PRINTER'S NO. 754
No. 665 Session of 1985
INTRODUCED BY HASAY, BELARDI, STUBAN, WILSON, GODSHALL, BURD AND
BELFANTI, MARCH 25, 1985
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS, MARCH 25, 1985
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 66 (Public Utilities) of the Pennsylvania
2 Consolidated Statutes, requiring that commissioners not be
3 attorneys.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Section 301(b) of Title 66 of the Pennsylvania
7 Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
8 § 301. Establishment, members, qualifications and chairman.
9 * * *
10 (b) Qualifications and restrictions.--Each commissioner, at
11 the time of his appointment and qualification, shall be a
12 resident of this Commonwealth and shall have been a qualified
13 elector therein for a period of at least one year next preceding
14 his appointment, and shall also be not less than 30 years of
15 age. No person shall be appointed a member of the commission or
16 hold any place, position or office under it, who occupies any
17 official relation to any public utility or who holds any other
18 appointive or elected office of the Commonwealth or any
1 political subdivision thereof. No person shall be appointed to
2 the commission who is or has been a member of the bar of any
3 state or Federal court within three years of his appointment.
4 Commencing July 1, 1977, commissioners shall devote full time to
5 their official duties. No commissioner shall hold any office or
6 position, the duties of which are incompatible with the duties
7 of his office as commissioner, or be engaged in any business,
8 employment or vocation, for which he shall receive any
9 remuneration, except as provided in this chapter. No employee,
10 appointee or official engaged in the service of or in any manner
11 connected with, the commission shall hold any office or
12 position, or be engaged in any employment or vocation, the
13 duties of which are incompatible with his employment in the
14 service of or in connection with the work of the commission. No
15 commissioner shall be paid or accept for any service connected
16 with the office, any fee or emolument other than the salary and
17 expenses provided by law. No commissioner shall participate in
18 any hearing or proceeding in which he has any direct or indirect
19 pecuniary interest. Within 90 days of confirmation, each
20 commissioner shall disclose, at that time and thereafter
21 annually, the existence of all security holdings in any public
22 utility or its affiliates held by such commissioner, his or her
23 spouse and any minor or unemancipated children and must either
24 divest or place in a blind trust such securities. As used in
25 this part, blind trust means a trust over which neither the
26 commissioners, their spouses, nor any minor or unemancipated
27 children shall exercise any managerial control, and from which
28 neither the commissioners, their spouses, nor any minor or
29 unemancipated children shall receive any income from the trust
30 during the commissioner's tenure of office. Such disclosure
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1 statement shall be filed with the secretary of the commission
2 and shall be open to inspection by the public during the normal
3 business hours of the commission during the tenure of the
4 commissioner. Every commissioner, and every individual or
5 official, employed or appointed to office under, in the service
6 of, or in connection with, the work of the commission, is
7 forbidden, directly or indirectly, to solicit or request from,
8 or to suggest or recommend to any public utility, or to any
9 officer, attorney, agent or employee thereof, the appointment of
10 any individual to any office, place or position in, or the
11 employment of any individual in any capacity by, such public
12 utility. Every commissioner, every bureau director and every
13 administrative law judge employed or appointed to office under,
14 in the service of or in connection with the work of the
15 commission, is prohibited from accepting employment with any
16 public utility subject to the rules and regulations of the
17 commission for a period of one year after terminating employment
18 or service with the commission. If any person employed or
19 appointed in the service of the commission violates any
20 provision of this section, the commission shall forthwith remove
21 him from the office or employment held by him.
22 * * *
23 Section 2. This act shall apply to commissioners appointed
24 on and after the effective date hereof.
25 Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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