PSC members select Gonzalez as new secretary

• Advocate Capitol news bureau
• Published: Sep 17, 2009 - UPDATED: 11:14 a.m.

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JEFFERSON — After meeting for about 45 minutes behind closed doors, the five elected members of the state Public Service Commission chose Eve Kahao Gonzalez as the regulatory agency’s new secretary.

The job makes Gonzalez, 54, the chief aide to the elected members of the PSC and head of the regulatory agency’s staff of about 90.

The PSC oversees utility, trucking and telecommunications companies in Louisiana. The agency has a $9.8 million budget.

Gonzalez, the PSC’s executive counsel, also had been serving as the interim secretary since the April retirement of longtime PSC Secretary Lawrence St. Blanc, who had held the position since 1995.

The position is not covered by civil service and pays up to $120,000. St. Blanc was paid $110,000 per year and received a car allowance. Gonzalez is receiving same pay as interim secretary but PSC Chairman Lambert Boissiere III, of New Orleans, said the commissioners still need to work out Gonzalez’s compensation package.

Commissioners interviewed about 10 applicants, Boissiere said.

One prominent applicant, state Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Grosse Tete, had Gov. Bobby Jindal in his corner.

Jindal phoned commissioners on his behalf, the governor’s chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, said in March. Marionneaux chairs the state Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee.

Gonzalez is a native of Allendale Plantation in West Baton Rouge Parish.

She graduated from LSU and LSU Law School. She practiced law in New York and Florida before returning to Louisiana to work as the PSC’s top staff lawyer.