Sample Projects

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The Hobbs Ong Team brings many years of experience in water and wastewater utility business management, and a comprehensive understanding of not just financing, but of the utility business models generally.  The Team brings over three decades of experience working in western water and wastewater utilities.  The Consultant Team has served as financial advisors to the Southern Nevada Water Authority (“SNWA” or “Authority”), the Las Vegas Valley Water District (“LVVWD” or “District”), the Clark County Water Reclamation District (“CCWRD”) and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (“TMWA”) in Northern Nevada for nearly two decades. These engagements spanned the full range of financial management including financial planning, cost of service and rate making studies, Capital Improvement Plan management and revenue and expenditure modeling.    In Nevada, the Team has prepared rate studies for the SNWA, the LVVWD, CCWRD and TMWA.  For example, the efforts undertaken for the Southern Nevada Water Authority required the Team to assess if rate levels were sufficient for existing operating and capital needs, as well as to assess levels necessary for future capital requirements.  During the development phase of the various rate scenarios, the team worked closely with SNWA’s staff and stakeholders at public meetings for residential customers and at workshop sessions with water retailers (Las Vegas Valley Water District, the City of North Las Vegas and the City of Henderson) as well as commercial customers and representatives of the chambers of commerce.  Guy Hobbs continuously briefed the Commissioners on the SNWA Board and other stakeholder groups during the process.  The Consultant Team considered existing rates and charges as well as new possible charges such as fixed charges per parcel, account and per meter.  In February of 2012, the SNWA Board implemented a fixed per meter charge based on meter size, differentiating between residential and non-residential customers.    Subsequently, our team was involved in two additional water rate reviews with citizen advisory committees (Integrated Resources Planning Advisory Committee, “IRPAC”), resulting in additional rate adjustments to fund the existing infrastructure and to fund the Intake Tunnel Number Three for lower level access to Lake Mead water. The second phase of this process recommended a drought protection surcharge to fund a pumping station that would serve as additional insurance for access to water resources in a continuing drought scenario for Southern Nevada.

Hobbs Ong has a very extensive experience in developing financial models and innovative tools to help our clients realize their objectives and solve their problems.   For the TIBP planning effort, the Hobbs Ong Team created a dynamic model to examine the practical realities of implementing the recommended projects.  The model brings together the various assumptions of the TIBP (i.e., project costs, timing, and recommended funding sources) and presents the funding needs of the business plan in a meaningful and logical way, allowing a list of projects with static costs to be translated into an annual cash flow sources and uses stated in year-of-expenditure costs (inflated dollars). The dynamic model can be modified across a variety of assumptions, as projects are added or costs and funding are modified, or as funding sources are included or excluded for each project.  As such, the model provided dynamic scenario analysis and is a useful tool to allowing stakeholders to sort and test alternatives as project concepts further evolve.

Hobbs Ong was engaged by British Petroleum/Atlantic Richfield (BP/ARCO) to provide analytical support on a case involving mitigation of environmental impacts in the northern Nevada community of Yerington.  BP/ARCO acquired mining interests in Yerington that, prior to their ownership, had been found to be related to contamination of community water supplies.  BP/ARCO’s objective was to remedy those prior impacts through reaching a financial agreement with Yerington and its residents. Because this matter involved both an existing water utility and an extension of new services to the affected area, in-depth knowledge of water utility finances was a prerequisite.  Our analysis involved the current rates and charges for the water system, an evaluation of the system capital plan and an integration of the proposed mitigation scenarios into the solution.  It also involved dealing with other overlapping units of government that had either interests in or jurisdiction over the outcome.  Our team proposed a solution to the mitigation efforts that was ultimately used to achieve the desired outcome.