ML073200656
| ML073200656 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Callaway  |
| Issue date: | 11/01/2006 |
| From: | NRC/OI |
| To: | |
| References | |
| 4-2006-035, FOIA/PA-2007-0335, NRC-1313 | |
| Download: ML073200656 (18) | |
Text
Official. Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Interview of Chris Younie Docket Number: 4-2006-035 Location:
Fulton, Missouri Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 Work Order No.: NRC-1313 Pages 1-64 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 Informiation in this record was deleted In accordance with the Freedom ot Irdonmneon ActL Exemptions -- --
FOINPA ~ 7z
1 1 *UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 ++++÷ 4 OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS 5 INTERVIEW 6 ------------------------------ x 7 INTERVIEW OF 8 CHRIS YOUNIE CASE NO. 04-2006-35 9 (CLOSED) 10 ------------------------------ x 11 Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12 Callaway Nuclear Plant 13 Fulton, Missouri 14 15 The above-entitled interview was conducted at 1:00 P.M.
16 BEFORE:
17 Special Agent, STEVE ROMERO 18 FOR THE CALLAWAY NUCLEAR PLANT:
19 PILLSBURY, WINTHROP, SHAW, PITTMAN, LLP 20 2300 N. Street, NW 21 Washington, DC 20037 22 202-663-8000 23 By: Mr. J. Patrick Hickey 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 MR. ROMERO: Okay. We're on the record.
3 For the record, this is an interview of Mr. Chris 4 middle initial R, last name Younie.
5 MR. YOUNIE: That's correct. Younie.
6 MR. ROMERO: Younie.
7 MR. YOUNIE: Younie.
8 MR. ROMERO: Mr. Younie, could you 9 please -- the date is approximately November Ist, 2006, 10 and the time is approximately 2:37 p.m. Mr. Younie, 11 could you please state and spell your full name for the 12 record?
13 MR. YOUNIE: My name is Chris R. Richard 14 Younie, Y-o-u-n-i-e.
15 MR. ROMERO: And what is your current 16 job title?
17 MR. YOUNIE: I'm the manager of business 18 operations.
19 MR. ROMERO: Okay. Present at this 20 interview are Special Agent Steve Romero from the 21 Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of 22 Investigation, Region 4, Arlington, Texas; Mr. Younie, 23 who is being interviewed; and Mr. Patrick Henry.
24 MR. HICKEY: Hickey.
25 MR. ROMERO: Patrick Hickey, who is the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1 legal counsel here that's representing him and the 2 Callaway Plant; Ms. Lisa Banks is the court reporter.
3 This interview is being tape recorded 4 and will be transcribed by Lisa Banks and/or Neal Gross 5 and Associates. The purpose of this interview is to 6 ascertain facts concerning an allegation regarding 7 discrimination against a control room shift supervisor 8 for raising safety concerns. Mr. Younie, could you 9 please stand and raise your right hand?
10 (Witness sworn.)
11 MR. ROMERO: Does your employer require 12 you to have an attorney present when you talk to the 13 NRC?
14 MR. YOUNIE: It's not required but asked 15 for.
16 MR. ROMERO: Okay. In other words, they 17 give you the option of having one.?
18 MR. YOUNIE: That's correct.
19 MR. ROMERO: Is Mr. Hickey acting as 20 your personal representative today?
21 MR. YOUNIE: Yes. He is.
22 MR. ROMERO: Okay. Did you select him 23 or did the company select him for you?
24 MR. YOUNIE: He was selected.
25 MR. ROMERO: The company offered him and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 you agreed --
2 MR. YOUNIE: That's correct.
3 MR. ROMERO: -- to take him? Okay. All 4 right. These questions are for you, Mr. Hickey. Who 5' is your employer?
6 MR. HICKEY: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw 7 Pittman. I am counsel for Mr. Younie. I also 8 represent AmerenUE and other witnesses in this 9 proceeding.
10 MR. ROMERO: Okay. Do you believe that 11 a potential conflict may arise during the course of 12 this interview?
13 MR. HICKEY: I do not. If that were to 14 happen, I would address that with Mr. Younie and we d 15 resolve it appropriately.
16 MR.ROMERO: Okay. Mr. Younie, do yo u 17 understand that Mr. Hickey represents other parties 18 associated with this investigation and he primarily 19 represents Callaway?
