1 BEFORE THE WASHINGTON UTILITIES AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION 2 In the Matter of the Petition ) of Commission Staff for a ) DOCKET NO. TG-970532 3 Declaratory Ruling. ) VOLUME 1 ------------------------------) PAGES 1 - 7 4 A prehearing conference in the above 5 matter was held on May 6, 1997 at 9:30 a.m., at 1300 6 South Evergreen Park Drive Southwest, Olympia, 7 Washington, before Administrative Law Judge JOHN 8 PRUSIA. 9 The parties were present as follows: 10 COMMISSION STAFF by CATHIE ANDERSON, 1300 11 South Evergreen Park Drive Southwest, Olympia, Washington 98504. 12 THE COMMISSION by MARY M. TENNYSON, 13 Senior Assistant Attorney General, 1400 South Evergreen Park Drive Southwest, Olympia, Washington 14 98504. 15 WASHINGTON STATE HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION by PAULA E. PYRON, Attorney at Law, 101 Southwest Main 16 Street, Suite 1100, Portland, Oregon 97204. 17 STERICYCLE OF WASHINGTON, INC., by STEPHEN B. JOHNSON, Attorney at Law, 1191 Second 18 Avenue, 18th Floor, Seattle, Washington 98101. 19 BFI MEDICAL WASTE SYSTEMS OF WASHINGTON, INC., by DAVID W. WILEY, Attorney at Law, 601 Union 20 Street, Suite 4100, Seattle, Washington 98101, and JEFF DAUB, District Vice President, P.O. Box 478, 21 Woodinville, Washington 98072. 22 WASHINGTON REFUSE & RECYCLING ASSOCIATION by JAMES K. SELLS, Attorney at Law, 510 Washington 23 Avenue, Suite 300, Bremerton, Washington 98310. 24 Kathryn T. Wilson, CCR 25 Court Reporter 00002 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 JUDGE PRUSIA: The prehearing conference 3 will please come to order. This is a prehearing 4 conference in Docket No. TG-970532. It is titled: 5 In the Matter of the Petition of Commission Staff for 6 Declaratory Ruling. 7 Commission set this prehearing conference 8 by notice served April 22nd, 1997. Today is May the 9 6th, 1997. My name is John Prusia. I'm the 10 administrative law judge assigned to this proceeding. 11 In this prehearing conference, we'll be 12 taking appearances, considering petitions for party 13 status, formulating issues, perhaps setting 14 evidentiary hearings, setting a briefing schedule 15 dealing with discovery and other preliminary 16 matters. 17 I'll begin by taking appearances, 18 beginning with Commission staff and then other 19 persons and entities who have requested party 20 status. Ms. Tennyson? 21 MS. TENNYSON: My name is Mary M. 22 Tennyson. I'm a senior assistant attorney general. 23 My address is 1400 South Evergreen Park Drive 24 Southwest, Post Office Box 40128, Olympia, 25 Washington, 98504-0128. 00003 1 Representing Commission staff with me is 2 Cathie Anderson of the Commission staff. 3 JUDGE PRUSIA: Thank you, Ms. Tennyson. 4 Let's continue then to your right. 5 MS. PYRON: Paula Pyron. I'm here on 6 behalf of the Washington State Hospital Association. 7 I'm with the law firm Ball Janik LLP, 101 Southwest 8 Main Street, Suite 1100, Portland, Oregon 97204. 9 JUDGE PRUSIA: Thank you, and 10 Mr. Johnson? 11 MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Mr. Prusia. My 12 name is Stephen B. Johnson. I'm with the law firm of 13 Garvey, Schubert & Barer. We're representing 14 Stericycle of Washington, Inc. in the proceedings. 15 My address is 18th Floor, 1191 Second Avenue, 16 Seattle, Washington 98101-2939. 17 JUDGE PRUSIA: Thank you. Mr. Wiley? 18 MR. WILEY: Thank you, Mr. Prusia. David 19 W. Wiley. I'm at Williams, Kastner & Gibbs, Two 20 Union Square, 601 Union Street, Suite 4100, Seattle, 21 Washington 98101-2380, and the P.O. Box is 21926, 22 Seattle, Washington 98111-3926. 23 I'm appearing today on behalf of BFI 24 Medical Waste Systems of Washington, Inc., and with 25 me is Jeffrey Daub who is the District Vice President 00004 1 for BFI Medical Waste Systems of Washington, Inc. 2 JUDGE PRUSIA: Thank you. Mr. Sells? 