Five seek seat on public service panel

The Daily Inter Lake

Five Republican candidates, including four from Northwest Montana, are vying for their party's nomination for the District 5 seat on the Public Service Commission.

The winner in Tuesday's primary election will face state Sen. Ken Toole, D-Helena, for the right to represent Lake, Flathead, Lewis and Clark, Teton, Pondera and Glacier counties. The five-member commission regulates utilities in Montana.

John Campbell, 53, owns John Campbell Trucking in Kalispell and drives a snowplow for the state Department of Transportation. He ran for public service commissioner in 1994 but had experience dealing with the commission before that when he filed a complaint, stating that commissioners were allowing companies to violate the state's posted tariffs. It took more than a year, but Campbell won his case.

"I'm the only candidate that's ever had charges involving the PSC, so I know how they operate," he said. "Or I should say, I know how they're supposed to operate."

If elected, Campbell said he wants to make the commission operate the way it's supposed to.

"They don't understand that they are supposed to work for the public," he said. "They need to get more public involvement and let the public know what's going on before they give them a rate increase. And there's no use in giving the rate increases when they don't really need it."

Rory Horning, 55, is a real-estate broker at Edgewater Realty in Polson. He's lived in Montana for the past nine years; before that he spent 10 years as chairman of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board in Hawaii, a liaison among all levels of government, the military and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is similar to tribal government on the mainland.

Horning thinks the PSC should strive for more balanced energy programs to keep rates low for Montanans.

"Montana operates in crisis mode, and we are in an energy crisis at the moment," he said. "I don't think we should be selling our energy facilities to foreign countries, and if we don't keep our energy rates down, with our economy just kind of rolling finally, we're going to be hurting the middle class and the families of Montana, and I don't think that's fair."

Come winter, too many people here have to decide whether to eat or pay their power bills, Horning said, a predicament that's "ridiculous" for a state as energy-rich as Montana.

"Actually it's more than ridiculous. It's shameful," he said.

Fred Leistiko, 64, owns Leistiko Consulting in Kalispell. He served on the Kalispell City Council from 2000 to 2004 and currently serves on various county and statewide boards. He is the manager of the Kalispell City Airport.

If elected, Leistiko intends to "go to bat for Montana," especially in utility deregulation.

"Public service commissions have to be constantly proactive in everything that goes on at utilities," he said. "They can't make decisions, but they can sure go to the powers that be.

"The Public Service Commission has got to start thinking about Montana consumers," he added. "What can we do?"

Historically, Leistiko said, the PSC has been a "parking ground for legislators," a trend that needs to stop.

"You need businessmen with new perspectives and new ideas," he said, "and that's what I'm bringing to the table."

Mike Taylor, 64, is a Dayton entrepreneur in agribusiness, investments and small business. He was chair of the Republican party in Lake County before serving two terms as the county's state senator.

As a senator, Taylor said, he constantly heard testimony from the PSC, which taught him how the group operates. This and his understanding of deregulation - Taylor sponsored the 1997 deregulation bill but voted against it when it came to the floor - will make him an asset to the commission, he said.

"Energy is the most critical issue, I think, facing Montana," he said. "I will advocate promoting the use of natural resources when I have the opportunity. I will testify to the Legislature, the governor and the citizens that we should use them to promote more choices and more energy uses for Montanans at lower cost, whether that is wind, or whether that is coal or gas or oil or biodiesel or ethanol."

Steve Vick, 50, works as project supervisor for a home builder in Helena. He served four terms in the state House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001, representing Belgrade and West Yellowstone. He then worked as program manager in the PSC's utility division until August 2004.

Vick cites electric rates as the primary reason he is running.

"Through my beliefs and my experience at the Public Service Commission, I have some ideas on ways to cut rates through long-term contracts," he said. "We need long-term contracts that are staggered so that they don't expire all at the same time."

Getting high-speed Internet connections to more people and instituting real-time metering, in which meters record when electricity is used, are other things he hopes to accomplish, he said.

"Year-round, electricity is cheaper at night," he said.