Utility regulators cleared of wrongdoing…again
by Dara Kam | November 24th, 2009The Florida Department of Law Enforcement found no evidence of wrongdoing in the exchange of BlackBerry messages between utility regulators or their staff and utility officials.
FDLE issued the three-page report today, long after Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs also found no laws had been broken.
The report was released as the Public Service Commission held a workshop to discuss a 17-year-old statewide grand jury report recommending changes to how information between the PSC and the utilities is exchanged to clear up the perception that there isn’t enough distance between the regulators and the utilities they regulate.
The PSC has operated under a cloud of suspicion since late this summer at the beginning of hearings on Florida Power & Light Co.’s proposed $1.2 billion rate hike.
On the opening day of the hearing, it was revealed that the agency’s lobbyist Ryder Rudd had attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL VP Ed Tancer. Rudd later quit.
Two commissioners suspended their aides for swapping BlackBerry messages with an FPL lawyer and another fired hers for giving his secret BlackBerry identification number (PIN) to an FPL lawyer.
Tags: Blackberry, FDLE, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, PIN, PSC, Public Service Commission
November 24th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Further proof that this was more a controversy created by the media and a select few inside the PSC than anything else. For all the attention given to pins numbers it sure didn’t amount to much and in the process soiled quite a few people’s reputations. That’s what happens when it becomes all about politics.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Now let’s allow the same group to investigate our illustrious govenor and the staff that works for him. Oh I forgot stupidity is not a crime.