19971027.docx

MINUTES OF DECISION MEETING
October 27, 1997 - 1:30 p.m.
In attendance were Commissioners Dennis Hansen, Ralph Nelson and Marsha H. Smith and staff members Don Howell, Weldon Stutzman, Scott Woodbury, Brad Purdy, Joe Cusick, Keith Hessing, Stephanie Miller, Tonya Clark, Birdelle Brown, David Scott, Terri Carlock, Bill Eastlake, Lynn Anderson and Myrna Walters. Also in attendance was John Souba of U S West;  and Fred Logan and Ranae Willer of GTE.  
Commission President Hansen called the decision meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance.
Items from the Published October 27, 1997 Agenda were discussed and acted upon as follows.
1. Minutes of October 8 and 14, 1997 Decision Meetings were considered. Commissioner Nelson made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected; motion carried unanimously.
CONSENT AGENDA
Items 2 thru 12 were on the Consent Agenda.
Commissioner Hansen made a motion to approve Items 2 thru 12, with the exception of Item 4 which the Commission desires to discuss. Commissioner Smith said she would support that motion if she could comment about Item 2 (EAS Petition from Boise River Subscribers of Rural Telephone Company requesting EAS into Mountain Home and U S West’s Treasure Valley EAS Region). Her comment was that staff should pay attention to the fact that the petition was signed by 110 “residents”. There may not be that many full time residents of the area.  
Commissioner Hansen then called for a vote on his motion. Commissioners Nelson and Smith supported the motion.
4. Birdelle Brown’s October 20, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: U S West Advice 96-10-N to Restructure Local Transport Charges, Effective October 17, 1997 (USW-T-97-3).
Commissioner Smith asked if this was the tariff advice that AT&T has petitioned for reconsideration on?
Birdelle Brown responded it was.
Commissioner Smith said while she recognized that a petition for reconsideration doesn’t stay an order, think there should be discussion on whether or not the Commission wants to approve the tariffs while there is a petition pending.
Don Howell said Commissioner Smith has quoted the statute properly but this may just be a procedural matter.
Birdelle Brown said the way the order was written, the order approved the tariff and said it would be effective as soon as U S West could file with an effective date. Because of that she assumed the tariff was approved and then action would be taken on the petition, but also didn’t have a problem with holding the tariff until it is resolved.
Commissioner Nelson said this would be consistent with what the Commission did in the rate case, approved the tariffs, then considered the petition for reconsideration.
Commissioner Smith said she does not have a problem approving the tariff but thought there should be a discussion because of the petition for reconsideration.
Commissioner Nelson said it seemed consistent with what we have done in the past and he would make a motion to go ahead and approve the tariff. Motion carried.
MATTERS IN PROGRESS
13. Brad Purdy’s October 10, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Case No. GTE-T-97-5; Application of GTE Northwest to revise Depreciation Rates. (Held from October 14 Decision Meeting).
Brad Purdy reviewed the memo. Said Attachment I to the Decision Memo sets out the existing rates, the requested changes and staff’s position on the eight accounts and for comparison, U S West’s rates that the Commission approved fairly recently. Said basically what the Commission is being presented with is to go with GTE, staff or U S West rates or some variation of those.  
Commissioner Hansen called for questions.
Commissioner Nelson said in reading this over and reading the comments,  he was unwilling to make the large leap that GTE has requested at this time, without a more thorough case. Would approve an increase to staff’s position. Would note that GTE in their comments say they have made repeated requests for this Commission to review their rates. Their last rate case was 1988 and he didn’t recall that there had been repeated requests.
Commissioner Smith asked Commissioner Nelson if he would then approve staff’s recommendation? Her recommendation was: on digital switching, would go with U S West’s numbers as a more of a indication of reasonable depreciation rate  and for aerial and cable would take GTE and on other two would go with staff - she was proposing a mix.
Commissioner Hansen said he felt comfortable with what the Commission had issued in Order No. 27100 for U S West. Was having a difficult time seeing why if those rates were in order for U S West, why would you be using in some cases a lower percentage than the order of U S West. Staff must have agreed with the Commission on that prior order. Asked about digital switching, why the 8.1 rather than the 10.5%?
Commissioner Nelson said he thought this reflected numbers from the three way  review.
Terri Carlock said it reflected what was shown on Attachment 2, the most recent information from the three-way review of GTE. Some of the differences also have to do with reserve balances.
Commissioner Hansen asked if there were other questions?
