10. Comments to the Draft Decision
The draft decision of ALJ Walwyn was mailed to the parties in accordance with Pub. Util. Code § 311(g)(1) and Rule 77.7 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure. Comments were filed on January 17, 2006, and reply comments were filed on January 23, 2006. Several substantive changes are made in response to these comments, particularly in Sections 4.1, 4.2, and 6.1.
The draft decision proposed to adopt rules specific to the receipt of Proposition 50 funds. By Assigned Commissioner's Ruling (ACR) on January 26, 2006, the scope of the decision was expanded to adopt rules for all future state grant funds received by all classes of regulated water utilities. This change is within the scope of the rulemaking and advances the objectives of our Water Action Plan adopted December 15, 2005. The change is made in response to the numerous new bond measures recently proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger under his infrastructure plan and set forth in Assembly and Senate bills, AD 1839 (Laird) and SB 1166 (Aanestad and Machado), Flood Protection and Clean, Safe, Reliable Water Supply Bond and Financing Acts of 2006 and 2010.22
22 All parties were given notice of this change in a January 26, 2006 ACR and afforded the opportunity to file comments on whether there is a need to further develop the record. The California Water Association (CWA) and Park Water Company (Park) filed comments supporting the change in scope of the March 21, 2005 Scoping Memo and Ruling; no party filed comments objecting to the change.
