State Corporation Commission (Virginia)
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The State Corporation Commission, or SCC, is a Virginia regulatory agency whose authority encompasses utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, retail franchising, and railroads.
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[edit] Activities
Examples of SCC activities include:
- Granting of the charter of the now defunct Marion and Rye Valley Railway in 1891
- Adopting rules for E911 services;
- Approving rate increases for telephone companies, utilities, etc. and approving rate restructuring plans;
- Directing companies to lower rates;
- Releasing annual "Price to Compare" benchmarks to help customers choose the lowest-cost providers in the electricity market; and
- Seeking public comments on proposed mergers.
The State Corporation Commission's memembership, powers, duties, and procedures are set out in Article IX of the Constitution of Virginia[1]. Section 4 of that Article allows parties aggrieved by the SCC's decisions to appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court[2].
The SCC was formed in 1903 and was a replacement agency for the Virginia Board of Public Works (formed in 1816) which had operated for most of the 19th century, investing heavily in the stock of companies which built and operated turnpikes, toll bridges, canals and rail transportation facilities in the years leading up to the American Civil War (1861-1865). The resulting debt remained after the War, despite destruction of many of the assets and the loss of the portion of the state which had become West Virginia.
[edit] Composition
The SCC is composed of three commissioners, each of whom is appointed by a joint vote of both houses of the Virginia Legislature.[1] Any person is eligible to serve on the commission so long as the candidate, as of the date that his term would begin, is not an employee of a company regulated by the SSC, does not have a pecuniary interest in such a company, and is not an attorney in private practice. However, at least one member of the commission must, at any given time, meet the requirements set forth for judges of a Virginia court of record. The commissioners serve six year terms, and their appointment is staggered, so that a new appointment or reappointment vote occurs every two years.[2]
[edit] Past and present members
- Beverley T. Crump (1903-1907)
- Henry C. Stuart (1903-1908)
- Henry Fairfax (1903-1905)
- Joseph E. Willard (1905-1910)
- Robert R. Prentis (1907-1916)
- William F. Rhea (1908-1925)
- J.R. Wingfield (1910-1918)
- C.B. Garnett (1910-1918)
- Alexander Forward (1918-1923)
- Robert E. Williams (1918-1919)
- S.L. Lupton (1918-1919)
- Berkley D. Adams (1919-1928)
- Oscar L. Shewmake (1923-1924)
- H. Lester Hooker (1924-1972)
- Louis S. Epes (1925-1929)
- William Meade Fletcher (1928-1943)
- George C. Peery (1929-1933)
- Thomas W. Ozlin (1933-1944)
- Harvey B. Apperson (1944-1947)
- Robert O. Norris (1944-1944)
- L. McCarthy Downs (1944-1949)
- W. Marshall King (1947-1957)
- Ralph T. Catterall (1949-1973)
- Jesse W. Dillon (1957-1972)
- Preston C. Shannon (1972-1996)
- Junie L. Bradshaw (1972-1985)
- Thomas P. Harwood, Jr. (1973-1992)
- Elizabeth B. Lacy (1985-1988)
- Theodore V. Morrison, Jr. (1989-2007)
- Hullihen Williams Moore (1992-2004)
- Clinton Miller (1996-2006)
- Mark C. Christie (2004- )
- Judith Williams Jagdmann (2006- )
