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The Vanishing Advocate
Established by Congress in 1913, the Public Service Commission (PSC) of the District of Columbia was charged with regulating utility rates in the District. New legislation in 1926 reorganized the Commission and dedicated a lawyer to act as a People’s Counsel in all Commission hearings and judicial proceedings involving the interests of the customers.
Budget constraints led to the dissolution of the People’s Counsel position at the PSC in 1952, leaving D.C. residents without dedicated consumer representation, a situation that would last for decades. As time passed, mounting consumer complaints were increasingly aimed at the PSC. Barbara Morgan, a longtime Washingtonian and lifelong lay consumer advocate, recollected, “They didn’t pay too much attention to what we as citizens had to say. Back in the day, we weren’t actually heard, or they didn’t take our concerns the way that they do now.” Yet, the people continued to sound the alarm. Citizen groups from various sectors began to participate in PSC proceedings.
On December 23, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, better known as the Home Rule Act, which granted limited self- governance to the District.7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions were created, the Council of the District of Columbia (D.C. Council) was formed, and Walter E. Washington became the first elected mayor. The Home Rule Act also granted the Council power to pass laws that would go on to affect education, public safety, and transportation.
In addition to the passage of this new law, pressure was mounting in the realm of utilities: The energy crisis, triggered by the Arab oil embargo, had pushed crude oil prices up by 70%,8 and the utility consumer complaints were still increasing at the PSC. The stage was set for the reinstatement of a consumer advocate. The new Office of the People’s Counsel would become a beacon for consumer protection in that high-pressure era of change and challenge in the nation’s capital.
Left to right, Bishop Paul Moore Jr., Dorothy Simms Fauntroy, Rev. Walter Fauntroy, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the March for Home Rule, 19659
OPC’s Journey to Protect Utility Consumers 9