Arizona Republic editorial

Covering the AZ Attorney General calling for the Arizona Corporation Commission to finally investigate my mother’s death, a year later. We have a page about the AG letter on this site; one can also read the full letter. Given the callousness of the ACC Commissioner we have interacted with, we are unsurprised by reporting saying that the ACC will only narrowly investigate the process of APS’ decision to cut off her power, which killed her.

Why is Kris Mayes the only one asking questions about APS customer's death? | Opinion

Kate Korman, 82, died after Arizona Public Service cut off her electricity on a 99-degree day. Yet the only public official who seems to see a problem is Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Laurie Roberts Arizona Republic

At long last, an Arizona public official is calling on utility regulators to wake up and show some actual interest in Kate Korman.

Attorney General Kris Mayes wants the Arizona Corporation Commission to investigate Korman’s death and “modernize” its rules for when a regulated utility can cut power to its captive customers.

“I understand the difficult position that you are all in,” Mayes said in a May 6 letter to the commission she once chaired. “It is no small thing to balance ratepayer and utility interests … .”

Actually, it shouldn’t be a difficult position at all.

Not. At. All.

Death to deadbeats? Is that what he meant?

Maybe you heard about Korman, the 82-year-old Sun City West woman who died in May 2024, six days after Arizona Public Service cut off her power on a 99-degree day.

This, because the retired health policy researcher was more than three months behind on her bill.

Over those six days — before her body was found — the temperature would spike as high as 102 degrees.

Thus far, the only commissioner to publicly comment has been Arizona Corporation Commission Vice Chairman Nick Myers, who took to social media to blame Korman’s sons for their mother’s death and to note, “I refuse to tell utilities that they have to provide power to people that do not pay their bills.”

Yeah, death to deadbeats.

OK, that’s harsh. I’m sure that isn’t what he meant, though Myers didn’t respond to my request for clarification.

Korman owed $500 to APS when she died

In fact, I’m floored by the apparent lack of any move thus far by any of the five elected corporation commissioners who regulate utilities — any one of whom has the power to launch an investigation — to at least ask a few questions.

To at least consider whether it’s a best practice to condemn a woman to death by cutting off her electricity on a 99-degree day.

Korman was found dead inside her Sun City West home on May 19, 2024, a fact first reported by 12 News’ Joe Dana on April 22. Six days earlier, APS had turned off her power on a day when the temperature reached 99 degrees.

The medical examiner determined that Korman died of chronic alcohol use with “exposure to elevated temperatures” contributing to her death.

Her two sons, who live out of state, were stunned and would like to make sure that things change.

“When my brother and I came out to Arizona because of my mother’s death, we arrived at our house and it was like an oven in there,” Jonathan Korman told 12 News’ Joe Dana. “Was there something mechanically wrong? No. We figured out it was the power company.”

Kate Korman, it seems, had last paid her APS bill in January. She owed roughly $500 at the time of her death.

Rules must change for when APS can cut power

An APS spokeswoman has said the utility followed “established practices and rules” and tried 10 times to reach Korman — through mail and email, by phone and even with a warning left on her door.

But never did anyone from the utility actually talk to the elderly woman before transforming her home into a death trap.

They aren’t social workers, after all. But this utility does hold the lives of its customers literally in its hand — the one that cut off her power and left her to die.

APS has a moratorium on disconnections from June 1 through Oct. 15, the result of a commission regulation enacted after the death Stephanie Pullman, 72, who died inside her Sun City West home on a 107-degree day in September 2018.

Pullman’s power was cut because she was $51 behind on her APS bill.

Korman’s death raises the question of whether the bar on disconnections should be based on the temperature rather than the date on the calendar. The month Korman died, the temperature in Phoenix hit 95 or above on 17 days.

It also raises questions about APS. The utility voluntarily halted disconnections on May 16, 2024, three days after cutting off Korman.

Or put another way, three days before her body was found.

Why aren't utility regulators asking questions?

APS records show it disconnected 2,208 homes for non-payment of bills in May 2024.

Was any effort made to restore electricity to those the utility had already cut off once it determined it was simply too hot to condemn people to live without air conditioning?

Should it have been?

Commissioner Myers may not be interested in the answer to that question, but I sure am.

So is Mayes, who is calling on the commission to investigate APS and update its utility disconnection rules.

“In 2024, at least 602 people died in Maricopa County due in part to extreme heat exposure, a 715% increase over ten years,” Mayes wrote. “The vast majority of the 138 people in Maricopa County that died indoors for heat-related reasons last year lacked functioning air conditioning … .

“Functioning air conditioning is a matter of life or death during the Arizona summer and, increasingly, during the spring and fall.”

As for the all-Republican commission that regulates utilities?

The silence is … really not all that surprising.