Public Service Commission (5)

www.CherryforPSC.com

Contact: James Bell 404-452-4668

PSC Campaign Resorts to Stan Wise Voodoo Doll

Cherry’s Team Debuts “Stick it to Stan” Campaign

Atlanta GA: October 2 2006 – Libertarian Public Service Commission (PSC) candidate Kevin Cherry’s campaign staff is resorting to unconventional tactics in his bid for the PSC seat. The staff has debut the “Stan Wise Voodoo Doll”!

A Voodoo Doll? That’s right a Voodoo doll!

James Bell, Cherry’s campaign director said his communications director, Brad Forschner conceived the idea in an attempt to generate interest in the Cherry for PSC campaign.

“I was amazed and frustrated at how hard it is to get media attention”, said Forschner. “After 20 news releases on the issues it was time to lighten up and do something that would catch the eyes of voters and the media.”

Kevin Cherry said the PSC race has been virtually ignored by the media, yet it’s one of the most important races on the ticket. “The PSC effect everyone’s pocketbook,” said Cherry

Forschner said the “Stick it to Stan” voodoo doll is being offered to campaign donors who donated $100 or more. Kevin Cherry said he was not surprised his staff has added a bit of humor to the campaign.

“My staff has been working hard running my website, writing press releases, and producing commercials”, said Cherry. “The Stan Wise Voodoo Doll was their way of venting their frustration during the campaign. They’re just poking fun at Stan Wise (with the Voo Doo Doll).”

The political voodoo dolls go back to the Nixon days when protestors used the doll to show their discontent for the status quo. Cherry said it seems everyone is discontented with Stan Wise and the doll seemed appropriate.

You can view the Stan Wise Voodoo Doll at www.cherryforpsc.com

October 23, 2006: Public Service Commission Chairman Stan Wise (R) claims he helped to reduce Georgia’s electric rates by $1 billion, yet staff reports show Wise voted for more than $1.6 billion in rate increases over and above his staff’s recommendations, in just two rate requests. It’s time Stan Wise tells the whole truth!

“Stan Wise has never meet a rate increase he didn’t like”, said Kevin Cherry, Libertarian challenger for the PSC seat. “Stan is boasting that he helped to reduce electric rates by $1 billion, what he fails to mention is any savings that may have occurred, happened in spite of his voting record.”

Cherry points out that Stan Wise failed to say that he has voted in favor of rate increases virtually 100% of the time and that records show that his votes have cost ratepayers billions during Wise’s terms. The true cost to ratepayers, over the past 12 years, may never be known.

James Bell, Cherry’s campaign director, said Stan Wise is desperate to show anything positive he has done while serving the people of Georgia.

“In an attempt to put a positive spin on his voting record, Stan Wise simply made up the numbers,” Bell said. “He knows that there is no easy way for the public to review the voting records and he feels he can just pull the wool over our eyes by making these false claims.”

Wise’s billion dollar claim is achieved not by rate reductions, but by approving rate increases that are less than requested by the utility companies.  In contrast, PSC staff members reach consensus on rate increases and make recommendations to PSC commissioners.  Stan Wise has voted in favor of rate increases over and above these staff recommendations, costing Georgia ratepayers billions.

Kevin Cherry asks ratepayers, “Have you seen any reduction in your utility rates lately?”

Kevin Cherry believes Georgia needs a consumer advocate serving on the PSC board and that Stan Wise is being controlled by utility lobbyists and the money they are dumping into his campaign. “It’s time the voters boot him out”, Cherry said. “Twelve years of Stan Wise is enough!”

If elected, Kevin Cherry has pledged to never accept campaign contributions or gifts from utility lobbyists or executives. He feels this money is a conflict of interest and does a disservice to the public and ratepayers.

For more information visit: www.CherryforPSC.com

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http://cherryforpsc.com/joomla/stan-wise-the-big-lie-1-billion-claim-discredited.html

Will the Real Libertarian Please Stand Up!

Kevin Cherry for Public Service Commission

www.CherryforPSC.com

News Release Contact: James Bell 404-452-4668

Today, a pre-recorded radio interview with Georgia Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise (R) was aired on WLYU 100.9 FM in Lyons GA. “What is Goin’ On” host, Wilson Smith, asked Wise about the PSC race and his opponents. Wise acknowledged he had two opponents, including Libertarian candidate Kevin Cherry.

