Aguirre sues governor over records

San Diego lawyer Michael Aguirre yesterday (May 5) sued governor Edmund G. Brown for not turning over critical public records regarding alleged corruption at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

The suit cites examples of dubious commission moves that have already been made public. One example: the suit mentions how, in 2011, California's investor-owned utilities were getting threats of lower ratings from Wall Street. The investment community "pressured Governor Brown to appoint an investment banker to the CPUC in order to keep the pro-Wall Street CPUC President [Michael Peevey] in power." Shortly, longtime investment banker Mark Ferron was appointed to the commission by Brown.

The attorney general, Kamala Harris (now running for U.S. Senate), learned of a secret meeting between Peevey and Edison in Warsaw, Poland. In that meeting, a scheme to stick ratepayers with more than $3 billion of costs in the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant was plotted. But she let the investigation of the critical Warsaw meeting lapse "and is now representing the governor in resisting and denying the public access" to certain documents, says the suit, drawn up by Aguirre and his law partner Maria Severson.

The attorney general's office refused to turn over important documents, citing an exemption from disclosure.

(corrected 5/6, 1:45 p.m.)