Indiana’s Commerce Department distributed over $900,000 in grants statewide, with the goal of boosting local entrepreneurship. Photo from Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

By Niki Kelly
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission Nominating Committee’s members met in executive session Monday, Oct. 20 and reviewed 47 applications for three open seats on the five-member commission. Twenty-two people will be interviewed, they announced – including one sitting state senator.

After the public interviews next week, the committee will forward a slate of recommendations to Gov. Mike Braun. He’ll select new commissioners for four-year terms.

The IURC is charged with ensuring that utilities provide safe, reliable service at just and reasonable rates. It is “an advocate of neither the public nor the utilities,” according to its website.

When regulated utilities want to hike customer bills, they go to the commission for permission. The IURC can also regulate construction projects, asset acquisition, financing, bonding, environmental compliance plans, service territories and more.

Braun has suggested it has leaned too far in one direction.

“Ratepayers, I think, have taken the brunt of it,” he told reporters last month, after opening IURC applications. He called the affordability uproar “very analogous to what we went through on property taxes.”

Braun wants new appointees to focus on ratepayers, affordability and supply.

The commission can’t have more than three members of the same party, according to Indiana Code. Braun, a Republican, will fill two GOP openings and one Democratic vacancy. He’ll also have to choose who will chair the agency.

The jobs come with salaries of $152,000.

The 12 Republican Finalists

• Alfonso Vidal, a southern Indiana businessman.
• Andy Zay, who has served portions of northeast Indiana in the state Senate since 2016.
• Anthony Swinger, a 25-year employee of the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor.
• William Herrick, president of Midwest Energy Partners LLC.
• Robert Lugar, an assistant commissioner with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
• Christopher Lewis, a technical advisor for the IURC.
• Christopher Baggott, a central Indiana businessman who co-founded ClusterTruck and ExactTarget.
• Cory Voight, an assistant chief deputy in the Office of Attorney General.
• Joshua Bain, an Indianapolis City-County Council member.
• Michael Dora, state director at Farm-to-Power.
• Michael Neal, who formerly served as executive director of the Indiana Board for Depositories and assistant to the State Treasurer.
• Nathan Cazee, a southern Indiana resident who works for air quality company Daikin Applied.

The 10 Democratic Finalists

• Matthew Kappus, deputy consumer counselor at the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor.
• Phillip Casey, a Midwest public utility, regulatory, energy, renewables and solar attorney.
• Alexander Jorck, a Bloomington executive at a solar company.
• Robert Deig, former state senator and Posey County politician.
• Carolene Mays, a small businesswoman and former state representative who previously served on the IURC.
• Christina Hale, a former state representative with experience in small business ownership.
• Clayton Miller, a central Indiana attorney who focuses on utilities.
• Elizabeth Walker, an attorney for the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency.
• Kiley Adolph, a global consultant from northeast Indiana who previously ran for Congress.
• Matthew House, an engineer for the city of Anderson.