Page 14 - the NOISE January 2016

newSyearinreview
review by cinDy cole
anti-SMart Meter win ...
In 2015, consumers achieved a significant victory in Arizona on the issue of installation of automated digital meters — so-called smart meters — across the state. Although more than 1 million smart meters have been installed across the state, more than 20,000 Arizonans refused the highly controversial meters. As a result of this consumer stance, patterns of corruption and illegal communications between the arizona corporation commission and the state’s largest utility provider, arizona public Service, have been revealed.
Investigations of both former and sitting ACC commissioners is ongoing. The accusations of an ACC whistleblower early last year has revealed ongoing private communications between APs officials and ACC commissioners during times the ACC was in the process of making deci- sions about rate changes, smart meter refusal fees, and rooftop solar policy. In addition, evi- dence of “dark money” transactions that have filtered campaign contributions to candidates who would be favorable to APs’ every request has also surfaced.
Getting to the bottom of the true nature of these interactions has been forestalled by the less than forthcoming attitudes and actions of our publicly elected commissioners. In fact, one regu- lator, Bob Burns, has even asked Arizona’s lawmakers to change public Records Law to make it more difficult for the public to attain needed information during investigations of state officials.
In the meantime, efforts to obtain the cell phone and texting records of Commissioner Bob Stump have been, well, stumped repeatedly since early last year. The checks & Balances proj- ect, a government and industry watchdog group, has had to resort to legal action. In October, the organization filed a lawsuit to obtain full access to Mr. stump’s records, including those from an additional cell phone and other electronic devices that were not immediately revealed to investigators. In December, Checks & Balances agreed to the appointment of a judge to mediate the list of discovered text messages from the Arizona Attorney General’s office to de- termine which messages were between Mr. stump and members of a list of 18 individuals that Checks & Balances suspect of wrong-doings.
Checks & Balances believes the commissioner engaged in communiqués with at least one “dark money leader, an attorney tied to Arizona Public service, an APs executive, and the two pro-utility ACC candidates who ultimately won the primary and general elections.” APs has been accused of essentially buying the ACC seats of Tom Forese and Doug Little through campaigns run by the arizona Free enterprise club, a pro-business lobbying group. Checks
& Balances suspects that Mr. stump acted as a go-between for the candidates and their cam- paign officials and APs, whose direct communication would be in violation of Arizona election law. It is also widely believed that APs helped former Commissioner Gary pierce’s son in his bid for secretary of state through secret contributions also to the Arizona Free enterprise Club.
It has already been revealed that Mr. stump exchanged 100 texts with Scot Mussi, who is the president and sole board member of the Arizona Free enterprise Club, in the weeks leading up to the 2014 elections. In response to the accusation that these communications were wholly inappropriate and may be in violation of the law, Mr. stump issued his now infamous response that “we have been trying for months to coordinate a double-date to the Phoenix symphony.”
All of this investigating has been conducted by Arizona attorney General Mark Brnovich. But because of large campaign contributions to his own election from pinnacle West, the par- ent company of APs, which were filtered through the Republican attorneys General associa- tion, the AG’s closet is not without its own skeletons. He did assign two of his senior officials to lead the investigation on the ACC/APs connection stating that “I value the public trust and I would not want my participation to become a distraction.”
Perhaps in an attempt to prove the trust-worthiness of his office, or maybe just to provide a scapegoat for public scrutiny, one major step was taken by the AG before 2015 came to an end. In september, Chandler attorney Tom Ryan filed a complaint with the AG’s office against
ACC Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith. He accused Ms. Bitter smith of a conflict of interest that he claimed should disqualify her from serving on the ACC. It turns out that, even before she was elected, Ms. Bitter smith had been working as a lobbyist for cox communications, a company under the regulation of the ACC. she claimed that she worked for the cable division of Cox and only the telephone division falls under ACC oversight. she also heads the South- west cable communications association, some of whose members also offer telephone ser- vices, and continued to do so following her election to the ACC. At the time the claim was filed, Ms. Bitter smith was confident that it would be quickly dismissed. And many ACC critics feared she would be right.
However, on november 30, Mr. Brnovich’s office asked the arizona Supreme court to re- move Ms. Bitter smith from her ACC post. Just over two weeks later, citing the AG’s investiga- tion as “distracting” from her commission duties, Ms. Bitter smith announced her intention to resign from her position as of January 4. The delay was intended to give Governor Doug Ducey the opportunity to find her replacement, who will be appointed to complete her term. By law the replacement must also be a Republican and that individual will have to decide whether or not to run for a full four-year term after the existing term ends just over a year.