20 MR. YOUNIE: Yes. I do.
21 MR. ROMERO: Okay. With that 22 understanding, do you still want Mr. Hickey as your 23 representative here today?
24 MR. YOUNIE: Yes.
25 MR. ROMERO: Okay. All right.
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5 1 DIRECT. EXAMINATION BY MR. ROMERO:
2 Q. Mr. Younie, what is your educational 3 background for the record?
4 A. In what regards? I've --
5 Q. Do you have a college degree?
6 A. I do not have a college degree. I've 7 got a junior status in college.
8 Q. Okay. Have you received training 9 subsequent to that here at Callaway pertaining to your 10 field?
11 A. Nothing specific here. I've worked in 12 the nuclear industry for 25 years. Twenty-three of 13 those years were at the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant, 14 where I went through and received my senior reactor 15 operator's license. And then I transferred to -- or 16 the Ameren -- came to the Ameren two years ago, 17 November 8th, of 2005. So it's been just about right 18 at two years.
19 Q. Okay. So you've been here as far -- as 20 employme9nt background, you've been here two years at 21 Callawaýr. Correct?
22 A. That's correct.
23 Q. And prior to that you were at Wolf Creek 24 Nuclear 25 A. That's correct.
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6 1 Q. -- Power Plant. Okay. How long were 2 you there at Wolf Creek?
3 A. Twenty-three years.
4 Q. Twenty-three years. Okay. All right.
5 Mr. Younie, did you ever receive an allegation from one 6 of your managers, (b)(7C)c or any 7 other manager concerning an allegation that Mri 8 b)7C c made concerning another reactor -- another 9 shift supervisor by the name od(b)(7C)C ,being 10 inattentive or struggling to stay awake in the~ontrol 11 rooms?
12 A. What do you mean as far as receiving the 13 allegation?
14 Q. Did someone give you that information?
15 Did somebody provide it to you?
16 A. I didn't receive that information until 17 I was aware that I was going to be interviewed by the 18 02.
19 Q. Okay. So you never received that 20 information?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Okay. That's fine. Mr. never 23 spoke to you about that or brought it up to you?
24 A. Mr. ijust mentioned the fact that 25 there was going to be an investigation and that I may NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 be involved in the interview process.
2 Q. An investigation into what? Did he tel 1 3 you what the investigation was?
4 A. Just that there was concerns of 5 retaliation against MrI(b)(7C)c for making a claim to 6 Employee Concerns. He didn't go into specifics as far 7 as what the claim was.
8 Q. And when were you told this information ?
9 A. I don't recall the exact date. It's 10 been --
11 Q. Approximately. A month or year.
12 A. March time frame.
13 Q. March 2006?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Okay. And that's the most you 16 received --
17 A. Yes, sir.
18 Q. -- as far as information? Okay. You 19 were not in any way part of any type of rating 20 Mr.J(b)(7C)cEr--
21 A. Not specifically for Mr.J(b)(70)* N 22 Q. Okay. And for the record, sir, can y 23 tell me how your position relates to Mr.
24 Mr. X or Mr.b 7c What's your position? kre 25 you a supervisor of Mr.[ I and --
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8 1A. Currently, I'm not the supervisor of 2 Mr..
3 Q. I know earlier we spoke. You said that 4 up until January of 2006 you were.
5 A. That's correct.
6 Q. Right? And in relationship as far as 7 management, how does that relate to Mrj and 8 Mr. Z and Mr.J(b)(7C)C 1 9 A. From 2005 -- November 2005 to January 10 2006, I was the manager of operations. And as that, I 11 had (b)(7C)C who is the b)(7C) 12 (b) (7C)c ýreporting to me.
13 Q. Okay. All right, sir. Sir, did you 14 have anything to do with evaluating Mr.j(b)(7C)cOfor 15 the 2000 year evaluation period?
16 A. No.
17 Q. Okay. As far as bonus payouts, like the 18 KPI bonus payout, sir, were you ever involved with that 19 as far as in your position here at Callaway?
20 A. I was involved in that as far as how it 21 was going to be applied to the site employees.
22 Q. And how was that determined to be, sir, 23 as far as the payout?
24 A. The payout discussion started as a 25 management discussion. We proposed that to the senior NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 team. And the senior team came back witih a 2 counterproposal as far' as what the percentages were 3 going to be, and a management team executed their 4 expectations as far as percentages.
