1 1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of : : 4 Tony R. Ford : Case No. 16-1880-TR-CVF : 5 : 6 - - - 7 PROCEEDINGS 8 before Nicholas Walstra, Attorney Examiner, at the 9 offices of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 10 180 East Broad Street, Room 11-D, Columbus, Ohio, on 11 Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. 12 - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC. 222 East Town Street, Second Floor 24 Columbus, Ohio 43215-4620 (614) 224-9481 - (800) 223-9481 25 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 Michael DeWine, Ohio Attorney General By Steven S. Beeler 3 Assistant Attorney General 30 East Broad Street, 16th Floor 4 Columbus, Ohio 43215 5 On behalf of the Staff of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. 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 INDEX 2 - - - 3 WITNESSES: PAGE 4 MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Direct Examination by Mr. Beeler 6 5 ALAN MARTIN 6 Direct Examination by Mr. Beeler 10 7 - - - 8 STAFF EXHIBITS ID'D ADMT'D 9 1 - Driver/vehicle examination report 7 13 10 2 - Notice of preliminary determination 11 13 11 - - - 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 4 1 Thursday afternoon, 2 February 9, 2017. 3 - - - 4 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: The Public 5 Utilities Commission of Ohio has called for hearing 6 at this time and place Case No. 16-1880-TR-CVF, 7 being in the matter of Tony Ford, notice of apparent 8 violation and intent to assess forfeiture. My name 9 is Nick Walstra. I'm the attorney examiner assigned 10 by the commission to hear this case. 11 We'll begin by taking appearances. 12 MR. BEELER: Thank you, Your Honor. On 13 behalf of the Staff of the Public Utilities 14 Commission of Ohio, Ohio Attorney General Mike 15 DeWine, Steven Beeler, assistant attorney general, 16 30 East Broad Street, 16th floor, Columbus, Ohio 17 43215. 18 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 19 I'll note for the record that Mr. Ford, the 20 respondent, is not present. It's a little -- it's 21 1:10 p.m. now. At this point, we will just proceed. 22 Mr. Beeler. 23 MR. BEELER: Thank you, Your Honor. 24 The Staff of the Public Utilities Commission in this 25 case would move for a default judgment, and that's ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 5 1 according to OAC Rule 4901:2-7-14(E), which states 2 that "a respondent who has requested an 3 administrative hearing and fails to appear for the 4 evidentiary hearing shall be in default. A 5 respondent in default shall be deemed to have 6 admitted the occurrence of the violation and waived 7 all further right to contest liability for the 8 forfeiture proposed in the notice of preliminary 9 determination or to contest the making of the 10 compliance order described in the notice of 11 preliminary determination." 12 And, Your Honor, I would note that today we 13 have -- we do have a correction to the driver 14 examination report and the notice of preliminary 15 determination. We were going to delete one of the 16 violations. 17 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Okay. 18 MR. BEELER: So I'm going to put my 19 witnesses on to just describe that correction, and 20 then I will move for default judgment on the balance 21 of the -- with the change. So the balance of the 22 case, I'll move for default judgment. 23 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: That sounds 24 good. Call your first witness. 25 MR. BEELER: Thank you. At this time, ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 6 1 Staff will call Inspector Schneider to the stand. 2 - - - 3 MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, 4 called as a witness, being first duly sworn, 5 testified as follows: 6 DIRECT EXAMINATION 7 BY MR. BEELER: 8 Q. Good afternoon. 9 A. Afternoon. 10 Q. Please state your full name for the 11 record. 12 A. Michael Schneider, S-C-H-N-E-I-D-E-R. 13 Q. Where are you employed? 14 A. I'm employed at the Ohio State Highway 15 Patrol, Warren District headquarters. 16 Q. And, now, what is your position within 17 the highway patrol? 18 A. I am a motor carrier supervisor. 19 Q. How long have you been in that 20 position? 21 A. In this position? Seven years. 22 Q. How long have you been with the patrol? 23 A. 38. 24 Q. Okay. What are your duties in your 25 current capacity? ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 7 1 A. My job is to supervise the motor 2 carrier enforcement personnel in the Warren 3 District. 4 Q. Okay. What sort of training do you 5 have in that area? 6 A. I received my NAS training, my North 7 American Standards training, back in October of 8 1992, both Part A and Part B. I went through 9 recertification school in '98, and I became a motor 10 supervisor in 2001. I'm an NAS instructor -- Part 11 A, Part B, and PVI. 12 Q. And then you do continuing, yearly 13 re-education courses, correct? 14 A. Yes. We do yearly in-service. 15 Q. Okay. Just quickly, are your motor 16 carrier inspections conducted to protect the safety 17 of Ohio's traveling public? 18 A. Yes, they are. 19 Q. How many inspections do you think you 20 perform in a year? 21 A. About 400. 22 MR. BEELER: Okay. May I approach the 23 witness? 24 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: You may. 25 (Staff Exhibit 1 marked for identification.) ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 8 1 BY MR. BEELER: 2 Q. I have what's marked as Staff 3 Exhibit 1. This is the driver/vehicle examination 4 report with an inspection date of April 1, 2016. 5 Just take a quick look at that. 6 Do you recognize this document? 7 A. Yes, sir. 8 Q. Is this document a patrol record? 9 A. Yes, it is. 10 Q. And is it kept in the ordinary course 11 of the business of the patrol? 12 A. Yes, it is. 13 Q. And it's the practice of the patrol to 14 make the report? 15 A. Yes, it is. 16 Q. And you prepare this report on matters 17 observed pursuant to a duty imposed by law, which 18 there was a duty to report by you, correct? 