ML20113G060
| ML20113G060 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | River Bend  |
| Issue date: | 07/21/1995 |
| From: | Maxson C ENTERGY OPERATIONS, INC. |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20113F955 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-96-155 NUDOCS 9609260120 | |
| Download: ML20113G060 (29) | |
Text
1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + + !
4 OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS 5 INTERVIEW 6 ---------------------------------x 7 IN THE MATTER OF: :
8 INTERVIEW OF : Docket No.
9 CRAIG RAYMOND MAXSON : (not assigned) 10 :
11 --------- -------------------- --x 12 Friday, July 21, 1995 13 Riverbend Station l 14 15 Conference Room 16 5485 U.S. Highway 61 1
17 St. Francisville, Louisiana !
18 19 20 The above-entitled interview was conducted at 11:22 21 a.m., when where present:
7f cf.::'
- "~'4 ~6 EXHlBIL 23 / ci- JU9 5 Page_
24 25
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' / l GARDE 96-155 PDR J
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1 ON BEHALF OF THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION:
2 JONATHAN ARMENTA, JR., Investigator 3 DENNIS BOAL, Investigator 4 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 5 Office of Investigations 6 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400 7 Arlington, Texas 76011 8
9 ON BEHALF OF THE ENTERGY OPERATIONS, INC.:
10 DOUGLAS E. LEVANWAY, ESO.
11 Wise Carter Child & Caraway 12 600 Heritage Building i
13 Jackson, Mississippi 39205 ;
14 15 16 17 18 19 ,
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21 (11:22 a.m.)
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! MR. BOAL: For the record, this is an 4 interview of Mr. Craig Maxson, whose date of birth is 5 January 6, 1957, who is employed by Entergy Operations, l 6 Incorporated as a senior lead engineer.
7 Today's date is July 21, 1995. The time is 8 approximately 11:22 a.m.
9 Additionally present at this interview is Mr.
10 Jonathan Armenta, Jr., investigator, NRC, Office of 11 Investigations, Region IV; Mr. Dennis Boal, investigator, 12 NRC, Office of Investigations, Region IV; Mr. Douglas E.
13 Levanway, attorney, Wise Carter Child & Caraway, attorney 14 for Entergy Operations, Incorporated and also attorney and 15 counsel for you present at this interview.
16 Is that your understanding?
17 MR. MAXSON: Yes.
18 MR. BOAL: In addition, this interview is 19 being tape recorded by court reporter, Mr. Sandra McCray, 20 and is pertaining to alleged violations of 10 CFR 50.7.
21 At this time, Mr. Maxson, could I ask you to 22 please rise and raise your right hand so I can administer T
234 an oath to you.
h 24ll Whereupon, f
' CRAIG RAYMOND MAXSON 25 l
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- I having been first duly sworn, was called as a witness
. 2 herein and was examined and testified as follows:
3 EXAMINATION I
4 BY MR. BOAL:
5 0 Mr. Maxson, could you tell us your educational 6 background, please. , t 7 A Sure. I have a civil engineering degree from 8 Virginia Military Institute, VMI. I graduated in @ ]
1 9 Since then, I have had - well, that is really it, except f 10 for training with Entergy and with INPO and some other j l
1 11 stuff.
I 12 O When did you come to work at Riverbend 1
13 Station?
14 A I came here as a contractor in 1983.
15 0 And did you transfer over to Gulf States 16 Utilities?
17 A Transferred over in June of 1985.
18 0 Could you tell us from 1990 forward what your 19 job positions have been here at Ri,verbend Station.
20 A 1990, I was the HPES -- that is human performance enhancement system -- coordinator. My 21 22 function in life at that point in time was to decrease the 23 amount of personal error at the plant and to do root-cause 24 investigations. I reported directly to the plant manager 25 at that time.
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1 0 And who was that?
I
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2 -A That was Phil Graham. After that, I -- it was j 3 just prior to the merger. I was promoted to supervisor of l 1
4 performance assessment, to start that as a new group. ;
i 5 With the organization changes, I went from that to my {
6 current position which is the employee concerns ;
7 coordinator, responsible for the nuclear safety concerns 8 process as well as the overall employee concerns process.
9 O And who is your supervisor?
10 A Jim Fisicaro. >
11 Q And do you supervise any employees?
t 12 A No.
