A D.C. Council panel voted down a mayoral nominee for the District commission that regulates utilities during a contentious meeting Thursday that had legislators accusing each other of bowing to the whims of utility giant Pepco.
Mayor Vincent Gray‘s second attempt to name consumer advocate and attorney Elizabeth “Betty” Noel to the city’s Public Service Commission was killed when it failed by a 3-2 vote in the Council Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs.
The discussion on the potential conflict of Noel’s past job as the city’s top legal advocate for utility consumers visibly frustrated Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who supports Noel.
| Roll Call | |||
| Yea | Nay | ||
| Yvette Alexander | X | ||
| Muriel Bowser | X | ||
| Mary Cheh | X | ||
| Jim Graham | X | ||
| Phil Mendelson | X | ||
“What’s really behind this is Pepco,” she said, drawing murmurs of approval from the largely consumer advocate audience.
“Pepco wants another puppet on the commission,” Cheh went on. “The current commission is [a] captive of Pepco. They want someone who is meek, compliant — they want puppy dogs. … Betty Noel is nobody’s puppet, and Pepco knows this.”
The three who voted against her nomination said they did so largely because Noel would have to recuse herself from more than half the cases before the PSC because of her involvement in them. That means she’d have half the voting power of her colleagues but still earn the full $146,457 annual salary.
“Her past experience … presents an extreme set of challenges in her ability to perform all of her duties,” Committee Chairwoman Yvette Alexander said.
The nix comes as a blow to Gray, who first nominated Noel last fall then resubmitted the nomination in December following a conflict-of-interest report by an independent panel. In a statement Thursday he noted that while the panel found Noel would have to recuse herself from six of 10 cases, it also found she could still serve as an effective commissioner.
Others who didn’t support Noel also took issue with her attitude
during her October confirmation hearing, characterizing it as “combative,” “argumentative” and “dismissive.”
Ward 1 Jim Graham also said her “high-handed lecturing” didn’t endear her to the committee, but he voted for her confirmation Thursday because of the scores of personal letters he’d received from constituents.
Jim McGrath, chairman of the tenant advocate organization TENAC, said after the vote that the residents lost their chance to have a voice on the commission.
“Why the hell a consumer advocate isn’t good for the public service commission beats me,” he said.
