Announcer: This streaming event
brought to you by- -: To establish a quorum,
will the Agenda Clerk please call the roll?
Agenda Clerk: Commissioner Shiroma?
Shiroma: Present.
Agenda Clerk: Commissioner Guzman Aceves?
Guzman Aceves: Here.
Agenda Clerk: Commissioner Randolph?
Randolph: Here.
Agenda Clerk: Commissioner Rechtschaffen?
Rechtschaffen: Present.
Agenda Clerk: President Batjer
Batjer: Here.
Thank you, a quorum has been established.
Welcome to the California Public Utilities Commission.
I am calling this meeting of August 31st, 2020,
Public Agenda Number 3469 to order.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic
and the shelter-in-place order,
we are conducting today's business meeting online,
and by remote participation.
The meeting is live streamed on the CPUC's website.
You can view the meeting at
www.Adminmonitor, one word,
.com/ca/CPUC.
The public engagement is critical to the CPUC process.
If you wish to make a public comment,
please dial into 800-857-1917,
and enter passcode 9899501,
and press *1.
You will please into a queue,
and the operator will take your name and organization.
You will be called upon to speak
when we get to the public comment period in today's agenda.
If you encountered difficulty
calling into the public telephone line,
please email VotingMeetingHelp, all one word,
VotingMeetingHelp@CPUC.CA.gov,
or call us at 415-703-1496.
Emailed comments received will be distributed to
the Commissioners and senior management.
CPUC rules do not allow for parties in proceedings
to speak about open proceedings.
The public can make comments
addressing items on the regular agenda,
and including items not on the agenda today.
Please note that there will not be public comments
on any item on the closed session agenda.
You will have two minutes to speak, two minutes.
With that guidance in mind, I welcome today's speaker,
and I will now turn to the operator
to open the public comment telephone lines.
Operator?
Operator: The first comment is from Jeff Moyen.
Your line is now open.
Jeff: I'm calling...
Yes, I'm calling in support of Dr. Stebbins.
She has been a great advocate for people with disabilities.
We are in great danger in this fire season,
all fire seasons, with our many people's requirement
for ventilators or other devices that ensure life.
This is a matter of life and death.
Dr. Stebbins has been our great advocate,
and I urge you, plead with you, to keep her on staff.
You need her.
We need her.
Batjer: Thank you caller.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next called is Cathy Chapin.
Your line is now open.
Cathy: Thank you.
My name is Cathy Chapin.
I'm a retired state employee.
I was the Fiscal Rounds Chief at the
Air Resources Board from 2010 to 2014.
I was responsible for budgets and accounting.
My comments support the Commission
and the firing of Alice Stebbins.
Alice was hired to replace
the existing division administrative chief.
Gradually, Alice started hiring people
from the Water Board, where she had been,
into position at ARB,
the same people that were hired at the PUC.
Following this information,
that she had done the same things
that were found in the SPB Report at ARB,
in order to hire more of the people
that she had previous working relationships,
regardless if they had experience,
Alice had decided that I and others needed to be forced out.
I happened to be the first one she targeted.
Alice had hired a consultant to do an evaluation
of the Administrative Services Division.
The initial version showed
a significant problem in accounting,
partly due to the fact
that they did not have enough positions for the work load.
After I was instrumental
in securing more positions in the accounting branch
via the budget change proposal process,
Alice decided to remove accounting from my responsibility.
She did this to promote the Accounting Manager II
to an Accounting Manger III.
This person was the same person that was hired
to become the PUC's administrative chief.
In order to support this promotion,
she had to consult and change the final version to state
that accounting needed it to be its own branch.
I currently have both versions of the report.
After a time,
the Budget Office was also removed from my responsibility.
I was put on a special assignment.
During the special assignment,
staff were told not to talk to me, so I was also isolated.
It was an assignment that was more appropriate
for the associate level.
When I asked Alice what I was going to do
after the assignment was done,
she responded that she did not know.
I also asked what I had done to deserve this treatment,
and she said, "Nothing".
I have a chronic illness, which Alice knows about.
It did not deter her from bullying and harassing me,
which resulted in my chronic disease accelerating.
I eventually left the Air Board,
hoping that the bullying and harassment
of other staff would stop.
It did not.
Slowly Alice forced out many more highly qualified people,
all to be replaced by
the people who she deemed loyal to her,
those same people that she too to the PUC.
Thank you for the opportunity
to provide comments to this matter.
Batjer: Thank you, caller.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Paulann Delill.
Your line is now open.
Paulann: Hello, this is Paulann Delill,
and I thank you for this opportunity to speak today.
What I think should be on your agenda today,
and certainly on the next one,
is the restructuring of the CPUC.
That, for some reason, the CPUC has been allowed for decades
to put the interest of the utilities,
and the other entities that they oversee, first,
above the interest of the public,
shows there's a deep, deep flaw in this system.
That CPUC has failed to collect
more than $200,000,000 worth of fees.
That they flagrantly, flagrantly, blatantly violated
the Bagley-Keene Act by holding sacred conferences
about the firing of Ms. Stebbins.
Those alone are enough to show
that there's something really wrong,
and we made a legislative committee with public input
to re-design the CPUC
so this kind of abuse can't happen again.
And we're talkin' about abuse to the extreme,
where hundreds of people have been killed
by the utilities that the CPUC is supposed to oversee.
And billions of dollars of damage to properties has happened
because of PG&E, one of the utilities they oversee,
which, by record, has over 89 felonies.
Because of their neglect,
because of putting their profit first, and safety last,
they failed over many years to maintain the lines.
They could've been putting the lines underground.
They should certainly have maintained them.
They could've built micro-grids
so that when a maintenance is due,
a vast area doesn't have to be shut off,
but only a small area for a short period of time.
Because every time they fail by maintenance,
and having to shut off power,
and every time there is a power shutoff for an emergency,
people with disabilities are endangered,
and some people die.
Some people rely upon power to live.
Now the supposed grant program, the SGIP, is a joke.
In order to qualify, one has to be wealthy enough
to buy a battery backup system,
and then wait for over a year for a rebate.
That doesn't help people with disabilities,
because most of us are low income.
(bell tolls)
I don't know.
Are you signaling that I, as I've run out of time?
That was a two minute signal?
Batjer: Yes, Ms. Delill, that's our two minute sinal.
Paulann: A minute signal?
I'm sorry, I didn't understand that.
Batjer: That's the two minute signal.
Paulann: Okay.
So may I say more, or is my time up?
Batjer: Your time is up.
You can finish, if you'd like, but your time is up.
You can finish your statement, but your time is up.
Paulann: Thank you.
I appreciate that.
And my statement is, there's some deep, deep flaws,
and we need to re-structure the CPUC entirely,
because this should not happen.
It shouldn't have the opportunity even
to put monetary interest above the public good.
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Bernard Azevedo.
Your line is now open.
Bernard: Hello, Commissioners, and all attending.
My name is Bernard Azevedo.
I am the former Deputy Executive Director
of Administrative Services at the CPUC.
The CPUC now has forced my demotion,
and returned me to the California Air Resources Board.
I'm here today to tell you how I and my boss,
Executive Director, Alice Stebbins,
discovered and recorded
the $200,000,000 in accounts receivable,
and brought it to the attention of the Commissioners.
In early 2020, I reported to Ms. Stebbins and the CPUC
had $200,000,000 in uncollected accounts receivables.
At $200,000,000, I was very concerned
the CPUC was in violation of the government regulations
when reporting to the State Controller.
In fact, I found that nearly $50,000,000
was several years past due,
and $23,000,000 was probably completely uncollectible.
On May 15th of 2020, I wrote President Batjer,
as leader of the Internal Audit Committee,
and expressed my concerns
with the approach to risk analysis
internal audits was using.
My concerns were disregarded.
However, within a matter of less than three months
of this second whistleblowing,
President Batjer placed me on administrative leave,
and she and other other Commissioners had made it clear
to Ms. Stebbins that she would be fired.
What does this mean to the general public?
In many cases, the CPUC does not know who owes the money,
and for how long.
President Batjer doesn't collect from the company's fined,
allowing them to be skofflaws to the CPUC's decisions.
President Batjer is willing to raise fees on rate payers,
rather than collect the money already owed.
President Batjer fired- (bell tolls)
Blow the whistle
to deflect attention from her own misconduct.
Don't forget, that Commissioner Rechtschaffen
led the Commission in the forgiveness of $200,000,000
by PG&E on a penalty this year.
I think the Commissioners know exactly why
there are millions of dollars
in uncollected accounts receivable.
The Commissioners have been here a long time,
while Alice and I
have been at the PUC for just a short time.
I think it is obvious
the Commissioners care more about the utilities
than the rate payers.
As a tax payer, and an ethical state employee,
I find it unconscionable.
Yet, on Monday, August 10th,
I was relieved of my position,
and Ms. Stebbins has been told that she will be fired.
This is how President Batjer
and the CPUC treats whistleblowers.
Batjer: Okay, thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Lucian Filler.
Your line is now open.
Lucian: Greetings, Commissioner.
For the record, my name is Lucian Filler,
a Deputy Executive (distorted audio).
Batjer: Lucian, excuse me.
We can't hear you very well.
Can you speak more directly into your mic?
Are you there?
Lucian: Yes, can you hear me now?
Batjer: Yeah, much better.
Thank you.
Lucian: Sorry.
Greetings, Commissioner.
For the record, my name is Lucian Filler,
a CPUC Deputy Executive (distorted audio)
Communications and Water Division.
I'm here as a concerned employee
about the action that is being taken
against Alice Stebbins today.
Since I'm alluded to in a SPB Report,
I want to set the record straight.
The SPB investigation has the facts wrong.
It came from the Department of Water Resources,
and not the State Water Resources Control Board.
At this time, I'd like to highlight
a few of the problematic programs
that I have found since my arrival at the CPUC.
