Regardless of Actual Conflict of Interest, Arizona Official Should Have Known Better, Experts Say
The lack of law or regulatory body governing elections and potential conflicts of interest of candidates for public office is a big reason the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) chairwoman is resigning from her position in January, experts said Tuesday. The conflict of interest laws aren’t the problem, though -- to be eligible for state office, public officials must follow two different statutes. While ACC Chairwoman Susan Bitter Smith (R) filed the correct paperwork saying she's the CEO of Southwest Cable Communications Association, an association of cable companies regulated by the ACC, before running for office, no one in power caught the conflict until a complaint was filed by attorney Tom Ryan. “We have a secretary of state … she’s just a filing repository,” Ryan said in an interview Tuesday. “She basically acts like a clerk at the checkout stand at your local grocery store.”
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Bitter Smith should have known better, Dale Eisman, Common Cause senior writer, said in an interview Monday. Common Cause doesn’t have an Arizona chapter and therefore isn’t aware of the ins and outs of the state’s laws, Eisman said, but even so, the appearance of a conflict is just as big of a problem as an actual conflict. “Once they're in office, it's not appropriate for those connections to continue,” he said. “There ought to be strong disclosure requirements so everybody knows what the personal interests of the regulators are and then there ought to be a designated agency to make sure those rules are enforced.”
Ryan learned about the conflict from a local reporter who was contacted by the Checks and Balances Project. The reporter contacted Ryan, who decided the conflict was “major” and needed to be brought to light. Checks and Balances didn't comment Tuesday.
The complaint informed Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) that Bitter Smith is the executive director and designated lobbyist for the Southwest Cable Communications Association, Ryan said. She's also registered as a lobbyist for two affiliates of Cox Communications, said the AG’s petition to remove Bitter Smith from office. Ryan said a criminal investigation also is looking into allegations that Bitter Smith used state resources to run her private business. “It appears that she was conducting private business through her government office,” Ryan said. "On her website, she even put 'I lobbied the Arizona Corporation Commission' which is crazy; you're the chair of the corporation commission, how can you also lobby it? ... This is very serious stuff, it has damaged the sense of integrity that the Arizona Corporation Commission has, which was already under a cloud of suspicion.” Brnovich didn’t comment Tuesday.
Despite tendering her resignation last week (see 1512180034), Bitter Smith maintains she never lobbied for a regulated entity nor has she been paid by one. In Arizona, cable TV is regulated by cities and counties at the local level and by the FCC at the federal level, and ACC regulates those companies' phone services (see 1512010060). Neither the ACC nor Bitter Smith returned requests for comment.
Arizona’s conflict of interest statute says “a person in the employ of, or holding an official relation to a corporation or person subject to regulation by the commission, or a person owning stocks or bonds of a corporation subject to regulation, or a person who is pecuniarily interested therein, shall not be elected, appointed to, or hold the office of commissioner or be appointed or employed by the commission.” The AG’s office doesn’t believe the conflict of interest statute distinguishes between affiliates that have the same parent company.