VII. Verification
A. The Proposal
The rulemaking proposes the following amendments to § 9.1.2:
"A summary of WMDVBE purchases and/or contracts, with breakdowns by ethnicity, product and service categories compared with total utility contract dollars awarded to outside vendors in those categories. In order to achieve uniformity of reporting, product and service categories shall be reported according to the uniform system of accounts (USOA) applicable for each utility. (For example, electric utilities would present their information according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) USOA applicable to electric utilities; gas utilities would utilize FERC's USOA for gas utilities and telephone utilities would report their information consistent with the Federal Communication Commission's USOA.)"
B. Parties' Comments
Greenlining/LIF support the rulemaking's proposal that the utilities report their data according to the uniform system of accounts in order to more easily compare the utilities' data.
All utilities commenting on the verification proposal oppose reporting their WMDVBE product and service expenditures according to the uniform system of accounts. SBC states that the uniform system of accounts contains hundreds of account codes and thousands of codes when sub-accounts are added. SBC believes that the uniform system of accounts is too detailed for the Commission's analysis of GO 156 reports because GO 156 is concerned with "major" product and service categories (citing § 8). SBC recommends that the Commission establish a reasonable set of product and service categories for all utilities (or at least all utilities within an industry) to use and attaches a proposed list of categories to its comments.
The joint utilities state that certain competitive local exchange carriers (CLCs) are exempt from maintaining their books and records according to the uniform system of accounts, and therefore, the administrative burden of the CLCs conforming their WMDVBE reports to the uniform system of accounts would impose significant costs. Because none of the joint utilities use the uniform system of accounts in reporting WMDVBE information, these utilities argue that requiring such a change in future reports would be a significant and burdensome, requiring massive restructuring of the methods utilities use to gather data for their annual reports. These utilities also believe that the uniform system of accounts is too vague in some instances and too detailed in others to be of use in WMDVBE reporting.
Sprint states that this proposal is impossible for it to implement because none of Sprint's California companies are required to maintain their accounting records in compliance with the uniform system of accounts, and therefore, its expenditures cannot be provided in a format that would match the uniform system of accounts categories.
C. Discussion
We wish to achieve greater uniformity in WMDVBE reporting. To achieve this goal, it is essential for the utilities to report using the same categories with agreed-upon definitions. If different industry groups require industry-specific categories, it would be ideal to have uniform categories for all utilities and also additional uniform categories for each of the industries. The rulemaking proposed utilizing the uniform system of accounts to achieve this goal.
All the utilities objected to this proposal, stating that the uniform system of accounts is too detailed, expensive to implement, and will achieve confusion rather than uniformity. Unfortunately, the only competing proposal from SBC does not contain sufficiently detailed categories or clear definitions of these categories.
We, therefore, direct the Commission's Communications and Public Information Division (CPID) to hold a workshop commencing no later than 90 days from the mailing of this decision, or as further directed by the Assigned Commissioner or Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) upon the request of CPID.9 The purpose of this workshop is to develop uniform reporting categories for all utilities to employ in their WMDVBE reports, and if appropriate, additional industry-specific reporting categories. Additionally, the workshop should develop a detailed definition of each of these categories. For example, if a category was described as "professional services," it might be defined to include legal, accounting, and engineering services. We do not foreclose adopting the uniform system of accounts, but believe the parties should have the opportunity in a cooperative manner to develop workable alternatives.
No later than 30 days after the conclusion of the workshop, or as further directed by the Assigned Commissioner or ALJ upon the request of CPID, CPID shall deliver a workshop report to the Commission President and Executive Director, and shall serve this report on all Commissioners, the Chief ALJ, the ALJ assigned to this proceeding, and the workshop participants. We anticipate expeditiously opening another rulemaking to address proposed amendments to GO 156 regarding uniform reporting categories resulting from the workshop. If the parties are unsuccessful in developing workable proposals, we will entertain a Petition for Modification in this proceeding in order to adopt reporting requirements pursuant to the uniform system of accounts.