First, the LifeLine Program is fraught with issues,
such as $60,000,000 in accruals
that roll over year after year
without knowing which companies have not paid.
Another is the transition to
a new third-party program administrator,
which was failing,
and caused more than $10,000,000 in cost overruns.
Next, the Deaf and Disabled
Telecommunications Program, DDTP.
An independent assessment was done
after numerous issues emerged,
highlighting the need for change.
The situation is so bad
that the auditor was unable to determine
the fiscal impact to the state, and tax payers.
Again, the cost to the rate payers, while unknown,
were suspected to be sizable in a program of $55,000,000.
Lastly, the Water Division.
A recent independent assessment of the Water Division
found it had never issued an enforcement action
against any utility it regulates,
and has accounts receivable dating back over 15 years.
This has allowed utilities to collect from rate payers,
and not send money for the PUC as required.
The Bar Division's method
for tracking and certifying water utility compliance
continues to place the CPUC at risk.
My questions are, and concerns are,
why have you allowed these conditions to persist
since you took your positions,
and why are you so adamant about removing Director Stebbins,
and the operational standards, procedures, and audits
she's put in place,
while you allow utilities to owe millions,
and forgive penalties and millions of dollars due?
Thank you. (bell tolls)
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next -: Dating-
Batjer: caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Richard Staff.
Your line is now open.
Richard: Thank you.
Can you hear me?
Hello? -: Yes, we can hear you fine.
Yes, we can hear- -: Thank you.
Thank you.
First, it's very interesting,
President Batjer and Commissioners,
that Ms. Stebbins is being accused
of nepotism and illegal hirings,
yet in November of 2018,
when Ms. Stebbins first started with the CPUC,
or close to when she first started,
she and her staff were developing a nepotism policy.
Something your fellow Commissioners
had never asked previous executive directors to create.
President Batjer, you received,
as did the other Commissioners, an email from me
talking about the history I've had and others have had
with you as the Chair of the Buildings Standards Commission.
There seems to be a history with you, President Batjer.
Your direct and strong connection
to those with large bank accounts,
large industry, very powerful folks.
And coming to the CPUC, you now have, apparently,
a very strong and good relationship
with the leadership at PG&E and other utilities
you are supposed to be overseeing,
and assuring they do their job, and you're not.
I've read the report from the State Personnel Board.
You, in fact, President Batjer, I believe, as secretary,
in your previous role with the state,
oversaw the State Personnel Board.
You were appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger as secretary,
and as such, you oversaw
as one of the state agencies, the Personnel Board.
Who were the people that did the investigation
of Ms. Stebbins? (bell tolls)
I would like to finish, ma'am.
What has been your relationship with PG&E,
and the other utilities, including AT&T,
who have no backup power to their cell towers?
So people with disabilities and vulnerable seniors
are unable to make a cellphone call
when the electric utilities
you've allowed to de-energize their grids does that.
Those of us that have an emergency
are unable to make those emergency 9-1-1 calls.
I specifically am presently asking
the State Attorney General the State Legislature
to investigate you, President Batjer, and Commissioners.
I'll leave it at that.
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Erika Shahall.
Your line is now open.
Erika: Thank you.
I'm getting a reverberation here.
Batjer: Yeah, we are too.
Robert, is there a way
that we can- -: How is this?
Does this sound better?
Batjer: Yeah, that's much better.
Thank you, much better.
Erika: Well, okay, I have been following the PUC
since my husband did stories on your Commission
when he was a journalist in San Francisco,
and I have to say, it doesn't seem like much has changed.
Right now, I'm calling in support of Alice Stebbins,
and to plead with you not to fire her.
She's been the only member of your Commission
to support the elderly
and disabled communities in California.
The proposed firing appears to retaliatory,
as Stebbins has uncovered
the Commission's dereliction of duty,
as you have allowed $200,000,000 in fees owed
to stand uncollected,
and you've also abandoned our most vulnerable populations,
allowing rolling blackouts and brownouts,
depriving those communities of electricity
that is vital to their survival,
and not providing adequate financial assistance
for backup electrical sources.
I think that the firing of Alice Stebbins
ultimately is just another black eye for your Commission,
starting with the explosion in San Bruno,
continuing through our cycle of horrific fires,
which are greatly exacerbated by the lack of maintenance
that PUC continually does not do.
As a footnote, I'm a part-owner
of a mobile home park in Southern California,
and 106 of our residents lost their homes
in the Rice Canyon fire.
I've experienced the absolutely catastrophic result
of lack of maintenance, and it's an absolute tragedy.
That's all, thank you.
Batjer: Thank you, caller.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Tyler Madary.
Your line is now open.
Tyler: Great, thank you.
Yes, my name is Tyler Madary,
and I am the District Director for Senator Richard Ross,
who represents Western Riverside County.
I speak today on behalf of the Senator.
While he would like to address you personally,
he cannot today,
as it is the last day of the legislative session.
Senator Ross wants to provide
a character reference for Ms. Alice Stebbins.
Alice was instrumental in working with
the city and county of Riverside in securing
a $413,000,000 vehicle admissions testing lab
being built in Riverside.
This 380,000 square foot facility
will be one of the largest and most advanced
vehicle admissions testing and research facilities
in the world.
It also has the largest
net-zero energy structure of its type in the nation.
Alice worked tirelessly and was a great partner
to the City of Riverside, county staff,
as well as UC Riverside staff
in ensuring the project was successful.
The lab is currently on budget,
and scheduled to be completed by early 2021.
Senator Ross cannot emphasize enough
how impressed he was with Alice's efforts.
Alice worked long and hard to meet deadlines,
and to provide exceptional leadership.
Alice established outstanding working relationships
with the Riverside team, which was instrumental
in making the world class laboratory a reality.
The successful construction project
is now nearing completion.
Alice's integrity is unquestionable,
and she is committed to excellence,
and holds everyone around her accountable.
While Senator Ross cannot speak
to the detail of the personnel matters before you today,
he has great confidence in Ms. Stebbins' character,
and her ability to exceed all expectations
if given the opportunity.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Batjer: Thank you, caller.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Devon White.
Your line is now open.
Devon: Good morning.
Batjer: We can't hear you.
You can speak directly into your mic, please.
Operator: The next caller is Zack Karnazes.
Your line is now open.
Zack: Hi, my name is Zack Karnazes.
Can everyone hear me?
Batjer: Yes, we can.
Zack: Thank you.
I am a disabled resident in San Francisco,
a journalist, and community organizer.
And I'd really like to talk about a number of things.
I, first of all, can't even get to them
because of the accessibility problems
that you have with your meetings here.
I call in to public meetings on an almost weekly basis
on the local and state level.
This is by far the least accessible,
most problematic ability to participate
in a public process of public comment
I have ever come across, ever, in any public body.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
I cannot get your office to provide the ADA coordinator
that I could email and talk with directly
to find out what disability accommodations are available.
When we call into these meetings,
we have to give our full name and organization,
and spell it out over the phone.
That's really hard for people with disabilities
that have speech disabilities.
Like one person from our disabled community
that wanted to call in today
was not granted an accommodation to call in,
and has to go through this phone system,
which is only in English.
And we're supposed to be able to
leave public comment anonymously,
and yet, this system doesn't even inform us
that we have that right.
Additionally, I emailed weeks ago.
My emails were ignored up until, I kid you not,
50 minutes ago, I got an email replay
for emails I've been sending for weeks
trying to fix these issues.
All of them, except for one, have been completely ignored.
I also made them mention
that there is non-existent information
for non-English speakers to attend this body,
and to have translation services.
I was re-directed to a website that says,
"If specialized accommodations are needed,
such as non-English"- (bell tolls)
"Contact this email", which is not an ADA email,
is not an email specifically set up for accessibility.
It is a general mailbox that gives an automated reply,
which is very confusing,
and that message is only in English.
So if English is your second language,
and you're trying to attend these meetings,
you have no way of knowing how to do so,
because that message is only in English.
Additionally, it says, "At least five business days
in advance of the remote meeting".
I've never heard of an accommodation
requiring five days of advance notice.
I mean, that's incredible.
I mean, in some cases,
your agendas haven't even been published
five days in advance.
So there are a slew of accessibility problems.
And Michelle Cook is the only person
that's responded to me over email, and again,
ignored most of these complaints.
I brought many of these up on August 17th at your meeting,
and they've been completely ignored.
I also, also, called the phone number
for people that have issues with this passcode,
and difficulty accessing these meetings.
There's a phone number,
which I was hopeful that that was provided.
This 415-703-1496,
I called that today
right during the beginning
of public comment of this meeting
to hopefully be patched through,
and not have to struggle with your passcode system,
and it just goes to a mailbox.
No one's even answering it right now.
How can you have a public meeting like this?
I also requested the video footage
of the August 17th meeting,
and that's never even been provided.
The public records request was totally ignored.
It wasn't even filed until 50 minutes ago.
I requested it in August 17th.
So I don't know...
I hear about all the corruption.
I hear about this missing $200,000,000.
I hear about the illegal firing of Alice Stebbins,
and these closed sessions,
and the being in the pocket of PG&E,
and not upkeeping our power lines, and doing this oversight.
And you know what?
I don't doubt it for a second,
because I see how you operate these meetings.
I see these meetings are not even free of corruption,
and major oversight problems.
I mean, if you can't host a public meeting to be accessible,
and actually comply with California and federal law,
then, of course, when it comes to monied interest,
and people that you're supposed to be collecting money from,
I could absolutely see you not doing your job with that,
and it's just appalling to me- -: I'm sorry, but your well-
Zack: That these barrier to access are in place,
and we're trying to just,
disabled people are just -: All right, caller.
-: trying to speak up,
and so that we can have a say about (distorted audio).
And I look at this- -: I apologize.
