19970918_1.docx

MINUTES OF DECISION MEETING
September 18, 1997 - 1:00 p.m.
In attendance were Commissioners Dennis Hansen, Ralph Nelson and Marsha H. Smith and staff members Brad Purdy, Scott Woodbury, Birdelle Brown, Carolee Hall, David Scott, Ron Law, Don Howell, Joe Cusick, Weldon Stutzman, Tonya Clark, Bill Eastlake and Myrna Walters. Also in attendance were Ron Lightfoot of U S West; Joe Miller, Attorney at Law, and Denise Wheeler, Petitioner.
Commission President Dennis Hansen called the meeting to order.  
First item on the agenda was approval of Minutes from September 3, 1997 Decision Meeting. Commissioner Smith made a motion to approve the minutes; passed unanimously.
Next to be considered were Items 2 - 11 on the Consent Agenda portion of the published agenda.  
Commissioner Hansen made a motion to approve the consent agenda based on staff recommendation. Commissioner Nelson called for the question. Motion carried unanimously.
Matters in Progress considered were.
12. Carolee Hall’s September 15, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Fremont Telcom’s Addition of Business Rates to Custom Calling Features and to Increase Rates for Caller ID for residential.
Carolee reviewed the filing. Said these rates will mirror U S West’s current Caller ID rates. Company would like an effective date as of today since they have already advertised and sent out notice. They will in the future give 30 day notice. Staff recommends approval.
Commissioner Nelson made a motion to approved the filing and staff’s recommendation. Motion passed unanimously.
13. Don Howell’s September 15, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: EAS Petition Among the Citizens’ Exchanges of Homedale, Wilder and Parma, to the U S West Exchanges of Caldwell and Nampa, Case Nos. CTC-T-97-3, GNR-T-93-7 and GNR-T-93-11.
Don Howell reviewed the matter. Said on July 8, U S West and Citizens were encouraged to work out their differences on calling plans. Monday the companies filed a letter (copy of which was attached to the decision memorandum - details of the proposal are set out there).
Commissioner Hansen called for questions. Said he had one - is this a two-way communication between both the citizens of U S West and Citizens?
Don Howell replied it was.
Commissioner Hansen commented - Citizens will be given a choice to sign up for this. Customers from U S West would ultimately be given Parma/Homedale, etc. Asked about the people in the Treasure Valley, would it still be long distance for Boise to call into that?
Don Howell replied it would be up to the Commission to decide that.
Commissioner Smith said after the meeting in July, when one-way was approved, the companies were encouraged to work together. Said she was disappointed it took so long, so she told both companies that 120 days for implementation was unacceptable. Citizens said they could implement by November 19 so it is her hope that U S West will do whatever it needs to speedily implement this and by the end of the year -Christmas-and maybe even match Citizens’ November 19 date. So would then move that the Commission approve this with two-way calling between Nampa and Caldwell only at this time because, (1) It is her understanding that U S West implementation would be faster - speed is important and (2) It is also her understanding that Citizens after the first of the year will be filing its restructuring case that will include an option for Boise and the remainder of the Treasure Valley calling area. Said she was willing to give them a couple more months to work on their pricing, since at this time it is based on estimates.
Commissioner Nelson said he would say that he supports that motion because he views this as an interim solution. There are more discussions on-going on this. While he didn’t see this as the final product, see it is as a good plan for right now.  
Commissioner Hansen said he was also in support of Commissioner Smith’s motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
RULEMAKING
14. Brad Purdy’s September 16, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Case No. 31-6101-9701 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Promulgating New and Amending Existing Motor Carrier Rules (IDAPA 31.61.01.000)
Brad Purdy reviewed the proposed rules.
Only party submitting comments was Idaho Transportation Department. ITD noted that the Feds published notice of proposed rulemaking and an interim final rule. Final rule is expected to be in place by November 28, 1997. They urged the Commission to act as soon as possible after that date to adopt the final federal rule so rating of motor carriers can be reinstituted. Staff responded that it is not feasible for us to adopt a rule that we have not seen yet. We need to wait to see if it is appropriate for Idaho. The timing would also not be right. Staff recommends that the Commission wait and see what the Feds do in November,  then we can issue a temporary rule.
Commissioner Smith commented - we suspended our rules because of the court case.   Question is: if the federal rules are adopted as they have been proposed, then since part of our rules are temporarily suspended,  would it be appropriate to reinstate them or are we going to start from scratch?
Ron Law replied - the rule will cover everybody else... the industry is opposing some of the things they have come out with in the notice of proposed rulemaking.  
Commissioner Smith asked if it would be reasonable for this Commission to modify our rules and lift the temporary with respect to passengers and hazardous materials?
Ron replied that that could be done. (Could lift the suspension of those rules so we would be back doing safety ratings.)  
Commissioner Smith said her main concern was safety of the public and she was just trying to figure out what we should do here.
Ron said for the Commission to lift the suspension on passengers and hazardous materials might be the thing to do, but don’t know about  incorporating the federal into our rulemaking. Have two issues - (1) our existing rules, do we want to lift part of the suspension? (2) Proposed rules to the legislature - staff is recommending we wait until something comes out from the Feds.  
Commissioner Smith said she didn’t have a problem with routes, rates, service and the housekeeping changes, but her concern is should we ax all of them or reinstate with respect to hazardous materials and passengers?
Ron Law responded - we have existing rules now. Commission has suspended a portion of them.  Commission could reinstate. It might be advisable to do so. That is something that could be done now or in the near future.
Commissioner Smith asked if we voted in favor of this, is that still an option?
Commissioner Hansen asked what the pleasure of the Commission was?
Ron Law said to make sure he hasn’t misled Commissioner Smith and perhaps a question to Brad - these rules (proposed) won’t become effective until they have gone through the legislative process. They could be amended, they could be pulled.
Brad Purdy said we can’t adopt something new without going through the whole process. The temporary rule adoption might be the most advisable.
Don Howell said the deadline for the next publication of the rules bulletin is September 24.
Commissioner Hansen asked if there was an advantage to holding this for a week?
Ron Law asked - basically what we are talking about, are we going to put something in that we don’t know exactly what it is going to be? Are we going to go on with where we are and lift the suspension...and address that problem by doing that and at a later date if we find federal rules that we want to incorporate, then go through the temporary rulemaking to do that?
Commissioner Smith said she thought that with adoption of this that all of the rules and the portion of the rules we suspended would be removed and would no longer be in our rules and it would not be an option to reinstate because there wouldn’t be anything to adopt.  
Brad Purdy agreed that was what he thought was correct.
Commissioner Smith asked -  there is no way now to reinstate rules and have them effective until these become effective next July 1?
Ron Law only the safety rules were suspended.
After much discussion, Commissioner Smith made a motion to approve adoption of the proposed rules as final rules pending legislative review by the 1998 legislature.
Motion carried unanimously.
Meeting was adjourned.
Dated at Boise, Idaho, this 2nd day of October, 1997.
Myrna J. Walters
Commission Secretary