Committee Chair: Ron Green
Committee Member: Larry Versaw
The committee stays abreast of sewer issues in Cypress Ridge; reviews and comments on correspondence between the CPUC and Cypress Ridge Sewer Company which are primarily their requests for rate increases or reimbursements for expenses; interfaces with an attorney to represent CROA as necessary.
If you have any questions contact Ron Green
STATUS OF SEWER ISSUES AS OF JANUARY 21, 2014
This up-date does not include all the advice letters, protests, etc. that preceded the CPUC actions discussed below. It only includes the latest actions of the last few months which are really the CPUC’s response to the earlier actions. The CPUC did not act on any of the advice letters, etc. for well over a year.
The CPUC issued Resolution W-4946 (Attachment #1) on April 18, 2013 authorizing Cypress Ridge Sewer Company (Cypress) to recover $119,749 (plus interest) for excess labor over $120,000 in the years 2009 and 2010. This will be collected with a surcharge of $8.87 over thirty-six months (Attachment #2). CROA protested that it was illegal since Cypress had never established a memorandum account to track the expenses (Attachment #3). We also objected to some of the expenses, that the surcharge should be collected over 36 months, and that Cypress was not entitled to interest since they didn’t have to pay it to the ratepayers when Rural Water had to refund the over collections to CROA residents. Cypress had requested to be reimbursed $146,969 with a surcharge of $32.66 a month for twelve months. By protesting, CROA saved $27,220 and had the time period of the surcharge spread over thirty-six months versus the requested twelve. CROA has filed an application for a rehearing because of the absence of a memorandum account which is retroactive ratemaking. The Resolution required Cypress to file for a General Rate Case (GRC) by September 1, 2013.
STATUS OF SEWER ISSUES AS OF JANUARY 21, 2014
This up-date does not include all the advice letters, protests, etc. that preceded the CPUC actions discussed below. It only includes the latest actions of the last few months which are really the CPUC’s response to the earlier actions. The CPUC did not act on any of the advice letters, etc. for well over a year.
The CPUC issued Resolution W-4946 (Attachment #1) on April 18, 2013 authorizing Cypress Ridge Sewer Company (Cypress) to recover $119,749 (plus interest) for excess labor over $120,000 in the years 2009 and 2010. This will be collected with a surcharge of $8.87 over thirty-six months (Attachment #2). CROA protested that it was illegal since Cypress had never established a memorandum account to track the expenses (Attachment #3). We also objected to some of the expenses, that the surcharge should be collected over 36 months, and that Cypress was not entitled to interest since they didn’t have to pay it to the ratepayers when Rural Water had to refund the over collections to CROA residents. Cypress had requested to be reimbursed $146,969 with a surcharge of $32.66 a month for twelve months. By protesting, CROA saved $27,220 and had the time period of the surcharge spread over thirty-six months versus the requested twelve. CROA has filed an application for a rehearing because of the absence of a memorandum account which is retroactive ratemaking. The Resolution required Cypress to file for a General Rate Case (GRC) by September 1, 2013.
The CPUC issued Resolution W-4968 (Attachment #4) on December 5th, 2013 authorizing Cypress Ridge Sewer Company (Cypress) to recover $58,007 (plus interest) for excess labor over $120,000 in the years 2011 and 2012. This will be collected with a surcharge of $6.45 over twenty-four months (Attachment #5). CROA protested (Attachment #6) for the same reasons as our protest for the years 2009 and 2010 and applied for a rehearing based on legal error (Attachment #7).
Cypress requested in AL 18-SS for a 1.7% rate increase, $7,841 a year, for the 2012 CPI. This was effective June 1, 2013.
Cypress filed Al 20-SS (Attachment #8), on September 3, 2013, requesting a 17.11% rate increase, $83,305 a year or $18.51 monthly increase for each homeowner. This is Cypress’s GRC as required in Resolution W-4946. CROA filed a protest and a request for the GRC to be processed before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) (Attachment #9).
Cypress filed AL 21-SS on December 16, 2013. This is their O&M manual to comply with GO-103-A that was required to be submitted by Resolution W-4946.
The total costs (not including interest) of the outstanding issues are $177, 756 ($474 per customer) plus the requested $83,305 ($222 per customer) annual increase in rates.