New Twist in Edison Billing Investigation

In a surprise turn Thursday, it was reported that a Salt Lake City consultant under investigation for $11.4 million in potentially questionable billings to Southern California Edison was linked financially to an Edison executive for the past two years.

Geoffrey R. Bales, Edison manager of information services, is listed in Utah state records as a partner with the consultant, R. Quinn Gardner, in a Salt Lake travel agency.

Erroneous travel expenses billed to the utility are among the fees being questioned in separate investigations by the state Public Utilities Commission and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Edison officials were taken aback by word of the connection, reported Thursday in the San Diego Union-Tribune, in part because the company had not found the tie in its own internal investigation of Gardner over the past nine months.

Bales is being placed on “investigatory suspension,” without pay, “while the company conducts a complete investigation,” Edison spokesman Lewis M. Phelps announced late Thursday.

Phelps said Bales was unavailable for comment.

Edison confirmed that Bales was a partner with Gardner in Aristocrat Travel-Salt Lake Inc. Edison policies require disclosure of such financial interests by senior management.

At Edison, Bales was manager of research at a time when $5.3 million in contracts were let to Gardner and his associated consulting firms, according to records that Edison provided to the PUC. “But (Bales) would not have had final approval of the contracts,” Phelps said.