Federal judge rules Corp Comm can seize control of utility
A federal judge on Wednesday rebuffed a bid by the family trust that owns Johnson Utilities to block state utility regulators from taking control of the water and sewage company.
Judge Roslyn Silver said it would be one thing if the Arizona Corporation Commission were taking ownership of the company from the George H. Johnson Revocable Trust. But Silver said the only thing the commission has voted to do is give control of the operations to another entity — and only for the time being.
“There is no ownership,” she said during a hearing in federal court here. “It would only be temporary.”