A2101003 - Public Comments

I oppose this rate increase. I believe that most ratepayers are doing their best to conserve water. California's drought continues. Ratepayers should not have to pay increased rates in order to keep SJWC's revenue stream profitable for its shareholders. If the water utility were a publicly owned, there would not be a need to satisfy shareholders. (public versus private ownership is an issue for another time) Many folks are hurting due to their incomes and the current bout of inflation. Rate increases should not be imposed on them at this time. I highly question the financial support put forth by SJWC in support of the pending application.

To whom it may concern: Please don’t raise water rates to pay dividends to greedy shareholders. Water and affordable access to it is essential for the future of our children and their families. This is America!

Will CPUC hear everyone's opinion? So far I can only see SJWC raised the rate each year and more than that, raised many times this year.

San Jose water is in the water distribution business and as such, the cost of running that business is inherent and should be burdened to the ratepayer. If a company needs to buy a piece of equipment to add efficiencies to their business they absorb those costs and cover them with standard cost increases. San Jose Water asks for above-market increases to purchase other water companies around the country while asking for more money to replace infrastructure. This seems like San Jose is building a massive revenue darling on the backs of San Jose ratepayers that simply cannot continue to absorb these business groth costs disguised as infrastructure costs. Please do not approve this increase and ask San Jose Water to use the high rates they already obtain from ratepayers.

I never received notice of my community hearing. I only found out when I received notice of the transcript having been posted to the record. I cannot help but to wonder, how many others never received notice of their hearing. As a small business owner and having previously run operations for a large business in the midwest, it seems to me that there is poor management happening at an organization where a 21% rate increase is needed over a 3 year period. My number one question is, "why now and why so much in a short time?" If budgets, infrastructure and planning were competently managed, the need for upgrades should have been known well before now. It is not the fault of the GSW customers that repair and maintenance planning was not competently handled in the past. If the customers are being forced, not asked, to pay nearly $90 million over their current costs, how much will those responsible for the poor management be made to put up? Will there be or has there been any accountability? Has there been or will there be an internal inquiry to determine why all of the "disrepair" has been allowed to happen and not be addressed? If this were my business and my staff responsible for equipment maintenance were to come to me asking for a 21% increase in budget over 3 years, because suddenly there were a lot of repairs needed, the employment of those individuals would be on the line...as would my business. We all know that the buck stops at the top so I ask, who is going to be help responsible besides we, the customers of Golden State Water??? I don't mind and in fact, I would expect a small increase from time to time. Costs are always increasing. This request though, is absolutely outrageous and should unequivically be denied by the commission. This private company needs to handle the problems they have created, not put it on the shoulders of their customers. Especially when we don't have a choice. It's not like we can go out shopping for another water supplier. And what will happen to that additional $85+ million every year, after year 3? Will it go to bonuses and salary increases? Probably. Better benefits? Maybe. Will we see a decrease once the repairs are complete? I doubt it. Our government handed the water supply responsibility over to this private utility, now the state needs to hold them accountable, as they themselves would have been accountable to the taxpayers had they retained control. At a time when businesses and individual families are struggling to get back on track, this huge increase is the last thing needed. Maybe someone was bored during lockdown and needed something to do so, they decided to dream this up...I don't know. It would be inappropriate at any time to request more than a 4% rate increase, let alone at the close of a global pandemic that shut down businesses and put countless out of work.

To whom it may concern: Upon receiving a mailed notice that San Jose Water Company is proposing an increase to my water bill after I have been so diligent in conservation, etc... I can barely breathe. a 45.1% increase over only 3 years!!! How can any company with any decency believe that a proposed rate increase of 45.1% over only 3 years beginning with 39% in the first year be acceptable? Please stop the excessive increases. Everyone needs to be able to make a living and it is understandable that increases are inevitable, however, these increases are unreasonable and have far exceeded the normal rate expected.

Dear PUC President Batjer and Commissioners, I am opposed to San Jose Water Company’s (SJWC) General Rate Case (GRC) application requesting a total of $88M increase in the cost of service over the three-year period of 2022-2024, and the recovery of $7M (balancing account) and $11M (memorandum account) via customer surcharges beginning January 1, 2022, for 36 months or until recovered. I am also against approval of their Application 21-005-004 to increase their rate of return to 8.11% I am also against Advice Letter 561 as the relief requested in this letter is unjust and unreasonable. We are all dealing with the Covid-19 impact. Clearly, Covid-19 is going to derail the economy and our lives for the foreseeable future. The economic woes are impacting every strata of society. Families are struggling with paycheck challenges and health insurance challenges. Businesses are shutting down and employees are struggling to find a footing in this weak economy. While all of this is happening, San Jose Water presents this huge rate increase to their customers? In 10 years, SJWC net income after tax is a total of $342M. So, how has the money been used for: 1. Infrastructure improvement, 2. Water quality requirements, and 3. Addressing cybersecurity/ data privacy projects? Please analyze San Jose Water’s financial books to understand what has been done for these three areas mentioned above, including what has been spent over the last 10 years towards improvements, including water main and well replacements, enhancements to pumping stations and well fields, as well as water tank upgrades and replacements throughout SJWC’s 140 square miles of service area. I call upon the CPUC to undertake a complete audit of SJWC operations and finances, and to benchmark these against other water utilities within CPUC’s jurisdiction. We need CPUC’s help to get to the bottom of it, and to help SJWC get back to a point of operational efficiency and market-rate competitiveness. Please do not approve any rate increase requests until SJWC can benchmark roughly at parity with other water utilities. Please consider comparison metrics for all other public & private utilities in the Bay Area in determining the appropriate cost of capital adjustments and rate increases for future years. I urge you to visit https://tinyurl.com/SJWCAppendix for summary financial data, rate increases and a few pertinent case studies A through J. Please consider the massive rate increases that have already occurred. The fact is, our water rates skyrocketed during the drought years and never returned to any semblance of “normal” – far outstripping the rate of inflation at the time. The fact is, when benchmarked to other municipal water districts, those of us unfortunate enough to live within SJWCs jurisdiction have faced unprecedented rate increases. I am therefore not at all placated by a statement that “a typical customer with a ¾-inch meter that uses 11 Ccf of water per month would see a bill increase of approximately $xyz per month.” During the 2016 drought, we dropped our consumption of water, and San Jose Water wanted to increase our water rates attributing it to the drop. The insanity of a monopoly when a reduction in demand (a.k.a conservation), leads to a price increase is crazy! This story keeps repeating and the customers of San Jose Water are at the receiving end. Please stop this! Please review the petition to replace SJWC with a municipal utility company http://www.tinyurl.com/noMoreSJWC - YES, I have signed it along with 5000+ others. ***THANK YOU TO CPUC COMMISSIONERS, STAFF AND ORA: We appreciate your diligence in taking a measured and tough stand against San Jose Water Company the last few years. We are a choice-less consumer, but not a voiceless consumer.