(The Center Square) – North Carolina Treasurer Brad Briner has joined a legal fight between Gov. Josh Stein and the state Legislature over appointments to the state Utilities Commission.
A new state law gives Briner the authority to nominate one member to the commission, the governor two members and one each for the state House and Senate.
“Stein is seeking to take that nomination authority away from the treasurer and give it back to himself,” Briner said in a statement Thursday.
Both Briner and Stein took office in January. Briner is a Republican, Stein a Democrat.
On Wednesday, Briner filed a motion in Wake County Superior Court to intervene in the case.
“The people of North Carolina elected me to serve as treasurer and to execute the duties associated with that office,” Briner said. “Of course, I respect the governor’s own role and responsibilities, but he is wrong to claim authority over the other elected Council of State members, and we will fight to ensure that we can carry out the work North Carolinians elected me to do and need us to do.”
In Wake County Superior Court records Thursday, Briner is listed as an intervener in the case.
Stein’s lawsuit names House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, as defendants. A three-judge panel has been appointed to hear the case.
“The treasurer is directly impacted by this litigation: the outcome of this case will determine the scope of the treasurer’s statutory duties,” Briner wrote in his motion to intervene in the case. “The treasurer also has arguments that are unique to his constitutional office and, therefore, different from the perspective of the other parties.”
The Utilities Commission is a state agency that regulates the rates and services of public utilities.
