20121001Idaho Falls Hearing.pdf

ORIGINAL
BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF COUNTRY CLUB HILLS UTILITIES, ) CASE NO. CCH-W-12-01
INC. FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS
RATES AND CHARGES FOR WATER
SERVICE ) -
rn -
C)
rn
BEFORE
COMMISSIONER PAUL KJELLANDER (Presiding); ci,
'O
PLACE: Skyline Activity Center
1575 North Skyline
Idaho Falls, Idaho
DATE: September 25, 2012
VOLUME I - Pages 1 - 27
CSB REPORTING
Constance S. Bucy, CSR No. 187
23876 Applewood Way * Wilder, Idaho 83676
[phone]
Email csbheritagewifi.com
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APPEARANCES
For Country Club Hills
Utilities:
Jeff Freiberg
570 South Yellowstone Avenue
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402
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CSB REPORTING
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APPEARANCES
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INDEX
EXAMINATION BY PAGE
Statement 3
Commissioner Kjellander 8
Statement 9
Commissioner Kjellander 14
Statement 16
Commissioner Kjellander 20
WITNESS
Jeff Armstrong
(Public)
J.R. Hayes
(Public)
Randy Kern
(Public)
Jeff Armstrong
(Public)
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CSB REPORTING
[phone]
INDEX
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1 IDAHO FALLS, IDAHO, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012, 7:00 P. M.
PA
3
4 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Well, good

5 evening. It's 7:00 o'clock and this is the time and

6 place for a public hearing in Case No. CCH-W-12-01, also

7 referred to as in the matter of the application of

8 Country Club Hills Utilities, Inc. for authority to

9 increase its rates and charges for water service.

10 My name is Paul Kjellander. I'm a
Commissioner with the Public Utilities Commission, and

12 tonight our intent is to get your comments as customers

.

13 into the record so that we can develop a full record in

14 this case in which all three Commissioners will review

15 the testimony that's been filed by Staff, by the Company
16 and your public comments and ultimately deliberate and

17 render a final decision in this specific case.

18 How this will work is I will call your

19 name and if you could just come up to this chair right

20 here and these gentlemen have promised to be very kind

21 along the way, and what I'll do is I'll have you raise

22 your right hand. I'll get you sworn in. I'll ask you a

23 couple of very quick questions. It will be your name and

24 your address and if you're a customer of the Company, and

.

25 then I'll ask you to go ahead and provide your statement
CSB REPORTING 1 COLLOQUY
[phone]

S 1 for the record.

2 Connie is a transcriptionist who is going

3 to put together the official transcript for this and

4 unless you talk too fast, you probably won't hear

5 anything from Connie. If you do hear anything from

6 Connie, it will probably be to slow down a little bit.

7 She's coming off of a broken arm, wrist, and so we might

8 cut her some slack tonight.

9 With that said, then, let's begin with the

10 appearances of the parties. Is there anyone here from

11 the Public Utilities Commission that needs to be

12 recognized? Chris, why don't we just recognize you for

S
13 kicks and giggles.

14 MR. HECK: Chris Heck. I'm the utilities

15 compliance investigator for this case.

16 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay, great, and

17 is there anyone from the water company?

18 MR. FREIBERG: Jeff Freiberg, Country Club

19 Hills Utilities.

20 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Jeff Reiber?

21 MR. FREIBERG: Freiberg, F-r-e-i-b--e-r-g.

22 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: If you have any

23 questions that you want to ask of either the Company or

24 the Public Utilities Commission in reference to any of

25 the comments that have been filed, when we take a break
CSB REPORTING COLLOQUY
[phone]
S 1 or after the meeting, those would be the people that you
2 could ask some questions of. Again, the intent tonight

3 is for us to get your comments on the official record,

4 and so as we move forward, let's call our first witness,

5 Jeff Armstrong, and, Jeff, if you could just come on up

6 here.

7 THE WITNESS: Yeah, my name is Jeff

8 Armstrong and I --

9 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Jeff, if you

10 could wait just a second.
11

12 JEFF ARMSTRONG,
C
13 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly

14 sworn, testified as follows:
15

16 EXAMINATION
17

18 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:

19 Q Mr. Armstrong, could you give us your full

20 name and spelling?

