Oct. 30--JUNO BEACH -- The Fix-it Man is back, but this time former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth is working for Florida Power & Light Co.

On Thursday, for the first time, FPL officials admitted they mishandled the company's proposed $1.2 billion-a-year rate hike case. FPL hired Butterworth to advise the company in the case.

In December 2006, Gov. Charlie Crist named Butterworth to head the beleaguered Department of Children and Families, its fourth leader in six years, to fix the agency.

Butterworth, who served as attorney general for 16 years, acknowledged Thursday that he is known for bringing parties together, and that's what he plans to do here. He is concerned about the state, and FPL and such interveners as Publix, represented by the Florida Retail Federation, share those concerns.

"Let's keep Florida front and center," said Butterworth, 67. "I am not here to settle a case. I am not here to talk about a case."

The move is the latest in a rate case that became highly politicized when allegations of conflicts of interest began to surface in August, including secret BlackBerry messages exchanged by regulators and their staff and FPL.

A Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL Vice President Ed Tancer led to the resignation of Florida Public Service Commission lobbyist Ryder Rudd, who attended the event.

FPL officials said Butterworth will provide advice.

"Certainly there are some things we would like to have changed about the way in which we approached this case," the company said in a statement. "We recognize that we have not been sufficiently sensitive to perceptions no matter how sincerely we have felt that our proposal was positive and constructive for our customers and the state."

Butterworth, a four-term attorney general who left office in 2002, has been asked to meet with the interveners in the case and to provide his "unvarnished feedback," FPL said.

This week, the PSC decided to put off the vote on the rate hike until Jan. 13.

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