Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) Monday announced his appointment to fill the vacant seat on the five-member panel of the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC).
Attorney Gabriella Passidomo, daughter of state Sen. Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) was selected, according to POLITICO. The elder Passidomo is the Senate president-elect in 2022.
Gabriella Passidomo has a political science degree from the University of Florida, and a law degree from Washington and Lee University.
According to FloridaPolitics.com, Gabriella Passidomo served as a legal intern in the U.S. Department of Energy and a law clerk for the Florida Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General before her appointment as commissioner.
The position pays an annual salary of $135,997.
The seat has been vacant since DeSantis tapped former panel member Julie Brown to head the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in February. He chose Passidomo over state Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Lake Mary), PSC chief policy adviser Ana Cristina Ortega, and prominent Florida lobbyist Rosanna Manuela Catalano.
“The Florida Public Service Commission is committed to making sure that Florida’s consumers receive some of their most essential services — electric, natural gas, telephone, water, and wastewater — in a safe, reasonable, and reliable manner. In doing so, the PSC exercises regulatory authority over utilities in one or more of three key areas: rate base/economic regulation; competitive market oversight; and monitoring of safety, reliability, and service,” according to the agency’s website. The PSC regulates five investor-owned electric companies, eight investor-owned natural gas utilities, and 131 investor-owned water and/or wastewater utilities.
Over the past year, the agency has been particularly focused on helping Floridians keep their basic utility services on during the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state and economic tumult.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
