An annual report showing the financial conditions and operations of
each utility under its jurisdiction is required to be filed with the Com-
mission.
By legislation enacted subsequent to the original Act, the Commis-
sion has been given power to fix minimum as well as maximum rates,
to suspend schedules of rates pending the determination of the reason-
ableness of the rates proposed, and utilities are forbidden to abandon
or discontinue the exercise of franchises without the permission and
approval of the Commission.
The Commission has also been authorized to make joint investiga-
tions, bold joint bearings, and issue joint or concurrent orders in con-
junction or concurrence with any official board or commission of any
State or of the United States, under agreements or compacts between
States or under the concurrent power of States to regulate interstate
commerce, or as an agency of the Federal Government, or otherwise.
The Commission is required by law to test all electric meters and
gas meters before installation, and to test meters upon request of the
consumer.
The Commission maintains a laboratory in which daily tests are
made of the gas furnished in the City of Baltimore, and its inspectors
also make regular and frequent tests of the gas and electricity furnished
in other parts of the State.
The proceedings before the Commission frequently require bearings,
and all such hearings are public and are reported by a stenographer,
and a permanent record thereof is kept.
In the ease of ex pat-fe applications of utiiities for permission to
exercise franchises, to issue securities or otherwise invoking the juris-
diction of the Commission, the applicant is required to advertise, at its
own expense, giving notice of the hearing to be bad, so that the public
interested may be advised thereof and given the opportunity to be beard
with respect thereto.
One of the most important amendments to the original Act is that
providing for representation by counsel of the interests of the public
in all proceedings before the Commission. The Act now provides for
the appointment by the Governor of an experienced and qualified lawyer
as People’s Counsel, and it is the duty of this official to represent the
interests of complainants and of the public generally in proceedings
before the Commission.
By Chapter 485 of the Acts of 1931 the Commission is given full
jurisdiction over taxicabs operating in Baltimore City. One require-
ment of this law is that all such taxicabs shall carry insurance or give
bond to indemnify the public.