A lawsuit filed in San Diego demands California Public Utility Commission officials explain why the government agency has hired criminal defense attorneys using taxpayer funds.
The suit filed in federal court Monday alleges the CPUC has violated state code by hiring outside counsel, Sheppard Mullin, without public knowledge or input.
“What we have here is a $49,000 retainer that does not identify who is actually getting that criminal defense,” attorney Maria Severson said Tuesday.
But the CPUC says the state contract manual allows agencies to hire outside counsel, and the California Government Code lets a public entity provide for the defense of criminal actions.
"The CPUC, when faced with responding to a series of complex criminal and civil investigations by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the State Attorney General’s Office, retained the services of an outside law firm with experience in counseling clients faced with responding to state and federal criminal investigations and complex criminal, civil, and regulatory proceedings," said Terrie Prosper with the CPUC in an email to NBC 7.
The suit demands public hearings and expedited proceedings to avoid the destruction of records and emails showing between Southern California Edison and the CPUC commissioners regarding the San Onofre Nuclear Generator Station (SONGS) settlement.
Read details of the lawsuit here.
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Severson is among the critics in San Diego who call CPUC financial settlements in the San Onofre plant shutdown "a sellout" from the standpoint of ratepayers.
In a unanimous vote, the CPUC approved a settlement that requires consumers pay about $3.3 billion over 10 years for the premature closing of SONGS. Shareholders will pay $1.4 billion under the settlement approved in November.
Consumer advocates in San Diego claim it’s an unfair settlement, charging utility customers for electricity they never received.
Former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre is named as plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Monday.
“Public funds are being secretly used to pay attorneys,” Aguirre told NBC 7 Tuesday. “What public official should be free to spend $800 an hour on one of the largest law firms in the world, the white-collar crime unit, to defend the organization when the organization can never be indicted, only the individual.”
Prosper argues the CPUC does not have the "expertise, breadth of experience, resources, or time to handle internally the massive amount of work that needs to be done to effectively manage and cooperate with the investigations, while at the same time fulfilling its duty to act in the best interests of the public."
Aguirre has filed official requests for emails and other documentation regarding dozens of conversations and meetings that led up to the announcement of the SONGS settlement.
Most recently, Aguirre asked why newly installed CPUC President Michael Picker has been deleting all of his emails older than 90 days.
