COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has begun the process of replacing its former chairman who resigned earlier this month after his home was searched by the FBI.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Nominating Council announced Monday it is seeking applications for the empty commission spot, vacant since former PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo resigned on Nov. 20.
The term, one of five on the PUCO, will expire on April 10, 2024. The nominating council, a panel of 12 people who mostly are appointed by the governor and state legislative leaders, is responsible for screening possible PUCO commissioners and making a recommendation to the governor, who makes the final decision.
Candidates must have at least three years’ experience in one or more of the following fields: economics, law, finance, accounting, engineering, physical or natural sciences, natural resources or environmental studies.
The PUCO oversees the regulation of utilities in Ohio. Commissioners’ salary range is from $73,715 to $195,728.
The process is the same that led the PUCO nominating council to submit Randazzo’s name and three others to Gov. Mike DeWine last January. DeWine picked Randazzo, a lawyer who previously had represented utilities and large industrial utility users before the PUCO.
Randazzo resigned the same week the FBI searched his Columbus home, and a day after FirstEnergy Corp. revealed in a filing that it fired CEO Chuck Jones and two other senior executives last month over a questionable $4 million payment the company made in early 2019 to an entity associated with an unnamed person who subsequently was hired by the state to regulate utilities.
In a resignation letter, Randazzo said the impression left by the FBI raid and FirstEnergy’s filing, along with the accompanying publicity, “will, right or wrong, fuel suspicions about and controversy over decisions I may render in my current capacity.”
The FBI search came amid an ongoing federal investigation into House Bill 6, which will send over $1 billion to two financially troubled nuclear plants owned by Energy Harbor, a former FirstEnergy subsidiary.
In July, then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four allies were arrested and charged with running a $60 million bribery scheme using FirstEnergy money to secure the passage of HB6 and fend off a potential referendum to overturn it.
Two of Householder’s allies -- political aide Jeff Longstreth and ex-FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist Juan Cespedes -- have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scandal, though Householder and the other two remaining defendants have maintained their innocence.
Neither Randazzo, nor any FirstEnergy or Energy Harbor officials, have been charged with any wrongdoing so far.