Texans Against Monarch S Excessive Rates

Texans Against Monopolies’ Excessive Rates Your TAMER Update May 20, 2010

Activities Covered In This Update:

1) TAMER Meeting Chandler, TX Feb 10, 2010 2) Into the 21st Century NEW: Virtual Meetings NEW: TAMER Web Site 3) The Fight Is Joined: TAMER’s Plan For 2010 and Beyond 4) TAMER Testifies: Texas House of Representatives Natural Resource Committee 5) TAMER Testifies: Texas Legislature Sunset Commission

1) TAMER Meeting Chandler, TX Feb 10, 2010

This face-to-face TAMER meeting brought together 49 members, representing 12 of our 17 counties and 29 of our 58 subdivisions.

David Frederick, legal council for TAMER, covered the Sunset Commission, ratepayer objectives and a recap of the last legislative session.

An election of the TAMER Board of Directors resulted in naming the following: Orville Bevel, Chairman Patrick Bowles, Secretary/Recorder Gary George Richard Brown Cy Farver Gene Robinson Mark Lee Johnny Jinks Paul Metz Gerry Mullins Alicia Stewart TAMER’s Financial Status:

This next year will be pivotal in the rate making process and TAMER will require funds to cover items such as the Sunset Commission Hearings, the next Monarch rate increase and the 2011-12 legislative session. A concerted effort will be needed to garner financial support from our subdivision homeowners.

On a call from the President, Patrick Bowles, Paul Graham and Charles Bullock volunteered to serve on an Audit Committee.

Communications:

A viable membership directory is key to communicating with our individual TAMER members. This project was assigned to Paul Metz.

The use of Virtual-Meeting (“V-Meetings”) technologies would allow TAMER Board and our General Membership meetings to be conducted on-line while eliminating travel and time. The technologies will be investigated and a recommendation made to implement and trial V-Meetings. This project was assigned to Paul Metz.

Discussion was held on the possibility of bringing in folks such as those served by Aqua Texas, Algonquin, and other investor owned utilities. It was agreed that while keeping our aim on Monarch, we should pursue alliances where results would prove beneficial.

Gary George, Patrick Bowles and Charles Bullock will serve as a committee to consider changing the TAMER name to broaden the appeal of the organization. The committee will review suggestions and make a recommendation to the board.

Blue Ribbon Panel Update:

Orville reported that at the last meeting of the panel, Monarch’s President, Chuck Profilet stated that the TCEQ was forcing Monarch into capital projects of $75 million and they have already spent $40 million in Texas. There is consideration by some members in discontinuing their panel membership because of the strong company bias that is reflected in their responses.

Other Items: o Curtis Howell answered the call of the President for someone to head the effort in establishing media contacts to provide better coverage for the organization. o Gary George agreed to maintain his information contacts with TCEQ. o In responding to a question on Monarch’s filing to adjust depreciation rates, Gary George stated that an individual can comment to TCEQ on the matter and that he will send out an email with a copy of the filing. During the last rate case, TAMER as a group agreed not to protest the change of depreciation rate changes until after the first rate case using the new rates. o Cy Farver suggested we pursue the County Commissioners Court to act for unincorporated areas and do the same as cites do in denying implementation of rate increases. Orville will email information concerning this matter.

2) Into the 21 st Century TAMER is harnessing computer technology to enhance our communication within the Board of Directors and with you, our membership. Scott Hruska, Chris Jackson and Paul Metz have spearheaded these efforts.

TAMER V-Meetings We have now conducted 4 Virtual Meetings of the Board of Directors using a commercial service called “Glance” which allows both voice communication with visual presentations on your home computer. The Board is finding that these hour-long V-meetings are a powerful and effective way to frequently get together to organize and keep everyone “on the same page”. The savings in personal time and elimination of lengthy commutes to a meeting site are significant. The next step will be to widen the V-meetings to include representatives from our member subdivisions.

TAMER’s Web Site

“Do you have a web site?” That question seems to be a measure of legitimacy for most businesses (and even individuals) in this modern world. TAMER now has a web site at:

http://tamertx.bbnow.org

This is a “work-in-progress” but the initial information is excellent and the site is a good introduction to “Who We Are” and “What We Are Doing. Most importantly, it allows anyone, TAMER member or not, to make a contribution on-line using either PayPal or a credit card.

