SB 48: Public Utilities Commission.

(1)The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities. The Public Utilities Act provides that the office of the commission be in the City and County of San Francisco, that the office always be open, legal holidays and nonjudicial days excepted, that the commission hold its sessions at least once in each calendar month in the City and County of San Francisco, and authorizes the commission to also meet at those other times and places as may be expedient and necessary for the proper performance of its duties.

This bill would require that the commission hold its sessions at least once in each calendar month in the City and County of San Francisco or the City of Sacramento and would require that the commission hold no less than 6 sessions each year in the City of Sacramento.

(2)The California Constitution authorizes the commission to establish its own procedures, subject to statutory limitations or directions and constitutional requirements of due process. 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. For these purposes, quasi-legislative cases are cases that establish policy rulemakings and investigations which may establish rules affecting an entire industry, adjudication cases are enforcement cases and complaints except those challenging the reasonableness of any rates or charges, and ratesetting cases are cases in which rates are established for a specific company, including general rate cases, performance-based ratemaking, and other ratesetting mechanisms. Existing law requires the commission to publish and maintain certain documents on the Internet, including a docket card that lists all documents filed and all decisions or rulings issued in those proceedings, as provided.

This bill would make the Administrative Adjudication Code of Ethics applicable to administrative law judges of the commission. Except for in adjudication cases, the bill would require the commission, before instituting a proceeding on its own motion, where feasible and appropriate, to seek the views of those who are likely to be affected by a decision in the proceeding, including those who are likely to benefit from, and those who are potentially subject to, a decision in that proceeding. The bill would require the commission to include a docket card that lists the public versions of all prepared written testimony and advice letter filings, protests, and responses on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the commission to make additional information available on the Internet, including information on how members of the public and ratepayers can gain access to the commissions ratemaking process.

(3)The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to develop, publish, and annually update an annual workplan that does all of the following: (A) describes in clear detail the scheduled ratemaking proceedings and other decisions that may be considered by the commission during the calendar year, (B) includes information on how members of the public and ratepayers can gain access to the commissions ratemaking process and information regarding the specific matters to be decided, (C) includes information on the operation of the office of the public adviser and identifies the names and telephone numbers of those contact persons responsible for specific cases and matters to be decided, and (D) includes a statement that specifies activities that the commission proposes to reduce the costs of, and rates for, energy, including electricity, and for improving the competitive opportunities for state agriculture and other rural energy consumers. The act requires the commission to submit the workplan to the Governor and Legislature by February 1 of each year.

This bill would require the commission to develop, publish, and annually update a report that contains certain specified information, as provided, and would expand the requirement that the workplan, as part of that report, describe in clear detail the scheduled proceedings that may be considered by the commission during the calendar year to include all proceedings and not just ratemaking proceedings. The bill would additionally require that the report include performance criteria for the commission and executive director and evaluate the performance of the executive director during the previous year based on the criteria established in the prior years workplan.

The bill would require the president of the commission to present the annual report to the appropriate policy committees of the Senate and Assembly, and the commission to post the report in a conspicuous area of its Internet Web site and disseminate the information in the report, as provided. The bill would recast the report requirements and certain other requirements that the commission report information to an article in the Public Utilities Act pertaining to reports by the commission to the Legislature and make other conforming changes.

(4)The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to create, and annually submit to the Governor and Legislature by February 1, a report on the number of cases where resolution exceeded the time periods prescribed in scoping memos and the days that commissioners presided in hearings.

This bill would delete the requirement that the report include the number of cases where resolution exceeded the time periods prescribed in scoping memos and instead would require the commission to annually submit a report to the Legislature on the commissions timeliness in resolving cases and include information on the disposition of applications for rehearings. The bill would require that the report include the number of scoping memos issued in each proceeding and to include the number of orders issued extending the statutory deadlines for all adjudication, ratesetting, and quasi-legislative cases.

(5)The California Constitution provides that the Legislature has plenary power to establish the manner and scope of review of commission action in a court of record. Existing law provides that only the Supreme Court and the court of appeal have jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct, or annul any order or decision of the commission or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with the commission in the performance of its official duties.

This bill would authorize an action to enforce the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act or the California Public Records Act to be brought against the commission in the superior court.

(6)This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 311.5 of the Public Utilities Code, proposed by AB 825, to be operative only if AB 825 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2016, and this bill is chaptered last.

(7)This bill would declare that Section 2 of this act shall not become operative if any section of any other act enacted by the Legislature during the 2015 calendar year and takes effect on or before January 1, 2016, amends, amends and renumbers, adds, repeals and adds, or repeals Section 306 of the Public Utilities Code.