Commission records indicate that O’Connor’s office sent a video by Cole and a statement from O’Connor to at least four major utilities and a trade group for water utilities, asking top officials to view the video “before ‘encouraging’ another employee to submit to this experimental vaccine,” the Republic reported.
O’Connor told the Republic he was concerned that Arizona utilities would mandate vaccine and that he was concerned about the health and safety of utility workers.
“If people are willing to individually choose to get the shot, God bless them,” he said. “For those who aren’t, I don’t want people to lose a job, lose income.”
In March, during a commission meeting with utilities about preparing for summer’s peak demand on the power grid, O’Connor asked officials from companies including Arizona Public Service Co., the Salt River Project, Southwest Gas Corp. and Tucson Electric Power whether they were mandating COVID-19 vaccines.
None of the major utilities mandates the shots but all encouraged workers to get them.
CEO Mike Hummel of the SRP, a water and power district that is not regulated by the commission, said he did speak with O’Connor about vaccines after being contacted by O’Connor.
“We continue to see vaccines as a way out of this,” Hummel said. “What we’ve done is try to make information available to employees.”