Hello, can you hear me? Alright.
All right, we'll go ahead and get started. Can everybody hear me at this moment?
Yes.
Miss Jared, I can hear you on the phone. Alright, I'm gonna do the.
Alright, we will open the meeting with roll call, Chairman Tuberville.
Here.
Vice Chairman Henderson?
Mr. Bowlin?
Here.
Mr. Bracket.
Hear about them.
Mr. Charles?
Mr. Gilmer? Mr. Hood, mr. Ingram.
Present?
Mr. Key.
Here.
Mr. Neehouse? Here. Mr. Pitts? Yeah. Mr. Raper, mr. Settles? Mr. Sledge.
Next on the agenda is the review and adoption of the board meetings from the last meeting 21 April. Has everybody had a chance to look at those?
Craig Ingram motion to approve?
Absolute move.
Just do voice over and. No.
Yeah, we have to do the roll call vote. Alright, I will take a roll call vote on the minutes. Chairman Tubberville? Yes. Vice chairman Hinderson.
Yes.
Mr. Bowlin? Yes. Mr. Brackett.
Yes.
Mr. Charles?
Yes.
Mr. Gilmer? Yes. Mr. Hood. Mr. Ingram?
Yes.
Mr. Key.
Yes.
Mr. Neehouse?
Yes.
Mr. Pitts? Yeah. Mr. Raper? Mr. Settles? Yeah. Mr. Sledge. Yeah Okay, minutes pass.
Next on the agenda is the update about the TPOC staff.
Alright, there was a program update in your packets If you have any questions about that, also the quarterly report.
Was included The FIMS grants were submitted in June.
And as I mentioned in the executive committee meeting, Houston, she changed seats on me, Houston will be out October, and she will be back with us in January. So we wish her.
Her well, she's been a, a great help to me and I will miss her very much while she's gone, but I appreciate Houston and wish her well, and while Houston is out monique brown.
Who has helped with us in the past when we've been under staffed, she has offered to pitch in and help us again, particularly with processing complaints. So, so that, that will be helpful while Houston is out Do we have, anybody else on staff here for an update?
Nope?
Instead of meetings.
That is on the agenda other day. Yeah.
Thank you. Alright.
Alright moving along, the next will be the elections. We have two seats for the executive committee, the chairman and the vice chairman as well, and I believe Tim's coming up for us.
As I said earlier, my name's Tim Drown. I'm an attorney for the board, and my job is to provide a legal counsel to you guys and to provide advise you on potential legal risks so you guys can make informed decisions.
And we're, you're about to vote on or make nominations for elections regarding the executive committee. And one of the things that the execu committee does is they assess civil penalties on, on citizens and people, and that's gonna get a little bit higher scrutiny than some of the other decisions that are made because we're taking funds from people.
And do process requirements apply, and one of the requirements of due process is a fair and impartial hearing, and I'm not suggesting, let me be abundantly clear that I'm not suggesting anyone in here would not be fair or impartial, but it does not matter what I know, it only matters what say an attorney could convince a judge. And if another attorney can convince.
Once the judge that the hearing wasn't fair and partial, then the judge could order that the funds be paid back. And so that's a risk. I'm not trying to convince you or sway your decision one way or the other or tell you to nominate or not nominate. That's not my role. My role is to advise you of the potential legal risk. So I'm just saying that is a legal risk. Now, what are some potential conflicts that can come up for a judge or someone who's trying to make that determination?
If they are associated with or know a person who could receive funds from that judgment or that determination, that would obviously be a conflict or if they provide information or know the witness or is a witness, that would obviously be a conflict as well. So that's.
Risk that exists, and I'm I'm not again not trying to sway anybody, just telling you that that's a risk. So that's all my only comment.
Thank you. Did you want to expand a little bit on the eligibility of these two seats, like there really is, it's open.
It's a.
The two seats that are open, it is open to every everybody under the law. Now later next year there are some seats that are gonna come open that are not open to everybody, but we don't have to address those now. So it is open to everybody.
Thank you, Tim.
Alright, so these will be for the executive committee, which everybody just saw how it works. So CE will be the 1st one that we do. So, and in your packet it also says that's the seat that mr. Raper currently, I guess holds technically, so we open it for nominations I guess.