During the interview, Wilson Smith told Stan Wise that the more he talks to Libertarians “the more he likes them”. Stan Wise blurted out an absurd claim that he is “a better libertarian” than the Libertarian candidate.

Kevin Cherry, the real libertarian candidate found his claims amusing and insulting.

“Stan Wise must be suffering from an identity crisis,” Cherry said. “Stan is a big government Republican who supports protecting regulated monopolies; libertarians believe in free market solutions, not government controlled industries.”

Cherry said he was flattered Stan wants to be associated with libertarianism but points out if Wise wants to be a libertarian he should join the Libertarian Party.

Trevor Southerland, Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Georgia said he welcomes both Democrats and Republicans to join our Party.

“The two major parties have moved to the extreme fringes, while the Libertarian Party is still in the mainstream middle,” Southerland said. “Kevin Cherry is the real deal. He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since the 1980’s. Kevin has been a leader in his community and has led the Douglas County Libertarian Party.”

Under Kevin Cherry’s leadership, the Libertarian Party was first to author and introduce eminent domain / property rights legislation (HR-87) to the Georgia General Assembly.

Established in 1971, the Libertarian Party is the 3^rd largest political party in America. The Libertarian Party of Georgia has secured ballot access to state-wide races since the 1980’s. The Republican Party of Georgia won its first state-wide race in 1992.

The public can learn more about the Libertarian Party and the PSC by visiting: www.cherryforpsc.com or www.lpgeorgia.com

You can hear all political interviews from WLYU 100.9FM at:

Listen Here>>>

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“Those groups oppose future needs of Georgia,” Wise said.  “I think they want us to wear animal skins and live in caves.  And some of them wouldn’t want us to wear animal skins.”

State law allows utilities to recover the full price of fuel needed to generate electricity, without profit or mark-up. Georgia Power had asked the PSC for more money both to repay about $400 million in fuel costs that haven’t been recovered and to try to collect an adequate amount for future energy supplies.

Commissioners did not agree with the company’s $561 million-a-year request, and instead approved a reduced plan put together by commission staff, a committee of major industrial power users and the Utility Counsel of the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.

Georgia Power executives didn’t agree to the compromise, saying it won’t keep up with rising costs of coal and natural gas used in power generation, but Commissioner David Burgess made the motion to accept the compromise despite the objection.

“I think the stipulation does represent the interests of all the parties in this case,” said Mr. Burgess, one of two commissioners up for re-election this year.

There were essentially three plans on the table. The company’s plan lost support during the lengthy hearing process, which often sunk to debates on fluctuations of global energy prices.

A second proposal came from commission staff, which would have disallowed charging electricity customers for various expenses, dropping the total yearly increase by $280 million from what the company sought. That alternative would have added $4 to the average residential monthly bill for Georgia Power customers.

The PSC, however, rejected that staff proposal 2-3. Commissioners Bobby Baker and Angela Speir were outgunned by Commissioners Burgess, Doug Everett and Stan Wise, the chairman.

The third proposal was a compromise after the Georgia Industrial Group and the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association objected to the amount their members would have to pay. The compromise, which all five commissioners voted for, trims $211 million from Georgia Power’s request, but it also means that Georgia Power residential customers will pay a 17 percent increase in fuel costs starting with their July bills.

Commissioner Bobby Baker tried to prevent customers from having to pay the expense of replacing electricity during six of 2,800 power outages that Georgia Power’s own review concluded were caused by errors committed by its workers. That would have saved customers the $5.2 million needed to buy replacement electricity from other utilities during the outages.

By the same 2-3 split, the commission voted down Mr. Baker’s motion.

Mr. Wise, who is also up for re-election, said looking at isolated outages was unfair to a company that generally saves customers money by operating more efficiently than the average electric company in the country.

“To point out one or two incidences would be inappropriate,” he said.

From the Friday, June 16, 2006 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Published on: 05/15/06Atlanta Gas Light makes a tidy profit selling an odorless commodity to customers who use it to heat their homes. But the company’s cold-hearted disregard for how it spends other people’s money — and the lax oversight of its expenditures by public officials — reeks to high heaven.

A better-late-than-never audit by the staff of the Georgia Public Service Commission reveals AGL possibly overcharged ratepayers by nearly $665,000 during the last several years for cleaning up toxic coal tar pollution in central Georgia. In 1997, the regulatory agency had granted AGL permission to impose a surcharge on every customer’s bill to pay for the cleanup, a fee which now stands at $1.30 a month.

