As you may remember, EPCOR wants to consolidate all rate districts into a single district. SCHOA has been fighting this along with PORA and Youngtown. Their recent case with the AZ Supreme Court was lost after a long legal battle. This was only one step in the fight. Now the Corporation Commission will make a decision on Consolidation. Total Consolidation is bad. I remember the Commission Candidates meeting with Sun City (Moutainview?). Sandra Kennedy, candidate for the board, indicated that she was against consolidation. However once elected she abstained from the actual consolidation vote, leading to a tie and nothing was done. The can was kicked down the road. In Feb 2021, Epcor held online virtual community meetings. Discussing Scenarios. The Corporation Commission is going to meet soon and decide on the consolidation issue. SCHOA is recommending Scenario 1. Here is the consolidation options before them: ======================================================================= EPCOR Water Arizona Inc. Docket No. WS‐01303A‐20‐XXXX Test Year Ended December 31, 2019 Consolidation Scenarios 1. Scenario 1 a. Group A: Agua Fria, Anthem, Chaparral, Havasu, Tubac, and Willow Valley b. Group B: Mohave and North Mohave c. Group Stand‐Alone: Paradise Valley d. Group Stand‐Alone: Sun City e. Group Stand‐Alone: Sun City West2. Scenario 2 a. Group C: Agua Fria, Anthem, Chaparral, Tubac b. Group B: Mohave and North Mohave c. Group D: Sun City and Sun City West d. Group E: Havasu and Willow Valley e. Group Stand‐Alone: Paradise Valley3. Scenario 3 a. Group F: Agua Fria, Anthem, Tubac b. Group B: Mohave and North Mohave c. Group Stand‐Alone: Paradise Valley d. Group Stand‐Alone: Sun City e. Group Stand‐Alone: Sun City West f. Group Stand‐Alone: Chaparral g. Group Stand‐Alone: Havasu h. Group Stand‐Alone: Willow Valley4. Scenario 4 a. Group G: All Water Districts ==================================================================== From SCHOA’s Government Affairs Committee: The EPCOR Water case (WS-01303A-20-0177), has recently concluded with the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge recommending the Commissioners vote to rule in favor of full consolidation of EPCOR’s water districts covered in her ruling. This judge recommended the “opposite” in the original case, which had to be re-tried because the Commissioners at that time could not decide what to do, voted to a 2-2 tie. In this case, which is a mirror of the first case, the judge over-ruled herself. If the Commissioners agree with their judge, the Sun City District Ratepayers will be consolidated with all other districts and inherit a 40%+ rate increase. There is an alternative on the table called Scenario I, which allows those who wish to consolidate to be so, and those who wish to remain stand-alone to be so. Under Scenario I, the Sun City District Ratepayers would receive an average rate increase (residential 5/8” line) of less than 6%. We have to use the average/typical residential rate as that’s what is published at this time. It is in all Sun City District Ratepayers’ best interests to send a comment to the Commission to be heard. Competing district ratepayers have begun to do so. If we, in the Sun City District do not step up, our fate will be sealed. You can send your public comment to the Commission via their direct on-line portal: Open your web browser Enter azcc.gov or click here When the Commission site opens, click on Cases & Open Meetings Then click on Make Public Comment in a Docket Fill in the blanks including the Company – EPCOR and Docket Number – WS-01303A-20-0177 Type your comment Hit Submit Sample Letter: TO: MEMBERS OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATIONS COMMISSION AS A RESIDENT OF SUN CITY AND A WATER RATEPAYER TO EPCOR, I STRONGLY OBJECT TO THE PROPOSED AND RECOMMENDED FULL CONSOLIDATION OF WATER DISTRICTS. I UNDERSTAND THAT THE COMMISSION HAS BEEN PRESENTED WITH AN ALTERNATIVE COMPROMISE PROVIDING A “WIN-WIN” SOLUTION FOR ALL PARTIES IN THIS CASE. IT HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS “SCENARIO 1” AND IS SUPPORTED BY PORA, SCHOA, PARADISE VALLEY AND OTHERS, INCLUDING EPCOR. I URGE YOU TO SUPPORT AND VOTE FOR SCENARIO 1. THANK YOU. ====================================================================== I and my wife submitted the comments recommended. I urge all Sun City residents to respond. It easy. Mike Wendel
I clicked on Cases & Open Meetings and a new windows does not open. I also tried all the other blue tabs and no new window. Tried 2 different browsers and same results What Am I missing?
Is there a deadline to submit? If so, please let us know. I’ll update the Nextdoor notice. Thanks From Dec.13, 2021 Posted date Sun City Indepedent Opinion piece: “Send your comments ASAP as the commission is due to meet later this week.” https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/eisert-sun-cities-residents-need-to-share-their-input,275910
The info is in error, try this: Go to Arizona Corporation Commission.gov http://azcc.gov/ Then you should be able to follow the rest of the steps.
