Head of Compliance and Consumer Affairs
Jayson Kauwenaole is head of compliance and consumer affairs at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.
PUF: What do you do as Head of Compliance and Consumer Affairs?
Jayson Kauwenaole: They changed the name several times. It’s compliance, enforcement, and education for the state of Hawaii. That’s in regard to motor carriers. We do property and passenger motor carriers that get hired for any kind of fee or compensation.
Those are two main areas that we enforce and then any kind of utility complaint that somebody might have regarding billing, tariffs, or anything that might be a violation of the tariff that is submitted by the utility company.
PUF: Do people call up on the phone and say, Jayson, I’m angry about something, and want you to do something about it?
Jayson Kauwenaole: Yes, we do have those complaints. If it’s serious enough or something that needs to be looked into, we ask that they make a formal complaint, which they can do online. That way we’re sure of what their complaint is and what their issue is.
If it’s something small, like I don’t know what this means, or the utility is not helping me, or the motor carrier is not helping me, then we might handle that over the phone. I’m handling one now where we’re doing it over the phone and he was questioning one of our utilities about a tax, which was equivalent to thirteen cents. He questioned them and they said to make a complaint with us. He’s just asking for clarification.