Is Peevey worth $882 an hour?

A group representing attorneys employed by the state says that the $5.2 million that the state will pay an outside law firm, Sheppard Mullin, to defend former California Public Utilities Commission head Michael Peevey is a waste of taxpayer money. Basically, say the state lawyers, the ratepayers initially got fleeced and now the taxpayers are getting the same treatment.

In late February, California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) wrote to the State Personnel Board, complaining that the state government will be paying up to $882 an hour to have Sheppard Mullin attorneys represent Peevey. He is being investigated by the state attorney general's office as well as federal officials.

Emails that have been made public have shown that Peevey, along with other CPUC officials, committed several acts of wrongdoing, such as trying to get a lenient administrative law judge for Pacific Gas & Electric and holding a secret meeting in Poland at which plans for sticking ratepayers with much of the bill for the closing of the San Onofre nuclear plant were laid out.

On February 24, CASE told the State Personnel Board, "CPUC is currently undergoing at least two separate investigations into criminal wrongdoing. To the extent CPUC needs experienced criminal defense counsel, the State of California has an entire office of trained criminal defense attorneys at the Office of the State Public Defender." At that office, there are at least 27 attorneys who could handle the case. "The contracting of civil service work is prohibited," with some exceptions, and the Peevey case doesn't qualify under those exceptions, said CASE.

On March 18, the State Personnel Board put the matter in abeyance. The next day, CASE wrote the board another letter. Among other things, CASE noted that the original contract was for $49,000, and in the interim had grown to $5.2 million, "an increase of more than 100-fold," said the letter. "The legal work can and should be done by civil service employees," said CASE in the post-abeyance letter.

An attached missive, which had been written in late February, noted that attorneys at the CPUC and State Public Defenders' Office are paid the equivalent of $30 to $65 an hour. But Sheppard Mullin is being paid up to $882 an hour.