In honor of her retirement and incredible work over the years, Coash Court Reporting and Video held a celebration for her at our office with friends, family and co-workers.
We will miss Colette’s gracious demeanor, fashion sense, professionalism, patience and of course her first-class court reporting skills! Thank you, Colette!
Colette Ross Career Story
I was at ASU at the time, practicing on the tennis team. Among the “groupies” as I call them, the men that would try to play tennis with us, was a middle-aged man who appeared at least three times a week with his wife. I asked him what his job was that allowed him this opportunity. He said he was a court reporter. My father, an attorney, filled me in on the specifics. My main goal was to have a family. Court reporting would allow me the flexibility to move and still work easily should my husband get transferred.
After finishing training at Legal Arts in 1981, I was fortunate to be hired by Donnie Stickley, one of the finest writers in Arizona. She was a front-runner of firms using computers for transcription, so that is how I began. For eight years I worked with Stickley & Associates, which became Stickley & Schutzman. Jeep rollover accident/injury cases were plentiful for me, as the two experts in the nation were in AZ, Bob Anderson and John Noettl. In 1989 my first child was born and we were off to Florida, where I did not work.
12 years later, in 2001, we returned to Phoenix. Donnie Stickley had moved to CA, and I became a staff writer for AZRS, Marta Hetzer. Marta’s work included the Arizona Corporation Commission, hence most of my work. Working with Marta, who has exceptional experience with the ACC, was a wonderful experience in that my knowledge of hearings, utilities, the reporter’s role, and people expanded tremendously.
One memorable case was a line siting case, a hearing to site electric lines heard by an 11-member committee, usually held in a ballroom at a hotel, called Sun Zia. It consisted of three weeks, three different locations, writing on location, which was out in the desert with an expandable tripod. This line was to be two 500kV lines in the San Pedro River Valley. Three pro per intervenors were against it. They put on a very professional case as laymen, but the Committee found in favor of the utility company to site the line. At the Open Meeting, the meeting at which the five commissioners decide the case, having received the Committee’s recommendation, the parties have their final chances to convince the Commission. The discussion was riveting, the intervenors pleading their cases, and Mr. Bert Acken, attorney for the utility, citing to the hearing transcript, 15 volumes, within seconds to counter the intervenors’ points. The commissioners can only base their decisions on the record. The Commission’s decision was 3-2 in favor of the line.
To be a part of that entire process was interesting and exciting, but I am one on a team. My notes would be emailed to my scoper, Jeffrey King, four times a day. After the hearing, back at the hotel, I would retrieve his email back to me and start reading and proofing. It was a three-day turnaround, so Marta and her assistant, Jamie Stewart, would be doing the computer work to make them into bundles and send to the appropriate email addresses, which they had determined before we started. Working as a reporter is much like being on a tennis team. One plays her match, but it counts as one point for the whole team. Same with reporting; the reporter is one aspect of the entire job.
In 2014, AZRS and Coash and Coash were joined. My Commission work remained, but I did depositions as well. Three that stand out are one that involved a young lady pro tennis player and her coach, a photographer who was suing a sculptor for copyright infringement, and a criminal multi-day deposition of an informant for the Chandler PD for drugs that involved the death of a policeman.
Coash and Coash’s clients are super people. I joked with Meri Coash that she and GTC have trained them well in taking depositions. All are a pleasure to cover their depositions. The staff at Coash and Coash. including the videographers, production, and scheduling, is supportive of the reporter.
Having done all that, my retirement is so great. What I will miss will be the people I have met and from whom I have learned so much.