21 A Arthur Jeffrey Armstrong.

22 Q And your address?

23 A 2155 East Olympic Avenue, Idaho Falls,

24 tIZAI

25 Q And Mr. Armstrong, are you a customer
CSB REPORTING 3 ARMSTRONG
[phone] Public
1 of
2 A Customer.

3 Q Yes?
4 A Customer.

5 Q Yes, thank you, good. Your comments,

6 please?

7 A I guess my first comment is really more of

8 a question. Does the Public Utilities Commission only

9 deal with rate changes?

10 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Actually, this

11 isn't an opportunity to ask those questions of the

12 Commission, so why we go off the record for just a

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13 minute.

14 (Off the record discussion.)

15 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: We'll go back on

16 the record and why don't we see if we can get your

17 comments.

18 THE WITNESS: Well, I did write some

19 comments earlier, several months ago, on your website,

20 and as far as the increase in the rate, I'm probably in

21 the minority. I don't really have a problem because I

22 know they haven't had a rate increase since 2005. It may

23 be a little bit steep in the lower end. I'm more

24 concerned about the fact that you don't get to the 32

.

25 percent until you get -- I think it's somewhere on the
CSB REPORTING ARMSTRONG
[phone] Public
[1 1 order of around 180,000 gallons per month. Anything
2 below that is higher than 32 percent and I just -- I

3 don't know how many high water users there are. There

4 probably aren't that many, but there may be a few.

5 There is one commercial user up there, the

6 country club, and then there's a couple of other

7 customers that use a large amount of water, but my

8 feeling is that the rates should be structured so that

9 the high water users should pay incrementally more, and I

10 think that's a better idea from the point of view of

11 water conservation, because there are some customers up

12 there that seem to waste a lot of water.
.

13 My second comment is that sometimes

14 there's problems with pressure, particularly in the upper

15 part. Now, I don't live high, I live low, so I never
16 have a problem with pressure, but I do know there are

17 people that do, and I think the reason why is because

18 there's a relatively antiquated system concerning the

19 pumps. They have to be manually adjusted, so if the

20 water use goes up and the pumps aren't providing the

21 necessary amount of water, then the only way that they

22 can provide the necessary amount of water is somebody has

23 to go out and actually change the water rate at the

24 pumps. n
25 We've been told for years that there's a
CSB REPORTING 5 ARMSTRONG
[phone] Public
1 computer system out there that could be installed that
2 would allow the utility owner to adjust the pumps and

3 allow the pumps to talk to one another, such that when
ri there's high water use the pumps will increase their

5 rates and you won't have low pressure up on the hill, and

6 it would be nice, particularly if you're going to

7 increase the rates, if he could begin to do things like

8 this.

9 In addition, sometimes pumps go down and,

10 generally speaking, when pumps go down, it seems as if

11 the utility expects people to know this and they don't,

12 and people continue to water. It usually happens in the

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13 summertime and then the system runs out of water and
14 maybe for two or three days people don't have any water

15 or have very low water. He needs to install some sort of

16 system, whether it's a call system or an email system or

17 something, where he can contact his customers when

18 there's problems so they know what's going on.

19 I know that Fall Water has a system like

20 that and it seems reasonable that he could at least have

21 an email address. If he were able to do that, I think
22 particularly when there are pumps going down, then people
23 would stop watering and the system would be -- the people

24 would then at least have water for in-house use.

