FlowFlorida.com

Aqua Rate Case Begins at 1:00 pm, 2-14-2012

Dbussey — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:23:55 +0000

“as advised by Mr. Willis, Director of Economic Regulation, and Chuck Hill, Executive Director, staff’s recommendation on Aqua Utilities Florida, Inc.’s petition for increased water and wastewater rates will be taken up at time certain of 1:00 on February 14, 2012. Because this is final agency action after a full evidentiary hearing, participation will be limited to staff and the Commissioners.”

The above information was emailed to me by the FPSC Staff.

For those of you who will be going on the buses with us, departure times should be no later than 7:00 am. There are toilet facilities on the buses, and bottled water will be provided. There is plenty of space under the buses for wheelchairs, walkers, etc.

We’ll stop along the way up for no more than 30 minutes at a fast food place. Your driver knows where they are. We will arrive in plenty of time for lunch (either at the cafeteria or brown-bag). Meeting room and cafeteria are on first floor and in same building.

You can make signs and hold them up, but no noise of any kind will be tolerated by the Commission. Keep your sign info to two to three words. 8′x11′ poster card paper works well, and staple a wooden paint stir stick to the back of the sign. Long sticks are not permited.

We will stop at a restaurant on the way home.

Because of some generous donations, the cost for transportation is only $15.00 per seat. In addition, several seats have been sponsored for anyone who can’t afford it.

More info to come, registering, contact person, etc.

Dave Bussey

813-713-9796

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House Committee To Consider HB1379

Dbussey — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:30:31 +0000

HB 1379 goes to the House Energy and Utilities Subcommittee this Tuesday, January 31st, 2012, at 12:30 pm.

Below are the email addresses of all the committee members. Please encourage them to support HB 1379.

Also, encourage your District Senator and Representative to attend this meeting and ask for its passage.

You can send one email (drag, copy and paste all email addresses into address line of a “new” email you’re going to send), or you can click on each individual address and send one at a time.

Ben.Albritton@myfloridahouse.gov
Lori.Berman@myfloridahouse.gov
Jeff.Clemens@myfloridahouse.gov
Janet.Cruz@myfloridahouse.gov
Daniel.Davis@myfloridahouse.gov
Shawn.Harrison@myfloridahouse.gov
Clay.Ingram@myfloridahouse.gov
George.Moraitis@myfloridahouse.gov
Peter.Nehr@myfloridahouse.gov
Kathleen.Passidomo@myfloridahouse.gov
Scott.Plakon@myfloridahouse.gov
Elizabeth.Porter@myfloridahouse.gov
Michelle.Rehwinkel@myfloridahouse.gov
Greg.Steube@myfloridahouse.gov
Alan.Williams@myfloridahouse.gov

Thanks for your support.

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FPSC Should Deny Aqua Rate Case

Dbussey — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:15:28 +0000

The FPSC General Counsel, Curt Kiser, has been notified of the statements made by his predesessor, Booter Imhoff, regarding the Commission’s ability to deny the Aqua Utilities rate case. In 2009, Mr. Imhoff advised the Commissioners that they had the authority to deny a rate case, if the quality of service was found to be “inefficient”.

The Commissioners downgraded Aqua’s quality of service from “satisfactory” to “marginal”, in May of 2011. Since then, the Commissioners had to attend formal customer hearings, where they got more than an earful of the awful quality of service Aqua has been subjecting its customers to.

In addition, these Commissioners were presented with an enormous amount of well-documented testimony at the Technical Hearing held this past November. Testimony that Aqua’s counsel had difficulty refuting.

Inefficient quality of service has been soundly established, and it should be downgraded, even further, to “unsatisfactory”.

It won’t come as a surpise, if the FPSC Staff offers a ‘pro-Aqua’ recommendation to the Commissioners. Their “don’t ask – don’t tell” attitude has been extremely detrimental when it comes to protecting the customers. Voluntarily offering important information to the Commissioners seems to have lost its appeal. Keeping the Commissioners in the dark is a bad policy.

The final order for the current Aqua rate case will be decided on February 14th. Hopefully, General Counsel Kiser will have no difficulty in bringing to light the vast expanse of the Commission’s ”great discretion”, and its authority to deny a rate case, if the quality of service is inefficient (North Florida Water v. Bevis).

