The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s $1.50 \u201cconvenience fee\u201d that it assesses customers who pay their bills using the phone or Internet is now under review by the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, after the panel expressed a desire to temporarily suspend the collection of this fee. <\/p>\n
CPUC chair Joseph Guerrero said all commissioners\u2014himself, Dave Guerrero, and Oscar Quitugua\u2014have initially discussed the matter and are leaning toward suspending it for the moment.<\/p>\n
During public rate hearings in December, CUC customers aired their concern over the $1.50 convenience fee, saying it was unclear if the fee had been approved by CPUC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s discussion among commissioners that we would like this convenience fee waived pending review, in the hopes that it will lower the cost for everybody. We would like to order that this fee be temporarily suspended,\u201d said Guerrero during Monday\u2019s rate hearing.<\/p>\n
CUC officials opposed this and appealed for consideration due to the corporation\u2019s cash flow situation.<\/p>\n
According to CUC general counsel James Sirok, CUC is concerned that if the convenience fee is stopped at this time, this will impact the revenues anticipated by CUC for its operational needs and would result in a shortfall.<\/p>\n
Sirok suggested that CUC be given ample time to submit information about the convenience fee before the commission decides to have it stopped.<\/p>\n
For now, he asked that CUC be allowed to continue collecting the convenience fee until the CPUC reaches a final decision. He recommended that the issue be tabled for the April regulatory session of the commissioners.<\/p>\n
According to CPUC hearing examiner Harry Boertzel, the commission has to consider Sirok\u2019s reasonable proposal. The convenience fee was later put on status quo pending documents to be filed by CUC for the spring decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither you leave the fee in place or we could have parties submit briefs for commission\u2019s decision in April,\u201d said Boertzel who participated in Monday\u2019s hearing through teleconference.<\/p>\n
Prior to ending the discussion on the convenience fee, CPUC chair Guerrero urged CUC to issue a notice to customers that the \u201cconvenience fee\u201d is under CPUC review.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Guerrero ordered CPUC consultant Georgetown Consulting to conduct independent review of the fee and its recommendation on the issue. All this will be finalized at the spring session.<\/p>\n
[B]Billing practice[\/B]<\/p>\n
The CPUC also tasked its consultant to investigate CUC\u2019s practice of using estimated figures in billing customers. The report is due before the spring meeting for CPUC\u2019s consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some jurisdiction \u2018estimating\u2019 is prohibited and that\u2019s one area that Georgetown will look at,\u201d said Guerrero.<\/p>\n
Based on the hearing examiner\u2019s report to the CPUC: \u201cIt is worth noting that Guam has a strict statutory restrictions on estimated and back billing. The undersigned recommends that Georgetown be tasked with examining CUC\u2019s estimated and back billing practices and to make recommendations for appropriate regulatory action at the spring session, including the need for remedial legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s $1.50 \u201cconvenience fee\u201d that it assesses customers who pay their bills using the phone or Internet is now under review by the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission, after the panel expressed a desire to temporarily suspend the collection of this fee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}