H2O America

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the SJW Group Q4 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Jim Lynch, CFO and Treasurer. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2020 financial results conference call for SJW Group. I will be presenting today with Eric Thornburg, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer. For those who would like to follow along, slides accompanying our remarks are available on our website, at www.sjwgroup.com. Before we begin today's presentation, I would like to remind you that this presentation and the related materials posted on our website may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the company in light of its experience, historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments. as well as other factors that the company believes are appropriate under the circumstances. Many factors could cause the company's actual results and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. For a description of some of the factors that could cause actual results to be different from statements in this presentation, I refer you to the financial results press release and to our most recent forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K, filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained on our website. All forward-looking statements are made as of today and SJW Group disclaims any duty to update or revise such statements. You will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. As a reminder, this webcast is being recorded and an archive of the webcast will be available until April 26, 2021. You can access the press release and the webcast at our corporate website. I will now turn the call over to Eric Thornburg.

Thank you, Jim. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As we reflect on 2020, I'd like to begin by recognizing our nation's essential workers who are bravely serving us on the front lines during this extraordinary time. From the public safety employees consisting of police, fire, emergency response, and healthcare professionals, to our grocery store and other critical supply chain workers, they all deserve our recognition and appreciation for their dedicated service. Our appreciation and recognition also extends to our 700 plus employees and their utility industry peers across the nation who we consider to be essential as they continue to deliver safe and reliable service. Our dedicated and passionate water professionals met the challenges of 2020 head-on to provide a reliable supply of safe drinking water to more than 1.6 million people in our local service communities in California, Connecticut, Texas, and Maine. In my 38 years in this profession, it never mattered more. So while COVID-19 dominated 2020, it did not dominate our peoples. I'm especially proud of our teams and their commitment to protect the health of their customers, communities, and coworkers. They knew that delivering safe, clean drinking water to their customers and communities was essential to public health. They developed protocols and procedures that protected their coworkers so they could safely carry out their essential work. And they did it by collaborating across our expanded national footprint to support each other, and build on our strengths for the good of the entire organization. And it also reminded us that human life is precious and fragile and that there is no higher calling than to serve others. We also responded to the needs of customers and communities who were financially impacted by COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we've worked with customers throughout through our assistance programs to help them keep their accounts current and suspended shutoffs for non-payment consistent with each state's requirements. And we increased our donations to local service organizations in 2020 to help them meet the basic needs of people in the community. It is clear that our transformative combination with Connecticut Water Service Incorporated in 2019 made for a stronger SJW group in 2020, which benefited shareholders, customers, and employees. Our 2020 Corporate Sustainability Report, Coast to Coast, documents our commitment to environmental, social, and governance matters. As that report was telling our story, the company was recognized with prime status by ISS ESG. Prime status is awarded to companies with an ESG performance above the sector-specific prime threshold, where we were tied for the top ranking among U.S. utilities. We saw significant improvements in our environmental and social scores and ranked second among our utility industry peers for our combined environmental and social quality scores. Our governance quality score was already at the highest level and placed us among the top within our industry. We're especially proud of the human rights policy adopted by our board in the fourth quarter. The policy affirms our conviction that human rights are fundamental rights, freedoms, and standards of treatment to which all people are entitled. It also reflects our values and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A team of employees with the full support of senior leaders and the board serve on our National Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, DEI, to support and advocate for DEI initiatives. We, as a company, are committed to fostering an environment where employees can bring their true selves and feel included, welcomed, and valued. We're also determined to be a force for good in the communities where we live, work, and serve. For example, in 2020, San Jose Water was responsible for $28.8 million of diverse supplier spend, representing 30.1% of our addressable spend there. And following Connecticut Water's adoption of a supplier diversity plan in early 2020, both Texas and Maine approved formal plans later in the year that are being implemented in 2021. We are fully committed to our diverse supplier program and will continue to share our progress in the years to come. Other highlights of 2020 include investing more than $199 million in our water and wastewater systems across our multi-state footprint, achieving world-class customer satisfaction on a composite basis across the company, and another successful year of meeting drinking water and environmental regulations, delivering on our commitment to public health and environmental stewardship. I will now turn the call over to Jim, who will review our financial results. After Jim's remarks, I will address regulatory, water supply, and other business matters. Jim? Thank you, Eric.