RONALD JAMES RUSSO

 

4834 Wood Street, Willoughby, Ohio 44094

Home: (440) 951-4394, Cellular (440) 339-5125, Office(440)-951-4394

E-Mail: rrusso1@sbcglobal.net

 

Online student of the Energy Center of Excellence Electrical Transmission Grid Management program at Bismarck State College

 

Professional Objective: To secure an energy trading and/or compliance associate position trading energy.

Energy Trading Knowledge and Experience

• Experienced with FERC EQR and 552 reporting.

• Deep understanding of the ISO markets for PJM, ISONE, and NYISO.

 

+Knowledge of regulatory requirements (i.e. FERC, NERC, EIA, etc.) assigned to ER&T Trading Operations such as FERC EQRs, FERC 552, NERC self-certification reports and various ISO requests.

 

+ Highly ranked student at Energy Center of Excellence with deep understanding of electrical grid management and operations and all governmental relationships and responsibilities.

 

+Deep understanding of Locational Market Pricing (congestion point pricing) and interconnections between control areas and transfer points of power with associated e-tags.

 

+ Deep understanding of  Sarbanes Oxley Act related activities assigned to the Trading Operations group
• Assist with special projects such as Dodd-Frank implementation, external assessments, integration of new business activities, etc.

 

LEGAL EDUCATION

Cleveland - Marshall College of Law, Cleveland, Ohio - Juris Doctor Degree, May, 1996-evening student-concentrations in real estate, corporate and local government law.

 

Activities: Cleveland-Marshall Building & Construction Committee, Cleveland Marshall Environmental Law Association, and Student Public Interest Law Organization.).

 

Pre-Legal Work Experience

 

Law Clerk-Wiles & Richards, Willoughby, Ohio

Worked on as-needed basis on matters relating to zoning, construction, land use and local government law Summer, 1995.

 

Building and Zoning Inspector- Willoughby Building Dept., Willoughby, Ohio class I, III and V State Certified Building Inspector (all building types) June, 1992 - June, 1996. Plans (building code) examination experience of four (4) years. Cost estimation review for municipal projects and for charitable organizations.

 

Land Use Planner and Construction Manager- Ryan Homes, Bishop Homes and Developers Diversified (June 1987 –1992) Northeast and Southwestern Ohio regions.

Land use planner for Meadowbrook Development in Twinsburg, Rosewood Estates in Strongsville, Ohio. Also trained as a construction technician and construction manager.  Experience in construction management in single family, multi-family, commercial strip centers, small malls, up to 5 story office and medical office buildings, rehab of distressed commercial and office buildings, and land design for industrial parks, mixed use and office complexes in Twinsburg, Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio areas. Working on Certified Planning License from the APA along with my CPL (certified professional landman ) and IRWA license (International Right of Way).

 

 

PRE-LEGAL EDUCATION

Cleveland State University (Levin College of Urban Affairs), Cleveland, Ohio B.A. City Planning, June 1987

B.A. Political Science & Economics, June 1987.  Will have AICP-certification pending.

Activities: Student Government Senator, Student Financial Aid Representative

 

NOTE: Where “Contract” is stated before a position it denotes that my company, Russo Site Consultants, LLC served those companies as consultant to that project.

 

EXPERIENCE:

 

Contract-Independent site acquisition and entitlements  (1996-present)-Three Real Estate Development Companies -Searching Zoning Maps, Tax Maps, Title Reports, Establish Strong Landowner Relationships for Effective Negotiations, Feasibility Studies, pro formas, interfacing with site planners, civil engineers, environmental scientists, zoning and elected officials, and contractors. Able to bridge developer’s needs with landowners and entitlement officials to effectively option/purchase and entitle residential developments for multiple real estate developers.

a)      Develop effective relationships with attorneys, lenders, equity providers, appraisers, environmental consultants and contractors, market study firms, engineers and architects on each of their areas of expertise and able to negotiate fee and scope of  services in the assembly of development teams.

b)     Experience with storm, sanitary and run-off drainage issues and permitting for storm and sanitary sewers from both Federal, State, county and local authorities. Ensure that the development team is completing their project-related tasks in a timely manner according to the project timeline.

c)      Experience with environmental issues dealing with “endangered species” and wetland issues along with “affected watershed and habitat areas” along with negotiating environmental set-asides. Examination for compliance of energy conservation code in Ohio (derived from federal energy codes-DOE).