25 I think the other concern that many
CSB REPORTING ARMSTRONG
[phone] Public
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1 customers have up there is the fact that the owner of the
2 utility is very old and nobody really quite understands
3 exactly what the transition is going to be when that time
4 comes that either he can no longer run it for whatever
5 reason and we've even been told that he could just walk
6 away if he wanted to, and I think many people up there
7 would be -- are very curious about how this transition
8 works.
9 Now, we know that in the past, Presidio
10 did buy that utility and for whatever reason they ended
11 up giving it back to Mr. Groth, Mike Groth, and I think a
12 lot of people up there are somewhat worried about the
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13 future of that utility, and it would be nice to know from
14 the Public Utilities Commission what sort of -- how they
15 deal with these issues, because we know there's other
16 private utilities around and they must have some sort of
17 a guideline in dealing with these issues.
18 Now, maybe that's something that we're
19 never going to be told, I don't know, but I know there's
20 a lot of people up there that are always questioning
21 what's going to happen in the future. That's it for me.
22 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay, thank you,
23 Mr. Armstrong. I've got just a couple of questions that
24 will hopefully help me understand a little better of the
25 situation you're in.
CSB REPORTING 7 ARMSTRONG
[phone]
Public
S 1 EXAMINATION
PA
3 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:
4 Q How big -- when you talked about

5 irrigation, how big are the lots that you're watering?

6 A Most of the lots up there are less than a

7 half an acre.

8 Q Less than half an acre?

9 A They're like a third of an acre.

10 Q Third of an acre?

11 A There are a few bigger lots. There are

12 some people that own two lots and they keep one lot in

13 grass; in other words, there's no structure on it and so

14 they end up doing quite a bit of watering.

15 Q Okay, and I don't know if you're aware and

16 you probably aren't because the comments weren't

17 submitted by Staff until September 17th, if you get a

18 chance and go to our website and look up this case, Staff

19 filed some comments on September 17th, and if you'd look

20 at some of the things they addressed, we'll leave a
21 written comment window open after we conclude tonight,

22 and if there's some other things that come to mind after

23 you see that, please feel free to submit some comments

24 again if you would like and we'd appreciate that.
.

25 A Okay.
CSB REPORTING ARMSTRONG (Corn)
[phone] Public
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1 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And thank you.

2 THE WITNESS: All right, thank you.

3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: And I think your

4 questions that you raised in reference to what happens

5 going forward, Chris might be able to provide some

6 thoughts and ideas on that as well.

7 THE WITNESS: That would be great.

8 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: You bet.

9 (The witness left the stand.)

10 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Next we have

11 J. R. Hayes.
12
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13 J. R. HAYES,
NXII appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,

15 was examined and testified as follows:
16

17 EXAMINATION
18
19 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:

20 Mr. Hayes, if I could get you to say your

21 full name and spell it. That's also a reminder for me to

22 turn off my phone, so thank God it wasn't me, and I'll

23 also ask others if they could just turn off the ringer on

24 their phone as well, so Mr. Hayes, I'm sorry to interrupt

25 you, but if I could have you state your name and spell it
CSB REPORTING HAYES
(2 08) 8 90-5 198 Public

S in for the record.

2 A Okay, my full name is J., initial J.,

3 Rodney, R-o-d-n-e-y, H-a-y-e-s, Hayes.

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Q And your address?

5 A We live at 11366 South Bellerive Drive,

6 Idaho Falls, 83404.

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Q And are you a customer?

8 A We are, yes.

9
Q Okay, if you could provide us your

10 comments.

11 A I wrote a letter, which you probably have

12 on file, stating some of my concerns. I know that anyone

.

13 who has a lot is going to use 30,000 gallons of water in

14 the summertime, at least, and most of us use more than
15 that, and I probably am affected more by these changes

16 than anybody because besides my own residence out there,

17 I have 11 apartments and about four-and-a-half acres of

18 grass and so this will impact me as much as anyone.

19 I know that we were informed at the

20 information meeting when we met here a month or so ago

21 that you would be fair relative to this and we're

22 expecting you to do that, and if Mike needs an increase,

23 I think he should have one. I really think the increase

24 should be based on a real percentage rather than this
.

25 floating idea that we've got. I've been through the
CSB REPORTING 10 HAYES

[phone] Public

1 figures and if we use 30,000 gallons, our rates would
2 more than double under the proposal that he's got.

3 What I would rather see happen, I would

4 rather see him get a base rate percentage increase of a

5 given percentage, whatever is fair, and that would be

6 your determination. I hope you haven't made up your

7 minds yet.

8 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Continue.

9 THE WITNESS: Have you?

10 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Continue. Off

11 the record real quick.

12 (Off the rec rd discussion.)

13 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: If we can go

14 back on the record now.

