When Georgia Power Co.’s law firm appears before state utility regulators, one of those regulators, Stan Wise, finds himself listening to his son’s employer.
Adam Wise, 30, has worked for the past year as an associate at Troutman Sanders, the prominent Atlanta firm that argues Georgia Power’s case before the Public Service Commission on rates, power plant expansion plans and other matters.
Stan Wise, elected to the PSC to regulate utilities and look out for consumers, says he sees no reason to mention the family connection at public hearings or to recuse himself from any votes.
“A conflict would only exist if my son worked for a utility or represented a utility before the PSC. Neither is true,” Wise told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It would be a stretch to suggest that a conflict in the discharge of my duties is apparent because my son practices nonutility law in Washington.”
Adam Wise is in Troutman Sanders’ office in Washington, where he specializes in issues of federal regulation of electricity and gas.
State law and PSC rules forbid commissioners from owning stocks or bonds in companies that do business before them. They also cannot use their influence to get a family member a job. There is no rule on conflict of interest beyond that, the agency’s spokesman said.
Other PSC members say the connection between the Wise family and Troutman Sanders is either none of their business or not a conflict.
Some people outside the PSC aren’t as sure.
“He may see no conflict, but it’s best to go on the safe side,” said Warren French, who recently retired as the University of Georgia’s I.W. Cousins Professor of Business Ethics.
“Even though you think you can make an objective decision, certainly the appearance [of not making one] can be there for people who don’t agree with your ruling.”
Wise is seeking a fourth term at the PSC. His opponent in the July 31 Republican primary, Pam Davidson, recently raised the issue of conflict of interest between Wise and Troutman Sanders after he challenged her educational background and financial disclosures filed with the state. An AJC review found some information was incorrectly stated.
“It’s pretty cozy,” Davidson said of Wise’s votes on matters in which Troutman Sanders argued on Georgia Power’s behalf.
Wise, a former insurance agency owner, said his son interned at the White House, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the International Trade Commission. He joined Troutman as an intern in 2009 and was hired as an associate two years later.
Troutman’s 100-person Energy and Energy-Related Practices Division has two section chiefs. One oversees D.C.-based attorneys, including the younger Wise, who work on federal energy issues. The other section chief is Kevin Greene, who supervises attorneys who work on state energy issues.
Greene is Georgia Power’s lead trial counsel. Greene and other Troutman attorneys have represented Georgia Power in front of the PSC for at least 20 years. Recently, Troutman has successfully helped Georgia Power negotiate a rate hike, a reduction in fuel costs and the right to build the nation’s first new nuclear reactors in 30 years.
Greene also has testified before the state Legislature in favor of a controversial bill to let Georgia Power collect the financing costs from those two reactors before they are built. Wise’s campaign touts that measure, which led to a separate nuclear power fee on customer bills, as a move that will save consumers money in the long run.
Greene and two other Troutman attorneys recently appeared before the PSC in a hearing that reviewed the costs and schedule of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle expansion project. Besides the formal part of the hearing, there was little interaction between attorneys and the PSC members.
Wise said the same goes for outside of the hearing room.
“Most of the attorneys ... limit their contact with the commissioners to the hearing,” he said. “That’s their call. I think that’s the way they’ve chosen to do their governance.”
Troutman Sanders said Adam Wise was hired after completing a rigorous summer associate program.
“His father had no input in our hiring decision,” the firm said in a statement sent to the AJC. “The firm also has put strict measures in place that prohibit Adam from working on Southern Co. matters.”
Southern is Georgia Power’s parent company.
Kerwin Swint, a professor in Kennesaw State University’s political science department, said the connection might raise eyebrows.
“Just out of appearances and out of public interest, there seems to be a conflict there,” he said.
But he added: “Some of these [issues] are unavoidable. People have jobs; people have lives.”
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