BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 608|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 608
Author: Escutia (D)
Amended: 8/18/05
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, UTIL. & COMMUNICATIONS COMM. : 8-2, 4/5/05
AYES: Escutia, Alarcon, Bowen, Cox, Dunn, Kehoe, Murray,
Simitian
NOES: Battin, Campbell
NO VOTE RECORDED: Morrow
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-4, 5/9/05
AYES: Migden, Alquist, Bowen, Escutia, Florez, Murray,
Ortiz, Speier
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Battin, Poochigian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Dutton
SENATE FLOOR : 27-12, 5/23/05
AYES: Alarcon, Alquist, Bowen, Cedillo, Chesbro, Cox,
Ducheny, Dunn, Escutia, Figueroa, Florez, Kehoe, Kuehl,
Machado, Maldonado, McClintock, Migden, Murray, Ortiz,
Perata, Romero, Scott, Simitian, Soto, Speier, Torlakson,
Vincent
NOES: Aanestad, Ackerman, Ashburn, Battin, Campbell,
Denham, Dutton, Hollingsworth, Margett, Morrow,
Poochigian, Runner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Lowenthal
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-28, 8/22/05 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Public Utilities Commission: Division of
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Ratepayer
Advocates
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill expands and clarifies the role of the
Office of the Ratepayer Advocate, within the Public
Utilities Commission.
Assembly Amendments (1) delete the requirement that the
Division of Ratepayer Advocates represent the interests of
customers in all significant proceedings "and forums" and
revert the language back to current law which requires
representation in all significant proceedings, and (2) make
technical changes.
ANALYSIS : Existing law establishes within the Public
Utilities Commission (PUC), a division to represent the
interests of public utility customers and subscribers known
as the Office of the Ratepayer Advocate (ORA). The ORA
Director is a pleasure appointment of the Governor, subject
to Senate confirmation.
Existing law establishes within the PUC an office of the
public advisor to assist the public who desire to testify
or present information to the PUC.
This bill:
1. Changes the name of the ORA to the Division of Ratepayer
Advocates (DRA).
2. Authorizes the DRA Director to appoint a lead attorney,
who serves at the pleasure of the Director, to represent
DRA.
3. Requires the DRA Director to develop the DRA budget,
subject to PUC approval.
4. Clarifies that the PUC must provide to the DRA attorneys
and legal support sufficient to ensure that customers'
interests are effectively represented.
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5. Expands the PUC's public outreach program by requiring
the commission to publicize programs that encourage
participation in proceedings.
6. Makes related changes.
Comments
In 1996, the Legislature created the ORA to represent
consumer interests at the PUC [SB 960 (Leonard), Chapter
856, Statutes of 1996]. This legislation formalized an
organizational structure created by the PUC that
established a consumer advocacy function separate from the
PUC's decision-making apparatus. The Legislature
strengthened the consumer advocacy function by making the
ORA Director a Governor's Appointment and dealt with
conflict of interest concerns by requiring the creation of
appropriate rules.
Concerns have been raised about shortcomings in the
statutes which hamper ORA's effectiveness. Those concerns,
reflected in the testimony of the ORA Director in the March
1, 2005 hearing of the Senate Energy, Utilities and
Communications Committee, include ORA's lack of a separate
budget and spending authority and ORA's lack of control
over its attorneys.
Prior to the 1996 legislation, ORA had 210 employees.
Currently, ORA has 116 employees.
This bill attempts to strengthen ORA by giving the ORA
Director more control over the resources necessary to
perform the work. Currently, ORA's budget is included
within the utility regulation allocation of the entire PUC
budget. As such, PUC possesses some flexibility to
redirect resources toward other utility oversight programs,
such as utility safety and market monitoring. The
supporters of this bill believe that this flexibility has
allowed PUC to transfer resources away from ORA to other
programs and PUC, leaving ORA with insufficient resources.
This bill attempts to address ORA's budgeting problem by
(1) requiring the ORA Director to develop a budget for the
division subject to final approval by PUC, (2) requiring
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PUC to assign personnel to ORA, and (3) creating a separate
PUC Ratepayer Advocate Account in the General Fund.
Currently, ORA is represented by lawyers who serve under
PUC's General Counsel in PUC's legal division, who in turn
report to the PUC President. This means that ORA attorneys
may actually have conflicts of interest as they report to
both the PUC's General Counsel and to an entity that
represents ratepayer interests in front of PUC itself.
This bill attempts to resolve that conflict by authorizing
the ORA Director to appoint an attorney to represent ORA
who reports to the Director and serves at the pleasure of
the Director.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Some provisions of the bill codify current practice, for
example, the budget development provision. Increased costs
to hire a lead attorney are $150,000 annually. Other costs
are absorbable. Public Utilities' Reimbursement Account
revenues are derived from an annual fee imposed on
utilities. Therefore, any increased costs should be
recovered from fee revenues.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/22/05)
California Telephone Association
Office of Ratepayer Advocates
Public Utilities Commission
The Utility Reform Network
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Arambula, Baca, Bass, Berg, Bermudez, Blakeslee,
Calderon, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn, Coto, De La Torre,
Dymally, Evans, Frommer, Goldberg, Hancock, Jerome
Horton, Jones, Karnette, Klehs, Koretz, Laird, Leno,
Levine, Lieber, Liu, Matthews, Montanez, Mullin, Nation,
Nava, Negrete McLeod, Niello, Oropeza, Parra, Pavley,
Ruskin, Saldana, Salinas, Torrico, Umberg, Vargas, Wolk,
Wyland, Yee, Nunez
NOES: Aghazarian, Benoit, Bogh, Canciamilla, Cogdill,
Daucher, DeVore, Emmerson, Garcia, Haynes, Shirley
Horton, Houston, Huff, Keene, La Malfa, La Suer, Leslie,
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Maze, Mountjoy, Nakanishi, Plescia, Richman, Sharon
Runner, Spitzer, Strickland, Tran, Villines, Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Harman, McCarthy, Ridley-Thomas, Vacancy
NC:mel 8/23/05 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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