Why Rep. Roger Roy Had to Go

Tonight as I write this post for Delaware Watch, I hear my new air conditioner running in the window. I am not a particularly circumspect Green because I notice (worry about, actually) my air conditioner running more this year than last. The reason is simple. My electricity rates went up this year--a lot. 59%, in fact. That wasn’t supposed to happen. At least, that was what I and hundreds of thousands of other Delawareans were told in 1999. Our rates probably were supposed to increase somewhat by now but not 59% – 64% for residential homeowners and 100% - 118% for business owners. In 1999 I was told that level of increase wouldn’t happen:

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2000 – The Delaware legislature in 1999 eased government restrictions on electric utility sales, just as two dozen other states have done.

Exclusive territories belonging to the state's power companies were eliminated, meaning that for the first time, residential, commercial and industrial customers could chose an electricity supplier, much like they would pick a long-distance telephone provider. Utilities, in turn, were permitted to compete for customers in lucrative markets previously closed to them.

In the end, Delaware lawmakers said, deregulation of the electric utility industry was a winning proposition for everyone involved. (link)

The “winning proposition” promised in 1999 resulting from deregulation never materialized in 2006 when the masses of electric companies scheduled to line up at the starting gate eager to compete for my electric bill dollars didn’t appear.* Although there was only one dissenting vote in the General Assembly in 1999 against deregulation (State Senator George Bunting), the principal architect for this fiasco was Rep. Roger Roy and he had a huge interest in seeing that the deregulated utility company benefited from the legislation:

Delaware's biggest power company, Conectiv Power Delivery Inc., has a top officer well-positioned on the executive board of a nonprofit run by Rep. Roger P. Roy, chairman of the Special Task Force on Telecommunications and Electric Utility Deregulation, and primary sponsor of H.B.10. Roy's link to Conectiv was never disclosed.

Roy made it no secret he believed the time was right for deregulating the electric utility industry. What he failed to mention during the months of debate over his bill, H.B. 10, were his financial and professional ties to Conectiv and other companies that benefited from the legislation. (link)

Did Roy actually “fail to mention” for “months” that one of the company’s principal members that employ him was Conectiv when he sponsored and argued for the deregulation bill in 1999? Apparently.

For Roy ’s patronage of Conectiv, you are paying 59% - 64% more for the electricity required to read this post right now.

The Transportation Management Association

While Roy was the principal sponsor of the energy deregulation, he was also the Executive Director of the Transportation Management Association (TMA). TMA is

a nonprofit organization funded exclusively by the state's largest private corporations, and a handful of public agencies. TMA was created in 1990 to help reduce traffic congestion by advising businesses on how to set up carpools and other "transportation alternatives" for thousands of employees. (link)

If readers wonder why companies and Delaware taxpayers needed to fund an organization to promote ride-sharing and advertise bus routes, something that many companies do with bulletin boards and brochures, once the member companies of TMA are identified and their connection to Roger Roy’s salary as Executive Director in 1999 is made, readers then might wonder if TMA’s most valued service was influence peddling:

In 1999, the list of corporate backers of Roy's electric deregulation bill read like the membership roster for TMA. Companies like DuPont, MBNA America credit card bank, Bell Atlantic and the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce write membership checks each year to TMA.**

But Conectiv has a special place in the TMA. Sitting on the decision-making executive committee of TMA is John Land, Conectiv's vice president of procurement and support services….

The executive board wields power over TMA, and Roy. The board decides, for example, how much of TMA's annual revenue is used to pay Roy's salary. In 1999, that salary was $70,992, or about 20 percent of the $353,840 the TMA collected in dues and fees, according to tax records. (link)

Connectiv sat on the Executive Committee of TMA and that committee set Roy’s salary. In 1999 Roy sponsored and promoted the deregulation bill that allowed Delmarva Power, named Connectiv in 1999, to raise your electric utility rates 59% - 64% in 2006. That is one hell of a coincidence.

In 1999 Roger Roy denied that he was promoting deregulation on behalf of his bosses on the Executive Committee at TMA or that Connectiv’s member on TMA’s Executive Committee had any lobbying responsibilities in Dover:

In a recent interview, Roy told The Center for Public Integrity that neither Land nor any other executive board member influenced his sponsorship or vote on the deregulation bill. "These are not the people who would go to the legislature if they wanted something," he said.

