FL H0219

Florida Public Service Commission required to hold annual public customer service meetings in each public utility's service territory, and to hold meetings for water/wastewater utilities upon written request by at least 10% of customers; all meetings attended by two or more commissioners must be live-streamed and recorded on the commission's website

Ex parte communication prohibitions expanded to cover all proceeding types, workshops, and internal affairs meetings, and extended to matters a commissioner knows or reasonably expects will be filed within 1 year (up from 90 days); the Governor is required to remove from office any commissioner found to have violated the ex parte rules

Beginning January 1, 2016, each commissioner must annually complete 4 hours of ethics training covering the state constitution's ethics provisions, Code of Ethics for Public Officers, and public records/meetings laws; persons lobbying members of the PSC Nominating Council must register as lobbyists under s. 11.045

Public Counsel authorized to be a party to settlement agreements in any commission proceeding in which he or she has participated; settlement agreements to which the Public Counsel is not a party may not be submitted to or approved by the commission

Utility customer protections strengthened by prohibiting higher tiered rates due to extended billing periods, capping deposits at 2 months of average usage, requiring utilities to notify customers of all available rates within their class and provide good faith assistance in rate selection, and requiring that money collected for demand-side renewable energy systems be used solely for that purpose