20160829Public Hearing Transcript.pdf

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BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF MORNING VIEW WATER COMPANY
FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS
RATES AND CHARGES FOR WATER
SERVICE IN IDAHO
CASE NO. MNV-W-16-01
PLACE:
DATE:
PUBLIC HEARING
BEFORE
COMMISSIONER ERIC ANDERSON (Presiding)
COMMISSIONER KRISTINE RAPER
-·-Rigby City Hall _:..._..
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VOLUME I -Pages 1 -49
ORIGINAL CSB REPORTING
Certified Shorthand Reporters
Post Office Box 9774
Boise, Idaho 83707
[e-mail]
Ph: 208-890-5198 Fax: l-888-623-6899
Reporter:
Constance Bucy,
CSR
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A P P E A R A N C E S
For the Staff :
For Morning View Water
Company :
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(208) 890 -5198
Karl Klein, Esq .
Deputy Attorney General
472 West Washington
Boise , Idaho 83720 -0074
Nolan & Dawn Gneiting
Morning View Water Company
Post Office Box 598
Rigby, Idaho 83442
APPEARANCES
• 1 I N D E X
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3 WITNESS EXAMINATION BY PAGE
4 James Kuck Statement 4
(Public) Commissioner Raper 9
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Ladene Campbell Statement 11
6 (Public)
7 Patsy Daarud Statement 14
(Public)
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Jason Robinson Statement 16
9 (Public)
10 Chad Egbert Statement 18
(Public)
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Adam Koepke Statement 20
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• 13 Martin Newton Statement 26
(Public)
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Michelle Newton Statement 28
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16 Will Daarud Statement 30
(Public)
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Daniel Jones Statement 32
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19 Karen Andrus Statement 34
(Public)
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Karen Kuck Statement 36
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22 Adam Koepke Statement 38
(Public)
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Jennifer Wilcox Statement 39
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4 Ladene Campbell Statement 44
(Publ i c)
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Martin Newton Statement 45
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RIGBY , IDAHO , TUESDAY , AUGUST 23 , 2016 , 7 :00 P . M.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Good evening ,
ladies and gentlemen . Today is the 23rd of August , 2016 ,
and this is the time and place set aside for a public
hearing before the Idaho Public Utilities Commission ,
Case No . MNV-W-16-01 , further identified as in the matter
of Morning View Water Company 's application for authority
to increase its rates and charges for water service in
the State of Idaho . We 're here to take public comment
from customers regarding the proposed rate increases , the
intent being to complete the building of the permanent
record .
I will call the names of people who have
signed up to testify and if you 'll come forward as I call
your name , Commissioner Raper to my right will swear you
in and Mr . Klein from the AG 's office , Attorney General 's
office , will ask you questions to identify you for the
purpose of the formal record .
your statement .
Then you may proceed with
The Commission 's decision in this case has
to be based upon substantial and competent evidence in
the record , which is why all of our proceedings are
transcribed by a court reporter and are available for
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public inspection and , if necessary , appealed to the
Idaho Supreme Court .
We can now take appearances of the parties
and then allow anyone who wishes to do so to testify , and
I encourage anybody that has anything to say , please do
just that . I would like to make some introductions .
First of all , to my right , as we said , we have Christine
Raper . She 's a Commissioner . Commissioner Kjellander
was unable to make it for a family emergency , and we 'll
have to go ahead and tell him when we get back to our
office . My name is Eric Anderson and I will be the
acting Chairman before this proceeding . To my left is
our court reporter , Connie Bucy , and Gene Fadness to the
very back outside . He 's with the Commission . Chris
Hecht is with our consumer department . He 's also outside
in the back , and I think that 's all the introductions we
have , right , Karl?
Before we call our first testifier this
evening , I just want you to know that we do understand
that these types of proceedings can carry a lot of
emotions and we 're aware of that , but I will encourage
all of us to show our best form in decorum . This is a
record-gathering proceeding and it 's important that you
understand the emotions are not what we 're listening to .
We 're listening to the fa ct s and trying to determine what
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those are , so any respect we show to one another and to
the community in this proceeding , that will be recognized
highly and I appreciate that .
I also want to acknowledge that we do have
the Morning View Water Company 's owners , Nolan and Dawn
Gneiting , here presently , also . Commissioner Raper , was
there anything I was missing on that?
COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : With that being
said , let 's go ahead and begin with the public testimony ,
and as I call you , just come to the microphone here and
give me your testimony and I believe the court reporter
will no , Christine will swear you in .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : I 'll swear you in .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Yes , thank you .
The first person on the list is James Kuck , if you would
please come forward . Welcome .
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JAMES KUCK ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Mr . Kuck , my name is Karl Klein . I 'm an
attorney with the Attorney General 's office and I 'm the
attorney for the Staff of the Idaho Public Utilit ies
Commission and I 'm just going to ask you a few
housekeeping questions to get your name and whatnot on
the record before you offer your statement , okay , so
would you please state your full name and spell your last
for the record?
Rigby .
Company?
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Q
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My full name is James 0 . Kuck , K-u-c -k .
And what is your residence address?
My residence is 185 North 4000 East ,
Are you a customer of Morning View Wat er
Yes , I am .
Please go ahead and make your statement .
Okay , one thing , I would like to open this
with a particular letter that was --excuse me , I 'll get
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a copy of it . Just a few notes .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : If I may interject
only because you brought up a big packet of paper , Connie
is a terrific court reporter , but if you 're reading from
a piece of paper , if you can keep it at a pace that she
can keep up , we tend to talk faster when --
THE WITNESS : I will not be reading very
much out of the paper .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Okay , no problem with
that , just so that you keep it at a pace that she can
keep up with it .