Take a look at our new web site and give us some feedback on how it can be improved. Oh, and a donation is always appreciated:>

3) The Fight Is Joined: TAMER’s Plan For 2010 and Beyond

2010 is a pivotal year for TAMER members and, indeed, all water users in Texas. In 2007, TAMER was successful in rolling back Monarch rate increases. For Monarch customers, 2010 also marks the last year of the “stay out” period on rate increases which ran from 2008- 2010. On January 1, 2011, Monarch is free to raise water rates (again!) and all indications are that they will be huge. Parallel with this is the sale of Southwest Water, the parent company of Monarch, to a private investment firm. This will effectively take away any insight we have on Monarch’s business practices as the new firm will not be publicly traded and, therefore, will not have to provide public records.

2010 is also propitious because this is the year that the Texas Legislature’s Sunset Commission reviews the effectiveness of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This review occurs only once every 12 years. So why is this important?

Representative Allen Ritter, Chairman of the Texas Natural resources Committee has said, “Every Texan deserves clean and affordable water.” Unfortunately, there is no agency in Texas that is concerned and staffed to produce both “clean” and “affordable” water. Water rates in Texas are controlled by the TCEQ, not the PUC. The TCEQ is focused on water quality. The PUC is focused on water rates. We have the rare (1 time every 12 years) chance to influence the structure of water management in Texas and TAMER is pushing hard to bring water control back under the PUC where the expertise resides to oversee water companies’ business practices and control water rates.

We need your help in this critical fight. 4) TAMER Testifies: Texas House of Representatives Natural Resource Committee

On May 12th, TAMER testified to the Texas House of Representatives Natural Resource Committee on the impact of water rates on the consumer.

Representatives on the Natural Resources Committee Representative District County TAMER Sub Division Allan Ritter 21 Jefferson (part) Bill Callegari 132 Harris John T. Smithee 86 Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Randall Frank Corte, Jr. 122 Bexar (part) Brandon Creighton 16 Montgomery (part) Monarch Protest Group of Montgomery Trey Martinez Fischer 116 Bexar (part) Stephen Frost 1 Bowie, Cass, Marion, West Chamber County Morris Estates & Tower Terrace Association Tracy King 80 Kinney, Maverick, Holiday Villages of Medina Zavala, Dimmit, La Salle, Frio, Medina Jodie Laubenberg 89 Collin, Rockwall Eddie Lucio III 38 Cameron (part) Doug Miller 73 Gillespie, Kendall, Lake Medina Shores Comal, Bandera

Please take the time to contact your representative and voice your concerns over water quality and costs. For those who wonder if this ever does any good, Representative Miller cited, during testimony, the complaints of two of his constituents who had contacted him prior to this hearing. Your voice counts.

Testimony was heard from TCEQ snd Legal Counsels for both consumers and Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs). The major water companies (IOUs) of San Jose water, Aqua Texas, Southern Utilities, Southwest Water, Quadvest and Texas American also testified. TAMER’s Orville Bevel and Paul Metz both testified for the public.

One important part of the testimony was the apparent plan to re-introduce Senate Bill 1846 in this legislative session. This bill was tabled last session and contains several measures that will ripple down to even higher water rates to the consumer (us). It is TAMER’s intention to fight hard to defeat this odious bill. Much discussion occurred over the imposition of rate increases before public hearings and the lengthy (often more than 18 months) foot-dragging to resolve a disputed rate increase-- while the IOU collects the increase rate the entire time.

5) TAMER Testifies: Texas Legislature Sunset Commission

On May 25th and 26th, TAMER will testify to the Texas legislature’s Sunset Commission, which I discussed above. This is a pivotal event in the 2010 rate fight as the Sunset Commission has the charter to evaluate all Texas State organizations for efficiency and effectiveness and recommend changes to the Texas Legislature. The legislature can only accept or reject the Sunset Commission recommendations as written. No modifications, amendments or other manipulations are permitted. Thus, TAMER will work hard to have the water rate making to be returned to the Public Utilities Commission as it was prior to 1985.