- 13 O In the summer of 1994, the Entergy Operations, l 14 Incorporated initiated a management planning, review and !
15 ranking process. Is that your recollection also? l l
16 A Yes. !
17 O Do you recall how that process was conveyed to 18 you?
19 A It was conveyed through a couple of different 20 means. Since I was a direct report of Jim Fisicaro, it 21 was discuss in some of the staff meetings, generally as i
22 the process was being rolled out, and I also heard of the 23 process through some promotions, like through Inside i
24 Entergy.
l 25 O Did you participate in any ranking meetings? {
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1 A' No. When it came to ranking of personnel, I i
2 was asked to leave. :
3 0 You are the employee concerns coordinator. Is 4 that correct?
5 A That is correct. ;
6 0 How long -- I am not sure about the timing 7 here. About how long have you had that position?
8 A I became the employee concerns coordinator f 9 March of last year.
10 Q March of '94 then?
11 A Yes.
12 0 Is that about correct? Okay. In your 13 experience from March of '94 to July of '95, using that as 14 a time period and dividing that up, that time period of a 15 little over a year, about a year and four months, and 16 placing in that time period a -- 16 months, and in that 17 time period was the ranking process, and just for 18 simplicity's sake, we will say it started about October of 19 '94. Is that a reasonable -- ,
20 A That sounds about right.
21 O Okay. Using that period October of '94, again 22 going from 3/94 to 7/95, using October '94 as a milestone, 23 could you tell us if'you recognize a difference in the 24 amount of employee concerns before and after the ranking 25 . process was instituted at Riverbend Station.
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1 A I did not notice an increase. i 2 0 Did you notice a decrease?
3 A I did not notice a decrease.
4 Q So --
1 5 A Well, up to now?
6 Q Yes.
7 A Well, up to now the five issues that we are 8 talking about are classified as employee concerns, so out !
1 1
9 of the eight concerns this year, five of them are Section 10 2(11) allegations. Last year we had 16 concerns; this 11 year to date we have 8.
12 Q Last year, is that a fiscal?
13 A January to December.
14 O So in your analysis, off the top of your head, 15 then would you say that they are running about similar 16 volume?
17 A We run anywhere from zero to two or three a 18 month.
19 Q And you haven't seen a volume change then.
20 A No.
21 MR. BOAL: Jonathan, did you have some 22 questions?
23} MR. ARMENTA: Yes.
t I
24j BY MR. ARMENTIs:
1 25 O Mr. Maxson, may I call you Craig?
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j j 1 A Sure.
2 O You and I have been associated for quite some
! 3 time, and if it is okay with you, I would like address 4 myself to you as -- address you as Craig.
]
5 A That is fine.
1 6 'O What -- can you describe the process of the ,
i .
l 7 prompt action that is taken to resolve the complaints of
- i 8 discrimination, Section 2 (11) , 50.7. What is the process i
~ 9 that you do in this regard? ,
4 10 A Specifically when a concern, Section 2 (11) --
1 11 in my experience, in my year and a half of -- year and 16 12 months of doing this, those complaints come from the i
- 13 Department of Labor through my senior management. We get l 1 I T
14 together and discuss the complaint, determine how to i 15 investigate, whether I personally will investigate.
1 t
16 Now, Section 2 (11) , as a rule of thumb, we 5
i' l 17 always get attorneys involved for their guidance. We also i
i 18 go ahead and run it up the chain of command, up to Harry 1
i 19 Kaiser, and to my knowledge up to Don Hance, because of j 20 the potential seriousness of the issue. And it is acted
! 21 on immediately.
22 o Do you have occasion where employees come to 23 you -- or have you had, where employees have come to you 24 and raised issues about discrimination?
L 25 A Yes.
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1 O What do you do about it? ;
~
2 A Again, the same issue. If it is a Section 3 2(11) -- most of my stuff is not Section 2(11). It is 4 safety concerns or people don't know where to go, or they '
5 need somebody to talk to, or whatever, and that is most of ,
i 6 my business.
7 O Are any of these complaints handled, t 8 administered, and just taken care of within EOI and not i 9 processed any further, let's say, to DOL, NRC, or any :
10 legal matters? I guess what I am asking: Are there other 11 times when an employee comes to you and usually the j 12 problem can be solved fairly soon.
