Nick Myers is running for the Arizona Corporation Commission because he says he can make a difference in how the big utilities in the state operate, something he learned firsthand in a dispute with the notorious Johnson Utilities water company.

Myers is competing for one of two seats available on the five-member commission this year. The Corporation Commission is an office created by the Arizona Constitution that oversees utility rates, securities regulation, pipeline safety and railroad crossings.

Myers battled with Johnson Utilities over access to a water spigot used by hundreds of customers to haul water to their rural properties.

“He got away with abusing the ratepayers for 20 years,” Myers said of company owner George Johnson.

Johnson cut access to the spigot, called a standpipe, for Myers and all his customers. Johnson would only allow a water-hauling company run by his family to access it, forcing customers to pay that company for water. After Myers and others challenged the utility, the Corporation Commission required its reopening.

Johnson Utilities eventually sold after the Corporation Commission and Department of Environmental Quality tussled with the company for years over sewer spills, service issues, poor water quality and maintenance problems at its facilities.

After winning that standpipe battle, Myers lost a bid for the Arizona Legislature in 2018. Myers campaigned in 2020 for the commission but did not qualify for the ballot. Meanwhile, Commissioner Justin Olson’s policy advisor left because she was elected to the Legislature, and Olson hired Myers to replace her.

Since then Myers has helped Olson and gotten an up-close view of the office.

Myers has background in technology

Myers is originally from Kansas and graduated from University of Kansas. He worked as a software engineer for about 18 years, including working for Intel and satellite communications companies, he said.

Then he left corporate jobs and launched a variety of small businesses, from running a train service for children’s parties to hauling water for rural residents. He has run a dog boarding business with his wife for six years and has worked as a policy advisor to Olson for about a year and a half. He and his wife have three children.

He said he’s running, even though the job doesn’t pay as well as the small businesses, because he thinks after winning a small victory against Johnson Utilities he has the required skill set to make a change on the commission.

“Call it a civic duty,” he said. “Sometimes you just get a calling and you can’t turn it up because you would feel like crap if you did.”

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He says that while his initial interest in the commission came from his experience as a customer of Johnson Utilities, he sees a variety of issues he'd like to address at the commission.

“There needs to be somebody who is in there for the right reasons,” he said.

While he doesn't have a background in utilities, few commissioners do have that experience when initially elected. And he said his work as a policy advisor has prepared him for the work of a commissioner.

He participated in “rate school” through the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners when he took the job as Olson’s policy advisor. It’s an annual crash course for new regulators and staffers to understand the accounting concepts that are unique to the utility world.

No support for renewable mandates

Myers said he would preferably repeal the existing renewable-energy standard the commission passed in 2006. But he said it’s unlikely the commission could effectively eliminate that mandate.

“The current mandates have the effect of forcing technology down the utilities’ throats before the technology is ready,” he said, citing recent fires at battery storage facilities as an example.

He said the standards can also force utilities to contract with emerging technology for decades when cheaper electricity likely would become available before those contracts expire. The commission has debated one such contract with a massive solar plant outside Gila Bend.

“Do I think climate change is real? Yes, absolutely," he said. "I think maybe we disagree maybe on how we got here and what is causing it and what is actually going to clean it up. Do I think the cost should be borne on the backs of private utility ratepayers? Not necessarily.”

He said utilities contribute to greenhouse gasses but they are not the only contributor.

Even though the Arizona Legislature recently repealed the portions of state law that allow companies to compete with the big electric companies for customers, Myers said he still supports so-called retail competition.

“I suspect that issue is not dead,” he said.

Commissioners recently voted to reduce the profitability of Arizona Public Service Co., the biggest company they regulate. Among the reasons cited was poor customer service. Myers said that decision resonated with him because of his own experiences with poor customer service from a utility.

“Do I like the fact we used the hammer we have to force an issue? Absolutely. Do I like the fact that all the utilities in Arizona were downgraded in credit status because of it? I do not. That ultimately impacts the ratepayers, too,” he said of that decision regarding APS.

But on the other hand, he said, the commissioners have to rein in utilities at times.

“You can’t just allow the utilities to get away with murder,” he said.

Concern ethics rules could go too far

Myers acknowledges that the commission has faced ethical controversies in recent years.

To address those problems, the commission passed a code of ethics. But Myers also has concerns that some ideas proposed for the commission's code of ethics could go too far and create problems of their own and prevent the regulators from doing their jobs.

For example, he said, if commissioners had to recuse themselves from voting on any matters that involve people who donated $5 to their campaign to help them qualify for Clean Elections funding, commissioners could have to recuse themselves from a host of issues.

He said utilities acting in bad faith could “weaponize” such a rule by having workers donate $5 to a candidate’s campaign and later forcing that commissioner to recuse from a vote dealing with that utility.

Myers described “hunting” down a Republican running mate before recruiting Mesa Councilman Kevin Thompson to team up with for this year's race. There are two seats available on the commission this year with Olson choosing to run for the U.S. Senate, losing in the primary, and Democrat Sandra Kennedy’s term ending, forcing her to run for re-election.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Corporation Commission 2022 Republican candidate: Nick Myers