Trierweiler Tapped as Public Counsel

Article reposted with permission from The News Service of Florida.

Walt Trierweiler, an attorney at the Florida Public Service Commission and retired Army lieutenant colonel, was chosen Thursday to serve as state public counsel. With no discussion, the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Counsel Oversight selected Trierweiler over two other candidates for the post, which represents consumers in utility issues. Trierweiler has served as an attorney at the Public Service Commission since 2016, including working on electric-utility rate cases, according to his resume. He retired from the Army in 2008 and worked as a lawyer in private practice and at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation before joining the Public Service Commission. The public counsel job opened in December, when Richard Gentry submitted his resignation. Gentry was appointed to the post in 2021. The public counsel is appointed for a four-year term, and Trierweiler will serve the remaining part of Gentry’s term, said Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who is alternating chairman of the joint legislative committee. The committee last week interviewed Trierweiler and attorneys Erik Sayler and Erik Seidel for the post. Sayler is an attorney at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and a former associate public counsel. Seidel is an assistant state attorney in Palm Beach County.