State Rep. Tom Gann, the Republican legislator who led the Supreme Court challenge to Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett’s participation in rate cases following sexual and drunkenness allegations against him, responded to a judge’s ruling on an ONG case saying the fuel adjustment case by ONG is unlawful.
This time, he again stated all the attorneys and the administrative law judge in the case are in violation of ethics rules and further hearings are in violation of the law.
In a filing made this week with the Corporation Commission, Rep. Gann layed out his case again why Hiett should not be allowed to vote on rate cases and why the Commission attorneys and an administrative law judge are in violation of State Ethics Rules and the Code of Judicial Conduct. He conends Hiett has been in criminal violation of the law in the sexual abuse claims and drunkenness against him and should not be allowed to vote on rate cases because the sexual abuse involves an employee of utilities. And the employee appears before commissioners in the rate cases.
After Administrative Law Judge Carley Ortel delayed a hearing on the merits regarding the fuel adjustment clause filed by ONG because of Gann’s complaint, Gann said Corporation Commission rules define his challenge as a complaint and not “public comments” as declared by Corporation Commission General Counsel, Patricia Franz.
Gann challenged the right of Franz to instruct the Ccourt Clerk to treat his complaint filings as mere “public comment.” He said his filing was labeled a complaint pursuant Commission rules and the commission’s own Electric Case Filing system includes “complaint” as a designated “Document Type.”
“The delay this has caused should rightfully be laid at the OCC general counsel’s feet. I suggest someone examine whether her intervention was improper or possibly even a part of the OCC’s ongoing coverup of Hiett’s alleged criminal conduct,” he wrote in his filing on Monday.
During last week’s hearing by Judge Ortel, Deputy Attorney General Chase Snodgrass and Franz chose not to respond to the judge’s decision with arguments in writing.
“It does not surprise me that none of the attorneys present on November 21 wanted to offer a written brief in defense of their ongoing silence in the fact of the obvious taint on these proceedings and this case. They are in an untenable position professionally due to the pressures they face politically—all of it because Commissioner Todd Hiett refuses to take accountability for his alleged criminal conduct and continues to violate State Ethics Rules and the Code of Judicial Conduct,” he wrote in his latest response.
Rep. Gann reasserted his contention that most of the attorneys of record in the case cannot ethicallly participate without violating their own Rules of Professional Conduct.
“I therefore contend that every attorney involved in these proceedings knows that Hiett is in “violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct or other law” and, by remaining silent, I believe they are in violation of their Rules of Professional Conduct. This includes attorneys for the other parties to the case and the Administrative Law Judge.”
He further charged that until the attorneys in the case “break their silence about Hiett’s ongoing violation of the State Ethics Rules and Code of Judicial Conduct, I believe they are suborning his “violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct or other law,” including the violation of ratepayers’ constitutional due process rights.”
Gann also raised a claim that the Corporation Commission is in violation of its rules declaring that a general public heaering relating to a utility’s fuel costs should be held at least once every 12 months. He charged the OCC is alredy in violation of the rule because it has been more than 13 months since the last general public hearing relateing to ONG’s FAC.
Thus, charged Rep. Gann, the FAC for ONG must be discontinued.