Forese repays car rental overage

When utility regulator Tom Forese traveled to San Francisco in October to improve the relationship with solar-leasing company SolarCity Corp., he said he thought he was saving the state money by not staying overnight.

But he spent $423 on an executive car during the trip. Because that violated the state limit for what workers can be reimbursed for such service, Forese ended up repaying $323 to the state, according to documents provided to The Arizona Republic in response to a public-records request.

The Corporation Commission billing department caught the expense, Executive Director Jodi Jerich said.

“It was our internal controls that flagged it,” she said.

Forese said he has used the car service, An- gel World Wide, in the past for personal business trips and paid substantially less.

“I just asked my assistant to set it up,” he said. “I never thought it would be 400 bucks. I thought I was saving the state some money coming in and out and not staying overnight.”

Forese said the car was nothing special, just a Lincoln Town Car.

Burns faces new complaint

Corporation Commissioner Robert Burns is facing a new complaint in the Arizona Supreme Court that seeks his removal over a conflict of interest related to being listed as a lobbyist for a telecommunications group when he took office.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office recently ended an investigation into Burns without filing any action seeking his removal, unlike what Brnovich’s office did in the case of regulator Susan Bitter Smith, who resigned amid a similar complaint.

“Our office does not have reason to believe that Commissioner Burns is usurping, intruding into, or unlawfully holding or exercising the office of Corporation Commissioner,” Assistant Attorney General Brunn “Beau” Roysden wrote.

Burns was elected in 2012 and in 2013 began his term on the fivemember commission that regulates utilities.

Burns joined a telecommunications trade group, the Digital Arizona Council, to support a bill in the 2012 Legislature. He resigned from the Digital Arizona Council after he took office as a utility regulator in 2013, according to a letter he provided The Arizona Republic, but an af- filiated group called Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council continued to list him as a lobbyist.

Citizen activist Warren Woodward of Sedona filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office seeking Burns’ removal from office for the conflict of interest.

With Brnovich passing on the case, Woodward took his complaint directly to the court. He said Roysden did not appropriately apply the standard set in Arizona Revised Statutes Section 40-101, which prevents people from being elected to the commission while they have a relationship with a company regulated by the commission.

“Under the law, Burns was conflicted by his official relationship and for however long that relationship lasted, not by his activity during that relationship,” Woodward said.

Burns provided a statement on Woodward’s complaint.

“After conducting a thorough investigation, the Attorney General concluded there were no grounds to bring a quo warranto action,” Burns said. “I am confident the Attorney General correctly dismissed Mr. Woodward’s groundless claim and have faith the Court will reach a similar conclusion.”

Woodward isn’t to be underestimated

Woodward is not an attorney, and it might be tempting to underestimate his legal acumen.

It should, however, be noted that he is mostly responsible for the Arizona Corporation Commission repealing a fee that Arizona Public Service Co. was approved to charge customers who refuse to use smart meters on their homes. In that case, Woodward apparently outmaneuvered both the attorneys at the state’s largest utility and those at the commission.

Furthermore, the Washington, D.C. cleanenergy group called the Checks and Balances Project has been working nearly a year to access Commissioner Bob Stump’s deleted text messages.

Even though the group hired attorney Dan Barr to help with the case, Barr and Checks and Balances didn’t get a single text message from its public records search.

But Woodward did, outpacing the group, if only by a little. He filed a records request for any of Stump’s deleted text messages retrieved from Stump’s phone and was provided a description of one, in which Stump sent a link to Woodward’s blog on smart meters.

At least he knows the regulators were talking about him.