Procedural Issues
The prehearing conference in this matter was held on June 21, 2001. Latino Issues Forum filed its NOI on July 25, 2001, two days late.2 On March 7, 2002, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Thomas issued a ruling excusing Latino Issues Forum's untimely filing and finding Latino Issues Forum to be a customer under the Public Utilities Code. Latino Issues Forum filed its request for compensation on April 30, 2004 within the required 60 days of D.04-02-057 being issued.3 On June 1, 2004, Mountain Utilities filed a response to Latino Issues Forum's request to seek exemption from responsibility for compensation awarded to Latino Issues Forum.
Latino Issues Forum deferred establishing financial hardship until its request for compensation. However, as ALJ Thomas noted in her March 7, 2002 ruling, a determination of Latino Issues Forum's financial hardship occurred within one year of the initiation of this proceeding, thereby establishing a rebuttable presumption of financial hardship. D.02-07-030 found Latino Issues Forum met the significant financial hardship condition.
Latino Issues Forum has satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make its request for compensation.
2 Latino Issues Forum and Greenlining Institute jointly filed the NOI. Greenlining Institute did not file a request for compensation. 3 Latino Issues Forum did not separately request compensation for its contribution to the interim Phase II opinion, D.03-01-037, but included in its request time spent on the issue addressed in that decision.
