|
3-2500-17511-2 MPUC Docket No. P-421/AM-06-713 |
STATE OF
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
FOR THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
|
FIRST PREHEARING ORDER |
This matter came on for a prehearing conference before
Administrative Law Judges Kathleen D. Sheehy and Steve M. Mihalchick at the
Offices of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission,
Joan Peterson, Qwest Corporation (Qwest) Law Department,
Dan Lipschultz, Moss & Barnett, 4800
Dennis Ahlers, Eschelon Telecom, Inc. (Eschelon),
Joy Gullikson, Onvoy, Inc. (Onvoy), 300 S. Highway 169,
Linda S. Jensen, Assistant Attorney General,
Based on the discussions during the prehearing conference, and all of the files and proceedings, the Administrative Law Judge makes the following:
ORDER
1. The original parties
to this matter were Qwest and the Department.
At the prehearing conference, the oral motions to intervene of the CLEC
Coalition, Eschelon, and Onvoy were granted without objection.
2. Other persons wishing to intervene must
file a written petition to intervene, pursuant to Minn. R. 1400.6200, subp. 1, by
December 11, 2006. The petition shall be
served upon the Administrative Law Judge, all existing parties, and the
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Any
objection to a petition to intervene shall be filed within seven days of
service of the petition. Any persons
petitioning to intervene after December 11, 2006, may be restricted as to the
scope of their participation. Any person
who is allowed to intervene after the date of this Order shall be bound by the
terms of this Order.
3. Members of the public need not become
formal parties to participate in the hearing.
Members of the public may offer evidence, attend the hearing, file written
comments, and request the opportunity for oral argument.[1] But any person desiring to become a formal
party must file a petition to intervene as described above.
ISSUES
4. In this matter, Qwest proposes to
change its rates for collocation (both recurring and nonrecurring charges) and to
change the rates and/or structure for nonrecurring charges for other § 251
elements. It also proposes to establish
individual case basis (ICB) pricing for certain § 251 elements. Attachment 3 to Qwest’s application is a
summary of the proposed rates.
5. During the prehearing conference, two
questions arose about the rates at issue:
First, how can one easily determine how Qwest’s current rates correspond
to the restructured proposed rates; and second, what if anything does Qwest
intend to charge for certain elements that do not appear to be included in the
list of proposed rates? To clarify these
issues, Qwest should produce a new version of Attachment 3 and call it a “Cost
Comparison Spreadsheet” or something similar.
The intervenors need to specify which elements they have questions about
and provide them to Qwest, so that these elements can be incorporated into the
spreadsheet. Qwest should then identify,
for all the elements identified on Attachment 3 and all of the questioned
elements (1) what Qwest’s current charge is for each element; and (2) what, if
anything, it proposes to charge for the elements identified by the intervenors,
including information sufficient to determine whether this is a new charge or
part of a new charge within the scope of this proceeding, a current charge
previously authorized by the Commission, a charge from Qwest’s tariff, etc. Qwest should also remove the elements that
the Commission declined to review in this proceeding pertaining to DS1 and DS3
loops.
6. The intervenors should identify and
provide the list of questioned elements to Qwest by December 6, 2006; Qwest
should file the Cost Comparison Spreadsheet by December 22, 2006.
7. The following schedule is adopted:
|
·Qwest files Direct Testimony. |
January 19, 2007 |
|
·All Intervenors file Direct Testimony. |
April 20, 2007 |
|
·All Parties file Rebuttal Testimony |
May 18, 2007 |
|
·All Parties file Surrebuttal Testimony. |
June 15, 2007 |
|
·
Evidentiary Hearing, beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Commission Offices at 121
Seventh Place East, Suite 350, St. Paul, Minnesota. |
June 26-29, 2007 |
8. Briefing
deadlines and a date for the Report and Recommendation will be set at the
conclusion of the hearing.
PROCEDURE
9. 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.
10. Prefiled testimony and exhibits may be in
any reasonable format that is understandable, logically organized, and capable
of being cited by page and line number, paragraph number, or similar
identifier.