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Aqua North Carolina Cruel Customer Service

Dbussey — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:33:58 +0000

Another disgraceful act of customer “dis-service” by Aqua America and its subsidiary in North Caroline.

See link below for full article.

http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/nc-news/Aqua-North-Carolina-Gets-Paid-Still-Cuts-Sewer-Service-138013778.html

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Tell Your Senator and Representative to Support Bills

Dbussey — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:29:00 +0000

SB1244 and HB1379 have been introduced in both the Senate and House. It is critical that every Senator and Representative hear from their constituents, in order to get these bills passed.

Below, you will find a link that will help you contact your district senator and representative. It’s so easy…… just enter your zip code and street address…… and a brief two-paragraph letter pops up and is ready to send.

Tell everyone you know to join in, even if they aren’t Aqua customers. The more of these letters that are sent, the greater the impact.

http://acton.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8598

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Stop Aqua! Get On The Bus!

Dbussey — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:21:12 +0000

Who: Florida Public Service Commissioners
What: Aqua Rate Case 100330-WS (Final Hearing)
When: Feb. 14th, 2012 (Tuesday)
Where: Tallahassee
Why: Because it’s really important!

A full room of customers is a legitimate show of power. It lets these Commissioners
know that it’s not just Frank Reams and Dave Bussey stirring the pot. When customers
drive 4 hours to an agenda conference, it delivers a much stronger message than you can
imagine.

J.R. Kelly, head of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents you before the
Commission, thinks you should attend.

Senators Fasano, Storms, and Hays all think it’s very important for you to be there.

And so do Representatives Weatherford, Legg, Brodeur, Stargel and Dockery.

This is your final opportunity to let the Commission know you still care and are still
involved.

Buses are scheduled to leave from:

Zephyrhills (East Pasco County)

Port Richey (West Pasco County)

Scottish Highlands (Leesburg area)

See you in Tallahassee.

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Send and email to your Legislators

FReams — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:28:51 +0000

Just follow the link below, its easy just add your name and address, and any personal comments to the bottom of the letter.

http://acton.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8598

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PSC Agenda Conference 2-14-12

FReams — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:37:07 +0000

The Florida Public Commission will make a ruling on the Aqua rate case which was first ruled on May of 2010, however that ruling was protested by the Office of Public Counsel. The commission scheduled 10 field hearings for customer to voice their feelings and after 5 days of technical hearings in late November and early December the Commissioners will now consider the staff receommendation and determine what the correct amount of increase should be.

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Will Weatherford ‘doesn’t shirk the tough stuff’

FReams — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:13:03 +0000

Tampa Tribune third article of a series of stories on Pasco County people to watch in 2012

Please click the link below for full story:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/politics/2012/jan/11/panewso1-state-rep-will-weatherford-doesnt-shirk-t-ar-345955/

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Aqua Rate Case Agenda Conference (2-14-2012)

Dbussey — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:06:16 +0000

Why should you attend? The first time we went, we took 55 customers. After hearing our concerns, the Commissioners decided to continue monitoring Aqua’s over-all quality of service (no free pass).

Last year, we took 110 customers. After hearing our concerns, the Commissioners decided to down-grade Aqua’s quality of service to “marginal”. Again, no free pass.

Since then the Commissioners have had to come out into the field and listen to the many problems we are having with this “water profiteer”.

Technical hearings were then held, and significant, documented testimony was provided that shed more light on the inability of Aqua to provide reasonable quality of service, at affordable prices.

In addition, the House and Senate have introduced bills, that when passed, will put an end to any large investor owned utility’s ability to take advantage of its customers.

This time we are planning on having at least 200-250 customers attend the conference.

The most powerful message we can send these Commissioners is our presence at this Agenda Conference. Time after time, we’ve been encouraged to get as many customers to attend as possible, because it is a proven fact that this is the most effective way to get their attention.

We understand that some of you cannot come with us – not a problem. But someone once said that to know to do the right thing and chose not to do it, because it might cause some temporary inconvenience or hardship, is, well, perhaps an even greater problem.

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