Arizona Corporation Commissioner Wants Info On APS 2014 Election Spending

Published: Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 8:22am

Before Arizona’s Corporation Commissioners vote to raise Arizona Public Service rates, one member wants to know if they’re impartial and legally allowed to do so.
 
Commissioner Bob Burns has asked a judge to demand APS and its parent company, Pinnacle West Capital, release donation, marketing and advertising expenses from the 2014 corporation commission’s elections.
 
If those donations helped elect his fellow Republican commissioners Tom Forese and Doug Little, Burns said they should be disqualified from voting on the rate hike case.

"We can't get the information we need to understand what's going on," Burns said. "And maybe it leads to nothing. Maybe there's no evidence that a disqualification should even be considered."
 
Forese said he wants to focus on the work of the Commission and the current rate case instead of past politics. 

Both Forese and Little have denied knowing the source of the more than $3 million that was poured into the Republican candidates' 2014 commissioners’ race.