INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ A lawyer for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission must wait before becoming a lobbyist for a water utility overseen by the agency.
The State Ethics Commission ruled Thursday that Gregory Ellis must wait at least a year before he can accept a job as director of government affairs for the Indiana American Water Company.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Ellis was challenging an IURC policy drafted in 2011 in the wake of a revolving-door ethics scandal. Former IURC lawyer Scott Storms had been negotiating a job with Duke Energy in 2010 while overseeing proposed rate hikes for the company's Edwardsport coal-gasification plant.
Ellis argued that he had limited authority over water issues at the IURC.
