RCA's lack of leadership starts with the Dunleavy-appointed commissioners

None of the four Regulatory Commission of Alaska commissioners employed by the state attended an important hearing in Juneau on increasing funding levels for the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

Instead, two managers of the RCA were asked to make the case for more funding to the House Labor & Commerce Committee.

Some or all of the RCA commissioners, who are full-time state employees making about $116,000 a year, should have been there. They are in charge of the agency, which regulates utilities and pipelines and approves rates. The work is highly complex.

Here is the March 25 meeting the commissioners missed.

Another hearing that had been set for Friday on the bill was canceled.

This failure by the commissioners to show up is another piece of evidence about how the agency lacks the leadership that Alaska needs. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has taken to appointing political supporters to the commission.

As with other state jobs under the governor’s control, the first qualification to be appointed to anything is to not have signed the recall petition.

The commissioners should have been at the hearing in person or online to defend the request for additional funds, explain why one-third of the agency’s staff positions are vacant, answer questions on internal operations, respond to questions about what is lacking and talk about their vision of what the RCA needs to better serve Alaskans.

The measure under consideration, House Bill 313, would increase the fees paid by utility customers that pays for the RCA’s operations. The caps on these fees were set 20 years ago. The fee would be raised from about 67 cents to 94 cents on a 650-kilowatt hour monthly bill.

The Dunleavy energy task force recommended raising the caps to better fund the RCA.

“At this time in Alaska’s history, one very tangible way of supporting the RCA would be to provide the resources necessary to fully fund the RCA to recruit, hire, and retain the people needed to execute the critical task of regulating a utility infrastructure buildout and transformation that will affect Alaska for decades to come,” the task force said.

As I wrote here last month, the challenge of regulating Alaska’s utilities got worse when the six-year term of the only lawyer on the commission, Janis Wilson, ended.

Gov, Mike Dunleavy has yet to appoint a replacement for Wilson. The state boards and commissions website has not been updated to reflect the end of Wilson’s term.

That leaves the RCA with only four members, three appointed by Dunleavy and one reappointed by Dunleavy. The latter is Robert Pickett, who has been on the RCA since 2008, when he was named by Gov. Sarah Palin.

The other RCA commissioners are Robert Doyle, Keith Kurber and John Espindola.

Espindola’s biography on the RCA website lists his more than three years as Dunleavy’s personal assistant first on his short list of credentials. Espindola is facing a confirmation vote by the Legislature this year.

Pickett is the only commissioner who clearly meets the existing minimum requirements in state law to serve on the RCA.

The law says that members must be a member of the Alaska Bar Association or have a degree in certain finance-related areas. “Actual experience for a period of five years” in law or engineering, finance, economics, accounting, business administration or public administration are the equivalent to a degree, the law says.

Kurber is a retired military officer and retired preacher who got campaign help from Dunleavy and ran for the Legislature and lost. His wife was a campaign donor to Dunleavy in 2022.

Doyle is a former school superintendent. He was a campaign donor to Dunleavy in 2022. He says his master’s degree in administration from UAA makes him qualified under the current law. His biography on the RCA website says he earned a master’s in “educational leadership.”

Espindola is a former personal assistant to Dunleavy.

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