That is not entirely true. The secretary to the executive board, Richard Hefron, goes to Dover for favors routinely. Hefron, who doubles as TMA's lawyer, is also a vice president and chief lobbyist of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.

Even if Roy’s claim that no one from Connectiv on TMA’s Executive Committee had any lobbying responsibilities in Dover had been true, Roy’s unique responsibility in the state house as chairman of the Special Task Force on Telecommunications and Electric Utility Deregulation and his dependence on Connectiv’s good will at TMA made Connectiv’s influence on Roy, although implicit, extraordinary. Roy would have known exactly what his bosses at TMA wanted him to do in the General Assembly without anyone exchanging a word.

Roy still sits on the House Energy Committee today, a fact omitted from the list of committees he sits on in the house on his website. Another coincidence, no doubt. Delmarva Power is still a member of TMA today and Roger Roy is still employed by TMA although I can find no acknowledgement of it on the TMA’s website. Coincidence number 3.

Your Tax Dollars and TMA

If you think that that it was only Delaware ’s most influential corporations underwriting TMA, then think again. Your tax money also funds TMA and helps to pay for Roy ’s salary at TMA. In fact, in the 10 years of TMA’s existence, as of June 2005, the state of Delaware had given $3.3 million to TMA. At last report, TMA’s annual contract with the state provides it $387,000 per year.

But the connection to Roy is even more striking. TMA receives your tax dollars from Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) funds and DelDot receives its funds from the Joint Bond Committee. Guess who presides as the vice chairperson of the Joint Bond Committee. Does coincidence number 4 lead you to guess accurately? Yes, you guessed it. It’s Roger Roy.

Roy’s Other Conflict of Interest

Then there was Roy ’s wife’s salary to consider:

His job with TMA is not the only place Roy's legislative duties clashed with his private life. For years while Roy served in the House, his wife, Paula, was a lobbyist for the insurance industry. She is now director of the Delaware Health Care Commission. (link)

Paula Roy is still the Executive Director of the Delaware Health Care Commission, a position she has held since 1995, and Roger Roy is the vice chairperson of the Joint Committee on Capital Improvement (Bond Bill) that greatly influences how much money state agencies receive and the raises of state employees. Coincidence number 5.

The Creation of a Deregulated Monopoly

When the General Assembly passed, and Governor Tom Carper signed, the deregulation bill in 1999, Connectiv was allowed a one time increase of 7.5% for residential users until 2006. In others words, the Roger Roy’s bill froze our rates until 2006 on the promise that this move would cause competition driving our rates comparatively down.

But posed at the very heart of the bill was a fundamental hypocrisy: by freezing rates in the interim, it discouraged competition and preserved Connectiv (Delmarva Power) as an effective monopoly in many areas of Delaware. Although the USA’s Middle East’s military adventures and hurricane Katrina undoubtedly affected Delmarva Power’s bottom line, it was an effective monopoly that announced our electric bills would increase 59% – 64% on May 1, 2006 . Roger Roy made that possible.

Why Rep. Roger Roy Had to Go in 2006

Perhaps nothing more than Delmarva Power’s 59% - 64% increase has caused Delawareans to think that many of the incumbents in Dover this year have to go. As this post has demonstrated, standing at the center of the utility increase is Roger Roy. Coincidentally, community activist Richard Korn resides in Roy ’s representative district.

Known for uncovering corruption and questionable governmental practices in Delaware and his native state New York , Korn began to investigate Roy , TMA, and the relationship between Roy and Delmarva Power. According to one source, Delaware Watch also learned that Korn was investigating a questionable practice by a member in one of Roy ’s family. The accumulated documentation gathered by Korn was described to Delaware Watch as “voluminous.”

Reports indicated that Roy was concerned about a challenge by Korn, particularly the airing of embarrassing information that a campaign by Korn would bring. On April 14, 2006 Rep. Roger Roy stood in the state house and announced that he would he would not seek reelection in 2006 in order to spend more time with his grandchildren. But he will remain employed by TMA.

Roy also announced that he would support the candidacy of his friend and neighbor Brian Moore for his seat. According to one source, Brian Moore was seated next to Roy when he made the announcement.

And that is coincidence number 6….