Customers of Oklahoma Natural Gas are bracing for a $31 million rate hike approved Tuesday by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. The approval raises a question whether one of the Commissioners should have taken part in the procedure.
Approved on a 2-1 vote, the $31,423,612 rate increase will mean a hike of $1.33 a month for the average residential customer and 48 cents more for an average low-income residential customer. The $31 million increase is also part of ONG’s $527 million rate.
Commissioners Kim David and Todd Hiett voted to support the increase as Commissioner Bob Anthony voted no, calling the proceedings “fatally deficient.”
Before voting no, he stated, “I do not believe this proceeding has fully complied with state law, including Ethics Rules. I do not support a final order at this time.”
On Friday, August 23, Anthony filed a deliberations statement in the ONG rate case denouncing what he called the “appearance of impropriety regarding ONG’s rate change.”
“With $1 billion or more of rates and charges at issue for ONG, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission faces a troubling ‘appearance of impropriety’ in this and related matters.” Anthony wrote. He referred specifically to allegations of “commissioner misconduct – some reportedly involving attorneys who appear before the OCC” that “have not been denied by the accused commissioner.”
His filing referred to the allegations that Commissioner Todd Hiett drunkenly groped a man at a hotel bar while in attendance at a June national conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some of the witnesses informed the Kansas Corporation Commission of the incident and stated that the victim “represents a company who goes before the Oklahoma [Corporation] Commission.”
Commissioner Anthony, based on information he has received, believes the victim and a possible witness of the incident work for a Tulsa-based utility, which is thought to be ONG and its parent company ONE Gas, Inc., both headquartered in Tulsa.
“Failure to disclose or report, by the accused commissioner and/or others with knowledge, may add to the ‘appearance of impropriety.’” Anthony wrote before the Tuesday vote.
Anthony publicly asked Commissioner Hiett last week if he would recuse himself from ONG’s cases but Hiett did not answer and took part in an ONG hearing at the meeting. He also participated in Tuesday’s approval of the rate hike.
In his Friday filing, Anthony called attention to a State Ethics Rule that prohibits Corporation Commissioners and other state officers from participating in matters when “circumstances would cause a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts to question his or her impartiality.”
Read Anthony’s full August 23 filing here: https://public.occ.ok.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=16976722
