The Technical Hearing: What to Expect

The Administrative Hearing for EU's central sewer application will take place over two days. There are 2 parts to the Hearing: 1) The Technical Hearing and 2) The Customer Service Hearings.  Here is a breakdown of what to expect at the Technical Hearing.

THE TECHNICAL HEARING

This is the courtroom drama portion of the hearing. The parties that will be participating in the Technical Hearing are:
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1. EU (represented by Martin Friedman and John L. Wharton of Dean Mead Law Firm, Esquires)
2. PIE (represented by Brad Kelsky, Esquire)
3. Linda Cotherman
4. The Office of Public Counsel (represented by Richard Gentry and Anastacia Pirrello, Esquires)
5. The PSC Staff (Jennifer S. Crawford and Ryan Sandy, Esquires)
6. Advisor to the Public Service Commission (Mary Anne Helton, Esquire, Deputy General Counsel)

Each of the parties will be giving a brief opening statement.  Then each side will present their witnesses.

FIRST: DIRECT TESTIMONY

Each of the witnesses have already filed Direct Testimony with the PSC, including Exhibits to support their arguments. So, at the Technical Hearing, each witness will have up to 5 minutes to summarize their direct testimony. After the summary, they will be subject to cross-examination.  This is the order of appearance of the witnesses:

IN SUPPORT OF THE APPLICATION (EU)
John R. Boyer (EU Owner/Operator)
Jonathan H. Cole (Engineer)
Deborah D. Swain (Accountant)

OPPOSED TO THE APPLICATION (PIE)
Meryl Schaffer (PIE President)
Ellen Hardgrove (Land Use Expert)
Robert Weisberg (Water Quality Expert)
Stephen J. Suggs (Engineer)

OPPOSED TO THE APPLICATION (Independent)
Linda Cotherman 

In this procedure, "friendly" cross-examination will not be allowed.  So, for example, PIE's attorney may only cross-examine the witnesses from EU and the attorneys from Dean Mead may only cross-examine the witnesses from PIE and Linda Cotherman. 

NEXT: REBUTTAL TESTIMONY

Following the Direct Testimony, three witnesses will present their rebuttal testimony: Again, the rebuttal testimony was pre-filed with the PSC before the hearing. But this is the opportunity for the opposition to cross examine these witnesses again, based on their rebuttal testimony.

1. John R. Boyer
2. Jonathan H. Cole
3. Deborah D. Swain

​If you want to dig in the tall weeds, CLICK HERE to view the official “Pre-Hearing Order”. This contains all of the information about how the Technical Hearing will proceed.  TIP: Scroll down to page 6 Part VIII “Issues and Positions”. Here you can read the 14 issues identified by the PSC related to the application, the position on each issue taken by each of the parties and which witness will provide testimony on that issue. It’s an interesting read.

If you cannot attend the hearings on 2/8 & 9, you can watch or listen to the proceedings on the live video broadcast the day of the hearings. Go to the Commission website at www.FloridaPSC.com. Look for the “Watch Live Broadcast” icon on the left side of the homepage. An audio only option is available by dialing 850-413-7999. The archived video will also be available after the hearings.