John Russell has a good story in the Indy Star about the cozy relationship between Duke Energy and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s general counsel who recently took a job with Duke. What is more interesting to me are the raw e-mails posted by the Star. (h/t Indiana Law Blog).
Option #1, clearly, is not to get so cozy with the people you’re supposed to be regulating. Be friendly – you have to work with the people; there’s no shame in polite chit chat here and there, but these e-mails seem to reflect a camaraderie that goes beyond the pale.
Option #2, don’t put this yukking it up between government entity and regulatory agency in e-mails going to the government e-mail account. At that point, you’re not even trying.
And both of these things don’t even address the horrible conflicts presented by having a job offer on the table from what is (or should be), in effect, a party adverse to your client.
Mary says
After reading the emails: Are these people even just a little bit smart? And do they actually do any “work” at all, or just send lol-type emails back and forth? Shakes my faith that we are/can be well-served. I am profoundly, profoundly disappointed. Whatever books there are to throw at them, I want those books thrown!
Doghouse Riley says
And Duke Energy is shocked! shocked! to learn that Mike Reed was behaving unethically. Which the local teleprompter readers dutifully reported as though anything Duke said must be true.
And let’s us just remember that it was vital that we give Mitch Daniels his own personal Grand High Ethics Inquisitor his first month in office, so he could look for corruption in previous Democratic administrations. If you really wanted to look out for bribery, influence peddling, and a cozy relationship between regulators and regulated, or “regulated”, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t have been watching the IURC like a cat watches a pet canary.