Commissioner Nelson asked when the last three-way meeting was held on GTE?
Terri responded it was 1994. It was due to be done again this year.
Commissioner Smith asked if the three-way meeting has been discontinued?
Terri Carlock said it has.
Commissioner Smith explained the reason she varied on aerial cable was because it was considerably more than they asked for. GTE requested 6.5 - considerably less than requested by U S West. She went over her proposal again: Take all of the numbers on Column F(U S West) except aerial cable - fiber, which she would then take GTE’s number on that. Then on buried cable-metallic, would take staff number.   It may not take into account reserve accounts.
Commissioner Nelson commented that if we approve these depreciation rates, we aren’t changing rates now.
**There will be no rate impact at this time.
Commissioner Smith said that she would make her suggestion in the form of a motion.
Motion passed unanimously.
**Staff is to come up with a composite rate.
14. Wayne Hart’s October 22, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Washington County Petition for Extended Calling Area Between the Payette, Weiser, Midvale, Cambridge, Fruitland, New Plymouth and Ontario, Oregon Exchanges as well as Inclusion in the Treasure Valley Extended Area Service Region.  
Joe Cusick reviewed the memo, in Wayne Hart’s absence. Staff would like to break out the exchanges of Midvale and Cambridge to be examined at another time in addition to Ontario which is clearly a more complicated case.
Commissioner Smith made a motion to adopt staff recommendation. Motion passed unanimously.
15. Weldon Stutzman’s October 24, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Request for Approval of Interconnection Agreement Between Spring Communications and U S West; Case Nos. SPR-T-97-3 and USW-T-97-16.
Weldon reviewed the memo.
Commissioner Nelson said he was in favor of approving the agreement but wondered if 60 days was enough time to submit modified terms. If a time frame is put in, suggested it be 90 days rather than 60. Commissioner Nelson made that in the form of a motion - that the agreement be approved and the parties be directed to submit modified terms within 90 days. Motion carried unanimously.
16. Discussion of the Motion for Extension of Time to File Direct Testimony on behalf of U S West Communications, Inc. in GNR-T-96-6/GNR-T-97-3/GNR-T-97-8.
Don Howell reviewed the U S West filing. Staff  recommends that if the Commission grants the extension,  it be granted with the requirement that the filing be in-hand not later than Friday, October 31.
Commissioner Smith made a motion to approve the extension with the caveat of staff. Was discussion of the “in-hand” filing requirement. All parties and counsel are in-town and there should be no problem with this requirement.  Motion carried unanimously.
17. Don Howell’s October 23, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Worldcom, Inc’s Notification of its Proposed Acquisition of MCI Telecommunications Corporation.
Don said the decision memo addressed the notice received from Worldcom of its proposed acquisition of MCI Telecomm.Corp. If it is a Title 62 company, Commission doesn’t have a proceeding, but since this is an  acquisition matter, staff would respond to their attorneys that the Commission does not contemplate a proceeding. But because both these companies have asked for Title 61 certificates and there is not a need for both certificates,  if the proposal goes through, they are to advise the Commission which certificate they will pursue.
Commissioner Hansen made a motion to approve staff recommendation. Motion passed unanimously.
18. Don Howell’s October 23, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Settlement Stipulation and Motion to Dismiss in Case Nos. GNR-T-93-21 and GNR-T-95-1.
Don reviewed the memo. Said what was filed last Friday, October 24, was a Settlement and Motion to Dismiss.  
Commissioner Smith commented that she thought if the Commission hadn’t gotten around to a hearing in 4 years, she would approve the stipulation and dismiss the case.   Carried unanimously.
19. Scott Woodbury’s October 22, 1997 Decision Memorandum re: Case No. WWP-E-97-10 Power Cost Adjustment Methodology WWP Petition for Clarification.
Staff has reviewed prior Commission orders establishing WWP PCA methodology. Staff recommends that the Commission issue an order clarifying the appropriateness of excluding Palo Verde trading from the secondary price calculation used in determining monthly PCA deferrals.  
Commissioner Smith made a motion to adopt staff recommendation. Motion carried unanimously. Order will go out parties commenting in previous WWP Case  WWP-E-94-4.
FULLY SUBMITTED MATTERS
20. USW-T-97-5/MTI-T-91-1 McLeod v. U S West.
Commissioner Hansen said this matter would be considered in private deliberation.
Meeting was adjourned.
Dated at Boise, Idaho, this 29th day of October, 1997.
Myrna J. Walters
Commission Secretary