The stories about shady business practices at Aqua America (in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, etc.) just keep rolling in.  

In our own state, the regulator for the TCEQ whose job it is to decide rate increases is MARRIED to the head of Aqua Texas for our area.

This certainly brings new credence to the notion of government "being in bed with" business in Texas!

 

Ethics complaint filed against Florida water rates regulator for socializing with Aqua America employee while negotiating their rate increase request

  Palm Beach Post, Mar 18, 2011 | by SUSAN SALISBURY

An ethics complaint has been filed against Florida Public Service Commission Chairman Art Graham for allegedly socializing with officials from a water utility that has a rate increase case pending before the commission.

Frank Reams, a Zephyrhills resident, said in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Florida Commission on Ethics that Graham spent an hour conversing over drinks with Aqua America Inc. regional president Christopher Franklin and regulatory counsel Kimberly Joyce.
They were talking in the Renaissance Hotel lobby on Feb. 15 during a national Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Conference in Washington, the complaint states.

• MS research: the society's commitment
• Not your granddad's rehab: researchers are working on new ways to improve balance, dexterity and mobility in MS
• Society's Public Policy Conference will set priorities
• The fuNny page: way back in 1980 something …
• Placebos and nocebos—techniques to optimize MS management?

Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Aqua America's subsidiary Aqua Utilities Florida Inc. has about 16,000 customers in 17 Florida counties, including roughly 1,200 Lake Osborne Estates residents west of Lake Worth.
The company doubled Lake Osborne's rates in 2009 and is seeking another 30 percent increase this year.

Graham could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Reams said Graham did not attend customer meetings the PSC held in October in half a dozen cities where customers asked that the rates not be raised. He filed the complaint after reading news reports that stated Graham and Aqua officials talked for an hour.

While he is not an Aqua customer, Reams said a couple of people at his church are and he became concerned because they cannot afford to pay more for water.

"They have a pending case. They will be deliberating on the 24th of May. We hope to have a bus-load of people at that agenda conference," Reams said.

Graham, a former Jacksonville city councilman, was appointed to the commission in July.

Florida law states that a commissioner must avoid impropriety in all of his activities and must act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the commission.

The Commission on Ethics will set out to determine whether the complaint indicates a possible violation of any law. If so, its staff will start an investigation.

~susan_salisbury@pbpost.com