Director for Administration
Harry Lanphear is Administrative Director of the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Steve Mitnick is Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly and President of Lines Up, Inc.
PUF: What is your role at the PUC?
Harry Lanphear: Primarily it is finance, human resources, administration and technology. Regarding technology, our case management system is one of the best in the nation. In addition, we stream all the hearings live.
I also handle press issues, in conjunction with the commissioners. If it's a straight-forward question and answer, I'll deal with it. If it's something that might be more policy related, I'll consult with the commissioners. For TV items, I have done a few on camera, but those are usually handled by Chairman Vannoy.
PUF: How many staff members are in the Commission?
Harry Lanphear: The Commission currently has about sixty staff members. We handle three to four hundred cases a year. It's a total of twenty lawyers and analysts that manage those three to four hundred cases with help from several key support staff. They all work extremely hard. All sixty people have important jobs here and we are fortunate to have an exceptional staff. The commissioners are very busy. They're focused on making decisions in important cases, understanding the law, reading the documents in the cases and making good decisions.