According to Rebecca Stenholm, EPCOR's Public Affairs executive, the company is seeking the delay in order to give them time to provide clean and complete numbers in their initial submission. EPCOR is still in the midst of a protracted water rate case, involving Sun City, Sun City West, and other districts, and they've taken some heat from the Commission Staff as well as the presiding judge about their figures. They don't want a repeat of that for our wastewater case.
On the whole, this is not a bad thing for Verrado. We managed to get the settlement last December, which prevented us from going to $121 a month and brought us down to $71. Still high, but much better than the alternative. Also, with Victory and the Phase 3 South growth in Heritage, that means more ratepayers will be considered in the final count (more people to spread the same fixed cost). EPCOR remains committed to consolidation as the best policy and doesn't want any quibbling over the figures to distract from the policy discussion (which we also favor). So far, EPCOR is sticking with it's estimate that somewhere around $35 is still a resonable target. We'll have to see if that holds up as the case develops.
We'd like to add that, though somewhat frustrating, this delay is not really a surprise. A normal rate case contains about 2,500 pages of material and highly detailed cost analysis. And the Commission has requested a breakdown of costs in Agua Fria (to consider deconsolidation) which has never been calculated before, requiring the company to dig into agreements with the original developers of half a dozen communities, the details of which were put into place before EPCOR came to town. Arizona American, it seems, didn't pass on very detailed records of their accounting.
We continue to have a great relationship with EPCOR leaders and have very transparent dialog with them. Anything we know, you will know too.
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