20130318Volume II.pdf

ORIGINAL
BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF AVISTA CORPORATION DBA AVISTA ) CASE NO. AVU -E -12 -08
UTILITIES FOR AUTHORITY TO ) CASE NO. AVU-G-12 -07
INCREASE ITS RATES AND CHARGES FOR ) c
ELECTRIC AND NATURAL GAS SERVICE )
IN IDAHO ) 1• . ;;J
rn m
o c rn
BEFORE
COMMISSIONER PAUL KJELLANDER (Presiding)
COMMISSIONER MARSHA SMITH
COMMISSIONER MACK REDFORD
PLACE North Idaho College
Student Union Building
1000 West Garden Avenue
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
DATE: March 5, 2013
VOLUME II - Pages 4 - 21
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CSB REPORTING
Constance S. Bucy, CSR No. 187
23876 Applewood Way * Wilder, Idaho 83676
[phone]
Email csbheritagewifi.com
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APPEARANCES
For the Staff: Karl Klein, Esq.
Deputy Attorney General
472 West Washington Street
Boise, Idaho 83720-0074
For Avista Corporation: David J. Meyer, Esq.
Vice President & Chief Counsel
Avista Corporation
Post Office Box 3727
Spokane Washington 99220
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CSB REPORTING
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APPEARANCES
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1 IN DEX
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3 WITNESS EXAMINATION BY PAGE
4 Larry Easterly Statement 6
(Public)
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Evalyn Adams Statement 9
6 (Public) Commissioner Smith 18
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CSB REPORTING
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Lu COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO, TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013, 7:00 P. M.
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4 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Well, good

5 evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Paul
6 Kjellander. Can you hear me okay without the microphone?
7 THE AUDIENCE: Yes.

8 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay, let's just

9 stay away from that. My name is Paul Kjellander. I'm

10 the Chairman of tonight's proceedings. To my right is

11 Commissioner Mack Redford, and to my left is Commissioner

12 Marsha Smith. The public hearing we're here for this

13 evening is in the case of AVU-E-12-08 and AVU-G-12-07.

14 It's also known as in the matter of the application of
15 Avista Corporation dba Avista Utilities for authority to

16 increase its rates and charges for electric and natural

17 gas service in Idaho.

18 The case was filed in October and then

19 settlement conferences occurred on January 17th and 24th,

20 and the stipulation by all parties in that settlement has
21 been entered and there will be a hearing on that on

22 Thursday this week in Boise.

23 The purpose of our hearing tonight is to

24 take testimony from members of the public, and before we

25 get started with that, let's begin with the appearances
CSB REPORTING 4 COLLOQUY
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on of the parties, and we'll begin with the Attorney
PA General's Office.

3 MR. KLEIN: Karl Klein, Attorney General's

4 Office, for the Commission Staff.

5 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And for

6 Avista.

7 MR. MEYER: Thank you. David Meyer for

8 Avista.

9 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Are there any

10 other parties to the case that are here this evening?

11 Okay, here's how it will work this evening. What we will

12 do is we'll call your name and you can just step up to

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13 the podium. You'll be sworn in by Commissioner Smith.

14 She'll ask you to raise your right hand. You'll be sworn

15 in. Then we'll take your comments that you'd like to

16 offer us. We have a court reporter who will be

17 transcribing those. That's for the purpose of developing

18 the official record, and then once you've completed with

19 your statement, we'll allow for questions from the

20 attorneys.

21 As you do come up, though, first we'll

22 have the attorney from the Attorney General's Office ask

23 you a couple of quick questions to get you into the

24 record officially, so it should be pretty easygoing. We

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25 have a few people here tonight, so why don't we just
CSB REPORTING 5 COLLOQUY
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1 start with the list and we have Larry Easterly.
2 MR. EASTERLY: Am I the only one?

3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: We also have
4 Evelyn Adams.

