Florida Commissioners Wouldn’t Need Degrees under Latest Rewrite of Utility Commission Reform Bill

Florida’s House and Senate have until close of business Friday to agree on SB-1034 to overhaul the Public Service Commission. Sponsoring Sen. Mike Fasano (R), whose colleagues passed his version of the bill at the start of the session that’s about to end, sent the House a set of revisions to its rework of his original measure. Fasano’s amendments include replacing the House’s definitions of prohibited ex parte communications with his earlier language. “The concern is that the House language leaves open loopholes that Sen. Fasano meant to close,” a member of his staff told us.

Fasano axed a section, pushed by Rep. Steve Precourt (R), requiring that commission nominees have degrees from four-year colleges and that they have specified experience. “We have a nominating commission that vets candidates,” the staffer said. “The Senator feels no need to put into statutory language what that body does using common sense."

In addition, Fasano removed a House-inserted requirement that the commission’s executive director be subject to Senate confirmation, a step he attacked as more deeply politicizing an already highly political situation. The staffer offered the example of Tuesday’s Senate refusal to confirm two commission candidates put forth by embattled Gov. Charlie Crist (R). “Subjecting the executive director to confirmation would only worsen things,” the staffer said.

Fasano also reinserted into the bill his original language specifying fines of 0.01 percent of the annual operating revenue of a company found guilty of violating the bill’s controls on ex parte communications with commissioners and staff. The House version only would levy fines against commissioners and staff convicted of prohibited behavior.

With the session ending Friday, House legislators, who voted unanimously 115-0 to pass the bill Fasano has reworked, have little time to review and vote on his update. “They've got it,” the staffer said. “Now they have to decide what to do with it.”