Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the American States Water Company conference call discussing the company's fourth quarter and full year 2014 results. If you would like to listen to the replay of this call, it will begin this afternoon at approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Time and run through Thursday, March 5, 2015, on the Investor Relations section of the company's website, www.aswater.com. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call will be recorded and will be limited to no more than 1 hour. [Operator Instructions] In addition, certain matters the company discusses during this conference call may be forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please review a description of the company's risks and uncertainties in our most recent Form 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I will turn the call over to Eva Tang, Chief Financial Officer of American States Water Company.

Thank you, Andrew. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On the call with me is our President and CEO, Bob Sprowls. I will start by discussing the fourth quarter financial results. Diluted earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014 were $0.35 per share compared to $0.30 per share for the same period in 2013. Net income for the quarter was $13.5 million compared to $11.8 million for the same period of 2013. The increase in our consolidated earnings was primarily driven by rate increases approved by the Public -- California Public Utilities Commission as well as the -- an increase in construction activity at our Contracted Services business. Earnings for the water and electric segments increased by $0.03 and $0.01 per share, respectively, compared to the same period of 2013. Earnings at our Contracted Services segment increased by $0.02 per share, while earnings from our parent company decreased by $0.01 per share. While the revenue remained relatively flat in the quarter at approximately $73 million as compared to the same period in 2013, however, in the fourth quarter of 2014, there was a $2.3 million decrease in surcharge revenue as compared to the same period in 2013. Surcharges implemented for the recovery of previously incurred costs are offset by a corresponding amount in operating expenses, resulting in no impact to pretax operating income. Excluding the impact of surcharges, revenue increased by $2.3 million during the fourth quarter of 2014, mainly as a result of CPUC-approved rate increases and revenue recovery related to capital projects approved through advised letter-fighting. For the 3 months ended December 31, 2014, revenue from electric operations was $7 million as compared to $10.4 million for the same period in 2013. In November of 2014, the CPUC issued a final decision for our electric…

Thank you, Eva. Hello, everyone. I appreciate everyone joining us today. Now let me start by discussing some highlights for 2014 by business segment. Golden State Water Company, our regulated water and electric utility subsidiary, continued to make prudent investments in infrastructure and had strong financial performance for the year. Golden State Water also continued to show good progress on its cost control initiative. The success of the company's focus on cost control over the last few years is evidenced by a slight decrease in non-supply cost-related operating expenses for 2014 compared to 2013 despite higher depreciation expenses and property taxes. We excluded the onetime memo account recovery in 2013 and surcharges billed for the recovery of various costs previously incurred for this comparison. Our Contracted Services business, American States Utility Services, continued to make significant contribution to the company's earnings. ASUS accounted for 22.5% of the company's consolidated revenues in 2014. It earned a return on capital of 25% for the year. During 2014, ASUS successfully completed several filings with the U.S. government for price redetermination and asset transfers, which positively affected its earnings. With ASUS's contribution, the consolidated company earned a return on equity of 12.2% for 2014. With steady investments in Golden State Water's infrastructure over many years, American States now has more than $1 billion of net utility plant on its balance sheet at the end of 2014. Our diluted earnings per share from continuing operation have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% over the 5-year period from $0.81 per share in 2009 to $1.57 per share in 2014. During 2014, Standard & Poor's upgraded its rating outlook to positive from stable on both American States and Golden State Water. S&P also affirmed an A+ credit rating on both companies. It's been a…

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Richard Verdi from Ladenburg. Richard A. Verdi - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Research Division: Just a couple of quick questions. I realize here that cash is much higher than my model. I think you're around $75 million this quarter, give or take a little either way. It was at $57 million last quarter and last year was somewhere around $35 million. Can you just talk a little bit about what's going on there with that cash line? Why it's up so much? And how should we be thinking about that going forward? How is that going to be put to use?

Richard, there are a few factors impacting our cash position. As I mentioned, the receipt and billing of ASUS construction work impact hugely for 2014 compared to 2013. As we finish certain progress of the project, then we can bill the government and cash comes in, so there are timing differences. This always will be fluctuating. In terms of Golden State Water, we had this ran balance before. The water revenue, in terms of mechanisms we implemented since 2008, 2009 time frame and in the beginning of those years, we accumulated a lot of the balances. But now we're kind of starting recovery of the surcharges of those shortfalls in consumption. And our adopted level of consumption has been much in line with what we have currently incurred, so that decrease our recovery of the ran balance. So all that stuff kind of impacts us, and we also implemented the repair regulations, the tax regulations, which will have a tax deduction for 2014. The Congress also really [indiscernible] the bonus depreciation, so a lot of factors impact our cash flows for 2014. Richard A. Verdi - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Research Division: Do you think this is a level that will be sustained moving forward? Do you think it will come in a little bit or grow? What -- as of today, what do you think moving forward?

Well, Richard, you're asking about the actual cash balance, is that what you're asking about? Richard A. Verdi - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Research Division: Yes, yes. Because I'm thinking about net debt.

Yes. Well, we are in the process of buying some of our stock back and we're making good progress on that. So that should be a way for us to use some of that cash going forward. The cash balance should go down over time, we believe, through the repurchase program and capital expenditures, et cetera.

Yes. And as we mentioned, we expect to spend $85 million to $95 million of CapEx in 2015, so that would decrease our cash fairly. Richard A. Verdi - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Research Division: Okay, super. That's very helpful. And then, one last question, and I know this is a challenging one, it's tough for you guys to talk about. But, Bob, last year, you had mentioned, I think, it was in the Q2 or Q3 call, I don't recall off the top of my head, that ASUS, at that time for 2014, would look a lot like 2013. So now with 2014 in the rearview mirror, can we expect ASUS in 2015 to look a lot like 2014? Or what -- how should we be thinking there for this year for modeling?

