The members of the Public Service Commission, which decides how much you pay for electricity, gas and telephone service, usually don't get too stirred up over the person who leads them.
But now at least one member is asking the state Legislature for help to prevent another member, Tim Echols, from having that post.
Saying he is “embarrassed” by Echols’ actions -- which include using official state letterhead to request complimentary practice round tickets to the Masters -- Public Service Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald Jr. sent a letter to members of the General Assembly requesting advice on how to change the way the PSC picks its chairman.
The position has limited power, but the chairman does set agendas, chooses committee heads and controls meetings and times.
Echols has drawn media attention because of the Masters incident and for racking up expenses -- more than $12,300 during his first seven months in office -- with what he calls a "strenuous speaking schedule" and statewide travel, which sometimes includes family members.
For McDonald, that was enough to take action to ensure Echols would not be the commission's leader. Echols was elected in 2010 and sworn in at the end of December. He is next in line to be chairman, which would happen in January 2012.
"Four of the five members of the commission are very concerned about this and would appreciate any advice from you," McDonald's letter said.
The letter -- sent to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, House Speaker David Ralston, Sen. Jeff Mullis and Sen. David Shafer, and released by McDonald -- included newspaper editorials published in response to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about Echols asking for Masters tickets.
Echols’ actions broke no laws, and he has since said he should not have asked for the tickets because of the “appearance of impropriety.” He also has not included his family members' expenses on his state tab.
Echols told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution McDonald’s letter wasn’t about “any real or perceived controversy with me” and called it a “power grab to protect the establishment.”
“I ran for this office to protect the average Georgian, not to become part of some good old boy club or a tool for the utilities,” an angry Echols said. “Bubba has worked against me even before I was elected, so this letter doesn’t surprise me.”
"I have had enough of it when he writes letters to the Masters and is doing all these things," McDonald told the AJC.
McDonald is a former state legislator who served on the commission for four years until 2002 and then was elected again in 2008. He was PSC chairman in 2010.
McDonald has lobbied in the past for changing how the chairman is picked. The proposal would change an 18-year-old law that rotates leadership annually among the commissioners in favor of letting the group choose a chairman based on majority vote.
“We felt that changing chairman each year was not the best way to run the state’s business,” McDonald’s letter said. “The intent was not to keep any one commissioner from being chairman ... Mr. Echols was not even a candidate when the first bill was introduced.”
The 2012 legislative session starts in January. Last year’s bill, HB 216, was defeated in the House by a 60-103 vote. A new bill must be introduced for the new session.
"If this proposal is introduced, it will be given thoughtful and serious consideration by the House and will be open to the debate and discussion it deserves," Ralston said in a statement.
With the exception of Echols, the other current PSC members -- Stan Wise, Chuck Eaton and Doug Everett -- said they think the process should be changed. But when asked whether the changes directly involved Echols, they declined to comment.
“It’s about a [governing] body being able to choose its own chairperson. I think that makes sense,” Eaton said.
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