By Trimmel Gomes
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-883334.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – A Florida Senate panel unanimously passed a bill that would outlaw private conversations between Public Service Commission staff members and utility companies. The bill is in response to critics who say the agency is too close to the companies it regulates.
The bill follows the conflict of interest scandal that slammed the PSC last fall involving commission staff members texting and socializing with utility officials. Senator Mike Fasano, Republican of New Port Richey, wants to bar commissioners and their staff from communicating with utilities without involving stakeholders. Fasano says any such meetings and informal conversations would have to be published on the commission's website.
"The members of the commission who serve as quasi judicial body should be held in the same standards as judges are."
The bill also restricts commissioners and staff from working for a regulated company until two years after they leave the commission. But PSC Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano and others say they want the legislature to impose tougher sanctions, like making the work ban last four years, with a civil penalty for those who break the law.