Jones challenges Hall to earn back former PRC seat

Sept. 30--LAS CRUCES -- Four years ago, Republican Ben Hall won the District 5 seat on the Public Regulation Commission being vacated by Democrat Sandy Jones, who had decided to run for land commissioner instead. This year, Jones is challenging Hall to get his old seat back.

Both promised that if elected they will work hard and be available for residents of the district.

The PRC regulates a wide variety of businesses in New Mexico including public utilities, telecommunications and transportation services. It has cut its weekly meetings from two to one, and some commissioners just show up once a week now, Hall said.

"People asked me, 'what's wrong with the PRC,' In my mind, what's wrong with the PRC are the commissioners. They don't tend to business," Hall said. "And I try to tend to business."

That means an open-door policy where all are free to discuss their concerns with him, Hall added.

Jones said when he was on the PRC, constituent services were a top priority.

"We came to the district. We did open meetings and we brought staff down here. We just really tried to make the PRC available to the citizenry," Jones said. "We moved a rate case hearing here. They may not have been all that well attended, but at least somebody had a chance to see what we were doing."

Both men were critical of changes made to the PRC two years ago when voters approved a number of constitutional amendments following a string of embarrassing scandals at the commission. Former Commissioner Jerome Block was convicted on two felony counts regarding his use of a state credit card, and Carol Sloan was removed from the PRC following a felony battery conviction.

Both Hall and Jones said creation of the new insurance commission was especially troubling, as insurance companies can make donations to legislators and the governor who appoint the new insurance oversight board that those companies could not, by law, have made to members of the PRC. They also noted that qualifications to run for the PRC are now greater than to run for president of the United States.

Hall noted that Jones was a part of the commission when the scandals were happening and accused him of doing nothing to stop them.

"Commissioner Block had been there two years before that, doing exactly the same things," Hall said. "We caught him at it in March 2014. The commission before that sat there for two years letting him do what he was doing."

Hall said one of the changes he helped institute was to reduce the salaries of the top PRC staff to no greater than the commissioners.

"We cut them all down to $90,000 and some of them didn't like it and some of them quit," he said.

Jones questioned the wisdom of that decision.

"If we're going to go up against a $450-an-hour attorney from PNM, then we ought to be playing on the same playing field," he said. "We're talking about very technical, highly complicated issues that we need to have the same caliber of people."

Jones said his work on behalf of PNM during his last term in office helped rescue that company.

"Their bond ratings were being downgraded monthly, and I actually went out and met in Houston with a number of the finance people and we worked with the Wall Street surveys," he said. "We were very proactive in letting Wall Street know that we believe in regulatory certainty. We believe the company needs to be healthy. And as a result of that, we saw PNM's ratings come back."

Jones said the tricky part of setting rates is establishing a return on the company's investment.

"If they sell 10,000 kilowatt hours for 10 cents and it costs them 10 cents, they don't get to sell it for 10 1/2 cents," he explained. "For the utilities, their money is on the return on capital investment. If they build a power plant for $200 million, we allow a return on that investment. That's the devil. Is it 10 percent, 10.2 percent, 11 percent, 14 percent? That is the one thing that is an art to figure out what that is."

It's important, Jones said, that the companies stay healthy, but that customers are also protected.

"They're going to throw everything out and hope the other side misses something," Jones said of the utility companies. "But the truth of the matter is, everything gets audited, everything gets proven."

Hall said all it takes is the ability to read and a little common sense.

"I see where Sandy says how complex this whole thing is ... It's as complex as you want to make it. Plus the fact, you've got a room full of lawyers, that makes it 10 times more complex than it ought to be," he said. "Basically, rate making is a matter of numbers. If you can comprehend what you read, you can tell whether they need that money or not. And most of the time they don't need near as much as they ask for."

Walter Rubel can be reached at 575-541-5441.

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