AB 825: Public Utilities Commission.

(1)Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, gas corporations, heat corporations, telegraph corporations, telephone corporations, and water corporations. The California Constitution authorizes the commission to establish rules, examine records, and prescribe a uniform system of accounts for all public utilities. The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to inspect and audit the books and records of electrical corporations, gas corporations, heat corporations, telegraph corporations, telephone corporations, and water corporations for regulatory and tax purposes. An inspection and audit is required to be done at least every 3 years if the utility has over 1,000 customers and at least every 5 years if the utility has 1,000 or fewer customers. The act requires that reports of the inspections and audit and other pertinent information be furnished to the State Board of Equalization for use in the assessment of the public utilities.

This bill would delete the requirement that the reports of the inspections and audit and other pertinent information be furnished to the State Board of Equalization for use in the assessment of the public utilities and instead require that the inspections and audit and other pertinent information be posted on the commissions Internet Web site.

(2)Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law, with certain exceptions, prohibits a public utility from changing any rate, except upon a showing before the commission and a finding by the commission that the new rate is justified. With certain exceptions, whenever any electrical, gas, heat, telephone, water, or sewer system corporation files an application to change any rate for the services or commodities furnished by it, existing law requires that the corporation furnish its customers notice of its application to the commission for approval of the new rate. This notice requirement does not apply to any rate change proposed by a corporation pursuant to an advice letter submitted to the commission filed pursuant to commission-established procedures for advice letters.

This bill would require each public utility that submits an application to change its rates to include in its application a summary of the application that can be understood by the utilitys ratepayers. The bill would require that this summary and the application be posted on the commissions Internet Web site and, if the utility has an Internet Web site, to be posted on the utilitys Internet Web site. Each public utility that maintains an Internet Web site would additionally be required to include on that site contact information for a utility official who can discuss the nature of the rate application.

(3)Every public utility is required by existing law to furnish such reports as the commission may require. No information furnished to the commission by a public utility, except those matters specifically required to be open to public inspection, are open to public inspection or made public except by order of the commission or a commissioner in the course of a hearing or proceeding. Any present or former officer or employee of the commission who divulges any information in violation of these provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor.

This bill would provide that if in a proceeding before the commission, a public utility, or subsidiary, affiliate, or holding company, files a pleading, report, or other document with the commission that is claimed to contain confidential information, it would be required to concurrently file a public version of the pleading, report, or other document with the commission that contains sufficient information for any other party to the proceeding to understand the nature of its contents. The bill would authorize any party to the proceeding to file a motion to make public a pleading, report, or other document filed under a claim of confidentiality. The bill would require an administrative law judge assigned to the proceeding or the assigned commissioner to hold a hearing on the motion and determine whether the pleading, report, or other document should be made public. The bill would authorize any party to seek review of the ruling or order of the administrative law judge or assigned commissioner on the motion by filing a motion for rehearing de novo before the full commission within 30 days of the date the ruling or order on the motion was issued.

(4)Existing law requires the commission to publish and maintain certain documents and information, including making available on the commissions Internet Web site, the commissions annual work plan, general orders, and Rules of Practice and Procedure, the proposed and alternate proposed decisions and resolutions, the agenda, agenda item documents, rulings of the commission, and adopted decisions and resolutions of the commission. Included in the materials that the commission is required to publish and maintain on its Internet Web site are docket cards that list by title and date of filing or issuance all documents filed and all decisions or rulings issued in those proceedings.

This bill would require that each document that the commission distributes to any service-of-process list be docketed and identified on the commissions Internet Web site. The bill would require the commission to adopt rules providing for posting on its Internet Web site of all comments, workshop reports, hearing exhibits, including the exhibit number assigned and whether the exhibit has been offered and received in evidence, hearing transcripts, and other documentary information included in the record of its proceedings.

(5)Existing law requires the commission to establish an office of the public advisor and to appoint a public advisor. Existing law requires the office of the public advisor to assist members of the public and ratepayers who desire to testify before or present information to the commission in any hearing or proceeding of the commission.

