PUC Commissioner Hyatt to Resign; Championed Causes for Consumers

State Public Utilities Commissioner Joel Hyatt, who built a reputation as a consumer advocate in just six months on the job, said he will quit his post in January.

But Hyatt’s replacement, Loretta Lynch, who currently serves as Gov. Gray Davis’ director of the Office of Planning and Research, is expected to carry on Hyatt’s role as a consumer advocate on the PUC.

Hyatt’s departure surprised many. He had championed a number of consumer-friendly causes, including reversing an unpopular overlay telephone area code plan in West Los Angeles.

“I was stunned . . . I thought he was there for the long haul,” said Kelly Boyd, senior telecommunications analyst at the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, an independent consumer group within the PUC.

Decisions made by the five-member PUC are among the most far-reaching of any California commission because they affect competition and set rates for telephone and energy services as well as policies affecting transportation and water services statewide.

In June, Hyatt was one of two new commissioners appointed to six-year terms by Davis. Consumer groups hailed the selections as lending balance to a PUC they believed had been too close to the companies it regulates.

Hyatt made his mark by attacking the PUC’s area code policies and pushing hard for change. Recently, a clearly exasperated Hyatt let loose a scathing repudiation of the PUC’s decision to allow a hefty increase in PacBell’s 411 fees--a ruling in which he and Commissioner Carl Wood were outvoted.

But while PUC President Richard Bilas conceded that Hyatt had been frustrated by the slow pace of change at the PUC, Hyatt said he was leaving the commission to teach at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Several PUC insiders expect Lynch to be named PUC president early next year.