THE WITNESS : Okay .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Great . Thanks .
THE WITNESS : This is a letter written by
Nolan Gneiting to the Public Utilities Commission dated
2009 , June 5th , and it starts with certain things and
it 's Case No . MNV-W-09 -01 . It starts with the
reiteration of some things that happened on April 24th
when the main pump burned out . DEQ is requiring them to
have an additional well to bring Morning View Water into
compliance , because the water system has been declared
out of compliance by the IDEQ , anyway , problems with
coming up with $30 ,000 for a variable speed drive and so
on and so on , and in the letter , he noted that Rocky
Mountain Power had just received a 10 percent increase .
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At any rate , I will quote from the letter
the last two paragraphs . "However , we regret that we
will not be able to make our own Rocky Mountain electric
payments , and are in dire need of relief . If we do not
receive a sufficient rate increase to help cover costs
and recoup our losses from abiding to DEQ 's demands , we
fear that Morning View Water Company will be out of
business by August 2009 .
Please advise us as to what should be done
to alleviate our situation . It is imperative that we
hear from you . We desperately need to have at least a 25
percent rate increase to financially survive . Thanks
again ," and here we are several years later . There 's
been no rate increase . Thank God you turned this down
and life goes on .
The next thing I would like to just
briefly describe is a little bit of history . Throughout
all of this , Mr . Gneiting was counseled by an attorney to
sign a consent agreement with DEQ to do certain things to
bring the water system into compliance and there were
several things that he was supposed to do , he had agreed
to do . Some of those he didn 't do and he received a $450
civil fine for failure to comply . That 's all in the
record .
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Part of the other thing that we have to
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talk about is the out-of-control well project that we got
saddled with that started out with around 225 or $250 ,000
and culminated with a final cost of 530 ,000 . I don 't
know if this is within your purview or not , but that
seems to be excessive to me . I don 't think our
engineering estimates were that bad . Was there an
arms -length relationship between those soliciting
subcontracts , Rick Miller out of Rexburg , or was it the
attitude that we 'll g o ahead and stick it t o them ,
because the customer is going to pay for it anyway , but I
find a well $530 ,000 , I should be in the well drilling
business .
One of the things that I would like to
talk about , and I promise not to take a whole lot of your
time , is the findings from the Staff that evaluated the
proposal . It 's somewhat enlightening . I read it twice
and I 'm still not sure I understand all of it , but t hat 's
okay , and in looking at another rate case , namely Fall
Water Company from 2012 , somewhat as comparison and in
their rate case , they had only 43 pages . This one is 48
pages long as far as things that the Staff found that
were in question and they were going to do and so on and
so on .
In the c ase of Fall Water , there were 16
comments from over 4 ,000 customers . In the case of our
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particular rate case , I know you have , what , 20 some odd
comments fr om 107 customers . The other thing that is
somewhat mystifying is the unmitigated gall that this man
had to ask for a 100 percent rate increase on certain
rates within the subdivision , 50 percent increase on
others , and alleging that they had not had an increas e in
10 years . That 's a 10 percent increase a year . That 's
not good . I 'd love to be in a business like that . I
don 't think he 'll get it and I hope he doesn 't .
One of the things that I find very
troublesome as a customer of Morning View Water is in my
36 years of working for corporate America , I 've never
been involved in a business enterprise where the customer
was viewed as the enemy and that 's exactly what we have
in this project . The threats , the coercion , the things
that have happened with threatening to turn everybody 's
water off , shut down the pump , so on , so on , so on have
gone on and on . We had extremely poor service for over
10 years and we paid a premium rate for that poor
servi ce . We now have good service and boy , I think we 're
going to pay a super premium rate .
it fair?
Is it justified? Is
There are some people in this room in that
subdivision that the amount of increase he 's asking for
is going to be a deal breaker for them and I sympathize
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with those people . It 's wrong , so I 'd ask the Commission
in considering this rate increase to consider has this
Company and this man earned it and in my opinion , he has
not . We have gone thr ough 10 years of substandard
service , now we have great service and we 're going to
pay , as I said before , but to n ow turn around and reward
him for that particular misbehavior , for having the water
system out of complian ce , for having other things
happening would be like rewarding a child for ob scene
behavior , and that 's what I stand by here .
I ask you , I implore you , please , please ,
look at this rate case carefully . Is it warranted? Has
he earned it? And I have nothing further to say .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you , Mr .
Kuck . I believe we have a questi on from
Commissioner Raper .
EXAMINATION
BY COMMISSIONER RAPER :
Q Just one question for cla rificati on , sir .
You mentioned the 09 -01 case and that it was turned down
by the PUC?
A
Q
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That 's my understanding .
Okay , I can look this up when I get back ,
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but I was going to ask if it was turned down or if it
just didn 't proceed?
A I can 't answer that question .
Q Okay , I can look that up myself when we
get back .
A The letter was written to Jean --
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Jean Jewell who is
our Commission secretary . Okay , I 'll look it up when I
get back . Thank you .
for testify .
THE WITNESS : Okay .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you .
THE WITNESS : Thank you for allowing me
I appreciate it very much .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Next up we have
Ladene Campbell .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : So if we can ask you
all , I appreciate that you are showing support for your
fellow customers , but this is a courtroom setting , so if
you 'll remember courtroom decorum , that would be
terrific . Thank you .
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LADENE CAMPBELL ,
appearing as a public witness , having been first duly
sworn , testified as follows :
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Mr . Klein has a
couple of questions for you .