5 Q. Did Mr. *ver bring up 6 Mr.(b)(7C)C as far as asking you specifically on how 7 to rate an individual by the name of -- how to rate 8 Mr.l(b)(7C)jCas far as where he should rate him on his 9 evaluation?
10 A. That was done as part of group feedback.
11 We had Mr b)(7C) peers and a team of managers were 12 in a room where we ranked all of the management on site 13 and gave Mr. feedback specifically on the 14 performance of all of his shift managers. And in that 15 nature, he did get feedback from myself and the rest of 16 his peers as far as what his performance should be.
17 Q. Do you recall what you stated at that 18 time about Mr. C 19 A. I really didn't have any comments as far 20 as Mr. (b)(7C)C Iperformance at that time. Most of it 21 came from other peers in the room, and I can't remember 22 who the individuals were that gave that.feedback.
23 Q. But you didn't --
24 A. No.
25 Q. -- you didn't give specific feedback on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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10 1 that?
2 A. No. No.
3 Q. Okay.
4 A. But I was part of a process that did 5 provide that feedback.
6 Q. Okay. You were part of the process.
7 A. Okay.
8 Q. I'm sorry, sir. I 9 A. I understand. But as part of that 10 process I did not give any specific feedback on 11 Mr.(b)(7C) jperformance.
12 Q. Okay. And you don't recall who the 13 other managers were --
14 A. No. I do not.
15 Q. -- there that did provide that feedback?
16 A. No. I do not.
17 Q. Okay. You don't recall if Mr 18 had stated, "I have an employee that I'm rating as 19 meets expectation, but he's having trouble, you know, 20 in certain areas"?
21 A. He did that with all his rankings.
22 He -- when the people brought their rankings in, 23 everybody was ranked fairly high. They ranked them as 24 far as where they thought their performance was at 25 based on feedback from peers in the room. There was NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW.
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11 1 recommendations from folks in the room that 2 Mr. (b)(7C)c and I believe it was two other 4 3 (b)(7C)c ýbe given -- or provided feedback that their 4 performance was in the area of needs expectations.
5 Q. Meets expectations?
6 A. Need -- or (b)(7C~c I Excuse 7 me.
8 Q. I(b)(7C 9 A. Excuse me. Yeah. (b)(7C)c 10 Q. And were there any reasons given to why?
11 A. I can'-t remember the specifics on it.
12 It's been too long.
13 Q. Was there any type. of minutes taken of 14 this meeting?
15 A. There were comments captured. I believe 16 Dan Regelean was there, along with Betsy Fenningan.
17 They captured the comments from the peers and provided 18 that information back to Mr. so he could provide 19 that feedback to Mr. (b)(7C) "
20 Q. Is there any way I can get. a copy of 21 that, sir?
22 A. I'd have to see if Mr.I = has it.
23 MR. HICKEY: I think I can get it for 24 you.
25 MR. ROMERO: I appreciate that. I NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 need -- I'd like to see that.
2 BY MR. ROMERO:
3 Q. All right, sir. Let's talk about the 4 KPI bonus. Can you tell us for the record, sir, how 5 does this work for a manager? How do they receive 6 their bonus and how are they rated?
7 A. Okay. There's two components. We 8 identify performance parameters that we want to operate 9 the plant to, and we have payout to those. It's driven 10 on safety behaviors, how the plant performs as far as 11 output -- you know, we want to keep the plant online --
12 outage durations, things like that. So we put a dollar 13 amount to that performance.
14 And I believe there's -- that's a 50
- /
15 percent payout. Fifty percent of the potential bonus 16 goes to that. And then, the other part of it is tied 17 to individual goals. And the manager makes a decision 18 on how the individual is performing to those goals as 19 far as what the payout is to those performance 20 indicators.
21 Q. So, sir, if a person -- if a manager 22 received an overall rating of needs improvement, would 23 they receive a bonus?
24 A. In this last year, no.
25 Q. They would not have received any at all?
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13 1 A. No.
2 Q. Okay. Prior to that, they were 3 receiving the bonus?,
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Why was there a change in that?
