The Oklahoma Supreme Court told Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett to respond by September 27 to a lawsuit filed against him by three Republican legislators who want him disqualified from voting on cases involving OGE, ONG and PSO.
Chief Justice M. John Kane IV signed an order Tuesday, directing Hiett to respond to the writ of prohibition sought by state Representatives Tom Gann, Kevin West and Rick West. He gave him 14 days to answer their request, an indication that possibly the Supreme Court is giving the matter some urgency.
The legislators accused Hiett of violating ethics and judicial law by taking part in fuel adjustment clause cases involving the three utilities following allegations he was drunk in public and groped a man at a hotel bar. The victim of the reported sexual assault or witnesses to it, according to the writ filed by the legislators, might be employed by one of the three utilities, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Gas and Electric or Oklahoma Natural Gas.
“Respondent has continued to participate and vote in judicial cases involving regulated public utility companies whose employees/agents/representative have direct knowledge of his alleged criminal conduct,” wrote the three legislators in their writ filed last week with the Supreme Court.
They alleged Commissioner Hiett has not complied with the law and should have recused himself from any votes regarding the three utilities.
“Despite the “awkward, horrifying” and likely traumatizing ordeals to which some of their employees and representatives have been subjected, the victims of taint and bias in these judicial cases are not the utility companies, but the millions of Oklahoma utility customers,” continued the three Representatives. They further said Hiett’s participation in the cases for ONG, OGE and PSO left the customers “unfairly disadvantaged again, in judicial fuel cases at the OCC in which Commissioner Hiett has a perverse incentive to give the utilities what they want, regardless of the facts in evidence.”
Thursday is also the deadline for Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony to respond to Hiett’s Supreme Court lawsuit against him, a suit filed after Anthony indicated he was conducting his own investigation into the allegations against Commissioner Hiett. In Anthony’s case, the Supreme Court gave him 20 days to respond, a longer period than what the court is giving Hiett.