This bill would add legislative findings and declarations relative to improving the transparency of commission regulatory activities. The bill would require the public advisor to be responsible for ensuring that the activities of the commission are as transparent to the public as reasonably possible and consistent with law. The bill would require the public advisor to work with all divisions of the commission to ensure that the commissions Internet Web site provides adequate transparency in the information provided to the public. The bill would require the commission to post on its Internet Web site a summary, as specified, of all electricity procurement contracts entered into by an electrical corporation during the previous 3 years, the expenses of which the commission has approved as being just and reasonable, a list of all proceedings involving public utilities then pending before the commission with information, in summary form, as to the amount of any rate increase being sought, both in cumulative amount and by unit or other means billed to ratepayers, transcripts and available summaries of documents, evidence, testimony and proceedings before the commission or its administration law judges that are not subject to confidentiality, a list of all requests submitted to the commission pursuant to the California Public Records Act, all advice letters approved by the commission, and the calendars of each commissioner. The bill would require the public advisor to update, maintain, and post the commissions service-of-process lists on the commissions Internet Web site in an electronic form that may be used by any party to complete service of process. The bill would require the commission to open a proceeding to reexamine a specified decision relative to confidentiality of electric procurement data and to modify the commissions confidentiality practices and procedures consistent with specified requirements. The bill would establish the Inspector General for the Public Utilities Commission within the California State Auditors Office to conduct oversight review and assess, audit, investigate, and report on the policies, practices, and procedures of the commission under the guidance, direction, supervision, and authority of the State Auditor.

(6)Existing law requires the commission to determine whether a proceeding requires a hearing and, if so, to determine whether the matter requires a quasi-legislative, an adjudication, or a ratesetting hearing. Upon initiating a hearing, the commission is required to assign one or more commissioners to oversee the case and an administrative law judge where appropriate. Existing law requires the assigned commissioner to schedule a prehearing conference and to issue, by order or ruling, a scoping memo that describes the issues to be considered and the applicable timetable for resolution.

This bill would, in matters the commission has determined require a hearing, require the commission to use all-party conferences as a tool for listening to the parties perspectives on the most important issues and to facilitate public discussion between and among parties and commissioners. The bill would require that discussions at an all-party conference not rely on evidence outside the evidentiary record existing at the time of the all-party conference. The bill would require the assigned commissioner to convene an all-parties conference as soon as practicable after the prehearing conference, and before completing the scoping memo, to discuss the substantive matter to be decided in the proceeding and prospects for resolving issues that would otherwise be litigated. The bill would require the commission to hold an all-party conference before a quorum of commissioners, after a proposed decision is issued in all contested cases, unless all parties waive this requirement and a majority of commissioners concur with that waiver. The bill would require that a transcript be kept for each all-party conference and that the transcript be made a part of the record of the proceeding.

(7)Existing law prohibits an officer, employee, or agent of the commission that is personally involved in the prosecution, or in the supervision of the prosecution, of an adjudication case from participating in the decision of the case or in the decision of any factually related adjudicatory proceeding. Existing law permits an officer, employee, or agent of the commission that is personally involved in the prosecution, or in the supervision of the prosecution, of an adjudication case to participate in reaching a settlement of the case, but prohibits the officer, employee, or agent from participating in the decision of the commission to accept or reject the settlement, except as a witness or counsel in an open hearing or a specified closed hearing.

This bill would prohibit an attorney or other staff member who has served as a prosecutor or advocate at any stage of an adjudicatory proceeding before the commission from meeting with any commissioner regarding the matter in which the attorney or staff member has served unless all parties are present.

(8)This bill would require the commission to adopt rules providing for comments from the public, including comments made at noticed public participation hearings of the commission, to be included in the record of its proceedings and would require that the assigned commissioner, or a quorum of the commission, convene and attend each public participation proceeding.

(9)This bill would incorporate additional changes in Sections 311.5 and 1701 of the Public Utilities Code, proposed by SB 48, to be operative only if SB 48 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2016, and this bill is chaptered last.

(10)Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because certain provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.