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15-2500-17032-2 G-008/GR-05-1380 |
STATE OF
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
FOR THE PUBLIC UTILITIES
COMMISSION
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FIRST
PREHEARING ORDER |
A prehearing conference was held
before Beverly Jones Heydinger, Administrative Law Judge, on January 13, 2006
at the Public Utilities Commission,
Appearances:
Eric F. Swanson, Winthrop & Weinstine, 225 South Sixth Street, Suite
3500, Minneapolis, MN 55402; Brenda A. Bjorklund, Director, Law, CenterPoint
Energy, and Jeff Daugherty, Director, Regulatory Services, CenterPoint Energy,
Karen Finstad Hammel, Assistant Attorney General, and Valerie M. Smith,
Assistant Attorney General,
Ronald M. Giteck, Assistant Attorney General, Steve Alpert, Assistant
Attorney General, and Curt Nelson, Financial Analyst,
Bryan D. Shirley, Kennedy & Graven, 470
Ron Elwood, Attorney at Law, Midtown Commons,
Chris Duffrin, Assistant Director, Energy CENTS Coalition,
Commission staff Robert C. Harding, Rates Analyst, Jerry Dasinger, Financial Analyst, and Stuart Mitchell, Rates Analyst, were present.
Discussion was held among the participants concerning the proposed schedule. The Administrative Law Judge makes the following Prehearing Order.
1. The parties to this matter as named in the Commission’s Notice and Order for Hearing issued December 21, 2005 are CenterPoint, the Department of Commerce and the OAG/RUD. Petitions to intervene were submitted to the Commission by Energy CENTS Coalition, Legal Services Advocacy Project, and Suburban Rate Authority. There was no objection to the interventions. Intervention of the Legal Services Advocacy Project, Energy CENTS Coalition and Suburban Rate Authority is GRANTED.
2. Cornerstone Energy has petitioned to act as a participant. There was no objection to Cornerstone’s participation. Cornerstone’s request to participate is GRANTED. Cornerstone Energy shall be provided with all public correspondence between CenterPoint and intervenors in this proceeding.
3. Members of the public need not become formal parties to participate in the hearing. Members of the public may offer either oral or written testimony, and they may offer exhibits for inclusion in the record. But any person desiring to become a formal party must file a petition to intervene.
4. Persons who wish to intervene in this proceeding are requested to file a written petition to intervene with the Administrative Law Judge no later than January 31, 2006, as set forth in Minn. R. 1400.6200. Any objections to the petitions shall be filed by February 7, 2006. The petition shall be served upon all existing parties and the Commission. A Notice of Appearance shall be filed with the Petition.
Schedule
5. The following schedule is adopted:
Direct Testimony, Intervenor February 22, 2006
Rebuttal March 23, 2006
Surrebuttal April 6, 2006
Evidentiary Hearing April 11-14, 2006
Deadline for Public Comment April 18, 2006
Post-hearing Brief May 12, 2006
Reply Brief May 26, 2006
The times and places for the public hearings are being developed by the
Commission staff. They are tentatively
scheduled for March 28, 2006 in
6. The Evidentiary Hearing will begin on April 11, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. at the Public Utilities Commission.
7. Notice of the hearings, including the public hearings, shall be given by CenterPoint, as set forth in the Commission’s Order of December 21, 2005.
Settlement
8. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 216B.16, subd. 1(a), the Administrative Law Judge is required to convene a proceeding for the purposes of discussing settlement of issues in a public utility rate proceeding. The Administrative Law Judge encourages the parties to exhaust opportunities for settlement. Recognizing that the potential for settlement cannot be evaluated until after additional testimony has been filed, the parties are directed to inform the Administrative Law Judge as to whether an additional proceeding should be convened to discuss settlement. Settlement assistance, including mediation, is available through the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Discovery
9. All requests for information shall be made in writing to the person from whom the information is sought with a copy of the request provided to all parties of record. The responding party shall provide the information to the requesting party within eight business days of receipt. Copies of the requests and responses shall be sent to all parties of record. Copies of the requests and the responses should NOT be filed with the Administrative Law Judge or the Court Reporter. Only public versions of requests and responses shall be sent by electronic mail.
10. In the event the information cannot be supplied within eight business days, the responding party shall notify the requesting party in writing within five days of the request of the reason(s) it can not provide the information, and the two parties shall work out a schedule for compliance. Requests and responses may be sent by facsimile transmission or electronic mail, with the assent of the recipient.
11. Information Requests and
responses received by electronic mail or
12. There shall be a continuing obligation to update and supplement information responses.
13. Parties asked to provide “Confidential Information” may require the requesting party to comply with the terms of the Protective Agreement in this matter.
14. All disputes concerning the reasonableness of discovery requests and the timing and sufficiency of responses shall be resolved by the Administrative Law Judge upon motion of a party. Hearings on such motions may be conducted by telephone conference call.
16. Prefiled testimony shall be marked as an exhibit and offered for admission into the record at the hearing. Prefiled testimony that is amended, or not offered into the record, shall be considered withdrawn and no witness shall be cross-examined concerning the withdrawn testimony. Any new affirmative matter that is not offered in reply to another party’s direct case will not be allowed in rebuttal testimony and exhibits. Except for good cause shown, all revisions or corrections to any prefiled testimony shall be in writing and served upon the Administrative Law Judge and the parties no later than three days prior to the commencement of the evidentiary hearing.
17. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the order of testimony shall be: CenterPoint Energy, Energy CENTS Coalition, Legal Services Advocacy Project, suburban Rate Authority, other intervenors (in order of intervention), OAG/RUD, and the Department of Commerce. Questioning of the witnesses shall proceed in the same order, subject to change by agreement of the parties or further order of the Administrative Law Judge.
18. If a witness needs a day certain to offer testimony, the sponsoring party should submit to the Administrative Law Judge and other parties a request for testimony on a day certain.
19. Witnesses shall be allowed ten minutes to summarize their prefiled testimony. For good cause shown, witnesses will be permitted to respond to any new matters not addressed in prefiled testimony through direct examination by counsel.
20. Parties shall examine and cross-examine witnesses through their attorneys, if they are represented by counsel. Any party not represented by counsel may examine and cross-examine each witness through any one representative chosen by the party.
21. Except for good cause shown, objections by any party relation to the qualifications of a witness or the admissibility of any portion of a witness’s prefiled testimony (except surrebuttal) shall be considered waived unless the objecting party states its objection by motion made to the Administrative Law Judge, and serves a copy of such objections on the parties, no later than April 6, 2006. Objections to any portion of surrebuttal shall be made no later than April 10, 2006.
Procedure
22. The rules of the Office of Administrative Hearings govern the conduct of the hearings, and the Professionalism Aspirations adopted by the Minnesota Supreme Court will be observed.
23. All documents, including Prefiled Testimony but excluding information requests and responses, shall be filed as follows:
A. Prior to the issuance of the Report of the Administrative Law Judge, the original and one copy shall be filed with the Administrative Law Judge.
B. After the Administrative Law Judge’s Report is issued, the parties shall file the original of all documents with the Executive Secretary of the Commission.
C. Service and filing of documents is governed by Minn. R. 1400.5550. However, an electronic copy should also be sent by electronic mail to persons whose electronic mail address is provided on the service list, if possible.
D. A service list is attached hereto as Exhibit A and made a part hereof. Service of documents in the numbers required by this Prehearing Order shall be made according to the service list. This list will be amended as necessary to reflect the addition of parties. Corrections should be brought to the attention of the administrative law judge as soon as practicable.
E.
Pursuant to
F. Proof of service shall be filed with each filed document or within three business days thereafter.
G. If an electronic copy of prefiled testimony is available, it shall be served on the other parties and the court reporter by 3:00 p.m. on the day it is due.
23. The Office of Administrative Hearings will arrange to have a court reporter present at the hearing. Parties must make arrangements with the Court Reporter to obtain a copy of the transcript.
24. No person has requested accommodation for a disability or appointment of an interpreter. The Office of Administrative Hearings shall be notified promptly if either an accommodation or interpreter is needed.
25. Requests of subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses or the production of documents shall be made in writing to the administrative law judge pursuant to Minn. R. 1400.7000. A copy of the subpoena request shall be served on the other parties. A subpoena request form is available at www.oah.state.mn.us.
Dated this _20th_ day of January, 2006.
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/s/ Beverly Jones Heydinger |
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BEVERLY JONES HEYDINGER |
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Administrative Law Judge |
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EXHIBIT A
In the Matter of the Application of CenterPoint Energy
PUC Docket No. G008/GR-05-1380. OAH Docket No. 15-2500-17032-2.
Service List as of January 18, 2006.
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Burl W. Haar
(15 copies) Minnesota
Public Utilities Commission 121 FAX: 651-297-7073 Beverly Jones Heydinger (Original and 1 copy) Office of Administrative Hearings beverly.heydinger@state.mn.us Julia E. Anderson Karen Finstad Hammel Valerie M. Smith Assistant Attorneys General 1400 julia.anderson@state.mn.us, (651) 296-8703 karen.hammel@state.mn.us, (651) 297-1852 valerie.smith@state.mn.us, (651) 296-6170 Sharon Ferguson (4 copies) Minnesota Department of Commerce sharon.ferguson@state.mn.us (651) 297-3652 Chris Duffrin, Assistant Director Energy CENTS Coalition (651) 774-9010 Steve Alpert Ronald M. Giteck Assistant Attorneys General Curt Nelson Financial Analyst 900 Bremer Tower steve.alpert@state.mn.us, (651) 296-3258 ron.giteck@state.mn.us, (651) 284-4066 curtis.nelson@state.mn.us, (651) 296-6393 Court Reporter: Janet Shaddix Elling, RPR 9100 952-888-7687 |
Eric F. Swanson Winthrop & Weinstine (612) 604-6511 Brenda A. Bjorklund, Director Law CenterPoint Energy brenda.bjorklund@CenterPointEnergy.com (612) 321-4976 Jeff Daugherty, Director Regulatory Services CenterPoint Energy jeffrey.daugherty@CenterPointEnergy.com (612) 321-5070 James M. Strommen Bryan D. Shirley Kennedy & Graven, Chartered 470 (612) 337-9205 Ron Elwood Attorney at Law Legal Services Advocacy Project (651) 222-3749, ext. 109 Participant: Richard Haubensak Cornerstone Energy 402-829-3966 |
Information Requests and Responses Only: copies should be sent to counsel on the service list, and one copy to each of the following:
For the Commission staff:
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Robert C. Harding Rates Analyst Public Utilities Commission 121 (651) 296-7125 For the Department
of Commerce: For CenterPoint
Energy: jeffrey.daugherty@CenterPointEnergy.com For OAG/RUD: |