1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of the : Application of Aqua Ohio, : 4 Inc. to Increase Its : Case No. 16-907-WW-AIR Rates and Charges for Its : 5 Waterworks Service. : 6 - - - 7 PROCEEDINGS 8 before Mr. Jeffrey Jones and Ms. Megan Addison, 9 Attorney Examiners, at the Ohio History Center, 800 10 East 17th Avenue, Cardinal Classroom, Columbus, Ohio, 11 called at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 10, 2017. 12 - - - 13 14 Present: 15 Commissioner M. Beth Trombold 16 - - - 17 18 19 20 21 22 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC. 222 East Town Street, Second Floor 23 Columbus, Ohio 43215-5201 (614) 224-9481 - (800) 223-9481 24 Fax - (614) 224-5724 25 - - - 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 Whitt Sturtevant, LLP By Ms. Rebekah J. Glover 3 PNC Plaza, 20th Floor 155 East Broad Street 4 Columbus, Ohio 43215 5 On behalf of the Company. 6 Bruce J. Weston, Ohio Consumers' Counsel By Mr. Ajay Kumar 7 10 West Broad Street, Suite 1800 Columbus, Ohio 43215 8 On behalf of the Residential 9 Consumers of Aqua Ohio. 10 - - - 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 INDEX 2 - - - 3 WITNESS PAGE 4 John Kershner 10 5 Debbie Miller 16 6 Andrew Hawley 26 7 Susan Brobst 29 8 Victor Paini 32 9 - - - 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 Tuesday Evening Session, 2 January 10, 2017. 3 - - - 4 EXAMINER JONES: The Public Utilities 5 Commission of Ohio has assigned for hearing at this 6 time and place Case No. 16-907-WW-AIR being In the 7 Matter of the Application of Aqua Ohio, Inc. to 8 Increase Its Rates and Charges for Its Waterworks 9 Service. 10 My name is Jeff Jones, and I am an 11 Attorney Examiner assigned by the Commission to hear 12 this case. Presiding with me tonight is Megan 13 Addison, another Attorney Examiner who is assigned to 14 this case, and to my left is Commissioner Beth 15 Trombold. 16 Commissioner Trombold, would you like to 17 say anything at this time? 18 COMMISSIONER TROMBOLD: Just briefly, I 19 want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. This 20 is one piece of the process that we go through in 21 determining rates for Aqua, and we, as Commissioners, 22 there's five of us on the Commission, I'm one of the 23 five, and we are all very interested in this case. 24 We all are participating in the public hearings to 25 hear what the communities affected have to say, so 5 1 thanks for coming out. 2 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you, Commissioner 3 Trombold. 4 Also with us today we have some other 5 people from the Commission, Kristin Clingan is 6 Commissioner Trombold's assistant, and we have Holly 7 Karg sitting at the back table, and she's from our 8 Public Affairs Department, and Tara Jones from our 9 Service Monitoring and Enforcement Division. 10 I would also like to mention we will be 11 available after the hearing or at a break if you have 12 the questions about the rate case process, this 13 particular application, to the extent we can answer 14 those, or if you have any other utility questions or 15 concerns you would just like to talk to somebody at 16 the Commission about. We will be happy to assist you 17 with those or any questions you may have. If we 18 don't have the answer for you tonight, we will take 19 your information and get back to you. 20 Tonight's hearing is one of a series of 21 public hearings directed at receiving public 22 testimony regarding the requested rate increase. A 23 formal evidentiary hearing is also scheduled to take 24 place at the offices of the Commission in Columbus on 25 Thursday, January 19, 2017. 6 1 At this time we will ask for appearances 2 on behalf of the parties. 3 On behalf of the applicant, Aqua Ohio. 4 MS. GLOVER: Thank you, your Honor. 5 Thank you, Commissioner Trombold. On behalf of Aqua 6 Ohio, my name is Rebekah Glover from the law firm 7 Whitt Sturtevant. Also here on behalf of the company 8 is Ed Kolodziej, Pete Kusky, Jeff La Rue, and Greg 9 O'Dell. 10 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 11 On behalf of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. 12 MR. KUMAR: Thank you, your Honor. On 13 behalf of the residential consumers of Aqua Ohio, 14 Office of the Consumers' Counsel, Bruce Weston, Kevin 15 Moore and Ajay Kumar. And also with me today I have 16 two members of our Public Affairs staff, Andrew 17 Tinkham and Molly McGuire. 18 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 19 Is there anybody here on behalf of 20 intervenor, the City of Marion? 21 Seeing no one, and I do not believe there 22 is anyone here representing the Commission staff; is 23 that correct? 24 Aqua Ohio filed its application on 25 May 31, 2016, seeking to increase its rates for water 7 1 service in its Lake Erie and Masury service 2 divisions, as well as the service divisions 3 consisting of all areas formerly served by Mohawk 4 Utilities, Tomahawk Utilities, and Ohio American 5 Water Company. 6 By its application Aqua seeks a rate 7 increase which would generate a 9.21 percent increase 8 for its water service. The Commission's Staff 9 Report, which was issued on November 17, 2016, has 10 recommended an approximate 4.91 to 7.32 percent 11 increase over current revenues. The Staff Report is 12 a recommendation only, and the Commissioners of the 13 Public Utilities Commission, including Commissioner 14 Trombold, may implement some of the recommendations 15 or choose to reject some of those and implement some 16 of those. 