MR . KLEIN : Thank you .
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Ms . Campbell , would you state your full
name and spell your last name for the record please?
A
Q
A
Q
A
Q
Company?
A
Q
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L-a -d -e -n-e C-a -m-p -b -e -1-1 .
And what is your residence address?
Pardon?
What 's your residence address?
186 North 3950 East .
Are you a customer of Morning View Water
Yes .
Please proceed .
I 'm one of the younger customers --well ,
not younger in age , in residence , but I 've never been in
a courtroom before , so excuse me if I don 't do it right .
Can we ask a question?
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COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : These proceedings
are for record o f testimony , not for questions to the
Commission .
THE WITNESS : Okay .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : You are welcome to
pose a question for the record , but it 's not a back and
f orth-type proceeding .
THE WITNESS : Okay . I 've always
understood that the PUC was a public utility compa ny and
as such , it was to represent the customers , not the
facility , and that 's my question . Is it or is it not for
the customers? We got our --a letter with o ur monthly
h ousehold water us age for the 1 2 -month period from July
2015 through June 2016 and all water meters other than
the new construction that were installed previous to
April . That is not true and read ings have been taken
since then . Meters report u sage in 10 gallon in c rement s .
This shows that in July 2 015 , we used 61 ,030 gallo ns .
December and November , we used 1 ,940 gallons .
Now , we 've paid the amount every month
summer and winte r , so I recognize that in the summer we
I n
use more water , but we shouldn 't ha ve to pay a ll year for
the water that we use . I would rather see us be able to
make it --well , and this is good in the fact that we
have unlimited water use and I recognize that in the
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summer , but this terrible 100 percent increase we 've been
given , we 're on social security only . There are a lot of
people in the subdivision that make around the same kind
of income and it 's going to be a choice of do I keep
water on my yard , on my garden or do I eat and I 'm n ot
that is reality i n our subdivision .
For us , the only way we can handle this is
to let our yard dry up . We cannot pay that kind o f an
increase in water , we just simply can 't , and there are
others in that same situation . We want it to be fair not
only to us , but to the owner , but we cannot sustain that
ki nd of an increase . Thank you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you very
much , Ms . Campbell . Are there any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Just for
c larifi cation , the Commission is not here to a nswer
questions , but the Commissioners are here to determine
what 's fair , just , and reasonable in rates , so I mean ,
that 's what our job is and that 's why we 're trying t o
build a record to determine what those fair , just , and
reasonable rates are and so we 're listening closely , and
as Commissioner Raper said , we can assume that most
people would like to applaud in between each one of t hese
testimonies , so we 'll make assumptions that you have even
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though you 're not going to do that and we 'll leave it at
that , and I do appreciate the civility that we 're
experiencing , so thank you for that , too .
The next to testify is Patsy Daarud?
MS . DAARUD : Close .
PATSY DAARUD ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Would you please state your full name and
spell your last name?
A
D-a -a-r -u -d .
customer?
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
My name is Patsy Daarud and it 's
What 's your residence address?
193 North 3950 East , Rigby .
Are you also a Morning View Water
I am .
Please go ahead .
Okay , my biggest concern is I received
this water usage thing that we all got and I was actually
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talking to Ladene Campbell earlier today and my usage is
a whole lot different than hers . First of all , we didn 't
move into our house until October of 2015 and I know the
place was vacant in September . We went and looked at it
the end of August I do believe and it was vacant then , so
I 'm not sure how much in August it was vacant . In
August , it showed 411 ,000 gallons , and in September , like
I said when the place was completely vacant and I know
they weren 't watering the lawn , it went to 108 ,000 , so I
just --I kind of don 't know where those numbers are
coming from . In June , it showed 137 ,000 , so that seems
really high to me .
I don 't know where those numbers are
coming from , but this 100 percent increase is really
ridiculous and we are on a very tight budget and like
many other customers , we might just have to let our yard
burn up , because we can 't afford that type of increase ,
so I would just ask that you consider our budgets and our
income and just do the right thing . Thank you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you . Are
there any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
MR . KLEIN : No .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you very
much , Ms . Daarud .
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Robinson .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Next up is Jason
MR . ROBINSON : I actually had kind of like
questions . I didn 't know for sure this was going to be a
testimony type of thing , so mine were more questions .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Well , you can pose
the questions to the Commission itself if you 'd like it
to be part of the record , but you 're not going to get a
response to them, and you can certainly put that in
writing , too , if you wish .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : And if after the
hearing there are things that Chris Hecht as the
Commission Staff can answer for you , maybe those are
questions that will be appropriate for him to respond to .
JASON ROBINSON ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly swor n ,
was examined and testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
you r last name?
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EXAMINATION
Would you please state your name and spell
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A Jason Robinson . Robinson is
R-o -b -i -n-s -o -n .
Q What 's your residence address?
A 3972 East 200 North .
Q Are you a Morning View Water customer?
A Yes , sir .
Q Please go ahead .
A A couple of questions I just want to pose
for the record are a couple of things I didn 't know , but
in order to receive that kind of funding to put in a new
well , I 'm assuming there had to have been some kind of
qualification or payment plan or some way they were going
to pay back the loan , so I want to know , I know I won 't
get an answer today , but my question is how was that -­
what was the plan for that? Was the plan all along to
raise the water bill t o $100 a month or whatever it 's
supposed to be , was that plan , and then , also , I thought
we were supposed to be on metered water , so I guess
there 's a lot of information and a lot of stuff out there
that I 'm not sure of that I would like to get mo re
information on , but that was the main thing , just kind of
know what was the plan all along in the beginning to
secure a $530 ,000 loan or whatever amount it was , how
were they go ing t o pay that back , so that was all .
