- The Senate Government Structure Committee met last week to hear from speakers on possible changes to the state government.
Last week, the Mississippi Senate held a hearing concerning the current structure of state government and what potential changes could be made. Speakers included Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown (R), Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney (R), and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R), among others.
Support for keeping the PSC elected
Mississippi’s Public Service Commission is comprised of three elected members, with one each representing the north, central or southern portions of the state. As a layer of separation, the Public Utilities Staff, who support the PSC, report to an executive director.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown was asked about his thoughts concerning previous legislation concerning changing the PSC positions from elected to appointed. Brown started by citing a study conducted by the University of Michigan on the matter, which found elected officials had more skin in the game than appointed.
“I trust the people more than I do the bureaucracy and I think that we constantly fuss and fight against bureaucrats,” Brown told Senators. “They’re answerable to somebody else other than the voters. We are directly answerable to voters like y’all are. That makes us much more responsive because we want to serve.”
He added that many appointees got those positions based on who they know, not what they know.
Brown, a former State Representative, admits elected officials usually lack the expertise of someone with years of service in a particular position, but when someone campaigns for an office, they are committed, he said.
“I do think an elected commission is much better positioned to serve the public,” Brown said.
Executive Director of the Public Utilities Staff Jim Beckett, also a former lawmaker, told the Senators he believes the PUS staff should continue to operate separate from the PSC. He said that separation keeps the staff isolated from politics, leaving them free to conduct independent interviews and investigations.
“But I believe that independence provides for better working conditions for the staff and allows the staff to be more open, objective and honest with their recommendation,” Beckett said.
Insurance Commissioner – elected or appointed?
Over the past 122 years, Mississippi has only had 11 people fill the position of Insurance Commissioner, two of which have occupied the office for nearly 50 years – George Dale and Mike Chaney.
READ MORE: Insurance Commissioner Chaney urging lawmakers to change statewide elected post to appointed by term’s end
“I will tell you that I’m the second longest serving commissioner in the United States at the present time,” Chaney told the Senators. “That’s not something you want to brag about, it just happens to be that the job that I have, very few people want.”
More states and territories (44) appoint insurance commissioners than elect (11).
Chaney said most appointed insurance commissioners typically only serve “a couple of years on average,” mostly due to using the position as a steppingstone to get a higher paying job in the private sector. However, he believes those who are appointed are more fit to meet the demands of the job.
As such, Chaney suggested that the Legislature consider changing the position of Insurance Commissioner from elected to appointed by the end of his current term.
He said removing the election process from the position also removes the potential for issues when candidates receive campaign contributions from companies the office is to regulate. That separation helps the Commissioner to “call balls as balls and strikes as strikes.”
“We are more like a judge or an umpire,” Chaney described. “We follow the rules of the game, and we try to follow them and make the companies follow the rules of the game.”
Commissioner Chaney’s proposal would give the Governor power to appoint the position with Senate advice and consent. As for the length of the term, he suggested four or six years. He also recommended that the minimum age for the job be set at 30 while establishing levels for education and experience.
“What I’m saying is, you need somebody who is qualified,” Chaney said. “You don’t want somebody that’s got a rich father with millions of millions of dollars running for this job. It needs to be somebody that understands what we do at the agency and what insurance is about and why it’s so vital to the economic ability for our state to survive.”
Consolidation of agencies on the table?
State Senators on the Committee also heard from former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who successfully reduced that state’s employee base by 5,000 jobs during his 8 years in office. He clarified that the reduction in jobs was not achieved through terminations but rather attrition when employees retired or left for other employment.
One of the changes involved consolidating agencies where purposes aligned, such as the National Resources Commission with the Department of Agriculture.
“So, that’s an efficiency,” Hutchinson clarified. “We moved one of our Natural Resources into the Department of Agriculture, so we strengthened agriculture and the role that they play.”
Under the Department of Corrections, Hutchinson said they added the State Parole Board and the Detention Review Committee while under education, Arkansas consolidated Pre-K education, K-12 education and higher education.
“We brought them all together under the Department of Education,” Hutchinson said. “I think it provides great synergy and greater ability to coordinate changes in education at different levels to make sure it’s seamless.”
All told, the bill that came out of the Arkansas Legislature, about 1,000 pages, passed with bipartisan support.
State Senator Daniel Sparks (R) said the Mississippi Legislature has been looking at ways to make moves to streamline services in the state.
“We have some discussions ongoing with where probation and parole should be, community corrections if you will,” Sparks said. “We’re looking at possibly the Department of Public Safety because they’re sworn law enforcement officers in Mississippi.”
Currently, the State Parole Board in Mississippi does not have direct access to records kept by the Department of Corrections because the two IT systems are not connected. Senator Sparks believes the two systems need to be connected.
You can watch the hearing below.
Jeremy Pittari