d)     Work with the construction department on the engineering of project surveyor and engineer and contractors, negotiate fee and scope of services for surveys and site plans.

e)      Work with paralegal and attorney on a timely review of title commitments and identification and resolution of acceptable title clouds.

f)       Drafting legal memorandums and preparing exhibits for litigation when lawsuits must be filed.

g)     Preparation of all entitlement documents (including environmental permits) such as filings for subdivision permits, any and all variance requests, platting, easements and recordations, and appearing and speaking at Boards of Zoning Appeals, Planning Commissions, Council hearings, Sign Review hearings, Ingress-Egress Boards, and any and all neighborhood organizations (including setting up “tea meetings” with concerned neighbors and activists), County Development Boards, State Agricultural set-aside agencies, Conservation Conservancies and politicians. Working with historic review boards, helping local neighborhood development associations apply for grants and government loans in the interest of future development requests.

h)     Drafting purchase agreements, options, lease/options, right of way agreements, easements, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, trust deeds, bankruptcies and stays, agreements on payments in lieu of taxes, all types of deeds, and other ownership interests, public notices, exemptions from deed restrictions, filing and addressing members and the public at Boards of Building Appeals hearings and drafting and representing tax relief and/or diminution appeals.

i)       Acquisition of land mostly through undisclosed principal method usually using checkerboard techniques to avoid higher land acquisition costs due to landowner/realtor speculation and development moratoriums from local municipalities.

j)       Examining federal, state, County and local development plans (also local master plans) and requests from communities for future corridor infrastructure development (market research). Examining and tracking where utilities and sewers will be built in what transportation corridors along with current and future government grants applications and approvals and spending mixed with demographic data to judge what areas will be further developed and what timeline can be established to reduce developers infrastructure costs.

k)     Examining and writing appeals (when necessary) based on local government’s development impact fee studies and reports (and invoices) when they are deemed excessive by my clients (turning lanes, traffic lights, park and recreational set asides, roadway congestion issues, etc.).

l)       Research and preparation of all traffic studies and demographic studies for proposed developments.

m)   Assist in preparation of project phase proposals and timelines, project budgets and vendor, consultant and contractor budgets, and contracting agreements. Assist in developing, processing and maintaining timelines and critical issue identification, critical action plans, as well as manage the entitlement and due diligence progress for all development issues (including all utility, ROW and environmental requirements).

n)     Assist in preparation and review of homeowner association’s agreements.

o)     Understand and leverage relationship with debt, equity and gap financing institutions toward benefiting the economic interests of the developer.

p)     Working knowledge development budget line items and how they are quantified and what are the biggest threats to each budget line item.

 

Wind Development Experience: (2002-Present) Trained and worked under William Moore of Atlantic Renewable Corp. from 2002-2004 on Maple Ridge Wind Farm in upstate NY (currently 300+ MW and now owned by Iberdrola). Site acquisition work consisting of negotiating and leasing land from upstate NY farmers and landowners. ROW work for power lines (underground and above ground including permitting for power line upgrades), pulling deeds, title examination. Worked with community leaders on entitlements and tax issues. Twelve years of public speaking experience. Leased over 3,000 acres.

A.)                          Worked on an upstate (Lewis County) wind project for Reserve Energy that has been in a stall stage since 2005.

B.)                           Now have two (2) wind projects in development with wind farm developers with a third almost ready for sale in Northeast, Ohio. Projects are 9,000 acres and 3,000 acres with new wind project that will be 7,000 acres.

C.)                           Attended AWEA conferences in Los Angeles and Houston along with AWEA’s wind finance meetings in NYC. Will be attending the offshore wind development workshop on Sept. 9 & 10^th, 2008.

D.)                          Solar experience limited to acquiring land area to develop 30 MW project in Arizona.

E.)                           Entitlement work obtaining zoning approvals from all applicable jurisdictions.

 

Contract-Reserve Energy & Exploration and Bass Energy Corporation: (September 2004-present) Site acquisition and leasing along with right of way negotiations and document preparation, courthouse work and title examination and working with engineers and geologists in Cleveland, Ohio and Auburn and Watertown, NY. Average lease acreage per week is 800+ acres. Total acreage per year was 31,000 under contract.

 

Atwell-Hicks Engineering Corporation: (2012-2013) Director of easement acquisition for the Marcellus and Utica pipeline projects from gathering pipelines through interstate pipelines. Managed between 10-32 site acquisition professionals.

