Public disappointed with deferment of CUC rate hearing

The public hearing of the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission was well-attended by members of the public yesterday, more than one year after it last held such a hearing. However, much to the some disappointment, Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s rate matters were removed as part of the session.

At the beginning of the hearing, hearing officer Harry Boertzel announced that rate matters will be deferred until the next session, which schedule is still undetermined.

“At a prehearing conference [on Wednesday] including Georgetown and CUC, CUC requested that all rate matters that would have been heard this morning will be postponed until the next regulatory session. After discussing that, good cause was shown for that, so today we’ll be limiting ourselves to three matters,” Boertzel said.

Three CUC rate matters were supposed to be discussed at the hearing—the Fuel Charge Reconciliation, the Fuel Adjustment Charge, and the FAC Electric Surcharge or the replacement of water and wastewater electric surcharge, which was Docket 15-03.

One member of the public aired his disappointed that rate matters will not be discussed.

“I’m really kind of disappointed here because I’m here to listen to what you guys sent out on the notice but you said earlier that you’re not going to talk about the rate. That was the reason I am here because you sent out a notice. Are we here for the public hearing for the rate? He said earlier that we’re not going to talk about the rate,” the resident said.

“I want to know, is this really a public hearing for the rate or are we being misled? He added.

Boertzel responded that the commission agreed to the deferment.

“It was our intent to hold a two-day public hearing on a number of rate matters. CUC requested [on Wednesday] that the hearing on those matters be deferred until the next regulatory session,” Boertzel said.

“There will be a hearing on the rate matters that interests you but it will not be until several months from now and you’ll get new notices for that,” he added.

Boertzel did not disclose the reason for CUC’s request—nor did the corporation or the commission offered any.

According to assistant attorney general Michael Witry, the public can request for the documents showing why there were changes to the hearing session.

“If members of the public are wondering about the process that led to today’s hearing changing from the rate hearing to this informal sort of briefing hearing, the documents that led up to that exchange between CUC and the commission are public records, they are available via a public records request to the commission. If you’re interested in finding it out, just write a letter saying I’d like to see these documents,” Witry said.

Not being misled

On separate interviews, CUC legal counsel James Sirok and CPUC chair Joe Guerrero declined to give reasons on the deferment.

“I’m not at liberty to say anything on that, sorry,” Sirok said, “We asked to defer it. It’s that simple.”

“We have the ability to request to defer, we requested and it was granted,” he added.

Boertzel said the commission has the power to postpone matters.

“The commission can, for good cause shown, postpone consideration of anything,” Boertzel said, explaining that “good cause” meant that reasons as to why or whether they need additional time, issues that need further development were evaluated.

Boertzel said there is “no injury to the public because it’s just a delay. It’s a matter of the commission’s discretion.”

According to Sirok, there was no issue of being misled.

“We’re still having the same hearing that we announced. We just took certain items off the thing and it’s not misleading,” Sirok said.

Prior to CUC’s request to defer rate matters on Wednesday, the CUC board just had a special board meeting on Tuesday to discuss in an executive session their “strategy” for the hearing on rate matters.

After the two-hour, closed-door meeting, the CUC board even made a motion to “continue on Docket 15-03” which is CUC’s application to eliminate the Water Electric Charge and Wastewater Electric Charge and to increase the electric rates, fees and/or charges.

Sirok said deciding to continue with “the same position with Docket 15-03” is a different matter with their request for deferment.
“It’s two different things,” Sirok said.

Notices

The same member of the public also raised question as to how notices were given out and disseminated.

“I heard you said that you informed the public that you disseminated information about when to have the meeting but to tell you frankly, I’m here today on just the mere fact of hearing people talk about it. I have an account here at CUC but I didn’t receive this [mail notice],” the resident said.

Per laws on public hearing, notices must be “advertised not less than once in each of three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the Commonwealth, the first publication being not more than twenty-one days before the scheduled hearing and the last publication being not less than two days before the scheduled hearing.”

Additionally, the entity—in this case CUC—“shall notify its customers of the proposed change in rates in the normal billing process not less than three weeks before the date set for the public hearing.”

Boertzel responded that notices were published and disseminated as per Commonwealth Law. He added that CPUC and CUC published the notices three times each.

It wasn’t clear however, if notices to customers were sent out by CUC on time as the commenter as well as other CUC ratepayers said they weren’t able to receive a notice.