Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
The Town of Parker is a Home Rule Municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. As a self-declared "Town" under the Home Rule Statutes, Parker is the most populous town in the county. In recent years, Parker has become a commuter town at the southeasternmost corner of the Denver Metropolitan Area. As of the U.S. Census 2000, the town population was 23,558. Its population as of 2008 is estimated at 43,767, over 145 times its population of 285 when Parker incorporated in 1981. Parker is now the 17th most populous municipality in the State of Colorado. The town's rapid growth in recent decades is often credited to Jim Nicholson, whose fourteen years spent developing the area earned him the town's first "Cornerstone Award".