6. Productivity
D.98-04-059 directed customers to demonstrate productivity by assigning a reasonable dollar value to the benefits of their participation to ratepayers.
(D.98-04-059, pp. 34-35.) The costs of a customer's participation should bear a reasonable relationship to the benefits realized through its participation. This showing assists us in determining the overall reasonableness of the request.
In this proceeding, only the issue of the charges resulting from MCI's billing error and subsequent crediting procedures were addressed, so it is impossible to quantify the benefits to customers based on cost allocation and savings by issue. In this proceeding in response to UCAN's complaint, MCI has made whole all customers affected by this billing error and made additional improvements in its operations to avoid future crediting issues. The settlement reached between UCAN and MCI is in the public interest and as such, the public at large benefits from the Settlement Agreement. Therefore, we conclude that UCAN's efforts have been productive. While UCAN's participation was important in reaching a Settlement Agreement, we discount its request for hourly compensation as follows for excessiveness of efforts:
Participant |
Task |
Hours Requested |
Hours Disallowed |
Approved hours |
A. Neill |
Work on files-2006 |
12.5 |
2.5 |
10.0 |
A. Neill |
Preparing complaint-2006 |
9.0 |
2.0 |
7.0 |
A. Neill |
Review of answer -2006 |
3.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
A. Neill |
Preparing for PHC-2006 |
5.5 |
2.0 |
3.5 |
A. Neill |
Filing-2006 |
.45 |
.45 |
0 |
A. Neill |
Total 2006 Work Disallowed |
7.95 | ||
A. Neill |
Discovery matter-2007 |
40.8 |
10.0 |
30.8 |
A. Neill |
Scheduling-2007 |
.85 |
.85 |
0 |
A. Neill |
Filing-2007 |
.40 |
.40 |
0 |
A. Neill |
Total 2007 Work Disallowed |
11.25 | ||
M. Shames |
Preparing complaint-2006 |
4.5 |
1.0 |
3.5 |
M. Shames |
Total 2006 Work Disallowed |
1.0 | ||
M. Shames |
Discovery matters-2007 |
8.8 |
2.0 |
6.8 |
M. Shames |
Total 2007 Work Disallowed |
3.0 | ||
While UCAN's award has not been reduced further, there are many incidences where attorneys are performing clerical and administrative work. UCAN's claim includes many of the following tasks: filing, editing, drafting. The Commission does not compensate for clerical time and future claims may be reduced accordingly to disallow this type of work.