15 THE WITNESS: What I would rather see

16 happen is to have a base rate increase, you know, so that

17 everyone pays and he would be entitled to that percentage

18 year round, keeping it at that percentage during the
19 winter when the usage is down and get it during the

20 summer when the usage is high, but we wouldn't be

21 penalized. The way his proposal outlines is that he

22 would drop the base number of gallons from 30,000, which

23 is current, to 15,000 which is half as much and raise the

24 rate, and the rate of increase that he suggested was more

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25 than the amount that was listed, and I think he said 38
CSB REPORTING 11 HAYES
[phone] Public

.

1 percent, but I couldn't find the place where it would be
99 38 percent, unless like Jeff said, that you get to an

3 astronomical use and then it would be 38 percent.

4 I would rather see him get an increase --

5 let's say he gets 20 percent and have it be on the base

6 rate and leave the gallons the same so that everybody

7 doesn't get dinged so hard. Then if you've got people
8 who are abusing the system and we do have people out

9 there, I live up on the hill and I have struggled with

10 some of the issues that Jeff mentioned, there were times

11 that in order to take a shower at our house, you about
12 had to get the floor wet and jump up and down because the

C]
13 pressure was really poor because we do live near the top

14 of the service.

15 This summer has been better, it's been

16 better. Last summer it was pretty paltry at times. I

17 haven't had a big concern this summer, all summer. I

18 really feel like that would be a better way to address

19 it, then he would know exactly what his increase would be

20 and I would assume that you will look at his needs and we

21 can't expect him to do this for nothing. None of us

22 would do it for nothing and I don't think we can expect

23 Mr. Groth to do it for nothing, so I think whatever

24 increase is fair, it ought to be on the base rate and
25 maybe make those who are using astronomical amounts --
CSB REPORTING 12 HAYES
[phone] Public

C in for example, I know that as I go down the hill, there's
PAP one user, and I don't even know who they are, but I do

3 know the property and there are times when they'll have a

4 station that will be on on their lawn for three days, so

5 there are people who abuse the system, and I know there

6 are others, for example, that have two lots. I'm aware

7 of two families that have two lots and one that has three

8 lots, so their use would be greater as well, but I think
9 there ought to be a way to not penalize those who have

10 systems that try to conserve water,.

11 All of our systems are under timed

12 irrigation and they're also sensitive to rainfall from
13 Mother Nature, so we really try to be as conservative as

14 we can and we still use the 30,000 gallons plus, so I
15 would prefer to see him get a base rate increase and

16 leave the gallons the way it is, unless we might make

17 those who use an inordinate amount on the top end.

18 I think that's the only comments I had.

19 might say that I've dealt with Mr. Groth. In fact, like

20 I said, I have these apartments. I bought the property

21 from him. I've dealt with him for a long time, and I

22 know this system is kind of an albatross around his neck

23 and I'm a little bit like Jeff. I'd like to know if

24 there's some kind of a plan to pass this on to someone or

.

25 a group or something when he gets to the point where he
CSB REPORTING 13 HAYES
[phone] Public
[I: 1 just doesn't want to deal with it. That's the only
2 comments I have.
3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Hayes, thank
4 you for your comments. Just a question.
5
6 EXAMINATION
7
8 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:

9
Q My assumption is there's some type of

10 homeowner's association and there may be some covenants
11 with regards to how much grass you have to have, how much

12 you have to maintain, are there?
S
13 A Not that I'm aware of.

14 Q So if there were efforts to move to

15 different landscaping formats that may use less water.

16 A I don't know of anything in the covenants

17 that addresses that issue at all. I know Jeff was the

18 president of the homeowner's association --

19 MR. ARMSTRONG: I may be able to answer

20 that question a little better. There are a --

21 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Why don't we
WQ stop and what I'll do is I'll bring you up in a moment,

23 and that way we'll have you up here and you'll be back on

24 the record and we'll do it officially.
.

