The Oklahoma Corporation Commission finalized the rate increase in January; it had already been in effect under an interim order since October. PSO Customers have seen an average increase of $12 to their monthly bill.
But Gann, other lawmakers and former Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony have repeatedly raised ethical questions about the vote because of Commissioner Todd Hiett’s involvement.
Last summer, The Oklahoman uncovered reports that Hiett had engaged in drunken, sexually inappropriate behavior at a conference for utilities and regulators in Minneapolis. A separate allegation says Hiett drove drunk and behaved inappropriately at an OKC law firm’s happy hour.
No criminal charges have been filed against Hiett, and no victims or witnesses have come forward publicly. Accounts of the Minneapolis incident this summer come from certified but partially redacted accounts made to the Kansas Corporation Commission by KCC employees who say they witnessed the assault. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission hired law firm Riggs Abney to investigate the other incident; the report finds no evidence of any serious wrongdoing.
Both alleged incidents are said to have occurred in front of attorneys representing large Oklahoma utilities, including PSO and OG&E. If that’s true, it could compromise Hiett’s regulatory decisions about those companies.
Gann, alongside Reps. Rick West of Heavener and Kevin West of Moore, asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to disqualify Hiett from at least three cases involving utilities with ties to victims or witnesses of the alleged inappropriate behavior.
The Supreme Court determined it can disqualify a corporation commissioner, but only “under egregious circumstances where there is no other effective remedy.”
In this case, the court declined to remove Hiett from those decisions, saying it would be more appropriate to appeal the decisions after they were finalized.
That’s what Gann is doing now in the PSO case.
Gann and two other representatives filed a similar appeal for an OG&E rate hike late last year. The Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed that appeal last week because the rate hike is pending final approval by the Corporation Commission.
“These cases are worth billions to both the monopoly public utility companies and their millions of captive customers in Oklahoma,” Gann said in the appeal he filed Thursday.
The Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission have 20 days to respond.