What are your number name?
Executive committee CE.
Okay.
It's not a firing squat I promise.
Draw.
Yes, so currently these.
Positions C E and CT are currently held by mr. Raper as chairman Tuberville said and also mr. Pitts. So, we have NO nominations for CD.
Shape.
Yes. Yes.
This is Jared Bracket via phone. I would I would nominate Steve Rapport to still fill in that position if he was so willing to serve.
Mr. Brackett mr. Raper has let me know that, he NO longer wishes, he does not wish to be reappointed.
Thank you.
Can we nominate participation in here.
Mr. mr. Riper? No. Mr. Hood? He's already on the executive committee.
Craig and Gramma I would like to nominate Lance Sludge.
I'll check it.
Good with that. I will accept that nomination. All right. We can take a vote then.
Was there a second? Yes. Mr. Pince.
Okay.
Or we don't have to go through all these books?
No, sir.
Chairman Tuberville? Yeah.
Yes.
Vice chairman Henderson?
Yes.
Mr. Boland.
Yes. Mr. Bracket.
Yes.
Mr. Charles? Yes. Mr. Gilmer?
Yes.
Mr. Hood, mr. Ingram?
Yes.
Mr. Key? Yes. Mr. Neehouse?
Yes.
Mr. Pitts? Yeah. Mr. Raper, mr. Settles? Yeah. Mr. Sledge.
Can I vote No just so it's not unanimous?
Oh, I will recuse my.
Alright, motion passes mr. Sledge, welcome to the executive committee.
The next seat will be, seat D, which is currently held by mr. Pitts. Are you interested in continuing to serve? Yeah, so we have one.
Was that emotion?
That's a motion.
A second.
Oh. Was that mr. anyhouse? Alright, we have a motion and a second and chairman Tubberville. Yes. Vice chairman Hinderson? Yes.
Yes.
Mr. Bracket.
Yes.
Mr. Charles? Yes. Mr. Gilmer.
Yes.
Mr. Hood, mr. Ingram?
Yes.
Mr. Key?
Yes.
Mr. Neehouse? Yes. Mr. Pitts? Yeah. Mr. Raper, mr. Settles? Yeah. Mr. Sledge. Yes.
Congratulations.
Thank you mr. Pitts for your willingness to continue to serve.
The next position will be the vice chairman position, which is currently mr. Henderson.
I'd like to nominate Milton again for them.
1 s.
All right, chairman Tubberville?
Yes.
Mr. vice Chairman Henderson.
Myself.
Mr. Bow.
Yes, mr. Bracket?
Mr. Charles?
Yes.
Mr. Gilmer? Yes. Mr. Hood? Mr. Hood, mr. Ingram.
Yes.
Mr. Key?
Mr. Neehouse? Yes. Mr. Pitts.
No sir. But nice try. Mr. Raper.
Mr. Settles and mr. Sledge. Yeah, alright mr. Henderson, thank you for continuing to service vice chair. Thank you. And now we will have elections for chairman for chair, so I'll turn this over to mr. Henderson. All right.
Next we'll take motions for the chair position which is currently held by chairman Tubberville.
I saw move the chairman's Overview will be nominated to serve.
We'll have a motion in a second.
You know.
He doesn't have a whole lot to do and have a real on your faith.
You can observe it, but I, I know different.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's ok. Alright, voice or roll call votes, Chairman Tuberville.
Vice chairman Hinderson? Yes. Mr. Boland? Yes. Mr. Bracket? Mr. Brackett?
Yes.
Mr. Charles? Yes.
Mr. Gilmer? Yes. Mr. Hood, mr. Ingram.
Yes.
Mr. Key?
Yes.
Mr. newhouse?
Yes.
Mr. Pitts? Good. Mr. Raper, mr. Settles, mr. Sledge. Chairman Tubberville? Thank you for continuing to serve.
Thank you.
Oh I do, I'm sorry, can I mention one thing? I forgot. Miss chair, vice chairman Henderson asked me to discuss this. We discussed it in the executive committee meeting and he asked me to mention it to the board. There are 14 consent agreements that have not been compliant.
With and I am referring those to attorney John Smith for enforcement of those.
What did I say?