11. All documents filed, including prefiled
testimony, but excluding information requests and responses, shall be
filed as follows:
a. Before the Report of
the Administrative Law Judges is issued, one copy shall be filed with each
Administrative Law Judge.
b. After the
Administrative Law Judges’ Report is issued, the parties shall file the
original of all documents with the Executive Secretary of the Commission.
c. One copy of all
documents shall be served on the persons listed on the attached service list,
in the number indicated. An electronic
copy, where possible, shall also be
sent by e-mail to persons whose e-mail address is provided on the service
list. The Office of Administrative
Hearings will revise the list as necessary. Service shall be made according to the
most current service list provided to the parties by the Office of
Administrative Hearings.
d. Pursuant to Minn. R.
1400.5100, subp. 9, and Minn. R. 7829.0400, subp. 1, the effective date of
filing shall be the date the document is mailed to the Office of Administrative
Hearings and delivered to the Executive Secretary of the Commission. Filings with the Administrative Law Judges
may be accomplished by email, sent to Kathleen.Sheehy@state.mn.us and Steve.Mihalchick@state.mn.us. Any filing sent by email will be followed by
a hard copy mailed that day.
e. Proof of service
shall be filed with each filed document or within three business days
thereafter.
f. An electronic copy
of prefiled testimony shall be served on the other parties and the court
reporter by 3:00 p.m. on the day it is due.
12. One copy of any
document or information filed with or supplied to the Commission or the
Commission staff shall be served on every party.
13. A party may serve requests for information
on any other party. All requests for
information shall be made electronically, and unless the
parties agree otherwise, shall be followed with a hard copy sent by regular
14. The
party responding to the information request shall provide the information
requested to all parties within eight business days after receipt of the
request, unless the requesting party agrees to provide additional time. A business day does not include weekend days
and state holidays. In accordance with
15. Responses
to information requests shall be made electronically, and unless the parties
agree otherwise, shall be followed with a hard copy of the response sent by regular
16. In
the event that due to the volume or nature of information included in a
response, the responding party is unable to send the response by e-mail, the
responding party shall send the response by facsimile, regular U.S. mail, or
other delivery service, so that the requesting party receives the entire
response including any material designated as Trade Secret or Nonpublic by the
due date. Responding parties may utilize
CDs to convey large volumes of data. There
shall be a continuing obligation to update and supplement information
responses.
17. In the event the information cannot be
supplied within eight business days, the responding party shall notify the
requesting party as soon as reasonably possible in advance of the deadline of
the reasons for not being able to supply the information and attempt to work
out a schedule of compliance with the requesting party. All disputes concerning the reasonableness of
discovery requests and the timing and sufficiency of responses shall be
resolved by the Administrative Law Judges upon motion of a party. Notice of such a motion should be made by
email if possible and may be made be heard by telephone conference with the Administrative
Law Judges and affected parties, unless the Administrative Law Judge requires
other procedures.
18. Information
requests directed to Qwest should be directed to: Dianne.Barthel@qwest.com.
19. All testimony other than cross-examination
shall be prefiled. Prefiled testimony
shall be marked and offered with exhibit numbers. Prefiled testimony that is amended, or not
offered into the record, shall be considered withdrawn and the sponsoring
witness may not be cross-examined concerning the withdrawn testimony. Except for good cause shown, all substantive
revisions or corrections to any prefiled testimony shall be made in writing and
served upon the Administrative Law Judges and the parties by email no later
than three days before the evidentiary hearing starts.
20. Except
for good cause shown, any new affirmative matter that is not offered in reply
to another party’s direct case will not be allowed in rebuttal or surrebuttal
testimony and exhibits.
21. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the
order of testimony and questioning in the evidentiary hearings shall be: Qwest
first, then the CLEC Coalition, Eschelon, Onvoy, and the
Department.
22. Witnesses shall be allowed ten minutes to
summarize their prefiled testimony.
23. 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.
24. Except for good cause shown, objections by
any party relating to the qualifications of a witness or the admissibility of
any portion of a witness's prefiled testimony shall be considered waived unless
the objecting party states by motion its objection with particularity to the
Administrative Law Judges and serves a copy of such objections on the
Commission and all other parties by June 19, 2006. If an objection is made by a party, the party
shall be permitted to lay further foundation for the objection through
cross-examination of the witness. Any
prefiled testimony that is not objected to shall be admitted during the
evidentiary hearings without the necessity of laying foundation for the
testimony.
Dated this 22nd day of November,
2006.
_s/Kathleen D. Sheehy____________
KATHLEEN
D. SHEEHY
Administrative
Law Judge
s/Steve
M. Mihalchick______________
STEVE
M. MIHALCHICK
Administrative
Law Judge