Minnesota Commission Fines Former Chairman for Taking Oregon Telephone Job
By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Oct. 8–The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Friday fined former commissioner and chairman Gregory Scott $2,500 for seeking and taking a job last year from Oregon telephone company Integra Telecom, which does business in Minnesota.
The PUC also voted unanimously to hire an investigator to look into allegations that Scott, an outspoken critic of Qwest Communications International, had improper communications with a lawyer from AT&T while Qwest and AT&T were locked in battles over regulatory issues before the commission in 2002 to 2004.
Denver-based Qwest, Minnesota’s dominant phone company, was fined $26 million by the PUC in 2002 for breaking federal rules on competition. It is urging the commission to broaden the investigation and examine Scott’s contacts with all AT&T employees during his entire seven-year tenure on the commission.
If the investigation uncovers improper contact, it could nullify the largest fine ever levied against a regulated company. It also could change rules and rates that might help Qwest retain its position as the state’s dominant telephone provider with 1.9 million of the state’s 3.1 million lines.
“We want a complete investigation of the contacts between Scott and AT&T,” Qwest Minnesota operations president John Stanoch said Friday. Qwest’s $26 million fine has been appealed to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Scott, who moved to Portland, Ore., last year to become an Integra vice president in charge of regulatory matters outside of Minnesota, was not present at Friday’s meeting. He has denied any impropriety for both seeking a job with Integra and for his more than 200 long distance phone calls over two years with AT&T lawyer Mary Tribby, who worked in Denver but visited Minnesota for PUC hearings.
Scott began working for Integra in June 2004, a month after he left the PUC. He left the company Aug. 23.
Scott’s attorney, Doug Kelley, disagreed with the PUC’s findings. Scott has said he did not violate state laws that ban a commissioner from working for a regulated phone company within one year of leaving his post because the PUC did not regulate Integra’s rates.
“I think they were voting on the law as they wish it to be and not as it really is,” Kelley said.
Several commissioners complained that the state statutes were ambiguous on what kind of phone company was regulated. Still, they believed that a subsidiary of Integra, the Twin Cities-based Scott-Rice Telephone Co., was regulated.
Kelley said he needed to consult with Scott to decide whether to appeal the fine. The lawyer said Scott will cooperate with the investigation into his contacts with Tribby, who another AT&T lawyer described as a friend of Scott’s.
The PUC could have fined Scott as much as $10,000 but declined. Several commissioners said he and Integra did consult with an ethics expert before going ahead with the hiring and now he has lost his job.
The PUC decided not to fine Integra for hiring Scott. However, the commission will bill Integra for the cost of the investigation, which came to about $100,000.
—–
To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.twincities.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Q, T,