Frances Koncilja, candidate for the state’s Public Utilities Commission, received a strong thumbs-up from the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee Monday.

Koncilja, a Denver-area attorney with ties to Pueblo, was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper and won confirmation from six of the seven members of the Business Committee. Both chambers of the Legislature will now vote on her candidacy.

The Koncilja appointment is being heralded as a sort of delayed victory by Pueblo lawmakers Rep. Daneya Esgar and Sen. Leroy Garcia. The two spearheaded an effort last year at the Legislature to make the Denver-based utilities commission more fully represent constituents across the state. They ran a bill, HB 1319, to tie commission appointments to geography so that rural interests were sure to be represented. The bill passed the House but was voted down by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

The bill was in part a response to constituent concerns in Pueblo after utility prices spiked there in 2014. The Washington Post reported at the time that the average Pueblo-area family’s utility bill hovered around $200, even higher than utility bills in notoriously expensive Hawaii.

A Puebloan hasn’t held a seat on the utilities commission since 1932, and south-eastern Colorado hasn’t placed a member on the commission since 1964.

“The bill I ran last year started a conversation,” Esgar told The Colorado Statesman. “I think the conversation is that we need to make sure that every corner (of the state) is represented when the decisions being made affect every corner of Colorado.”

Esgar said she received a call from the Hickenlooper administration the day Pam Patton, a PUC commissioner from Durango, announced she was stepping down. Administration officials were seeking names for consideration.

Esgar and Garcia hope Koncilja will bring vital perspective to the commission.

“Frances’s work has given her a remarkable understanding of needs that our state faces in each of our unique communities,” Garcia told the Business Committee members on Monday. “A Colorado native and an upbringing with a long-standing Puebloan family has given her the strength to be a much-needed voice for southern Colorado.”

The only vote against the Koncilja appointment came from Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, who told The Statesman he was unsatisfied with the answers she gave to questions he asked about her philosophy on including the legislature in the PUC decision-making process and on how she might focus her time on the commission to prioritizing the interest of ratepayers.

— kara@coloradostatesman.com