You know it's not a meeting what it's not a meeting if I don't get someone's name wrong. Alright, next.
Next on the agenda is the legislative update.
Who's doing that?
Yeah, come on.
Thank you for reminding me of that. While Tim is making his way up, I John is in the back. He was up front for the executive committee, but John, if you just wanna wave your hands so everyone.
Once I call him by the wrong name, now it's forever gonna be wrong. Alright.
Okay. Tim Schwartz public utility commission. As far as the appointments go, I don't have anything new to share other than I talked to Russell, the chief Clerk at the Senate, Bluetonint Gilder McNally, who is not running again, but he's still.
Making appointments right now, so I'm gonna reach out to him again. I approached speaker's office and mcnally's office about four or six weeks ago, but I don't have an update from them. I'm gonna follow up and, see if we can make something happen before the next meeting in October.
Legislatively, we are having ongoing talks with TGA and we're gonna continue that this afternoon with TGA and 811 and I think the idea would be hopefully to have a draft of some kind of language to share with the board.
That's the October meeting, but, we still have a lot of work to do. And that's my update.
Any questions for Tim?
How many actual vacancies are we?
Well There's three vacancies, three open positions, and then there's several whose terms have expired. I have one five whose terms have expired and three vacancies. The good thing about terms that even though they've expired, you all get to continue to serve until reappointed. So that's not a real issue, but it'd be nice to get them reappointed because some of the terms haven't been expired for quite a while.
Thank you. Yes.
Sure could.
Could you elaborate a little bit more on the talks with TGA and about about the legislate that you're having with them and kind of what that, what those discussions are?
As much as you can. Sure.
Sure. So from the commission's perspective, we are looking, we're kind of, we liked the, the statue that Indiana has. So we were kind of modeling what we were gonna recommend based on what Indiana has and it's gas specific, but they do have an executive committee, kind of like the one that the damaged prevention board has, very similar in structure. But what we envision is is kind of two fold.
It would.
We would continue to have this board, but also have a gas specific board that dealt because of the volume, there's gonna be so much volume if it one's permissive, which is this permissive complaint.
Driven program, and then what we are proposing, like what Indiana has is a mandatory review of these damages and making that gas only. And that's kind of what we're looking at and then I know TJ is looking at it and we're gonna hear from them this afternoon and kind of get their thoughts on what, what they're thinking.
Any other questions?
Thank you Tim.
Sorry, not to step on Tim's toes, I wanted to make sure that Tim had an opportunity to answer questions. Craig Ingram Tennessee 811. Tennessee 811 plans to move forward with the legislative items that were approved in concept of past enforcement board meetings.
And we're continuing to work with the stakeholders involved to try to address some of the concerns that existed last time around. So much like the mandatory reporting side of the legislation, it's a work in progress and we'll keep you updated to future meetings.
Thank you, Craig. Next on the agenda is Craig again, update on Tennessee 811.
Thank you. So you got the training report as usual, I think that it largely speaks for itself. I will note that in some of our recent months, of particular note is July where we had 26 folks that completed training in the month. We're actually starting to see that more people complete training with the three people ordered to training instead of one person, and.
I'm Glad to see that some people are moving forward and complying with the training order. So that brings us up to 81 individuals trained for the year so far and as of the time of this report, we had totaled 1111 folks in total that have gone through training.
Any questions?
Hey Craig.
Milton Henderson. Craig in the executive board meeting this morning, we had some conversation around individuals showing up for training. Can you kind of provide a little bit of context around individuals that you are seeing that are coming to training?
Is it kind of the individuals that are not involved? Individuals, they're just sending somebody just to fill a seat or individuals that are, I guess part of damaged prevention.
I would say that it's a mixed bag. Part of it is that we don't have a lot of insight into the particulars of any given case, why they were found in violation, what the dynamics were. We are aware of the root cause attached to that complaint when they were found in violation, but again, not much more detail than that. So we don't really have the insight to be able to say, ok, this person was directly involved unless they proactively just kind of share their story with us.
That being said, I feel like it's, it's kind of wide ranging. Sometimes it is equipment operators, it's a mix of labors and crew leaders. It's office staff who put in locate requests. There's a surprising number that.