Mr. Brnovich also announced that a criminal investigation of Ms. Bitter smith’s activities is on- going so she will still be subject to prosecution if the AG’s office determines that to be necessary. Through all of this controversy, the big benefit for those who have refused smart meter instal-
14 • january 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
illus by tyler BighorSe
lation is that APs has been stopped from initiating fees against them. APs had been approved to charge an initial fee of $50 for those who needed to have an existing smart meter removed and replaced with a non-automated meter. In addition, APs customers without smart meters were set to be charged $10 a month for their rejection of the wireless technology. But since these fees were approved by the ACC during the time that many of the accusations against commissioners occurred, the fees have been indefinitely postponed.
so at least for now, consumers will not be subject to exorbitant fees approved by question- ably elected officials who may or may not be participating in illegal activities while imposing said fees and helping to make a corporate monopoly richer by the minute. Hmmmmm...
uSfS Victory ... Sort of ...
The first half of 2015 was pretty much business as usual for the Red Rock Ranger District here in sedona. Changes to the Red Rock pass that were implemented in 2012 continued without our local rangers responding to a federal ruling in the 9th circuit court of appeals just over a week after the new pass system went into effect.
That ruling called on the United States Forest Service to accommodate public lands visitors who only want to park to go hiking without using agency-provided facilities like bathrooms and picnic tables. The Federal Lands Recreation enhancement act requires fee-free access for people who just want to park to get to a trailhead — and the 9th Circuit Court upheld the letter of that law. But even though this decision was made in 2012, we have yet to see changes to Red Rock Pass to meet that requirement.
However, the cause is not completely lost. In August, the Ranger District announced that it plans to go before the arizona Recreation Resource advisory committee (RecRAC), a feder- al lands citizen’s advisory group, to request some changes to the fee system this spring. Those changes include eliminating fees along the highway corridors through Oak Creek Canyon (Hwy 89A) and the Village of Oak Creek (Hwy 179).
when changes were made in 2012, the UsFs thought that visitors would attempt to avoid fees by parking along the highway roadsides. It was therefore decided to include the roadsides as fee areas as well, even though this was actually in violation of previous decisions that ruled any fee sites must provide amenities in a confined area.
But it turns out that there really is just not enough parking available in those areas at times when they attract high visitation. “we found that people just wanted to be able to park,” the district’s Recreation staff Officer Jennifer Burns told an Open House group in november, “and there is just not enough parking available inside the smaller sites.”
so the proposal that the district will put forward this year will make the Red Rock Pass a little less illegal than it has been. By removing the two highway corridors, the last of the large fee “areas” will be eliminated from the fee system. But the problems with the pass implementation don’t end there.
The fee sites that do exist — and the new proposal will also add two new sites to the system — still do not have a way to accommodate hikers who don’t wish to use the provided amenities.
And, to make matters worse, the UsFs continues to develop sites simply to justify fees.
so some locations that would have been fine to just have a designated parking lot and maybe
a trash can or two are having additional facilities built in order to comply with FLReA’s require- ment of six needed amenities — designated developed parking, a permanent toilet facility, a per- manent trash receptacle, an interpretive sign, exhibit, or kiosk, picnic tables, and security services.
In fact, at the Fay canyon Trailhead there is now a picnic table sitting on blacktop sand- wiched between parking spaces. It is clear the table was added simply to meet the minimum requirements for amenities and not as a convenience or enhancement for visitors. In addition, a single table at a site that contains 42 parking spots does not a picnic site make. In the words of Joni Mitchell, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” and one picnic table, one might add. In the name of money, the Red Rock Ranger District is creating more and more complications for itself through additional facilities maintenance and taking more and more away from the pristine experience of our natural areas.
On Capitol Hill we fared not much better when it comes to access to our federal lands. Grate- fully, however, we have at least been granted more time to address current issues. FLReA was originally due to sunset at the end of 2014 but has now been extended through september 2017.
In september, the Senate committee on energy & Natural Resources held an oversight hearing on reauthorization and reform of FLReA. several senators expressed concerns that increasing recreation fees are interfering with the public’s access to and enjoyment of federal lands. some pointed out that, while recreation fees for public lands have been steadily in- creased, both in amount and in scope, fees for other activities on federal land like grazing, min- ing, and timber collection have not.
Additional hearings on FLReA will likely be held this year. evidence from 2015 indicates a wider concern for a more clear solution that will support better balance between public access and further development of our pristine forests and natural areas. At least we can hope so.
| Cindy Cole is looking forward to a winning 2016.
cindycole@live.com