1 1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of the : 4 Regulation of the Purchased : 5 Gas Adjustment Clause : Case No. 24-211-GA-GCR 6 Contained Within the : 7 Rate Schedules of : 8 Ohio Cumberland Gas Company : 9 10 11 - - - 12 13 PROCEEDINGS 14 before Mr. Jesse Davis, Attorney Examiner, at the Public 15 Utilities Commission of Ohio, 180 East Broad Street, 16 Room 11-D, Columbus, Ohio, 43215, called at 10:00 a.m. 17 on Tuesday, May 21st, 2024. 18 19 - - - 20 21 22 23 EMMA JANE TROYER 24 Court Reporter 25 Veritext Legal Solutions 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 3 Office of the Ohio Attorney General By Ms. Amy Botschner O'Brien, 4 Principal Assistant Attorney General 30 East Broad Street, 26th Floor 5 Columbus, Ohio 43215 6 7 On behalf of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 - - - 2 INDEX OF EXHIBITS 3 4 EXHIBIT IDENTIFIED ADMITTED 5 STAFF EXHIBITS 6 Staff Exhibit 1 7 PUCO Report.........................................8 8 9 Staff Exhibit 2 10 Pre-filed Testimony of Tornain Matthews....................................8 11 12 JOINT EXHIBITS 13 Joint Exhibit 1 14 Stipulation and Recommendation......................8 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 PROCEEDINGS: 2 3 MR. DAVIS: Good morning, everyone. It's 4 approximately 10:03 a.m. Today is May 21st, 2024. The 5 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has scheduled for 6 hearing at this time and place case number 7 24-211-GA-GCR, which is titled In the Matter of the 8 Regulation of the Purchased Gas Adjustment Clause 9 Contained Within the Rate Schedules of Ohio Cumberland 10 Gas Company, and related matters. 11 My name is Jesse Davis. I am the 12 administrative law judge assigned by the Commission to 13 hear this case. And we will start with appearances, 14 first on behalf of staff. 15 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: Thank you, Your 16 Honor. Appearing on behalf of the staff of the Public 17 Utilities Commission, my name is Amy Botschner O'Brien, 18 assistant attorney general, Dave Yost, attorney general, 19 John Jones, section chief, 180 East Broad Street, 20 Columbus, Ohio, 43215. 21 MR. DAVIS: Thank you very much. And I will 22 just note for the sake of the record, no one is here on 23 behalf of the company. So please go ahead and proceed. 24 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: Thank you, Your 25 Honor. At this time, staff would like to call Mr. 5 1 Tornain Matthews to the stand, please. 2 3 TORNAIN MATTHEWS, 4 a witness herein, having been first duly sworn to 5 testify to the truth, testified as follows: 6 7 MR. DAVIS: Thank you very much. Please be 8 seated. 9 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: Your Honor, I have 10 placed before the bench, the court reporter, and the 11 witness multi-page documents, and I'll first just go 12 through -- I'll go through them all. 13 The first one is Staff Exhibit 1, which is a 14 report by the staff of the Public Utilities Commission 15 of Ohio, Ohio Cumberland Gas Company, 24-211-GA-GCR, 16 financial audit of the gas costs recovery mechanisms for 17 the costs incurred for the period of August, 2021 18 through July, 2023, dated March 21st, 2024. 19 The second one I would like to mention is 20 the pre-filed testimony of Tornain Mathews, submitted on 21 behalf of the Public Utilities Commission, and that is 22 marked as Staff Exhibit 2. 23 So for purposes of Mr. Tornain, Mr. 24 Matthews -- let me just back up a little bit. 25 6 1 EXAMINATION 2 3 BY MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: 4 Q. Would you please state your name and business 5 address for the record? 6 A. Yes. It's Tornain Matthews, and I'll spell that. 7 It's T-O-R-N-A-I-N, and then the last name, 8 M-A-T-T-H-E-W-S. 9 Q. And you have before you what has been marked 10 as -- we'll go for the first document, Staff Exhibit 1? 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. And can you identify this for us, please? 13 A. Yes. This is the financial audit of the cost 14 cost recovery mechanism for the costs incurred in the 15 period of August, 2021 through July, 2023, that was 16 filed on March 21st, 2024. 17 Q. And was it prepared by you or at your direction? 18 A. Yes, it was prepared by myself. Yes. 19 Q. And have you had an opportunity to review this 20 document prior to taking the stand? 21 A. Yes, I have. 22 Q. And do you have any changes to this document? 23 A. No changes. 24 Q. Okay. Before you also is another document marked 25 as Staff Exhibit 2? 7 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. And could you identify that for us? 3 A. Yes. It's my pre-filed testimony, filed in case 4 24-211-GA-GCR. 5 Q. And it was prepared by you, or under your 6 direction? 7 A. Yes, it was. 8 Q. And have you had an opportunity to review this 9 document? 10 A. Yes. 11 Q. And as a result of this review, do you have any 12 additions or changes to this document? 13 A. No, I do not. 14 Q. And if I were to ask you the same questions that 15 were contained in this document, would your answers be 16 the same? 17 A. Yes, they would. 18 Q. Okay. 19 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: Your Honor, I would 20 respectfully move for the admission of Staff Exhibit 1, 21 as Mr. Matthews identified, and Staff Exhibit 2 that Mr. 22 Matthews identified. 23 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 24 BY MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: 25 Q. And then also, Mr. Matthews, before you is 8 1 another exhibit that we've called Joint Exhibit 1. Can 2 you identify this for the record? 3 A. Yes. This is the stipulation and recommendation 4 in the case, 24-211-GA-GCR, and this represents the 5 agreement between staff and Ohio Cumberland. 6 Q. Thank you. 7 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: At this point, this 8 witness would be available for cross, but there is -- 9 Attorney Examiner, do you have any cross for this 10 witness? 11 MR. DAVIS: I have no questions. 12 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: Okay. Your Honor, 13 I'd like to move for the admission of Staff Exhibit 1, 14 Staff Exhibit 2, and Joint Exhibit 1. 15 MR. DAVIS: Okay. Thank you. Exhibits 16 marked as Staff Exhibit 1, Staff Exhibit 2, and Joint 17 Exhibit 1 will all be admitted to the record. 18 19 (Staff Exhibits 1 and 2, Joint Exhibit 1 admitted to the 20 record.) 21 22 MR. DAVIS: Please stand down, Mr. Matthews. 23 Thank you very much. 24 MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you. 25 MR. DAVIS: I assume none, but for the sake 9 1 of propriety, is there anything else from staff for the 2 good of order? 3 MS. BOTSCHNER O'BRIEN: There is not. Thank 4 you. 5 MR. DAVIS: Thank you very much. With 6 staff's witness examined and Staff Exhibits admitted to 7 the record, and no presence for Ohio Cumberland, we are 8 adjourned. Thank you very much. 9 10 (Hearing concluded at 10:10 a.m.) 11 * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 1 C-E-R-T-I-F-I-C-A-T-E 2 3 I do hereby certify that the foregoing is true, correct 4 and complete written transcript of the proceedings in 5 this matter, taken by me on the 21st day of May, 2024, 6 and transcribed from my stenographic notes. 7 8 9 <%28198,Signature%> 10 EMMA JANE TROYER 11 Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and for the 12 State of Ohio 13 My Commission Expires: 01-09-27 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25