are on administrative leave pending an investigation of reports they gave FPL the private codes for instant messaging to the staffers’ and Edgar’s smartphones.
The panel’s lobbyist also resigned after acknowledging he attended a Kentucky Derby party at the come of an FPL executive.
A frequent critic of the commission, state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, wrote Edgar a letter urging her to also resign because Crist “has sent a clear signal that the time has come for a top-down rebuilding of the PSC.”
Crist, though, reappointed Edgar, originally named to the panel by former Gov. Jeb Bush, to a new four-year term that began in January.
She will be the only member not originally appointed by Crist once Carter departs in January. Bush also appointed Carter and McMurrian.