PHOENIX β The state's largest electric company has settled with the family of a Sun City West woman who died of heat-related complications after the utility cut off her power.
Attorney John Brewer, who represents the family of Stephanie Pullman, sent a notice Tuesday to the Arizona Corporation Commission informing regulators that they have reached an agreement with Arizona Public Service. Brewer asked that the privacy of the family be respected.
More significant, the attorney told commissioners that the family hopes "this statement will conclude the matter and any further inquiries regarding the same.''
That is unlikely. Commissioner Justin Olson said that, on a macro level, regulators are attempting to determine "appropriate disconnection policies'' for utilities, especially during the summer months when leaving customers without power could have severe and permanent implications.
And he said the settlement between Pullman's family and APS is a "separate, private matter.''
Olson said commissioners need answers to what happened in Pullman's case β her power was shut off on a 107-degree day after $125 of her $176 bill was paid β to determine which regulations to put in place when similar situations arise.
"The facts that are available to the commission, the facts that are available to the utility that we need to obtain from them, certainly will be informative as we develop the appropriate policies for the utility,'' he said.
Commission Chairman Bob Burns also said he wants information about the Pullman case as he seeks "the root cause of the problems.''
Those are among questions the regulators have for Don Brandt, the chief executive of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., parent company of APS. He is due to testify next week at a commission meeting.
In a separate written filing, however, Brandt declined to answer questions commissioners already put to him about what happened in the Pullman case, at least not publicly.
Instead, Brandt said he would provide information only to regulators and their staff members, saying that complies with existing commission rules prohibiting the utility from publicly disclosing "customer-specific information.''
Brandt, in what he did answer, did disclose that Pullman was perhaps within a dollar of not having her power shut off. He said it has been the company's practice to disconnect only if the delinquent amount was $50 or greater.
He did not say, however, in his public response to the questions, whether there was any attempt to notify Pullman that the $125 payment would not satisfy her bill and would not forestall disconnection.
Brandt also did not respond publicly to questions from the commissioners who said there was a "door hanger notification'' placed on Pullman's residence on Sept. 5, and that her power was cut off two days later. They want to know whether that would have given the 72-year-old woman enough time to mail in a payment even if she responded immediately.
Brandt did say that while hangers are placed at the homes of those whose service is in danger of being turned off, company employees and contractors do not attempt to make personal contact with occupants. He told regulators that policy is justified.
"In the past, customers have sometimes threatened and even injured employees or contractors when told their power is at risk of disconnection for non-payment,'' Brandt wrote. He said that is why APS instructs them not to knock on customer doors or ring doorbells when leaving the notice on doorknobs.
And Brandt said that the commission, in a 2005 decision, eliminated the requirement for personal visits in cases where power was going to be shut off.
Burns said Tuesday that answer does not sit well with him.
"There needs to be a process that has actual face-to-face contact,'' he said, versus just putting a notice on the door and not even knocking to let someone know it is there. He said there needs to be face-to-face notification, or at least voice-to-voice contact.
Last month, after inquiring into the death of Pullman and learning of at least two other deaths, the commission voted to bar APS and most other utilities, including Tucson Electric Power, from turning off the electricity for residential customers during the summer months.
Brandt has said that, as of that moratorium, APS had about 54,000 accounts that were at least 30 days in arrears, with delinquent balances ranging from $75 to more than $14,000.
