Arizona Corporation Commission Executive Director Resigns After Disclosing Possible Conflict

will discuss and potentially vote to install an interim executive director to oversee the Corporation Commission staff until a permanent replacement is identified by Commissioners,” said a Monday news release. The commission Tuesday forwarded us several letters leading to the resignation. In a July 2 letter to General Counsel Andy Kvesic, Vogt disclosed possible conflict of interest related to his wife’s employment at lobbying and communications firm Veridus. Her supervisor did crisis communications for lobbyist Jim Norton following Norton’s indictment related to alleged bribing of former ACC Chairman Gary Pierce, Vogt said. Recently, Veridus accepted work from a nonprofit formed to fight a proposed ballot initiative on clean energy and funded by Pinnacle West Capital, parent of electric company Arizona Public Service, Vogt said. Neither is a conflict under Arizona law, said Vogt, but he wanted to “err on the side of transparency” in light of the commission’s ethics code. In July 3 correspondence to ACC Chairman Tom Forese, Commissioners Boyd Dunn, Bob Burns and Justin Olson said the matter warranted commission action. “The issues raised ... are serious and we need to take appropriate action,” wrote Dunn, the Ethics Committee chairman who led development of the commission’s ethics code. Forese asked Vogt to resign because the pecuniary interest existed for months without disclosure. “You were brought into the Commission to assist the Commissioners with rehabilitating both the structure, administration, and image of the commission,” the chairman wrote. Two days later, Vogt wrote commissioners that he tried to be transparent but would resign because “perceptions matter” and he didn’t “want to bring undue negative scrutiny” upon the commission.