For the third time in as many years, state Public Service Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald is pushing for a change in how the PSC names its chairman.
With most of the PSC in support, McDonald is lobbying for a bill that would change an 18-year-old law that rotates leadership annually between commissioners.
House Bill 216 says a majority of the five-member commission could choose a chairman instead.
It would likely give McDonald and his PSC allies Stan Wise and Doug Everett a lock on the chairmanship for years. The three are a voting bloc at the PSC, often leaning toward utilities.
The chairmanship role has limited power. But the chairman does set agendas, chooses committee heads and controls meeting rules and times.
McDonald pushed a similar bill in 2009 with no success. He, Wise and Everett then voted the change through at the PSC. But the state's attorney general said the move was illegal.
This week, McDonald told a House subcommittee that the bill would cut costs by letting a chairman serve multiple years. "Now, we have to change our stationery every year," he said.
He also said no business would change its chief executive every year.
State Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates, led the opposition. She said the current system has worked for 18 years and that the change would entrench one PSC faction.
The bill initially promised to divide the PSC. New member Tim Echols, scheduled to become chairman next year, rallied his supporters on Facebook and Twitter in an effort to defeat HB 216. Echols is unlikely to win a chairmanship vote: In his first two months in office, his frequent media events riled some colleagues.
"I had hoped the House would leave our current protocol intact and allow me to become PSC chairman next year," he said later in a statement. "At the end of the day, though, I trust the process and the members to do what is best for the citizens of our state."
HB 216 passed out of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee on Wednesday. It could be up for a floor vote next week.
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