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COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
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Thank you , and ,
ROBINSON
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again , at the end of this public portion , Mr . Hecht back
there probably could answer some of those questions for
you , too .
testimony .
Egbert .
THE WITNESS : Thank you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you for your
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Next we have Chad
CHAD EGBERT ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
your last name?
Water?
A
Q
A
Q
A
CSB REPORTING
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EXAMINATION
Would you please state your name and spell
Chad Egbert , E-g -b -e -r -t .
What is your residence address?
189 North 4000 East .
Are you a customer of Morning View
Yes .
18 EGBERT
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Q Please go ahead .
A Just a couple of things I wanted to bring
up . My main concern is if we are going to go to a
metered system, the readings that we receive are very
incorrect and I will testify to that until I was red in
the face . I know for a fact that my meter was not
installed until November 2015 at my house , but yet , I
have readings going back to last June 2015 . I 'm not sure
how you can get so many readings when the meter is not
even in the ground yet tied to my water line , so that
would be my biggest issue is if we do go to a metered
system, can we even trust what we 're being metered on is
actually true numbers .
The second thing I want to talk about is
water pressure . When this well first was up and running ,
we had substantial water pressure and I knew that we had
a minimum of 60 psi all the time . Since then the
pressure has fluctuated greatly . All summer it has
fluctuated and even before summer , before people started
to water , it fluctuated greatly . I personally called
Nolan and Dawn several times to complain about the issue .
I had always been assured that both wells are running .
know that as part of the engineering process , both wells
I
are supposed to be running and synced together so that we
had minimum 60 psi to maintain pressure in our homes to
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shower , to water our lawn .
I know for a fact that I put a meter on
there and there 's nowhere close to 60 psi at times , so my
question is why are we having water pressure issues
again? That was the whole purpose of this new well was
to maintain 60 psi all the time and we were told that and
yet , we 're dipping down into the 30 , 40 psi at times .
That 's all I 've got .
questions?
much .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you . Any
COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you very
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Adam Koepke .
ADAM KOEPKE ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
spell your last?
CSB REPORTING
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EXAMINATION
Would you please state your name and
20 KOEPKE
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A Adam Koepke , K-o -e -p -k-e . I don 't fault
you for getting it wrong , everybody does .
that .
well .
address?
Water?
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Excuse me for
THE WITNESS : No , you 're totally fine .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : I didn 't do very
BY MR . KLEIN : What 's your residence
178 North 3950 East .
And are you a customer of Morning View
Yes , sir .
Please go ahead .
There are seven points that I would like
to bring up specific outside of what I 've already stated
in my comments online . One is selling of homes . If
we this will make sense in a second . If you raise the
rates , we 've already had one customer that lives in ou r
area who commented on this online , if you raise the rates
100 percent , they 're not going to be able to sell their
home . If you say hey , you 're going to pay $40 .00 a month
for water and then as you 're in the process of purchasing
this home , you say hey , guess what , sorry , they just
raised the rates and here 's your new rate of $90 a month ,
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they 're going to turn around and say I didn 't account for
that . I didn 't plan o n that . I 'm going to turn right
around and say I can 't purchase the home .
legitimate issue .
That is a
You talked about fair , just , and
reasonable . I look at local her e in Rigby specific and I
go um , they 're paying $30.00 a month for a specific
amount of gallons and then they 're metered on top of
that . If we 're going to charge double , which is what the
request was , f or water usage , how is that justified when
I could move down the road . I could foreclose on this
house if I wanted to and move to another house , qualify
for that and move out quickly and do something like that .
Then they 're going to go bankrupt so I 'm going to have a
ding on my credit and so it will look bad on everybody ,
right?
Let 's just charge everybody $100 a mon th .
That doesn 't sound right to me for the water pump on its
own . This is a problem for me . I just read online the
findings , which I actually discussed this after the last
meeting that was had that we were still having water
pressure issues . Just this week again I had my faucet on
to make my son a bottle and one sprinkler , a small
sprinkler , out front . I had to wait forever , No . 1 , for
the heat because of the amount of pressure that was not
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there going through the water tank to get to the faucet .
It 's not that far . There 's not enough water pressure to
do more than one thing at one time still . It was
discussed . I don 't know what measures have been taken ,
but it is still a consistent issue that we are not having
consistent water pressure .
What I just read online , I actually did
not have the opportunity to read it before today until
just now to look at this , but I did the numbers based off
of what the Staff recommended and there was about a 30
percent increase recommended , which here we go again ,
we 're back to recommendations on three separate entities
of the request for funding to increase our rates even
more . I reference what was said earlier by Ms . Campbell .
Some of these people are on fixed incomes , extremely low
fixed incomes . How do you justify doing that? If
they 're having issues with monetary , which I read that
that was one of the things that the Staff found in their
findings was that there was some issues on the back end
of this , then that should not be our responsibility . I
didn 't sign my name to a loan . I didn 't say I want a
half a million dollar loan in my name . I know nobody
else in here did as far as customers go , so why are we
responsible for somebody else 's business decisions? That
should fall on the shoulders of that person .
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Now , I do know them personally and I don 't
wish ill will on them , but it is their responsibility ,
okay . That increase should not be our responsibil i ty in
the first place . It should be on the person who did it .
If your bank came to you and said hey , guess what ,
because we can 't make our bills , we 're going to increase
your payments even though you 're on a fixed interest ,
li ve with it . You 're not going to accept t h at eit h er .
We shouldn 't have to be or forced to do that same thing .
Since I 've been in this home the last two
years , for the first year that I lived here , there was a
gen t l eman that lived on 200 and h e had a p ump on his own
and every time you 'd drive down 200 , you would see t he
water spraying out into the road , every single day , every
day . Why is somebody else putting the wear and tear on
the pump and on the wells that we should all have equal
pressure on when they 're closest to the well . Now , t h ey
don 't live there anymore , they have sold their home a nd
moved off from what I 've heard . Using the pump puts the
wear and tear on that stuff and we 're the ones , again , on
the back side that are having to pay for it . It 's not
acceptab l e , I 'm sorry . I shouldn 't have to pay for
somebody else 's choices . That 's not the way it works .
I also --I did the work about two months
ago or so when this all first came out and I did an
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amortization schedule based off a national number for
what it what costs to have a new pump done for yourself
for our own home . For us to have a pump dug at the
maximum width , at the maximum depth , which is basically
agricultural level , it was nowhere near the numbers that
have been recommended , nowhere near . I 'd rather pay for
it myself and have it done if it could be approved to
have my own personal well if it 's possible rather than to
be on a shared well .
It is not acceptable that I have to pay
more money than what it would cost for a personal well
over what it costs to go through a company . If I lived
in Rigby using the same amount , I wouldn 't be anywhere
close , the actual City of Rigby . I wouldn 't be paying
anywhere close to what I 'm paying now . I 've lived all
over the world . I 've been in the military and I have
never ever paid this kind of money for water that I 've
ever had before ever . I don 't think it is acceptable and
it should be reviewed a little bit more thoroughly .
That 's all I have to say if anybody has
any questions .
your service .
CSB REPORTING
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COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
25
Thank you for
Yes , thank you ,
KOEPKE
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Mr . Koepke .
Martin Newton .
THE WITNESS : Yeah .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : And your testimony .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Next we have
MARTIN NEWTON ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Would you please state your name and spell
your last name?
A My name is Martin Anthony Newt o n , Sr ., and
my last name spelled is N-e -w-t -o -n .
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
What is your residence address?
187 North 3990 East , Rigby .
Are you a Morning View Water customer?
Yes , sir .
Please go ahead .
All right , I guess what I have to say is
I 'm a fairly new customer . Me and my wife moved here
CSB REPORTING
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November of '14 and we heard a lot of horror stor ies
about all the stuff when we moved in about the pressure
and everything , and what I have to say is probably a lot
of old hash that has already been brought up as far as
what 's going on here . I mean , just like we 've got a
thing for our usage , which really sounded outrageous t o
me , I don 't know , with the meters and stuff , and I
brought up to the utility people at the last meeting
about why haven 't they assigned a quota for the meters ,
and they told me that they hadn 't got a year 's data .
Well , we have over a year 's data on our billing and
stuff , so I don 't know where all that stands , and I just
don 't understand the justification of what he 's saying
with the cost of the well and all that as far as
everybody else is saying , too , and I would sooner get my
own well and be out of that whole scenario .
It 's just too crazy for me , and as far as
the pressure , there 's still issues with the pressure . We
don 't have constant 50 pounds of pressure , there 's no
way . I guess I really don 't have a lot more to say . I
mean , I 'm on a fixed income , just like other people , and
I don 't have a lot more to say about what has already
been brought up , and anyway , that 's all I have to say .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
much , Mr . Newton . Any questions?
CSB REPORTING
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Thank you very
NEWTON
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COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Michelle Newton .
MICHELLE NEWTON ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Would you please state your full name and
spell your last name?
A My first name is Michelle . My last name
is Newton , N-e -w-t -o -n , 187 North 3990 East , and we are a
customer of Morning View Water Company .
Q
A
Q
A
And are you married to Mr . Newton?
Correct .
Okay .
As Tony stated , when we bought our house ,
we were kind of ignorant when we bought it . We were told
something about the water issue that wasn 't true from our
Realtor , so we kind of got into something immediately
that we weren 't expecting . We thought we could roll with
the punches , and then after we 'd been there for awhile ,
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we began to observe not just bad water issues , but it
seems like the whole subdivision is kind of run kind of
haphazard and to me , that shows unscrupulousness in
business practices , so frankly , we really don 't trust
what Mr . Gneiting says , we don 't trust any of it , and for
one thing , we don 't have any trust .
No . 2 , people keep telling me he has water
rights , which I 'm very unclear on . I don 't know how you
can have water rights to ground water . Maybe someone can
enlighten me on that , and three , we would like the
opportunity to have our own well and just bypass all
this . We feel with the amount that we pay for our h ome ,
we should be able to have some kind of control and we
really don 't . We 're , like , at his mercy and that 's just
unscrupulous period when people see what he does . Thank
you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you very
much . Any questions?
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COMMISSIONER RAPER : No .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Will Daarud .
29 NEWTON
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WILL DAARUD ,
appearing as a public witness , having been duly sworn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
your last name?
A
D-a -a -r -u -d .
Water?
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
EXAMINATION
Would you please state your name and spell
William Travis Daarud . Last name is
And what 's your residence address?
188 North 3966 East .
And you 're a customer of Mo rning Vi ew
Yes .
Please make your statement .
Okay , I feel kind of out of place .
Everyone else has a paper or something they bring up that
has notes . I don 't . The first thing I 'd like to bring
up is everyone else it seems has a paper that display s
their water usage . We moved into our new home this last
February . It was new construction , so I don 't expect
water usage prior to February , because there was nothing
there before February , but the fact that we have --we
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never received a paper that gives us our water usage and
I would think there should at least be something from
February until now , but we 've never received anything .
