Gov. Lincoln Almond’s pick for chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission is expected to face confirmation hearings in the Senate early this month, more than a month behind schedule. Almond named Warwick lawyer Elia Germani to the influential PUC post in late January. The Governor’s office originally expected the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on the appointment in February.
The committee was scheduled to begin weighing Germani’s qualifications on March 28, but the confirmation hearings had to be pushed back to accommodate the reconfirmation of Dr. Patricia Nolan as director of the state Department of Health for another five-year term.
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Germani’s confirmation hearings will be rescheduled for later this week or next week, according to the committee secretary. The committee will interview Germani and take testimony on his qualifications from other witnesses. It’s not uncommon for the committee to hold hearings and vote on a gubernatorial nominee in the same day.
But Sen. Teresa Paiva-Weed, the chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said Germani’s confirmation hearings could last for a week or more.
“We generally take our time, particularly with a position of this significance,” the Newport Democrat has said. “The committee’s focus is on whether or not the individual in qualified.”
The committee’s recommendation will be offered to the full Senate before a final vote on the nomination is taken. The Senate must confirm Germani’s appointment before he can be seated on the PUC. He would serve the balance of the previous chairman’s term, about a year.
The position has been vacant since longtime PUC Chairman James Malachowski stepped down in October to take a job at the Providence advertising and public relations firm RDW Group Inc. That left commissioners Kate Racine and Brenda Gaynor to weigh the far-reaching changes in electric rates proposed by New England Electric System, since renamed National Grid USA, in connection with its acquisition of Eastern Utilities Associates.
Racine’s term on the commission ended more than a year ago, but she agreed to stay on at the PUC until Almond names a replacement. Almond said late last year that he expected to announce replacements for Racine and Malachowski by early this year. With Germani still to be confirmed, it looks unlikely that deadline will be met.
“Obviously it’s still very much on the radar screen to get it done,” said Tom Kogut, a spokesman for the governor. “It’s my assumption that, once action is taken on the Germani confirmation, the PUC can be brought up to its full speed.”
Germani, 64, was a lawyer for Narra-gansett Electric Co. for eight years in the 1970s. Germani also worked for another company regulated by the state, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island, through the 1980s and much of the 1990s. More recently, he has served as a member of the state Board of Governors of Higher Education.
Germani’s appointment hasn’t met with any public opposition, but local consumer groups and advocates for the poor had backed Assistant Attorney General Paul Roberti for the PUC chairman slot. Roberti is chief of Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse’s regulatory unit. A job previously held by Commissioner Brenda Gaynor in the early 1990s under former Attorney General James O’Neill.