17 The purpose of this evening's hearing is 18 to receive comments from the public regarding Aqua 19 Ohio's application in this case. This is not a 20 question-and-answer session but instead it is your 21 opportunity to let the Commission know what you think 22 about the Aqua Ohio request. 23 The local public hearing schedule in this 24 case is just one aspect of the process. As I noted 25 earlier, an evidentiary hearing is scheduled to 8 1 commence on January 19 at the Commission's offices in 2 downtown Columbus. 3 When you arrived, you were offered an 4 opportunity to testify. After I finish my 5 introductory remarks, we will begin calling witnesses 6 forward in the order that you signed up. I would ask 7 you come up -- well, actually, this is a small enough 8 room you can probably just stand at your chair. 9 I will ask you to take an oath that the 10 testimony you are about to give is the truth. I will 11 ask you to state your name and address for the 12 record. Your testimony will then be considered part 13 of the official record in this case and will be 14 reviewed by the Commission before the final decision 15 is made. 16 Additionally, the parties to this case or 17 the attorney examiners could ask you questions 18 regarding your testimony. When I call your name, 19 should you decide you do not want to testify, you may 20 simply pass. Also, once you finish testifying or if 21 you are just here to observe the proceedings, you are 22 certainly free to go whenever you choose to. 23 As I previously mentioned, the testimony 24 is being transcribed by a court reporter. Please be 25 sure to speak clearly and to give a verbal response 9 1 to all questions that may be asked of you, and if you 2 brought a written copy of your testimony, please 3 provide a copy to the court reporter before you 4 leave, which would be helpful. 5 The Commission appreciates your 6 participation in tonight's proceeding, and we hope to 7 hear from everyone who would like to provide their 8 input, so please try to keep your comments to a 9 reasonable length and be respectful of others who may 10 be testifying. 11 At this time if there are no questions 12 regarding the hearing proceeding, we will begin with 13 the witnesses who have signed up. 14 When I call your name, if you could 15 please stand, I will give you the oath. 16 Debbie Miller. 17 MS. MILLER: I would like to know if I 18 can go after our trustee. 19 EXAMINER JONES: Sure. Is your trustee 20 John Kershner? 21 MS. MILLER: Yes. 22 Okay, Mr. Kershner. 23 (Witness sworn.) 24 EXAMINER JONES: Please state your name 25 and your address for the record. 10 1 MR. KERSHNER: John Kershner, 2 4887 Winchester Pike, Columbus, 43232. 3 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. If you have 4 a statement at this time, go ahead and make it. 5 - - - 6 JOHN KERSHNER 7 being first duly sworn, as prescribed by law, was 8 examined and testified as follows: 9 DIRECT TESTIMONY 10 MR. KERSHNER: I did bring a copy. As I 11 stated, my name is John Kershner. I'm a township 12 trustee. I grew up in Blacklick Estates. I own 13 property there. I'm very familiar with the water 14 company's activities over the past 40 years in the 15 area and the high level of dissatisfaction with the 16 water service and the associated rates. I know 17 firsthand that high water rates drive down property 18 values and cause our neighbors to leave our 19 community. 20 With me today is Debbie Miller. She is 21 with one of our block watch groups, and we have a 22 fairly substantial Facebook page, and it's sad to see 23 on there from time to time when we have residents 24 that leave because of their water bill. 25 And I know from trying to sell real 11 1 estate in that area that oftentimes flood insurance 2 and the water bill is a deciding factor that drives 3 people to other areas. 4 I want to start here with a quote from 5 previous CFO Ellen Wolf of American Water. "We've 6 never had a regulatory commission disallow a capital 7 expenditure we've made, meaning we've never had to 8 argue over whether the money we put in the ground 9 (for pipes and other equipment) was prudent," says 10 Wolf of American Water, which operates in 29 states. 11 And I'm here to say if your job is 12 oversight, you should be ashamed of that legacy, that 13 a company can operate a water company and say that in 14 their history they're not familiar with ever being 15 challenged on how they spend their infrastructure 16 money, but I'm here to challenge you to really take a 17 close look. 18 Blacklick Estates is reportedly home to 19 one of the largest Section 8 populations in Central 20 Ohio. Our residents do not have the luxury of 21 absorbing the continual doubling of water rates. You 22 know, people get really excited about 20 percent 23 increases and 30 percent increases, but it doesn't 24 take too many 9 percent increases to get to 25 100 percent, and so these small increases hurt you 12 1 very greatly. 2 Jeff La Rue, one of Aqua America's public 3 relations professionals, made statements to us 4 personally, as well as in print in the Columbus 5 Dispatch, stating that basically if they could get a 6 fair shake, like the electric and gas companies do on 7 their property taxes, that our rates could go down. 8 That prompted me to do a search of the 9 properties in Blacklick Estates and see what the 10 taxes were. Through that process I came to realize 11 that there had been a quarter million dollar 12 reduction on the largest property for Aqua America in 13 Blacklick Estates. So in 2016 they had a quarter 14 million dollar deduction in operating costs. That's 15 $85 per prescriber. 