Highly paid PSC officials not showing up at the office

"It's clearly no indication of whether you are or are not doing your job," he said. "The rates that the public pays, that's an indication of what we're doing. We're not facing the bankruptcy of our utilities. We're not seeing the rate shock we see in other parts of the country."

The AJC and WSB obtained the key-card data through an open-records request so they could develop a snapshot of the work habits of some of the best-paid public officials in the state. Key-card data is an imperfect way to measure attendance, though. Commissioners may also use a regular key to unlock their office doors, an action that would not be logged.

Since 1998, state law has required the five members of the Public Service Commission to work full-time at their PSC jobs. The members are responsible for decisions worth millions of dollars to the state’s biggest gas and electric monopolies and their customers.

Wise's most frequent opponent on the PSC was his opposite in attendance, too.

Baker showed up 94 percent of workdays in the two-year period, 96 percent of the time before noon.

Two other PSC members were in the middle.

Commissioner Doug Everett showed up 73 percent of working days, 99 percent of them before noon. Commissioner Chuck Eaton clocked 72 percent of working days, 86 percent of them before noon.

The commission’s newest member, Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, trailed the pack,  appearing in the data only 40 percent of working days since taking office last year. But McDonald also has a door into his office outside of the secured key-card area, making the badge data less reliable for him than for the other commissioners.

The commission officially dismissed the data analysis. In a written statement, it said key cards are intended for security and not to measure attendance. Commissioners can enter their offices without creating a record in a number of ways, the statement said, including holding the door for each other.

“The only true indicator of attendance at the PSC is the official meeting minutes," the PSC statement said.

A review of those records since 2008 shows that five commissioners attended 83 of the 100 meetings for which minutes were kept, which accounted for one out of five work days since then.

As with Wise, the PSC statement said commissioners shouldn’t be judged by their attendance at the office in any case: ”Some commissioners will argue that if they are in the Capitol office every day, they are not being responsive to constituents who are out in the district.”

It’s a philosophy not shared by commissions in three neighboring states. Officials at commissions in Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina all said their regulators keep regular office hours.

“With the exception of night meeting days, they treat it as a full-time job in the office,” said Bob Bennink, of the North Carolina commission.

A Georgia activist with a long interest in the PSC’s actions also believes commissioners should show up.

“Public servants who are compensated at the level of the Public Service Commission owe it to the public to keep regular daily office hours," said Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club.

“Anything less is nothing but contempt for the people who are paying them.”

Must live in districts

Georgia is one of a handful of states that elects commissioners, making its members politicians as well as regulators.

State law requires PSC members each to live in one of five separate geographic districts – some far from Atlanta -- despite the fact that they run statewide and are supposed to represent the whole state.

Two rent apartments in Atlanta to perform their jobs here during the week. One owns two homes.

The legal requirements of the job are less problematic for Eaton and Wise, both of whom live in easy commuting distance. Eaton lives in Atlanta and Wise in Marietta.

The state allows commissioners use of a state car for commuting, but only Wise is now taking advantage of that.

Commissioners are supposed to have no other employment while serving on the commission, and all five said they did not.

"I try to schedule my political responsibilities for after hours," Baker said.

Baker is a lawyer who is not practicing but has kept his license current. Eaton sold real estate before joining the commission, but has let that license lapse. He is in law school at Georgia State but goes only at night.

Everett is retired. McDonald is still listed as a part of the staff at the funeral home firm he founded in 1997, but his son runs the business.

Wise is a licensed insurance agent and has kept his license current.

Wise  said he has written only two policies since taking office, both more than a decade ago. He said he once thought he could maintain some of his insurance practice but quickly learned he couldn't: "Quite honestly, they weren't getting the service they were entitled to. I'd see some of them maybe once or twice a month."

He said even his residual income from pre-PSC insurance clients has dwindled to nothing. "My insurance business is a shell," he said.

Why they go to the office

The three commissioners who show up at the office most often all gave one overriding reason for that.

"If a constituent wants to talk to you, it's much easier for everyone if they know where to find you," said Baker.

"People know where they can find me," said Everett.

"People know where to find me," said Eaton.

Baker, whose attendance dwarfs all of his colleagues', said he shows up so regularly because he believes that's what the job demands.

"This commission is responsible for the management of this agency," Baker said. "You can't manage it from a distance."

Baker said it also gives him good access to the commission's staff experts, "a valuable resource for analyzing the cases we have before us.  . . . If I have a question I send an email and they'll come down the hall and talk face to face, get into a more in-depth discussion of an issue or a case."

Everett said he shows up at his commission office just after dawn four days out of five most weeks, and stays  through mid-afternoon. "People who want to see you, 98 percent of them are here. The phone companies, the marketers, the electricity folks, they're here in Atlanta.

"That door is open. You don't have to knock. It's better to be here."

Everett and Eaton defended their more absent colleagues. "You could probably do the whole job without showing up. You email me, I email you back. Another commissioner does the job just as well that way. But I like to do things eyeball to eyeball, rather than talking on the phone. I'm more of a hands-on guy."

Eaton said he could see the temptation of examining complicated issues from home, away from the distractions of the office.

The two commissioners who showed up the least -- Wise and, to the extent the data is accurate, McDonald --  both said they work their commission jobs outside of the office.

Until this year, "I had a district office in Turnerville," said McDonald. "I pay for it out of my own pocket. I don't have to prove anything to anybody."

When he's not there and not downtown, McDonald said he's "with people. I'm speaking at Rotary Clubs. I'm going to electric membership cooperative annual meetings. I go to solar farms, and all the different things that I think make up this job."

"As far as dockets and things, I can read them from my house," he said.

Wise has no district office in Marietta but said, "There are various ways to communicate."

"There's the Internet. There are cell phones. If a ratepayer or constituent wants to see me they can make an appointment.  I’m accessible to anyone and everyone that wants to see me. I do work full time.”

Wise is also active with the National Association of Utility Regulators and said he gives a lot of speeches outside of Georgia and attends conferences in other states.

"The only people who really stop by to see anybody at their PSC offices are the lawyers and lobbyists that the newspaper has consistently maligned anyway," Wise said, referring to the utility representatives with business in front of the commission.

Of his colleagues, Wise said "We choose to do our jobs differently. But am I doing my job? The answer is yes."

Database editor John G. Perry contributed to this article.

Reporting partner

Atlanta's most experienced investigative journalists -- the AJC and Channel 2 Action News -- worked together to produce this story. See Richard Belcher's report on wsbtv.com.