3 MR. SELLS: Thank you. If Your Honor 4 please, James Sells, 510 Washington Avenue, 5 Bremerton, 98337, appearing on behalf of Washington 6 Refuse and Recycling Association, Murrey's Disposal, 7 American Disposal, Rubatino Refuse, Inc., LeMay 8 Enterprises, Inc., Empire Disposal, Inc., 9 Consolidated Disposal, and Disposal Services, Inc. 10 Also I should add that at some point 11 during this hearing, we'll probably seek party status 12 for Island Disposal as well. 13 JUDGE PRUSIA: Could you give me a list 14 again of those? Do you have a written list? 15 MR. SELLS: They're in the petition, if 16 Your Honor please. 17 JUDGE PRUSIA: Would everyone please take 18 a moment to check the Notice of Prehearing Conference 19 that was served on April 22nd to make sure the fax 20 number listed for you is correct. Is there anyone 21 who has a correction to make? 22 MS. TENNYSON: Ms. Anderson has a 23 correction to her phone number. Her telephone number 24 should be 586-1157. 25 JUDGE PRUSIA: Thank you. Is there 00005 1 anyone else present in the room who intends to file a 2 petition or make a motion to intervene in this 3 matter? Let the record reflect that there is no one 4 else in the room except for Commission staff. 5 The first order of business then will be 6 requests for party status. We have written requests 7 from the Washington Refuse and Recycling Association, 8 also Murrey's/American Disposal Company, Inc., 9 Rubatino Refuse, Inc., LeMay Enterprises, Inc., 10 Consolidated Disposal Inc., Empire Disposal Inc., and 11 Disposal Services. 12 We also have a written request from BFI 13 Medical Waste Systems of Washington, Inc., request 14 from Stericycle of Washington, Inc., and a request 15 from the Washington Hospital Association. 16 Do any of you have anything to add to 17 your written request for party status? Let the 18 record reflect there is no response. Is there any 19 objection to the participation of any of these named 20 entities or individuals? 21 MS. TENNYSON: Commission staff has no 22 objection. 23 MR. JOHNSON: No objection, Your Honor. 24 MR. WILEY: No objection. 25 MR. SELLS: No objection, Your Honor. 00006 1 JUDGE PRUSIA: Would whoever enter on the 2 bridge line please identify yourself? Is there 3 someone on the bridge line? Thank you. 4 Very well then, the requests for party 5 status of Washington Refuse and Recycling 6 Association, Murrey's/American Disposal Company, 7 Inc., Rubatino Refuse Inc., LeMay Enterprises, Inc., 8 Consolidated Disposal Inc., Empire Disposal Inc., 9 Disposal Services, BFI Medical Waste Systems of 10 Washington, Inc., Stericycle of Washington Inc., and 11 the Washington Hospital Association are granted. 12 I should also add that it's the general 13 Commission practice that those of you representing 14 parties will be the contact person for those parties 15 and that we will not serve additional copies of 16 anything upon your clients. 17 Very well then, let's go off the record 18 to discuss how we might proceed with this 19 proceeding. We're off the record. 20 (Off the record at 9:40 a.m.) 21 (Back on the record at 11:40 a.m.) 22 JUDGE PRUSIA: While we were off the 23 record, the parties engaged in extensive discussions 24 of the issues before the Commission and the facts. 25 It was determined that the parties need to do a 00007 1 little more work on narrowing and clarifying issues 2 and on working toward a stipulation concerning the 3 facts in this proceeding. We decided that the 4 parties should be given time to do that, and we 5 scheduled a second prehearing conference. 6 It will be held on Friday, May the 30th, 7 starting at the hour of 1:00 in the afternoon. It 8 will be somewhere here in Commission Headquarters. 9 I'm not sure where we'll find a room, but I'm sure 10 we'll find one somewhere, either here or perhaps next 11 door. 12 The parties then will be working on the 13 issues trying to narrow and clarify them, and they 14 will be hopefully preparing stipulations that they'll 15 have ready at that time. Is there anything else that 16 has to come before us today? 17 MS. TENNYSON: I have nothing, Your 18 Honor. 19 MR. WILEY: Nothing, Your Honor. 20 JUDGE PRUSIA: Very well. That will 21 conclude this session of the prehearing conference, 22 and we'll now be off the record. Thank you. 23 (Conference concluded at 11:45 a.m.) 24 25