JAY – North Jay Water District trustees claim that a majority of the 65 signatures on a petition asking the state Public Utilities Commission to suspend and investigate a rate hike are incomplete or invalid.
Petitioners have seven days to get the missing printed names, signatures or addresses, PUC spokesman Phil Lindley said Monday.
The district counted only 27 valid petitions signatures, less than the required 15 percent of the customers – that’s 39 – needed to have the PUC suspend the proposed rate hike until the commission investigates it.
The commission suspended a 10.75 percent rate hike on March 13 for nine months or until otherwise ordered after it received a petition calling for the PUC to look into petitioners’ questions.
The water district had 10 days from the PUC suspension order to reply to the commission.
District representatives reviewed petition signatures and made notes beside most of the names on it before returning them to the commission last week.
The signatures the district considers either invalid or incomplete are due to missing a signature, missing a printed name, missing a business name, missing a mailing address or simply not in the district’s customer database.
The district did confirm 21 customer signatures plus six signed by spouses of the account holder for a total of 27, according to letter written to PUC by Trustee President Michael Wells.
“As such, we are requesting that you initiate the next phase of this inquiry as soon as possible so that we may obtain a final judgment at the earliest possible date,” Wells wrote.
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