OPINION: An unfair ending for two decent public servants

Dec. 5—What was state Public Regulation Commissioner Cynthia Hall's great failing?

A nominating committee chaired by state House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, chose nine finalists for the newly constituted PRC. The regulatory body will change in January from an elected panel of five to three members appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.Hall, D-Albuquerque, didn't make the cut. There must have been a reason she was passed over after twice being elected to the PRC and serving without fear or favor for six years.

Did Hall doodle all over the nominating committee's meeting agenda? Did she park in someone else's space or drink the last cup from the committee's coffeepot?

Hall is innocent of petty social offenses and all other claims. She is guilty only of voting her conscience. That was enough to end her career on the PRC, as her biggest decision didn't comport with the views of many powerful politicians.

Hall opposed the acquisition of Public Service Company of New Mexico by Connecticut-based behemoth Avangrid. Hall said the deal would be bad for New Mexico.

Her position was more than defensible. It was sensible.

Ashley Schannauer, the PRC hearing examiner, recommended the acquisition be denied based on risks outweighing benefits. The downsides included potential power outages, service problems and loss of local control.

Commissioner Stephen Fischmann, D-Las Cruces, led the elected panel in its 5-0 vote rejecting Avangrid's acquisition of PNM.

"Avangrid's record and the record of its parent company, Iberdrola, are atrocious," Fischmann told me in a recent interview. "The issue was whether this was an appropriate partner we could trust or was it a shotgun marriage."

Fischmann did not bother applying for appointment to the PRC. He said he had no chance to be selected based on two high-profile votes that alienated other politicians.

The decision that drew the most attention was Fischmann's stand against the merger between PNM and Avangrid. Lujan Grisham supported the deal. So did former two-term Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, who wrote a public letter endorsing it.

Even former three-term New York Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, waded into the controversy on behalf of Avangrid. Pataki wrote a column in The New Mexican extolling the company's virtues. The idea that a suburban New Yorker has a grip on what's best for New Mexico is as wild as the West itself.

The other splashy and politically unpopular decision by Fischmann, Hall and other elected members of the Public Regulation Commission centered on Facebook. The commissioners voted 5-0 to charge the social media giant $39 million for a transmission line to its data center in Los Lunas.

An executive of Public Service Company of New Mexico told regulators the line would benefit only Facebook. The commissioners in turn directed the utility company to bill Facebook rather than a broader group of customers. PNM later claimed its executive misspoke, but the PRC stuck to its decision.

The Albuquerque Journal shrieked in an editorial that the Public Regulation Commission delivered a potentially job-killing "stick it to PNM/Facebook vote." State Rep. Kelly Fajardo, R-Los Lunas, ignored every fact in the case to charge that Facebook was "caught in the crossfire" of a feud between utility regulators and PNM.

Charging consumers for someone else's electricity doesn't seem like a fair bargain, unless you happen to be Fajardo or another politician with no responsibility for utility regulation.

Unlike Fischmann, Hall applied for appointment to the PRC after these controversies. She told me months ago she was confident she would not be selected.

As for the reason she was bypassed, she didn't mention PNM or Avangrid. "I think it may have had to do with making a clean break from an old commission to a new commission," Hall said.

But she was also conscious of political considerations when I asked about the corporate acquisition she opposed. "The governor wants it," Hall said. "That's clear. That's always been clear."

The three people Lujan Grisham nominates for appointment to the PRC will have to be confirmed by the state Senate. It's a low hurdle. Other than Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque, no one on the panel that evaluates nominees asks anything resembling a tough question.

Avangrid and PNM probably will get another crack at the deal they covet when the newly appointed commissioners take office.

Hall and Fischmann would have been good choices. They would have provided institutional memory and independence from all those politicians who live to pander. Fischmann took more heat than a blast furnace. Hall didn't fold when critics claimed she might have a chilling effect on progress.

Both commissioners considered the interests of utility companies without hurting the little guy. It was a thankless job. They did it pretty well.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.