A former Spire employee says the company instructed him to hide documents related to the company’s forthcoming rate increase request. He alleges leadership shared plans to destroy the documents so Missouri regulators wouldn’t find them.

The whistleblower emailed Missouri Public Service Commission chair Kayla Hahn and commission attorney Rodney Massman on Monday, Sept. 23, about his concerns.

“On December 12, 2023, I was in a Spire Regulatory Department meeting, where the Regulatory team was instructed how to hide documents (specifically so certain documents would not be discoverable by the PSC),” he wrote. “The department leadership stated that they would also destroy documents so they are not traceable.”

The documents allegedly contained information that Spire believed would hurt its forthcoming case for raising rates on Missouri natural gas customers. The whistleblower is also involved in a lawsuit against Spire for alleged workplace discrimination.

In accordance with commission rules, the email and Massman’s reply was added to Spire’s publicly accessible rate case docket Wednesday, Sept. 25. The exchange includes the whistleblower’s full name, email address and phone number, which The Star is not publishing to protect his privacy.

Spire spokesperson Jason Merrill denied the allegations in an emailed statement.

“No employees were instructed to destroy documents and Spire has all documents referenced by the former employee,” he wrote. “Spire conducted a thorough...

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