The Arizona Corporation Commissioners named Commissioner Doug Little as the interim Chairman for the Commission to replace out-going Chairman Susan Bitter Smith who resigned from the Commission effective January 4, 2016.
At a staff meeting, the Commissioners voted unanimously to have Little step into the role on January 5, 2016 to serve as the interim replacement. The Commissioners agreed to hold an election for a permanent Chair once a new Commissioner has been appointed by the Governor to replace Commissioner Bitter Smith.
The Chairman sets the agenda and runs Open Meetings and serves as the public face of the Commission.
The next regularly scheduled Open Meeting is January 12th.
The Commission has been plague by scandal, and on Monday commissioners created the Office of Special Counsel. They placed Christopher Kempley in the executive level position that will provide extensive legal services to the Commissioners.
Kempley will provide much needed legal counsel regarding ethics, conflicts of interest, ex parte rules, Open Meeting law, and will handle all public records requests. He will assist Commissioners on pending regulatory matters and work with them as they address broad public policy debates, such as renewable energy and water sustainability. He will also serve as the Commission’s Ethics Officer.
Kempley comes from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) where he served as Attorney Advisor over the past 7 years. Prior to his work there, Kempley served as Chief Counsel for the Arizona Corporation Commission from 2002-2008, and as Assistant Chief Counsel from 1985-2002.
“This new position will reduce the Commission’s need for outside legal counsel,” said Executive Director Jodi Jerich. “It will relieve our current legal staff of duties they have been forced to undertake that are outside their core duties.”
Kempley will report to the Executive Director.
According to the Checks & Balances Project:
Judge David Cole is now examining “thousands of text messages” downloaded by Arizona Attorney General’s office investigators from Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s taxpayer-provided smartphone. The phone was seized as part of an investigation into a whistleblower’s claims of misconduct on the troubled Commission.
For months, we’ve sought access to Stump’s text messages to determine what role Stump played in a dark money electoral scheme by which Arizona Public Service (APS) seems to have installed its own regulators to ensure its profits.
The Commission went to great lengths to oppose our efforts to enforce public access to these public records. These included hiring an expensive attorney and a public relations operative with no-bid contracts. Stump, the Commission, and attorney David Cantelme have been tripped up in a series of denials that were later shown to be false.
For example, they said that the text messages are no longer available (not true) and that Stump had only two phones when he had at least three plus a tablet. We have gotten no answer to the question of whether or not Bob Stump lied to Mr. Cantelme about his phones.