Bill Text: CA AB1497 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Public utilities: intervenor fees.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1497 Detail]
Download: California-2009-AB1497-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1497 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 2, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hall
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to amend Section 2893 of the Public Utilities
Code, relating to telecommunications. An act to amend
Section 1807 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to public
utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1497, as amended, Hall. Telephone call identification
service. Public utilities: intervenor fees.
Existing law provides compensation for reasonable advocate's fees,
reasonable expert witness fees, and other reasonable costs to public
utility customers of participation or intervention in any proceeding
of the Public Utilities Commission. Any award for that compensation
shall be paid by the public utility that is the subject of the
hearing, investigation, or proceeding. Existing law provides that an
award shall be allowed by the commission as an expense for the
purpose of establishing rates of the public utility. An existing
decision of the commission establishes the intervenor compensation
program fund for quasi-legislative or rulemaking proceedings funded
through commission reimbursement fees collected on an annual basis
from electrical, gas, telephone, and water corporations.
This bill would require an award related to a telephone
corporation that is not regulated under a rate-of-return regulatory
framework to be paid from the commission's intervenor compensation
program fund.
Existing law, with specified exceptions, requires the Public
Utilities Commission to require any call identification service
offered by a telephone corporation, or by any other person or
corporation that makes use of the facilities of a telephone
corporation, to allow the caller, at no charge, to withhold, on an
individual basis, the display of the caller's telephone number from
the telephone instrument of the individual receiving the call, but
prohibits a caller from withholding the display of the caller's
business telephone number when that number is being used for
telemarketing purposes. Existing law requires that a telephone
corporation notify its subscribers that their calls may be identified
to a called party either (1) 30 or more days before the telephone
corporation commences to participate in the offering of a call
identification service, or (2) by March 1, 1990, if the telephone
corporation is participating in a call identification service prior
to January 1, 1990.
This bill would delete the requirement that a telephone
corporation that is participating in a call identification service
prior to January 1, 1990, notify subscribers by March 1, 1990, that
their calls may be identified to a called party.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION. 1. Section 1807 of the Public
Utilities Code is amended to read:
1807. Any (a) An
award made under this article shall be paid by the public
utility which that is the subject of
the hearing, investigation, or proceeding, as determined by the
commission, within 30 days. Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, any award paid by a public utility pursuant to this article
shall be allowed by the commission as an expense for the purpose of
establishing rates of the public utility by way of a
dollar-for-dollar adjustment to rates imposed by the commission
immediately on the determination of the amount of the award, so that
the amount of the award shall be fully recovered within one year from
the date of the award.
(b) An award related to a telephone corporation that is not
regulated under a rate-of-return regulatory framework shall be paid
from the commission's intervenor compensation program fund.
SECTION 1. Section 2893 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
2893. (a) The commission shall, by rule or order, require that
every telephone call identification service offered in this state by
a telephone corporation, or by any other person or corporation that
makes use of the facilities of a telephone corporation, shall allow a
caller to withhold display of the caller's telephone number, on an
individual basis, from the telephone instrument of the individual
receiving the telephone call placed by the caller. However a caller
shall not be allowed to withhold the display of the caller's business
telephone number when that number is being used for telemarketing
purposes.
(b) There shall be no charge to the caller who requests that his
or her telephone number be withheld from the recipient of any call
placed by the caller.
(c) The commission shall direct every telephone corporation to
notify its subscribers that their calls may be identified to a called
party 30 or more days before the telephone corporation commences to
participate in the offering of a call identification service.
(d) This section does not apply to any of the following:
(1) An identification service which is used within the same
limited system, including, but not limited to, a Centrex or private
branch exchange (PBX) system, as the recipient telephone.
(2) An identification service which is used on a public agency's
emergency telephone line or on the line which receives the primary
emergency telephone number (911).
(3) Any identification service provided in connection with legally
sanctioned call tracing or tapping procedures.
(4) Any identification service provided in connection with any
"800" or "900" access code telephone service until the telephone
corporation develops the technical capability to comply with
subdivision (a), as determined by the commission.
(e) Until the market for local telephone service is competitive, a
telephone corporation shall not charge any subscriber for having an
unlisted or unpublished telephone number. However, nothing in this
subdivision shall be interpreted by the commission to reduce the
revenues of telephone corporations. Any actions of the commission
pursuant to this subdivision shall be implemented on a competitively
neutral basis. This charge shall not be eliminated prior to the
effective date upon which offsetting rates are implemented by the
commission.
