The three Republican legislators who challenged the votes of Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett have filed yet more lawsuits of his votes cast in support of rate hikes and fuel costs approved for two major utilities—Public Service Company of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Gas and Electric.
Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, who had previously filed a challenge of a rate hike for PSO approved earlier this year by the commissioners, filed a Supreme Court lawsuit last week regarding a Fuel Adjustment Clause approved for the utility in recent weeks. The filing means he is asking the Supreme Court to rule that Hiett should not be allowed to vote in such PSO cases for a rate hike and now a Fuel Adjustment Clause.
Rep. Gann again raised the issues of Hiett’s instances of public drunkenness and alleged incidents last year. He also contends that the Thompson Tillotson law firm of Oklahoma City, now representing PSO in this case, hosted a June 21, 2023 party at which two female OCC employees witnessed “criminal conduct” by Hiett and a witness to the event was a “man who works for a utility company.”
Rep. Gann charged that in late 2024, Commissioner Hiett stipulated that OCC fuel cases are judicial and his attorney agreed that Hiett is “bound by” Oklahoma’s State Ethics Rules and Code of Judicial Conduct “when serving in a quasi-judicial capacity.” The legislator said despite the agreement, Commissioner Hiett “actively participated in this case, including voting on the March 27, 2025 final order.”
Gann asked the Supreme Court to determine whether the Commission was wrong in relying upon inadmissible OCC Public Utility Division testimony and not complying with the Oklahoma Accountancy Act. He believes the Commission is subject to the Code of Judicial Conduct and that Hiett was wrong for “unlawfully” participating in a matter from which he should have disqualified himself.
Gann also contends the commission was wrong for failing to give notice of the case and its proceedings to PSO’s customers. He says the Commission erred by mistreating his formal complaint as a public comment and it should have set a hearing in the issue. The legislator, in the lawsuit, suggested attorneys for PSO ignored the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct and “failed to report knowledge of “violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct” by Commissioner Hiett.”
Gann also wants the high court to decide whether the Commissioners held an unposted meeting Dec. 16, 2024 and violated the Open Meeting Act by discussing “business, including Commissioner Hiett’s alleged criminal conduct impacting this case.”
Filed on the same day as the PSO Fuel Adjustment Clause challenge was the lawsuit by Reps. Gann, Kevin West and Rick West against a $126.66 million rate hike approved in March for Oklahoma Gas and Electric. The utility had originally filed a $332.54 million rate hike request which was lowered after a joint stipulation agreement was signed by several groups including the Public Utilities Division at the OCC and the Attorney General.
Just as claimed in the PSO challenge, the lawsuit against OGE made the same “criminal conduct” allegations involving Commissioner Hiett’s participation in approval of the rate hike. But they added a challenge that the Commission “erred by not complying with the Oklahoma Accountancy Act” and issued a final general rate proceeding for OG&E “without providing any lawful audit of OG&E’s 2021 Winter Storm bonds as required by law.”
The Commission has stood by one-page audits of the billions of dollars in bonds approved for the major utilities to cover their fuel costs during the storm.
The lawsuit also contends that Commissioner Hiett “unlawfully” took part in the vote and should “rightly have disqualified himself” according to state ethics rules. The three legislators also asked the Supreme Court whether “only” the State Ethics Commissoin has the power to interpret Ethics Rules as Attorney General Gentner Drummond wrote to Rep. Gann on Sept. 18, 2024.
“—whether these collectively necessarily mean that the protectoin of utiliity ratepayers’ constitutional due process rights at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is left in the hands of the State Ethics Commission and the Oklahoma legislature,” they concluded in their suit.
Link to lawsuit over OGE rate casse
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/1061310017-20250417-152239-%20(3).pdf
Link to PSO Fuel Adjustment Clause
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/1061310085-20250417-152008-%20(3).pdf