All 8,283 state commission staff can receive PUF for free when their commissions set up free site licenses
Using the cool state map on the NARUC web site, I calculated that there are 8,283 state commission staff.
Only the screen for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission didn’t show the number of staff. But I counted using that Commission’s staff directory.
There’s an average of 162 staff at each state commission.
Acknowledging the differences in commissions’ scope of responsibilities, the largest five are in California, 940, Virginia, 600, Pennsylvania, 520, New York, 469, and Oklahoma, 435. The smallest five are Rhode Island, 10, Utah, 15, Vermont, 24, South Dakota, 27, and Delaware, 29.
By tradition, state commissioners receive Public Utilities Fortnightly for free. But what about the eight thousand-plus other people at the commissions?
So, we’re starting a new tradition. All state commission staff can receive PUF when their commissions set up free site licenses.
Some state commissions have already done so. Let’s set up free site licenses for all the commissions.
The site license is simple, succinct and straight-forward.
The license’s main obligation, on the part of commissions, is to refrain from selling PUF content. Yes, that would be a neat way to supplement commission funding in this era of tight state budgets.
When your commission sets up a site license, any commission employee can receive a digital version of PUF. And a specified number of commission employees can receive, additionally, the printed version of PUF as well.
Just send me an e-mail, mitnick@fortnightly.com.
We’ll work with the appropriate person at your commission to complete the process.
As we’ve written in PUF, commission staff are the hard-working women and men who, behind the scenes, make utility regulation efficient and effective. In November’s PUF, we again salute commission staff with an interview of seven staff members at the District of Columbia Public Service Commission.
In future issues of PUF, we’ll be interviewing staff members from commissions around the country.
Since 1928, Public Utilities Fortnightly has served the great people at utilities, regulatory bodies and the many other kinds of organizations dedicated to the public interest. See you at the NARUC Annual Convention next month!
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com
