Topeka ? The state agency representing utility customers doesn’t want Westar Energy Inc.’s top executive anywhere near the company’s electric operations.

The Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board wants state regulators to encourage Westar to split its electric operations from its other business interests. CURB wants David Wittig, Westar’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, and his management team to remain with the nonelectric side, with no power over the electric operations.

But Walker Hendrix, CURB’s consumer counsel, acknowledged Thursday that for such a split to occur the Kansas Corporation Commission will need some cooperation from Westar.

The KCC is reviewing Westar’s finances and expected two weeks of hearings to end Thursday night. Much of the testimony has centered on Westar’s management under Wittig.

During testimony, a witness for CURB, Stephen Hill, a Hurricane, W.Va., consultant, proposed the removal of Wittig and his management team from Westar’s electric operations.

In an interview, Hendrix said CURB endorsed those views. He said CURB wanted to create a situation where Westar and others could talk “in a horse trading sense” to work out a “brokered settlement.”

“He was trying to come up with a practical resolution of the issues,” Hendrix said of Hill.

Hill told the commission: “If we can work out some kind of a deal with him to go on his merry way, we’d be a whole lot better off.”

Wittig said he and his team remain popular with shareholders. He noted that he and other executives serve at the pleasure of Westar’s board of directors, and three Westar directors were re-elected to the board in June with the approval of more than 95 percent of the shareholders voting.

“CURB’s proposal is little more than a publicity stunt designed to catch media attention,” he said in testimony filed with the KCC before hearings began.

CURB broached the idea of trying to make a deal with Westar because CURB doubts the KCC has the power to order a change in management, Hendrix said.