Agree to the consent agreement to send three people through training and then do not have three employees because they're a sole proprietor or just a really small family business and so then we have to kind of coach them through, ok, you need to reach back out to the public utility commission, communicate the nature of your staffing limitations, if you will, that kind of thing.
So that's been our experience thus far.
Thank you.
Well it's good to hear that it is kind of a balance. I was, I was starting to worry after this much time that it was gonna be more lopsided, so it's good that we've got a lot of operations involved too. Thank you. Any other questions for Craig? Next on the agenda is scheduling the 2027 meeting dates and Stacey was good enough to give us some options on, in the packet on the program update.
Look at it.
So both dates that are available in January are Tuesdays, Tuesday the 19th or Tuesday the 26th.
Does anyone have a preference? Does anyone have a conflict? Let's start with that way. Does anyone want to pick one?
I don't you go.
The 26 January would be the last Tuesday.
It might be worth considering that because this will be Is this an organizational year for the legislation?
I'm gonna type it right towards the end of January for two or three weeks so you might.
You messed something if you wait till 26 would be good.
Tim Schwartz says yes it is. Mr. Schwartz said yes it is an organizational year.
So that means they will take a break, you know, if they do what they've done for the last bit.
So your recommendation is the 26th. Okay.
Okay, if nobody or fair point.
26 January.
All right. Moving to April, we have 20 April or the 27th. Both are Tuesdays.
Craig Ingram preferred 20 july if possible.
April about April?
Sorry, I'm jumping ahead. For the record, I'll be requesting 20 July.
And NO preference on April.
Spring break.
Everyone is just different.
I'm gonna go with the 20th 20, April. Does that sound good? Should that be a conflict for me? I'm not looking to.
Oh alright moving to July, I had a recommendation of the 20th.
I like that recommendation.
Any conflicts with anyone else? 20 July.
Okay, so for the fall one, we have 26 October, which is a Tuesday it's available or 3 November, which would be the Wednesday. And that's usually budgets and discussions, so how does that fit with.
Outside of this meeting's schedules.
3 November works best for me.
Does that work for you Craig?
No conflicts with 3 November. Thank you.
Thanks.
Do you want to recap for you.
But you can.
Please alright to recap, the meetings for next year, 2027 is 26 January, April 20, July 20 and 3 November.
Next on the agenda is the discussing future topics for the next meeting. So we kind of mentioned that in the executive committee about having an update on the consent. Do we wanna add that Milton for the board as well?
Yeah, I think that'd be good.
Do we want to add anything else?
The next meeting will have the, the invoice packet with it.
Anything else? Go ahead. I'm just gonna share. I I think it would be good for if we have feedback through TPOC for TGA or any other, well, 811 as well. Legislative changes, I think it would be good to, to have time to discuss that if there's.
Something in draft form that's being looked at. I think that's relevant.
Thank you, mr. Bracket.
Anything else?
I do have one. Yeah, I think it would be helpful for Tim kind of gave a update around the backlog of civil pilling, the outstanding balance, so I think it'd be good for this board to kind of hear that information since a lot of that conversation has been had during this board meeting. So just that update from Tim around the process.
This process.
No deadline to work it out.
Yeah, but we can you know in the package you you're telling us what the outstanding balance is and nothing else. Part of that is including what, what action has been taken as it relates to the different bills.
Through this through the new hearing process that that's correct. Okay, so we'll put an update on the new hearing process. Yes. Okay. All right.
Anything else? Next on the agenda is a public comment. Is anyone in the public that'd like to make comments?
I have a question.
Go ahead.
I was un I'm unable to hear the board members. I think that's who is I can't hear, I can hear the staff members very loud. It's distorted, but I the only way I know that the board members are saying something is that it's kind of obvious when a staff member is responding to there's a period of silence and then the staff members said something that's obviously response to something they've heard, but I can't hear it over this Webex.
But I'm calling about the fact that there was a complaint file against the excavator. I live in Dixon Tennesssee on Harmon Springs Road. I cannot I don't, I I don't hear.
I haven't heard what the outcome of that was. Is anybody there?
Yes sir. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you. Hi.
This is Stacey Balfrick. I'm with T Pok staff.
