by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
March 31, 2025

Four months after Florida Supreme Court Justice Carlos Muñiz blasted the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) for not providing enough information to justify a public utility rate increase, the chairman of the PSC attempted to defend his agency before a Senate committee on Monday.

The PSC is a five-member board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate that is responsible for facilitating safe and reliable utility services at fair prices. According to its own website, the commission “must balance the needs of a utility and its shareholders with the needs of consumers.”

Mike La Rosa, the sitting PSC Chair who was initially appointed to serve on the Commission by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, came before the Senate Ethics & Election Committee seeking conformation to another four-year term.

Northeast GOP Sen. Jennifer Bradley asked him to respond to the thrust of Muñiz comments, expressed in December as the court heard arguments in an appeal of a 2023 PSC order approving rates for Florida City Gas. The Chief Justice criticized the PSC for not providing nearly enough information to justify a rate increase, after the PSC’s own staff recommended that they not approve the increase.

‘Black Box’

“The PSC is a black box,” Muñiz said in comments reported by the News Service of Florida.

“That is my problem with these cases. It’s a black box. And administrative procedure is not supposed to be [a black box]. It’s supposed to be the opposite of a black box. That’s the only justification for this whole mousetrap is to have reasoned explanations for fact-based decisions. And, instead, we get a regurgitation of the evidence and then like, ‘Oh, because so-and-so said this, we think that this is appropriate. We’re done.’ That is literally every order that we see from the PSC.”

“That is an alarming statement for me as a legislator to hear from our chief justice of our Florida Supreme Court,” Bradley said Monday.

La Rosa replied that while he couldn’t explain why the PSC didn’t provide more information in their orders in the past, that began changing in 2023 (he began serving as chair of the commission that November).

“Our chairman at the time, I think, guided us down the right path to make sure that our legal staff responded in a way that satisfied and frankly provided a better product of what the Supreme Court is looking for,” La Rosa said.

He added that commission orders have been of a higher quality ever since. But he said he could not defend why earlier orders were written the way they were. He also said that since that time the commissioners have stepped up their public comments from the dais during rate hike hearings, as well.

Broward County Democratic Sen. Mack Bernard asked why the PSC wasn’t providing the Supreme Court with meaningful information. La Rosa said he couldn’t really provide an “answer that’s satisfactory.” He added “that they should always have had the backup and the history and the depth of knowledge that we currently have.”

Committee Chairman Don Gates quoted another part of Muñiz’s comments, that “the Public Service Commission appeared to rely largely on what utilities told them, ‘as opposed to any facts and evidence.’” Gaetz asked whether La Rosa could give two or three examples of the last time his commission turned down a utility rate increase.

La Rosa countered that there wasn’t a single case he could remember when the PSC approved what the utility was exactly asking for.

“There are elements what the company is asking for that we do approve, but there are certain modifications that we make after we litigate and after we make the case,” he said, adding that he couldn’t remember the last time a public utility made a request that the PSC granted exactly.

Gaetz cited criticism that he has heard that utilities start out by asking for extraordinarily high rate increases that they expect won’t be approved, but use as leverage to bargain to get the rate increase that they really coveted.

“That might be what the company is asking for, but it also may not be,” La Rosa responded.

Gaetz is sponsoring a bill this session (SB 354) to tighten PSC requirements for deciding the return on equity levels to which utilities are entitled. Miami-Dade County Republican Bryan Avila asked La Rosa whether the commission factors in potential compensation, benefits, or bonuses for utility  executives.

“Probably every single time,” La Rosa said.

The committee ultimately unanimously approved La Rosa’s confirmation to serve on the PSC for another four years, but not before both Bradley and Gaetz both got a last word in.

“This was a situation that really was a black eye and I want to make sure that going forward that’s not the case,” Bradley said. “That, going forward, things are different.”

PSC put on notice

Gaetz added that next year the PSC and the public will likely see legislation similar to what he proposed this year regarding how much investor-owned public utilities can earn. “If you see it, it will be based on the commission’s performance between now and next year. And if the commission was a little troubled by the legislation this year, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Last December wasn’t the first time the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice has bashed the PSC for what he said were inadequate orders. In 2023, he questioned whether the commission had adequately justified the approval of a 2021 legal settlement that increased base electric rates for Florida Power & Light.

“There’s no explanation whatsoever for the PSC’s thinking on how it got to approving this,” Muñiz said at the time.

“From a judicial review perspective and from a matter of the PSC complying with its obligations, how can the order not address the major issues that are in dispute in a way that allows us to kind of have a window into what the rational process was that led to the finding that it was in the public interest?”

La Rosa will ultimately need to be confirmed by the entire Senate to stay on for another four-year term.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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