Assignment of the Proceeding
Carl Wood is the assigned Commissioner and Kenneth L. Koss is the assigned ALJ in this proceeding.
1. General Order 77-K requires utilities to annually report compensation data for certain employees, based on the operating revenue of the utility and the compensation level of the employee.
2. The data filed in the GO 77 reports are open to the public and include employee names, salaries, expense accounts, contingent fees and reimbursed dues and donations.
3. The Commission uses GO 77 data in its process for setting utility rates.
4. The last review and update of GO 77 was made in 1986, with the adoption of GO 77-K.
5. Rulemaking 03-08-019 was opened to review whether amendments to GO 77-K should be made in three areas: annual compensation levels that trigger reporting to the Commission and establishing an automatic annual change to these levels; exempting certificated CLECs and NDIECs from the GO; and reporting information on employee names as confidential material, subject to Pub. Util. Code § 583.
6. The annual compensation levels that trigger reporting should be updated and increased.
7. An increase in the reporting level to $200,000 for utilities with over $1 billion regulated annual revenue is excessive in terms of the need for the data.
8. An increase in reporting levels to $125,000 for utilities with over $1 billion regulated annual revenue and $85,000 for other utilities is reasonable.
9. We must maintain a level of control and simplicity in the compensation reporting levels and establishing an automatic annual adjustment based on the GDPPI could prove to be too complex and lead to confusing results.
10. CLEC's and NDIEC's are not rate regulated by this Commission and should be exempted from the provisions of GO 77.
11. Compensation data filed by utilities operating under the NRF framework is used and is necessary in the regulation of these companies and the proposal to exempt these companies from GO 77 was rejected in the rulemaking.
12. While attempting to make public as many records and processes as possible, we recognize the problem of identity theft, privacy concerns and the importance of keeping certain individual financial information confidential.
13. The petition to modify the rulemaking filed by G/LIF and PG&E addresses new issues and facts regarding holding company executive compensation.
14. The petition to modify the rulemaking filed by G/LIF and PG&E addresses new issues and facts regarding executive compensation awarded but not yet received.
1. GO 77-L should be adopted and will supersede GO 77-K.
2. Annual employee compensation thresholds that trigger reporting, under GO 77-L, should be increased to $125,000 for utilities with annual operating revenues of $1 billion or more, and to $85,000 for utilities with revenues between $500,000 and 1 billion.
3. An automatic annual change to the employee compensation levels should not be authorized because a reliable and simple source for such change was not identified
4. Certificated CLECs and NDIECs should be exempted from the provisions of GO 77-L.
5. Utilities should have the option of reporting information on individual employee names, pursuant to GO 77-L, as confidential material, subject to Pub.Util.Code § 583. Utilities choosing this option should file an additional copy of the report for public inspection, with employee names redacted.
6. Other nonsubstantive grammatical changes should be made to the GO.
7. The petition to modify subject rulemaking, jointly filed by PG&E and G/LIF on January 30, 2004, should be granted to the extent of expanding its scope.
8. Today's order should be made effective immediately.
IT IS ORDERED that:
1. General Order (GO) 77-L is adopted, effective today, and supersedes GO 77-K. A copy of GO 77-L, showing tracked changes made to GO 77-K, is attached as Appendix A to this order.
2. Certificated Competitive Local Exchange Carriers and Nondominant Interexchange Carriers are exempted from the provisions of GO 77-L.
3. Utilities may report information, required by GO 77-L, on individual employee names as confidential material, subject to Pub. Util. Code § 583, conditioned on providing a copy of the entire report for public inspection, with employee names redacted.
4. The Petition to Modify Rulemaking 03-08-019, jointly filed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Greenlining Institute/Latino Issues Forum, is granted to the extent of expanding the scope of the rulemaking, as described herein.
This order is effective today.
Dated August 19, 2004, at San Francisco, California.
MICHAEL R. PEEVEY
President
CARL W. WOOD
LORETTA M. LYNCH
GEOFFREY F. BROWN
SUSAN P. KENNEDY
Commissioners
