PSC judge grants former BGE employees status in falsified inspections dispute

A Maryland public utility law judge has granted former Baltimore Gas and Electric employees party status in an ongoing investigation into the company prompted by allegations made by more than a dozen former employees.

On Monday, Judge Kristin Case Lawrence, public utility law judge of the Maryland Public Service Commission, granted 14 former BGE employees’ petition to intervene, finding the employees’ experiences inside BGE “have afforded them considerable institutional knowledge and invaluable insights regarding BGE’s internal operations and practices, documentation requirements, and inspection protocols.”

The order effectively allows the former employees to better participate in and contribute to the commission’s investigation, according to the employees’ petition to intervene.

The former employees, who are also suing the utility company in Baltimore City Circuit Court over alleged racial discrimination, accused a then-BGE inspector of falsifying documents and of claiming to have conducted thousands of gas infrastructure inspections when he conducted fewer than 100 inspections over a four-year period. The former employees say the inspector, who later was fired from BGE, spent time at a Kent County marina when he claimed to be working and that his boss failed to check his location.

BGE is attempting to recover $153 million from ratepayers for 2023. The company is required to show that its cost increases were “prudently incurred” and that it exercised “good management judgment” for the state to approve the increases.

In February, the Public Service Commission, which regulates Maryland utilities, ordered an investigation into the former employees’ allegations, from which the commission’s engineering division “identified gaps in BGE’s quality assurance and compliance oversight as it relates to the inspector in question,” as stated in an April investigative report.

BGE has called the commission’s investigation “flawed,” acknowledging the former inspector “neglected his job duties and failed to satisfactorily perform assigned work” and spent time on his boat when he was supposed to be working, but said the inspector falsified just one document and his conduct did not compromise safety.

“These inaccuracies (in the commission’s investigation) incorrectly imply that the unacceptable performance of a single former BGE employee jeopardized the safety of the Company’s gas distribution system — a claim that is categorically unfounded,” wrote the utility’s general counsel, David Ralph.

In her ruling Monday, Lawrence wrote that the former employees’ participation in the commission proceeding “may be in the public interest.”

Nicholas Alexopulos, spokesperson for BGE, said the utility is “committed to thoroughly addressing all stakeholder questions and concerns.”

“We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our safety protocols that protect our customers and employees, further assuring all stakeholders that the safety of the gas and electric systems is our number one priority,” Alexopulos said in an email Monday.

In the racial discrimination suit, BGE previously filed a contempt motion against the former employees, alleging counsel for the employees made “misleading, prejudicial, and inflammatory comments” about BGE and the lawsuit in violation of a Baltimore City Circuit Court order restricting extrajudicial statements.

Alexopulos Monday declined to comment on the harassment claims.

David Baña, counsel for the former BGE employees, said BGE’s motion “reveals a troubling approach to public safety concerns.”

“When a powerful utility pursues contempt sanctions against those who report safety issues to regulatory authorities, it suggests an organization more focused on silencing criticism than addressing legitimate safety concerns,” Baña said in a statement Monday. “Rather than engaging constructively with the engineering division’s findings, BGE has chosen to maintain a path of intimidation that serves to discourage others from reporting critical safety issues in the future.”

A hearing on BGE’s contempt motion is scheduled for June 3 before the Baltimore City Circuit Court.