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Service Charge Proration Refund

 

On February 27, 2020, a final decision was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regarding the investigation into a past billing practice. On March 6, 2020 we filed an advice letter with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to provide refunds to customers. This brings to a close a regrettable chapter of our 154-year history. Our goal is to move forward and do better by you, our customers.

The recent settlement provides the following:

  1. Refunds to current customers totaling approximately $1.8 million for the period of January 1987 through May 2011.
    • The refunds will be based on meter size.
    • For residential customers with a 3/4-inch meter, the amount of the refund will be $5.52.
  2. An additional amount of approximately $350,000 to customers currently enrolled in our Water Rate Assistance Plan (WRAP) bringing their total one-time refund amount to $25.
  3. $5 million investment in our water system which will not be paid for by customers.

The standard approval process is 30 days. The CPUC approved Advice Letter 545 on April 10, 2020. Refunds will begin on April 13, 2020. They will appear on customer bills automatically. It will take approximately two months for all bills to reflect this refund since we bill most residential customers bi-monthly. This is the second refund related to this issue. In Spring 2019, a one-time refund was applied to all customer accounts based on meter size. For the majority of our residential customers with a 3/4-inch meter, that amount totaled $6.36 and covered the period of June 2011- December 2016.

Once completed, two refunds will have been applied to customer accounts. For the 30-year span from 1987 to 2016, the refunds will total approximately $12.

We are grateful to both customers and the CPUC for helping us resolve this. This was an unfortunate chapter in our history — one that we apologize for and have learned from. Our goal as we move forward, is to do better by our customers and communities.