Ohio Engineers Legislative Day

SCHEDULE:  Friday, April 23, 2021

9:00 am
Welcome
Joe Warino, PE, PS, FNSPE, VP, OSPE Legislative & Government Affairs

9:03 am
Critical Issues That Ohio's Engineers Are Facing (1 CPD HOUR)
Patrick Markovich, Policy & Communications Manager, Governmental Policy Group, Inc.

10:00 am
Senate Bill 10 & Other Nuclear Energy-Related Issues (0.5 CPD HOUR)
Senator Mark Romanchuk, Ohio Senate, District 22

10:25 am
5-Minute Break

Ohio's Innovation Economy & the Columbus Innovation District (0.5 CPD HOUR)
JP Nauseef, MS, President and CEO, JobsOhio

5-Minute Break

5-Minute Break

An Electric Grid Resilience Solution (1 CPD HOUR)
Jeff Fleeman, PE, Chief Operating Officer - Grid Assurance, American Electric Power, and Member, IEEE Power and Energy Society

1:00 pm
Program Concludes

TOPICS & SPEAKERS 

Critical Issues That Ohio’s Engineers Are Facing

This seminar will include an update on current legisaltion that impacts engineering work in Ohio.

Participants will learn:

• The legislative process
• The 134th Ohio's General Assembly's legislative priorities
• Top-tier bills that the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) is tracking that could affect engineering practice
• Occupational licensure bills:  Where do they come from?  And why do they exist?
• OSPE's successful efforts to promote and protect engineers and their work -- and, by extension, protect the health, safety and welfare of Ohioans -- through the legislative process

Patrick Markovich serves as Governmental Policy Group’s policy and communications manager.  Patrick began his political career in the Ohio Legislative Service Commission Fellowship Program where he worked directly under the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Chairman of the Senate Insurance & Financial Institutions Committee where he clerked and conducted legislative research. Also, Markovich assisted with administrative duties for the Majority Whip and other Senate Majority Caucus members. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Kent State University. He is a member of the Ohio Lobbying Association.

Senate Bill 10 & Other Nuclear Energy-Related Issues

This seminar will provide an update on various bills that affect nuclear energy-related issues.

Participants will learn:

• The need to repeal House Bill 6 (133rd Ohio General Assembly) -- the legislation that created the "Ohio Clean Air Program" -- and how the repeal impacts PEs
• The genesis and current status of Senate Bill 10 (134th OGA), electric regulation legislation to terminate decoupling mechanisms authorized under HB 6, to modify the earnings determination for an electric security plan, and to provide refunds to retail electric customers in the state.
• Senate Bill 117 (134th OGA), legislation to repeal legacy generation resource provisions of HB 6
• Senate Bill 118 (134th OGA), legislation to repeal renewable resource credit payment provisions of HB 6 

State Senator Mark Romanchuk (R-Ontario) is serving in his first term in the Ohio Senate representing the people of the 22nd Senate District,  which includes Ashland, Medina and Richland counties as well as part of Holmes county. He previously served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives.  Senator Romanchuk has over 35 years of experience in small business, systems engineering, management, and community development. He is the owner and CEO of PR Machine Works, Inc., a contract manufacturer providing precision machining, fabrication, and assembly services in the city of Ontario. Prior to his work at PR Machine Works, he worked at Hughes Aircraft Company in a diplomatic capacity to the former Soviet Union in support of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. He is the co-founder and past president of the Regional Manufacturing Coalition and an active member of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.

Ohio's Innovation Economy & the Columbus Innovation District

This seminar is an overview of Ohio's Innovation Economy and the newly announced Columbus Innovation District, specificlly as the Innovation District relates to STEM.

Participants will learn:

• What is the Innovation District?
• How will it help grow the STEM fields?
• Future goals and initiatives

JP Nauseef is the president and chief investment officer of JobsOhio, a private nonprofit corporation designed to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio. As president and CIO, JP leads a dedicated team responsible for business attraction, retention and expansion efforts across the state. JP has significant executive  leadership experience in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Before joining JobsOhio in March 2019, he was the chairman and co-founder of Krush Media, a full-service digital advertising, media and data company spun out of Krush Technologies, another tech company he led and helped found. JP served as president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition. After graduating from the University of Dayton with a bachelor’s degree in management information systems, JP entered the Air Force as an officer. He served as a technology development program manager for early-era internet applications as well as for software development for a preoperational Global Positioning System. JP later earned a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California. 

ASCE National Legislative Policy & Infrastructure Report Card 2021

This seminar will provide an explanation and commentary on ASCE's activities to support infrastructure programs and funding, and the recently released ASCE infrastructure Report Card for 2021.

Participants will learn:

• The current US infrastructure situation
• What is needed?
• Ways and means that ASCE is implementing to move the country toward meeting the needs

Emily Feenstra is managing director of government relations and infrastructure initiatives at the American Society of Civil Engineers. In that role, she leads the division responsible for government affairs, media relations and infrastructure policy for the Society, including ASCE's Infrastructure Report Card and the Failure to Act economic study series. Previously she served as Deputy Director of the US Water Alliance, where she managed the Washington, DC office and oversaw a diverse portfolio of projects and led partnerships to advance one water management in America. Emily has also held senior positions at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and as a consultant for the Washington State Department of Transportation. She serves on the Eno Center for Transportation Board of Advisors, and earned a master's in public administration from the University of Washington.

ASCE Ohio Infrastructure Report Card 2021

Discussion on the recently released 2021 Ohio ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, its findings and how it compares to the ASCE national report card.

Participants will learn:

• The state of Ohio's infrastructure
• How the grades were established
• What can be done to improve the grades

Jim Pajk, PE, has worked three years as the assistant administrator  in design and construction for the City of Columbus Department of Public Service.  Prior that he worked over 21 years for the Franklin County Engineers office as the Deputy Bridge and Highway Engineer.  Since graduating from the University of Toledo in 1990 Jim has been actively involved in ASCE.  He is a past president for the Central Ohio Section and the Ohio Council of Local sections where he still serves at treasurer.  He has been an ASCE Advocacy Captain since 2015 and has served on the national public policy committee for the past 3 years.  He received an award as the 2016 National ASCE Civil Engineer Advocate of the Year  and was the ASCE Central Ohio Section 2018 Engineer of the Year recipient. 

An Electric Grid Resilience Solution

The electric power grid is vital to the health, safety and economic well-being of the population it serves.  The resilience of the grid to withstand and/or quickly recover from impacts due to severe weather, natural disasters, and physical and cyber threats is of great importance.  This presentation will describe the purpose and characteristics of grid assurance, an electric industry-led solution that provides an inventory of scarce, critical, long-lead time equipment to utilities to enable them to rapidly restore facilities following catastrophic scale events.  

Participants will learn:

• Vulnerabilities and threats to the electric grid
• Resilience and recovery strategies
• An industry solution to rapidly replacing scarce, long lead time and difficult to transport assets  

Jeff Fleeman, PE, has served American Electric Power since 1981. As Managing Director of Transmission Business Development, Jeff currently is on a special assignment as Chief Operating Officer of Grid Assurance, LLC, (GA) a start-up company for emergency restoration of major transmission assets following catastrophic events.  His team is developing GA’s strategic equipment inventory, secure warehouses and delivery logistics to provide subscribers with more certain and speedy system restoration following catastrophic events.  Jeff previously served as VP Technology of BOLD™ Transmission LLC, an AEP affiliate that develops and licenses high capacity high efficiency transmission line design technology.  He has BSEE and MSEE degrees from The Ohio State University.