Public Counsel; employees; receipt of pleadings.

The committee may authorize the Public Counsel to employ clerical and technical assistants whose qualifications, duties, and responsibilities the committee shall from time to time prescribe. The committee may from time to time authorize retention of the services of additional attorneys or experts to the extent that the best interests of the people of the state will be better served thereby, including the retention of expert witnesses and other technical personnel for participation in contested proceedings before the commission. The commission shall furnish the Public Counsel with copies of the initial pleadings in all proceedings before the commission, and if the Public Counsel intervenes as a party in any proceeding he or she shall be served with copies of all subsequent pleadings, exhibits, and prepared testimony, if used. Upon filing notice of intervention, the Public Counsel shall serve all interested parties with copies of such notice and all of his or her subsequent pleadings and exhibits.