2. Background
Cal-Ore Telephone Company (Cal-Ore) is an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) serving approximately 2,286 access lines in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County, providing local, toll, and access telephone services. Cal-Ore's principal place of business is located in Dorris, California. Cal-Ore serves four exchanges, Macdoel, Dorris, Tulelake, and Newell.
Cal-Ore filed its Test Year 2009 General Rate Case (GRC) on December 27, 2007 through Advice Letter (AL) 320 and AL 320A on February 2, 2009, in compliance with Decision (D.) 01-05-031. 1 On January 29, 2009, the Commission adopted Resolution T-17133, which resolved the Cal-Ore GRC. The Resolution authorized Cal-Ore to receive $471,499 in support from the California High Cost Fund A (CHCF-A) for test year 2009.
Rule 16.42 of the California Public Utilities Commission Rules of Practice and Procedures permits a utility to file a Petition for Modification to request that changes be made to an issued Decision or Resolution. The Petition must concisely state the justification for the requested relief, and propose specific wording to carry out all the requested modifications to the Decision or Resolution. Any factual allegations must be supported with specific citations to the record in the proceeding or to matters that may be officially noticed. Unless the Commission orders otherwise, the filing of a Petition for Modification does not stay or excuse compliance with the order of the Decision proposed to be modified. Therefore, the order remains in effect until the effective date of any decision modifying it.
Cal-Ore filed its petition within one year of the effective date of the proposed decision (i.e. Resolution T-17133) and Communications Division (CD) Staff finds the Petition for Modification to be in compliance with Rule 16.4. In this decision, the Commission reviews whether Cal-Ore's assertions of three calculation/methodological errors in the Resolution are valid and justified.
1 Formal GRCs are filed as Applications with the Commission (See General Order 96-B General Rules 3.7, 5.1 and 5.2).
2 Petition for Modification, August 2009.