16 We didn't see a rate decrease, and here 17 they are asking for an increase. They already had an 18 increase. And it seems like if the PUCO's job is to 19 make sure these people operate on a fixed margin that 20 we missed the mark. 21 That's an important thing. We did meet 22 and we asked, I personally asked, for the listing of 23 the remaining property in Ohio so I could see if this 24 was duplicated. I asked if this was duplicated. I 25 couldn't get a full answer to that question. That 13 1 makes me wonder about the process because if the 2 information is already out there for the PUCO, why 3 wouldn't they want to share it with me? Maybe it's 4 not. 5 Did you know that there was such a 6 substantial reduction in the taxation or how they 7 arrived at achieving that? I really would like to 8 know because I'm not sure that people are aware. 9 And I also found out through this process 10 that, at least as far as I can see, there's no great 11 disparity between how the water utilities are taxed 12 and how the other utilities are taxed. AEP and 13 Columbia Gas also see significant property tax bills, 14 so I'm not sure exactly how valid that argument is. 15 But the biggest thing is they have 16 managed through good management to find ways of 17 cutting their tax bill quite substantially, so with 18 that, I'm really confused as to why we would need to 19 absorb such a large rate hike. 20 Finally, many people that I know, 21 including many of my fellow trustees, my two fellow 22 trustees who aren't here today, have given up on this 23 process. I'm the new guy so I'm here to give it a 24 shot. But to be honest, I think that quote kind of 25 sums it up. It kind of feels like there's a blank 14 1 check here, that things just get passed through. 2 I do want to take my hat off, if I had 3 one, to Ohio Consumers' Counsel because they're a ray 4 of light in the process. When I looked through their 5 responses, I was quite impressed, and, frankly, I 6 felt like I wish the PUCO would do that. That was 7 the stuff that I saw in the initial findings. Things 8 that they're requesting are just very valid and very 9 common sense. 10 Ohio American has -- or Aqua America, 11 excuse me, has several employees making over a 12 million dollars, probably making more than all of us 13 combined here at this table. They have a lot of 14 resources to make it look like they need a rate 15 increase, and it takes a lot of resources to try to 16 figure out if it's true or not. I have very limited 17 resources, and I found a core of knowledge that I 18 don't think anybody knew about. 19 So please take a careful look and 20 consider not allowing a 9 percent increase in our 21 rates. 22 And, finally, that $85 per subscriber, if 23 you have a look at that based on the 50-something 24 dollars that they show for 4,000-gallon usage, that 25 would be 12-1/2 percent. If you go more into the 15 1 hundred dollar range, you still see a very 2 substantial percentage per subscriber in what they 3 saved. A quarter million dollars with 3,000 4 subscribers is a substantial percentage. 5 That's all I have. Thank you very much 6 for your time. 7 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 8 Any questions for this witness? 9 MS. GLOVER: No questions. 10 MR. KUMAR: No, your Honor. 11 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you, Mr. Kershner, 12 for your testimony. 13 Ms. Miller, do you wish to testify, 14 ma'am? 15 MS. MILLER: I do. 16 (Witness sworn.) 17 EXAMINER JONES: Please state your name 18 and address for the record. 19 MS. MILLER: My name is Debbie Miller, 20 and I live at 5102 Zimmer Drive, Columbus, Madison 21 Township. 22 EXAMINER JONES: You may proceed with 23 your testimony at this time. 24 - - - 25 16 1 2 DEBBIE MILLER 3 being first duly sworn, as prescribed by law, was 4 examined and testified as follows: 5 DIRECT TESTIMONY 6 MS. MILLER: I have been here 42 years. 7 I raised my children here, and it's my community. 8 I'm very proud of my community; however, I am paying 9 higher water bills today than I was paying when my 10 children were all at home and living with me, and I 11 have four and my husband, so that was six of us. 12 Now I have my grandson and myself, and my 13 bill is higher than what I was paying back then. And 14 I understand that every time it gets increases along 15 the way, they're doing this and doing that. However, 16 I am a senior citizen. I worked all my life. Now 17 I'm retired so I'm on social security, which is a 18 fixed income, as are many, many people in our 19 community. 20 I've known these people for years and 21 years and years, and there's a lot of us that were in 22 the Youth Association together, watched our kids grow 23 up, and they all have their own homes. They don't 24 want to sell and move. This is our community, but 25 when we're not getting an increase, we can't take 17 1 more increases. 2 So I helped get signatures for the 3 petition that we turned in, and with those signatures 4 came a lot of stories. I'm also an admin for our 5 Block Watch page, and I did put out on the page for 6 those who are unable to attend this meeting some 7 concerns, like I mentioned. And our page filled up 8 really quickly with some concerns, the number one 9 thing being the price. 