19980219_2.docx

Minutes of Decision Meeting
February 19, 1998 - 1:30 p.m.
In attendance were Commissioners Dennis Hansen, Ralph Nelson and Marsha H. Smith and staff members Don Howell, Scott Woodbury, Cheri Copsey,  Joe Cusick, Carolee Hall, Birdelle Brown, Terri Carlock, David Scott, Bev Barker, Rick Sterling, Tonya Clark and Myrna Walters.  Also in attendance were: Conley Ward, Attorney at Law; Joe Miller, Attorney at Law; Mary Hobson, Jim Wozniak and Ron Lightfoot of U S West; Jeannette Bowman of Idaho Power Company;  Eileen Benner of AT&T and Allyson Anderson, Administrator of the USF Fund.
Commission President Dennis Hansen called the meeting to order.
Items from the Published February 19, 1998 Decision Agenda were discussed and acted upon as set out in these Minutes.
Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting - 1. Minutes of February 10, 1998 Decision Meeting (Minutes have previously been reviewed by Commissioners).
Commissioner Smith made a motion to approve the minutes; motion carried unanimously.
Items 2 - 6 are listed on the Consent Agenda portion of the 2-19-98 Agenda.
These items were considered at this time.
Commissioner Hansen asked if there were any comments or questions regarding these issues?
Commissioner Nelson made a motion to approve all the items on the Consent Agenda; motion carried unanimously.
Matters in Progress
7. Carolee Hall’s February 12, 1998 Decision Memorandum re: Citizens Telecommunications Company of Idaho Requesting Approval to Decrease its Common Carrier Line Rate (CCL) Per Advice No. ID-98-02.
Carolee reviewed the decision memorandum. Said this decrease was the result of a staff audit. Company has also mentioned they will be coming in for rate rebalancing in the future. Staff would recommend approval of the requested decrease in common carrier line rate.
Commissioner Hansen called for discussion or questions.
Commissioner Nelson made a motion to approve the request.
Commissioner Smith commented regarding a letter from AT&T speaking to this matter. Said it disturbed her to get that kind of response.   Commission could address the concerns in the letter  by denying  the immediate access charge  decrease and proceeding  on to a full case and then decide what to do. Said she was disappointed to get this reaction but was in favor of approving staff’s recommendation. Made that a motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
8. Joe Cusick’s February 17, 1998 Decision Memorandum re: Proposal to Increase Idaho Universal Service Fund (IUSF) Surcharge Rates.
Joe Cusick reviewed the decision memorandum. Spoke to Allyson Anderson, IUSF Administrator’s 2-2-98 letter to the Commissioners indicating that there is a greater draw down to the fund due to the lag in reporting/remitting by the companies and that consequently a surcharge increase is needed to be effective no later than March 1, 1998.
Staff has submitted two alternatives.   Copies of those proposals were made available to the Commissioners and those in attendance at the decision meeting.
Commissioner Nelson said he had a proposal. Would like to actually make two proposals and either one would be acceptable to him.
1. Said if you look at the second sheet of the submittal by staff  where it says “building reserves”,  in the third block of the four, on the Toll Minutes line with rate of 0.002 for a total of 609,280, if you substitute .0020, the total would be 880,334 , that would build the fund by approximately $100,000 and give you a fund balance of  $266,000 March 1999.
Other proposal was the first one he had worked out which would be similar to the third box on the first page - maintaining current disbursements would take 0.12 and 0.23 and set the toll at .0025 which would be $761,000 in toll minutes.
Commissioner Hansen asked Commissioner Smith if she had any numbers?
Commissioner Smith replied that she had spent a lot of time being confused about how the Commission got here so she went back 2 years to 1996 where the decision seemed to be a choice of keeping the status quo to reduce the fund and maintain of contributions between toll  local on and  going 50/50 spread increasing surcharges.   That would increase the fund some. She went for Choice 3 (fund increase)  and other commissioners went for No.1 (status quo).  Said it was interesting that the memos said the fund would be solvent until October 1997. Wondered why the Commission wasn’t asked to increase surcharges  in October of 1997? Is the EAS revenue change enough to make the difference? Don’t know what the missing link is.   Said she was confused by the numbers and was concerned about why it wasn’t apparent in September 1997 that this was going to occur. Thought it would be foreseeable. Would like to implement an emergency rate that would bring the total closer to an equal split but was not interested in going up enough to build much of a reserve. Think this needs a thorough examination of the numbers by Allyson Anderson and staff to know where we are. Don’t want to do anything too drastic until then. Examination should be between now and September and decide what should be put into place by October,  which would include some future reserve. Want numbers that do those things.
Commissioner Hansen said he felt that by September the Commission would have much better numbers  and could make a better decision about where it should be going. Would like to propose an alternative also and it would be more in the range of just fixing it to get by right now until September 1. So his proposal was: on the first set of numbers we have a fund change on the second column where we change residential to $.15 from $.06 and change business lines from l4 to 23 cents and then he would be for leaving the toll minutes at $.0015 as they are right now and would ask the staff based on that if he followed their analysis,  would be left with $172,000 surplus at the end?
