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Central Point fined for man's electrocution City appeals, blaming death on Pacific Power By CHRIS BRISTOL CENTRAL POINT -- The city is appealing fines totaling more than $11,000 for alleged safety violations that culminated in the electrocution of an employee last summer. In a report released Monday, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division issued five citations totaling $11,100 in fines in connection with the death of Jason Menteer, a public works employee who was killed Aug. 30 when a co-worker accidentally cut a buried powerline while Menteer was standing in a water-filled trench holding a pipe. OR-OSHA said the accident was preventable. The agency said Menteer was not equipped with protective clothing -- including shock-resistant rubber gloves -- and the foreman failed to confirm the existence of live wires near the leaky water line where Menteer was working. The report also said city employees have not received enough training for electrical hazards -- even though a similar incident occurred four months earlier. All five violations were defined by OR-OSHA as "serious." All but one -- lack of training -- should be corrected immediately, the agency demanded. But the city has appealed, disputing the violations as unwarranted second-guessing. Moreover, city officials are blaming the accident on Pacific Power, saying an inexperienced utility worker negligently identified three exposed powerlines as the only ones the crew had to worry about. "All the lines were not located by Pacific Power," City Administrator Jim Bennett said Tuesday. "It was one of those lines that ended up being the one that came in contact ... with the water line." Meanwhile, a Portland attorney who represents Menteer's family said he tends to agree with the city's assessment -- setting the stage for a possible lawsuit against the utility company. "We don't know that the city of Central Point has done anything wrong," Dan Dzuiba said. "In hindsight, you may look back and say there was some things (the city) could have done differently, but I think what you have to look at is who are the experts here, and the expert is Pacific Power & Light." A spokesman for the Portland-based utility, which was recently acquired by ScottishPower, did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment. The accident was the region's second work-related electrocution in seven days. A logger was killed Aug. 23 near Lost Creek Lake when a tree hit a powerline, sparking a small brushfire. Menteer, 23, had worked for the city public works department less than a year. His father, Larry Menteer, is the state watermaster for Jackson County. Menteer was part of a three-man maintenance crew that had responded to reports -- in the rain, at 2:30 a.m. -- of water bubbling up through the asphalt in the 900 block of Crest Drive, where scars in the road show evidence of repairs to utilities. According to the OR-OSHA report, a Pacific Power employee known as a "locator" notified the crew that electrical lines lay underground within two feet of the trouble spot. The crew began to dig a trench in the street, using a backhoe and shovels, and soon found three live lines. The locator told the crew to be cautious, the report said. He then left, responding to reports of a transformer problem in Phoenix. After finding the source of the problem, the foreman decided to replace a piece of copper tubing with another copper tube. Menteer was standing in about five inches of water in the trench, steadying the pipe coupling, when the backhoe hit a still-buried street-light cable.. Unable to let go of the pipe, Menteer was jolted by a steady stream of electricity from the 121-volt cable, the report said. Co-worker Robert Lund was badly shocked when he tried to help, and so was the foreman, Randy McCartney, who pushed both men clear with a wooden broom handle. In its report, OR-OSHA questioned McCartney's decision to repair the water line in the dark and rain, and noted the Pacific Power employee warned the crew they would find "all kinds of wires" in the trench. It also noted that another city employee received a shock in April, about 300 feet farther down the street. But city officials insist the Pacific Power employee indicated the three wires the crew found were the only ones in close proximity to the water line. "It turns out there were many more than three lines in there, 11 or 12 perhaps," Bennett said. Dziuba, the Menteer family attorney, said he is waiting for a copy of the OR-OSHA report. Under Oregon's workers compensation law, which dates back to 1913, the city probably has no liability, he noted. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA