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HomeNewsArchivesPSC GIVES INNOVATIVE UNTIL FRIDAY TO PAY $400K

PSC GIVES INNOVATIVE UNTIL FRIDAY TO PAY $400K

Sept. 30, 2002 – The Public Services Commission is on very shaky financial ground, its chair, Desmond Maynard, said Monday, and Innovative Telephone is responsible.
After more than two hours of testimony from Innovative's president, Samuel Ebbesen, proved fruitless, the commission voted to require Innovative to remit $400,000 of its debt by Friday. Failing that, the board said, it would direct its counsel to take appropriate action to demand the full amount owed the PSC by the phone company.
Neither Maynard nor any of the other commission members wanted to make the move, but all said they had no choice. The PSC is foundering and cannot pay its bills or hire two needed staff members, they said, and Innovative owes a total of $604,400.
Ebbesen maintained he wants to "move ahead," but said he cannot not do so with billings he doesn't understand. "There are unexplained charges we need to go over," he said.
Ebbesen said at Monday's hearing that Innovative has been trying without success to meet with the PSC to discuss the situation. Maynard objected to Ebbesen's phrasing. He said Ebbesen, himself, had canceled one such meeting; another was "aborted" by Ebbesen' and he, Maynard, had had to cancel a third.
Maynard objected to even being involved in the matter at that level. "This is not something the board chair should have to do," he said, adding that Keithley Joseph, PSC executive director, and Claudius F. Moore, PSC account maintenance officer, are the ones who should be dealing with the situation.
Ebbesen wasn't giving an inch, even after Moore pointed out the bills date back to July 2001. When the Innovative executive said there was "statutory language" to be addressed on the limits of assessment, the commission members were perplexed. Maynard said, "These statutes have been around for years. Why didn't you challenge them sooner?"
"We're being held hostage," said Jerris Browne. "If you agree with some amounts, why not pay the uncontested amounts? Why didn't your counsel contact the PSC about these amounts? Meantime, we can't wait. It affects the integrity of this body."
The telephone rate investigation hearing examiner, Frederick Watts, pointed out where both parties stand. "They're out of time," he advised the commission regarding Innovative. A company has 30 days to file a petition for reassessment after an order, he said, and "you don't have to give them an extension."
Ebbesen complained that the recent law mandating a rate investigation every two years is "outrageous." Maynard agreed, but Browne pointed out that this is the first rate investigation Innovative has had in 10 years. "That argument doesn't hold water at this time," he said.
After all the PSC has done for Innovative
Ebbesen continued to express puzzlement over the assessments and said he wasn't sure he had all of them. Moore said he, indeed, did have them all. Maynard expressed surprise that Ebbesen would quibble at the amounts, especially in light of the fact that the PSC had just saved Innovative $33 million. "We're working with you, but you are not working with us," Maynard said.
The PSC agreed at its last meeting to send a letter to the Federal Communications Commission certifying that Innovative is a rural company and thus eligible for rural benefits. "We didn't have to issue that letter," Maynard said. "You would have been $33 million short in your operation. I signed the damn letter to ensure that Innovative get the $33 million."
Ebbesen said, "We're not out to embarrass the PSC. We want to work with you, but I need to protect our legal rights."
Maynard said he doesn't like the idea of enforcement and that he considers that the PSC has a "symbiotic" relationship with the phone company — a term referring to a relationship between two entities that is to their mutual benefit. He added that it's the PSC's duty to treat all utilities fairly and to protect both the utility and the customer. But when the PSC is left without the funds to help it operate adequately, he said, it hurts the customers as well as the utility.
"What do you need from me?" Maynard asked Ebbesen, in an effort to resolve the issue. "You have all the bills." Ebbesen said he still had numbers he "couldn't account for."
Moore said the PSC's financial situation was more dire than had already been pointed out. "It gets worse," he said. Moore explained that if Innovative does not put money into the PSC's government account which is set up to cover consulting fees and payroll costs, the commission might not receive its $150,000 fourth-quarter allotment from that account.
Moore said the telephone company currently owes $604,400 in back invoices.
Commission member Alecia Wells suggested that Innovative pay $204,000 of that amount by Friday, but Maynard pointed out that wouldn't "help very much" and that it wouldn't be long before the PSC found itself in the same situation. "We're still overdrawn," he said.
Commission member Luther Renee made the motion to give the company until Friday to make the $400,000 payment. Voting for the measure were Browne, Maynard and Renee. Valencio Jackson and Wells voted against it. Alric Simmonds was absent for the vote. Verne David did not attend the meeting.

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