1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of the : the Complaint of : 4 Betty Jean Putman, : : 5 Complainant, : : 6 vs. : Case No. 07-1031-EL-CSS : 7 Duke Energy Ohio, Inc., : : 8 Respondent. : 9 - - - 10 PROCEEDINGS 11 before Ms. Christine Pirik, Hearing Examiner, at the 12 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 180 East Broad 13 Street, Room 11-G, Columbus, Ohio, called at 1:30 14 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, 2008. 15 - - - 16 17 18 19 20 21 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC. 185 South Fifth Street, Suite 101 22 Columbus, Ohio 43215-5201 (614) 224-9481 - (800) 223-9481 23 Fax - (614) 224-5724 24 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 2 1 APPEARANCE: 2 Ms. Elizabeth H. Watts Assistant General Counsel 3 Duke Energy Shared Services, Inc. 155 East Broad Street, 21st floor 4 Columbus, Ohio 43215 5 On behalf of Duke Energy Corporation. 6 - - - 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 3 1 Thursday Afternoon Session, 2 May 22, 2008. 3 - - - 4 HEARING EXAMINER: The Public Utilities 5 Commission has called for hearing at this time and 6 place case number 07-1031-EL-CSS being In the Matter 7 of the Complaint of Betty Jean Putman versus Duke 8 Energy-Ohio, Inc. 9 My name is Christine Pirik. I'm a deputy 10 director in the Legal department and I have been 11 assigned by the Commission to hear this case. 12 At this time I will take appearances on 13 behalf of the party. On behalf of Duke Energy. 14 MS. WATTS: Thank you, your Honor. On 15 behalf of Duke Energy-Ohio, Elizabeth H. Watts, and 16 Duke Energy is at 139 East Fourth Street, Cincinnati, 17 Ohio 45201. With me today is Anita Schafer and Cindy 18 Givens and Gary Ollier. 19 HEARING EXAMINER: Let the record reflect 20 that the hearing was scheduled to commence at 21 1:30 p.m. on this date. It is now 1:40 p.m. The 22 complainant has not appeared. We will give her 23 another 20 minutes, so we're going to take a 24 20-minute recess and we will reconvene at 2 o'clock ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 4 1 with the hope that the complainant will have arrived 2 by that point in time. 3 MS. WATTS: Thank you, your Honor. 4 (Recess taken.) 5 HEARING EXAMINER: We'll go back on the 6 record. 7 It is 2:05 and I'd like the record to 8 reflect that the complainant, Betty Jean Putman, is 9 not present and we have not heard from her. We've 10 tried to call her, there is no answer at the phone 11 number that was given on the complaint. 12 At this time does the respondent have 13 anything that they'd like to state on the record? 14 MS. WATTS: We do, your Honor. At this 15 time, as the record has reflected, we are here and 16 ready to go forward. We have our witness ready to 17 give testimony and we're willing to move forward with 18 that if you'd like to take the testimony. 19 With or without the testimony we'd like 20 to move for a default judgment since the complainant 21 hasn't appeared. 22 We would also like to discuss with your 23 Honor that at this point we would like permission 24 from the Commission to disconnect Mrs. Putman because ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 5 1 we've kept her on service under Commission order for 2 quite some time now and there's not been any payment 3 made since -- when was the last payment made? 4 MS. GIVENS: Well, the last -- there's 5 like extenuating circumstances, but the -- 6 HEARING EXAMINER: Well, I'm sorry, but 7 the attorney will have to speak since I don't really 8 have you on the record. So maybe you can look at 9 that information and tell Ms. Watts. 10 MS. WATTS: I can tell you it has been 11 some time since she made any payment at all, so she's 12 been basically receiving free service for ages. And 13 she did not prosecute for bankruptcy, so she's not 14 under bankruptcy protection right now. 15 So we move for default judgment and in 16 aid of that default judgment if you're interested in 17 taking testimony, we're here to provide that. 18 HEARING EXAMINER: May I ask -- first of 19 all, I think we will hold off on the testimony in 20 light of the fact that the complainant is not here. 21 MS. WATTS: Okay. 22 HEARING EXAMINER: The testimony has been 23 prefiled, however, so if we do reconvene, then we 24 will take it at that point in time. ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 6 1 Let me ask for some clarification because 2 the Commission does not really deal with default 3 judgment. Are you requesting that the case be 4 dismissed or is that -- that's typically what the 5 Commission would consider. 6 MS. WATTS: Absolutely. We would ask 7 that it be dismissed with prejudice. 8 HEARING EXAMINER: Do you have anything 9 else that you -- any other information you want to 10 put on or comments you want to make? 11 MS. WATTS: That's all we have, your 12 Honor. 13 HEARING EXAMINER: Okay. Thank you. 14 In light of the fact that the company has 15 requested that the Commission dismiss with prejudice 16 this case for failure to prosecute, as the 17 attorney-examiner I will take that under 18 consideration, I will provide the information to the 19 Commission and make a recommendation to them based 20 upon the information that I know and it will be taken 21 under consideration. 22 This case will be closed at this time. 23 MS. WATTS: Your Honor, just one more 24 thing. Where do we stand with respect to ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 7 1 disconnecting? 2 HEARING EXAMINER: I can't speak to that 3 only because it was a Commission order that ordered 4 the company not to disconnect, so we will take that 5 under advisement at the same time that we take the 6 motion to dismiss under advisement and then the 7 Commission will issue an order ruling on both. 8 MS. WATTS: Okay. Thank you, your Honor. 9 HEARING EXAMINER: But thank you for 10 clarifying the record for that. 11 MS. WATTS: Thank you. 12 HEARING EXAMINER: The Commission will 13 take the motion under advisement and we will close 14 the hearing at this point in time. 15 MS. WATTS: Thank you. 16 (The hearing concluded at 2:08 p.m.) 17 - - - 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 8 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I do hereby certify that the foregoing is a 3 true and correct transcript of the proceedings taken 4 by me in this matter on Thursday, May 22, 2008, and 5 carefully compared with my original stenographic 6 notes. 7 _______________________________ 8 Maria DiPaolo Jones, Registered Diplomate Reporter, CRR, and 9 Notary Public in and for the State of Ohio. 10 My Commission expires: June 19, 2011. 11 (MDJ-3189) 12 - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481