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WHAT’S UP WITH DALE SITTIG,
ANYWAY? — February 6, 2007
MONROE, LA — Public Service Commissioner Dale Sittig wrote
a
Letter to the Editor to the Monroe
News-Star that was published on Feb. 6, about
Foster Campbell. Foster wrote
this response which was published the following day in
the same newspaper. Both the
News-Star and the Baton Rouge
Advocate published articles on the subject of
this exchange.
For your convenience, here’s Foster’s response in full:
MONROE NEWS-STAR
Letters to the Editor
6 Feb 2007
I’d like to respond to the letter published yesterday in
the News-Star by Dale Sittig, who serves with me on the
Public Service Commission.
I used to teach school, and one thing I stressed to my
students was to always check your work for errors before
submitting it. Unfortunately for him I didn’t teach Mr.
Sittig, and now I have to correct his errors.
The letter concerns the commission’s decision in January
to elect a new chairman. By tradition the five
commissioners rotate the chairmanship, and 2007 was to be
my turn. Mr. Sittig is correct in that I did not ask him
to support me. Mr. Sittig is part of the bloc of “three
very solid votes” for Entergy on the PSC that Entergy
Chairman and CEO Wayne Leonard bragged about in a speech
in November 2005. I have been critical of Entergy and its
high utility rates and high-handed behavior at the
commission, and that is primarily what separates me from
Mr. Sittig.
In his letter Mr. Sittig says I served 25 years in the
Louisiana Senate. The actual number is 27 years. He also
states I never chaired a Senate committee. In truth, I
chaired four: the Senate Agriculture Committee, the Joint
Legislative Committee on Capital Outlay, the Senate
Special Committee on Rural Electric Co-ops, and the
Committee on Consumer Affairs.
When I was chairman of the co-op committee I led the fight
to regulate the electric rates charged by the
cooperatives, providing rate relief for one million
Louisiana co-op customers. During my chairmanship of
Consumer Affairs in 2001 I passed the “Do Not Call” bill,
which protects consumers from sales calls at home. More
than one million Louisiana households have signed up for
this protection. At the time Mr. Sittig and his colleagues
on the PSC took their cues from the telephone company and
opposed the bill.
Mr. Sittig also states his opposition to holding PSC
meetings outside Baton Rouge. Here he doesn’t commit a
factual error but a gross error in judgment. I have
received support from people all over Louisiana for
sponsoring the rule requiring the PSC to hold meetings
outside Baton Rouge. Other state agencies do it, like the
Racing Commission, the Pardon Board, the Supreme Court and
the Board of Regents. Why not the PSC, which sets utility
rates for everyone? We are, after all, the “Public”
Service Commission, not the “Utility” Service Commission
or the “Lobbyist” Service Commission. Since joining the
commission I have hosted meetings in West Monroe,
Shreveport, Ruston and Natchitoches, and next week we meet
in Many. Bringing government closer to the people should
be the goal of every public servant.
Dale Sittig is touchy about the charge that he caters not
to the public but to Entergy and the other utilities. He
is squealing like a pig stuck under a gate. Or, as
Shakespeare said it, he “doth protest too much.” Mr.
Sittig needs to figure out if he represents the people’s
interests or the special interests.
— Foster Campbell
Public Service Commissioner, North Louisiana
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