Tuesday was the deadline for candidates seeking to become Florida Public Service Commissioners (PSC) to submit applications to the Florida Public Service Commission Nominating Council.
The Council will interview all the candidates and determine a select few for Governor Ron DeSantis to choose from in his decision to fill positions of two current members of the PSC, whose terms expire in January 2022.
The upcoming appointment will make the third time in less than a year that DeSantis will appoint a member to the Commission. In May, he appointed former attorney for the PSC Gabriella Passidomo, who replaced Commissioner Julie Brown. In August 2020, DeSantis appointed former state Representative Mike La Rosa.
The PSC regulates the electric, natural gas, and water and wastewater industries in the state, along with certain telecommunications
services.
Art Graham and Andrew Fay, vying to remain on the panel, will be challenged by eight other candidates who are seeking the position, none of which are members of the Florida Legislature. Graham has been on the Commission since 2010 when then-Governor Charlie Crist appointed him to the seat. He was then reappointed twice by former Governor Rick Scott, who also appointed Fay in 2018.
Ebo Entsuah is another candidate who is a former legislative aide to DeSantis before he was elected Governor and current member of the Clermont City Council. Entsuah is also the legislative policy principal for Advanced Energy Economy, a group focused on policy development that deals with the utility industry.
In his fifth attempt for a PSC seat, Steven Petty, Senior Marketing Coordinator for HNTB Corp. and former Chief Economist for Florida TaxWatch, is another candidate to join the list.
The rest of the candidates include Ria Lee Shue Ling, Belinda Little-Wood, Brian Byrd, Anibal Taboas, William Wheeler Jr., and Kenneth Peterson, as reported by The News Service of Florida.
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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Florida Senate Capitol” by Michael Rivera CC 3.0.