13 A Sure. There is one case where a guy brought
)
14 something up, and I think we resolved it. J 15 0 In the last 12 months, how many of these type I
16 of cases have you received? Can you recall? That have 17 come from EOI employees directly to you. !
l 18 A For Section 2(11)? J l
19 Q Yes. ' 1 20 A None. l 21 0 Are these cases treated different from other 22 safety-related employee concerns?
23 A Yes, they are.
l 24 O And what is the major difference?
25 A The major difference is you are talking about
{
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1 potential discrimination as a result of raising a safety >
i 2 concern. With a regular safety concern, your focus is 3 going out to substantiate or not substantiate the concern 4 and to resolve the problem.
5 With the Section 2 (11) issues, you have a 6 discrimination aspect to it, so you need to address that 7 as well.
8 0 What type of information is given to the l 9 employee as to what his resources or options are?
10 A When a --
1 11 Q On the 2(11). j On the 2(11) issues -- see, most of the -- all I 12 A 13 of them, matter of fact. All of the 2(11) issues have 14 come down through -- from the Department of Labor, or we 15 have been aware of them through your discussions with us.
16 0 If an employee would raise an issue of being i 17 discriminated by a supervisor and comes you first --
18 A Yes.
19 0 -- what options are made available to that i
20 employee?
21 A We talk about what the issue is, how the 22 discrimination occurred. What I do is neuter the concern;
- 23 in other words, take the employee's name out of it. I 4
4 24 bring that up to my senior management, and we determine i
i 25 the action that needs to be taken on that.
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I t Now, again, all the concerns that have come l 1
2 down to this point have come through the NRC or the l 3 Department of Labor, so there is a confidentiality aspect 4 to it that we have to handle on a case-by-case basis, J l
1 5 depending on the specific nature of the concern, 6 confidentiality is difficult to achieve or to maintain. )
7 All that stuff is discussed with the concern.
8 0 These cases that you are referring to that 9 have come through the NRC, these discrimination cases that 10 we are currently conducting that you refer to, are these 11 cases referring to Mr. Gary Dinda, Mr. Frank Richter, Mr.
12 Mike Malik, Mr. Pat Hughes, and Mr. Roger Backen?
13 A Yes.
14 O Has your office responded to NRC's request in 15 all truthfulness and accurate information?
16 A Yes.
17 0 In working with the investigators for the 18 office of Investigations, have you received -- have they 19 reciprocated that same service and attitude towards you?
20 A I have had a very good relationship with -- in 21 my involvement with NRC. Right.
22 O I would like to now focus your attention, 23 Craig, to something more in detail, and that is CC 24 meetings. Do you know what we are talking about?
25 A 2-C meetings.
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1 0 2-C meetings.
2 A Yes.
3 0 How often do you conduct these?
4 A I don't.
S 0 How often have you attended these?
6 A I have attended one as facilitator. Actually 7 I have attended two, one as a supervisor 2-Cs meeting, and 8 one was a nuclear safety CCs meeting, 2-Cs meeting that I 9 facilitated for the nuclear safety assessment group.
I I
10 0 Not by name, but who, in general, was at these 11 meetings? Were they just the staff employees or l
12 management? 1 13 A The first one was a supervisor CC meeting, 2-14 Cs meeting, and that had essentially supervisors and above I
15 at that meeting. The other one that I facilitated was all 16 the nuclear safety assessment group individuals, up to and 17 including the first-line supervisors.
18 O At any time, did you have a meeting with Mr.
19 Fisicaro or Mr. Fisicaro, was he present at any portion of 20 any of these meetings?
21 A He was only present to respond to the 22 compliments and concerns that we had raised at the 23 previous meeting.
24 o And picking a time frame, were these meetings 25 held within the last -- within this year, 1995, would you NEAL R. GROSS COUAT AEPOATERS AND T AANSCRIBE AS 1323 AMODE ISLAND AVENUE N W 20?i 234 4433 WASH'NGTON O C 20005 (202) 234-4433
I i' 1 say?