Joe Cusick responded on an annualized basis it would be $172,000.
Commissioner Nelson clarified that it only increases the fund by $6,100 a year, a very nominal amount.
Joe Cusick said staff is assuming a balance of $161,000 and at the end of the year it would be $172,000.
Commissioner Hansen in review said there were now three proposals - asked if there were any others?
Commissioner Smith commented that the Commission has received a letter from Eileen Benner that alleges that during the year between July 1, 1996 and June 30, 1997, MTS/WATs surcharges contributed 60% of funding needs compared to only 40% contribution from local line surcharges.  Said if she looked at the rates if they remained unchanged for 2 years, if this is the amount of revenue next to the current rate on residential of $.06 - ?
Joe Cusick said that was correct.
Commissioner Smith continued - and that is the amount of revenue on business lines next to the $0.14 - looked like that was more than the $38,080.  
Joe Cusick said that was correct, he was looking at the administrator’s annual report that was filed for the year ended June 30, 1997 which shows local service at $590,000 and toll at $855,000. Think that is where those figures are from. That is all local surcharges.
Commissioner Smith asked -  but this number, the $38,000, is it a current number based on the minutes now, has it decreased because of EAS?
Joe Cusick said the toll minutes are a December 1997 figure. All of these exhibits are annualized off of that one month. Those minutes are down. The toll minutes were 559,230,000.
Allyson commented it was 46,000,000 a month.
After much discussion, Commissioner Nelson asked if this could be held for a week to get a better idea.
Commissioner Smith said she would first like a response on the toll minutes.
Allyson Anderson said it was 559,000,000 which was calendar year ‘96 minutes. They are reported by calendar year. Was 46,000,000 per month but for December 1997 it was 25,000,000.  For three months across the board everyone has been down.
Commissioners agreed this matter should be held until the next decision meeting (February 26).
9. Don Howell’s February 18, 1998 Decision Memorandum re: Joint Motion of Staff, Silver Star and Teton Telecom to Adopt Stipulation and Settlement Agreement and Issue a Proposed Order in the Eastern Idaho EAS Cases, Nos. GNR-T-96-6/97-3/97-8.
Don reviewed the decision memo.   Said U S West was not a party to the stipulation and agreement. Staff is suggesting a proposed order.  
Commissioner Hansen said he had a question on Silver Star, it looked like they had an agreement for measured service  with Teton and Driggs and didn’t for Wayan.
Don explained that staff wanted measured service for everyone but when they looked at it in depth, Wayan would cost $80,000 for equipment for measured service which caused the parties to decide against that expenditure.    Staff and the company concluded that the whole idea of measured service was for people who couldn’t afford the $24.00 increase and that would be covered by Lifeline and Link-up. Assuming legislation passes, would be eligible for $10.00 credit which would move flat rate down from $24.10 to $13.60.
Commissioner Nelson asked if this adjustment of rates, this was an issue in a prior decision memo because some of the companies weren’t at 125%, does that help resolve this?
Don Howell said he has noted to check that very issue. If the Commissioners go to a proposed order, they would need to deliberate and that could be considered then.
Commissioner Nelson made a motion to approve utilizing a proposed order to solicit comments on the Stipulation and Agreement.
Commissioner Smith asked about the 21 days for comment and then an additional 7 days for answers to comments and exceptions?
Don Howell said basically that would be 4 weeks from now and then there would be reconsideration time., etc.
Commissioner Smith said to just tell David Scott that the communities involved need adequate notification so they can comment to the Commission.
Mary Hobson, counsel for U S West indicated she had a question. If the Commission goes the proposed order route, with the stipulation, does that preclude the parties from asking for a hearing on the stipulation?
Don Howell responded - the answer is he would assume any party could ask for a hearing, dealing with a proposed order, but a proposed order also lists issues that weren’t part of the stipulation. He assumes a party could ask for a hearing and whether or not they get a hearing is a commission decision.
Commissioner Smith said she was hoping no more hearings  would be necessary.
Don Howell said the record has been closed except for the late-filed stipulation.
Motion carried unanimously to issue a proposed order in this matter.
10. Don Howell’s February 18, 1998 Decision Memorandum re:  Joint Motion of Staff, Rockland and Lakeside to Adopt Stipulation and Settlement Agreement and to Issue a Proposed Order in the Eastern Idaho EAS Cases, Case Nos. ROK-T-97-1, GNR-T-97-5/97-7.
Don Howell said basically this is the same as the Silver Star/Teton matter. This doesn’t have the measured service problem in it, though. This matter was put together by Mr. Purdy and parties are urging the Commission to process the stipulation by utilization of the proposed order.
Commissioner Hansen called for discussion on the matter.
Commissioner Smith made a motion to issue the proposed order; motion carried unanimously.
Decision meeting was concluded and adjourned.
Dated at Boise, Idaho, this 23rd day of February, 1998.
Myrna J. Walters
Commission Secretary