Global Water Resources, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Global Water Resources 2020 year-end conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded on March 4th, 2021 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Eder Krupa, Vice President and Controller. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. Yesterday we issued our 2020 year-end financial results by press release, a copy of which is available on our website at www.gwresources.com. Speaking today is Ron Fleming, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Liebman, Chief Financial Officer, and Chris Krieger, Chief Strategy Officer. Mr. Fleming will summarize the key operational events of the year. Mr. Liebman will review the financial results for the year. and Mr. Krieger will review strategic initiatives and business development for the year. Mr. Fleming, Mr. Liebman, and Mr. Krieger will be available for questions at the end of the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that certain information presented today may include forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions regarding future events. These forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, uncertainties, estimates, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements which reflect management's views as of the date hereof and are not guarantees of future performance. For additional information regarding factors that may affect future results, please read the sections Risk Factors and Management, Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included within our latest Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Such filings are available at www.sec.gov. Certain non-GAAP measures may be included within today's call. For a reconciliation of these measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures, please see the tables included in yesterday's earnings release. which is available on our website. Unless otherwise stated, all amounts discussed are in U.S. dollars. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ron Fleming.

Thank you, Heather. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are very pleased to report the results for the fourth quarter and year-end 2020. 2020 was both a challenging and exciting year for Global Water. and I'm very proud of the company and our employees for delivering strong company performance during a global pandemic. We will talk about growth throughout our commentary today, but I will start where I always do by discussing our top priority, which is the health and safety of our employees and our customers, including how we continue to navigate COVID-19. As an essential utility whose services are vital during a pandemic, Our company moved quickly and early to implement all national, local, and industry-specific guidance to maximize social distancing and other measures to protect the health and safety of our employees and customers and safeguard our operations. These measures continue to be modified as guidance and the situation on the ground changes. But generally, all measures remain in place and have gone well, and we have not incurred any significant disruptions resulting from the pandemic, either operationally or financially. Further, in the event that customers had difficulty paying their utility bills due to COVID-19, we worked with them to set up payment plans and offer other options. For example, in March of 2020, we rolled out an expanded customer assistance program. I can report today that this assistance is being utilized, and in 2020 alone, Through our program partners, we distributed over 100,000 to customers in need of help to pay their utility bill. Based on overall progress on these fronts over the last 12 months and based on the improving overall environment in Arizona and our areas, I will not be addressing COVID-19 again during our quarterly calls unless a need develops. Moving back to our typical operational highlights, I am very pleased to announce in accordance with our top priority, we continue to perform at an extremely high level on employee safety and regulatory compliance non-recordable incidents. As of today, our staff has only experienced two minor OSHA recordable incidents in 1,282 days. We have incurred only $2,500 in nearly five years on OSHA recordable related incidents. resulting in an extremely low loss ratio and experience modifier, or EMOD, which is at 0.61 today. As a reminder, an EMOD of 1 is considered to be industry average. So said another way, we are performing 39% better than the industry average, which results in lower actual costs and workers' comp insurance costs. Also, it has been 1,805 days since our last significant compliance violation or nearly five years. In fact, in late 2020, we received unsolicited recognition from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality as part of their voluntary environmental stewardship program, Bronze Level. Bronze Level recognizes companies that demonstrate strong environmental compliance for the past three years and demonstrate environmental excellence and leadership in providing customers with safe drinking water. This recognition is a nice addition to the Utility of the Future Today National Award that we also received in 2020 for the company's transformational work in community engagement, watershed stewardship, and resources recovery. On a related note, in 2020, we delivered a record volume of recycled water, 1.16 billion gallons, which is an increase of 11% over the year prior. Maximum reuse of recycled water is a primary element of our total water management approach for growing communities that allows us to achieve meaningful conservation. I now want to highlight customer growth. On the organic growth front, total active service connections increased 6.7% to 48,899 at year end. Development and housing activity remained very strong in Metro Phoenix and our service areas. According to local real estate consensus, single-family permits increased by 36.3% in Q4 2020, and the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona reported that permits grew 18% year-over-year to 28,704. All projections indicate that growth will continue throughout 2021 and 2022. Specific to our largest service area, the City of Maricopa, they issued 1,514 single-family home permits in 2020, 53% over the prior year. This represents the single best year since before the Great Recession. Those of you that have been following our company for a while No, this is what we have been preparing for and speaking about as a company, really since the beginning. This was the strategy to buy or build utilities in the path of growth along growth corridors. This is again accelerating, and in short, we are well positioned to benefit from rapid growth throughout our large service areas in Pinal and Maricopa counties. 2020 also brought the addition of Chris Krieger as Chief Strategy Officer. and he has allowed for continuous focus on growth through acquisitions and new business opportunities. Based on 2020 and to-date announcements, you can see we are starting to achieve some success and are building a nice pipeline of opportunities. Chris will speak about this and the rate case we filed in 2020 later on in the call. Putting all these elements together, Global Water is well positioned from an operational, safety, compliance, and financial perspective, with notable growth in the years to come. I will now turn the call over to Mike for financial highlights. Thanks, Ron.