5 MR. EASTERLY: Okay, I live in Post

6 Falls --

7 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Easterly,

8 why don't we get you sworn in first.
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10 LARRY EASTERLY,

11 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly

12 sworn, testified as follows:
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13

14 EXAMINATION
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16 BY MR. KLEIN:

17 Q Mr. Easterly, hi, I'm Karl Klein, the

18 attorney for the Commission Staff. Could you please

19 state your full name and spell your last name for the

20 record, please?

21 A Larry W. Easterly.

22 Q And could you please let us know your
23 mailing address?

24 A E-a-s-t-e-r--l-y, 309 East 13th in Post

25 Falls, 83854.
CSB REPORTING EASTERLY
[phone] Public
1 Q Are you a customer of Avista?
2 A Yes.

3 Q Do you have a statement you'd like to
4 make?

5 A I would like to ask the Commission not to

6 allow the increase in the natural gas and the electric,

7 and I feel it shouldn't be that way because Avista is a
8 monopoly and we don't have any other choices. Now, when

9 the gas companies around everywhere raise their gas, we

10 have a choice to go somewhere else which happens, but
11 with Avista, we don't have a choice, and then when they

12 published the salaries of the higher-ups, the executives
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13 making 2 or 3 million dollars a year and the executive

14 secretary making a million, this is all their package, it

15 still comes off the back of the ratepayers, and I feel

16 it's taking advantage.

17 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you, Mr.

18 Easterly. Why don't we see if there are any questions.
19 Any questions from Avista?

20 MR. MEYER: \lo questions. Thank you.

21 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Any questions

22 from the Commission?

23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: No.

24 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: No.
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25 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: We certainly
CSB REPORTING 7 EASTERLY
[phone] Public
S 1 appreciate your testimony this evening.
2 (The witness left the stand.)

3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Now we'd like to
4 call Evalyn Adams.
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6 EVALYN ADAMS,

7 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly

8 sworn, testified as follows:
9

10 EXAMINATION
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12 BY MR. KLEIN:

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Q Ms. Adams, will you please state your full

14 name and spell your last name for the record?

15 A Evalyn R. Adams and it's A-d-a-m-s.

1 6 Q What's your mailing address?

17 A I have a P.O. box, but I don't remember.

18 It's 1873 Silver Beach Road in Coeur d'Alene.

19 Q Are you a customer of Avista?

20 A Yes.

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Q And go ahead and make your statement.

22 A Thank you. First of all, I'd like to

23 thank the Commissioners for giving the people the

24 opportunity to come and express how they feel about this

25 proposed rate increase. It's not an easy job to do and
CSB REPORTING ADAMS
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1 I'm disappointed there aren't more people here. The

2 reason that I came is because I've worked closely with

3 seniors over the years and that's one of the populations

4 that I'm very, very concerned about with this proposed

5 rate increase.

6 I'm retired and have been for quite a few

7 years now. I first got active working with seniors when

8 I was a Kootenai County commissioner, and I volunteered
9 to be the advocate for seniors and help in any way that I

10 could by serving on boards, attending meetings, and

11 trying to get grants to improve facilities, and to help

12 in any way that I could.
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13 Since I've been retired and volunteering

14 in various capacities, one of my main concerns has been
iu;i seniors and I've helped to raise money for Lake City

16 Senior Center, coordinated a scholarship for a few years

17 and called it SOS, save our seniors. That particular

18 center is having a very, very difficult time just
19 providing the meals for the seniors that come in and

20 especially the Meals on Wheels, and I didn't take time to

21 dig through records and get numbers, but I do know that

22 there are several thousands of meals that are served

23 every month that would be difficult if these centers

24 cannot continue, and I just looked at the newspapers this

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25 last week. I noticed your advertisement for the hearing
CSB REPORTING ADAMS
[phone] Public

S 1 and every time I read something, I thought wow, if this
2 rate increase is approved, it's really going to hurt and

