HARRISBURG (TNS) — The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has been without a full-time leader since the Jan. 6 departure of executive director Seth Mendelsohn, the agency confirmed Monday, and it has also lost its top attorney.

With oversight from a board of five PUC commissioners, Mr. Mendelsohn led the agency for more than three-and-a-half years before accepting a job with the law firm Saxton & Stump. The PUC has 500-plus employees and an annual budget of about $85 million.

Mr. Mendelsohn’s departure wasn’t formally announced and hasn’t been previously reported. He told the Post-Gazette on Monday that he left the agency to take advantage of a career opportunity, and that his departure wasn’t connected to the January inauguration of Gov. Josh Shapiro.

While it is without a permanent executive director, the PUC is also advertising an open job for chief counsel, which was held by Renardo Hicks. A PUC spokesperson confirmed that Mr. Hicks retired effective Saturday.

The PUC’s sprawling responsibilities affect almost all Pennsylvanians, directly or indirectly. The agency oversees more than 7,000 entities that provide in-state electricity, natural gas, pipeline, motor carrier, rail, telecommunications, water and wastewater services.

Among other things, its staff handles rate increase requests, hearings, formal complaints and investigations. High-profile incidents included a probe of a 2019 natural gas explosion that injured several people in Washington County.

Robert Gramola, director of the PUC’s bureau of administration, is serving as acting executive director. The agency spokesperson said applications for a permanent replacement for Mr. Mendelsohnwere due Friday and that “the Commission will begin the process of reviewing qualified applications when we receive all the relevant material.”

The spokesperson said PUC staffers’ skills and experience are “highly sought after by the private sector” and that other state agencies face the same challenge.

An online posting for the executive director’s job indicated a potential salary as high as $176,549, and one for the chief counsel job listed pay as high as $170,544. The executive director reports to a board of five commissioners, who are nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

”There are vital positions,” said Jim Cawley, a former PUC commissioner who is now an attorney in private practice.

Mr. Cawley, who was a commissioner for two separate stretches totaling 16 years, said the PUC “is one of the litigious agencies in state government” and “the volume of work is substantial.” During his time on the board, he said, commissioners filled an opening for executive director by accepting applications, interviewing candidates, discussing their strengths and weaknesses, then voting on which one to hire.

The executive director, Mr. Cawley said, works most closely with the board chairperson, a post currently held by Gladys Brown Dutrieuille.

{p class=”krtText”}”He or she oversees the entire staff on a daily basis,” Mr. Cawley said. That includes oversight of directors who head bureaus of law, administration, regulatory affairs, cybersecurity, communications and other areas.

{p class=”krtText”}The chief counsel’s job, Mr. Cawley said, must be filled by someone “with a great deal of tact,” since the five-member board of commissioners has a mix of Democrats and Republicans.

{p class=”krtText”}”The chief counsel is often faced with advising a commission that is politically divided,” Mr. Cawley said. “It does not behoove a chief counsel to play politics.”

{p class=”krtText”}Mr. Mendelsohn said he chose to leave the PUC after he got the chance to reconnect with a former mentor who now works at Saxton & Stump. He noted that he took over as PUC executive director eight months before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and had to lead it through a stretch where it shifted to an all-remote operation.

{p class=”krtText”}”Every consumer’s complaint was heard and every rate case proceeded,” Mr. Mendelsohn said. His job, he said, was “making sure everything got done and ran smoothly.”

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