The Missouri Public Service Commission regulates investor-owned electric, steam, natural gas, water and sewer and telephone companies. Its mission is to ensure Missouri consumers have access to safe, reliable and reasonably priced utility service while allowing those utility companies under our jurisdiction an opportunity to earn a reasonable return on their investment. The PSC also regulates manufacturers and retail dealers who sell new and used manufactured homes and modular units. The commission was established in 1913. The PSC is comprised of five commissioners, who are appointed by the governor.
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Robert M Clayton III
Commissioner
Commissioner Robert M. Clayton III was appointed by Governor Bob Holden to a six-year term on the Public Service Commission, receiving Senate confirmation on May 8, 2003.
Prior to his appointment to the PSC, Commissioner Clayton was an attorney in private law practice in Hannibal as a partner in the general practice firm, Clayton & Curl L.L.C. Commissioner Clayton formerly served Marion and Shelby County constituents in the Missouri General Assembly as the state representative from the 10th District. He was first elected to the Missouri House in 1994 and served four consecutive terms.
As a state legislator, he chaired the House Ethics Committee and the Joint Committee on Legislative Research and was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Criminal Law. He also served on additional House committees including, Appropriations-Transportation, Agriculture and the Judiciary. While in the General Assembly, Clayton served on the Executive Committees of the Council of State Governments and the Southern Legislative Conference.
Commissioner Clayton is an active member of the NARUC serving on its governing Board of Directors. He is the Chairman of the Committee on International Relations and is active in promoting the policy objectives associated with various USAID/NARUC Cooperative Agreements. Those objectives include working with developing nations in implementing an independent utility regulatory commission to encourage private investment in recently liberalized and evolving capitalist economies. He is the NARUC representative appointed to attend the Presidium of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) of Eastern and Central Europe and he has worked with several member nations of the African Forum for Utility Regulation (AFUR) including the nations of Rwanda and Uganda. He has also offered presentations on energy regulation in Azerbaijan, Hungary and before the Organization of Caribbean Utility Regulators.
Commissioner Clayton was also appointed to chair the Program Advisory Committee for the World Forum on Energy Regulation III, held in October 2006, in Washington, DC. The third triennial conference of its kind (the prior events were held in Montreal, Canada, and Rome, Italy), the World Forum hosted energy regulators, investors and stakeholders from 84 countries. As Chair of the Program Advisory Committee, Commissioner Clayton’s committee developed the comprehensive program agenda by coordinating topics of interest for all regulators, regardless of the maturity level of a nation’s economy. The program highlighted 125 speakers with 28 different sessions of energy regulatory topics.
Commissioner Clayton also serves as a general member of the NARUC Telecommunications Committee and is involved in various organizations charged with the regulation and monitoring of telephone utilities. Commissioner Clayton serves as Chairman of the Missouri Universal Service Board and is a state commission member of the FCC appointed North American Numbering Council. He is also a member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and the Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law Section of the American Bar Association.
Commissioner Clayton recently received the UMKC Law Foundation Decade Award for Achievement in his first ten years of work following law school. He also is a past recipient of the President’s Award from the Missouri Bar Association and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Commissioner Clayton also serves as a board member for the Mark Twain Home Foundation.
Clayton received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Southern Methodist University in 1991 and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1994.
Commissioner Clayton and his wife Erin have two daughters, Olivia and Paige.
Links of interest
Commissioners Clayton & Gaw Broadband Report