A senior official with the Public Utilities Commission accused of fostering a toxic workplace was let off the hook after an independent investigation concluded most claims against him were unsubstantiated. 

But the state agency announcing the findings provided few details about the case, saying only that five of 20 issues related to the allegations against the PUC’s chief of policy and research Randy Baldemor had been partially substantiated but were not “considered to be determinative of the overall claim or issue.”

Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Director Nadine Ando offered only vague references to the number of issues, although she said the investigation found that Baldemor and Commission Chair Leo Asuncion had not violated any DCCA or state policies and the agency “considers the matter closed.”

The Confidential Workplace Investigation Report was not made public, and the DCCA declined a request to provide more details about the findings to Civil Beat, saying in a written statement only that the independent consultant had completed a thorough two-month investigation.

Committee Chair Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who chairs the Senate’s Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, said his office has followed up with Ando and asked for the full report.

Even Doug Chin, whose law firm represented Baldemor during the investigation, has yet to see the full report. “We never got it,” he said in an interview.

Ando opened the investigation into allegations against Baldemor in response to a whistleblower complaint made public at a committee meeting led by Keohokalole on June 25.

Baldemor had assumed the helm of the PUC office, which helps commissioners make decisions about how to regulate industry, in January.

The anonymous whistleblower claimed Baldemor was hired despite having no experience with utility regulation, a highly complex and technical field. The complainant also claimed Baldemor wastes time and resources by convening irrelevant meetings that run hours late, and that during these meetings he “degrades and bullies” his staff.

“He is obsessed with micromanaging minutia,” the complaint said, “yet unable to provide effective leadership when it comes to substantive technical and policy matters.”

Ando’s letter, addressed to Keohokalole, said an independent consultant hired by DCCA to do the investigation had looked at 20 issues based on the allegations made in the letter.

“A significant majority of the issues were found to be unsubstantiated,” the letter says, without identifying any of them. “In the case of the few issues that were found to be substantiated in part (there were only 5) the partial facts substantiated were not considered to be determinative of the overall claim or issue.”

The Public Utilities Commission is a powerful organization, tasked with making sure private utilities like Hawaiian Electric Co. charge fair and affordable rates for their services and that they remain reliable and safe.

The complainant warned that if nothing changes, the alleged behavior could trigger a mass exodus of crucial staff and threaten the state’s ability to regulate these services and advance its renewable energy goals.

Baldemor started his role with the commission in January after the slot sat empty for about a year. Several other more qualified candidates applied for the role during that time, the anonymous letter claimed. 

The whistleblower letter also alleged that Commission Chair Leo Asuncion announced Baldemor’s hiring at the PUC’s annual holiday party in December 2024 and said that he and Baldemor socialize with HECO executives at barbecues. 

Asuncion denied the claim when asked about it by Keohokalole at the June committee hearing. He said he has not been to the home of an employee or executive of a regulated utility, nor has he attended functions hosted by executives or employees of HECO or other regulated utilities while chair of the PUC.

Ando’s letter said it was found that Asuncion, Baldemor and an unnamed PUC Personnel officer who oversaw the process related to Baldemor’s hiring “had not violated any DCCA or state policies.”

Baldemor couldn’t be reached for comment on the case, but asked Chin to forward a statement about the findings. Chin said the delay in publicizing the Sept. 11 letter from Ando was to give the PUC time to inform its employees that the investigation was completed.

Prior to working at the Public Utilities Commission, Baldemor held a leadership job at Roberts Hawaii and at a variety of state government offices, including the Department of Taxation, the Department of Human Resources, the Office of Information Management and Technology and the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. 

He left HTA shortly after the State Ethics Commission found he likely violated ethics laws by soliciting, accepting and failing to report free travel upgrades from airlines and a hotel. The ethics commission noted the practice had predated him at HTA, which sometimes awards contracts to airlines.

Asked about employee morale, PUC executive director Jodi Endo Chai told Civil Beat in an email that the organization’s most recent regular employee engagement survey, from May 2025, shows employee satisfaction trending up, “driven largely by movement from ‘Good’ to ‘Great!’ ratings.”

An executive summary of the survey, conducted by Anthology Research, confirmed that, but also said the percentage of respondents who feel proud to work at the PUC decreased from 53% in July 2024 to 46% in May 2025. 

Read the DCCA’s letter below: