20100816Transcript, Telephonic Hearing.pdf

ORIGINAL
e BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF MURRAY WATER WORKS SYSTEMS
FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS
RATES AND CHARGES FOR WATER
SERVICE
Case No.
MUR-W- 10-01
TELEPHONIC HEARING
HEARING BEFORE
COMMISSIONER JIM D. KEMPTON (Presiding)
COMMISSIONER MARSHA H. SMITH (via telephone)
COMMISSIONER MACK A. REDFORD (via telephone)
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PLACE:Commission Hearing Room
472 West Washington Street
Boise, Idaho
DATE:August 12, 2010
VOLUME I - Pages 1 - 10
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POST OFFICE BOX 578
BOISE, IDAHO 83701
208-336-9208
e HEDRICK
COURT REPORTING
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2 For the Staff:
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APPEARANCES
NEIL PRICE, Esq.
Deputy Attorney General
472 West Washington
Boise, Idaho 83702
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
APPEARANCES
e 1 I N D E X
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WITNESS EXAMINATION BY PAGE
3 Allen Bersaglieri Sworn 4
4 (Public)Statement 5
Commissioner Smith 6
5 Commissioner Kempton 7
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e 13 EXHIBITS
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(No exhibits were marked.)
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
INDEX
EXHIBITS
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1 BOISE, IDAHO, THURSDAY, AUGUST 12,2010,8:30 P.M. MDT
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4 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: It's 8: 30 p. m. mountain
5 time, 7:30 in North Idaho, p.m., and it's Thursday, August 12,
6 2010. Location is the PUC hearing room in Boise, Idaho. It's
7 the date, time, and place specified in Commission Order No.
8 32035 to conduct a telephonic public hearing for the purpose of
9 taking testimony in the matter of the Application of Murray
10 Water Works Systems for authority to increase rates and charges
11 for water service, otherwise identified as Case No.
12 MUR-W-10-01. The proceedings in this case are being conducted
13 in accordance with Commission jurisdiction under Title 61,
14 Idaho Code, and Commission Rules of Procedure under IDAPA
15 31.01.01.
16 The Chair for the hearing this evening will be
17 Jim Kempton, and Commissioners in attendance are Commissioners
18 Marsha Smith and Commissioner Mack Redford.
19 The Staff is Deputy Attorney General Neil Price
20 and Ron Law and Chris Hecht.
21 And at this point
22 MR. LAW: And Gene Fadness.
23 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: And Gene Fadness, I'm
24 sorry, and several others in attendance -- other Staff members
25 in attendance.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
COLLOQUY
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1 I think I'll just announce at this point that the
2 lines are open for callers to come in, and if we get one, then
3 I'll go ahead with some additional procedures for the hearing
4 tonight.
5 If there are no callers, the plan will be to hold
6 the phone open for 30 minutes.
7 (Discussion off the record.)
8 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: I think also for the
9 record I'LL identify the other Staff members that worked on
10 this. That will be Joe Leckie and Gerry Galinato, spelled on
11 the last one G-A-L-I-N-A-T-O.
12 And, Gerry, I think Neil is going to put this on
13 the agenda for Monday, so you want to come in and when we have
14 this after the hearing on Monday, come on in because we'll go
15 ahead when we privately deliberate it and look at the options,
16 you know, that you developed, and then we'll discuss those and
17 see where everybody wants to go on the rate.
18 MR. GALINATO: Okay.
19 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: And I think we'll go off
20 the record until --
21 (Discussion off the record.)
22 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Going back on the record.
23 Hello?
24 MR. LAW: He can't hear you. You have to tell
25 him to press star one if he wants to be on.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
COLLOQUY
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1 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Go ahead and make that
2 announcement. Do you want me to make it?
3 MR. LAW: Yeah.
4 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: If you're on the line and
5 if you would like to present testimony in the hearing, would
6 you push star one, please, on your phone?
7 MR. LAW: Okay. All righty, I i m going to put him
8 into the queue. Did you want to mention when he hears, "As k
9 your question now," to identify him/herself?
10 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Well, we're just trying to
11 check and see if there's somebody on the line yet --
12 MR. LAW: There is.
13 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON:that would like to
14 testify, and if you do, you should have heard the queue
15 RECORDED VOICE: Participant line unmuted.
16 MR. BERSAGLIERI: Yes, hi. My name is Al
17 Bersaglieri. Are you ready to hear my testimony?
COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Yes, we are. And let me
19 just go through a couple of other things.
20 The Commissioners at the hearing tonight are
21 myself, Jim Kempton; I'm the chair. Commissioner Mack Redford
22 and Marsha Smith are also here. The Deputy Attorney General
23 Neil Price is here. And there are some procedural
24 considerations I need to go ahead and go over with you just a
e 25 little bit.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
COLLOQUY
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1 You i re on the line and you i re in contact with us,
2 so what I need to have you do is to make sure that if you've
3 got a radio or something on in the background and I don't hear
4 it, you should turn it off.
5 And you'll be sworn in by Deputy Attorney General
6 Neil Price. You i II be asked to state your full name for the
7 record and spell your last name, provide your mailing address.
8 And then at the end of your testimony, the
9 Commissioners will probably want to ask you some questions.
10 And the other thing is that because this is a
11 hearing, the Commission doesn't usually answer questions about
12 the specifics of the case. They take the testimony and they
13 will respond to that testimony with questions if they have any
14 after you state your testimony.
15 So, if you i re ready to be sworn in, Neil --
16 MR. PRICE: Good evening, sir. Could you please
17 state your name and spell your last for the record?
