Judge to replace PUCO commissioner
Gov. Mike Dewine announced his long-awaited pick to replace former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio leader Sam Randazzo, who resigned last year amid questions about a $4 million payment from Firstenergy and an FBI search of his home.
Dewine picked former Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Jenifer French, a Republican, over candidates with more experience with the energy industry and utilities. She will serve as chairwoman.
“She has no background in the industry period, which I think in this unique point in time is a real asset,” Dewine said during a Cleveland City Club interview. He said French had a reputation of studying complex matters to come to a just conclusion.
Other finalists included Daniel Shields of the Ohio Office of Consumers’ Counsel and Virginia King of Marathon Petroleum. Dewine rejected the first batch of finalists, which included former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith French. He appointed her to lead the Ohio Department of Insurance.
Dewine has faced heightened scrutiny for his utility regulator picks because of a federal investigation into the passage of House Bill 6, which included a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants in northern Ohio thenowned by Firstenergy Solutions.
That investigation led to the arrest of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others, two of whom have pleaded guilty to their roles in a nearly $61 million bribery scheme.
Randazzo, who has not been charged, is suspected of receiving a $4.3 million payment from Akron-based Firstenergy that led the utility regulator to act “at the request and for the benefit” of the company. The payment, uncovered as part of the company’s internal investigation following the arrests, led to the firing of CEO Chuck Jones and two other executives.
Randazzo’s longstanding ties to utilities and his opposition to renewable energy were well-known when Dewine selected him to lead the PUCO in early 2019. Randazzo frequently briefed the
exposing themselves to retaliation by virtue of their contact with the Court,” she wrote in asking the committee “take the appropriate action.”
The court could not move on the cases of the prisoners due to legal deficiencies, but it does not mean their allegations “have fallen on deaf ears,” Justice Michael Donnelly wrote in an opinion accompanying one of the dismissals.
“I applaud Chief Justice O’connor’s action of requesting that the CIIC investigate the allegations raised in this matter,” Donnelly wrote.
Joellen Smith, spokeswoman for the state prisons agency, said the inmates’ allegations are being taken seriously and are being reviewed. The agency will cooperate with any inquiry by the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, she said.
The inmates at the prison west of Columbus whose complaints of mistreatment have been forwarded to state lawmakers are Jake W. Faulkner III, 45, and James M. Cline, 53.
Faulkner is serving a near-sevenyear sentence from Wood and Hancock counties for drug trafficking and other charges.
Cline is serving a 58-year sentence from for telephone and internet harassment of women who spurned his interest, intimidation of victims, menacing and conspiracy to aggravated arson.
rludlow@dispatch.com