For those of you new here, this fight has been going on for years. It's carried on through several ACC commissioners and numerous accusations, many of them warranted. It appears it is coming to a conclusion. I agree with Mike, let them know how you feel. We have been down this road before with massive letter writing, email sending and even bus filling attendance at meetings. Sadly, community activism used to have far greater impact. When we first bought in Sun City in 1999, we were surprised at how reasonably priced our utility costs were. Best of all, you could draw a straight line result to the Arizona Corporate Commission (ACC). They had the right by legislation to control increases utility companies got each year. In a state attractive to retirees, keeping those costs down was an added bonus to remarkable winter weather. Life was good, until it wasn't. With growing water issues, solar becoming more popular and more affordable and unfettered development the utility companies decided they wanted more than their share. Dark money entered the picture and ACC candidates were supported through unnamed sources with unlimited amounts of cash. Suddenly we saw our reasonable rates sky rocketing. But that wasn't enough for the pigs at the trough. The law said that utility companies could charge the actual cost of providing the services. Nope, nothing wrong there. The problem was, as land developers moved further away from the city of Phoenix, those costs exploded and were passed on to the new communities. In those outlying areas, a water bill could be $300 a month; because that was the actual cost with profit margin to provide it. Residents in those areas screamed. Utility companies realized they had a problem and needed a solution. Without sounding too political, the majority of the ACC always leaned further right than left. One would have thought consolidation (a wholly left leaning tendency) would have been shunned by those who believed in smaller government and local community control rather than this centralized approach. Sadly, there was too much money involved as the developers and the utility companies worked the politicians to buy into "sharing costs" because it was more fair. Truth be told, land development is Arizona's main industry and so consolidating utility costs across already established communities allowed land developers to keep pushing further and further out where raw land was inexpensive. Greg Eisert has been battling this for years, primarily while with SCHOA but even after he left he stayed on top of it. They had a solid argument because state statute actually had the formula for utility corporations profits, charging the user their actual costs with the ACC then determining how much percentage profit the utility company was entitled to. Like i said earlier, it worked until it didn't. The dark money came pouring in. Elections were won by those who could spend the most. Clean money campaigns were dwarfed by those with unlimited purse strings. I used to pay attention, but honestly i was sickened by how corrupted the system had become. I'm not telling you any of this to dissuade you from contacting the ACC. It is better to do it than not, i just don't know how much. I know the massive energy we put into it before slowed it down, but that's all i can tell you it did. Maybe this time will be different.
How many of the ACC commissioners live in ares serviced by EPCOR? If any are living or own homes in EPCOR communities they should recuse themselves as they would most likely be biased.
Yes. This was in a email blast from SCHOA Marketing (the Weekly Sunday Mailing). There is nothing confidential It's been in the paper. Go ahead and spread the news!
You may have an ad blocker. I have one and it prompts me to continue. They all differ. I did a copy and a paste. I think the ad-tracker is just confirming that someone is replying. Eyesopen said it right: Go to Arizona Corporation Commission.gov http://azcc.gov/ Then you should be able to follow the rest of the steps.
The Action part came from SCHOA's Sunday Email Blast. What had not been clearly mentioned is the SCENARIOS. I had to dig these up from my records. This shows what the options are. EPCOR actually supported all options at one point (back in the Virtual Public meetings). I misplaced the actual screen shot. I'm not sure where EPCOR stands today. From an EPCOR point of view, they already handle billing for non-consolidation. SCENARIO 1 is best for Sun City, as it SCENARIO 3. Sun City stands alone. SCENARIO 2 is ok, as it just combines Sun City and Sun City West. SCENARIO 4 is FULL CONSOLIDATION. Sun City rates will skyrocket over the next 3 years. Scenario 1 seems to be the best option as the other communities that are consolidated don't want Full Consolidation. Full Consolidations hurts most communities that have existed for decades. The new communities should pay the increased cost of water and infrastructure. We should NOT be subsidizing Anthem and Other New Communities. It appears that Scenario 1 will get the broadest support of 1,2,3 and will be the broadest opposition to Scenario 4.
I did everything when I hit submit nothing happens. I just kept clicking so they either have 10 or 12 from me or 0. Did anyone get a response after submit??
There may be an ad blocker running. I have to turn my off sometimes (for many web sites) to allow buttons to work. Sometimes good things get blocked. Also scroll to the top of the screen, there may be an error, which prevents the submission. One other item for everyone - The ACC Website is NOT very tolerant of mistakes. Entries with a leading or trailing blank (space) will cause problems. YOU WILL KNOW IF YOU SUCCESSFULLY SUBMIT A COMMENT. If you succeed and you provided an email address, you will get a pdf copy of your submission via email.
I did some digging on the ACC Web Site. There are no open meetings scheduled until January. Only one meeting has an agenda and its not this topic. Meetings are schedule for January 11 and 12. But there is no Agenda Posted. So I think we have time to send in comments.
ACC water decision for Sun City delayed District consolidation also on docket. Sun Cities residents hoping to hear a decision about water rates and district consolidation will have to wait a little longer. The Arizona Corporation Commission conducted public hearings Dec. 16-17 regarding the issues and a decision was expected to be made following testimony. That decision was delayed to a meeting scheduled Tuesday, Jan. 11. Posted Thursday, December 23, 2021 7:00 am By Rusty Bradshaw Twitter: @SunCitiesEditor MUCH MORE ( Subscriber Exclusive) https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/acc-water-decision-for-sun-city-delayed,277639?cb=1640271566 EXTENDED TIME TO COMMENT TO THE COMMISSION BY MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021. Reference: EPCOR and Docket Number – WS-01303A-20-0177) https://efiling.azcc.gov/online-services/utilities-public-comment-external