2 A Yes.
3 0 I have been given some information, Craig, 4 that at some of these meetings, some employees have made 5 comments that they have been intimidated by Mr. Fisicaro's 6 style of management. Have you heard that before? They 7 felt --
8 A At the 2-Cs meetings?
9 0 Yes. Either at the -- well, it would have to 10 be when the supervisors and the -- the first time that it 11 would have occurred, according to my understanding would 12 be at the meeting where your staff employees would be J
13 present.
14 A We have had numerous all-hands meetings and 15 things like that where that has been discussed.
16 O And have you heard this before by personnel?
17 A Yes.
18 O And --
19 A That he is -- rephrase that again, that he 20 is -- what is his personality?
21 0 That Mr. Fisicaro's management style is 22 intimidating.
23 A How would you define " intimidating"?
O I don't know. This is what I was told, so I 24l!
25 am just asking you if you had heard something to that l NEAL R. GROSS COUAT REPORTERS AND T AANSCAtBE AS
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i 1 effect.
A I can be aloof at times, preoccupied. If you 2
define that as intimidating, I don't know. I would -- I i 3
4 think it depends on -- I don't know.
5 0 Was there a subsequent meeting in which you !
6 met with Mr. Fisicaro to relate this information, that ;
7 NSAG, nuclear safety assessment group -- I would assume 1 8 that that is what it stands for -- indicated to you that l they felt intimidated by Mr. Fisicaro? And, again, from 9
10 different, various employees, but did you relate this 11 information to Mr. Fisicaro at any one of these meetings? l
\
12 A Yes.
13 0 What was his response?
14 A His response is that he recognizes that as a 15 problem, something that he continually works on.
Have you heard anything else subsequent or 16 0 17 from future, subsequent meetings!
18 A From him or from others?
19 Q From others. ,
20 A No.
21 0 Has Mr. Fisicaro mentioned to you that 22 somebody might have come up to him and told him that, yes, 23 this was conveyed to Mr. Maxson; Craig Maxson was at our 24 2-Cs meetings, and we just want to let you know. Has Mr.
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o 1 that he has been informed of this, other than by you?
2 A I am not sure I understand the question.
3 0 In other words that he had heard this from 4 other sources, other than you.
5 A I know he has had heard it from other sources.
6 Through psychological evaluation that he had, that his 7 management style came out through that. .I have mentioned 8 it to him a couple of times, and I know those issues 9 specifically. And he has been upfront with that. He has 10 allowed everyone and encouraged everyone to read his 11 management profile, because it also goes ahead and talks 12 about different ways that you can approach him and that 13 type of thing.
1 14 You know, go in with an agenda. Cover your 15 issues. If you go in with a problem, go in with potential 16 resolutions, the types of things that make him tick. So I 17 find him very proactive in that way.
18 MR. ARMENTA: I don't have any more questions, 19 Dennis. ,
20 BY MR. BOAL:
21 O Mr. Maxson, that management profile that you 22 just made reference to, is that available to all of Mr.
23,! Fisicaro's employees?
i 24: A Yes.
2 5ll 0 Even down to secretaries?
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1 A Yes. Matter of the nuclear safety 2-Cs 2 meeting that he had, he went ahead and talked about it 3 some more. He had Claudia Hurst read some sections of it, .
4 and said that it was available for anybody, and then he ,
5 encouraged anybody to go ahead and read it, take a look at l t
6 it. l 1
7 O We would like to ask you a general question. ;
)
8 -You have been employee concerns coordinator since about 9 March of '94. Have you had time to formulate an opinion l l
10 about the Section 2 (11) cases that come up here at ;
I 11 Riverbend Station? l l
4 12 A I try to take a look at each case on its own j 13 merit. These last couple of cases, I have stayed away 14 from any type of investigation or anything, because I feel 1
15 that there is a conflict of interest. You know, we have 1
16 discussed that in detail; we have written letters; we have s
j 17 talked to the allegers about that, because I have worked l 18 for essentially all of them. Well, I have worked for 4
l 19 Malik; I have worked for Backen. ,I have had dealing with 1
! 20 essentially all of them.
I 21 So we have been very careful that I have not i
t j 22 been involved with the investigation aspects of those i
23 cases. The only investigation that I did do was on a 24 portion of Gary Dinda's case, and I naven't had any i l l 25ldealingswithGary, i NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 13?3 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N W i?O2p 234 4433 W ASHINGTON D C 70005 (202) 234 4433
1 O In comparison to other employee concerns that 2 you may have had experience with, do you find that these 3 2(11) issues are more time-consuming and more complex?
