The plan would ban PSC members from holding some closed-door meetings with companies that have business before the panel.

Commissioner Angela Speir, who authored the proposal, said members of the public are often frozen out of decisions that affect them because those decisions are based on private conversations between PSC members and lobbyists for the state's major utility companies and other interests.

Ms. Speir's rule would outlaw back-door communications from the conclusion of a hearing on a particular matter until the commission decides on it. An initial proposal blocked such communications from the time a case was filed on the PSC's docket.

Ms. Speir said she liked the broader proposal she initially put forward but was unable to get a majority of her colleagues to support it.

Georgia's Public Service Commission is one of only a handful across the country that lack rules governing so-called ex parte contact, Ms. Speir said.

State utility companies' representatives argue that the proposal violates free speech rights.

Commissioner Stan Wise agreed. He was the lone member of the panel to cast a vote against studying the proposal earlier this year. Mr. Wise argued that banning the closed meetings would be "unworkable and unenforceable."

The planned vote comes days after Georgia Power asked the PSC to approve a 7 percent rate increase for electric consumers.

Hollie Manheimer, of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said the proposal would improve transparency.

Reprinted with permission from The Augusta Chronicle, 07/03/07.