BUSINESS

Regulator Stump's phone to be scanned this week

Ryan Randazzo
The Republic | azcentral.com
The iPhone that utility regulator Bob Stump used to send text messages will be scanned by Friday to determine if the messages can be retrieved.
  • Utility regulator Bob Stump%27s phone will be scanned for messages this week
  • Watchdogs want to know if regulator's communications were appropriate

The iPhone that utility regulator Bob Stump used to send text messages will be scanned by Friday to determine if the messages can be retrieved, the Arizona Corporation Commission said.

The commission has selected former Superior Court Judge Stephen Scott to oversee the forensic investigation, which will be performed by the Department of Public Safety.

The government watchdog group trying to access Stump's text messages suggested a Phoenix police detective use her expertise to retrieve the deleted texts, but the commission rejected that proposal.

The Washington, D.C.-area Checks and Balances Project filed a public records request March 11 with the commission seeking messages Stump sent in 2014.

The commission provided a log of text messages Stump sent but has not reproduced the messages themselves.

The commission agreed to turn over Stump's phone to a retired judge and allow an expert to attempt retrieval of the messages. If any texts are retrieved, the commission will review them to determine if they are public records that should be released.

The forensic inspection of the phone should be done this week, the commission's lawyer David Cantelme said in a letter to Checks and Balances.

Accessing the text messages would answer several questions related to Stump's communications.

The text logs show Stump communicated with two candidates for the commission, Tom Forese and Doug Little, as well as the head of an independent group that spent money supporting those candidates.

Campaign laws prohibit candidates from coordinating with such independent "dark-money" groups, and the Checks and Balances Project has suggested Stump could have been acting as a go-between for the group.

Stump's text log also showed he communicated during the election season with an official from Arizona Public Service Co. The electric utility is regulated by the commission and is widely believed to have donated money to dark-money groups that supported Forese and Little, who won their elections.

Without the content of the text messages, it is impossible to determine whether Stump was merely communicating with friends, as he has said, or helping coordinate campaign spending, as Checks and Balances suggests.