4 A No. I am not sure that I can say that.
S O All right. Let me back up a little bit.
6 A I was coing to say from my personal aspect, 7 they are less time-consuming, because I don't have any --
8 I am not doing any investigation on it, so --
9 Q On the ones that you are involved in, right 10 this year.
l 11 A Well, there has only been five Section 2 (11) l i
1 12 allegations this year, and those are the five that you 13 guys are dealing with.
14 0 Okay.
1 15 A So it is more of a coordination, a gathering i 16 information function.
17 0 Okay. Backing up a little bit earlier to our 18 discussion about the ranking process employed here at EOI, 19 I asked the question as to whether or not you had attended 20 any of the ranking meetings, and you said no. And then 21 you added on that you were asked to leave when they ranked 22 employees. Does that mean you were in a premeeting? Or 23 Just exactly what does -- I am not sure I understand that 24j answer.
25 A There was -- as we were getting into the NEAL R. GROSS COVAT AEPOATERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1303 AMODE ISLAND ASENUE N W
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I ranking process, we would have staff meetings, and then
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2 after the staff meeting, they would continue on with the 3 meeting, and because of the confidential nature of that 4 and since I didn't have anybody reporting to me, there was 5 no need for me to be present, nor should I have been 6 present.
7 0 But does that mean that the staff meeting 8 prior to the ranking was discussing the ranking process?
9 A There was -- any discussion of the ranking 10 process was general information on the roll-up or 11 questions about the roll-up, because Jim was conveying 12 information to his direct reports. We were trying to get 13 a constant or a common process across the whole nuclear 14 safety group, so that everybody was ranked on a level 15 playing field.
16 0 Do you recall what the consensus was for 17 nuclear safety, as to the level playing field that people 18 would be ranked on?
19 A I am going to have dif,ficulty with that, 4
20 because what I remember back then may conflict with what I 21 know now. In other words, the meeting that we had with 22 you that laid out the ranking process and my knowledge of 23 information, so I am not really sure that I could answer 24 that, in fact.
25 o What was the purpose of the ranking process?
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1 A The purpose of the ranking process was to 2 increase the -- I am grasping for the right word --
3 knowledga level, to get higher -- to get the highest 4 caliber of person here at Riverbend, to let -- that is the 5 whole thing. We are downsizing; we are changing 6 organizations; we are doing a lot of stuff to make things 7 better. And this is another tool to take a look and to 8 help get the best people possible for the particular jobs 9 that we have.
10 0 Were you ranked in this process?
11 A Yes, I was. 1 12 O Do you know what your rank was?
13 A No, I don't.
i 14 O Do you feel comfortable with that situation? l 15 A Sure.
i 16 O And why is that? :
17 A I feel that through the PP&R process, our l 18 performance planning and review process, the person that 19 ranked me was Jim Fisicaro. He laid out my goals 20 initially. We had an interim evaluation; he let me know 21 where I stood. At the end, he let me know where I stood, 22 gave me positive and negative feedback. The PP&R process 23 is the process that I relied on.
24 j O Your understanding of the ranking process, the 25 PP&R was an integral of the ranking process?
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I A Integral part? I would say they should go 2 hand in hand.
3 O And that is your understanding from the 4 training and the information you have been provided about 5 the ranking process?
6 A The information and training? That is my 7 personal opinion.
8 O Do you think the training is different than 9 your personal opinion?
10 A I received very little training, because I 11 don't rank. I don't rank anybody.
12 O But did you receive any training about how it 13 was going to affect you as an employee of Riverbend 14 Station? j 15 A There was some general information that was 16 put out. I can't remember all the forms, but there were, 17 you know, a number of different ways of getting 18 information put out.
19 Q So basically as an emp.loyee that wasn't 20 involved in ranking someone at Riverbend Station, are you 21 saying you don't have a detailed knowledge of how the 22 ranking process was enacted?
23 A No. I didn't have a detailed process.
24 0 Detailed knowledge?
25 A Detailed knowledge.
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1 O And do you believe that that is shared with 2 other nonmanagement or nonranking personnel at Riverbend 3 Station?