6 A. Because as part of the recalibration --
7 let me step back a little bit here. We had a large 8 number of people that were in the meets or exceeds 9 expectation in performance in the performance appraisal 10 process, yet we had Callaway Plant down here 11 (indicating) as far as one of the lowest performers in 12 the industry. Okay. So we didn't have alignment 13 between how people were performing to the plant 14 performance.
15 So we went through this recalibration 16 process to give people candid feedback, initially with 17 no repercussion. It was going to be just feedback as 18 far as where their performance was at and get that more 19 realigned realistically with what their contribution 20 was to plant performance. Okay. And that's -- that 21 was the exercise we went through with our management 22 team.
23 Q. And that took place this year?
24 A. It was January 2005 -- or 2006. That's 25 correct.
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14 1 Q. Okay. So you did a realignment and 2 there were going to be no repercussions?
3 A. That'slcorrect.
4 Q. And what do you define as "no 5 repercussions"?
6 A. There -- it was -- there was no 7 financial -- it wasn't going to be financially punitive 8 to get a needs improvement. It was until after that 9 discussion that the management team was challenged, and 10 then the discussion evolved to where there would not be 11 compensation for people -- or to people that got the 12 needs improvement.
13 Q. So there were repercussions?
14 A. After the discussions on performance, 15 yes.
16 Q. Okay. So those initial discussions 17 would've been January 2006. And then, when did the 18 subsequent -- the other discussions come up to where 19 they decided there would be repercussions?
20 A. It took us probably three to four weeks 21 to go through the evaluation process. So it was 22 probably in the February time frame, mid-February time 23 frame.
24 Q. So then they decided there were 25 repercussions?
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15 1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Okay. So an -- just for the record, 3 sir, so an employee -- a manager that would've received 4 a needs -- an overall rating of needs to improve would 5 not have received the -- a bonus?
6 A. That's correct.
7 Q. Okay. As far as you know, sir -- and I 8 know that you don't supervise -- I'm putting this on 9 the record. I know you don't directly supervise 10 Mr. b)(7C)c I 11 A. That's correct.
12 Q. That's for the record. But I'm still 13 asking you this question is what -- do you know if
- b)(7C)c 14 Mr. received any adverse action or any 15 repercussions because he did bring up the allegation 16 that was another shift supervisor that was inattentive of b)(7C)c 17 in the control room by the name 18 A. Not that I'm aware of.
19 Q. And you're not aware of it because 20 nobody brought it to your attention?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Mr. Younie, do you have anything further 23 you'd like to add?
24 A. I can't think of anything. If you need 25 any other questions answered, let me know.
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16 1 Q. Okay. We've already established on the 2 record that you're not his direct supervisor. When the 3 ratings were given, you weren't even his chain of 4 command.
5 A. That's correct.
6 Q. Right? You left that last assignment, 7 which you were in his chain of command, in January 8 2006. Correct?
9 A. That's correct. January 1st.
10 Q. The ratings were given out when 11 approximately? March or -- 2006.
12 A. Probably first of March.
13 Q. Okay. First of March 2006. So you-14 wouldn't have been part of that process?
15 A. I was not part of that process.
16 Q. Okay. The only process you were -- were 17 when you were in that meeting that you got -- you had 18 that all the managers were brought in. Correct?
19 A. That's correct.
20 Q. And you as part of the team -- part of 21 the management gave feedback to Mr.I = and others.
22 Correct?
23 A. That's correct.
24 Q. And Mr.)5b)(F7)Cwas one of the 25 individuals that was mentioned?
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17 1 A. He was brought --
2 Q. Right?
3 A. -- up in the discussion. Yes.
4 Q. But you don't recall making any 5 specific --
6 A. No.
7 Q. -- comments about him?
8 A. No.
9 Q. All right, sir. Mr. Younie, have I or 10 any NRC representative threatened you in any way or 11 offered you any reward in return for the statement 12 you've given today?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Okay. Have you given this statement 15 freely and voluntarily?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. All right. This interview is concluded 18 on November 1st, 2006. And the time is 2:55 p.m.
19 Thank you, sir.
20 A. Okay. All right.
21 Q. I appreciate it.
22 A. Thank you, sir.
23 (WHEREIN; the interview was concluded at 24 2:55 p.m.)
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