Since then, according to the PSC’s partial audit, politically connected contractors have used some of that money to indulge in a spending spree that included a quail-hunting trip, barbecues, cellphones, parties and gifts to undisclosed recipients.

Those expenses were billed under a contract AGL awarded to Virgil Williams, a Gwinnett County entrepreneur who also happens to be a major contributor to PSC Commissioner Stan Wise. Williams, in turn, hired Shawn Davis, Wise’s former campaign manager, to run a $2.3 million public relations effort intended to ward off potential and costly lawsuits associated with the cleanup.

An AGL spokeswoman claims the work performed by Davis and others helped save the company $45 million in “likely” remediation costs. But it’s difficult to determine if their accounting is credible because AGL hasn’t been very forthcoming about many of the expenses it has incurred.

The monthly surcharges will continue to appear on Georgians’ gas bills although the cleanup is nearly complete. Those costs warrant closer scrutiny because, as the PSC audit report explained, “the evidence became clear that the company has not been monitoring the expenses being charged as community affairs.” Among other disputed charges is $22,000 for a study AGL paid for without PSC approval and is refusing to release.

AGL officials have responded to a request to reimburse ratepayers for questionable expenses by, in essence, thumbing their noses at the PSC. Of the $665,000 agency auditors claim should be returned, AGL has offered only $50, which is the late fee another contractor on the project owes on his overdue utility bill.

That kind of corporate arrogance by AGL is becoming all too familiar. The company recently tried to use its clout with key state lawmakers to circumvent the PSC’s regulatory authority in order to build a $300 million natural gas pipeline between Atlanta and Elba Island near Savannah.

Far more troubling, however, is the lack of adequate oversight from the PSC, which has neither set, nor enforced clear standards for allowable expenditures under the cleanup program. Several commissioners have belatedly started asking tough questions with the notable exception of Chairman Wise, who has been missing in action lately. When he returns, Wise has some explaining to do. Until then, his colleagues should continue their line of inquiry because the answers they’ve gotten from AGL so far don’t pass the smell test.

—Lyle V. Harris, for the editorial board (lharris@ajc.com)

Find this article at:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/0515edpsc.html

By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/12/06Who is Danielle?

That’s how Georgia Public Service Commissioner Angela Speir set off a first public airing Thursday of a long-awaited audit of Atlanta Gas Light — an audit that says the company overcharged customers $664,810 through environmental cleanup fees.

“We have an item marked ‘gift for Danielle,’ ” Speir said, referring to a list of expenses passed through to ratepayers and attached to the audit.

“Who is Danielle? Why would ratepayers buy her a gift and what did that have to do with an environmental cleanup? Do you have any justification for why this gift was purchased?” she asked the audit’s lead staff analyst.

Speir’s opening shot began what’s likely to be a touchy debate at the PSC over the staff’s audit report on a long-running and now substantially finished AGL program to clean up buried coal tar sites around the state.

AGL is contesting the audit’s findings almost entirely, saying its being penalized for spending that helped bring a notoriously difficult environmental job to conclusion and saved customers tens of millions in the process.

Just as touchy is who spent a big part of the questioned money.

The audit says AGL customers were overcharged $400,000 through a beefy community relations program run by Commission Chairman Stan Wise’s friend and former campaign manager, Shawn Davis, then working for a company owned by one of Wise’s top campaign donors, Gwinnett County entrepreneur Virgil Williams.

Wise did not attend Thursday’s meeting. A PSC spokesman said he was out of town on family matters.

AGL says it’s willing to reimburse its customers $50 of the $664,810 the audit says they’re owed.

The $50 is a late fee incurred by a contractor who failed to pay a light bill.

But the company said another audit finding, which says AGL double-billed ratepayers for a $243,000 executive salary, is factually wrong.

And it says the $400,000 in community relations spending saved ratepayers more than 100 times as much, by staving off litigation and helping persuade property owners to accept less costly cleanup efforts.

AGL attorney Craig Dowdy said the savings were at least $45 million, and that the benefit flowed to ratepayers.

“The staff is asking the commission — after that benefit has been received — to disallow the spending that helped bring it about,” Dowdy said.

Commissioners Speir and Robert Baker argued that those savings need to be proved, that the expenses passed on to consumers were unreasonable on their face and that the refunds recommended in the audit may not go far enough.

They said it appeared that no one at AGL had been minding the store until the PSC staff began its probe, and that expenses had been passed on to customers routinely and without question.

