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<br /> r <br /> OFFICE OF THE CONSUMERS' COUNSEL <br /> The Office of the Consumers' Counsel (OCC) is the state <br /> agency that represents the residential consumers o4' municipal <br /> corporations of Ohio's investor-owned electric, natural gas, <br /> telephone and water companies. Essentially, the agency func- <br /> tions as the lawyer for consumers in rate cases and other util- <br /> ity proceedings at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, at <br /> federal regulatory commissions, and in the courts. The agency <br /> also educates consumers about utility issues, and resolves com- <br /> plaints individual ratepayers have with their utilities. <br /> The agency was established by the Ohio General Assembly in <br /> 1976. Up to that time residential consumezs did not have an <br /> advocate to represent them in utility regulatory proceedings. <br /> In its first decade of advocacy OCC saved Ohio's 3.5 million <br /> residential consumers more than $786 million in utility costs, <br /> intervened in more than B00 state and federal regulatory cases <br /> and resolved some 24,000 individual con>umer complaints. <br /> A nine-member, bipartisan Governing Board selected by the <br /> Ohio Attorney General meets monthly to set the policies of the <br /> agency. The board is comprised of three representatives each <br /> from among Ohio's residential consumers, family farmers and <br /> organized labor. <br /> The Consumers' Counsel (required by law to be an attorney) <br /> heads the agency and is responsible for its day-to-day opera- <br /> tions. The Counsel is chosen by the Governing Board, develops <br /> policy alternatives for the board and reports to it monthly. <br /> Consumers pay for OCC through a small assessment on their <br /> utility bills. Like other state agencies, the Ohio General <br /> Assembly establishes the agency's biennial budget. The assess- <br /> ment amounts to about 50 cents a yeas: per family. This is a <br /> relatively low cost when compared to the millions of dollars OCC <br /> has saved Ohio's consumers. <br /> OCC is headquartered in Columbus and is nationally recog- <br /> nized as one of the most effective consumer advocacy offices of <br /> its kind in the United States. <br /> <br />