"Its Time for a change in New Mexico"
D. Kent Evans presents an Action Plan to bring Accountability, Honesty, Transparency and Hard Work to the PRC.
The purpose of this plan is to set forth grounds upon which the Commission can
change the agency and achieve its purpose while cutting its budget and gaining
efficiency. It seeks to identify a job description for the office of Commissioner.
It seeks to reassert Commission authority within the agency. Its goal is to reduce
regulatory cost and increase regulatory efficiency while achieving the end of moving
our economy forward through productive and innovative regulation. It relies upon
increased cooperation among state regulatory agencies toward the achievement of
better service to the regulated and their customers, the taxpayers.
Since our laws do not require a Commissioner to have any credentials for election, we must impose performance standards. We must set forth our understanding of what the job entails with a clear description of what we expect to achieve. Our plan must work within the constitutional framework and apply a common sense business approach to solving management problems within a state agency.
The current scope includes organizational reform, assertion of Commission authority, an outline for electric and water policy, and some ideas for changing the Commissions operating rules. The plan is based upon the idea that governance is best achieved at the local level, thus it requires district offices and places the obligation to resolve consumer complaints with the Commission itself.
The plan will be expanded in subsequent sections to address other PRC matters.
The plan is the product of many collaborators and will require more to achieve its final expression of goals and methodology.
Action Plan for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission
Executive Summary
New Mexico’s economy has felt the global recession. Our citizens need jobs and they need help meeting their household budgets. Our utilities need help reducing unnecessary capital costs and meeting load demands with appropriate rates. Our industries need reliable power at rates that allow them to compete in regional and global markets as well as safe and reliable transportation. The key to these and other issues lies with one state agency, the NMPRC.
Since its inception the agency has never seemed to get it right. Change has been frustrated since any structural change would require a constitutional amendment. The Commission has been left to itself to correct its own shortcomings yet its members are elected without any requirement for job related experience. The fact that Commissioners are paid whether they show up or not coupled with the demands of deciding complicated subject matter without adequate preparation may provide rationale for the current lack of attendance but not for the record of the Commission in its decisions or its conduct.
PRC candidate releases plan to improve commission
By Steve Ramirez Sun-News reporter Posted: 04/27/2010