Everyone else got one in the mail with their water bill I
do believe , but we did not . We did get the water bill ,
but we didn 't get the other paper .
The other thing I 'd like to bring up is it
does concern the water pressure . I have noticed just in
the short time that I 've lived there , I can actually tell
when someone else in the subdivision turns on their
water , because I can have only one faucet running filling
up a glass of water or something and I can notice all of
a sudden , the water pressure drops off and I believe
that 's from someone else turning on their water and it 's
just being distributed throughout the system .
that 's it .
I think
Anything else? Okay , I had to chec k with
the wife , sorry .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Smart man . Thank
you .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Well , that
concludes our list . Is there anybody else who wishes to
testify? Feel free , this is your opportunity .
please come forward and state your name .
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31
Yes , sir ,
DAARUD
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DANIEL JONES ,
appearing as a public witness , having been first duly
sworn , testified as follows :
EXAMINATION
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q Please state your name and spell the last
name for the record .
A
Q
A
Q
Water?
A
Q
A
actually have
Daniel Alan Jones , J -o -n-e-s .
And what is your residence address?
3937 East 185 North .
And you are a customer of Morning View
Yes , sir .
Please go ahead .
I thought originally that I may not
something I may want to bring before this
hearing tonight . It 's actually just been recently
brought up about home purchases . I believe very strongly
that I actually fit that bill . My wife and I closed on
our home July 18th of this year . Had we known the well
was transpiring , that would have been a deal breaker for
us . There would have been no way we would have even
considered the residence in which we purchased . We feel
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32 JONES
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we were caught off guard . There was no inf orma tion
coming into this for us , whether that 's the Realtor ,
whether that 's the water company . We don 't know , but it
would have been a deal breaker .
We looked at several homes within the city
limits of Rigby , Idah o , and at $98 .00 a month for city
utilities , we said we cou ldn 't do it , so we sought
residences out in the county where we have access to a
well , to use a septi c system to cut on sewer cost , and it
has now come to our attention that we cou ld have looked
at several nicer newer homes inside the City of Rigby
limits for about the same costs we 're paying now .
I don 't stand here tonight to garner
sympathy for my situation , but I am a single parent
income . My wife does not work outside of the home and I
am a full-time student , so this cost to factor in our
budget is very difficult . We 're on a meager income at
this point . We obviously thought that buying a home was
cheaper than renting and we did so , but with these
proposed rates , it is not feasible for us to continue
looking at what options we have to cut our budgets any
further and , again , I don 't stand here to garner
sympathy . That 's my position . I chose to have the kids .
I chose to go back to school , but I did not choo se to be
put in this situation without knowingly purchasing this
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home knowing that there was an ongoing conflict .
Like I said , I apologize for not signing
up earlier . I didn 't feel that I would have much to say ,
but in the issue of purchasing , maintaining , and selling
homes , I am that customer and I feel very strongly that I
am probably the most recent to have purchased a home in
this area and it is a major conflict in our life right
now . Unless there are further questions , I have nothing
else to add .
Jones .
forward .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Thank you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you , Mr .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Yes , please come
KAREN ANDRUS ,
appearing as a public witness , having been first duly
sworn , testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
name .
CSB REPORTING
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EXAMINATION
Please state your name and spell your last
34 ANDRUS
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A My name is Karen , middle initial L ., last
name Andrus , A-n -d -r -u -s .
Q What 's your residen ce address?
A 177 North 3950 East .
Q Are you a Morning View Water customer?
A Yes , I am .
Q Please go ahead .
A I actually have a question that I would
like to pose for your record . It 's my understanding that
Country Grove Estates is also using water from the
Morning View Water system and I would like to know for
the record , are they currently metered and is the water
that 's being used there being accounted for? I think the
reason that it 's important for us to know that is that
Morning View Estates and the water compa ny for Morning
View Estates was established for that subdivision , and
the Country Grove Estates and then the trailer court were
added to that system , and each of those draws water from
us and that is making it very difficult to keep water
pressure and it also is contributing to the reason we
have to keep drilling wells , and I think that 's all I
have to say .
much .
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COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you very
(The witness left the stand .)
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COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Anyone else? Yes ,
please come forward .
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
your last name?
Water?
A
Q
A
Q
A
Q
A
EXAMINATION
Would you please state your name and spell
Karen M. Kuck , K-u -c-k .
What 's your residence address?
185 North 4000 East .
And you 're a customer of Morning View
Yes .
Please proceed .
Thank you . I 'd like to say that when we
first moved in , my husband and I went to the water
building and met with Mr . Gneiting , introduced ourselves ,
and did sign up for the water service . He told us at
that time that the canal that runs in front of our house
was he had water rights to that canal and it was okay
for us to pump water from . We checked with the canal
company and we found out that no , we were not able to
pump from that canal . If we had , we could have been in
violation. Since then I found out that a neighbor was
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told roughly two years ago when they moved in the same
story , they could pump from the canal .
A lady menti oned that Realtors have
said --talked about their water and that they are on a
community well . Realtors , and I know it is not the same
company , have told people there are five people per well .
I do not know where they get this information from . Per
the covenants of Morning View Acres , we understand if you
put in an individual well , you are still required to make
the monthly payment to Morning View Water ; therefore ,
that alleviates a lot of people from going further with
putting in a well for their own use .
Just comments to what we have lived with
and yes , we have all , I think , everyone has heard it
possibly , that he can turn our water off at any time .
