ATLANTA - Georgia's top attorney said Monday that the state Public Service Commission had no authority to defy a 16-year-old state law when it voted to elect its own chairman and double the length of the office's term.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker's opinion found that the commission did not have the power to extend the term of the chairman from one year to two. He also said the panel couldn't replace a state-mandated rotation with one in which the commission selects its own leader.
The opinion leaves the five-member commission and its newly elected chairman, Stan Wise, in limbo. Critics of the decision say they will call to reconsider the rule change when the panel meets next week, but Wise said he is still uncertain what action he will take.
"This is not the end of the Earth," said Wise, who was set to take the chairman's gavel in July. "But I do believe the commission should be able to select who its chairman is. There's continuity, there's a relationship in the General Assembly."
To opponents, though, the move is a power grab by a trio of commissioners who grew impatient after a proposal that would have allowed them to vote for their own chairman failed in the last hours of the legislative session.
Angela Speir, a former commissioner, calls it "arrogance and abuse of power." And Chuck Eaton, a current commissioner who supported the legislation, said he was forced to call for Baker's opinion after Wise and his allies seemed to flout the law.
"Once it failed, saying we don't believe it was constitutional - I don't know if that plays too well," said Eaton, who said he would call for the rule change to be reconsidered during next week's commission meeting.
The chairman has a range of powers over the commission, which regulates public utilities. Those include choosing what goes on the agenda, ruling on motions and deciding whether certain requests can go forward.
Wise and two other commissioners pushed for the rule change on grounds that the state constitution grants the panel the authority to select its own leader. He argues it was only changed in 1993 by frustrated legislators.
Shaking up the panel's rules, he said, would give the commission's leaders more leverage with state legislators, more time to push their agenda and more familiarity with their powers.
"We're saying simply there's a continuity, there's a professionalism," said Wise. "We're a state agency that holds enormous sway for the lives of Georgians. How silly is it that we can't select our own chairman?"
The critics, though, say it's a bold attempt by the three - none of whom are attorneys - to transform the commission's balance of power while keeping Bobby Baker, arguably the panel's best known consumer watchdog, from ever regaining the chairman's gavel.
And Speir, who is now the deputy director of the consumer watchdog group Georgia Watch, said she and others will be looking to hold the commission's feet to the fire if its leaders don't follow Baker's advice.
"All five commissioners placed their hands on the Bible and swore to uphold the law," she said. "Unfortunately, three of them removed their hand and thumbed their nose at the law. The question is: Which law will they ignore next?"
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