PSC plan could alter rules for residency, chairman

Two Georgia Public Service Commission members want to change the rules of their office.

Doug Everett and Lauren McDonald are pushing a bill at the Legislature that would get rid of a requirement that commissioners be elected from separate geographical districts.

The bill, which Everett expects to see introduced this week, would also eliminate the commission’s current practice of rotating its chairmanship every year.

The PSC chairman doles out committee chairmanships, oversees commission meetings and can influence how, when and if the commission will handle utility issues.

Under the Everett-McDonald proposal, a majority of the five-member commission would select the chairman. The chairman would stay in place for three years or until his or her term as a commissioner expired. But two commissioners could ask for a new election in the interim.

The residency requirements have been in place since 1998 and require commissioners to run statewide but from one of five districts.

The then-Democratic Legislature approved the residency law to bring geographic diversity to the PSC. They also did so at a time when metro Atlanta Republicans had been picking off Democrats in PSC races.

“All the current law does,” Everett said, “is disenfranchise 80 percent of the people, keeping them from running. And it doesn’t do what it’s intended to do.”

The residency requirement has created stretched living arrangements and legal challenges over the years.