The departure earlier this month of the embattled chair of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Marissa Gillett, wasn’t enough to quell a longstanding series of disputes between Connecticut’s utilities and their state regulators.
A pair of lawsuits remain pending in state courts as of this week alleging wrongdoing by Gillett prior to her resignation. Utility officials, including those at Eversource and United Illuminating, accuse the former chair of wielding unilateral control over the authority throughout her six-year tenure.
If successful, the lawsuits could force PURA to relitigate at least one case in which it denied the rate increases sought by two gas companies owned by UI’s parent company, Avangrid.
In addition, attorneys for the utilities are continuing their fight to uncover records they say will showcase Gillett’s alleged anti-utility bias — with the potential to further undermine past and pending decisions by PURA.
On Monday, the utilities scored an initial victory when PURA offered to resolve one of the lawsuits by conceding that Gillett had violated the law by appointing herself as the “presiding officer” over cases without the approval of her fellow commissioners.
Gillett did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Another recent controversy arising from PURA has to do with the authority’s general counsel, Scott Muska. On Friday, a blog run by former state lawmaker Kevin Rennie published an email in which PURA Executive Secretary Jeff Gaudiosi accused Muska of flouting public records laws and giving “intentionally misleading and false” information under oath.
Muska could not be reached for comment on Monday. A spokeswoman for PURA declined to comment on the allegation, citing an “active personnel investigation.”
Gov. Ned Lamont’s office also declined to comment specifically on the allegation against Muska. A spokesman for the governor, Rob Blanchard, said lawsuits were counterproductive to Lamont’s efforts to reset the relationship between PURA and the utilities — which began with his appointment of four new members to the authority’s board, including new chairman Thomas Wiehl.
“He certainly wants to see things move forward, and continuing litigation is not going to help things in that case,” Blanchard said.
A spokeswoman for Eversource, Tricia Modifica, said in a statement Monday that the company was looking forward to working with Wiehl and the new slate of commissioners. Still, she argued that further scrutiny of Gillett’s actions as chair is warranted.
“Lawful, transparent, and consistent regulatory processes are all essential in order for regulated utilities to provide value to customers for their electric, heat, and water service,” Modifica said. “When that process is opaque and purposely undermined for inappropriate purposes, there is harm. Customers in Connecticut have the right to know what regulatory decisions were made in this manner; how those decisions were made; and what led to various changes to their bills in recent years and, importantly, in future years.”
A spokesperson for Avangrid declined to comment Monday on the company’s active lawsuits.
The allegation against Muska appeared to stem from a lawsuit filed by Avangrid’s two gas utilities, Connecticut Natural Gas Co. and Southern Connecticut Gas. While the case is nominally about PURA’s 2024 decision to slash the companies’ combined revenues by $35 million, attorneys for Avangrid have focused much of their attention on Gillett and whether or not she played a role in drafting an op-ed last year accusing the utilities of spreading “propaganda” regarding their finances.
If Gillett helped write the piece — an allegation both she and authors have repeatedly denied, including under oath — then she should have recused herself from weighing in on the companies’ rate cases, the attorneys argue.
During a hearing in the case in June, Gillett revealed through her attorneys that her personal cell phone had been set to automatically delete text messages after a period of 30 days. The revelation came months after attorneys for Avangrid had first sought access to the chair’s communications — and too late for text messages she exchanged with one of the op-ed’s authors to be recovered.
Since then, the judge overseeing the case, Matthew Budzik, has been probing PURA and about why the disclosure regarding Gillett’s text messages was not made sooner.
At another hearing last week, Budzik reportedly said he was holding Muska and Assistant Attorney General Seth Hollander responsible for misleading the court, according to the Hartford Courant. The paper also reported that Hollander told the judge that “someone at PURA” was aware of the deletion function on Gillett’s phone, but chose not notify the court earlier.
PURA, meanwhile, has offered to resolve the case by agreeing to reconsider the gas companies’ request for a rate increase. Avangrid’s attorneys have rejected that offer for the time being, arguing that the authority is merely seeking to cover up “inconvenient facts” surrounding Gillett’s tenure. (PURA re-upped its offer on Monday, adding the stipulation that Gillett’s actions while overseeing the case were illegal. Avangrid has yet to respond to that filing.)
In a notice to the court on Monday, Avangrid’s attorneys referred to Gaudiosi as a “whistleblower” and used his allegations against Muska, PURA’s general counsel, to bolster their request to depose the authors of the op-ed. A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the allegations.
“Mr. Guadiosi’s [sic] disclosures further demonstrate a deeply rooted culture of noncompliance with document retention and production obligations at the highest levels of PURA,” the company’s filing states. “They also provide additional evidence of PURA’s subversion of its discovery obligations in these very proceedings.”
Budzik has yet to issue a ruling on either the company’s request or PURA’s offer to reconsider the underlying rate case.
Gaudiosi was also set to appear on Monday before the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission to testify on a complaint lodged last year by Eversource alleging that PURA had failed to adequately respond to the company’s public records requests.
That hearing was postponed, however, after the state attorney general’s office filed a notice with the commission stating that “previously unknown information and allegations” were likely to be presented at the hearing. Assistant Attorney General James Zimmer, who is representing PURA in that matter, said he needed more time to prepare a response to the allegations.
The other pending lawsuit alleging wrongdoing dates back to January when a coalition of the state’s largest utilities sued PURA, alleging Gillett had sidelined her fellow commissioners by appointing herself the presiding officer over hundreds of cases and issuing rulings under the guise of the authority. Earlier this month the judge overseeing that case, Elizabeth J. Stewart, dismissed both the state and PURA from the lawsuit on immunity grounds.
However, she allowed the suit to continue against Gillett and two of her fellow commissioners, David Arconti and Michael Caron.
During a hearing in that case last week in Hartford, Thomas Murphy, an attorney for the utilities, sought permission to depose six members of PURA’s staff, including Gaudiosi, Caron and former commissioner Jack Betkoski. Murphy said the depositions were necessary to shed light on the practices that were put in place under Gillett while the agency transitions toward new leadership.
“The best thing for the new commissioners is that they know what happened in the past,” Murphy said.
Stewart, the judge, blocked such depositions from taking place for the time being, but scheduled another hearing in the case for Nov. 3.
PURA’s filing on Monday — conceding that Gillett’s practice of appointing herself presiding officer had violated state law — was submitted by Hollander, the assistant attorney general. He also noted that PURA had agreed to modify its procedures to comply with the law.
The ongoing lawsuits are also taking place as PURA is due to issue a series of major rulings over the next month. Those cases include requests to raise rates for customers of both United Illuminating and the Yankee Gas Company, as well as a proposed sale of Eversource’s Aquarion Water Company to the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority.
The first of those decisions, UI’s request for a rate increase on its electric customers, is due to be released on Tuesday.