TALLAHASSEE -- Faced with an edict from Gov. Charlie Crist to ``clean house'' at the troubled Public Service Commission, Senate President Jeff Atwater says he'll hold hearings during the next two months to change the way the utility regulator does business.

``What we have at the moment is a collapse of the integrity of the whole system,'' Atwater told the Herald/Times, a reference to recent revelations of cozy relationships between commissioners on the panel and the utilities they regulate.

``It is poor judgment and may in fact be worse than poor judgment,'' he said, vowing to work toward the ``restoration of integrity'' and a regulation process that will serve the state's long-term utility needs.

Attitudes toward the PSC have shifted in Tallahassee, where the agency has mostly operated out of the public spotlight. In addition to the proposed hearings, two senators are writing bills to reform the process for selecting commissioners. And the commission itself has scheduled workshops to rewrite its rules for handling communications with utilities.

But critics say it will take more than rule changes to reform the state utility board.

For years, commissioners and staff have left the PSC to go work for the utilities they regulate, and documents show that behind-the-scenes communications between utility officials and commissioners on issues before the PSC are customary and frequent.

The Herald/Times has also reported that commissioners and staff have socialized with the utility executives they regulate, conferred with them daily or shared their private messaging codes from their state-paid BlackBerrys.

``Based on the current events, I think you're going to see some changes, but how far those changes go remains the question,'' said J.R. Kelly, the head of the Office of Public Counsel which represents consumers in PSC cases. ``We have to restore the public's confidence.''

Last month, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation into whether any of the PSC-utility communications were illegal. The agency says it expects to issue a report shortly. The Leon County State Attorney is considering whether to call a grand jury to investigate; and Commissioners Lisa Edgar and Matthew Carter have placed their top staff aides on paid leave for a month until the investigations are complete.

In the midst of the turmoil, the PSC conducted weeks of rate hearings into requests by Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy to raise their base rates for electricity by about 30 percent.

REFORM ATTEMPTS

The stream of unflattering news about the PSC prompted Crist to call for a more consumer-oriented approach to the commission. Rather than reappoint two sitting commissioners to new four-year terms, the governor named two outsiders to the panel: former Bradenton newspaperman David Klement and former Escambia County sheriff finance director Steve Stevens.

Legislators have taken note. Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican and vocal critic of the PSC, said he is drafting legislation to address a shelved 1992 grand jury report on the PSC that would have put an end to undocumented communications between staff members and utility representatives.

His bill would require all PSC commissioners and staff members to put all communications in writing and provide copies to the public counsel's office.

``I hope I'm able to convince a majority of my colleagues that we need to do this for the betterment of the PSC and, more importantly, our consumers,'' Fasano said.

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