Turning Point : After 16 years of fighting for lower utility rates for California consumers, outspoken advocate Sylvia Siegel will be missed by friends and foes alike.

A reporter once asked consumer advocate Sylvia Siegel if she ever smiles. Siegel, whose no-nonsense demeanor masks an acute wit, frowned. “Of course,” she replied. “Then smile,” the reporter suggested. Siegel’s face darkened. “I am,” she said.

That scene took place after Siegel had won a partial victory against Pacific Gas & Electric before the California Public Utilities Commission. So she is much less likely to smile on Monday when, for the last time in a 20-year career, Siegel will address the commission during another hearing--this time to warn the PUC not to yield to telephone companies’ pleas to overhaul regulatory procedure and loosen limitations on profits.

Then, having completed her duty to her constituency--the state’s residential and small-business consumers of gas, electricity and telephone service--Siegel will retire as director of Toward Utility Rate Normalization, or TURN, the unique utility consumer organization she founded 16 years ago.

In doing so, she will leave TURN in the hands of former Fresno Bee reporter Audrie Krause, who assumes leadership at a pivotal moment in state regulatory history. Not only are the telephone companies chafing under traditional, time-consuming regulatory procedures at a time of rapid change in telecommunications technology, but other utilities are seeking to diversify their businesses and, in some cases, merge their operations.

But Siegel will certainly not walk offstage without at least one characteristically colorful and quotable parting shot at the utilities and probably the commission as well. Nonetheless, her adversaries praise her efforts over the years on behalf of the utilities’ customers and even appear convincing when they say they will miss her.

‘Worthy Adversary’

To Kenneth Okel, associate general counsel of Thousand Oaks-based GTE California, Siegel remains “a worthy adversary,” one possessed of “a talent for turning a great phrase.”

Okel’s counterpart at Pacific Bell, Mike Miller, agreed. “We have had our sparring matches,” he conceded, “but while we have significant disagreements, personally I like her. There are times when she grandstands and throws out her one-liners, but that’s understandable to get attention.”

On the other hand, he added, throwing out a one-liner of his own: “She’s frequently in error but never in doubt.”

The five PUC commissioners, appointed by the governor to decide utility issues involving billions of dollars each year, often find themselves and their staff the butt of Siegel’s quips. Nonetheless, the dean of the current quintet, Stanley W. Hulett, gave her high marks for being effective in her representation.

Awarded $245,000

“She is very flamboyant and says things once in awhile that can make you cringe,” Hulett acknowledged, “but I think she has been a very positive force. She has been very effective, and TURN as an organization has been enormously helpful to the commission. Sylvia brought a whole new dimension to consumer advocacy as far as utilities are concerned.”

Before TURN, said Hulett, the only consumer representation came from such governmental agencies as attorney generals and departments of consumer affairs.

Under a 1983 law, TURN and other “intervenor groups” that participate in PUC proceedings can be paid for “significant contributions” they make to the commission. This year, the commission awarded TURN $245,000 for its role in a three-year deliberation that reorganized regulation of the gas industry--a case Siegel said will save Southern California Gas, San Diego Gas & Electric and PG&E; at least $25 million a year.

Besides her admonitions against regulatory changes on Monday, Siegel will introduce her successor.

Krause, 41, said she recognizes that she has her work cut out. But she added that she is ready to try to fill the shoes--low-heeled and sensibly styled--worn by Siegel, who despite her forthright public posture turns surprisingly coy when asked about her age, which is sufficient for retirement.

‘Tremendously Challenging’

Krause spent five of her 10 years at the Fresno Bee covering public utility issues but took last year off to complete a master’s degree in communications at the University of Minnesota. Siegel suggested that she apply to TURN, Krause said. The idea seemed intriguing, so she did.

“I really didn’t have any interest in spending the rest of my life doing the same thing,” Krause said. “TURN is doing good work and wins a lot of what it goes after. It’s tremendously challenging.”

The group that she will inherit was organized by Siegel in January, 1973, four years after she made her debut at a hearing in which Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, Pacific Bell’s predecessor, sought a substantial rate increase.

“I couldn’t get over what I saw,” Siegel recalled. “It was a very clubby atmosphere. They were all dressed alike. They were all very friendly. You couldn’t tell who the good guys and bad guys were.”

Concluding that they were probably all “bad” from the consumer’s point of view, she vowed to try to “turn the PUC toward the public interest”--hence TURN. “Later,” she added, “we figured out words to match.” That accounts for the clumsiness of TURN’s rarely used formal name.

Ronald Reagan was in the middle of his second term as governor, and she found interest in consumer representation within the government dwindling. But the commission’s staff, she said, “was glad to educate me because they had been cut off at the pockets. We grew brick by brick, but it wasn’t easy.”

Apparently, Siegel learned her lessons well. One early milestone was the 1975 decision to reverse the incentives created by the way gas and electricity rates were traditionally structured, which rewarded conservation instead of consumption. By the end of the decade TURN’s influence had grown to such a point that the U.S. Department of Energy under the Carter Administration awarded the organization a $150,000 grant to train utility consumer advocates in 12 Western states. Reagan halted the program after he took office.

“There is now virtually no (public) funding for consumer groups,” Siegel said.

Need for Lawyers

Consequently, TURN has emphasized recruitment of consumers as members, now about 45,000. But, despite an annual budget of $750,000, TURN still finds itself short-handed. “We have three attorneys, and they are overwhelmed with work,” Krause said. “We could probably use three more.”

The need is immediate, both women agreed. The commission is likely to decide the future of telephone regulation in California by early fall. It is also considering a proposed merger of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison--a marriage both consider to be made in consumer hell but one that is being closely watched by the utility industry.

Moreover, TURN has appealed to the California Supreme Court a negotiated settlement between the commission, the attorney general and PG&E; over the $5.8-billion cost of constructing the troubled Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Unless the court agrees with TURN that the settlement was illegally reached behind closed doors and should be sent back to the commission for a public rehearing, Siegel said she fears that a dangerous precedent will be set in state regulatory history.

“Regulation is not a private matter,” Siegel insisted with her characteristic certainty. “It’s a public matter.”