H2O America

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the SJW Group Q3 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require any assistance during the conference, you may press star zero. And as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host. Mr. Jim Lynch.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to the third quarter 2021 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 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, we refer you to the financial results press release and to our most recent forms, 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K, filed with the Securities 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. With that, I will turn the call over to Eric.

Thank you, Jim. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Eric Thornburg, and it is my honor to serve as Chairman, President, and CEO of SJW Group. As an essential service, we deliver life-sustaining water to families and communities where we live, work, and serve. Whether it be high-quality water in a glass, a robust supply at the nearby fire hydrant, or reliable infrastructure on Main Street to support economic development, water is at the heart of our communities. Delivering on our vital public mission requires our leaders and employees to maintain a laser focus on the present, plan decades into the future, and as the past year and a half has shown, adapt to unforeseen challenges along the way. SJW Group and its employees are committed to being a positive force for good in the community, protect and improve the environment, support water equity, have a diverse and inclusive workplace, and engage vendors and suppliers that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. We are able to build for the future because of our solid foundation. Our employee teams are working across the country and leaning in to deliver on our commitment to be a leader across the environmental, social, and governance landscape. ESG reflects our longstanding sense of purpose and our culture of service. To that end, we are finalizing our first enterprise-wide greenhouse gas inventory, which will be the benchmark for reducing our carbon footprint. We already have solar installations in California, Connecticut, and Maine, and we're working toward more. One promising project would eventually allow us to meet all of the power needs of our new Saco River drinking water treatment facility in Maine. The grounds of the new Saco River facility will also feature more than 250 acres a protected open space, and a pollinator garden. Building on our 2020 human rights policy, every employee in our organization is required to complete training on the policy. Further, as an organization, we support water equity and believe that access to safe, affordable, and reliable water service is a human right. We have financial assistance programs to assist customers facing hardships And we're especially proud of our water rate assistance programs in California and Connecticut that provide a 15% reduction on water bills for income-eligible residential customers. More than $1.1 billion in federal dollars is earmarked to states to pay water and wastewater bills in arrears on behalf of low-income residents through the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program. We are actively engaged to make sure that our customers in all four states can benefit from the program. Importantly, we believe our commitment to water equity includes investing in our systems so they can deliver reliable supply of high-quality water. Our subsidiaries are making consistent, incremental investments in infrastructure so that customers at all income levels will have access to the quality, and reliable water service they deserve with the costs and rate impacts of those investments incurred gradually so they can be more easily addressed by the utility and our customers. Artificially keeping rates low by deferring investment is short-sighted and not sustainable and does not really serve our customers who all deserve quality water and service for the long term. Unfortunately, the water shortage emergency declared in June by Valley Water, our California water wholesaler, remains in place. San Jose Water continues to aggressively promote water conservation to its customers in order to reach Valley Water's stated goal of reducing water consumption by 15% compared to 2019. The California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, has approved our request to establish a water conservation memorandum account to track the revenue impact of authorized versus actual water consumption while we are promoting conservation. A water conservation expense memorandum account was also authorized to track the incremental expenses required to implement our mandatory water conservation program. Both memorandum accounts allow for the potential future recovery of the revenue and expense impacts. We continue to have adequate water supply to meet the needs of our California customers. Just last week, some much needed rain moved through the region. We're hopeful it is an early start to the traditional rainy season in the Bay Area. We are committed to strong partnerships with our communities. San Jose Water has been recognized by American Best in Business Awards for the company's response to COVID-19, which included donating and distributing PPE to other water utilities and community organizations. The CPUC held their 19th annual Supplier Diversity en Banque, titled Thriving and Surviving During a Pandemic, on October 14th, a full-day virtual event dedicated to supplier diversity. All CPUC commissioners were present and led a conversation on supplier diversity, including a recap of California regulated utility supplier diversity results for calendar year 2020. During the meeting, San Jose Water was recognized by the CPUC for increasing our results from 12.9 percent in 2019 to 30.1 percent of addressable spend in 2020. SJW was also recognized as one of only 10 California regulated utilities to meet the three supplier diversity sub goals for women 5%, minority 15%, and disabled veteran owned 1.5% spend. Supplier diversity is a focus of all SJW group companies. And another way we're having an impact for good in our communities coast to coast. Building and retaining our workforce of water professionals is also critical. Earlier this month, Connecticut Water was recognized at the state level as a top workplace and also at the national level for culture excellence by top workplaces for our professional development program. Connecticut Water was one of about 250 companies its size to be recognized nationally. Cybersecurity is critically important to our industry and the country. In August, I was honored to represent SJW Group at the White House's Cybersecurity Summit, along with two dozen respected academics and top executives from leading firms in banking, commerce, energy, and water. It was gratifying to see that the importance of water to our national security is recognized at the highest levels of government, including President Biden. Attendees committed to sharing best practices, and in the water space, SJW Group pledged to be a resource to smaller organizations still developing their own cybersecurity resources. I'll now turn the call over to Jim, who will review our third quarter and year-to-date financial results. And after Jim's remarks, I'll address other regulatory and business matters. Jim?