I apologize- -: Batjer isn't even
looking at the camera. (interposing voices)
She's looking away from the camera
of almost the entire meeting,
doesn't even look like she's looking,
or paying attention at all.
And just, I wonder, you have
the California State -: I'm so sorry,
-: behind you. -: but you're well over your-
Zack: The great seal of the State of California,
and you have the American flag there,
and I wonder if you know wat those really stand for?
Thank you for your time. (bell tolls)
Batjer: Operator, your next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Connie Arnold.
The line is now open.
Connie: Hello, can you hear me?
Batjer: Yes, we can.
Connie: Good morning,
and thank you for allowing me to speak.
The PUC (distorted audio)
to put forth for-profit utility industry profits
above rate payers and human life.
CPUC Commissioners' idea of good management
is to get rid of a long time public official,
Alice Stebbins, Executive Director of the CUP, CPUC,
who has found $200,000,000 in unpaid fees
due to CMP, and rate payers, tax payers, and homeowners
that could be refunded to offset state coffers
for money that was owed by utility companies.
Instead of giving Ms. Stebbins a bonus,
you wanna giver her a pink slip,
and have her and her staff furloughed
during a very dire wildfire season
when she is needed by the public most.
It's wrong for the PUC Commissioners
to fire Alice Stebbins, Executive Director,
who is a qualified, capable, caring,
and competent public official
operating in the public interest.
Why aren't the PUC Commissioners
trying to collect the $200,000,000 in funds
that Alice Stebbins found,
that is owed to the state of California rate payers,
which will be used for
benefit of the public and rate payers?
Why are you holding PG&E electric utility companies
you have oversight over accountable?
Why aren't you holding them accountable?
It's interesting.
I found an article where unanimous vote by the CPUC
allowed you to grant a waiver of those fees,
the 200,000,000, that obviously, must have been
the amount that Alice Stebbins had found,
so that isn't going to get collected, which is ridiculous.
Why aren't you instead doing your job
to fulfill your role as public officials
with clear oversight over private for-profit
electric utility companies- (bell tolls)
An electric grid to prevent power outages,
and ravaging wildfires.
We are aware that Ms. Stebbins' attorneys requested
each PUC Commissioner to produce
emails and text messages on their phones
on the firing of Alice Stebbins,
and communications with PG&E, and AT&T,
and we'd like to know what communications you've had
with a convicted felon, PG&E,
who had 85 felony convictions
for causing the death of Californians to date,
and the recent wildfires?
At the last PUC meeting, there were people,
commenters on the phone, who weren't able to comment.
And also, I note that there were articles,
and I did send an email today, that in 2003,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed
Marybel Batjer Cabinet Secretary
in charge of running day-to-day operations,
and then that became
a conflict of interest controversy for her in her role,
and it was rumored she was on her way out in October of '04,
and so moving on to Caesar's.
And at Caesar's there was evidence of corruption
of demanding employees vote for Harry Reed for the Senate,
and then emails were sent out according to articles I read.
CPUC Commissioners continue to advocate themselves
from their role and responsibility
to the public rate payers, homeowners, and tax payers
for failure to collect owed funds,
failure to ensure repairs to
the aging electric utility infrastructure and grid networks,
failure to protect the public
from wildfires, or power shutoff.
The CPUC continuing of the protectionism
of electric utility companies, like PG&E,
who has 85 felony convictions
for causing the death of Californians,
and the deadly 2018 campfires
have destroyed our Paradise, (bell tolls)
California, is wrong.
CPUC Commissioners are instead focused on
firing Alice Stebbins, Executive Director of the CPUC,
for any reason they can get away with justifying.
She has worked tirelessly on numerous problems
associated with utility wildfire mitigation majors
associated with electric utility de-energization event,
PSPS event, and ongoing problems faced by rate payers,
including- (bell tolls)
And I have a question about why, at this time,
you're doing everything in your power
to get rid of a good public employee, and not retain her?
There are other options,
and I think it's a bogus comped up charge to say
that she mishandled the hiring of 17 people
when she's hired over 400 and hundreds of others.
Batjer: Ms. Arnold?
I'm sorry, but you're well over your two minute time,
and the bell's rung a couple or three times,
so- -: Okay, well, I wanna
thank you for the opportunity, but I'm mad,
and I want the CPUC Commissioners investigated
for not doing her job,
and I would like Alice Stebbins to be retained
as Executive Director of the CPUC.
Thank you very much.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Socorro Watkins.
Your line is now open. -: Yeah.
Socorro: Thank you.
Good morning.
My names is Socorro Watkins.
I worked at the Air Resources Board, ARB, for 34 years.
I served as the Chief of Business Management Branch
from 2005 to 2016.
Alice Stebbins came from the Water Board to ARB around 2011,
when she was appointed
Chief of the Administrative Services Division, ASD.
I reported directly to her for five years.
Now, I have reviewed the State Personnel Board report,
which revealed an abundant number
of illegal, inappropriate hires.
I am testifying today to reassure PUC
that what is stated in the report is true.
I witnessed the same actions
to benefit the same people at ARB.
Since my time with you today is limited,
I can only share a few similar instances,
but there are many more.
I will begin with how Alice took actions
to benefit Bernard Azevedo,
or David, as he called himself then.
David was hired at ARB
as the Manager of the Accounting Section.
Shortly after his arrival,
Alice built up the accounting section,
and moved it from the fiscal branch,
and into its own branch, and appointed David
as the Chief of the Accounting Section.
When the Branch Chief of the fiscal branch left,
because she was forced out by Alice.
There were not enough duties left
to support an FSN III position.
Alice moved the contract section from my branch
into the fiscal branch so that the positions
would support that classification.
This branch chief position was given to Pam Biggins.
Pam, like David, came from the Water Board,
and was also promoted to an FSN III position.
Later, I had an opening for an FSN II
section manager position. (bell tolls)
(bell tolling drowns out speaker)
Applied and was interviewed, but ranked third.
Alice changed the hiring procedures,
and had the other three ASD branch chiefs,
which two of them were David and Pam,
included in the second round of interviews.
They rated their friend, Monica, also from the Water Board,
as the top candidate, and I felt pressured to hire her.
In 2016, I retired and left ARB
due to the harassment from Alice,
and other members- (bell tolls)
I have heard a few folks saying not to fire Alice
because she is doing a good job at PUC.
She might be, but it does not excuse
the inappropriate, illegal hires.
If the Air Resources Board Executive Office
had listened to the numerous complaints
brought forward about Alice and her friends,
your Commission would not be in this situation today.
She has repeated this behavior of hiring,
and promoting her friends- -: Ma'am, I'm sorry.
You're gonna have to bring your remarks to a close.
You're over your two minutes.
Socorro: Okay, she has repeated this behavior
of hiring and promoting her friends to positions
where they have little to no experience,
cheating others who were more
highly qualified for these positions.
You have the opportunity to stop this from happening again.
I thank you for your time.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: I'm currently showing no further callers.
Batjer: Okay, we'll wait a minute
to make sure everyone's been able to call in.
Operator, is there anybody else on the line, please?
Operator: Yes, the next caller is Richard Staff.
Your line is now open.
Richard: President Batjer and Commissioners,
I will this time only take two minutes or less to say
how appalling it is that the five of you
that are responsible to protect rate payers
from abuses by the for-profit utilities of all types,
electric, water, transportation, telephonic.
Here, we have AT&T, one of the largest
telephonic cellphone providers,
that has no backup system in place.
So when PG&E,
that you have allowed to turn off its grid power, does that,
we can't call.
We, in the disability community, years ago,
asked you Commissioners to please assure
that if you were gonna give the transportation,
private for-profit transportation companies,
the right to compete with cabs,
that they should also be required
to provide accessible service, and the Commission didn't.
You continually have a record of failing to protect
not only the most vulnerable in the State of California,
but all rate payers.
I'm hopeful Governor Newsom, and the state legislature,
and the Attorney General will look into this,
and make the decision to replace you
with people of honor and integrity,
and people who will commit to protecting the rate payer,
not to protecting the utilities
that they are supposed to be overseeing.
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you very much.
Operator, is there anybody else on the line?
Operator: The next caller is Jamie Ormond.
Your line is now open.
Jaime: Good morning, Commissioners.
Can you hear me?
Batjer: Yes, we can.
Jaime: Thank you very much.
I appreciate this opportunity to speak this morning.
My name is Jamie Ormond.
I'm a staff member at the CPUC,
and I'm written about in section three of the SPB Report.
It makes me quite uncomfortable,
because there's a few facts in that report
that are pretty wrong,
and I just wanna correct the record quickly.
First, the document mistakes my experience at the CPCU,
which is pretty easy to fact check,
and ensure is correct in an official, public document.
And then second, when I applied for an interview
for the PURA V positions in the Executive Director's Office,
the listing for a Sacramento position,
and I worked in San Francisco,
and I was never willing to take a Sacramento-based job.
I did the interview in order to meet
the Executive Director at the time, in the first place,
and to learn more about the CPUC's decentralization process
that was ongoing.
Since I was never gonna take a Sacramento job,
it should've been made clear in that report,
or else my candidacy should not have been used
in the report at all,
because I was never really running for that job,
going out for that job.
So I just look forward to seeing more regulatory documents
published on the record,
and we keeping moving on our former proceedings.
Thank you very much for your time.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Zack Karnazes.
Your line is now open.
Zack: Hi, thank you.
I just wanted to state, that there are multiple people
in the disability community
that are not able to leave public comment
because of the access barriers imposed by the Commission,
and the lack of an ADA coordinator.
That's all I wanna say.
There are multiple people
that are trying to get through, and cannot,
and I just wanna let the Board know that.
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator?
Operator: The next caller is Walter Park.
Your line is now open.
Walter: Thank you very much.
Can you hear me?
Batjer: Yes, we can.
Walter: Thank you.
First, I'd like to fully endorse
a letter from my colleague, Richard Skass.
