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VietnameseGriffin: ‘As the Public Service Commission investigation has just begun, Summit should not resume normal collections.’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement announcing that he filed a motion with the Public Service Commission to stop Summit Utilities Arkansas, Inc. from resuming normal collection and disconnect policies:
“Today, I am filing a motion with the Public Service Commission opposing Summit’s plan to resume the charging of late fees and disconnecting gas service until the investigations are complete or until an alternative date set by the Public Service Commission based upon information gathered during the investigations. It is too soon to reinstitute late fees and shutoffs based upon what we know at this time.
“As the Public Service Commission investigation has just begun, Summit should not resume normal collections. We continue to investigate the complaints received from Arkansans regarding Summit and provide information to the Public Service Commission to assist in their investigation.”
On March 16, Griffin referred the findings of his investigation into consumer complaints to the Public Service Commission. At the time of the referral, Griffin’s office had received more than 2,800 calls regarding a sharp increase in gas prices charged to consumers and problems with billing. Griffin asked the Public Service Commission to investigate the company’s purchasing and billing practices, and potential violations of Commission rules.
To read Griffin’s motion, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was elected attorney general of Arkansas on November 8, 2022. He was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas on November 4, 2014, and was re-elected for his second four-year term on November 6, 2018. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. For the 113th Congress, he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault in Mosul, Iraq). He is currently serving as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 81st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Prior to his current post, Griffin served as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a senior legislative advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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