Procedural History

On May 22, 2000, SCWC and Peerless filed a joint application to merge their operations and ultimately transfer control of Peerless to SCWC. The application was protested by the ORA, and the Cities of Bellflower, Lakewood and Paramount. Each of these parties' positions is discussed in detail below.

A Public Participation Hearing (PPH) was held in Bellflower on October 17, 2000. After this hearing, in response to the opposition of customers, applicants modified several terms in the merger proposal to minimize the rate impact.

Settlement negotiations were duly noticed and held December 7 and 13, 2000 and January 9, 2001. During settlement negotiations, applicants resolved all disputed issues with ORA, and modified the initial merger terms. The remaining protestants did not join in the settlement agreement between applicants and ORA.

Applicants and ORA filed a motion to adopt their settlement agreement, which in turn approved a modified application requesting authority to merge and transfer operations. In response, the remaining protestants, the Cities of Bellflower, Lakewood and Paramount, opposed the settlement and requested an evidentiary hearing. This request was granted.

Assigned Commissioner Duque issued a Scoping Memo on September 29, 2000 retaining the preliminary category of "ratesetting" for this proceeding. The issues were outlined, the schedule set and the assigned Administrative Law Judge named as principal hearing officer.

Evidentiary hearings were held on May 21-23, and June 7, 2001 in Los Angeles. The parties filed opening and closing briefs on June 26 and July 3, 2001, respectively. The matter was deemed submitted on August 21, 2001 upon the submission of Joint Exh. 14 which was submitted late as ordered during the proceeding.