Bend water system rate conference is public, but secret

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The conference scheduled Thursday to possibly settle the rate increase requested by Roats Water System Inc., of Bend, will be public but confidential, according to the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

Although open to members of the public, particularly Roats customers, anyone other than the five recognized parties in the rate case must sign a nondisclosure agreement to attend. The conference is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. at the East Bend Public Library meeting room, 62080 Dean Swift Road. The room has 55 seats available.

A settlement conference “is a useful tool to the PUC and other parties, and to make them as productive as possible, people need to speak frankly,” said Bruce Hellebuyck, PUC program manager for water regulation. “To do that, we’re asking folks to sign a nondisclosure agreement.”

Under Oregon Administrative Rules, a settlement conference is closed to the public unless the parties involved agree to open it up. In addition to the Roats Water owners and PUC staff, two customers, James Pease and James Powell have been approved as parties to the case, along with Pat McCabe, who represents the Woodside Ranch Homeowners Association.

The Roats company seeks a 35.21 percent rate hike, its first in more than 10 years, according to the company’s March request. At a May hearing in Bend, Roats customers said their bills would climb 70 percent when the base rate is combined with monthly water use charges.

The rate increase is linked to the pending acquisition by Roats Water System of the former Juniper Utility Co., which the PUC will take up separately. The city of Bend in April agreed to sell the former Juniper water company, which serves the Tillicum, Nottingham Square, Timber Ridge and Mountain High subdivisions, to Roats for $1.4 million. Avion Water Co. agreed to pay $400,000 for a smaller piece.

The rate increase sought by Roats takes into account the costs associated with the former Juniper system, Hellebuyck said.

“They’re obviously very much related,” he said. “The rate case assumes the combination is coming, so the costs and everything in the rate case are for the combined company.”

Although settlement conferences are routine, opening them up to the public is not, Hellebuyck said Tuesday. In this case, so many Roats customers showed interest in the case that none of the parties objected to it being open, he said.

“It’s kind of unusual,” he said.

He said the nondisclosure agreement would forbid sharing any information or discussion at the conference with anyone who wasn’t there or not a party to the rate case. He said he wasn’t aware of the penalty for violating the agreement; that’s a matter for the Oregon Department of Justice.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com