LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — After widespread community concerns regarding accessibility at Public Utilities Commission of Nevada meetings, agency staff are responding.
During Thursday's Joint Interim Standing Committee on Government Affairs meeting, representatives from the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition gave a presentation on some of those concerns. The coalition is made up of 13 community organizations across the state.
WATCH: PUCN moves consumer session but advocates say more changes are needed
They echoed many of the same things that we've heard from Channel 13 viewers: the times for consumer sessions, allowing virtual or telephonic participation options for every public comment period, improving the written comment process to make it easier to navigate, and abiding by the agency's language access plan.
"For consumer sessions, evening sessions should be standard so working Nevadans have the opportunity to participate. When these sessions are one of the few opportunities for public engagement, holding them only during standard working hours is unacceptable," said Hector Areola, policy fellow for the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition.
"The Bureau of Consumer Protection noted that evening consumer sessions have been a long-standing precedent. The PUCN response was that Nevada law does not require the commission to adhere to this approach and that the commission may face logistical and other constraints that limit its abilities to hold after-hour consumer sessions."
When it comes to submitting public comments, Areola showed lawmakers the PUCN's electronic filing user's guide.
"Submitting a comment requires navigating a complex 10-step process, creating an account, formatting a PDF with certain margins, identifying the correct docket number, and using supported browsers that exclude many mobile users. These unnecessary barriers make participation inaccessible for many Nevadans," Areola said.
"Next, when members of the public ask how to submit written comment, they are directed to the electronic filing system. If your constituents ask how to submit a comment, would you feel confident giving them this guide?"
State Sen. Dina Neal said she's heard from frustrated constituents who feel left out of the process.
"The general feeling is that regular people, and this is just a general feeling, that regular people are being overlooked above corporations, but that has been a consistent trend for months," Neal said.
"Whether it's the PUC or some other entity, that is a general feeling that regular people and what they care about is being put at the bottom of the totem pole and corporations are being put above."
PUCN Commissioner Tammy Cordova and PUCN general counsel Garrett Weir appeared before lawmakers to answer questions about accessibility issues and address any confusion around how the PUCN operates.
"It's pretty clear that there is some widespread misunderstanding of both the commission's processes as well as the effects of some of its recent decisions," Weir said. "I think that people have a misunderstanding of exactly what a consumer session is versus a meeting or a hearing and where meaningful participation can occur, and it's tragic in some instances because people think that their voice is going to be heard when they show up to a consumer session and they want to talk about a decision that was made in September of last year."
He explained there are multiple hearings that lead up to a commission's decision on any given topic. Those hearings are open to the public and have public comment periods where people can voice their opinions.
I've sat in on similar hearings in the past and can verify that is true.
WATCH: Advocates want more public meetings after PUCN session draws long lines
Weir also explained that decisions made by the commission come from the evidentiary record with publicly filed records and testimony. Decisions are not made by consumer session comments.
"Those consumer sessions are not evidence. The comments made by customers during consumer sessions, they're not sworn in under oath. They're not subject to cross-examination," Weir said. "The commission has to make decisions based on evidence. If it did otherwise, it would be violating the constitutional due process rights of all of the interveners in our formal hearings.
"What those consumer sessions allow for, especially when they occur prior to testimony being filed, it flags issues. The consumer sessions flag issues or it's an opportunity for the formal interveners in our processes to incorporate those concerns into their testimony, into their positions, and actually create evidence as part of the evidentiary record that the commission can rely upon in making decisions."
One example that Weir gave is the public reaction to the PUCN's decision to let NV Energy's daily demand charge move forward.
"It's tragic that so many people are very concerned about that. There's a misunderstanding of what the impact is or is likely to be from that rate-making decision," Weir said. "What the commission's decision did is it provided an opportunity, a new tool for price-sensitive customers to be able to adjust their usage to even further lower their bills."
He added that even if plans move forward for the daily demand charge, it's not permanent and the PUCN can revisit that decision.
"There's reporting being required of the utility to show comparisons of the impact under the prior rate design and the new one to see if it's doing exactly what the evidence suggested that it would do," Weir said. "And if it doesn't do that, the order expressly contemplates revisiting that rate and it not being something that's permanent and locked in."
WATCH: NV Energy pushes back daily demand charge. What does that mean for customers?
When it comes to language barriers, Weir said they can have translators on site for meetings.
"We actually do have Spanish-speaking interpreters available for all of these proceedings, if they're requested," Weir said. "For other language interpretation services, we would need advanced notice to be able to provide those services."
In terms of written comments, state lawmakers suggested creating a "how-to" video, showing people how to submit their thoughts, which can be posted on the PUCN website.
The PUCN is addressing consumer session concerns and has moved the sessions for both NV Energy and Southwest Gas to a bigger venue.
The NV Energy Consumer Session is set for Monday, July 27 at 1 p.m., while the Southwest Gas Consumer Session is set for Tuesday, July 28 at 1 p.m. Both meetings will be located at the Nevada Legislative Council Bureau at 7120 Amigo Street in Las Vegas. It will be LV Committee Room 3.
If you can't make the meeting in person, the meeting will be livestreamed; you can watch the meeting on Zoom, and you can dial in to listen over the phone.
The PUCN, NV Energy, and Southwest Gas have all of that information posted on their websites.
In addition to having public comment periods before meetings and consumer sessions, Cordova said the PUCN also has a community outreach program.
"I have gone out personally and spoken to a variety of different organizations in Las Vegas. We attend a lot of senior expos and different fairs that are put on. We try to get out there in the community," Cordova said. "I will say that the challenge that I have is unless you invite me, I don't know that you want to talk to me. And so, we've been trying to encourage folks that do show up to our consumer sessions to invite us out to have a conversation.
"A consumer session is not the right place to have that because every person in the room has a different interest and we just don't have time for that ... I've lived in Las Vegas for a long time, and I understand some of the concerns and needs here in our community, and I'm happy to come out and explain what we do."
You can learn more about the consumer outreach program and request a PUCN speaker by visiting their website here.