10 We are paying -- I know Jeff La Rue once 11 said that they were paying 50 percent more than 12 Columbus, but we're paying that monthly. Columbus is 13 paying that every three months. And that is true, we 14 are paying 50 percent more than Columbus but monthly, 15 so that makes it way higher. 16 So the high bill is the number one 17 concern. The quality of the water is another very 18 high concern. People are saying that there is an 19 odor to it. There's a chemical taste. In fact, most 20 of us buy bagged ice to keep in our freezer so we 21 can't make ice cubes ourselves. 22 Hardly anyone drinks the water. Almost 23 everybody goes out and buys bottled water. Almost 24 everybody, we have 400 members on our page. All buy 25 bottled water. We won't drink the water. Most of 18 1 them stopped giving it to their pets because it 2 leaves a residue in the pet dishes, and one lady's 3 dog was throwing up every time. So we're not giving 4 it to our pets. We are not drinking it. We are not 5 making ice cubes with it. 6 There was a case where one little boy had 7 to be put on steroid medication because the water 8 affected his eczema, and I'm sure that happened. It 9 was a severe attack, and he no longer is bathing in 10 the water. 11 Some of the other stories that I've heard 12 to conserve water, I personally know one family. 13 They have four children. They run one bathtub full 14 of water every night and they do one kid at a time. 15 One goes in and the other comes out. Can you imagine 16 that fourth child that is getting in that bathtub? 17 She's probably coming out dirtier than she was before 18 she went in because they don't want to raise their 19 water bill because they can't afford to raise it. 20 And they both work. They just can't 21 afford it because the rents in our communities have 22 gone up if you don't own and you're renting. They're 23 paying $900 in rent a month and they're paying a $300 24 water bill. A water bill should never be one-third 25 of your rent. 19 1 I talked to a lady last night in the 2 grocery store in our neighborhood. She has six 3 children, and her water bill is over $300 a month. 4 Along with these large water bills, there 5 is no budget plan. There is no help. I know if 6 you're behind, they will, say, break your bill down 7 to three monthly payments, but it goes along with 8 your next -- you have to pay your next bill on time, 9 that payment, so if you are getting a $350 bill and 10 you had a $300 bill and they break it down, so you 11 got to pay $100 each month. So now you got to pay 12 $450 for three months. If you can't pay 350, how are 13 you going to pay 450? 14 What they would like to see is a payment 15 plan over a period or a budget plan or something like 16 PIPP or HEAP that helps them with their other bills. 17 They have nothing like that. 18 One lady in our neighborhood did get a 19 call back, and she -- they split hers up into 20 six-month payments, but she still has to make her 21 monthly payment along with that six months. 22 They did give her some help, but there 23 are tons of senior citizens that cannot do this. My 24 bill should not be as high for two people as it 25 was -- higher than when I had six people living in my 20 1 house. 2 The other thing, we have to replace our 3 hot water tanks like every four years because of the 4 crud. Mine got so bad that these men, they carried 5 out my hot water tank, and one guy was pretty hefty 6 and the other guy was small. But he's carrying that, 7 and the hefty guy was grunting and groaning, and they 8 had to sit down every three steps. 9 When they finally get to the top of the 10 steps, he said, I didn't realize these tanks were 11 that heavy. They said, They're not normally. It's 12 all the crud inside of it. 13 That's four years old. Every four years 14 we have to replace our hot water tanks. We have to 15 replace our faucets. We have to replace our toilets. 16 We have to replace our shower heads. That all costs 17 more cost to us because of the water. 18 And I know they did some things to make 19 it softer but it was extremely hard. It is still 20 hard. It is not as hard. It is still hard because 21 we still get the white scum. If you boil a pot of 22 water on the stove to make dinner, you get a white 23 filmy bubbling substance on the top of it, so most of 24 us use bottled water to cook with also. 25 My water bill was extremely high. I 21 1 brought my bill to show you. Back in January it went 2 way up here, and I talked to Jeff La Rue. He told me 3 to check the -- this is the standard answer when you 4 call customer service. Customer service is not very 5 serviceable. The person you get goes, You must have 6 a leak. That's not very helpful. 7 Then you can't find it. Then you have to 8 pay for somebody to come in and find it for you. 9 Jeff was nice enough to send someone to my house for 10 a home visit, but he gave some advice to pour stuff 11 in my tank and see if it went down into the bowl to 12 see if my toilet was leaking. And I did find a leak, 13 so I fixed that. 14 So I fixed it, and it dropped from 15 January down to here in February. Well, then you see 16 it went right back up in March, which I don't know 17 why, and he doesn't know why either. So then I 18 replaced -- I had a brand-new toilet put in and a hot 19 water tank. You see how low it was? And now it's 20 gradually going up again, and I don't have any more 21 leaks. There are no more leaks. My nephew is a 22 plumber and he came and checked everything out, and I 23 have no more leaks. 