Put up or cover-up, public utilities commission?

Ever since Watergate, astute observers have said about American law enforcement and the justice system, "It's not the crime. It's the cover-up." When the press and the public get suspicious of a massive coverup, the focus of the alleged wrongdoing usually shifts to attempts by the accused to cover their tracks. Then the matter escalates.

The California Public Utilities Commission is vulnerable to such a blowup. Rates at the three publicly held utilities — San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and Pacific Gas & Electric — are among the highest in the nation. San Diego Gas & Electric's are almost certainly the nation's highest.

During the reign of Michael Peevey, the former public utilities commission president now under state and federal investigation for possibly illegal actions to benefit utilities, state ratepayers were justifiably roused. Now it has come out that the public utilities commission is paying a private law firm, Sheppard Mullin, up to $882 an hour (a total of $5.2 million) to defend Peevey, when the agency could hire state-employed lawyers for $30 to $65 an hour.

And what is Sheppard Mullin doing? Documents show that between January and March, Sheppard Mullin charged an average of $342,000 a month for "review of documents for responsiveness and privileges." That means the law firm is culling documents, deciding which ones will not be turned over for such reasons as "attorney-client privilege."

The San Diego law firm of Aguirre & Severson, which has not received the documents that it has requested, sent a letter today (March 30) to the public advisor of the CPUC. The law firm is asking that the public utilities commission "waive any and all privileges related to communications related to matters under investigation of the United States Department of Justice and the California Attorney General's office from 2009 - 2014."

Among other things, the letter notes that "Sheppard Mullin is representing CPUC witnesses while at the same time representing potential subjects of the investigation…. The CPUC decision makers are using a single law firm to represent several witnesses to maintain a common defense strategy to protect current and former CPUC decision makers against the government's efforts to investigate and prosecute for suspected criminal offenses."

The public utilities commission should all waive all privileges — including the attorney-client privilege — in the public interest, says the letter. The public utilities commission should also understand that since in the public mind the cover-up becomes the focus rather than the crime, the agency would be operating in its own interest to waive all privileges.