3 it's going to hurt a lot of people, but one of the ones
4 that it's going to hurt, and this was from -- well, this

5 is from today's paper because it talks about No. 1

6 Gonzaga in the nation.

7 Well, you know we can't be very proud of

8 how our seniors fare as far as compared to other similar

9 agencies or programs, because with the sequestered
10 program that the federal government has, I don't know if

11 I want to say wisely because I don't think that the way

12 they did it is wise at all, but it's going to impact so

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13 many, and this was the sub headline in today's paper,
'U Senior Agencies Brace for Cuts. These senior agencies
15 provide the dollars and cook the Meals for Wheels that

16 are delivered to these homebound, vulnerable, frail,

17 fragile seniors in our community.

18 These are seniors that want to stay in
19 their homes and one of the only reasons they can stay in

20 their homes is because they can get some good nutrition
21 that volunteers deliver to them. Some can afford to pay

22 a little bit towards that. Many of them cannot, and

23 believe me, if it wasn't for these meals that were

24 delivered, many of these seniors would not remain healthy

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25 enough to stay in their homes.
CSB REPORTING 10 ADAMS
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and other agencies, nursing homes, and many of them ended
up there because they had -- they did not have enough
care. They did not have enough food, and so the safety
net to keep seniors in their homes is really critically
important, not only for them that they can be recognized
as wonderful human beings and treated with dignity, but
because if they end up in those care facilities and if
they don't have the funds to support them, the state
comes in with Medicaid which is then reduced, too, but in
the meantime, it's critically important that these
seniors are helped.
It won't help them if their electric and
their gas rates are increased. You know, I think the
figures in the paper said that the proposal starts on
April 1st with just mainly an increase in the gas, and
then the electric would come on later on in October, and
so, golly, I guess it will just be starting October 1
maybe a $3.13 per month increase for electricity and --
or gas rather and then $2.00 per month for the electric.
Now, I have a house that has both electric
and gas, and I think that many of our seniors -- I mean,
this doesn't sound like much, but can we ever just say
no? Can we say no, let's just not do the increase this
CSB REPORTING 11 ADAMS
[phone] Public
is year because of all the uncertainties over the

2 sequestered programs and the cuts and what will not be

3 known. Can we just say we think Avista can survive, when

4 I'm saying I'm not sure that some of our vulnerable
5 people will be able to survive if rates just keep going

6 up, up, up.

7 Mr. Easterly said something about well,

8 the gas, you know, we can go other places. Well, the

9 average gas per gallon now is 3.25. Many seniors,

10 especially those frail and vulnerable, can't afford to

11 drive a car. They can't afford the gas, but some of our

12 other working force have to pay that so that they can

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13 drive to work, and I just think that any increase at all

14 is going to hurt. This total of $5.00 a month would buy

15 some food. Many seniors now skip their prescription
16 medicines in order to eat, in order to buy food, and it

17 sounds like so little, but I'm a senior and Ilooked at
18 my comfort level billing in 2007 -- you get that so that
19 you can average in the winter and in the summer and it
20 helps you to have payments that are more easily managed

21 in those high use seasons, like the winter. In 2007, my

22 comfort level was $111 every month for the year. In

23 2010, it was 142, and three years later it was 184.

24 You know, they got the little increases or

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25 maybe not quite so much, but holy smoke, in just five or
CSB REPORTING 12 ADAMS
[phone] Public
1 six years I've gone from 111 to 184, and I think they did
2 look at it and say, well, gee, Mrs. Adams, I think we

3 charged you a little too much, so we'll probably reduce
4 that a little bit next year, but still, if someone

5 doesn't say no, no more, at least for a while, how are we
6 ever going to prevent these sorts of increases from 111

7 to $184 in five, six years? That's a lot. That's a lot

8 for anyone.

