Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director
(216) 861-5200

February 5, 2007

After sixteen years of State coziness with utilities, consumers have been looking for some relief. Unfortunately, the panel that sends the short list of Public Utilities Commissioner candidates to the Governor is as cozy as ever. 

The composition of the nominating panel is set by statute, theoretically providing representatives of a range of interest groups to review the applications for members of the PUCO.  However, selections by the Governor and legislative leaders have given a bloc of slots to the very utilities that are regulated by the PUCO. 

Here’s how it works. The twelve-member board includes, by statute, five appointees of the Governor and legislative leaders, and representatives of seven agencies and associations. The elected officials filled their slots as follows:

• One appointee by the Ohio House Speaker: Dan Helmick, lobbyist for Embarq (Sprint) and First Communications (FirstEnergy)
• One appointee by the Ohio Senate President: Thomas C. Green, lobbyist for AT&T and Columbia Gas
• One Governor's appointee representing "regulated utilities": Marvin Resnick, AEP
• One Governor's appointee representing the "business community": Christie Angel, AT&T lobbyist
• One Governor's appointee representing "organized labor": Seth Rosen, Communication Workers of America

Agency and association representatives are as follows: the Ohio Consumers' Counsel Governing Board (Jerome Solove, Chair), Accountancy Board (Ronald Rotaru), State Board of Registration for Professional Engineer and Surveyors (Bert Dawson, Chairman), Ohio State Bar Association (Dan Conway, an attorney for Porter Wright who specializes in representing American Electric Power), Ohio Municipal League (Robert Vincenzo), and two agencies which report to the Governor:  Ohio Department of Development (Lauren Goode, Chief of Staff), and Ohio Department of Aging (Harry Meshel).