Overseeing public utilities ranks right up there with police protection as one of local government’s most important responsibilities. That’s why D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty should rethink his decision to appoint his wife’s best friend as the city’s top utilities regulator. When current Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman Agnes Yates’ four-year term expired two days after Christmas, the mayor refused to sign emergency legislation passed by the D.C. Council to extend her term three months until a suitable replacement could be found, The Examiner’s Bill Myers reported Monday. That left the commission’s leadership position vacant on a three-person panel that oversees gas, electricity, water, and telecommunications services to District homes and offices.
Fenty nominated immigration attorney Lori Leel – his wife Michelle’s “best friend” – to head the PSC and its 68-person staff even though Leel acknowledged during a November Council hearing that she has no experience in utilities law. She also admitted never having managed a large staff or budget. But settling complex issues equitably for both utility providers and consumers requires more than superficial legal knowledge, so having significant experience in utilities law should be a prerequisite for the chairmanship. Judging from the independent agency’s docket, such experience would also be helpful as the PSC grapples in the coming year with rate hike applications, developing new “quality of service” standards, and assuring sufficient long-term power supplies for the District.
But instead of seeking out a candidate with proven expertise in the field, as he did when recruiting Michelle Rhee to take over the city’s failing school system, Fenty apparently views the PSC chairmanship as a political plum to give to a family friend. Because this appointment affects every single District resident, it should not be a patronage job. That Fenty wants to appoint his wife’s buddy fuels growing speculation that future Fenty appointments will be similarly shallow. Such perceptions only encourage expensive lawsuits, delay needed regulatory changes, and create unnecessary complications for regulated utilities and consumers alike.
Council chairman Vincent Gray and former Public Services and Consumer Affairs chairman Mary Cheh warned Fenty in a Dec. 19 letter that a “fully functional commission is critical to District residents.” But the PSC won’t be fully functional without a chairman who’s both well-versed in utilities law and sufficiently independent to step on toes in the Wilson Building, if needed, while pursuing the public good.
