SBTC Continues to Hold UCR Board Accountable for Unlawful Activities
UCR Chairman Resigns as
UCR Board Faces
Motion for Contempt,
Data Breach Scandal,
and Allegations of Unlawfully
Imposing Unpromulgated Fees on Carriers for over a Decade. Secretary Chao Set to Appoint Four New Board Members as UCR Directors Jump Ship...
The UCR Board of Directors has announced the resignation of its chairman Avelino Guiterrez of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. Guiterrez has chaired the Board since its inception in 2007, when Congress replaced the Single State Registration System with the Unified Carrier Registration program.
According to a UCR Board Newsletter issued earlier this month, Guiterrez will be replaced by Elizabeth Leaman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. The Board has also announced the appointment of four new Directors. Terry Mercer (R.I. Division of Public Utilities and Carriers) and Marci Kelley (Michigan State Police) have joined Lewie Pugh (OOIDA) and Bill Debord (Kentucky Division of Motor Carriers) as Acting Directors on the UCR Board. All are awaiting final confirmation of their appointments by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Under the UCR Act, the Board can have no more than 15 Directors.
The Board is currently facing a Motion for Contempt in the Sunshine Act lawsuit filed by SBTC in 2017.
The Board is also navigating its way through a data breach scandal reported by the SBTC in which hundreds of thousands of trucker and carriers' social security numbers were publicly exposed by the Board on its website during the month of March. The Board effected a Federal register notice last month during which it announced it would hold a secret session closed to the publicto discuss the data breach.
Apparently, some Board members have decided to jump ship, including the UCR chairman, rather than face the music. SBTC will be sending life jackets to the new incoming Board members.
