BY LINDA BENTLEY | JULY 17, 2013
Vice Mayor Adam Trenk’s recusal refusal
CAVE CREEK – During the June 25 special meeting of the town council, Vice Mayor Adam Trenk (r) recused himself from an agenda item that had to do with his client TC Thorstenson’s Hogs and Horses development.
However, earlier in the same meeting he didn’t feel a need to recuse himself from discussion of an agenda item that dealt with property also owned by Thorstenson.
Well, this past Monday night’s council meeting seems to have brought more of the same, with Trenk not only not recusing himself from an agenda item that is an apparent conflict of interest, he presented it.
Trenk presented a resolution requesting that the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) “maintain the current net metering policy and continue to promote customer choice and provide retail rate credit for excess energy generated on site.”
APS is seeking to alter its metering policy, which the resolution states will negatively impact existing and future net metering customers and asks the ACC not to authorize the implementation of a fee for solar customers.
Trenk not only presented the resolution, he badgered a Cave Creek resident who spoke on behalf of APS, which Trenk referred to as a monopoly while calling its proposal state-sanctioned corporate welfare.
The APS representative explained it was a revenue neutral position and simply a fairness issue so that non-solar customers don’t subsidize solar customers who still require access to the grid but don’t pay for it.
Well it turns out Trenk has a dog in this fight too.
Trenk is employed by the Rose Law Group, which represents SolarCity, Solar Eco Energy, Solar Engineering Group LLC, Southwest Solar, Brilliant Green Energy, Inc. and more.
Jordan Rose, head of Rose Law Group and her husband Jason Rose of Rose, Moser & Allyn Public Relations also represent TUSK, the acronym for Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed.
In fact, there is YouTube video of Jason Rose appearing on Horizon as a TUSK representative, discussing the “monopolistic utility challenges to solar energy choice in Arizona.”
Jason Rose’s PR firm also represents The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), which, like TUSK, presented the same push for net metering earlier this month and asked the ACC to provide fair compensation for customer investments and end solar customers’ subsidies to APS.
It’s not a matter of whether or not APS is in the right or wrong on this matter, it’s a matter of Trenk having what appears to be a very obvious conflict of interest.