It lays out a very unhappy history
of California's disability community,
and dealing with President Batjer
when she oversaw the Building Standards Commission.
We have to remember, and we have to learn from that history,
but we're not sated to make it our future,
and please do not.
Today, the CPUC is gonna decide
whether it's still the old CPUC,
or whether it has become the new public serving CPUC.
The old CPUC had a president who apparently shared
$100 bottles of wine over expensive dinners
with those whom he supposedly regulated.
The old CPUC saw no evil, while PG&E underfunded
fire protection, and safety, and backup power for decades.
PBS "FRONTLINE" described that recently
with the headline, "Deflect, Delay, and Defer".
That's really not worthy of a California institution.
The old CPUC required reports on
minority and disability services from the TNC's,
and then allowed Uber to refuse to provide
no deadline after deadline,
allowing those TNC's to not provide services
to people with disabilities
while they were killing off the taxi industry,
which did have accessible transit.
The old CPUC is the one that told PG&E
not to worry about that few hundred million dollar fine
for actions that killed 126 people,
mostly people with disabilities and seniors,
as you know, in Paradise and in other places,
when PG&E filed for bankruptcy.
In what way is that different from the parent murderer
who pleads for mercy as an orphan?
That's a terrible joke, but it's so analogous
to what you allowed PG&E to do,
to use their bankruptcy, caused by their own actions,
to not pay for a fine resulting from those same actions.
The CPUC made a half-hearted effort
to use funds on the existing SGIP Program,
intended for other purposes originally
as a federally- (bell tolls)
And you have heard about how that does not work,
and is not working.
I'd like to make a couple more remarks.
There can be and there must be a new CPUC.
The disability community wants to go there with you.
It can either be this CPUC, or an entirely new body,
you get to decide that.
My community's involved in all this,
because we cannot live, many of us,
without continuous power, without backup power,
and without telephone service.
When PG&E- (bell tolls)
A few weeks ago, so we didn't give notice
because of that five hour blackout was ordered by the ISO.
It wasn't a PSDS.
We see the old CPUC in action.
The new CPUC will be proactive.
The new CPUC will regulate.
It will levy, and enforce, and collect fees and fines.
It will seek engagement from its constituents.
As a member of the disability community,
we have had full attention and participation
with Alice Stebbins.
She is one state staffed person
who has actually been responsive.
She has brought in a new ADA coordinator
that is not revolutionary in most spheres,
but perhaps it's revolutionary of the CPUC.
Seeing the Personnel Board reports,
I cannot know all the details, of course,
but I urge you not to
throw the baby out with the bath water.
If you feel her hirings were incorrect in some ways,
(speaks indistinctly),
or give additional guidance. -: Sir, could-
Sir, could you wrap up your comments?
You're well over your two minutes.
If you could just- -: Yes, I will.
Another sentence or two. -: Thank you.
Walter: Give her guidance, but do not let her go,
then our community has to start all over again.
No matter what your decision is, our future,
that is the future of
the disability and the senior communities,
is to be with you.
We are going to be at your next meeting.
We are going to be in your future.
We don't go away if Alice goes away.
Let's work together.
Please do the right thing today, and be what you can.
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Paulann Delill.
Your line is now open.
Paulann: Thank you, again, for this opportunity.
I don't know if the Commissioners are really getting it,
so I'm gonna tell you, and really stark language,
that all the lives lost, all the property damage,
all of the lives that it put in danger
because they rely upon electricity and power,
all of that is your doing.
The felonies of PG&E are your felonies.
You did this.
You can't just shrug and say, "Oh, well, they did it".
"We didn't have anything to do with it."
That's not true, you did it.
You murdered.
You destroyed.
You imperiled people,
each and every one of you Commissioners,
because you don't do your job,
because you put the moneyed interest first.
That has to stop.
Either we have to get rid of every one of you,
but I don't think that's gonna help enough.
That would just be more corrupt people that come on
to fill those positions.
We're gonna have to restructure the whole CPUC
so this kind of corruption can't happen.
So stop it!
Stop it today!
Don't fire the one person
that's tried to do her job for the public
while you just fill your pockets.
Stop it today!
Thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Cindy Roth.
Your line is now open.
Cindy: Good morning, Madame President and Commissioners.
I'm Cindy Roth, the President of the
Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce,
and I'm calling today to speak in reference
to my relationship with Dr. Alice Stebbins,
the Executive Director of the CPUC.
I had the pleasure of meeting
and working with Alice Stebbins
during the competitive bid process for the relocation of
the Air Resources Board El Monte facility.
During the competitive process,
which was extremely arduous,
and they must be held to the highest standards.
Alice acted with the upmost professionalism,
accountability, and integrity representing
the California Air Resources Board.
After the decision was made to select Riverside
as the relocation site, Alice led the team
of not only the Air Resources Board representatives,
but with representatives from the city,
the county, the University of California, Riverside,
and community business leaders.
Through her effort, she built the relationships,
partnerships with the community,
which has paved the way to bring this project to fruition.
Alice's leadership and dedication
of project was exceptional.
I'm proud to work with Dr. Alice Stebbins,
and applaud her character, and long-term commitment
to the State of California.
Thank you for your time today.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: The next caller is Mike Agary.
Your line is now open.
Mike: Good morning, my dear friends.
"Corruption starts with the corruption of the language",
as George Orwell said.
And an example of that, of corruption of the language,
is the pre-text that you're using
for discharging your executive director.
The idea that because she committed venial sins
having to do with personnel matters
is so shocking to you that she must be removed,
but my dear friend, Mr. Rechtschaffen,
after PG&E was found to have killed 84 people,
that didn't bother him a bit,
and he went ahead and gave them a complete pass,
a complete free ride.
Now, I know you all are probably calculating,
now what should I do?
Should I do the right thing?
Should I do the wrong thing?
Will I get caught?
Will I don't get caught?
The Attorney General's in the bag.
You know, he's part of the system,
so he's not likely to go after me.
You know, maybe Ms. Stebbins will
reveal a lot more about what's going on,
and the whole thing will unravel,
and they'll be all kinds of litigation.
But the point is, you're all caught
in a very difficult situation,
and you didn't inherit it.
I mean, you inherited it.
You didn't create it.
President Batjer, you didn't create it,
but you stepped into it,
and you're allowing yourself,
because of your political ambitions,
or your financial ambitions,
you're allowing yourselves to get sucked into a situation
that may very well result in
a very serious sanctions coming on to you.
Why?
Because you're saying that what Alice has done
is worthy of her being dismissed,
but what you've done are mortal sins, much bigger.
Letting PG&E off the hook,
continuous ex-party communications,
carrying out serial meetings.
Remember, a lawsuit's already been filed against you
in the First Appellate District Court.
You should definitely get with Arocles
before you decide (bell tolls)
how much further you wanna go.
Good morning, and thank you.
Batjer: Thank you.
Operator, the next caller, please.
Operator: I'm showing no further callers at this time.
Batjer: Okay, thank you, Operator.
With no more callers on the line,
the public comment period is now closed.
There is no agenda changes today.
We only have one item on the regular agenda,
that Item One, the consideration of dismissal
of the Executive Director.
I will now turn to our General Counsel, Arocles Aguilar,
to provide some information,
and she will act as a moderator.
Arocles?
We can't hear you, Arocles.
-: Sorry.
Good morning, Ms. Stebbins.
As you know, I'm Arocles Aguilar, the General Counsel,
and I'm functioning today as a moderator
for this public hearing.
Please direct any questions you have to me directly
during the course of this hearing.
Pursuant to California Government Code,
Section 11126(a)(2),
you have requested a public hearing on Item Number One,
which is the consideration of dismissal
of the Executive Director.
The public hearing will begin
with a Commission opening statement,
and up to 15 minutes has been allocated for that statement.
Next, Ms. Stebbins has been allocated 45 minutes
to give her presentation.
There will be not be a Question and Answer
during this hearing.
After the public hearing, the Commission will recess,
and enter into closed session,
then deliberate on the decision to be reached
concerning this matter.
This is authorized by California Government Code,
Section 11126(a)(4).
Pursuant to Government Code,
Sections 11125.2 and 11126.3(f),
if the Commission takes any action during closed session
to dismiss the Executive Director,
the Commission will reconvene in public session
after meeting with us prior to closed session,
prior to adjournment,
and report that a closed session was held.
Any action taken in any roll call vote there are,
and to dismiss a public employee arising out
of any closed session in which they applied,
the Commission will also provide such a report
of any action taken in any roll call vote there on
in defense of public employee (mumbling)
arising out of any closed session.
The state body as a subsequent meeting
on September 10th, 2020.
Ms. Stebbins, do you have any questions before we begin?
Stebbins: No questions, thank you.
-: Thank you.
We will now begin with the Commission's opening statement.
-: Thank you, Arocles.
This is President Batjer.
The Public Utilities Code authorizes the Commission
to choose an Executive Director
who holds office at the pleasure of the Commission.
This means the Executive Director is an at-will position.
In that position, you, Ms. Stebbins,
are responsible for the Commission's
executive administrative duties,
specifically, coordinating, supervising,
and directing the operations of the Commission.
We're here today to consider your dismissal
as Executive Director based on two things:
your conduct described in
a State Personnel Board Investigation Report,
and your conduct after the CPUC
received the investigation report.
I will discuss the State Personnel Board report first.
The State Personnel Board is an independent state department
created by the California Constitution.
I will be referring to is at the SPD.
The California Constitution requires
that under the state civil service system,
all permanent hires and promotions must be based on merit,
and that merit must be determined
by a competitive examination process.
Your job and our job
is to uphold those principles in hiring.
The State Personnel Board Investigation Report
is a public document that can be found on the SPD website.
The report addresses the hiring process
regarding five people who were to work closely with you.
You were directly involved with these processes.
The first position is the
Administrative Services Division Director position.