That is something that we get told quite a bit or if we
use excessive water , we were told that upon our first
meeting , we were told that if they see us using excessive
water , they will come on our property and turn off our
well , our line to the house . First of all , I would hope
they would ask for permission before coming onto our
prop erty . That 's all I have to say , if anyone has any
questions .
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COMMISSIONER RAPER : No , thank you .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you ,
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Ms . Kuck .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Does anybody else
wish to make a statement?
MR . KOEPKE : Can I add to?
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : You may add to .
ADAM KOEPKE ,
appearing as a public witness , having been previously
duly sworn , resumed the stand and further testified as
follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
A
EXAMINATION
Restate your name .
Adam Koepke , K-o -e -p -k-e . It 's more of
posing a question and it might be directed more to them .
As you can see , the representation here behind me ,
there 's no Hispanic people and there 's a trailer park
that has a l ot of people th at are Hispanic that are also
customers . Was ther e any effort made to contact them and
send out notices to them in Spanish and in English or
vice versa , whichever , or both to actually have them be
able to attend , because they didn 't attend the last
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meeting and they 're obviously not here tonight , and I
don 't know if they 're even aware truly of what could
potentially take place , and I think if they weren 't
notified or if there was no way for them to be notified
at this point , I think that 's a true injustice of this
system . That 's all I have .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Yes , ma 'am ,
please --just before you come forward , is there anybody
else that would l i ke to make a statement , because we
could do this for a long time? If anybody else wants to
speak for the first time , let 's get them first and then
we 'll get back to you . Please come forward .
JENNIFER WILCOX ,
appearing as a p ublic witness , having been duly s wo rn ,
was examined and testified as follows :
BY MR . KLEIN :
Q
name .
A
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EXAMINATION
Please state your name and spell yo u r l ast
Jennifer K. Wilcox , W-i -1 -c -o -x .
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Q What 's your residence address?
A 184 North 3990 East .
Q Are you a customer of Morning View
Water?
A Yes , I am .
Q Please go ahead .
A Partly with the gentleman that just posed
a question , I can honestly say that my husband is a
member of the homeowner 's association which was created
about 1 0 years ago , the citizens , the concerned citizens ,
of Morn i ng View Homes . I can honestly say because I
delivered them with him a letter stating what was goin g
to happen tonight , what was going to take place . We hand
delivered them to every home in Morning View Homes .
Another question that I have , I 'm sorry ,
I 'm very nervous because I do not like to speak , for many
years when we moved in in May or talked to No l an in May
of '98 , we built a home and we moved in August of '98 ,
for 18 years we have struggled with a falsified persona
that we were only going to have 40 to 50 homes on our
well . That was told from Nolan Gneiting to my husband
and myself when we built our home in '98 . We could not
sell our home about a year -and-a -half ago because of the
water situati on .
The thing that I am kind of upset about is
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with the rates and the increases that are happening is ,
l i ke everybody else has testified , there are places
around here that pay a lot less than what are being
looked at . Now , I realize --and we told Nolan when we
first moved i n if we had proper pressure and we had
everything that we needed by the pressure when we put our
water sprinkler in , when we put our sprinkler system in ,
we put it in as per the pressure we had at that time . We
have n o t maintained that pressure , except for I will say
when the power went out , we had better pressure with the
generator than we did without , but that 's my own thought ,
so we put our sprinkler system in with the pressure t h at
we had and we 've struggled for years .
Okay , we have an acre . We live on an
acre . I realize we have to pay and we have been given an
amount of unlimited water for the 49 .48 we have paid .
The contingency fund , that is a facade . I don 't even why
that was even put into play , because that doesn 't even
exist in this world as far as there should be somet hin g
in there that should go towards this loan that we
supposedly have to pay , and one of my concerns is we have
a mortgage on our home , now we have a mortgage on our
water , and I think that 's really sad living in the United
States of America .
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We have tried often to look at getting a
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well into our own personal property , but like others have
said , we have to pay the monthly bill to Morning View
Homes . We are like everybody e ls e , if we can branch off
and do our own thing , hallelujah , that 's what we 're going
to do . The one thing I would like to pose a question is
with this loan that the Morning View customers have to
pay back with the increase of --what we 're looking at is
maybe , like , $17 .00 on top of what we were paying , plus
we 're allotted so much and then , you know , we pay on top
of that for the metered water and that we realize . We 're
willing to pay that because we want a nice yard . That 's
what we want and we 're willing to pay for that , but not
for the same rates in the wintertime .
I 've got my monthly bill right here , the
yearly bill that he sent out , and if you can tell me
November and December of 2015 our water usage was the
exact same amount , that 's like winning the lottery .
Well , I 'll tell you what , it 's proposed five months worth
of use I have 20 ,000 gallons that we will use in five
months and pay this so -called $63 .00 a month rate . Yes ,
we use more in the summertime because we choose to and
we 're willing to pay for that . We have never denied not
wanting to pay that amount . We 're willing because we
choose to , but I think during the winter months that is a
little blase .
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A water company should not profit .
Somebody should not expect to live off other people 's
expenses or their --I mean , we all work hard . Some have
jobs , some have part -time jobs . Some are single
families , single parents , and I say good to them , because
they 're going back to school to better themselves . We
have a lot of retirees and you know what , there 's nothing
wrong with living in a retired area . Heck , yeah , I love
them , bring it on , but you know what , they should not
have to pay for somebody else 's negligence . I guess the
biggest thing I am frustrated about is he has never ever
passed an audit , like a full audit . We hear about an
audit going in , it 's never completed .
