1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of the : Complaint of: : 4 : Janice L. Guess, : 5 : Complainant, : 6 : vs. : Case No. 14-2313-EL-CSS 7 : Ohio Power Company, D/B/A : 8 AEP Ohio, : : 9 Respondent. : 10 - - - 11 PROCEEDINGS 12 before Mr. Daniel Fullin, Attorney Examiner, at the 13 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 180 East Broad 14 Street, Room 11-C, Columbus, Ohio, called at 9:55 15 a.m. on Thursday, March 9, 2017. 16 - - - 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC. 222 East Town Street, Second Floor 24 Columbus, Ohio 43215-5201 (614) 224-9481 - (800) 223-9481 25 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 American Electric Power By Mr. Mike Benza 3 1 Riverside Plaza, 29th Floor Columbus, Ohio 43215 4 On behalf of the Respondent. 5 - - - 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 3 1 Thursday Morning Session, 2 March 9, 2017. 3 - - - 4 EXAMINER FULLIN: The Commission has 5 assigned for hearing at this time and place Case No. 6 14-2313-EL-CSS which is the Complaint of Janice L. 7 Guess versus American Electric Power. 8 My name is Daniel E. Fullin, the Attorney 9 Examiner assigned to this case. May I have 10 appearances on behalf of the parties beginning with 11 the Complainant which means I am asking you to 12 identify your name and address for the record. 13 MR. BENZA: Your Honor, Mike Benza on 14 behalf of Respondent Ohio Power Company doing 15 business as AEP Ohio named in the complaint as 16 American Electric Power Company. Complainant Janice 17 L. Guess is not present here today. 18 EXAMINER FULLIN: Oh, okay. I thought 19 the mediating Attorney Examiner had been in touch 20 with Ms. Guess and had indicated I might expect that 21 she wasn't going to be here today. So I guess we can 22 wait about 10 minutes before we find out if she is 23 coming even though based on that I am not necessarily 24 expecting her. 25 And then at that point if she doesn't ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 4 1 show within the next 10 minutes, then I would bring 2 the hearing to a close based on the fact she didn't 3 appear. 4 Let's go off the record for a minute. 5 (Discussion off the record.) 6 EXAMINER FULLIN: Let's go back on the 7 record. 8 We are back on the record. Mr. Benza has 9 indicated he has heard from the Complainant as early 10 as Monday of this week, this is Thursday, that the 11 Complainant had informed him that the -- that she 12 wasn't going to be in attendance today. 13 Also, I don't know if I said this earlier 14 on the record or not, but the mediating Attorney 15 Examiner has been in discussions with the 16 Complainant, and he had told -- she had told him that 17 she wasn't expecting to be here today. 18 So based on both of those -- based on 19 that information and the fact she isn't here, I am 20 not going to wait to see if she shows up in the next 21 few minutes. I am going to go ahead and allow the 22 Respondent to make a motion at this time. 23 MR. BENZA: Thank you, your Honor. AEP 24 Ohio would like to move to dismiss for failure to 25 prosecute. I can make this motion in writing and ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 5 1 file it in the docket by tomorrow afternoon, Friday, 2 March 10, 2017, by 5 p.m., or if your Honor would 3 prefer, or if your Honor is satisfied, we can submit 4 this motion as we have on the record here today. 5 EXAMINER FULLIN: Well, I would be okay 6 with just ruling on it as an oral motion made at the 7 hearing. If there was something -- if you put it in 8 writing or there was something more you would add 9 that you didn't just say, then you can do it that 10 way, and I am not going to be ruling on it before 11 tomorrow afternoon anyway. 12 So I will leave it to you if you want to 13 make a written motion but there's already a motion 14 before me that's based on the fact she's not here, 15 and she is not here, so I would be -- you wouldn't 16 necessarily have to make such a filing. I intend to 17 rule based on the oral motion and/or motion if you 18 submit one tomorrow. 19 MR. BENZA: Okay. Thank you, your Honor. 20 We are satisfied with our oral motion. 21 EXAMINER FULLIN: Okay. I am too, so I 22 am going to bring this hearing to a close at this 23 time, and we will be adjourned. 24 (Thereupon, at 10:00 a.m., the hearing 25 was concluded.) ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 6 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I do hereby certify that the foregoing is 3 a true and correct transcript of the proceedings 4 taken by me in this matter on Thursday, March 9, 5 2017, and carefully compared with my original 6 stenographic notes. 7 8 _______________________________ 9 Karen Sue Gibson, Registered Merit Reporter. 10 11 (KSG-6329) 12 - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481