Lori Lee Isn't Ready to Head D.C.'s Public Service Commission

MAYOR ADRIAN M. FENTY (D) boasts that he hires only the best people, those who can help him realize his dream of the District as a first-class city. Why, then, has he selected someone lacking the requisite experience and expertise to head the crucial Public Service Commission (PSC) ? By selecting a woman most notable for her friendship with his wife, Mr. Fenty opens himself to criticism that the District's days of political patronage and cronyism aren't entirely in the past.

Last June, the mayor nominated Lori M. Lee to head the board that regulates electric, natural gas and telecommunications companies operating in the District. The nomination to a job that pays nearly $150,000 stalled in the D.C. Council because of concerns about Ms. Lee's qualifications. It's not that Ms. Lee is without accomplishment -- she's been an attorney with the Justice Department, working on immigration issues, for 11 years. Rather, as became embarrassingly apparent at her confirmation hearing, Ms. Lee has no professional experience or academic background in utility regulation or related fields. She has never managed a staff. She said she's never been to a meeting of the PSC.

Her supporters say that that lack of experience will be an advantage, that she won't be captive to any interests. More convincing are the concerns of environmental, consumer and labor groups who, pointing to the current economic crisis and ongoing environmental challenges, say that now is not the time to have someone learning on the job. Ms. Lee's personal ties to the mayor raise questions: She is his wife's close friend and cousin to his older brother's wife. Ms. Lee's husband was interim deputy general counsel to Mr. Fenty until he resigned after he was disbarred because of his handling of a divorce case while in private practice.

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), who presided over Ms. Lee's confirmation hearing in December, made it clear she wasn't going to move the nomination forward. But now jurisdiction over the PSC has moved to a committee chaired by council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), an ally of the mayor, and Mr. Fenty is pushing for a vote. We long have been supportive of the executive's prerogative to have his own team or, at the very least, have an up-or-down vote on his nominees. Given, though, the substantial and valid objections to this appointment, Mr. Fenty should reconsider his position and withdraw Ms. Lee's name.