18 MR. BERSAGLIERI: Yes. My name is Allen
19 Bersaglieri. That's B-E-R-S-A-G-L-I-E-R-I.
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21 ALLEN BERSAGLIERI,
22 appearing as a public witness, being first duly sworn, was
23 examined and testified as follows:
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25 MR. PRICE: Go ahead and proceed.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
BERSAGLIERI
Public
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1 THE WITNESS: Yes. My wife and I have been
2 residents -- full-time residents -- in Murray, Idaho, since
3 October 20, 2005. Ever since that first initial meeting with
4 Murray Water Works, we have been constantly aware of their
5 inabili ty -- Murray Water Works' inability -- to adequately
6 supply year-round guaranteed water to our residence. The
7 problems have been many.
8 Our initial hookup, we had to wait three days for
9 our first hookup after we got in our house.
10 Number two, constant pressure failures
11 unannounced. Also, inadequate pressures to this day.
12 Number three, Prichard Creek Road damage to
13 Murray Water Works repairs, ditches and bumps in access roads.
14 Number four, no billing procedure, just, "Send in
15 your checks, that's all we need."
16 Number five, no water when power outages occur
17 due to inadequate pump power. No backup generators.
18 And number six, overall inability to supply water
19 to residences in emergencies such as for fire, not adequate nor
20 professional.
21 End of commentary.
22 MR. PRICE: Thank you, sir.
23 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Okay. Commissioner Smith
24 or Commissioner Redford, do you have any questions?
25 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: Not from me. This is
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
BERSAGLIERIPublic
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1 Commissioner Redford.
2 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes.
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4 EXAMINATION
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6 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
7 Q.Commissioner Smith wonders if we could have his
8 address of where he's located so we could find him on the
9 system.
10 A.My address?
11 Q.Yes, please.
12 A.Okay.6518 Prichard Creek Road.
13 Q.And do you know --
14 A.Yeah, in Murray, Idaho.
15 Q.Do you know if your -- are you at an elevation,
16 you know, uphill from the main system?
17 A.Yes, we are.
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: That's all I had. Thank
19 you--
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THE WITNESS: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER SMITH:Commissioner.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
BERSAGLIERI (Com)
Public
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1 EXAMINATION
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3 BY COMMISSIONER KEMPTON:
4 Q.This is Commissioner Kempton. I'd like to follow
5 up with a couple of questions, follow up with what Commissioner
6 Smith was asking.
7 You're uphill. About how high above where the
8 pressure pump is are you?
9 A.Probably -- now, I 'm just guessing -- probably 50
10 feet.
11 Q.Okay. And what kind of pressure are you talking
12 about when you say it's inadequate pressure? Where would that
13 start?
14 A.It starts with every faucet or --
15 Q.What kind of pressure? Have you run a check on
16 it? Do you know what it is?
17 A.I have no idea. All I know is that coming out of
18 my shower, it's inadequate; coming out of my faucets, it i s
19 inadequate.
20 By "inadequate," I mean we have water, but if
21 other people turn on their systems down below us, it i s like,
22 forget it.
23 I have one thing to add.
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Q.Go ahead.
A.He has come up last summer and repaired, I
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
BERSAGLIERI (Com)
Public
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1 believe, some of the leaks. There were some leaks in the line
2 that he put in when he bought the system, and it has improved
3 since then.
4 Q.Okay. And what kind of -- if you were talking
5 about sufficiency and you're talking about fire suppression,
6 what would you think would be necessary there?
7 A.Well, right now if there's a fire in town, forget
8 it: There's no water.
9 Q.I know. But you're faulting him for not having a
10 fire system sufficient for fire suppression. What would that
11 be?
12 A.Well, there i s three fire hydrants in town but
13 there's no water to them.
14 Q.Okay. And when the power goes out --
15 A.There's no water.
16 Q.there i S no backup at all? I mean, there's no
17 backup generator at all that you know of?
18 A.No, there 's, no, none.
19 Q.Okay. All right, I don't have any more
20 questions, so we'll take your comments into consideration
21 during the time that we deliberate this case, and we'll
22 probably do the deliberation on it fairly soon, like within the
23 next week. It will take a little time to get the Order out
24 after that, but we appreciate you coming on and giving us some
e 25 testimony on this.
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
BERSAGLIERI (Com)Public
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1 A.Well, I appreciate talking to you, sir.
2 Q.Thank you very much.
3 A.Thank you. Are we done?
4 Q.We are.
5 A.All right. Bye-bye.
6 (The witness was excused.)
7 A VOICE: That was cool.
8 RECORDED VOICE: There are no more questions.
9 (Discussion off the record.)
10 (Whereupon, Commissioner Redford left the
11 hearing. )
12 COMMISSIONER KEMPTON: Okay, let's go ahead and
13 go back on the record, and the time now being 9:00 p.m. and
14 there being no additional callers on the hearing, the hearing
15 is adjourned.
16 (The hearing was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
17 MDT.)
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
COLLOQUY
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AUTHENTICATION
4 This is to certify that the foregoing is a
5 true and correct transcript to the best of my ability of the
6 proceedings held in the matter of the Application of Murray
7 Water Works Systems for authority to increase its rates and
8 charges for water service, Case No. MUR-W-10-01, commencing on
9 Thursday, August 12, 2010, at the Commission Hearing Room, 472
10 West Washington, Boise, Idaho, and the original thereof for the
11 file of the Commission.
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WENDY J. MURRAY Public
in and for the e of Idaho,
residing at Meridian, Idaho.
My Commission expires 2-8-2014.
Idaho CSR No. 475
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HEDRICK COURT REPORTING
P. O. BOX 578, BOISE, ID 83701
AUTHENTICATION