I've talked to you before, as a matter of fact Stacey, but my question is the excavator who came over to my house last December, to find the water leak that was caused by Dixon electrics installation of fiber optics was ratted out to you guys by the very subcontractor who caused the damage.
I mean I'm just I'm just amazing appall that you guys would keep him under investigation for six months based on a, a bogus claim, which is facially bogus.
I so I'm asking what's the, what is the result of this is what I'm asking. What's the conclusion?
Do you have the.
Go ahead. Do you have.
The the file number?
As a matter yeah. Okay. And.
Also sir, if you could state your name for the record.
Sorry James.
Henry Jane. Victory Tennessee. Yeah.
So now the guy doesn't want to do any work on my farm because he thinks he's gonna be ratted out even though what he did was in compliance with your regulations as I read them. So I'm trying to find out what you guys His name was Jason Albert.
26 004I don't have the case number.
Okay, oh, bear with me just 1 s this.
Should find it.
This was actually on today's agenda for the executive committee meeting.
Okay, I couldn't hear enough of that to tell, and I can't find the case number, but you found it, right? Yes. Okay, what's the disposition of this case?
The executive committee heard it this morning at their meeting at 10:00 and that is file number EB 0004 and, they decided that one will be administratively closed. Okay. So that, that complaint is closed.
It's amazing to me that the guy would be in Spence for six months waiting for an outcome of something that could cost him nearly a thousand dollars I mean just as Delayed is justice denied. There's NO, there's NO excuse for that.
If you guys can't adjudicate these any faster than that, then you need to get out of this business because waiting five or six months now I can't get anybody over here. Everybody's afraid to come over here that's gonna be ratted out and I've got trees that need to be planted and dug up this fall.
And words out that that contractors are using the your reporting system against other competitors. So let me put it that way. I've seen it with my own eyes.
So anyway, it's it's from my perspective, I don't know what goods you think you're, you guys are doing because the guy that, that you adjudicated today was over here 6 December at the request of the utility.
The find the water leak that their fiber off the con subcontractors last July and to keep from having to pay for it, the subcontractor claimed that the guy who dug it up and found the leak.
Because whereas we have the records from the water department that show that the leaks started in July and ended on 8 December. So it's.
So who am I supposed to call now to get work done over here since they're now afraid that they're going to get a thousand dollar time if they dig on my property?
I'm not entirely sure how to answer that question. The best, the only advice that I can say is that the way the law is written is it is a complaint based system and anyone can file a complaint under the the way the the law reads and it.
It's on the website, I think you've already mentioned you've read and they can file the complaint, whether it's a utility, it's against a utility or against a contract or against a homeowner. And if there was damage that occurred or NO notifications made, those are our, actual complaints that can be filed and there is a due process and it does unfortunately take time for the investigators to get the.
You didn't get the iron that the subcontractor who did the damage, he also didn't file, is the one who reported the guy who dug it up and found the problem, the problem. I mean you see the irony there?
I can't control. Why don't you.
System to be abused, that's what I'm saying.
It it's it's you ought to adopt some kind of penalties for completely bogus complaints because this one, this whole purpose of this was to get out of paying for the damages.
Done by the subcontractors, so I I don't know what to tell you other than this ain't working.
I mean it maybe the way the law's written but then there's a poorly drafted law because I don't think you should be able to file a false police report or a false with the government agency. I don't think you should, I think that.
That should always be subject to some kind of penalty if you file a false report, but anyway, that is.
It's a, it's it's it just create a big sneaking mess here at several several ways. It's cost me thousands of dollars and now the guy who has been doing our tree planting.
And, working on offenses and so forth doesn't want to come over here anymore, so it's it's.
The director related to the five months that the utility board sat on this without and and proposed the nearly a thousand dollar penalty that kept him awake, so.
Thanks a lot. I'm done talking to you guys because obviously you you've got a bureaucratic way of of dealing with what you've been handed and you only have to meet every six months or nine months or whatever it is, and whatever happens in the meantime aint your problem, so I get it. Well, thank you very much. I've set my peace.
Are there any other public comments? Nope. Nope. Don't see any. That concludes our agenda for this meeting. Is there a motion?
I don't think we need a roll call vote for that one.
Thank you for your time, everyone, and we'll see you in the next meeting.