25 Q BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: So you're not
CSB REPORTING 14 HAYES (Com)
[phone] Public
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aware of any covenants?
A I'm not -- there are covenants, but I
don't know of any that address how much grass you can
have or if you have landscaping that uses less water if
it's an advantage, I'm not aware of anything that's
addressed in the covenants like that.
Q Okay.
A There are covenants for part of the areas.
Interestingly enough, there are some areas that are
serviced by this utility that have no covenants, none at
all.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Hayes, thank
you for your comments, and again, I'd like to suggest if
you could to look at the Public Utilities Commission
website and look at the Staff comments in relationship to
this case as well.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand.)
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Randy Kern.
CSB REPORTING 15 HAYES (Corn)
[phone] Public
S 1 RANDY KERN,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,

3 was examined and testified as follows:
4

5 EXAMINATION
6

7 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:

8
Q Mr. Kern, could I have you state your full
9 name and spell it for the record?

10 A My name is Randy Kern, R-a-n-d-y, last
Iu name Kern, K-e---r-n. I live at 2230 East Greenbrier

12 drive.
fl
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Q And Mr. Kern, are you a customer of

14 Country Hills water?

15 A Yes, I am for 12 years.

16
Q Thank you, Mr. Kern, and if you could

17 provide for us your statement.

18 A Just like I said, I am a user. My usage

19 last month was about 63,000 gallons. That's probably a

20 fairly normal August. I did take the time to go on to

21 the Public Utilities website and print off the financial

22 statements for the Country Club Utilities and looked at

23 those since 2005. My comments are this -- and I'm

24 assuming that everything in the public record from the
.

25 Public Utilities is trustworthy. I mean, I'm making some
CSB REPORTING 16 KERN
[phone] Public
1 statements based on the fact that these numbers in here
2 are good and I assume that they are, they make sense.

3 Mr. Groth had about $43,000 worth of water revenue from
4 Country Club Hills last year and he's asking for roughly

5 32 percent. 32 percent is about $12,000.

6 I agree with Mr. Hayes that how that water

7 is charged for in Mr. Groth's request may be up to

8 question about lowering the base rate and who ought to be
9 paying more. My concern is I support the 32 percent.

10 Mr. Groth lost $19,000 in 2011. He lost $6,000 in 2010.

11 He lost 4,000 in 2009. He lost 3,000 in 2008. This

12 utility has not been profitable from a cash basis for

.

13 some time.

14 All of our houses range all over the map,

15 but I'm not here to dispute a 32 percent request for an

16 increase because for my house to maintain its value, I

17 have to have a viable water system and sewer system. I

18 also share Mr. Hayes's comments that I think my biggest

19 concern is what happens to our utility in the event that

20 Mr. Groth chooses to walk away.

21 At our meeting a month ago, I think we

22 were led to believe that Mr. Groth could choose to do

23 that. If this is a viable business proposition owning a

24 small utility with, according to last year's financial
.

25 statements, 136 connections, we're pretty small. I'm not
CSB REPORTING 17 KERN
[phone] Public
1 very happy about Mr. Groth's comments that this is a joke
2 that were in the paper today. My water and sewer system

3 is not a joke and I don't think it's a joke to any of us,
4 but I also believe that we need -- Mr. Groth needs an

5 increase. We need to create a utility that's viable,
6 which means it could be sold, but I'm really here today

7 supporting the increase, but also equally concerned with
8 Mr. Hayes that the viability of the long-term health of

9 Country Club Hills is my biggest concern.

10 Conservation, yes. I mean, at 63,000, I

11 think last month they shared with us that the average

12 user is about 70,000 gallons a month. I can guarantee if
.

13 I use 63,000 in the month of August when I'm running a

14 sprinkler system five days a week that my average is well

15 below the 70. Granted there are only two of us in the

16 home, but I do water quite a bit. I mean, I have about a

17 half acre lot like Mr. Hayes said, but we did hear some

18 things at last month's meeting that said we had one user

19 up there that used over 300,000 gallons in one month and

20 I'm just going wow, that's crazy, but we're talking about

21 a business only from a water revenue. I really don't

22 think if you do the math, I don't think these numbers

23 include what we pay for sewer, but if you look at just

24 the water revenue at its current financial situation, I'm

25 concerned that there's not a viable entity there to
CSB REPORTING
E
KERN
[phone] Public
1 maintain our water and sewer. That's all of my
2

3 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you, Mr.
4 Hayes.

