Phoenix New Times
You can see a capture of the X/Twitter exchanged referenced in this article archived on this site — Jonathan
GOP official loses it, publicly blames bereaved man for mom’s heat death
Heat killed a woman after APS cut her power last May. State utility regulator Nick Myers told her son, “I'm more blaming you.”
By TJ L'Heureux May 1, 2025
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Vice Chair Nick Myers got in a long argument with the sons of a woman who died after APS cut her power last May. Photo by Arizona Corporation Commission
Last year, 602 people died of heat-related causes in Maricopa County. Kate Korman, an 82-year-old woman who lived in Sun City West, was one of them.
Korman died May 19, six days after APS shut off her power due to nonpayment. Temperatures in the days leading up to her death were in the high 90s and even reached 100, contributing to Korman becoming one of 13 people who died of heat-related causes who lacked working air conditioning last year.
Yet, Arizona law does not prohibit APS from shutting off a customer’s electricity in those circumstances. The Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities like APS, bars them from turning off anyone’s power between June 1 and October 15 every year, and Korman’s death fell outside that span.
Stacey Champion, a local heat activist and public relations professional, is hellbent on changing that, arguing that shut-off guidelines should be based on temperature and not by date. She’s highlighted Korman’s death as an example of a gap in the current system, but one of the ACC’s commissioners isn’t taking the criticism well.
In a long, heated back-and-forth with Champion on X, ACC Vice Chair Nick Myers has rejected the idea that the ACC should bear any blame for Korman’s death. But most eye-catchingly, Myers blamed one of Korman’s bereaved sons for his mother dying — to his (digital) face.
“I'm not just blaming your mom,” Myers wrote in a social media missive to Adam Korman. “I'm more blaming you for not looking out for your elderly mom,” Myers tweeted. “I refuse to tell utilities that they have to provide power to people that do not pay their bills.”
Speaking to Phoenix New Times on Thursday, Champion called Myers’ social media ranting “not a way a public servant should ever behave. New Times has not been able to reach Korman or his brother, Jonathan, who also participated in the exchange. On X, Adam Korman told Myers that his response was “a weird & vile thing to say.”
Myers, a Republican elected to the ACC in 2022, then tried to walk things back.
“I never once said that she deserved to die, and I never will,” he tweeted to Champion and the two brothers. “Just because I think responsibility should stay with the APPROPRIATE people, doesn't mean anyone ‘deserves to die’ as you so wrongly put it.”
Champion said she was unsurprised by Myers’ social media outburst, but alarmed by his indifference to Korman’s death.
“Everyone needs to know that this guy’s up for reelection and that he doesn’t care if seniors bake to death in their homes,” Champion said. “It’s disturbing.”
Myers, who later blocked Champion on the site, did not respond to questions via email or text message. However, his office sent a statement to New Times, which it said was attributable to Myers:
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to Ms. Korman’s family, friends, and loved ones during this difficult time. My comments on social media were intended to address my views on the current termination of service rules,” the statement read. “I apologize for any harm my comments may have caused the family. That was not my intent. The views and opinions I expressed on my personal social media account were my own and not those of the Arizona Corporation Commission.”
Champion said she doubted the sincerity of Myers’ statement.
“For Myers to victim shame and blame the family is just gross,” she said. “His weak-ass, inauthentic apology — which I’m absolutely certain wasn’t written by him — is also a joke that the utility or some lawyer at the commission probably made him do.”
Stacey Champion, center, has advocated for heat death awareness for years, often targeting APS. Photo by Elizabeth Whitman
Tweeting through it
The long and often difficult-to-follow argument began in earnest on April 24, when Champion tagged Myers in a tweet featuring a 12News story about Korman’s death, asking why the ACC hasn’t addressed it.
“We did address it and trust me, I'm sure the family doesn't want made public what we found,” Myers responded. “This is another case where the utility did above and beyond what they needed to, and more importantly the shutting off of power for non payment was NOT the cause of death.”
In response, Champion noted that the medical examiner’s report showed that environmental heat stress and exposure to high temperatures played a major role in killing Korman — she’s counted in Maricopa County’s official heat death tally, after all. Champion also later pointed out that APS told ABC15 that while they made 10 attempts to reach Korman by phone, email and door-hanger notices, they never actually successfully contacted her about her outstanding balance.
“Not one single time did they actually speak to her or lay eyes on her,” Champion told New Times. “For Myers to have the audacity to say that this utility went above and beyond is insane.”
But it’s perhaps Myers’ claim that the “family doesn’t want made public” what the ACC found that engulfed him in a social media dust storm.
“Before asking people to trust you about what ‘the family’ wants, you might consider talking to us,” Adam Korman responded. “My mom may not have been in good health, but she wouldn't have died when she did in the way she did if the power had not been cut off.”
Myers’ response was rich with irony.
“So you are really going to come after us, who have no control over the situation, when you failed to protect your own mother, even though there were multiple tools in place for you to use for that exact purpose?” he wrote.
The ACC, of course, does have control over the situation, as it sets the regulations for when utilities can shut off power. As Champion highlighted, a similar death in 2018drew intense criticism from the ACC, but only after New Times revealed Stephanie Pullman died because APS shut her power off. The ACC enacted its current standards, barring nonpayment shutoffs in the middle of the summer, as a result.
“This is what they do. This is why no one should take what a multibillion-dollar utility monopoly says at face value, because they lie and obfuscate,” Champion told New Times, adding that she has spent lots of time going down the “heat death” rabbit hole through the years to learn about what is driving the crisis.
In a statement to New Times, APS said the date-based moratorium against cutting a customer's power "is clearer and more predictable for customers across a diverse service territory." It also said before it cuts anyone off.
However blame should be assigned for Korman’s tragic death — as one of her sons noted, heat wasn’t the only cause, though she arguably would have been alive with working air conditioning — one thing Myers made very clear is that he doesn’t think it’s his business to keep people like her alive.
“I don't feel it is a utilities responsibility to keep everyone alive,” he tweeted near the end of the argument, noting that “they are not doctors.”
“In a nutshell,” he continued, “at some point people (and their families, and possibly their communities, like churches) should be responsible, it shouldn't all fall on utilities and the ratepayers of utilities.”
