Learning from Hypothetical Water Rate Case
Mary-Anna Holden is a former New Jersey BPU Commissioner. Butch Howard is a former South Carolina PSC Commissioner.
October 2025 marks the fifty-third year for NARUC’s Eastern Rate School, which teaches the fundamentals of utility ratemaking, and will be held in Clearwater Beach, Florida from October 19-24.
It was the germ of an idea in 1974 held by the late John Guastella, a former director of the Water Division of the New York State Public Service Commission, and vice-chair of NARUC’s Staff Subcommittee on Water. John prepared detailed instruction on the kinds of operation and accounting records that should be kept by small water utilities and how to use those records.
This instruction was published by NARUC as “Model Record Keeping Manual for Small Water Companies.” John’s manual grew over time, into today’s weeklong program, as he along with Gail Brady, who was controller of Elizabethtown Water Company in New Jersey, prepared study topics materials in a mock rate case format.
Those early steps became NARUC’s Eastern Rate School coordinated over the years with various institutions including the University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, University of Utah, Florida State University, the University of Florida, Michigan State University and now, completely under the auspices of NARUC.