24 So in November I was particularly 25 concerned because it was way high. I left on 22 1 November 16 and went on vacation. I didn't return 2 until December 12. Now there's one guy, and I did 3 question him quite thoroughly to see if he was just 4 running water for the heck of it, but he wasn't. 5 But my bill went way up in November when 6 only one person was living in the house for half a 7 month. And for the month of December, it is still 8 not that low as the other months when only one person 9 was there for half a month. 10 So I'm not quire sure, and it says 11 "actual reading," so I'm not really sure that -- it 12 says "actual reading" every time, so I'm not really 13 sure it's being read or calculated because I've never 14 seen them read it. 15 Another thing I heard from a customer 16 was -- from a resident in the neighborhood is that 17 this elderly lady -- and I'm senior citizen also, but 18 she was a little more elderly. She doesn't flush her 19 toilet unless she goes No. 2. Throughout the day she 20 just won't flush her toilet because she can't afford 21 her water bill because we haven't gotten a social 22 security increase for the last two years. We're not 23 getting one this year, yet everything else keeps 24 going up on us. 25 All the utilities go up, and I don't how 23 1 they expect senior citizens, who've actually worked 2 all their lives and paid for this stuff, to keep 3 going if you're going to raise the rates constantly. 4 Every time they do something -- they 5 painted the water tower inside and out and put their 6 name on it. We have to pay for that? And there is 7 some cost to do this. I know they're entitled to 8 retrieve money. I mean, there is some cost of doing 9 business, and I'm sure they all got raises. I'm sure 10 they all get yearly raises. We don't. 11 Half of our neighborhood doesn't. Half 12 of them are Section 8 and the other half are senior 13 citizens, so we can't keep up. We just can't keep up 14 with it. Between the no flushing, no bathing, and 15 people are taking their laundry to Columbus family 16 members, doing their laundry there because of the 17 odor of the water. They say they can still smell it 18 when it comes out of the dryer and because of the 19 water rates. 20 We're not using our dishwashers. I 21 hand-wash my dishes because I can turn the water off 22 and on instead of running the dishwasher. 23 Another gentleman was going to send me a 24 filter, a water filter that he had to show you how 25 disgusting it was. He sent me a picture. I couldn't 24 1 get it before I left. He actually wanted you to see, 2 to take it and find out what's in it. It was really, 3 really bad. 4 And another one was wondering why do we 5 not get reports of, like, quality checks? Why do we 6 never get any notification if the water quality has 7 been checked and what was the results? 8 I mean, sure, they can send someone to 9 your house and check it and, Oh, it's okay. Do I 10 really know that? I don't know. I don't know if it 11 is or not. I know that my faucet in the basement 12 next to my water heater broke, so I called them 13 instantly to let them know that it broke and I had a 14 bunch of water because I only go to my basement once 15 a week to do laundry. I'm not down there, and I 16 noticed it was leaking. 17 So I was really panicky about my bill, 18 and I called them, and they said that's my 19 responsibility because it's before the meter. So 20 does that mean I can use all the water I want from 21 that faucet and never be billed for it? I mean, it's 22 on their meter. It's on the pipes that go to their 23 meter. I had to have someone come in and fix that 24 myself. 25 It just seems we can't wash our cars. 25 1 The kids can't fill up the little baby pools. We 2 can't do the extra things that everybody else can do 3 in other communities. I don't have flowers anymore. 4 I always had beautiful flowers in my garden. For the 5 last two years I have not planted because I cannot 6 afford to water them. I'm not going to plant them 7 and let them die because it didn't rain and I can't 8 water. 9 You can gather rain. You know, you can 10 set buckets out to get it, but what you get is 11 mosquitoes and not enough water to water your 12 flowers. So it's a bad situation in our 13 neighborhood, and there are a bunch of good people, 14 great people, that just can't afford another 15 increase. 16 I just really hope you take the 17 information and consider it when you're looking at 18 all of this. I don't want to lose my neighbors. I 19 don't want people to stop moving in. I don't want it 20 to become a ghost town because we cannot afford the 21 water bill. 22 Thank you. 23 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 24 Any questions? 25 MS. GLOVER: No questions. 26 1 MR. KUMAR: No, your Honor. 2 EXAMINER JONES: That's all I have on the 3 list at this time. 4 Let's go off the record. 5 (Discussion off the record.) 6 EXAMINER JONES: At this time that is 7 everybody that we have on the sign-up sheet. Is 8 there anyone in the audience who did not sign up who 9 would like to testify. 10 MR. HAWLEY: I will. 11 EXAMINER JONES: Okay. 12 (Witness sworn.) 13 EXAMINER JONES: Please give your name 14 and address for the record. 