Administrative Services Division of the CPUC
is responsible for managing the CPU's fees,
finances, facilities, and contracts,
including important budgeting functions.
In January, 2019, the CPUC posted a job opening
for this direct position,
which would be reporting directly to you.
The investigation report concluded
that you pre-selected the candidate,
who was ultimately hired into this position.
Pre-selected means that you have already made up your mind
to hire this person before the recruitment process occurred.
The reported cited the following facts
in support of that conclusion.
First, the candidate was less qualified
than several other applicants.
One of the key duties of the position
is to represent the CPUC during the budget process
before the legislature.
The work experience of the candidate you hired
consisted solely of a accounting position.
He had no college degree,
and his resume and application
did not list any experiences with budgets.
In contrast, several other applicants had significant
fiscal and budget management experience
at an executive level, as well as post-graduate degrees
and professional certifications.
Second, you and the candidate
had worked together previously
at two state agencies for a total of 15 years.
You worked together
at the Water Resources Control Board for eight years,
and you worked together at the
Air Resources Board for seven years.
The report noted
that your prior knowledge of this candidate's work,
in and of itself, was not problematic
as long as the hiring process was objectively administered.
But the report found that you pre-selected him,
and did not fairly consider other candidates.
Third, you personally participated
on the Exam Scoring Panel for this hiring process,
along with two other people,
to rate the 12 applicants
by scoring their written applications.
After the other raters
had completed their scoring independently,
you met with them and discussed the ratings they had given.
After that discussion,
they lowered their scores of the candidates
to mirror your scoring
in order to rank your preferred pre-selected candidate
with the highest scores on the exam,
despite the fact that the candidate had
less relevant experience and education
that several of the other candidates had.
One of the raters told the SPD during the investigation
that he felt pressured by you
to lower other candidates' ratings
because you had made it clear who you preferred.
Specifically, he stated that,
"When your staff members
handed him the application materials
for the preferred candidate, they told him", quote,
"This is the one".
Fourth, the SPB Report concluded
you influenced the scoring
of the interview portion of the process
in the same manner as the scoring
of the written application materials,
and unfairly diminished
the rights of other well qualified candidates
in violation of the Merit Principles.
The SPB Report also found that you made, quote,
"misleading and deceptive representations of the duties
that this candidate was performing in the position
in order to increase the candidate's salary".
First, you attempted to offer the candidate a higher salary
than was allowed under state rules.
When that didn't work,
just four months after the candidate was in the position,
you added additional functions to his division,
and increased his salary by 49%.
After that salary increase was in place,
some of those duties were removed,
thereby eliminating the justification for the higher salary.
When CalHR, the state department that oversees
salary setting rules for the state,
asked for justification for the salary increase,
you thoughtfully claimed that the candidate
was still performing some of the duties,
and had actually been removed from the position.
Regarding this one appointment,
the SPB Report said that your conduct, quote,
"Paints a picture of a deliberate effort
on your part to circumvent civil service rules".
It is appalling and disgraceful to engineer
the hiring of a marginally qualified former colleague
over more qualified candidates,
spike the person's pay,
and then make false statements attempting
to justify the compensation.
The SPB Report findings
regarding the other four appointments are similar,
and I'm not going to take the time
to go into the details regarding those,
except to note that the report concluded,
they were all of, quote,
"highly questionable legitimacy", end of quote,
and that you were "close at the center of", end of quote,
the conduct that rendered the appointment problematic.
I am now going to address your conduct
after the CPUC first received a draft
of the SPB Report on June 12th of this year.
As you know, the SPB requested a response to the CPUC
regarding the findings in the report.
I informed you, that while the process was pending,
Human Resource Division, which was passed,
was responding to the SPB Report,
and ordinarily reports to you,
but instead, temporarily, report to me.
As President of the Commission,
I have the authority to direct you
and all other staff of the Commission,
with certain exceptions.
Despite receiving that direction from me,
you proceeded to approve
several pending decisions regarding hiring.
You also failed to take any responsibility for your conduct,
and as mentioned in the SPB Report,
you did not apologize for violating civil service rule.
You did not acknowledge the discredit
your actions have brought to the CPUC.
You expressed no concern for the affected candidates
who participated in the hiring processes at issue,
or for the morale of the current CPUC employees.
Instead, you repeatedly suggested
that the Commissioners should
use our political influence to,
in your words, "make the SPB Report go away".
The Commissioners took an oath
to uphold the California Constitution,
including the Merit System Rules,
and your suggestion was abhorrent.
Civil service is a merit-based system
designed to protect government processes
from undo political influence.
It is also designed to ensure
that we hire and promote a qualified workforce,
and not friends or favorites
who have inferior qualifications than other candidates.
It is our expectation that you,
the person responsible for
the administrative duties of the Commission,
would take that requirement very seriously.
You took the same oath
to uphold the California Constitution as we all did.
And now I wanna briefly address
some accusations you had made
regarding our motives for considering your dismissal.
You had said that you believe the utilities had asked us
to end your employment.
That is absolutely not true.
No Commissioner has had any communication of any kind
with anyone employed by the utilities
regarding your employment.
You have also asserted,
that the CPUC had 200,000,000 in uncollected fees and fines,
and that you're a whistleblower.
Neither of these things is true.
First, the CPUC did not have
200,000,000 in uncollected fees.
The report that you have cited,
which was prepared by an outside consultant,
does not say that.
What the report says, and I'm quoting, is,
"The total amount of outstanding collections
was approximately 49.9 million as of December 31st, 2019".
The report also states that,
approximately 21 million of that amount
was due from activity in 2017 or earlier.
But the report does not state that the CPUC was lax
in attempting to collect the 21,000,000.
In fact, 19.7 million of the amount
consists of one fine to a single telecommunications company
that was bankrupt and defunct
at the time the fines was levied.
The CPUC has been pursuing collections
on that fine for years,
including filing Superior Court actions.
Likewise, other large portions
of the 49.9 million in outstanding funds
are fines that utilities have appealed,
and which cannot be collected until the appeal is resolved.
More importantly, as the Executive Director,
it is your job to inform the Commission
if you believe that fee collection needed to be improved,
and your responsibility to implement improvements
in the accounting processes and procedures.
I note that the same report
regarding uncollected funds states, and I quote,
"The CPUC has actively monitored and addressed issues
brought up during our reviews,
and has already started to implement
our suggested recommendations", end of quote.
We relied on you and encouraged you
to take all necessary steps
to address and correct any deficiencies there were.
None of us ever ignored or attempted to slow down
or interfere with your work in any way.
Finally, I wanna make a point
about the timing of the SPB investigation.
It was in mid-August, 2019, (computer chimes)
that the SPB notified the CPUC
that it had opened this investigation.
None of the Commissioners were interviewed
during that investigation.
You were interviewed, though.
The Commissioners had no control over
the content of the SPB Report,
and first received a copy of it in June of 2020.
Our consideration of your employment status today
is based on the findings in the report.
You took a series of actions over a course of several years
that called into question your integrity.
Those actions, along with your conduct,
in reaction to, and in response to the report findings,
caused us to have to consider
whether you can continue to serve
as the leader of this agency.
Thank you.
Arocles, I turn this back to you.
-: Yes, Ms. Stebbins,
you may now begin with your presentation.
Stebbins: Okay, Carl, are you on the line?
Male: Karl Olson will go first.
Arocles: Okay, go ahead, Mr. Olson.
Karl: Yes, can you hear me?
Arocles: Yes, we can.
Karl: Can you hear me?
Arocles: We can hear you, Mr. Olson,
but we don't see you,
if you wanna turn your video application on?
(computer chimes)
Karl: Okay, can you see me now?
Arocles: Yes, we can see you and hear you.
Thank you, Mr. Olson.
-: Thank you.
The firing of Ms. Stebbins
would be a clear case of retaliation
against a whistleblower.
Ms. Stebbins and her staff reported
$200,000,000 in uncollected revenue from the industries
regulated by the PUC to President Batjer,
who along with Commissioner Shiroma,
serves on the Audit Committee
starting in February and March of 2020.
On May 15th of this year, and at other times,
Bernard Azevedo made a detailed report
about the $200,000,000 in uncollected revenue.
Among other things, the reports show
that the PUC collected only $21,000,000
in accounts receivable in the 2018/'19 fiscal year.
And that as of June 30th, 2019,
the PUC was owed over $200,000,000.
This contradicts what the Commission claimed last week
and has said today,
about how the $200,000,000 was an exaggeration,
and that much of it was gonna be collected.
There was a final assessment of accounting practices
given to the Commission in early June of 2020.
Shortly thereafter these whistleblowing reports,
in early July, 2020,
President Batjer lobbied the other Commissioners
in non-noticed serial meetings to fire Ms. Stebbins.
You all agreed in serial private meetings
to fire Ms. Stebbins.
One of your texts was a smoking gun.
Quote, "I wanna be very careful to make sure
she understands we all agree".
The texts you all have produced
show an egregious violation of the Bagley-Keene Act,
with each of the five Commissioners texting each other
day and night about firing Ms. Stebbins.
On July 8th, Commissioner Randolph texted, quote,
"It's not tenable for her to stay".
Her text said, quote, "On the phone with MB,
"do you wanna debrief,
or you feeling done for the day?", end quote.
The response was, quote, "No, happy to debrief", and quote,
"I was just texting her".
You texted her about how you needed to make clear
that you had all agreed to fire Ms. Stebbins.
You said, quote, "It's not tenable
for her to stay", end quote.
One, what's not tenable
is to violate the state constitution,
which you all took an oath to protect and defend.
It provides that the meetings of public body should be open.
The Bagley-Keene Act forbids serial meetings like this
to arrive at a collective consensus,
and that's exactly what you all have done,
in violation of Government Code, Section 11125(b).
That law forbids the majority of members of the state body,
like the PUC, from using, quote,
"a series of communications of any kind
"directly or through intermediaries to discuss,
"deliberate, or take action on any item
outside of duly noticed meetings".
