PUC to pay for lunch Peco bought for PUC workers

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has run afoul over a free chicken dinner from Peco Energy Co.

The PUC this week agreed to pick up the $3,000 tab for a catered lunch that Peco ordered Oct. 14 to recognize 105 commission staffers who helped reduce a backlog of customer complaints.

The commission's Bureau of Consumer Services initially accepted Peco's lunch offer to mark the end of a six-month campaign to eliminate a backlog of 13,547 informal complaints. About 20 percent of the complaints were aimed at Peco, the state's largest utility.

Jennifer Kocher, the PUC's spokeswoman, said that commission supervisors had accepted Peco's lunch offer because they believed it complied with commission rules allowing petty gifts.

"We were under the impression it would be pizza," she said. "When it came, it was a fully catered lunch - chicken, pasta, salad, dessert."

But the regulatory agency decided only this week to reconsider the propriety of the banquet after the Harrisburg Patriot News inquired about the potential conflict of interest.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner said the PUC should have instantly recognized the appearance of a conflict of interest in accepting something like this from a company it regulates.

"We are always concerned when we hear about state agencies when they put themselves in a position of potential compromises," Wagner said.

Kocher said utilities had been pressuring the PUC to resolve a growing backlog of unanswered consumer complaints against 85 utilities. The commission hired Alexis Bechtel, director of the PUC's Consumer Services bureau, in February to reduce the volume, most of which involves billing disputes, appeals to be reinstated on payment plans, and gripes about quality of service.

The campaign required a substantial reconfiguration of PUC staff, and much coordination with the utilities to respond to each complaint individually.

"We wanted to have a celebratory luncheon to recognize their hard work," said Peco communications director Karen Muldoon Geus. "We just thought it would be a nice gesture.

"If we sort of went overboard, we apologize for that. It was all done in the spirit of a good-faith effort."

Wagner, the state auditor, said the PUC's staff should not have accepted the lunch, whether it was pizza or something more substantial.

"I know it's a small item, but it undermines the confidence of taxpayers," he said. "In all frankness, the PUC should know better."