15 MR. HAWLEY: I'm Andrew Hawley. I live 16 at 8665 Renaa Avenue. That's in Galloway. That's 17 part of the Prairie Township service area. 18 H-A-W-L-E-Y. 19 I had not planned on giving any testimony 20 today so, sorry, I don't have anything prepared for 21 you, but listening to the two people that I heard 22 before me, I just kind of wanted to add a little bit 23 to what they said. 24 The last lady to go mentioned being on a 25 fixed income and being on social security, and I kind 27 1 of wanted to back up and give you a little bit of my 2 story. We just moved to Prairie Township about a 3 year ago. I moved from Hilliard. I moved from an 4 apartment where we had Columbus water billed through 5 a third party, and there we lived in a three-bedroom 6 town home. Me and two roommates. 7 Me and my wife now live in Prairie 8 Township and we pay almost $30 a month more than I 9 paid for the water that we had for three people's 10 usage in Hilliard. 11 And what concerns me is the fact that 12 there are people on social security that are on a 13 fixed income, but I feel like that is often 14 overlooked when we don't think about the income that 15 the rest of us see. I'm on a fixed income, too. My 16 paycheck is the same every single month. And, when 17 someone like -- a business like Aqua America expects 18 to push through a rate increase to two people like 19 myself, two people that live in this house, that's 20 all, and we pay nearly $100 a month, and that's a 21 very significant portion of our bills. 22 So I did read the report, the office 23 report that went to the Commission, and I noticed 24 that the part that really kind of stuck with me was 25 they recommended a fixed rate increase, and what 28 1 really bothered me right above that recommendation 2 for that fixed rate increase was a chart that showed 3 total water usage for Aqua America over the course of 4 the last few years. 5 If you look at the chart, it has 6 absolutely plummeted, and the excuses behind that 7 flat rate increase was, Well, we're not making as 8 much money because we're not selling as much water. 9 And we just listened to ten or so minutes 10 of testimony about how users are trying to cut back 11 their water usage, and by doing a fixed rate, I think 12 what we are doing is taking that out of my hands. I 13 no longer, as the consumer, have the ability to 14 control the course of my water, and that really 15 concerns me. 16 My wife and I can try our hardest to 17 conserve water. We can put in low-flow toilets. We 18 can put in faucet aerators. We can do things that we 19 think are not only good for our pocketbook but good 20 for the environment, and yet we have no control over 21 our water bill, and that was really what hit me 22 today. That's what I wanted to do. 23 So thank you for your time. 24 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 25 Any questions? 29 1 MS. GLOVER: No questions. 2 MR. KUMAR: No questions. 3 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 4 Let's go off the record. 5 (Discussion off the record.) 6 EXAMINER JONES: Let's go back on the 7 record. 8 (Witness sworn.) 9 EXAMINER JONES: Please give your name 10 and address for the record, please. 11 MS. BROBST: My name is Susan Brobst, 12 B-R-O-B-S-T, 4575 Madison Lane, Groveport, 43125. 13 - - - 14 SUSAN BROBST 15 being first duly sworn, as prescribed by law, was 16 examined and testified as follows: 17 DIRECT TESTIMONY 18 MS. BROBST: I'm the administrator for 19 Madison Township. I wanted to make sure that the 20 Commission understands the Township has worked, tried 21 to work, very closely over the years with Aqua, and 22 we do believe they have been trying. They have made 23 improvements, obviously, with reverse osmosis. 24 We have been working closely with their 25 public relations director, and we do acknowledge that 30 1 the water has gotten better over the last few years 2 as they have done improvements. However, we also 3 recognize from hearing from our residents and things 4 like that there may be other things that yet need to 5 be done to continue that yet further. 6 And we do recognize that the monthly rate 7 does appear to be rather high, and, unfortunately, we 8 do hear on a continuous basis that our residents are 9 struggling as to what they pay and how they really 10 use their water, and, again, as has been said 11 tonight, multiple children making sure that they're 12 using a minimal amount for baths or showers, the fact 13 that the rates have continued to increase over a long 14 period of time, yet household sizes have changed and 15 they continue to pay more and things such as that. 16 So I do want to recognize that we have -- 17 we continue to work with Aqua. We do recognize there 18 has been some positive things that they have done, 19 especially with the reverse osmosis, and we have had 20 ongoing discussions with other things that we can do 21 to help promote finding leaks with our residents and 22 things like that. 23 However, any increase that comes out of 24 this is definitely going to affect our residents, no 25 matter what it is, so we really do hope that the 31 1 Commission will dig a little deeper and really 2 consider what all of the requests are and try to make 3 that as minimal as possible. We recognize it's not 4 going to be a zero increase. We are realistic, but 5 if you would take this into consideration, that would 6 be appreciated. 7 Thank you. 8 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 9 Any questions? 10 MS. GLOVER: No questions. 11 MR. KUMAR: No, your Honor. 