PHOENIX – Corporation Commission candidates Bill Mundell and Tom Chabin have responded to Don Brandt’s outrageous and misleading endorsements of their opponents.
“Let’s be very clear: we are happy we didn’t receive his endorsement,” said Bill Mundell. “An endorsement from APS should be like a Scarlett Letter for any candidate receiving it. On the day we launched our campaign I stood in this same spot and said that this would be a ‘David vs. Goliath’ battle, and I was right.”
“Don Brandt claims he cares about electricity customers,” added Tom Chabin. “So, if it’s that the case is it unfair to ask why a monopoly utility company making more than $450 million in profits is asking for an 8% rate increase in addition to ‘demand charges’ that could raise customer bills by as much as $265 per month? Why is he getting paid over $12 million per year to run a company that has no competition? That’s $2 million more than the CEO of Apple makes, and yet he still wants to take even more money from his captive customer base. I think we all know who Mr. Brandt truly is concerned about.”
In response to these egregious actions and statements from APS, Mundell and Chabin formally released the following code of ethics policies for the Arizona Corporation Commission:
1. Commissioners and Corporation Commission candidates are prohibited from accepting financial contributions from regulated utilities.
2. Commissioners are prohibited from working for a regulated utility.
3. Commissioners’ relatives are prohibited from working for a regulated utility.
4. Commissioners must disclose the content of all emails, text messages, and any other communication to regulated utilities’ employees, contract lobbyists, or campaign operatives.
5. Commissioners are prohibited from accepting gifts or meals from regulated utilities’ employees, contract lobbyists, or campaign operatives.
6. Commissioners are prohibited from using public dollars to rent luxury cars or stay in expensive hotels in violation of state law.
7. Commissioners are forbidden from secretly coordinating with independent campaign expenditure campaigns in violation of state law.
8. Commissioners are required to publicly examine the financial activities of any regulated utility engaged in spending money on influencing Corporation Commission elections.
9. Commissioners are prohibited from throwing away or destroying state funded technology such as cell phones, laptops, or any other equipment used for communication and Commission related purposes.
This code of ethics will help restore integrity to the Commission and make sure it’s working for the people of Arizona, not political insiders and monopoly utility companies.
“The actions of Mr. Brandt have continually been driven by realizing short-term returns for his shareholders and himself, and not the concerns of the customers,” said Mundell. “That needs to change. I know Mr. Brandt is used to buying fancy lunches for Corporation Commissioners who will do his bidding, but he will just have to find some new lunch buddies once Tom and I are elected.”
“Mr. Brandt thinks by throwing his millions of dollars around and threatening people with lawsuits he will scare people into doing whatever APS wants,” stated Chabin. “We have news for him: we won’t be bullied and we will continue fighting for Arizona’s electricity customers.”