19 A. Yes. 20 Q. Okay. Is this document in the same 21 condition as when you originally prepared it? 22 A. Yes, it is. 23 Q. Okay. So I understand you have some 24 corrections to make to this report today; is that 25 correct? ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 9 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. What is that correction? 3 A. I'd like to remove the violation of 4 391.15A-NSIN from the report, which is driving under 5 suspension. 6 Q. Okay. And why are you deleting that? 7 A. I have no proof that at that time he 8 was under suspension. 9 Q. Okay. So you were mistaken that the 10 day of the -- the day of this -- of the stop -- 11 A. Yeah. 12 Q. -- at least as of today? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. Okay. But the remainder of the other 15 two violations, which is failing to wear a seat belt 16 while operating a CMV and operating a motor vehicle 17 without carrying a valid medical certificate -- 18 those two violations are still valid? 19 A. Yes, sir, they are. 20 MR. BEELER: Thank you. No further 21 questions, Your Honor. 22 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 23 MR. SCHNEIDER: Thank you. 24 MR. BEELER: At this time, Staff would 25 call its second witness, Alan Martin. ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 10 1 - - - 2 ALAN MARTIN, 3 called as a witness, being first duly sworn, 4 testified as follows: 5 DIRECT EXAMINATION 6 BY MR. BEELER: 7 Q. Please state your name for the record. 8 A. It's Alan A-L-A-N; Martin, M-A-R-T-I-N. 9 Q. Where are you employed? 10 A. Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. 11 Q. And what is your position? 12 A. I'm a deputy director. 13 Q. How long have you been in that 14 position? 15 A. 14 years. 16 Q. What are your duties in that position? 17 A. I oversee the Motor Carrier Safety 18 Assistance Program for the state. I also oversee 19 the Civil Forfeiture Division and the Registration 20 Division of the Transportation Department. 21 Q. What sort of training and continuing 22 education do you have in this area? 23 A. Overall, I have a master's degree in 24 public administration. I've taken the Part A 25 course. I've taken a variety of hazmat courses so ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 11 1 that I have general understanding and awareness of 2 how the process works -- the inspectors and how they 3 do their job. 4 MR. BEELER: May I approach Your Honor? 5 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: You may. 6 (Staff Exhibit 2 marked for identification.) 7 BY MR. BEELER: 8 Q. I have what's been marked as Staff 9 Exhibit 2, which is the notice of preliminary 10 determination sent to the respondent, Tony Ford, on 11 August 1, 2016. Do you recognize this document? 12 A. Yes, I do. 13 Q. What is it? 14 A. It's a notice of preliminary 15 determination. It's sent to the carrier once we've 16 had an opportunity to review the case and offer the 17 respondent an opportunity for a conference. 18 Q. Did you review this document in 19 preparation for today? 20 A. Yes, I did. 21 Q. And is this document a commission 22 record? 23 A. Yes, it is. 24 Q. Kept in the ordinary business of the 25 commission? ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 12 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. And it's the practice of the commission 3 to make this report; is that correct? 4 A. Correct. 5 Q. So I understand that a change is 6 made -- one of the violations is deleted, according 7 to Inspector Schneider. Can you please tell me, 8 with that change, how does that affect this report? 9 A. Yes. So the first violation that's 10 listed on here, driving a CMV while disqualified, 11 would be deleted from the violations listed. 12 Q. Okay. 13 A. And what would remain are two $100 14 violations for 391.14A-F and 392.16. These are what 15 we call Group 4 violations, and they stand on their 16 own with the dollar amount as listed on here. So 17 the total would go from a $300 total fine to a $200 18 total fine. 19 Q. So -- yeah. So with the change, we're 20 essentially just going from $300 to $200, correct? 21 A. Correct. 22 Q. All right. So that $200 penalty -- is 23 that consistent with the recommended fine schedule 24 and recommended civil penalty procedure adopted by 25 the Commercial Motor Vehicle Alliance? ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 13 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. And would you recommend the $200 as the 3 correct amount to the commission? 4 A. Yes. 5 MR. BEELER: No further questions. 6 Thank you. 7 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 8 MR. BEELER: At this time, Your Honor, 9 Staff would move for the admission of Staff 10 Exhibit 1 and Staff Exhibit 2 into the record. 11 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: They will both 12 be admitted. 13 (Exhibits admitted into evidence.) 14 MR. BEELER: And, again, Staff would 15 renew its motion for default judgment for the 16 balance of the remaining $200 and the remaining two 17 violations from the report in this case. 18 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: The commission 19 will take that under advisement. 20 MR. BEELER: Nothing further. 21 THE ATTORNEY EXAMINER: All right. 22 Thank you. We're adjourned. 23 (Thereupon, the hearing was concluded at 24 10:18 a.m.) 25 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481 14 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I do hereby certify that the foregoing 3 is a true and correct transcript of the proceedings 4 taken by me in this matter on Thursday, February 9, 5 2017, and carefully compared with my original 6 stenographic notes. 7 8 ___________________________ 9 Heather A. Piper, Registered Professional Reporter and 10 Notary Public in and for the State of Ohio. 11 12 13 My commission expires October 29, 2020. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614) 224-9481