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The Maryland Office of People`s Counsel (OPC), created in 1924, is the oldest utility consumer advocacy office of its kind in the United States. The People`s Counsel is appointed by the Attorney General, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and acts independently of the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Office of Attorney General. OPC is a State of Maryland agency, yet works independently to represent Maryland`s residential consumers of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the PSC, federal regulatory agencies and the courts. Every day OPC`s staff members address issues affecting the cost, quality of service and adequate supply of these utility services. As such OPC`s advocacy touches the lives of every resident of Maryland. OPC functions primarily as a law office, employing a staff of 19, and retains expert consultants to provide technical assistance and expert testimony. These consultants are highly qualified accounting, engineering and economic experts who provide technical assistance, prepare reports and appear as expert witnesses before the PSC and federal agencies. These experts are absolutely critical to OPC`s ability to represent consumers. Because it is a state agency, funding for OPC is included in the state budget proposed by the Governor and approved by the General Assembly. However, the State`s General Fund is fully reimbursed for OPC`s expenses from revenue collected in the Public Utility Regulation Fund. These revenues are collected from all regulated utility companies and licensed energy suppliers.
Regional Government Services Authority (RGS) was formed in 2001, by a city and a regional planning and services agency to help local governments meet three challenges: decreasing revenues, increasing demands (and costs) for services, and loss of experienced staff. Local government leaders knew that these challenges were likely to continue, so agencies would have to work together – uniting not only their voices but their resources to advocate and become more efficient. The idea behind the creation of RGS was to form an agency which would help local governments share expertise and improve efficiencies. A need was emerging for some way to help agencies get the expertise and experience needed, without each agency having to hire full-time staff when the need might be less than full-time. Agencies could, in effect, share expertise through a third-party.
Originally, what is now Kandiyohi County was two separate counties - Kandiyohi and Monongalia. Both were established in 1858 and both functioned independently until the two counties merged twelve years later in an economical move. The people of the two counties realized that both counties were too small to function efficiently and economically as separate governmental units, so they formed one county government in a very lop-sided referendum.
City of Ventnor City is a Ventnor City, NJ-based company in the Government sector.
The USGS is a science organization that provides impartial information on the health of our ecosystems and environment, the natural hazards that threaten us, the natural resources we rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the core science systems that help us provide timely, relevant, and useable information.