The final day of the legislative session featured a fierce debate over the reauthorization of a consumer watchdog agency, one that resulted in most Senate Democrats refusing to vote on a Republican-backed measure for its continuance.

“This will be one of the things we’ve done that I’m not proud of this session,” Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said of a Republican bill that would strip a key component from the purview of the Office of the Consumer Counsel.

The OCC is an agency that advocates on behalf of homeowners, small businesses and agricultural consumers when companies seek gas, electric and telephone rate increases. The agency was at risk of shuttering on July 1 without legislative reauthorization.

Once signed into law, the Republican-sponsored Senate Bill 271 will keep the agency up and running for another six years.

But Democrats were irate that the bill stripped telecommunications advocacy from the OCC’s role. Democrats and consumer advocates worry that its removal will result in higher telephone rates and will adversely impact 911 services.

“There is no good reason to do this and it will hurt people,” a stern Carroll said during a May 6 floor debate. “And when their services go down, and their rates go up, it will be a stain on this chamber and this session — and one with serious consequences.”

Senate Democrats were frustrated that Republicans refused to concur with a House amendment that would have continued OCC telecom advocacy. And they were just as upset that Republicans refused their request to send the bill to a special conference committee, where differences between the parties might have been worked out.

At one point, Democrats stormed out of the Senate in protest over Republicans’ handling of the process. In the end, all but one Democratic senator refused to vote on the bill. In the House, where members begrudgingly accepted the Senate’s bill, several Democratic lawmakers removed their names from bill sponsorship.

But Republicans and those in the telecom industry say the OCC’s role in advocating on behalf of consumers over telephone matters is no longer necessary because the Public Utilities Commission will no longer regulate phone rates as of July 1.

Besides, they argued, other important telecommunications functions like 911 services will continue to be regulated in spite of the OCC’s reduced role.

“We do know the PUC has 100 percent authority on telecom and 911 and they’re growing their staff to deal with it,” said Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling.

Agency has saved millions

When utility companies seek rate increases, OCC staffers often provide expert testimony and analysis on behalf of consumers. And the agency has been effective in that role since it was created by the Legislature in 1984.

The office has saved consumers $1.7 billion over the last 30 years. Since its last reauthorization five years ago, the OCC has saved consumers $45 million, according to agency statistics.

Supporters of continued telecom advocacy point to $23 million that the agency has saved consumers for its intervention in nine telephone utility cases over the last five years. Consumer advocates worry that the loss of OCC intervention could result in poor telephone service and higher rates.

Those same advocates also insist that the OCC is needed to ensure consumers have a voice when telephone companies apply for money that is a part of the Colorado High Cost Support Mechanism. This is a pool of about $54 million that is set up to provide phone service in rural areas.

And consumer advocates warn that 911 services could suffer without the OCC there to review fees, especially for those in rural parts of the state, where 911 service fees are higher than in metro areas.

Bill Levis, a former director of the OCC, said during a recent House Transportation and Energy Committee hearing that telecom consumers will now have to argue on behalf of themselves on complex issues at PUC hearings.

“Most consumers, even if they’ve watched Law & Order, don’t know the rules of evidence,” Levis said.

But supporters of SB 271 argue that because of telecom deregulation legislation from last year, the OCC’s advocacy in that area is no longer necessary.

“A lot has changed in telecom since 1984,” Peter Kirchoff, executive director of the Colorado Telecommunications Association, told the House Transportation and Energy Committee in April. “The regulation hasn’t caught up with technology.”

The PUC will have the option of resuming telecommunications regulations in 2018, if it finds there is a continued need for the oversight. If it doesn’t, the OCC’s role in the telecom regulatory process will be diminished.

The Democrat-majority House had its own OCC reauthorization bill in House Bill 1381, which would have kept the agency’s telecom role intact. However, that bill died in the Senate.

The Senate reauthorization bill is now on its way to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk.

— Twitter: @VicVela1