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Your Personal Information at the UTC
 
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s responsibility is to protect the public interest by ensuring utility and transportation services are fairly priced, widely available, reliable and safe.

In the course of pursuing this mission, the UTC comes into contact with a wide range of people. For purposes of maintaining contact with these people, investigating their complaints and providing follow-up information, the UTC collects limited personal information. In every instance, our collecting this information is the result of a contact initiated by the private citizen. Further, we collect only the information needed to provide the requested service. Below we outline the type of information collected and the length of time the information is retained.

Your rights
You have a right to review and correct any information about you that the UTC has on file. In cases where your information is part of mailing list, you have a right to remove your name from that list.

To determine whether we hold any personal information about you and to review that information, we will need your name, address and telephone number. Submit that information to our Records Center (see contact information below). We will search the various files where personal information is maintained and provide you with a copy of any information that pertains to you. You may make corrections to your information and resubmit it for correction. You may also remove your name and address from any mailing list.

You may contact the UTC Record Center in the following ways: Telephone: 360-664-1234; e-mail: records@wutc.wa.gov; Fax: 360-586-1150; US Postal Service mail: PO Box 47250 Olympia WA 98507-7250; you are also welcome to visit our offices at 1300 S. Evergreen Park Drive SW in Olympia.

What personal information does the UTC maintain?

1. Consumer complaints. The UTC receives more than 32,000 contacts a year from utility and transportation service customers. Most of these contacts involve a simple exchange of information, either over the phone or by electronic mail, and no record is kept. However, approximately 5,500 to 6,000 of these contacts turn into informal complaints. These complaints can be in writing, either by letter or by Internet, or can be filed over the telephone. All complaints are entered into a data base. The complaint record at a minimum will include the customer’s name, address, telephone numbers, service provider and nature of complaint. The record might also include, depending on the needs of the complaint, more detailed financial information regarding the customer’s utility account, payment, financial institution and credit details. A complaint record is purged after five years.
   
2. Public Comments. Roughly 1,200 people annually contact the UTC about their opinion regarding a particular case or utility issue. These contacts include letters, telephone calls, electronic messages and our website comment form. All written comments regarding a proceeding before the commission are retained as part of the case record. Those who have commented are also put onto an “Interested Party” mailing list so that they can receive information about further developments in the case they expressed interest in. Letters are retained for two years. Names are kept on our mailing lists for two years.
   
3. Public Records Request. Like all public organizations, the UTC is subject to the state Public Records Act. As a result, we track public records requests to ensure we are following the law. A records request may be made via e-mail, in writing or verbally. The requestor describes the information they seek, their name, address and telephone number. All of this information is collected. The UTC maintains this information for up to three years.
   
4. Credit Card Authorization. Some of the companies registered with the UTC use a credit card to pay various fees. The UTC maintains a paper file of active credit card authorizations. This information is kept for five years.
   
5. Operation Lifesaver Presentations. The UTC participates in a nationally-recognized safety program designed to increase safety around rail lines by making presentations to groups throughout the state on train safety. We maintain a list of the groups for which we have made presentations. Sometimes, the contact for these presentations is a private citizen.
   
6. Consumer Newsletter mailing list. The UTC produces a printed quarterly newsletter and an electronic newsletter designed to keep consumers informed on the latest utility developments. This list for the printed newsletter contains the name and address of the subscriber. The electronic mail list is managed by an automatic agent (listserv) and contains the person’s email address and usually a person’s name. We remove the name and address from the list upon request.