* Dan Mihalopoulos at WBEZ…

In his first public comments since Commonwealth Edison admitted a Springfield bribery scheme, CEO Joe Dominguez said Wednesday he was sorry for the power company’s conduct – but quickly added that he did not think the public suffered as a result of the scandal.

“I wanted to apologize on behalf of the entire company,” Dominguez told officials at a meeting of the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates ComEd and other public utilities in the state.

Dominguez quickly pivoted from that mea culpa to show the limits of his contrition. He focused largely on defending the company’s overall performance as excellent – and protecting the legislative gains ComEd achieved during the eight-year-long bribery scheme. […]

In an effort to add what he said was “context” for his company’s state regulators, Dominguez told the ICC that the “deferred prosecution agreement,” or DPA, with the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago “is not a criminal conviction of ComEd” and that “a few orchestrated the improper conduct” but most employees do a superb job.

Dominguez also said the state laws mentioned in the deal with federal law enforcement authorities actually had benefited the people of Illinois, even though lawmakers locked in electricity delivery rate hikes.

* ComEd is borrowing from its parent…

ComEd doesn’t have $200 million in cash flow to pay the fine, Dominguez told commissioners, so it would borrow the money from its parent company, Exelon. […]

“In order to pay the government, Exelon, like other large holding companies, has a cash balance, is able to use some of that cash. It goes down to ComEd so that it meets its obligation under the [deferred prosecution agreement] to make that payment. In the future, when we otherwise would have provided our profits to the shareholder, our profits are actually going to repay that $200 million. At the end of the day, the capital structure remains the same and shareholders, not customers, will pay all of the fine.”

* Iulia Gheorghiu at Utility Dive…

The utility is strengthening its compliance practices outside of the federal investigation, Gomez told Illinois regulators. Cost changes and percentages that will fall on ratepayers for the compliance function are not available, she added.

ICC commissioners insisted that ComEd’s ratepayers should not fund any changes the utility makes in reaction to the deferred prosecution agreement.

* The person leading that particular charge was the embattled ICC Chair…

Commission Chair Carrie Zalewski told Dominguez and Glockner that she wasn’t comfortable “with one penny” of ratepayer money going to an improved compliance system made necessary by actions over nearly a decade at ComEd that resulted in a criminal charge of bribery.

“I find it very hard to believe Exelon was going to enhance their policies regardless,” she said.

* Some legislators and other elected officials may be alarmed about this…

As part of the deal to defer prosecution of bribery charges against the company, ComEd and its parent company Exelon agreed to pay the fine, to cooperate with a continuing federal investigation, to adopt internal policies and controls regarding their dealings with public officials to prevent similar crimes from occurring again and to file reports with the U.S. Attorney’s office at least once every 12 months detailing how it is complying with the terms of the agreement.

“They create, among other things, a detailed tracking system to capture information about our interactions with public officials,” said David Glocker, Exelon’s executive vice president for compliance and audit. “Going forward, beginning when these policies went into effect on July 6, any request, recommendation or referral from a public official has to be reported, has to be tracked, and it can only be acted on with the concurrence of a series of people within the organization, including, importantly, the compliance function.”

Legislators and other electeds routinely forward constituent complaints to utility companies.

*** UPDATE *** From ComEd…

All requests, referrals and recommendations from public officials for things of value for themselves or others will be reported and tracked. The only exceptions are routine requests for constituent assistance or information.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* And, of course…

Here’s an opening sentence one might only get to write in an Illinois newspaper:

Nearly two weeks after admitting to a bombshell bribery charge, ComEd executives outlined their ethics reform plan to a panel of state regulators led by the relative of an alleged player in the criminal plot.

Illinois Commerce Commission Chairwoman Carrie Zalewski, whose agency oversees utility rates and safety practices, opened Wednesday’s meeting with demands for “transparency” and “accountability” in light of federal court records that allege ComEd engaged in a “yearslong bribery scheme” involving jobs, contracts and payments to allies of House Speaker Michael Madigan.

One of the Madigan associates that prosecutors say got such a job? Carrie Zalewski’s father-in-law, former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski.

That connection was largely ignored during the hearing, however, even as Zalewski herself called the payments “unethical.”

* Steve Daniels…

“I have not done anything wrong,” Carrie Zalewski shot back, and added, “I take umbrage at the assumption.”

Oliva is a Republican appointee of former Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner’s ICC chairman, Brien Sheahan, was quickly replaced with Zalewski after Gov. J.B. Pritzker took office. Zalewski since has reversed some of Sheahan’s policies and priorities.