12 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 13 Anyone else in the audience who has not 14 had an opportunity to testify who would like to 15 testify at this time? 16 At this time we are going to go off the 17 record for about 10 or 15 minutes to see if any 18 residents show up that want to testify. During the 19 break if you have questions about the utility service 20 or rate application, Commission staff is available to 21 speak with you or OCC staff as well. 22 Let's take about a ten-minute break. 23 (Recess taken.) 24 EXAMINER JONES: Victor Paini, you would 25 like to testify? 32 1 MR. PAINI: Yes. 2 (Witness sworn.) 3 - - - 4 EXAMINER JONES: Please state your name 5 and address for the record. 6 MR. PAINI: Victor Paini. My address is 7 7296 Porter Drive, Canal Winchester, Ohio. I serve 8 as a Madison Township trustee. 9 I want to thank you all for waiting. 10 What I have to say probably isn't as important as 11 worth the wait, but I appreciate being here. 12 EXAMINER JONES: Can you spell your last 13 name for the record? 14 MR. PAINI: Sure. It's P-A-I-N-I. 15 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 16 MR. PAINI: I've been a township trustee 17 entering my eighth year, so two terms and so two 18 water companies that we have been dealing with. I 19 wasn't a trustee when Citizens was the water company 20 but I did deal with Ohio American and now Aqua. 21 I want to talk a little bit about some of 22 the differences that I've seen with Ohio American 23 versus Aqua, some of the improvements, but still some 24 areas that need to be addressed. 25 I think there are three pretty big issues 33 1 that we wanted to tackle in partnership with the 2 water company eight years ago and those are service 3 quality, service cost, and customer service in 4 general, so just partnering with residents. 5 It was pretty poor. I think there was a 6 lot of distrust between the residents and the water 7 company. Some of the staff at the water company 8 were -- could be a little combative at times. They 9 just weren't great partners. There was no great 10 outreach. There was no outreach at all, really, to 11 our community. 12 Fast-forward a little bit -- so we had 13 several meetings. I think if you look back at the 14 "Fight the Hike" work back then, you could probably 15 see, if any of you were at that hearing five or six 16 years ago, the difference between what you're seeing 17 tonight versus what you saw then. There were a lot 18 more residents involved, people bringing water 19 samples. They were animated, and I think that's a 20 testimony to the relationship between the residents 21 and the water company. It was just pretty combative. 22 Fast-forward a few years, we are now 23 dealing with Aqua, and I will tip my hat to them. 24 They have done great work in improving the 25 relationship and opening communication between the 34 1 residents and the water company. 2 They hired a consultant who's been very 3 helpful and instrumental in engaging in social media, 4 answering questions, and reaching out to residents, 5 which has been a good move. So I think there has 6 been some marked improvement in the customer service 7 aspect, one of the three areas, customer service. 8 It's not perfect. I still think there 9 are areas where they can improve, some of them being 10 in dealing -- helping people and seniors, people with 11 fixed incomes and those things. That still seems to 12 be a little -- it's not perfectly clear, I don't 13 think, how seniors can get assistance when they need 14 it, and while we hear that programs are available, we 15 also hear they're very cumbersome and there's a lot 16 of hoops to jump through and not everybody is always 17 approved and those sorts of things, so I think 18 there's some work there. But all in all, I think the 19 relationships between residents and the Aqua Ohio 20 water company is improving. 21 Secondly, water quality. If you were at 22 the hearing several years ago, you would have seen 23 people with jars of water saying, you know, This is 24 out of my tap and it's brown. It looked like water 25 you pulled out of a creek. You heard a lot of people 35 1 had the their own water softener system, losing 2 utilities in their house, the washer and dryer, the 3 clothes washer, dishwasher, hot water heater, those 4 sorts of things because of the hardness of the water. 5 To Aqua's credit, they stood up. They 6 have read the report. Frustratingly enough -- I 7 think we have someone here from the OCC. There was a 8 report done 30 years ago that said the water was too 9 hard. A recommendation came out of a body just like 10 this to go fix it. 11 They did a survey. The survey is a joke, 12 in my opinion. They didn't get enough people to 13 reply, so they just walked away from it. It didn't 14 fix the water at all. It didn't necessarily address 15 whether it was hard or not. It just didn't get done. 16 A little bit of a tangent here, you had 17 folks in the township that thought the water 18 softening had happened, and it hadn't, so there was 19 some confusion. Hey, we paid all this money for a 20 softener but our water still stinks. Well, the 21 softener really didn't ever get implemented. 22 Aqua did some research and put in a 23 solution to try to soften the water, and I think in 24 many cases it's working. People are pretty 25 satisfied. I was talking to a resident that actually 36 1 happens to be one of our employees that said that 2 they were actually removing their water softener out 3 of their house now because they don't need the salt. 4 They don't need the softener. The quality has 5 improved dramatically. 