After Arizona regulators voted to reject an effort by Corporation Commissioner Bob Burns to force the state’s largest utility to hand over financial records, Burns could be going back to court.
On Tuesday, Bob Burns’ fellow commissioners rejected his bid to compel Arizona Public Service and its parent company to disclose its political donations in 2014.
Now, Burns is deciding whether to file yet another legal action, one that would ask a judge to determine if the other commissioners had a right to decide anything at all.
"According to my attorney, how can they rule on disqualification on themselves," Burns said. "They can't."
Burns contends that all four commissioners took money, at least indirectly from APS to win their seats. And that, he said, means someone needs to decide if they have a conflict of interest when it comes to both the subpoenas and whether to approve a rate hike for the utility.