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Friday, April 15, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - "Ex-IURC counsel tells ethics panel he thought he followed the law in seeking job with Duke Energy"

So reports John Russell today in the Indianapolis Star, covering Scott Storms' testimony yesterday before the State Ethics Commission.

(Here is a list of earlier ILB entries quoting stories by John Russell on the Duke scandal. And the IndyStar has now created a special "Duke-IURC scandal" page.)

Here is just a section from today's lengthy story:

The ethics case against Storms hinges in large part on when he applied for the Duke job and began negotiating an offer. The Indiana inspector general's office said Storms applied for the job in April 2010, four months before he disclosed his interest in the job to the state and screened himself from Duke matters.

Investigators pointed to a cover letter, resume and application dated April 20, 2010, in which Storms wrote "to express interest" in the position of senior counsel with Duke Energy Indiana and said he was "uniquely suited" for the job because of his extensive experience in utility regulation.

But Storms said he didn't send the letter at that time. He said that when he told his boss at the IURC, former Chairman David Lott Hardy, that he wanted to apply for the job and screen himself from Duke matters, he was told to forget the whole thing.

"He said it was not an opportune time," Storms said. "I was surprised and disappointed."

Storms said he later talked the matter over with his wife, who encouraged him to apply anyway. He said he filled out the online application on the Duke Energy website and updated his resume and cover letter "to placate my wife and feel better. . . . But I didn't push the 'submit' button."

He said that four months later, when Hardy gave the OK, he did screen himself from Duke matters and submit the application. He said the Duke computer apparently did not update the application date.

But Inspector General Dave Thomas outlined a much different scenario. He said Storms contacted Duke's hiring attorney, Kelley Karn, at least 10 times to talk about the job from March through August. He said Storms had an influential friend at Duke, Michael Reed, president of the company's Indiana operations, who was pushing Storms' candidacy to his superiors at the corporate headquarters in North Carolina.

Thomas showed the commission a raft of emails between Reed, Storms and Hardy, in which the subject of Storms' hiring is brought up numerous times during those months. Many of those emails were first reported last year by The Indianapolis Star.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 15, 2011 09:46 AM
Posted to Indiana Government