Ohio Engineers Legislative Day 

SCHEDULE

8:00 am    Registration
                   Coffee & light breakfast provided

8:55 am    Welcome
                   Robert Fuller, PE, FNSPE, President, OSPE
                   Joe Warino, PE, PS, FNSPE, Vice President, OSPE Legislative & Government Affairs

9:00 am    Water, Water, Water: Changes in Policies, Programs & Rules
                   Craig Butler, Director, Ohio Environment Protection Agency
 
10:00 am   New Ethics/Rules CPD Requirement:  The State Board of Registration's Expectations                                      John Greenhalge, Executive Director, Ohio State Board of Registration for PE and PS 

11:00 am   10-Minute Break 

11:10 am   Legislative Update
                   State Representative Louis W. Blessing, III, PE, District 29

11:40 am   20-Minute Break

12:00 pm   Lunch & Speaker
                    Beyond the Grades:  Solving the Nation's Infrastructure Crisis
                    Brian Pallasch, CAE, Lobbyist, American Society of Civil Engineers, Ohio Council

1:15 pm    The Forces Behind the Dawn of a New Era in Transportation Technology (Pardon the Disruption)
                   James Barna, PE, Assistant Director, Ohio Department of Transportation
                   Randy Cole, Executive Director, Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission

2:15 pm    Ohio Dam Safety Organization's Success in State Legislative Communication
                   Mike Rowland, President, Ohio Dam Safety Organization

2:45 pm    Legislative Visits

TOPICS & SPEAKERS 

Water, Water, Water:  Changes in Policies, Programs & Rules

Participants will learn:

• Policy changes engineers need to know
  
• Emerging new programs
• New rules being implemented                                                                                                                   
  

Craig Butler, Director, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 

On February 21, 2014, Ohio Governor John Kasich appointed Craig Butler as director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.  He previously served as the assistant policy director for energy, agriculture and the environment in Governor Kasich’s administration.  Mr. Butler previously served as District Chief of both the Ohio EPA’s Central District Office and its Southeast District Office.  He is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Ohio Alliance for the Environment.  Mr. Butler graduated with honors from Mansfield University in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, with a BA in geography and environmental science.  He also graduated from Ohio University with a master's degree in environmental science.

New Ethics/Rules CPD Requirement:  The State Board of Registration's Expectations

Participants will learn:   

• Overview of the new law requiring CPD related to ethics and State Board of Registration laws and rules 
  
• How the new requirement fits in with current law
• Acceptable documentation of CPD during an audit
  
• Problems and violations encountered during the current audit
  

John Greenhalge, Executive Director, Ohio State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers & Surveyors

John Greenhalge has been with the State Board of Registration since 1998, previously serving as the Board’s enforcement supervisor and as the assistant executive director.  Prior to joining the State Board of Registration, he worked as an investigator for the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and as a loss prevention and human resources investigator for Sears Roebuck & Co.  Mr. Greenhalge has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and an MBA from Ashland University. He has served on numerous national committees for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) including the Committee on Law Enforcement, the NCEES Leadership Task Force and the Member Board Administrators Committee. 
 

Legislative Update

Participants will learn:

• Details about the provisions of the Ohio transportation budget signed by Governor John Kasich
• Highlights from Ohio's main operating budget
  

Louis W. Blessing, III, PE, State Representative, 29th House District,
132nd Ohio General Assembly

State Representative Louis W. Blessing, III, PE, is serving his second term in the Ohio House of Representatives.  He represents the 29th Ohio House District, which includes portions of western Hamilton County.  Representative Blessing has an extensive background in electrical engineering.  He currently works as an engineer at Super Systems, Inc., in Cincinnati, and previously he worked at Duke Energy and Nova Engineering.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.  The Representative is a licensed professional engineer and a member of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers.  He currently resides in Colerain Township with his wife Heather, and son Louie.

Beyond the Grades:  Solving the Nation's Infrastructure Crisis
(Lunch Speaker)

Participants will learn:

• What the Trump Administration and Congress are doing to raise the grades on America's infrastructure
• How engineers can engage with their elected officials to advance solutions

Brian Pallasch, CAE, Managing Director, Government Relations & Infrastructure Initiatives, American Society of Civil Engineers, Washington, DC  

Since 1999, Brian Pallasch has been responsible for managing ASCE’s government relations department including federal and state legislative affairs, regulatory affairs, grassroots and policy development.  Mr. Pallasch is currently responsible for managing ASCE’s strategic initiatives regarding infrastructure including development of the Report  for America’s Infrastructure.  Additionally, he serves as the co-chair of the Water Resources Coalition.  Mr. Pallasch holds a Master of Arts degree in international affairs from the American University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree  in journalism and international affairs from the University of Southern California.

The Forces Behind the Dawn of a New Era in Transportation Technology (Pardon the Disruption)

Participants will learn:   

• About the deployment of new roadway technologies in Ohio being tested along US-33, I-90 and I-670
• How federal, local and academic partnerships will help Ohio lead the way for the transformation of transportation
  
• The pervasive problems of crashes and potential solutions for both passenger and commercial vehicle drivers
• About demographic shifts, including the national truck driver shortage, the power of millennials and an aging workforce
  
• How advances in technology can make us all safer and more mobile
• How to think about what role you will have to play to avoid being left behind
  

James Barna, PE, Assistant Director, Ohio Department of Transportation                                    

James Barna currently serves as the assistant director of transportation policy, which encompasses the divisions of Planning, Engineering, Construction, Innovative Delivery, Jobs and Commerce and Legislative Services.  He directs all aspects -- from “cradle to grave” -- of ODOT’s capital program of more than $2 billion. He also serves as the department’s chief engineer.  Mr. Barna returned to ODOT after six years with the private sector, where he served as the Columbus office manager and director of transportation for a regional engineering firm.  He received his BS in civil engineering in 1990 from The Ohio State University.  Mr. Barna currently serves as the assistant director of transportation policy.

Randy Cole, Executive Director, Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission

Director of the Ohio Turnpike since December of 2014, Randy Cole previously served as controlling board president and policy advisor to Office of Budget and Management (OBM) Director Tim Keen.  He currently serves on the advisory board of the “Ohio Smart Mobility Initiative,” a collaboration between The Ohio State University, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Turnpike, which is focused on bringing advanced transportation technologies to Ohio.  Mr. Cole earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy management from the University of Akron.  He also completed graduate coursework at the John Glenn School at The Ohio State University.  He and his wife, Cyndra, reside in Aurora with their five children.

 

Ohio Dam Safety Organization's (ODSO's) Success in State Legislative Communication

Participants will learn:   

• How legislative outreach relates to ODSO's mission and the goals of this activity 
  
• Initial steps and the benefit of finding a champion
• Marketing ODSO's recent legislative outreach field trip and missteps along the way
• Thoughts on the field trip with respect to representative interaction and questions
• Future steps to maintain momentum
  

Mike Rowland, PE, President, Ohio Dam Safety Organization                                     

Mike Rowland, is a senior engineer in S&ME’s Columbus office where he utilizes his 20 years of geotechnical engineering experience as the manager of the civil department, focusing on the evaluation, repair and design of dams and landfills.  Mr. Rowland serves as the president of the ODSO, a division of the Water Management Association of Ohio. As part of thier mission, ODSO has been reaching out to state legislators over the past couple of years and last August hosted a legislative outreach field trip to the Lake White Dam Improvement project in Waverly, Ohio.

 

LEGISLATIVE VISITS

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