Last week, the other members of the Public Service Commission decided to study a ratepayers bill of rights, but it wasn't Presley's prepared one. The Jackson Free Press said, "Presley lashed out at fellow commissioners Lynn Posey and Leonard Bentz" and grew furious when he discovered that his fellow commissioners refused to give his bill an up or down vote."
There are three members on the commission. Two of them had a different idea in mind. So when Presley made his motion, there was no one there to second it. No motion is in order without a second. But Presley flipped out. As the Jackson Free Press reports Presley whines:
"So if a commissioner makes a motion to vote and somebody doesn't want to do it then we don't have to vote on it, because you don't want to take a vote on it? Is that really how this works?" he demanded. "We've spent all this time putting this proposal together and nobody wants to take a vote on it? If you're against it, just vote on it. What are you afraid of?...If you want to vote against this ratepayer's bill of rights, if you want to vote against people who can have their power cut off in the winter time or the summer time, then let's do it, but this is not fair. I circulated this proposition four months ago and nobody's said a word against it until today, and now today we've take this little shift and say we're going to ask the companies to tell us what they think we ought to do to protect ratepayers? I don't understand it."Then came the press releases. Presley's statement described the PSC as making a "curious move" and said "Honestly, I am stunned." Presley wants to write the document but the other commissioners want input from the utilities. Presley called this "asking the fox to protect the hen house." Later he appeared "On Deadline with Sid Salter to say, "I'm just stunned and disappointed...It makes me sick that we set on this for six months...The key comes down to who is leading on this issue, we were elected to lead...that's our job and its just a minor little bit of a disagreement."
The other commissioners were more conciliatory and even praised Presley.
Central District Public Service Commissioner Lynn Posey said in his press release:
Today, the Mississippi Public Service Commission declared its intent to consider the adoption of additional and/or amended rules under their jurisdiction, more specifically a “Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights.” The proposed rule would affect the existing “Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service.” Commissioner Posey stated that, “It has always been this Commission’s intent to adopt a “Ratepayers Bill of Rights” since the idea was first offered by Commissioner Presley, but the majority of the Commission felt that this was the appropriate way to handle this matter.” Additionally Posey stated that, “Commissioner Presley and his staff are to be commended for their efforts in this matter,” and that he “looked forward to their continued input as the Commission moves forward with this project.”Southern District Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz said in his press release that the current proposed bill of rights just needs "tweaking":
“We have been looking closely at a way to adopt a Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights that will be beneficial to each and every Mississippian. The current Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights that has been proposed still needs some tweaking. We have a good outline for a Ratepayers’ Bill of Rights in front of us, but we need to make sure that if it is adopted, that the items that are in it work to protect all ratepayers. For example, we need to look more closely at the protections for Senior Citizens, and some of the guidelines for termination of services.”Later, Bentz appeared on Sid Salter's radio show after Presley and said:
"We're not that far apart on this deal...The commission is united and we're working towards the goal of protecting the ratepayer and you know we've also got to keep the lights on in the state of Mississippi and we're going to continue that goal."Regarding Presley's "fox guarding the hen house" allegation Bentz told Salter:
"But we do need input. We need to know how many cutoffs they've had. We need to know who's paying their bills, who's not paying their bills. We need inputs from them. We need inputs from the ratepayers."And regarding the appearance of animosity from Presley, Bentz said:
"Brandon Presley is my friend. Lynn Posey is my friend. Commissioner or not. And we're going continue to be friends. we're going to have differences of opinions. We're not going to fight about it. We're going to cast our vote and move on. You've seen that at the Commission. There has not been a lot of rancor at the commission. We've tried to move forward in a good positive direction and hopefully we'll continue to move in that direction in the future."Y'all Politics asked, "Are PSC Commissioners Lynn Posey and Leonard Bentz distancing themselves from Brandon Presley?" It appears it might be the other way around. Posey and Bentz want to get input from all parties on a regulation while Presley wants the input to come just from him. He would take his ball and go home if this wasn't his only playground in town. Stay tuned for what happens next.
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