“I’m looking at auto detailing,” said Speir, interrupting Dowdy at one point.

“Gatorade. Barbecues. Quail hunting trips. Gifts for folks we don’t know who they are or what they’re for. We have line items of $3,000 and there’s nothing to say what they are, except question marks.”

The list also included apartment cleaning, a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, ibuprofen, a $548 meal that included three bottles of wine and some beer, a $24 fish sandwich and public relations chores both complicated and mundane billed at $200 per hour.

One $200-per-hour bill was for the task of putting gift cards in Christmas baskets.

Baker homed in on the hourly billings submitted by Davis and others then working for an environmental company owned by Williams under a subcontract with AGL.

He said the money represented profit for Williams, generated by employees working on salaries undoubtedly lower than the hourly rate charged to and passed on by AGL.

He said the PSC had intended to reimburse AGL for the costs of the cleanup but that the community relations work became “a profit center for the Williams remediation company.”

Commissioner Doug Everett was the only other commissioner to speak.

He asked the staff to give him commission policies that would have spelled out what expenses could legitimately be charged to ratepayers, before the current audit report said they were inappropriate.

“I’m not aware of anything being provided to the company that would detail what’s acceptable or not,” he said. “Surely, we told them what we wouldn’t allow or not.”

Told that such guidelines hadn’t been in place, he said they should have been.

“We wouldn’t be here today, and the ratepayers wouldn’t be being ripped off.”

With the exception of the last part, Everett’s question dovetails with another argument being made by AGL.

The company says it should not be docked for spending the PSC did not specifically prohibit, and which was not flagged as a problem during regular audits over the years.

Staff analyst Tony Wackerly said the commission’s 1990s ruling setting up the cleanup fee didn’t require AGL to break out spending in detail and that the staff didn’t see the community relations spending until a snapshot audit caught it in 2003. The current audit began then, he said.

In addition to the refunds, the audit recommends a number of changes in how AGL handles pass-through expenses in the future, including limits on spending for hotels, meals, entertainment and travel that mirror strict limits in place at the PSC itself.

The audit does not recommend docking AGL for the $249,000 in identified lodging, meals and entertainment expenses billed to customers under the coal tar program so far.

That includes the gift that ratepayers bought for Danielle, which is listed in audit backup materials as costing $54.

By MARGARET NEWKIRK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/11/06Atlanta Gas Light overcharged and should reimburse its customers $664,810 for an environmental cleanup effort over the past few years, according to a Georgia Public Service Commission audit released Wednesday.

The overcharges included $400,000 related to a bells-and-whistles public relations program run by the PSC chairman’s former campaign manager, the audit report said.

That program, which was the subject of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article last fall, had raised eyebrows because of billings for activities that included a quail hunt at Carrollton’s Hog Liver Shooting Preserve, parties and gifts and $24 for a fish sandwich. AGL withdrew some of those expenses last year, and this week’s audit doesn’t say which additional costs the staff found excessive and unreasonable.

The audit also said customers should be reimbursed for the cost of putting a contractor on AGL’s payroll, the cost of a regulatory study AGL won’t disclose and the $50 late fee incurred by another AGL contractor who failed to pay his company’s utility bill on time.

The audit let $249,000 in travel, meals and entertainment expenses pass, including a $548 dinner at an Italian restaurant in Savannah — although it recommends limits on such spending in the future.

In an e-mailed statement, AGL said it had reviewed the audit and agreed with part of its findings — a very small part.

“AGL will refund the program a total of $50,” the company e-mail said.

The company says its contractor should have eaten the late fee, and that AGL should not have passed it on to its own customers.

The PSC will discuss the audit findings in a committee meeting this morning, and could vote on the recommended reimbursement by next Tuesday.

The environmental program in question is a long-running effort to clean up buried deposits of coal tar, a byproduct of an turn-of-the-century method of making natural gas. The tar is rich in poisons like benzene.

Under orders from the PSC and the state Environmental Protection Division, AGL was supposed to begin cleaning up coal tar sites around the state in 1992, and began doing so seven years later.

The PSC allowed the company to charge customers for the costs of the program through a fee on their monthly bills. That fee is now $1.30.

Cleanup nearly done

The cleanup is almost entirely complete now, at a cost of $254 million. The company will continue to incur and pass on site monitoring expenses indefinitely.

The commission staff conducts a snapshot audit of the spending each year, and then allows the company to increase charges accordingly.