5 THE WITNESS: Mr. Kern.

6 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Oh, Mr. Kern.

7 THE WITNESS: I'm also willing to go on to

8 the website and post those comments.

9 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you, that

10 would be very helpful and, again, we thank you for your

11 comments this evening.

12 (The witness left the stand.)

13 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: That's all I

14 have on the list, but we've got those that are here, if

15 there's anyone else who would like to testify, just raise

16 your hand and we'll bring you up and get your comments,

17 and while you're contemplating whether or not you would

18 like to come up, why don't we bring Mr. Armstrong back up
19 and get you back on the record and maybe we could have

20 you just address that question for me, if you would.

21 MR. ARMSTRONG: I have one further

22 comment.

23 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Go ahead and

24 grab a seat and you've already been sworn in.
.

25
CSB REPORTING 19 KERN
[phone] Public

In JEFF ARMSTRONG,
PAP appearing as a public witness, having been previously

3 duly sworn, resumed the stand and further testified as

4 follows:
5

6 EXAMINATION
7

8 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:

9 Q Mr. Armstrong, I'd asked about the

10 covenants and if there were any restrictions that would

11 keep residents from doing different types of landscaping

12 and perhaps reduce the watering needs on certain pieces

.

13 of property.

14 A Yeah, there's five sets of covenants up

15 there for five different subdivisions, actually four

16 different subdivisions and the condominiums. Like J.R.

17 Hayes said, there's probably somewhere between five and

18 ten percent of the homes up there that aren't covered by

19 by any covenants, but the covenants don't really discuss

20 any issues about how you landscape your property.

21 There are some, obviously, there are some,

22 that do discuss how far you can be from the lot line and

23 these types of things, but in terms of whether you have

24 to plant grass or whether you could have some sort of a
.

25 landscaping that's very low water use, it says nothing
CSB REPORTING 20 ARMSTRONG (Com)
[phone] Public
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about that. In fact, there is one home up there, the
very first home that was built in the subdivision, with
low water use, has no grass at all, and to the best of my
knowledge uses plants that use very little water and I'd
be surprised if they do any watering.
Q Mr. Armstrong, do you think with that said
that there could be any benefit if there was a way to
provide some additional public awareness options for some
of the property owners who have heavy consumption to
maybe look at some other alternatives, and that doesn't
mean to turn your lawn into a desert, but perhaps look at
some other options to landscape that might use different
types of grass, might be different shrubs, might be a
different design, maybe use more rock, things like that,
would there be any benefit to try to look into that?
A Yeah, there might be some benefit. I
think the real problem is when you start doing things
like that it costs a lot of money. Now, if there was
something in this state that allowed people to have some
sort of maybe tax incentive, I don't want to use the word
subsidy, but maybe a tax incentive and it seems like it
would be a smart thing to do if you want people to
conserve water like they do in Las Vegas; for example,
they will allow you some sort of tax incentive for a few
years on your property tax. I'm not exactly sure how
CSB REPORTING 21 ARMSTRONG (Corn)
[phone] Public
1 they do it in Las Vegas.
2 If you were to go in there and, let's say,

3 convert 25 percent of your property to low water use or
4 50 percent of your property to low water use or whatever,

5 I think the only way you're going to get people to do

6 that sort of thing is if you can incentivize that in some

7 way.

8 Q Thank you, and you mentioned you had
9 another comment you wanted to provide.

10 A Well, I had two comments, one about the

11 homeowner's association. There is a homeowner's

12 association up there, but it's strictly voluntary, so

13 really, it doesn't provide any sort of possible function

14 in the future that might have something to do with the

15 utility. We only have -- in our best year we probably
16 only had about 20 percent of the homeowners that were
INN members, and that was when Presidio was up there and

18 people were concerned about that, and now I'd say there's

19 probably 10 percent. Well, people just don't really feel

20 the need, and this homeowner's association was actually

21 reestablished. It did have one to begin with and it just

22 failed, it stopped. It basically went dormant because

23 people just weren't interested.

