| State Supreme Court Declines to Take Up Bitter Smith Issue |
State Supreme Court Declines to Take Up Bitter Smith Issue
Bitter Smith resigned, effective Monday, after Attorney Mark Brnovich's office filed a motion seeking her removal from the Arizona Corporation Commission. Bitter Smith said she resigned because the court action was a distraction to her work, to provide clarity about what constitutes a conflict of interest for Arizona Corporation Commission members. That won't happen.
After meeting behind closed doors Tuesday, the justices determined they don't need to hear the case. "The Court declines to accept jurisdiction of the (Attorney General's Office) Petition for Special Action," said the minutes released after the meeting. Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whose office filed a petition Nov. 30 seeking Bitter Smith's removal from office, had said that the case was moot given Bitter Smith's resignation. Two former commissioners and one person who lost an election to the commission had written the court asking the justices to take up the matter, also to provide clarity regarding conflicts of interest. Gov. Doug Ducey last week appointed former Arizona lawmaker Andy Tobin to replace Bitter Smith on the five-member Corporation Commission, and before that, the remaining commissioners voted to make Doug Little the interim chairman of the commission, which was Bitter Smith's position. When Brnovich announced his motion to remove Bitter Smith, he said she was violating the state conflict-of-interest law by serving as a Corporation Commission member while also working as executive director of the Southwest Cable Communications Association. The petition centered on Bitter Smith's work as executive director of the cable association and the fact that Cox Communications lists her as a lobbyist. State law prohibits Corporation Commission members from working for or having a financial interest in companies regulated by the commission. The telecommunications affiliates of Cox, Comcast Corp. and other members of the SWCCA group are regulated by the Corporation Commission, but it does not oversee cable companies. |
Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | 
Arizona Supreme Court justices decided Tuesday that they don't need to determine whether utility regulator Susan Bitter Smith had an actual conflict of interest by working for the cable television industry while overseeing telecommunications companies.