Sure. That's a good question. I'll talk a little bit about how revenues work at that particular business and income. It's a bit tricky to forecast ASUS, but we've told the group that in the past because there's really 4 things you need to be a good forecaster at. One is how successful are you in determining price redeterminations. What's the timing of renewal and replacement work at the bases. This is generally worked out between the company and the contracting officer and the Director of Public Works at the base, so there's a little more transparency there. What new construction work will come our way at the respective bases, which, as you know, is subject to availability of government funding. And also, how successful will we be in winning new bases. And there's really no sense that the winning of new bases will have a large impact on 2015 earnings because it's -- there's, I believe, about a 6-month transition period. So even if we found out today that we had won a base, it probably wouldn't have a significant effect on 2015. But all that said, we provided a reconciliation of changes in earnings per share from '13 to '14 in our earnings release. ASUS contributed $0.31 per share to 2014's earnings. In the $0.31 per share, there were 2 items I'd like to highlight. We recorded $0.03 per share of retroactive revenue related to prior year as a result of successful price redeterminations, and these were received in the third quarter. We also recorded $0.02 per share in the fourth quarter during the closeout of a large construction project at Fort Bragg. You may recall that in 2010, we began work on a $58 million pipeline replacement project at Fort Bragg and that's -- this job was finally completed and closed out during the fourth quarter of 2014. So excluding those 2 items, ASUS's earnings would have been about $0.26 per share for the year. At this point, we believe ASUS's earnings for 2015 could look a lot like 2014's earning without the effect of those 2 items. So the $0.26 is a good place to start, I would say, in terms of forecasting earnings for 2015 for ASUS. Sorry about the long-winded answer, but... Richard A. Verdi - Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Research Division: No, it's -- I really appreciate the color. And then just one more, if I may, and then I'll jump back in the queue. Staying on ASUS, there are a number of bases coming online over the next few years, as you even mentioned, Bob. And I'm wondering, would it be a fair assumption to think that American States has more than a handful of contract bids out there outstanding right now?

Yes, that's a fair assumption. I do want to -- I'm always cautious when we talk about ASUS. I guess, I'm always cautious when we talk about everything, but when we're talking about ASUS, the ASUS or the military privatization process is a long process. And so for us to say we have more than a handful of bids out there, that is true, but it does take, in some cases, 2 years to go through the entire process. But I will tell you this. We are very active in the bidding process. We have institutionalized the bidding process at our company, so we're using very little outside resources for that. So we believe we can cost-effectively bid on a number of bases.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jonathan Reeder from Wells Fargo.

I think you said the CapEx budget for '15 is $85 million to $95 million. So does that assume that the permitting delays that were causing issues in 2014 have been resolved?

It does not assume that they've been resolved, but we -- I think we have sort of a better set of projects that we can go to if, in fact, we encounter the permitting delays. And -- so we're kind of prepared for that. It is a -- that is a situation that I think a lot of water utilities are facing from some of the cities in which they operate, but we're working through it. And we feel comfortable saying that we can get to the $85 million to $95 million.

Okay. And then what sort of level should we expect, I guess, looking at '16? Does '15 have a bit of a catch-up component to it or is that kind of a good run rate?

So that's going to be a function of what we get out of the rate case, and we do have $90 million requested in the rate case. You should also understand, and I know you do, Jonathan, that we have very modest rate increases requested, in some cases, rate decreases. We are hoping that as a result of that, that we can spend a good part of the capital request that we have in with the commission. We have not received ORA's report at this point. I believe it's due out on March 6, so still a bit of a guessing game for '16 through '18 without having had the benefit of what they have included in their report.

Okay, that was kind of my next question. So really no update on the rate case, you're just waiting for the ORA report next?

We are.

Yes.

Okay. What was the earned ROE in 2014 at the utilities? And if you have the year-end rate base?

Yes the...

For Golden State?

The earned return there, I believe, was 11.0%, Eva?

Yes, it was 11%.

Yes, 11% return at Golden State, and that includes, of course, both the electric operation and the water operation. And the rate base, we don't...

No, we don't...

We haven't typically disclosed the rate base, so...

Okay, fair enough. And then last question. It kind of looks like the equity level at the utility remains above the 55% authorized amount. So what's kind of the plan to get that back in line?

Well, we've been working to pay a little more dividends than we have had in the past out of the utility up to the parent. And that will continue until we get to the authorized level of our equity level there. Cash goes up to the parent and then we're using that to, of course, pay dividends to the shareholders, as well as to continue to work on stock repurchase program.

Any time frame for when it might get back in line? Or would the plan be to try to get a higher authorized equity layer at the utility during the next cost of capital?

We're definitely going to be thinking about that. It does come down to justifying what's an appropriate equity level, but as you so aptly determined, we are a little high there, sort of in all circumstances and so we are trying to move some of the equity out of there. The overall -- as you know, the overall cash balance is pretty substantial right now. So it's either going to be at the parent or at Golden State Water until we use it to fund either CapEx or our stock repurchase program. Of course, if it's for funding CapEx, we'll keep it at the utility.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bob Sprowls, President and CEO, for any closing remarks.

Sure. Thank you, Andrew. I just want to close it up today by thanking everyone for their participation in the call today and also for their continued interest and investment in American States Water Company. I wish everybody a good day.

This concludes today's American States Water Company conference call. You may now disconnect your line.