24
Q So there's no fees that are collected on

.

25 an annual basis?
CSB REPORTING 22 ARMSTRONG (Corn)
[phone] Public
1 A No. We did have a fee, but it was just a
2 voluntary fee and some people paid it, but I guess what

3 I'm trying to say is it's just not viable. Now,
4 obviously, if it was mandatory, that would be a different

5 story, but it's not mandatory, and then I have one final

6 comment.

7 I think sometimes, and this is my own

8 opinion, this could be something that could be looked at,

9 but I think, you know, obviously, there's something like

10 about 12 percent of the people up there that at any one
11 moment in time are in arrears on their payments, and I

12 think the utility needs to have some sort of policy in
13 place in which they follow through on how these people

14 are either going to pay their bill or be cut off. I

15 don't think they should be given too much leniency,
16 because all that does is cause the utility to have more

17 financial problems, and I'm not so sure there's a strict

18 policy in place.

19 I think the PUC does have a policy in

20 which if they're one month in arrears, they can be cut

21 off. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I think the

22 utility needs to have a solid policy and they need to

23 follow through on it, because all that happens when

24 people don't pay their bills and it goes on for two or
fl
25 three months, the other customers suffer and the utility
CSB REPORTING 23 ARMSTRONG (Com)
[phone] Public

.
1 suffers.
2 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Mr. Armstrong,
3 thank you and I appreciate you coming back up to address
4 the question that I had.

5 THE WITNESS: Thank you.

6 (The witness left the stand.)

7 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Is there anyone

8 else who would like to provide some testimony this

9 evening? This is referred to as a pregnant pause, and so

10 since I don't see anyone else who would like to sign up

11 and provide testimony tonight, I want to thank those who

12 did. I want to thank those of you, also, for attending.
.

13 I'd also like to strongly encourage as I have to all

14 those who have provided testimony to take a look at

15 Staff's comments that were filed on September 17th in

16 relation to this case.

17 I thought they did a fairly thorough job

18 of analyzing and providing alternatives to some of the

19 original requests that were put in place. Again, these

20 are merely Staff's impression and recommendations. They

21 will be a part of what the Commission sits down and looks

22 at when we deliberate. I don't want to point for a

23 second that what Staff has presented will be the final

24 determination. It will merely be a part of that decision

.

25 making process.
CSB REPORTING 24 COLLOQUY
[phone]

1 It's also my belief that since these
2 comments came out so close to the hearing itself that I'd

3 like to give you an additional week to submit any written
4 comments that you may have and you can submit those via

5 our website and so the record on this as far as the
6 public comment period will end one week from today, so

7 that would be next week on Wednesday, and so by 5:00

8 o'clock on that date you have to submit any additional
9 written comments you want, and feel free as you read

10 them, if you read them a bit at a time to submit a
11 comment based on what you read and if you want to come

12 back and look at them again, submit it again.
S
13 That's what the electronic forum will

14 allow us to do and those will be a part of the record

15 that we can look at as we end up deliberating, so with

16 that, then, I want to thank you again for coming out this

17 evening, and I appreciate your participation and the

18 Commission will, again, the other two Commissioners will

19 sit down with me once the transcript is prepared and the

20 official record is closed and we will deliberate and

21 render a decision as quickly as possible, and we'll get

22 that sent and for those of you who are on the

23 distribution list, you'll get that directly, and if you

24 are not on the distribution list, I would encourage you

fl
25 to go to the website and get on that list so that you can
CSB REPORTING 25 COLLOQUY
[phone]
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get the first response when that Order is available for
review, and with that, then, we are adjourned and thank
you.
(The Hearing adjourned at 7:35 p.m.)
CSB REPORTING 26 COLLOQUY
[phone]
AUTHENTICATION
This is to certify that the foregoing
proceedings held in the matter of the application of
Country Club Hills Utilities, Inc. for authority to
increase its rates and charges for water service,
commencing at 7:00 p.m., on Tuesday, September 25, 2012,
at the Skyline Activity Center, 1575 North Skyline, Idaho
Falls, 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 Repo
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CSB REPORTING 27 AUTHENTICATION
[phone]