Your texting sessions weren't noticed meetings.
Now, ignorance of the law is no excuse,
but in the case of a Commission populated
by well-educated lawyers, it seems even worse.
You probably know the law,
and you consciously and brazenly defied it.
Now, interestingly, President Batjer,
you've denied any influence from outside industries,
but you had a, quote, "meet and greet" in July,
the month of the unlawful serial meetings
with Rhonda Johnson, the Preside of AT&T, California,
along with AT&T's Assistant Vice President
for Regulatory Affairs.
You had scheduled a meet and greet
with PG&E's top executive in July, and again on August 6th.
You canceled it, I guess, under pressure, probably,
from the fact that we had already called you out
for your unlawful conduct.
And again, July is when you Commissioners
arrived at your consensus to fire Ms, Stebbins.
Commissioners, as some of the public speakers have remarked,
you waved a $200,000,000 fine against PG&E,
and you haven't collected another
$200,000,000 owed to the state.
You're trying to blame it on Alice, and you're saying,
"Oh, well it was your job to collect it",
but after she blew the whistler on it,
you immediately launched into
a collective consensus to fire her.
You gave PG&E a second chance,
and you waved a $200,000,000 fine
after it committed felonies that killed people,
but you apparently don't wanna give Alice Stebbins
a second chance after the SPB questioned some of her hires,
even though the HR Department was involved in the hires,
and there is no rule against hiring people
with whom you have worked before.
That's letting a corporate criminal off the hook,
but not giving a second chance to your Executive Director,
who had done a great job.
Now back to the texts.
Commissioner Randolph also texted about, quote,
"Where this is ending anywhere, anyway?".
President Batjer, you texted,
"It's more than clearly apparent that it's untenable
"for her to stay working here,
and we should be working from that".
Another texted, 'I can't imagine her remaining".
Four of you five Commissioners were texting each other
to that effect on July 24th, 2020,
again, after the whistleblowing.
Commissioners, again, you have clearly violated
the Bagley-Keene Act, section 11122.5(b)(1) provides,
"A majority of the members of the state body
"shall not, outside of the meeting
"authorized by this Chapter,
"use a series of communication of any kind,
"directly or through intermediaries,
"to discuss, deliberate, or take action
"on any item that is within the subject matter
of the state body".
And Section 11120, sets forth, quote,
"The intent of the law,
"that actions of state agencies be taken openly,
and that their deliberations be conducted openly".
The Commission has scoffed at that law,
and scoffed at Article 1,
Section 3 of the California Constitution,
which was adopted by an 83% vote of the people,
and which requires open meetings.
You've conducted serial meetings
at which you decided to fire Ms. Stebbins.
You told her you'd made your decision to fire her.
You made the decision in secret texting sessions,
which had not been noticed to Ms. Stebbins or the public.
President Batjer, you told Ms. Stebbins
that you and the other Commissioners
had decided to fire her if she didn't resign.
Commissioners Rechtschaffen and Randolph, you told her,
and your texts reveal the same thing,
and you texted and called her
late on the evening of August 3rd
to repeat that warning under cover of darkness.
You asked Ms. Stebbins to call you, and when she did,
you both told her you'd made up your mind
you were gonna fire her.
There was and is no reason to fire Ms. Stebbins,
because the SPB Report was contrived and unfounded,
and did not detract from the fact
she had done an excellent job.
She hired 800 people,
and was moving the PUC in the right direction.
You all submitted a report
to the legislator in June of 2020,
the so-called "Decade Document", touting the hiring,
and the direction in which Ms. Stebbins was moving the PUC.
The SPB raised unfounded questions
about five people who were doing an excellent job,
including Mr. Azevedo, the individual,
who along with Ms. Stebbins,
blew the whistle on the Commissioners' own failure
to do anything to collect $200,000,000.
And ironically, many of your texts admit
that Ms. Stebbins had reasonable explanations
for the hiring of most of the folks in question.
If you go ahead with this firing,
this kangaroo court in which President Batjer
seems to be serving as prosecutor, judge, and jury,
you will send a chilling message
to whistleblowers in state service,
people who report illegal and improper activity
will be fired, and you will send a message
that you operate the way
the administration in Washington operates.
If you try to regulate the industries
you're supposed to regulate,
and hold them accountable, you'll be demonized and fired.
What the Commission should be trying to do,
is to regulate PG&E before they start more fires,
and destroy more towns, and commit another 85 felonies.
You should be acting like Judge Alsup,
who is presiding over the PG&E probation,
and holding their corporate feet to the fire.
You should not be having meet and greets with these folks.
Instead, you're spending all of your time
trying to fire a dedicated public servant
with 33 years of exemplary state service,
who hired people who were doing a good job.
Please don't send such a chilling message
to the public, to rate payers, and state employees
who are doing a good job trying to protect the public,
and regulate huge corporations, like PG&E.
Please give Ms. Stebbins a chance to finish
the job that she was hired to do,
and to regulate the utilities.
Thank you.
Ms. Stebbins will now give her statement.
Arocles: Ms. Stebbins?
Stebbins: Thanks, Arocles.
CPUC management staff, public speakers,
listeners, and Commissioners,
first, a word of thanks to everyone
who spoke today during the public comment period.
I also want to acknowledge some of the great work
from many of the staff at the CPUC.
Continue to do good work,
and don't be persuaded to do anything less.
As Mr. Azevedo, the former Deputy Executive Director
of the CPUC Administrative Services Division,
stated earlier, there is 200,000,000
in accounts receivable at the CPUC.
This essentially means that the industries we regulate
owe us $200,000,000.
I and my staff blew the whistle on this,
and that's why I'm being fired.
Here is the breakdown.
36.4 million is due to the general fund
for fines the Commission has issued to its industries.
10.6 is due from transportation companies.
60.4 million is due from the gas, electric,
water, and telecommunication industry.
62 million is due from the LifeLine Program.
6.4 million is due from the
Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program.
10 million is due from the California Teleconnect Fund.
This is money for schools and libraries.
Seven million is due from the
California Advanced Services Fund.
This is money for broadband.
4.4 million is due from the High Cost Fund-A.
This is for money for communication services in rural areas.
And 3.2 million is due from federal funding.
The amounts total roughly 200.4 million.
I was alerted to the
200,000,000 accounts receivable in January, 2020.
I attempted to brief President Batjer in January,
and was finally able to brief her in February, 2020.
At the same briefing, I also alerted her to
concerns with the Water Division,
and some irregularities with their collection.
Collections that went back as far as 19 years,
where small water companies were billing their customers,
collecting the money,
but failing to send the money to the CPUC,
the same division that has never done an enforcement action.
President Batjer was dismissive when I brought up
the accounts receivable balance of 200,000,000,
so I directed Mr. Azevedo to begin the process
of identifying the entities
who owed the CPUC monies, and begin the collection process.
Because the CPUC has done
such a poor job with the accounting records,
the process has been long arduous,
a process I had hoped to complete.
As a frame of reference,
accounts receivables are material
when they have an economic impact to the agency.
Another state agency with a similar size budget
has an accounts receivable balance of 1.5 million.
This is still a lot of money,
but compared to 200,000,000,
is a small impact to this agency.
It is also important to understand
that the 200,000,000 is heavily relying
on utilities self-reporting.
Essentially, a system where the utilities are trusted
to make payment without supervision or surveillance.
This is not only high risk for payment failure,
but a fiscal catastrophe, and a mismanagement of resources,
which is a perfect recipe for fraud and abuse.
So let's get back to the numbers.
Fiscal year '18/'19 started with roughly
173,000,000 in accounts receivables.
This same year, there were roughly
53 million in new receivables.
The CPUC collected about 22,000,000 of the 73 owed,
plus some adjustments.
The ending balance of fiscal year '18/'19 was 200,000,000.
The theory with accruals
is that you know who owes you money, how much,
and they are supposed to pay in the year they are created.
However, that has never happened at the CPUC,
as far as I can tell.
In many cases, I don't know who owes,
how much they owe, and if they have paid.
It is entirely possible the CPUC is providing the utilities
an interest-free line of credit.
It is untenable to have $200,000,000 in accounts receivable.
Mr. Azevedo and I also realized
that there were no reconciliations occurring
between program databases and the Accounting Office.
Accounting was relying heavily on the industry division.
Again, from a fiduciary responsibility standpoint,
this is fraught with internal control issues,
as well as a complete lack of separation of duty.
This was not something my predecessors focused on,
but one that was recognizable
to the strong individuals I hired
through the competitive process.
This was also a massive liability to the CPUC,
and showed a lack of fiscal responsibility and integrity.
In fact, Mr. Azevedo offered
the high-level accounting assessment, dated July, 2019,
to the internal auditor,
however, internal audits refused to accept the report.
This makes no sense.
This is an area the CPUC's Internal Audit Unit
should have focused on like a laser.
In November, 2019, I asked President Batjer
that I be included in the audit and finance meetings
with the internal auditor since I had a lot to share,
and there were areas on which I was hoping
the Internal Audit Team could assist.
President Batjer denied my request.
She seemed to mistrust
my good judgment approach to business,
and was already excluding me from meetings that,
as the Executive Director, I could've provided insight,
feedback, and perspective.
And in the case with the $200,000,000, a plan to remediate.
What did past President Batjer not want me to know?
Prior to President Batjer starting at the CPUC,
I had support to begin several programmatic reviews.
Those included, but are not limited to,
an assessment of the accounting processes and services,
an assessment of the Water Division,
an assessment of the Deaf and Disabled Program,
an audit of the Electric Program Investment Charge,
a $500,000,000 program,
various audits and assessments of the LifeLine Program,
audits of balancing accounts,
a priority workload assessment for all divisions,
an assessment of the IT infrastructure conducted
by the California Department of Technology.
