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TALLAHASSEE — Florida's largest utility companies say they are hands off when it comes to the selection of two new utility regulators to replace the men who voted against the largest rate case in Florida history.
But whether they're in the room when the Public Service Commission Nominating Council meets Thursday to send the governor six nominees to fill two spots on the utility board won't matter.
They have already made their presence known, in meetings and phone calls to some of the 28 applicants, through campaign contributions to each of the legislators on the nominating panel, and in business relationships with council members in private industry.
They've even got a link to Senate President Jeff Atwater — who asked that each of the members of the nominating council refrain from phone calls and personal meetings with the utilities industry during the nominations process. FPL last year hired Atwater's nephew, Brady Atwater, to work in the one department closest to the Legislature, regulatory affairs. His uncle said he had no role in the hiring of his nephew.
FPL also has encouraged some candidates to apply. Rep. Ron Brisé, D-Miami, a former chief operating officer of a local telecom company, said FPL lobbyist Paul Hamilton urged him to consider the job and Brisé turned to Hamilton, as well as lobbyists from AARP, "to get a sense for how this process works."
Former Tampa assistant city attorney Julie Brown spoke with FPL vice president Eric Silagy and a governmental affairs official at Tampa Electric to prepare for her interview.
"I've talked to consumer folks. I've talked to utility folks. I've talked to a variety of people," she said. "I've been researching this for quite awhile to better understand the process."
Representatives of both FPL and Progress Energy said that their companies have not solicited contact with the PSC candidates, but have responded when contacted by them.
"I'll talk to anyone who will talk to me," said Art Graham, a Jacksonville City commissioner and environmental engineering consultant who has applied. He found that while utility lobbyists would talk to him, all of his calls to members of the nominating council were rebuffed.
"It appears there's a lot of media attention to all this stuff and they want to be hands off," he said.
The council will spend 15 minutes interviewing each of the 28 candidates to the Public Service Commission and decide which of them should be selected to replace David Klement and Benjamin "Steve" Stevens, who were ousted by the Senate, which refused to confirm them in April. Both were part of the unanimous vote to reject a $1.3 billion rate increase sought by Florida Power & Light and a $500 million increase by Progress Energy.
The nominating council is composed of six nonlegislators and six legislators. The legislators have received campaign contributions from utility companies in varying amounts, with Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, receiving $42,000, and Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, getting $2,000.
After its daylong meeting today , the council will send six names to Gov. Charlie Crist, who has 30 days to pick two candidates from the list or allow the nominating council to pick for him. Florida's next governor also could reject the names and the process could start over.
"It's a flawed process," said Bennett, who took over as council chairman last month when its current chairman, Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, applied for the commission.
Bennett said he has read all 28 applications three times and believes they included ''the most qualified group I've ever seen."
But just as the Senate spent little time deliberating when it rejected Klement, a former Bradenton newspaperman, or Stevens, a Pensacola accountant, the nominating council must rush through its deliberations to get its work done in one day.
"Fifteen minutes isn't really enough to learn that much about an applicant," said Bevin Beaudet, a member of the nominating council from Palm Beach County.
Times staff writer Janet Zink contributed to this report.
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