The Arizona Corporation Commission is now looking into the disconnection procedures related to the May 2024 death of Kate Korman.
The commission confirmed to ABC15 that it received inquiries from Korman’s two sons on May 1 and May 2, and its Utilities Division is now conducting an ongoing disconnection inquiry.
“The Commission is in the process of reviewing the events that led up to the termination of service, as we would for any inquiry initiated by a customer,” the commission said in a statement.
ABC15 reached out to the commission for comment after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on Tuesday called for a public investigation into Korman’s death.
Mayes also is demanding the commission review its rules for disconnecting residents, but the commission’s statement did not address the AG’s demands. The commission’s statement said its inquiry is limited to the disconnection of power.
In response to whether the commission’s inquiry will be made public, the commission responded that, “the results of the inquiry will be shared with the family members that submitted the inquiries and may also be requested through a public records request.”
Korman was found dead in her Sun City West home last year, six days after Arizona Public Service shut off her power on May 13th because of missed payments. The temperatures were hovering in the triple digits during the time.
Korman’s family is calling for change after losing their mother. They went public with their story last month.
“This is a thing that happens as a result of policy. This is a thing that happens to many people,” Korman’s son, Jonathan, said to ABC15 in an interview.
Shortly after he went public with his mother’s story, Arizona Corporation Commission Vice Chairman Nick Myers posted on X that he was "sure the family doesn't want made public what we found" when it came to Korman's death. That post caught the attention of Korman’s son, Adam, who traded posts that included Myers APS blaming her children for her death.
"I'm not just blaming your mom, I'm more blaming you for not looking out for your elderly mom," Myers wrote. "I refuse to tell utilities that they have to provide power to people that do not pay their bills. To be honest, I'm not even happy about many of the programs that they have in place to help, but I understand the need for them.
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Myers also claimed the A/C shutoff "was not the cause of death" for Kate Korman. However, the official medical examiner's report says "environmental heat stress" contributed, caused by exposure to high temperatures. Her official cause of death is complications of chronic ethanolism.
Myers later apologized and clarified his opinions were his own and not those of the Arizona Corporation Commission. The commission regulates many of the state’s large utilities, including APS.
APS has said it contacted Kate Korman 10 times with past due and disconnect notifications, including through a door hanger and by mail, after she stopped paying her bills in January 2024.
The contacts included "details of assistance options and encouraged the customer to contact us." However, the company says it did not speak with her, either in person or over the phone, before shutting off her power.
“We also communicated the day after power was disconnected to again urge the customer to contact us,” the APS statement said. “Following these outreach attempts, our records show that we were not contacted by the customer regarding this account or outstanding payments.”
APS has said in a statement that this is a sad and complex situation, and their sympathies go out to the family.
Korman’s death has led critics to call for changes in the current disconnection rules for utilities regulated by the commission. Right now, APS can’t disconnect residential customers for non-payment from June 1 through October 15. Critics of the current policy are pushing for disconnections to be temperature-based instead.
But at a news conference last week, Maren Mahoney, the director of the governor’s Office of Resiliency, said a change in policy to temperature-based could mean more past-due debt accruing for vulnerable, low-income customers.
“I think you have to strike the right balance,” she said. The current disconnection policy “is probably the right balance in terms of making sure that costs stay down.”
Jonathan Korman told ABC15 he wants to see a policy change that will ensure people are protected from the state’s intense heat.
He would like to see disconnections based on temperature. He said it’s also important to ensure people are actually receiving and aware of the disconnection notices from utilities.
“We strongly suspect APS never made direct contact with our mother. All her other utilities were paid. She had the money to pay it,” he said.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