6 A little asterisk there, I don't know 7 that it's necessarily systemwide. I think if you 8 talk to some of the residents here, they may have 9 already testified it's not perfect, so there's still 10 some pockets that need to be addressed, and I think 11 when we try to escalate those, sometimes they're met 12 with a little resistance and sometimes they're met 13 with open arms. Let's go take a look at it. 14 We're getting better. We had a nice 15 conversation with them at their facility a few months 16 ago, trying to improve, you know, getting water 17 packets, testing, things like that done. But I just 18 think a little more maturity there would be helpful 19 in the relationship space. 20 So the quality is improving, so that's a 21 mark in the right direction. Again, I think we are 22 making strides in service. We are making strides in 23 the quality. The one area that is always a problem 24 is the price. 25 And, you know, I think Susan mentioned -- 37 1 she probably mentioned to you folks that we know 2 there's going to be some type of an increase, and we 3 recognize that Aqua is wanting to recoup their 4 investments, and it makes sense. 5 If you're not familiar with our township, 6 it's fairly unique. It's the largest township in 7 Franklin County. It's more like a city than a 8 township, but there's this pocket there that we call 9 Blacklick Estates. It's a census-designated place 10 that's much like a city. It has several thousand 11 residents, but they don't have any representation 12 other than us. They don't have a city government 13 they don't have a city council. They don't have a 14 legal division or all those sorts of things that most 15 cities would have. 16 But it's a tightly knit community, and 17 that community is serviced by Aqua and by us from a 18 safety service perspective. It's very close to the 19 city of Columbus so they hear lots of feedback on the 20 City of Columbus water cost this or the City of 21 Columbus water costs that. Ours cost this. Yours 22 cost that. Why is that? 23 We did some analysis a few years ago to 24 figure out why that was happening. The end of the 25 day, I think that as much as -- frustrated is 38 1 probably too strong of a word, but as frustrated as 2 we get with Aqua, I'm equally as frustrated with the 3 OCC and the PUCO, to be honest. 4 This is an area in Franklin County that 5 needs a little bit of attention and needs a little 6 bit of help, and we have folks that come to our 7 township trustee meetings that hold us accountable, 8 but we have very little control. And as a trustee, I 9 can help you with police and fire service and we can 10 plow your roads, but I can't do much when it comes to 11 water, and some other areas as well. 12 I really would call on the Commission 13 either as a part of this process or after this 14 process to spend some time with us in the township to 15 understand the partnership with Aqua and this unique 16 situation. You know, a lot of the homes are vacant. 17 They struggle to fill them because of things like the 18 cost of water, and then that has an impact on the 19 general property values in the area. And it's just 20 sort of this cycle that we are trying to get out of 21 that we can't, and water is an essential part of that 22 equation. 23 So I guess I wanted you to hear some of 24 the good that's happened. I do commend them for the 25 steps that they're taking to improve relationships 39 1 with their own customers and also to improve the 2 quality. I wouldn't say either of those are perfect, 3 but I can tell you this. They are light years ahead 4 of where we were with Ohio American, and so that's to 5 be commended. 6 This cost thing, I think you are going to 7 have people like us here every time there's an 8 increase because it's just something that's tough for 9 that part of the township to sustain. 10 That's all I have. 11 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 12 Any questions? 13 COMMISSIONER TROMBOLD: No. 14 MR. KERSHNER: No, your Honor. 15 EXAMINER JONES: Thank you. 16 Is there anyone else who has not had an 17 opportunity to testify that would like to? 18 Seeing none, that concludes everyone. 19 I'd like to thank you for attending tonight's 20 proceeding and offering your testimony. 21 Commissioner Trombold, do you have any 22 final remarks you would like to make? 23 COMMISSIONER TROMBOLD: No. Just drive 24 safely home. 25 EXAMINER JONES: As I mentioned earlier, 40 1 there are two more local hearings scheduled in this 2 case, different parts of Aqua's service territory, 3 and the evidentiary hearing begins on January 19 in 4 the Commission's offices. 5 And, again, I'd like to thank everybody 6 for showing up and your testimony tonight. 7 With that, we are adjourned. Thank you 8 and have a nice evening. 9 (The hearing adjourned at 7:00 p.m.) 10 - - - 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 41 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I do hereby certify that the foregoing is a 3 true and correct transcript of the proceedings taken 4 by me in this matter on Tuesday, January 10, 2017, 5 and carefully compared with my original stenographic 6 notes. 7 _______________________________ Rosemary Foster Anderson, 8 Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of 9 Ohio. 10 My commission expires April 5, 2019. 11 (rfa-82811) 12 - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25