9 Anyway, we had a lot of headlines this
10 week that I thought were applicable. One of them was

11 about the food banks, need for donations continue to

12 grow, and these are for people that aren't only seniors,

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13 but for the working force or for families that can't

14 afford to buy food, and there's been a study done in

15 Idaho and 15 percent of the Idaho homes don't have enough

16 funds for food that's needed in 2012.

17 Idaho had the distinction of ranking 39th

18 out of all the states for the percentage of people

19 that --- they call it the hunger factor, I think, those
20 that can least afford to buy food and those that needed

21 to use the food banks. The Community Action Partnership

22 in Coeur d'Alene saw an increase of 126 households last

23 year. They currently serve over 1,800 individuals. Post

24 Falls saw a 24 percent increase in households seeking
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25 assistance, and this is for people of all ages because
CSB REPORTING 13 ADAMS
[phone] Public

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1 all ages get hungry. The seniors are the ones I'm most
2 concerned about, but I certainly am concerned about

3 others, too.
4 Now, maybe some of you are aware that the

5 legislature tried to do something with the school funding

6 and we're having school elections really soon on levies
7 to bring in additional income to the schools, and here's
8 an article that was written by one of the board members.

9 This was in the paper March 1st, and it says, in years

10 past, the levies represented an enhancement by local
11 voters to public education for our children. Beginning

12 in 2011 when Idaho drastically reduced its support of
13 education, that changed, and the levy is not supplemental

14 anymore, it's essential, and you know who's probably

15 going to go out and vote to support it are these seniors

16 that I'm so concerned about, and not only did they need a

17 levy here, but this is February 28th, all these are

18 within a week, Kootenai school which is out in the other
19 part of the county, they're going to have to vote for a

20 levy for essential services. I mean, the Coeur d'Alene

21 School District is still going to be $3 million short

22 even if this levy passes, so I'm saying that our people,

23 our seniors, our average families, people are getting hit

24 from every area almost with increased funds or increased

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25 costs.
CSB REPORTING 14 ADAMS
[phone] Public

1 Sometimes they'll go to pay because they
2 realize, for example, in education -- my first career was
3 as a teacher and I know how important that is and I vote
EAN for those levies, but golly, how much can you keep saying

5 yes to before you don't have enough for the food or the
6 prescriptions, and I'm not talking about me now because

7 I'm doing okay, but I came to speak for some of these

8 people that for one reason or another didn't show up

9 tonight. I've talked about the seniors and how
10 vulnerable they are and how critical it is they get good

11 nutrition, and I talk about the seniors that if they have

12 increased power bills aren't going to be able to buy the
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13 food or the prescription, and I know that it seems like

14 such a small amount, but probably these increased

15 requests that you gave or approved in 2007 and 2010 seem

16 like just a small amount, but here it goes from ill a

17 month to this comfort level to 184. It's not very

18 comfortable, you know, to pay that every single month
19 when I'm on a retired minimum income.

20 Now, I don't know if you have a time

21 limit, I don't see a bunch of other people that want to

22 testify, if you could allow me to say a couple more

23 things.

24 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Go ahead.
.