If we go forward with this loan , I am
posing a question , I would really like to see until this
loan is paid off that Nolan Gneiting as far as Morning
View Water is audited every year thoroughly , that t h e
money is going where it should be going , what should be
done , how it should be used , explain everything . That I
am posing as a plea to you guys , but if this does go
forward , please hold his hand. Please audit him . Please
make sure that if we have to pay this that our
hard-earned money is going where it actually should go ,
not to where it 's not , and one last comment I would like
to pose is Nolan paying the same rates on the property he
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owns that we are all expected to . That is a quest i on
that I pose . Thank you for your time .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you .
THE WITNESS : Any questions?
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : No questions .
Thank you very much .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Little leeway , but
please refrain . Is there anybody else that would like to
make a statement? Ma 'am , if you would like t o speak for
a second time , that would be fine .
THE WITNESS : Yes , please . Thank you .
LADENE CAMPBELL ,
appearing as a public witness , having been previously
duly sworn , resumed the stand and further testified as
follows :
THE WITNESS : Ladene Campbell . It 's more
of a question , and I read in the information , the letter
that was sent out , that we were paying 40 .94 a month and
we were doubled to 81 .88 a month , plus they were reading
meters on top of that . That base pay to me is utterly
ridiculous . We can 't afford it and we don 't want it if
that 's what we 've got to pay is the meter reading on top
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of that base pay , and I want you to think really hard
about that , please . Thank you .
Campbell .
something .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank yo u , Ms.
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Anyone else?
MR . NEWTON : I would just like to add
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Yes , please
restate your name , too .
MARTIN NEWTON ,
appearing as a public witness , having been previously
duly sworn , resumed the stand and further testified as
f o ll ows :
THE WITNESS : Martin Newton , Sr . I just
don 't understand , we 're --I mean , I don 't even see
anything on our water , you know , the quantity or the
quality of it , and I 've never seen anything . I hear all
this about the money that he 's spending for this and
that , but I don 't see the whole picture , you know , how
much money you 've got corning in and all that . I just see
the lopsided picture of this whole thing and I don 't
think that 's fair .
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If you 're going to run a business ,
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then you need to show the whole picture , not just what
you 're spending or whatever and I don 't see any of that .
I haven 't seen any of that at all . That 's all I have to
say .
Newton .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you , Mr .
(The witness left the stand .)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Anyone else?
Thank you . I think we need to discuss what remains
procedurally , so the deadline for interested persons to
file written comments was August 19 , 2016 ; the deadline
for the Company to file written replies is September 2nd ,
2016 , and that 's when the case will be fully submitted
and that 's when our deliberations will be taking place .
I want to thank everyone for coming out
tonight . I know that there 's a lot of angst and a lot of
heartfelt concern about what 's happening in your area and
the Commissioners will certainly take all this under
advisement and we will deliberate on that behalf in due
time , so with that being said , that fulfills our
obligation . Did Commissioner Raper wish to make a
comment?
COMMISSIONER RAPER : One . I was just
going to encourage everyone , I understand and numbers
aren 't necessarily my thing either , I 'm not an
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accountant , I 'm an attorney , but I would encourage you to
look at Staff 's comments that are now filed for the
record . Staff is a party to this case . We are not in
any way obligated to adopt Staff 's proposal , the same way
we 're not ob ligated to adopt the Company 's proposal , but
a lot of people have posed questions and asked things
regarding where the Company is going to use the money ,
where the money comes from , how it 's going to get paid ,
and while Staff 's comments are long and they are in depth
because they are intended to be , there 's a lot of
inf ormation in those comments that can be gained in
answer to your questions , and part of the benefit that we
ha ve in having that Staff in -house is we have economists ,
accountants , engineers , auditors , and there have been
audits done of the Company 's records in furtherance of
this case in order to assist Commissioner Anderson and
Commissioner Kjellander and I in making a final dec i sion
as to what will happen regarding the Company 's proposal
for a rate increase , so I would encourage you to go back
and look at those to the extent that those numbers may
answer some of the questions that you have , but other
than that , I defer to Commission Anderson in saying that
there 's a reply deadline for the Company September 2nd
and then the case is fully submitted and we delibera t e
and make a final decision .
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Gene?
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MR . FADNESS : Chris , you might want to
give them the website in case they --to read the
comments , go to puc .idaho .gov and then under open cases
click on the water heading , click on open cases and then
you 'll see Morning View , MNV-W-16-01 .
COMMISSIONER RAPER : Thank you , and I
reiterate , we are not obligated to adopt Staff 's
proposal . I don 't want you to go in there and think that
that looks like our final Order , because it doesn 't
necessarily . We base our final decision on the entire
record , which means the Company 's application , your
comments that have been submitted on the record , the
comments here tonight at the public hearing , and anything
that we get in reply from the Company .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON : Thank you . Well ,
that concludes our public hearing . I thank you all for
your attendance this evening and we are adjourned .
(The Hearing adjourned at 8 :05 p .m.)
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A U T H E N T I C A T I O N
This is to certify that the foregoing
proceedings held in the matter of the application of
Morning View Water Company for authority to increase its
rates and charges for water service in Idaho , commencing
at 7 :00 p .m., on August 23 , 2016 , at the Rigby City Hall ,
158 West Fremont Avenue , Rigby , Idaho , is a true and
correct transcript of said proceedings and the original
thereof for the file of the Commission .
CSB REPORTING
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CONSTANCE
Certified Shorthand Reporter
49 AUTHENTICATION
..;
I ,,
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