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Commissioner Wodtke felt that public hearings are extremely important and valuable, especially since he has not had any calls at all from anyone in the area in regard to this rate increase, and this hearing, therefore, is the first time he has had an opportunity to hear from those in the area. Since he has heard nothing, he would assume there was not any particular problem with the service. Commissioner Wodtke continued that we had a rate situation that came before the Board where, based on the quality of the water and the quality of service, we denied the increase. The legal ramification of that denial was that the utility went to court, and the judge after hearing much testimony did uphold the position of the Board of County Commission. The Court in their Stipulation, however, ordered the County to tell the company what they had to do to improve that service, and stated that when they did, we then had to give them a rate that would provide them an 11.2% return on every dollar invested - not zero percent. That company added into their investment $42,000 for legal, accounting and consultant fees for the court case and the rate case. Chairman Scurlock believed the state approved rate of return now is between 12.4% to 14.4%, and Commissioner Wodtke agreed the increase is tremendous. He assured those present, based on his 12 years of experience in dealing with similar cases, that the numbers presented are on the fixed costs, not any expansion, and he believed the problem is the magnitude of the increase that comes all at one time. Commissioner Wodtke asked if the Board felt there was some way we could phase in this increase. Attorney Vitunac stated that the Board would have to have a basis for finding that the full increase is not justified now. He asked if GDU would voluntarily go along with phasing in the increase, and Attorney Shandloff pointed out that the rates they asked for did not even give them a return. 31 MAR 19 1986 Boot{ 63 FA:,k-97