4 A Probably, yes. As far as the mechanics go.
S When we sat down with Jonathan and went through the 6 mechanics of how they did it with the matrix and 7 everything else, that was the first time I had seen that, 8 and I was impressed.
9 Q Impressed in what manner?
10 A Impressed with taking a process like forced 11 ranking and the method that they went through to try to 12 make sure that during the roll-ups and everything else I
13 that it was equitable.
I 14 O But that information was provided to you after l
15 it had aiready been undertaken. j I
16 A Oh, yes. l 17 O Not during --
18 A That information was a discussion that Newton I i
19 Spitzfaden and Jim Fisicaro had with Jonathan.
20 0 But once again, in your experience, that 21 information was not provided to nonranked employees.
22 A Right. Not nonranked. Nonsupervisory l
23 employees. l l
l 24 0 Yes. Thank you for that correction.
25 MR. BOAL: Jonathan?
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- i 1 BY MR. ARMENTA. j i
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2 O one last question, Craig, is that the cor.cerns ;
3 that you receive in your office are not all the concerns 4 that are received by EOI personnel. Is that correct? I 5 guess I am referring -- I understand human resources gets 1
6 some. ]
7 A We have human resources for sexual harassment, l
8 racial discrimination, EEOC-type issues; we have 9 environmental; we have fitness-for-duty and security; and i 10 we also have safety. So what we like to do is encourage 11 people to go -- if somebody has been sexually harassed, we l
12 encourage them to go directly to human resources, because l l
l 13 they are the professionals in that. ]
> 14 In our training, we also tell them, if you )
15 don't know where to go, come talk to the employee concerns 16 coordinator. I will listen to what you have; I will get 4
17 you to the right group, to the right people. If for some 18 reason you don't feel comfortable going to human 19 resources, then I will make sure that we get somebody 20 independent to take a look at your issue.
21 The concerns that I look at that actually get 22 a number are those things that have potential nuclear 23 safety or quality implications to them or are sensitive in 24 , another way, and I --
- l 25' I O Radiologically?
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i 1 A IJo . I can give you an example. I was asked by management -- we had an issue with a diesel generator 2
3 where there was a difference of opinion between the 4 technicians working on the job and management. And 5 because management wanted somebody independent to come in 6 and take a look at that and provide them some feedback, 7 they came up to ask me about that. And I assigned a 8 number to that because it was part of a condition report, 9 and it took quite a bit of my time. So that is an other.
10 Q Is it correct that prior to the change in the 11 employee concern group, program, QA concern program used 12 to receive everything?
13 A They used to receive everything including 14 holes in the parking lot, can't get rubber gloves out of 15 the warehouse. It used to be approximately 200 concerns a 16 year.
17 O And since the merge, that number 200 has 18 declined for your statistical purposes to --
19 A About 16. ,
20 Q -- 16 per year.
21 A Yes. There is another factor that I think 22 influences that, and that is we changed the exit process, 23 , where before everyone that exited site would have a 24] mancatory xit interview, whether they had a concern or 25 not A lot of the information that came out of that was i NEAL R. GROSS COURT AEPOATERS AND TRANSCAtBERS
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1 things like holes in the parking lot, or, They laid me off ;
i 2 too early, or whatever.
l 3 What we did -- and this is through customer -
4 input, through the OAT process and work teams and 5 everything else that we did, to determine what this 6 process needed to be. One of the customer inputs was that i t
7 we didn't need to have this mandatory exit, so we changed i 8 the exit form to have a' statement to encourage the raising j i
9 of nuclear safety and quality type concerns, that they ,
10 understand that they are encouraged to do that; this is 11 how to get into the program. And they go ahead and sign 12 off. j 13 0 Do you feel at this time that the EOI employee 14 concern group, program is executing its function as well 15 as it can or should? l 16 A I think so. We are really focused on training 17 of supervisors to let them know how to handle concerns and 18 resolutions. This is the first time we really did 19 wholesale training on Section 2 (11,) and what it is and 20 what they should do and to raise a flag and to get help.
