Elegant Letter

State of Utah

Department of Commerce

Office of Consumer Services

MICHELE BECK

Director

GARY R. HERBERT

Governor

SPENCER J. COX

Lieutenant Governor

Minutes of the Meeting of the Utah Committee of Consumer Services

Tuesday, April 11, 2017, 9:00 a.m.

Committee Members in Attendance:

Laura Cuomo Carolee Hale Ingo Henningson

Scott Howell Craig Laub Kirsten Peterson

Larry Skinner

Staff in Attendance:

Michele Beck

Gavin Mangelson
1. Welcome & Business
Craig Laub, acting chair for this meeting, welcomed the Committee members and public and started the meeting.

2. Introduction of New Committee Members

The Committee members each introduced themselves, including the two newly appointed members Carolee Hale and Larry Skinner.
2b. Additional Business
Kirsten Peterson made a motion to approve the draft minutes for the January 10, 2017 meeting. Ingo Henningsen seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
3. Legislative Updates
Michele Beck gave an overview of the legislative session, including bills that passed, were vetoes as well as those proposed but not passed. The legislation that will have the greatest impact include: HB109 that will change the accounting of the Office’s budget, SB 198 that adds fees to customer’s telecom bills to pay for the Utah Communications Authority, and SB130 that amends the Universal Service Fund operations.
4. Case Updates
Michele Beck provided updates on recent cases including the following: progress in the STEP Phase 2 implementation and Phase 3 Electric Vehicle filing, the withdrawal of the Carbon/Emery appeal, the approval of the Questar biogas tariff, the filing of the 2017 EBA true-up request (which was a credit to customers for the first time), the result of the EBA design docket and the Office’s joint request for reconsideration, status of the net metering case, and the recent filing of PacifiCorp’s IRP.
5. Utah Universal Service Fund: Follow Up Discussion
The Committee discussed the current policy objective #11 (Utah Universal Service Fund) in the context of recently passed legislation. After a robust discussion, Kirsten Peterson made a motion to change this policy objective to the following language:
11. Utah Universal Service Fund:

The Committee of Consumer Services supports the Office advocating positions to help ensure proper oversight and efficient use of the Utah Universal Public Telecommunications Service Support Fund (also known as the Utah USF). (updated and approved 4/11/17))

The motion has seconded by Ingo Henningsen and unanimously approved. Michele Beck indicated that she would update the website and other documents to reflect the new language.

6. Policy Objectives

The Committee members agreed to further review policy objective #6 to see if it would benefit from updated or strengthened language and will address this issue again at its next meeting.
7. Other Business and Adjourn
The Committee determined that it would schedule a meeting around the second half of May and include a comprehensive overview of the net metering issues again at that meeting. The Committee further determined that it would meet around the second half of August. Michele Beck indicated that she would send a doodle poll for both of those time periods. Scott Howell made a motion to adjourn, which passed unanimously. The Committee adjourned.