 

Contract-Site Acquisition/Zoning Manager-T-Mobile Corp. (formerly VoiceStream Corporation) (May 2001-August 2009)

Site acquisition (leasing), zoning and building permit acquisition of 20 sites at a time (majority in Cuyahoga County). Initial work was completed in their launch phase and required extremely fast results on all sites. I also completed "difficult sites" that other contractors could not complete. Currently working on urban and suburban zoning issues.

 

Contract-Site acquisition/Zoning manager-Nextel Corporation- (February 2001-June 2001)

Manage the site acquisition and zoning work from search rings through building permit with the same type of duties as the AT&T Wireless Wireless position that is detailed below.

 

Contract-Site acquisition/Zoning Manager-Infinity Outdoor Systems-Viacom Corp. (September 2000-2002)

Duties include zoning research, lease negotiation and zoning of billboards along N.E. Ohio Interstates.

 

Contract-Zoning Director-AT&T Wireless-Northeast Ohio Region (December 15, 1998-August 11, 2000)

Manage the zoning duties from research on search rings (general or site specific), preparation of zoning application with all required documents, attend and direct the public zoning meetings, negotiate with government entities on zoning issues and secure zoning letters or certificates. Zoned 43 sites since December 15^th 1998 to August 1999.

 

Contract-Fiber Optic Cable Leasing and Layout representative duties also included from July 1999 to 2001 under AT&T Wireless and Bechtel Corporation through the ComNet contract at AT&T Wireless in the Northeast Ohio region. Also, worked on Right of Way project on Fiber Optic deployment for Sprint Corporation working with Norfolk-Southern and Conrail railroad track and off site ROW’s

 

Contract-Director of Real Estate and Zoning-Slane TelCom for the Ohio MARCS Project (Multi Agency Radio Communication System for the State of Ohio). (January 15, 1999-August 1999).

Research and report feasibility and difficulty of all MARCS sites from a zoning and site acquisition standpoint. Negotiate with BTS landlords for option/lease rights and complete all leasing, zoning and building permit procedures on state and private land.

 

Contract-Manager of Leasing, Site Acquisition & Zoning- Cingular Corp. formerly known as Ameritech Wireless Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. (August 1997-November 1998)  Manage the leasing and purchase process including three (3) site acquisition agents and all lease and purchase negotiations. Lease and purchase negotiations include all phases through execution and recording of memorandums of lease. Zoning duties with outside legal counsel (Calfee, Halter & Griswold of Cleveland, Ohio. One hundred and seven (107) leases executed for the year and personally zoned seven (7) telecommunication sites. Lease types ranged from raw land, water towers, rooftops, co-locations and various governmental entities including townships, villages, cities, counties, state, federal and special use districts. Negotiated master leases with Sprint, NorthCoast Communications, Centerior Energy and multiple railroads.

 

Contract-Zoning Manager/Project Mgr.-Entitlements & Leasing Rep. Working on AT&T's Cleveland PCS Project Tynan Group, North Olmsted, Ohio

Full charge zoning and entitlement Manager who has zoned over 45 telecommunication sites in 18 months. Supervised and strategized all departmental zoning from Research and Analysis, position papers, governmental briefings and negotiations, coordinating drawings with architects and engineers. Applications with supporting documents, through final negotiations and presentations to county, state and local governments. Building Permit applications assembled and submitted through final approval. Raw land, rooftops, Co-locations and replacement approval at over 90% in cities, villages, townships, county, state, federal, exempt, special and school districts. Extensive application of township (O.R.C 519.211) tower regulations. Trained in-house by Tynan Group on” Wise and Effective use of Public Relations". Site acquisition duties included driving assigned search rings, examining and ordering tax records, title reports and lease information sheets, landowner negotiations, oversight of search area reports, examining zoning potential (site needed to be leasable, zonable, and contractible) preparation of site acquisition, RF feasibility, memorandum of lease, and option forms. 

July 1996 to January 1997.

Civic Interests and Experience:

 

Willoughby Board of Zoning Appeals and Sign Review Board- (2000-2005). Appointed by Mayor David Anderson.

 

Immaculate Conception Church-Finance Member- (1999-2005)

 

Cleveland Catholic Diocese-site acquisition work for Lake County Cemetery- (1999-2000)

 

CYO Junior High football and Track Coach – (1998-present)