The human resources review is not on my list.
That HR review was created by President Batjer
in an effort to destroy
hardworking and outstanding employees
for making a difference.
And please note, I have hired organizationally
over 800 individuals in 2 1/2 years.
Why only focus on five individuals?
The same five individuals who have assisted me,
and many others, in fixing a broken CPUC,
which includes discovering
200,000,000 in accounts receivable.
As I read this, I have been told by the Commissioners,
and it is clear in their text messages between themselves,
the outcome of this hearing.
President Batjer, and Commissioner Rechtschaffen,
and Commissioner Randolph have told me
they had made up their minds to fire me
before there was even a notice meeting or hearing.
Here is the timeline.
The State Personnel Board began
an HR review in October of 2019.
I am alerted to the $200,000,000 in January, 2020.
I brief President Batjer in February, 2020
on the $200,000,000.
In April, 2020, I receive a call from two investigators
questioning five hires I had made,
which was allegedly discovered during the HR review.
On June 24th, I am contacted by an attorney
from the Attorney General's Office about the investigation,
and she shares with me the draft investigative report
stating I have until July 1st to complete my response.
I request an extension to July 13th,
which is finally granted.
On July 8th and July 11th,
the Commissioners text each other
that I cannot stay at the CPUC, which shows clearly
that they had already made up their mind.
They all agree I need to go.
On July 13th, I provide my reply
to the June 24th SPB Investigative Report.
The Commissioners' text messages are a blatant violation
of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Law,
and the Commissioners had already decided to get rid of me
before they had even read my reply to the report.
I know without a doubt that they had to get rid of me
because I blew the whistle on the $200,000,000.
They asked for my resignation, and they said,
"I would be fired if I did not resign".
I'm here today because I did not resign.
Resigning would have admitted to a wrongdoing.
But I say to you all today,
the only wrongdoing was by
President Batjer and the Commissioners
to try and cover up the $200,000,000,
as well as all the other areas my team was cleaning up.
The State Personnel Board investigation
is seriously flawed.
The same report that was sent to all CPUC staff
on Monday, August 10th,
with no warning or heads-up
to all the individuals mentioned in the report,
my reply was not included in that response,
but I will share with you today
the many inconsistencies in the report,
as well as the real reason behind the SPB investigation.
The investigators did not know,
nor were they interested in learning,
that the entirety at the CPUC was a massive turmoil,
and the operations were highly inefficient when I arrived.
The "Decade Document" prepared for the legislature
by my team revealed the turmoil and dysfunction at the CPUC,
as well as the massive improvement in hire practices,
and other areas under my watch.
We were a silent operation,
where every industry had different processes and procedures,
or none at all.
I was hired to correct them.
In the first year, recruiting individuals to come into CPUC
from other organizations was extremely difficult.
In many cases, we had to re-advertise jobs,
change classifications,
and invigorate our recruitment effort
to get better candidates to apply.
Positions improved when we began
advertising and recruiting in Sacramento.
However, Public Utilities Research Analyst,
otherwise known as PURAs,
was not a classification that any Sacramento agency
inner-staff were familiar with,
as it was only used at the CPUC
in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Many of the most qualified candidates across the state
did not even know the PURA classification existed.
As such, marketing efforts were undertaken
to describe the work experience needed
that qualify for these classifications,
in addition to what the CPUC had to offer
from a career perspective.
Even through these efforts,
the candidate pool remained disappointing,
so we tried to enlarge the candidate pool
by including the option
of training and development opportunities.
This is a standard recruitment technique
used at many state agencies,
along with fellowship, student assistance,
and targeted outreach.
Training and development refinements
were found to be very helpful,
and allowed us to recruit staff
that were skilled and analytical,
but who may not have had
all the utility-related experience required
by the classification.
The CPUC began adding "will accept P&Ds"
to many of its PURA advertisements
to entice individuals who may not have been eligible
to apply for a position otherwise.
My executive team in San Francisco were working hard,
and helped me.
Yet, despite this, the progress was slow.
We were all working long hours, but I still needed staff.
The team I hired, along with others,
helped me shape many
of the reforms and changes needed at the CPUC,
that were demanded by the public,
the legislature, and the Governor,
changes that many Californians have benefited from.
I commend the division staff who continue to work hard,
and really adapt and change
with the direction I was providing.
However, all this changed in August, 2019.
In August, 2019, Marybel Batjer became
President of the CPUC.
At the outset, I provided President Batjer with
an update on pending audits
related to fiscal integrity issues.
I made her aware of the Sjoberg and Evashenk draft report,
which had been issued in July, 2019,
which found that significant risks exist
in CPU's handling of accounts receivable.
Ms. Batjer showed no interest in that work,
rather, she seemed fixated on personnel issues,
with particular attention to how she could
move more control to her office, a key division.
I knew that the State Personnel Board
was starting its audit,
which was something that happened every three years,
and thought nothing of it at the time.
I focused on continuing to fix the CPUC,
and especially overseeing staff projects that would root out
the lack of process and procedures in each division.
I was also working hard to address concerns
about CPUC's responsiveness to wildfire safety issues,
as many of its speakers today have noted.
I briefed President Batjer and other Commissioners
on the $200,000,000 in February, 2020,
and I did my (mumbling) best
to bring attention to this serious problem.
In April, 2020, I received a call
from two SPB investigators,
and I spent about an hour and a half on the phone
with those individuals.
I was never asked to review any writings or reports,
or to provide any information beyond the oral interview.
Again, I and my staff remained focus
on the business of the CPUC.
The final assessment of accounting processes' report
was issued in early June, 2020,
and it disclosed, among other things,
the CPUC is non-compliant to State Administrative Manual,
significant risk in CPUC's oversight,
and management of federal funds,
and the CPUC's handling of unpaid accounts receivable,
including approximately 200,0000,000
reported to the state controller
that was due to the CPUC from private utility companies
as of June 30th, 2019,
with a significant portion of these accounts receivables
dating back many years.
Three weeks later, I received a draft final copy
of the SPB Report on June 24, 2020.
I was truly shocked.
It was incomplete, inaccurate,
and contained a number of flat out false statements.
However, the claim was that I had improperly hired
five senior staff employees,
and I had no doubt that it was a simple matter
of demonstrating from the actual records of their hiring
that these persons were,
one, competitive and well qualified
for the position they each applied to,
B, or two, that compared to each other,
to the other candidates,
each was equal to or better than the candidates.
Three, that I had properly exercised my discretion
to hire the most qualified person for each position,
and four, that each of these employees
had exemplary performances since coming over to the CPUC.
Also, I was well aware that I was permitted to hire people
who I had worked with at other agencies.
One thing stood out to me, the numbers in the report.
Since starting at the CPUC,
I had oversight of over 800 hires,
and personally interviews or consulted in
a high percentage of these.
I had opened the Sacramento CPUC office,
and overseen countless hires for that office.
Out of all these interviews and hiring decisions,
why would an audit focus on five employees?
All of whom were experienced, well qualified
by any objective standards,
and competitive with the other candidates.
The bottom line, is that the SPB investigation and report
is deeply flawed and inaccurate,
as I pointed out in several rebuttals,
which the Commissioners did not see fit
to provide to the SPB.
Within days, it all began to come into focus.
President Batjer convinced other Commissioners,
who just months early had told me I was doing a great job,
that I needed to resign immediately
before the report became public.
When I tried to explain why the report was not accurate,
I was accused of being defensive, unduly offended,
and I just needed to start packing my bags.
I knew that President Batjer had
close connections to the SPB.
She had oversighted that agency at her prior job.
I had not realized until this moment
that she would actually exercise
improper influence over a state audit.
I started to realize that this was no routine report.
It was not a random investigation.
It was very targeted.
Who was out to destroy my career and why?
The real reason I'm being fired is that I blew the whistle
on the uncollected 200,000,000.
I emphasized to President Batjer and your Audit Committee
that we had a problem,
and that I had evidence of
mismanagement in the Water Division,
and was continuing to gather additional details
in other industries.
I made these report in February and March, 2020.
On my approval,
Mr. Azevedo also reported this to President Batjer
and the Audit Committee in a May 15, 2020, letter
with attachments that included an accounting assessment
that identified, again,
the high risk of the accounts receivable.
The Audit Committee once again turned a blind eye
to missing 200,000,000,
and the Commissioners rather turned
all of their attention to firing me.
During this entire time, the Audit Committee
kept accounting from working on the $200,000,000
by sending an internal audit in staff,
who were focused on the de minimis items
compared to the outrageous 200,000,000 accounts receivable
that had been found.
Internal audits has been checking
parking receipts of directors,
rather than millions of dollars
in uncollected accounts receivable.
This was President Batjer's tactic
to distract and intimidate the staff
so they were unable to focus on the real and necessary work.
She was sending a strong message,
that her way was the only way.
President Batjer targeted me and my staff, the removal,
because we did not stop in our efforts
to make change for the better
by collection $200,000,000,
and by fixing so many other legacy issues.
Returning the CPUC in its own corrupt ways,
with total power in the hands of the president,
and no meaningful regulation of the utilities, like PG&E,
is the singular goal of President Batjer.
The rate payers, legislature, and Governor
deserve a CPUC that regulates responsibly,
and attempts to hold powerful utilities accountable.
Most of the public see the CPUC as a bureaucracy.
A great example of a bureaucracy is DMV.
Lots of steps and slow.
President Batjer wants to the CPUC to be a bureaucracy
versus a well functioning organization that is accountable,
but still moves quickly and efficiently.
I wanted an organization
that was fiscally strong and accountable.
The fiscal team in any organization is vital to ensure
accounts are set up and monitored responsibly,
accounts are reconciled and billed,
and the agency follows generally accepted
accounting principles and governmental accounting standards.
But financial office is an organization is critical.
If your fiscal records are being done poorly,
it is a strong indicator
that the organization has severe weaknesses.
I hope all of you listening are still paying attention,
but please do not let President Batjer
and the rest of the Commission ignore
the fiscal integrity of the most powerful organization
in the State of California.
Rate payers count on us to hold utilities accountable.
They count on us to do our job.
I do not believe and have never believed
in not being accountable.
I don't accept business as usual,
and I question processes and procedures,
especially when they don't exist.
You all deserve a CPUC that is well run,
collects 200,000,000 that is owed,
and holds the utilities accountable.
I wish I would have had, and I still quote,
"I will have the chance to finish the good work
my staff and I had begun",
but I and the public have seen your texts,
and it apparent that you have made your decision,
and rendered your judgment before this trial started.
If and when you formalize the decision
your texts have already revealed,
you will have removed the teeth from the agency
which is supposed to be a watchdog of the utilities.
In summary, I was hired to make
the CPUC a better organization.
I was on my way to doing this before I was targeted
because my team and I discovered
$200,000,000 in accounts receivable.
I ask that I be allowed to continue the good work
my staff and I have done.
At this time, I'll turn it over to Therese.
Arocles: Thank you, Ms. Stebbins.
Ms. Therese?
Therese: Can you hear me?
Female: Yes.
Therese: All right, great.
I don't think I have audio whether a video, is that right?
I can't seem to get it to work under Apple,
I guess, is the problem, right?
Arocles: We don't see you, but we can hear you.
Therese: Very good, thank you, and I will get going.
I know you guys have had a long morning,
and I will also try not to repeat,
but I do wanna wrap up where we've been.
Some people come to work for state agencies
because they just want a comfortable job,
and a good paycheck.
Some people come out of a sense of duty,
and a commitment to good government.
And for those brave souls who agree
to take on positions of management and leadership,
at least in government jobs,
they sometimes do so at risk of their careers,
because to speak up has consequences,
and because change in any organization is hard.
Executive Director, Alice Stebbins,
has worked in state government for over 30 years,
and has in those roles both in short positions,
and as she gathered experience and moved to management,
she gained the experience and knowledge.
She translated her desire for change
and better accountability into concrete action items.
She learned how to become an effective agent of change,
and that has been her reputation.
That was her reputation
at the California Air Resources Board.
It has been her reputation at the California PUC.
It is the reason why she was recruited
to the California PUC,
to apply for the position's executive director,
because they were looking for someone
who had the experience, the courage,
and the ability to affect change.
She has worked tirelessly in her short time,
and she's only been there since 2018,
but in that short time,
she has worked tirelessly to implement change,
and she believed and was told
that she had the support of leadership.
Indeed, she was told when President Batjer came to the PUC
that she had the support of leadership
to continue making those changes.
She did not know until literally weeks ago
that she did not have the support to make change.
Now I know you heard from two former staff persons
from the California Air Resources Board,
and I think those people can best be summarized
as people who objected to change or changing
in their organization.
Their stories, should they ever be called upon
to be witnesses in any further proceedings,
would have to acknowledge
that they did things that were unconscionable,
such as hiring relatives for positions,
daughters, boyfriends, nieces, nephews,
and that those persons also had performance issues
that had to be addressed inside of their own departments.
And so two people,
out of the hundreds and hundreds of people
that Executive director Stebbins has worked with,
came forward today.
And many other people came forward to talk about
the manor in which she has worked,
with integrity, with experience, with knowledge,
with hard work, with commitment.
I wanna address three things as we conclude this.
First of all, whether there is a there-there
on the $200,000,000 in uncollected accounts receivable,
the report, the final audit of this accounting report,
which was released in June of 2020,
was in draft form in July of 2019,
and it identified, at that time,
significant risk in the CPUC's handling
of accounts receivables.
However, as you read that report,
you must align it with the report
to the State Controller's Office,
which identifies the particulars.
It unpacks what those problems are.
And that report, which in the report
released at the State Controller's Office,
it shows $200,000,000 of accounts receivable
due as of June 30th, 2019.
Above this, $50,000,000
has been past due and outstanding since 2017,
with portions dating back as far as the 1990s.
The $50,000,000 is a material amount
that triggers a violation of state regulations.
The collection of this $50,000,000
should've been actively pursued
by President Batjer and the Commissioners,
and certainly addressed by the Audit Committee
in order to remain in compliance with
State Administrative Manual, Section 8776 and 8776.6.
So there is a bear there.
It's significant, and it cannot be understated,
or passed away, or swept under a carpet,
and it was reported by,
not only was it identified,
but it was reported in February of 2020.
And what Ms, Stebbins and others,
including Mr. Azevedo, were trying to do, was unpack it
to say, "Okay, this is exactly what's inside of this box
of $200,000,000 of accounts receivables".
Largely because of President Batjer's improper influence
over the audit process, the SPB Report is not credible.
And what's even more important,
is that you, the Commissioners, made no effort
to correct false and inaccurate information from the draft,
to the comments, to the final.
You received a draft on June 24th, 2020.
You had an opportunity in July
to correct inaccuracies until it gets to final,
but you made no effort to do that.
You made a passing effort
to read over Ms. Stebbins' comments,
but you made no effort to correct the inaccuracies,
and I think it's because you wanted this
to be a firing defense.
The report, if you look at it,
narrowly confined its analysis to
a carefully selected set of facts
intended to create false images and innuendos
about an allegedly improper hiring practice or practices.
But the math doesn't work for this thing.
This report fails to consider the vast number of hires.
Over 800 hires for the prior two year period,
and of that, five individuals may have had, may have had,
some issue in the hiring process.
Nor does it consider at all that Ms. Stebbins,
that these, I'm sorry, that these five individuals
were in fact qualified.
And objectively, looking at their resumes,
looking at their experience,
and looking at the other candidates,
and looking at the job description,
they were objectively qualified by any standard.
Further, this report failed to interview them.
And further, this report failed,
and the Commission has failed to identify
how any of these, any of these five individuals
were not qualified, or did not perform exemplary.
What on earth did they not do that they were supposed to do,
except support Ms. Stebbins in her efforts
to make the CPUC more fiscally accountable?
Because that is where she focused most of her work,
to bring it to, to bring in procedures,
and process, and fiscal integrity.
The report, at best, weighs concerns
that could've been objectively discussed with Ms, Stebbins
and the HR Department,
but that was not its purpose, nor its point.
It was a pre-text for stopping Ms. Stebbins
and her very well qualified senior staff
from doing their work, from cleaning up the CPUC,
to rid it of fiscally irresponsible practices,
and to implement policies and procedures
that would create transparency,
fiscal integrity, and accountability.
President Batjer and the CPUC Commissioners,
I respectfully ask that you take a deep breath,
slow this down, look at what is really happening.
Asking Executive Director Stebbins to leave
because you have concerns
about the hiring process of five employees out of 800
over the past two years,
and these employees who objectively,
are objectively qualified,
and have performed their jobs at the CPUC
in an exemplary manner, is not the right path.
Indeed, I've heard that you've threatened
each of these employees with termination in the coming days.
Firing Ms. Stebbins is regressing, and an unwise move.
It will return the CPUC to a stagnant,
ineffective state organization
that has drawn so much criticism in the past.
This is not the right path for the CPUC.
I urge you to reconsider and retain
Executive Director Stebbins.
Let her get back to work, and make change for the better.
And if you want her to be...
If you want oversight of hiring practices,
or more, work effectively with HR and with Ms. Stebbins
to make those changes,
which would be modest in their nature.
I thank you for your time and consideration today.
Arocles: Ms. Stebbins,
does that conclude your presentation?
Stebbins: Yes, it does.
Thank you.
Arocles: Thank you.
I now turn it over to the President.
Batjer: Thank you, Arocles,
and thank you Ms. Stebbins and counsel
for your presentation.
Moving on in our agenda,
manager reports and Commission reports,
there is no management report,
nor Commissioner report today.
We will now recess the public meeting
to discuss items in the closed session.
We will reconvene the public meeting
after our discussion in closed session.
There will be a slide on the website
to indicate that summation is in recess for closed session.
We will update that slide to include an approximate time,
about 15 minutes out, before reconvening the public meeting.
Our News and Outreach Team will also send out a Tweet
to alert followers of the expected time
we will reconvene the public meeting.
We will now go into closed session on legal matters.
Thank you, Operator.
We are reconvening in the public session.
Will the Agenda Clerk please call the roll?
Agenda Clerk: Commissioner Shiroma?
Shiroma: Present.
Agent Clerk: Commissioner Guzman Aceves?
Guzman Aceves: Here.
Agent Clerk: Commissioner Randolph?
Randolph: Here.
Agent Clerk: Commissioner Rechtschaffen?
Rechtschaffen: Present.
Agent Clerk: President Batjer?
Batjer: Here.
Thank you.
The quorum has been established.
I would like to apologize to the public
for the technical difficulties
that we are having on our telephone lines.
We have worked to try and resolve it.
I do apologize to you that have been waiting,
and that have been having difficulties getting on the line.
We have quite a few people
who have waited for over 30 minutes,
so we're going to endeavor to continue,
and this has been recorded.
This is going to be recorded,
so it will be available through our offices
to listen to what is going to be said here.
So again, I apologize for
the technical difficulties
that we're having with our telephone lines.
We met as the Commission in closed session,
and deliberated, and considered the dismissal
of the Executive Director of the CPUC.
Pursuit to Government Code 11125.2
and Government Code 11126.3(f),
a vote was taken to dismiss
the Executive Director, Alice Stebbins,
effective September 4th, 2020.
The roll call was as follows:
Commissioner Shiroma, yes.
Commissioner Guzman Aceves, yes.
Commissioner Rechtschaffen, yes.
Commissioner Randolph, yes.
President Batjer, yes.
The Commission will also report out this action
at a subsequent meeting of the CPUC on September 10th, 2020.
Thank you all for attending this public meeting today.
We are now adjourned.