21 And we are currently going full speed on 22 contractor issues and setting the environment. So I think 23 we are trying to do everything possible to keep things 24 from getting to this point 25 0 Right along with what you just said, over the NEAL R. GROSS COUAT AEPORTE AS AND TRANSCRIDE AS 1323 AHODE ISLAND AVENUE. N W i?c2p M44433 W ASHINGTON D C 20005 (202) 2344433
1 last 90 days have you felt like EOI is executing full 2 awareness of employee discrimination because of safety concerns; in other words, 50.7? Are they receiving more 3
4 training, or is more training being -- I guess what I am 5 saying is that within the last 90 days to the present, 6 have you felt that EOI has been more interested in making 7 employees aware of the regulations prohibiting 8 discrimination?
9 A I would say over the ,last 16 months it has 10 been consistent. This new management style makes my job 11 easy. I have ready access to any senior manager, all the I freely 12 way up to Hance and Kaiser -- Kaiser and Hance.
talk to Mr. Sellman, John McGaha about issues. They 13 24 listen and take action. It makes my job extremely easy.
MR. ARMENTA: I don't have any more questions.
15 MR. BOAL: Mr. Maxson, has Jonathan or I or 16 17 any other NRC representative threatened you in any manner 18 or offered you a reward in return for this statement? l 19 THE WITNESS: No.
20 MR. BOAL: Have you provided this statement 21 freely and voluntarily?
l 22 THE WITNESS: Yes.
23 MR. BOAL: We are close to wrapping up this 24 interview, but we would like to offer you an opportunity to provide us with any information you think that we have 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT AEPOATERS AND TRANSCAIBE AS 1323 AHODE ISL AND AVENUE N W l W ASHINGTON O C 20005 (2021 234 4433 202i 234 44U
1 not obtained from you that may help us in our 2 investigation.
3 THE WITNESS: I think that is it.
4 MR. BOAL: Mr. Levanway?
5 MR. LEVANWAY: Just one question.
6 EXAMINATION 7 BY MR. LEVANWAY:
8 0 Craig, when you were describing Mr.
9 Fisicaro's management style and, I think, Mr. Armenta used 10 the word " intimidating" and whether you had heard that and 11 gotten feedback from employees that his management style 12 was at times intimidating, have you ever heard that any 13 employee was intimidated from bringing nuclear safety or 14 quality concerns as a result of Mr. Fisicaro's management 15 style? '
I I
16 A Never.
17 O So when you use the word " intimidating" in ;
18 that sense, you may mean as an employee working for him, 19 but not intimidating to the point ,that you would be scared 1 20 to bring up legitimate nuclear safety or quality concerns.
l A That is correct. Matter of fact, he 21 22 consistently stresses the identify of problems, the 23 resolution of problems, use of the programs, use of 24 vertical communication; is constantly thinking about 25 different ways of improving communications.
l I
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$202: 234 4433
1 We tried a " direct to the director" box to 2 drop information in anonymously or whatever. That wasn't 3 used, but we tried it. He is actively trying different 4 ways of getting people to bring him information and to get 5 the interaction.
6 MR. LEVANWAY: Thank you. That is all.
7 MR. BOAL: It is approximately 12:03 p.m., and 8 this interview is concluded.
9 (Whereupon, at 12:03 p.m., the interview in 10 the above-entitled matter was concluded.)
11 12 13 14 15 1 l
1 16 17 18 19 <
20 21 !
22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS 4 COUAT ut POA1E AS AND T AANSCAiBE AS 1323 AHODE ISLAND AVENUE N W 2021 234 4433 WASHINGTON D C 20005 (202) 2344433 l
nc.r vn i c.n a ut.tu.r mn.s This is to certify that the attached O
proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the matter of:
Name of Proceeding: CRAIG RAYMOND MAXSON Docket Number (s): --
1 Place of Proceeding: St. Francisville, LA were held as herein appears, and that this is the original transcript thereof for the file of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and thereafter I
reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company, and that the transcript is a true i and accurate record of the foregoing proceedings.
l A M o
Sandra McCray Official Reporter i
Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.
I NEAL R. GROSS COURT AE PORTERS AND TR ANSCA10E AS 1323 AHODE ISLAND AVENUE N w (20212M 4431 WASHINGTON O C 20005 (202) 234-4433
d EXHIBIT 80 1
Irformation in this record was deleted in accc: dance with the freedom of information EXHIBIT 80 Act, exemptiore #IC FOIA. Y6 4