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m : LVL&WCO. - PROPOSED RATE INCREASE, WATER DEPARTMENT. Mr. Win. Reinhardt: Los Angeles, April 17, 1950 APWR M2.8 R. 80*’5 You will recall that at the time Mr. We he was first engaged it was roughly estimated that cost of his services and that of an assistant would be approximately #3,000.00 and you secured authority for an expenditure of that amount. Mr. Wehe was engaged on the basis of #100.00 a day for his time and #600.00 a month plus employment taxes for his assistant. The estimate was made before Mr. Wehe and his assistant had had an opportunity to go into our records and determine the magnitude of the undertaking. It now appears that the total eost of Mr. Wehe’s services, including his appearance in Court as a witness, will be approximately #5,000.00. I enclose herewith a statement which he has furnished me showing the actual expenditures made to the end of March and an estimate of the cost of his services to the end of April when it is expected his report will be completed, if the in­formation requested from the Omaha office arrives seasonably. You will notice that the total actual and estimated cost to the end of April is #3,440.40. It is anticipated that a total of 10 days of Mr. Wehe’s time will be required after the completion of the report in connection with conferences with our officers and attorneys and testimony before the Commission in the rate proceeding. I also anticipate that when we reach the point of actually presenting our case before the Commission some further services of Mr. Bertolacci will be required. The increase in the estimated cost results from factors which were not anticipated at the time the original estimate was made. We had expected to have the report completed before now but there has been some delay resulting from the necessity of cor­responding and consulting with the Omaha officers with respect to various items of information furnished. Also the data to be included in Mr. Wehe’s report was amplified after our informal conferences with Commissioner Allard. For instance, historical operating expense tables for a period of 10 years commencing with 1939 have been pre­pared at the suggestion of Mr. Allard. Also additional work has been done with respect to advances made by customers for main exten­sions with the idea of justifying at least a part of their unrefunded cost in the rate basis. We anticipated trouble with this item be­cause of Mr. Allard’s attitude. Enel. . E. Bennett