25 THE WITNESS: Okay, another headline this
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week, let's see, this is February 28th, Thursday, so it
was last Thursday, Idaho has another distinction of being
at the bottom of the minimum, we're talking now minimum
wage, and they report that 7.7 of Idahoans make less or
are on hourly wages of the minimum and sometimes less.
Idaho was number one in the nation for the percentage of
hourly workers who made the state's minimum of $7.25 an
hour or less in 2012, so we've got the vulnerable seniors
that my heart really goes out to, but then we have these
working poor, and in our county, in our area, we are
blessed with wonderful resort facilities and amenities,
but the jobs that they provide are mostly service jobs
and they're paying at this lower level.
We have wonderful people in the community
and county and area that are trying to bring in higher
paying jobs through other industries and I certainly
applaud those efforts, but the facts are that we are at
the bottom nationally of minimum wage, and I guess that
just -- those are just headlines within one week of Coeur
d'Alene that I think one way or another would be impacted
by any rate increase, and I applaud whoever sat down and
negotiated a more reasonable request that I guess you
still have hearings pending on, because originally, I
guess Avista wanted a 7.2 percent increase in natural gas
and now you're talking about 4.9, and they originally
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wanted a 4.6 percent increase in electricity and now
they're talking about 1.9, so on behalf of our vulnerable
seniors, our working poor and for those many people that
can't afford to pay much more, you know, we've got
inflation. They say it's pretty low, but they don't
include food in those inflation figures and I don't know
if you guys ever go shopping for food or not, but I
certainly do and I'm going to tell you that it's very
difficult to live on a pretty tight budget with the food
increases the way they have gone the last few years.
We already talked about gas, how it's gone
up so much and so I guess that based upon all these other
people that are having a very, very difficult time, I
would just say Avista, we thank you for all of your
wonderful power and for everything you do that is so good
for our communities, but we just would like to say no
thank you this time. No thank you to an increase because
it's just more than a lot of people can face.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Let's see if we
have any follow-up questions from Avista.
MR. MEYER: No. Thank you for your
testimony.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And Commissioner
Smith.
COMMISSIONER SMITH: I do, if you don't
CSB REPORTING 17 ADAMS
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1 mind.
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3 EXAMINATION
4

5 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:

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Q I was interested in the increase in your

7 comfort level billing. Do you heat your home with

8 electricity?

9 A Yes. I have a heat pump system which is

10 supposed to be quite economical.

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Q And when they did the analysis of your

12 comfort level billing and how it's increased, did you

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13 look to see if your usage had remained constant or had

14 that increased, also?

15 A Actually, I think, you know, it's just me

16 and I have a little dog, but it's been pretty constant,

17 you know, over the last few years.

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Q And have you taken any measures with
19 regard to making your home more energy efficient? Has
20 anyone ever spoken to you about measures you can take to

21 try and save on these bills?

22 A Well, I've thought about it. I can't

23 afford a new furnace system.

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Q Well, sometimes we can do things that are

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25 way short of a new furnace.
CSB REPORTING 18 EASTERLY (Corn)
[phone] Public
C 1 A I do have a couple windows that need to be
2 replaced.
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Q Tighten it up.
4 A Yeah.
5 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
6 THE WITNESS: You're welcome.
7 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: I have no
8 questions.
9 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you for
10 your testimony.
11 THE WITNESS: Well, and thank you for
12 listening.
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13 (The witness left the stand.)
14 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Is there anyone
15 else here to testify? If not, then I want to thank those
16 of you who did show up this evening to testify. We
17 appreciate your comments. Those will now become part of
18 the official record and we will be using those as we
19 continue our review of this case and then ultimately as
20 we end up in our deliberation. We will adjourn this
21 meeting this evening and reconvene on March 7th, which is
22 Thursday, for our technical hearing. That will be in
23 Boise, and then it's our intent to shortly thereafter
24 that hearing to deliberate and come to a final resolution
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25 on the case before us today, so with there being no
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1 further business before us this evening, we are
2 adjourned.
3 (The Hearing adjourned at 7:26 p.m.)
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CSB REPORTING COLLOQUY
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AUTHENTICATION
This is to certify that the foregoing
proceedings held in the matter of the application of
Avista Corporation dba Avista Utilities for authority to
increase its rates and charges for electric and natural
gas service in Idaho, commencing at 7:00 p.m., on
Tuesday, March 5, 2013, at the Driftwood Bay Room, North
Idaho College Student Union Building, 1000 West Garden
Avenue, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is a true and correct
transcript of said proceedings and the original thereof
for the file of the Commission.
CONSTANCE S. BUCY
Certified Shorthand Reporte # 87
. .........
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CSB REPORTING 21 AUTHENTICATION
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