A little more than a year ago, the staff became concerned about some of the items being billed to customers as cleanup costs.

Of particular concern: A $2.3 million community affairs program run by Stan Wise’s former campaign manager, Shawn Davis.

As this week’s audit report explained, “the evidence became clear that the company has not been monitoring the expenses being charged as community affairs.”

“The company had approved expendiures for parties, barbecues, tents, musical bands, DJs, cellphone use, gift baskets, commercials, videos, a quail hunting trip, Web site monitoring, newspaper monitoring and much more.”

The work was being billed to AGL, through a contracting company owned by Gwinnett County entrepreneur Virgil Williams, at rates of $50 to $200 per hour.

Davis, interviewed about the expenses last fall, said the program saved AGL customers money by keeping the public affected by the cleanup expenses informed, happy and less likely to sue or ask for excessive fees for property access.

Other costs avoided

AGL spokeswoman Martha Monfried estimates that the company “avoided more than $45 million in likely remediation costs through its technical, regulatory and community work.”

Monfried also said the community affairs program has been audited repeatedly over the years with no complaints about it.

After the PSC began questioning some outreach costs incurred in 2003 and 2004, AGL backed $15,000 out of the costs it was billing to customers last year, including the quail hunt for an affected property owner, holiday gift baskets and the $200 per hour charged to put cards in those baskets.

This week’s audit doesn’t say which additional expenses staff found excessive and unreasonable.

It includes only the $1.2 million in costs reviewed in detail by the PSC staff. The audit recommends that AGL reimburse one-third of that to ratepayers.

Besides the $400,000 refund of community relations charges, the audit recommends that AGL credit ratepayers an additional $243,000 related to an executive with a environmental cleanup company who was hired into a vacant executive’s spot at AGL.

Because the vacant spot was funded through regular rates, and the executive’s salary was paid through the coal tar fee, AGL customers essentially paid much of his salary twice, the audit said.

The final $21,760 in recommended reimbursements was paid to an Atlanta consultant for a regulatory study.

The audit recommends customers pay nothing for the study, because AGL did not seek PSC approval to conduct it and because the PSC doesn’t know what it says.

AGL refused to release the study, citing lawyer-client privilege, the audit said.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/0511bizcoaltar.html

The Georgia Public Service Commission deserves a modest pat on the back for a couple of consumer-friendly actions they’ve taken this week. But they should also get a swift kick in the pants for failing to stop fraternizing in private with representatives of companies they are charged with regulating.

The PSC on Tuesday voted 4 to 1 to leave basically intact the agency’s adversary staff system. That’s an important development because the staff has traditionally served as an aggressive advocate for residential and commercial customers who would otherwise be left to the not-so-tender mercies of utility companies.

The lone dissenting vote was cast by PSC Chairman Stan Wise, who in January had ordered a departmental efficiency review that, if utility companies had gotten their way, would have limited or scuttled the adversary staff’s ability to effectively challenge requests to increase the rates those companies charge electricity and natural gas customers.

The PSC’s decision to mostly leave the adversary staff alone, except for a minor name change, is laudable. But much of the credit actually belongs to Georgians who have been paying record-high gas bills this winter. After learning of Wise’s ill-advised proposals, they bombarded the agency with calls, letters, faxes and e-mails expressing their displeasure.

With far less prodding, the PSC this week also unanimously agreed to allocate $8 million for programs that will give Georgia’s poor and elderly residents a break on their gas bills. As a result, an eligible senior citizen will get a $150 credit on her April bill.

Despite taking those two steps forward, the PSC also took a giant step backward by rejecting efforts to prohibit off-the-record conversations between commissioners and utility company officials and their lobbyists. Georgia is one of only two states that doesn’t restrict the talks in some way. Commissioner Angela Speir had sought to make such communications off-limits while also forbidding commissioners from accepting gifts from companies that had pending cases before them.

Both Spiers’ proposals are long-overdue and would signal that the PSC was serious about conducting the public’s business in the open, while not being beholden to private interests.

Chairman Wise refused to allow Speir’s proposal on corporate gift-giving to come to a vote, and he continued to defend his now-failed plans to reshape the agency’s adversary staff.

“It’s very discouraging to me, given the role we play in this state,” Wise said. “Change doesn’t come easily, I suppose. It never has, from the days of the Model T replacing the farm horse.”

There’s no doubt that change can be good.

Voters should remind Wise of that when he stands for re-election to the PSC in the fall.