Public Service Commission staffer Ryder Rudd resigned this morning after an internal investigation found that he may have broken the regulatory agency’s ethics rules.

Rudd, who earned $92,000 a year, attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of Florida Power & Light Co. vice president Ed Tancer although Rudd was involved in at least two of the utility’s rate filings.

Knowledge of Rudd’s attendance at Tancer’s gala was the first in a string of events, the latest including two PSC staff resignations and two commissioners’ aides being place on administrative leave.

Also today, Sen. Mike Fasano asked for a Senate Ethics and Elections Committee hearing into whether the regulators and their staff are too cozy with the utilities they oversee.

“After reading and hearing of what’s happening over at the Public Service Commission, it sounds to me like they’re ready to implode over there,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said.

In the meantime, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also conducting an informal investigation into the same possible problem.

Two sitting PSC commissioners – Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian – were included in the list of six nominees given to Gov. Charlie Crist last week. Fasano asked Crist to hold off on the appointments until the panel votes on a proposed $1.3 billion FPL rate hike.

Carter’s aide Bill Garner and Commissioner Lisa Edgar’s aide Roberta Bass were put on leave today after the Times/Herald reported that the aides had given secret Blackberry PIN numbers to an FPL attorney. Commissioner Nancy Argenziano fired her aide, Larry Harris, who is seeking reemployment elsewhere within the agency.

A Public Service Commission staffer used “poor judgment” but an internal investigation did not conclude that he broke the law by attending a Kentucky Derby party at the home of a utility company executive.

But at least one PSC commissioner, Nathan Skop, demanded that PSC Office of Strategic Analysis and Government Affairs Ryder Rudd resign anyway.

Rudd went to a party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of Florida Power & Light Co. general counsel and VP Ed Tancer. Rudd oversees a staff of 28, some of whom are working on two FPL cases – a proposed rate hike and a natural gas pipeline.

The panel learned on the first day of the rate hearing last Monday of Rudd’s attendance at the party. Rudd had called several members of the panel over the weekend. He was removed from the FPL cases while the agency’s inspector general conducted an investigation, the results of which were released today.

Meanwhile, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials are looking into a complaint, spokeswoman Heather Smith said. But she said the agency was not conducting a formal investigation.
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