Senate, House bills differ on PRC qualifications

SANTA FE – The Senate and House are on a collision course with legislation setting qualifications for Public Regulation Commission members – the trickiest of the reforms mandated last year by voters.

The House unanimously passed its version of the legislation on Thursday.

In the Senate, meanwhile, a significantly different bill cleared its last committee and headed to the floor for a vote.

Deciding on qualifications for the powerful, five-member utility regulatory panel has prompted extensive debate over how to ensure commissioners are up to the complex task without precluding too many people from serving.

The House-approved bill says future commissioners must have at least 12 years of pertinent professional experience or higher education resulting in a degree, or a combination of the two.

It also would require them to get 80 hours of continuing education in their first year in office, and 40 hours a year after that – or face having their pay docked.

There are currently no qualifications for the elected commissioners, except to be 18, have lived in the state for a year, and not be a felon.

The PRC has been rocked by scandals; two members had to resign because of felony convictions.

Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park, told his House colleagues he heard voters’ concerns during his unsuccessful run for a PRC seat.

“There’s a lot of frustration out there, and I really appreciate the bipartisan effort to put some trust back into that board,” McCamley said.

The House legislation is a combination of House Bills 47 and 89.

The Senate version of the qualifications bill was approved by the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday; it goes next to the floor.

It would require that future commissioners be either licensed lawyers, engineers or certified public accountants; or to have five years of senior management experience in a relevant private-sector business or organization; or to have three years heading a government department responsible for utilities, transportation or construction.

Proponents of the two-page Senate bill say the seven-page House bill is too complex and open to challenge, including its determinations of what constitutes relevant professional experience.

Sen. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque, who proposed the current version of Senate Bill 8, said his plan is simple and “easy to understand.”

The Senate version would require commissioners to take a college-offered ethics course initially and a two-hour ethics course annually.

And the Senate bill also would require that gubernatorial appointees to fill vacancies on the PRC be confirmed by the Senate.
— This article appeared on page A6 of the Albuquerque Journal