The next chapter in Ohio’s long-running Statehouse bribery scandal begins with an 11-count federal indictment against former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo.
The Justice Department has finally followed the logic of the July, 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with FirstEnergy which stipulated that a $4.3 million payment to Randazzo was a bribe to help pass legislation worth $2 billion to the Akron utility ( “Former utilities regulator is indicted, faces 11 counts,” Tuesday ).
Randazzo’s alleged crimes amount to working for FirstEnergy when his duty was to the citizens of Ohio. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is serving a 20-year prison sentence over the same criminal issue.
The evidence from Householder’s trial, Randazzo’s indictment, and FirstEnergy’s plea bargain indicates the bribes were authorized by FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones and Vice President Michael Dowling. Both Jones and Dowling deny wrongdoing but the Justice Department must be as aggressive in combating corporate crime as they are in prosecuting state government corruption. It literally takes two to tango.
We hope the indictment of Randazzo will spur the Ohio legislature to strengthen state law against corruption. House Bill 16, a comprehensive ethics reform package sponsored by Rep. Derek Merrin (R., Monclova Township) in response to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, has languished after two perfunctory hearings.
Legislation recommended by the Ohio Ethics Commission, also as a direct result of the federal corruption investigation, was ignored by state lawmakers. There have been no proposed reforms from Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. Husted followed up on his work to make Randazzo PUCO chairman with the unprecedented step to take a paid corporate board position. Representative Merrin’s proposed ethics legislation would prohibit Ohio Constitutional officers from serving on a corporate board.
It shouldn’t take a law to know a public official cannot serve two masters and must always avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest.
But in the nine months since convictions in the FirstEnergy bribery case there has been no effort to change Ohio law to protect citizens from corrupt officials.
The Justice Department said evidence suggested those in power knew about Householder and FirstEnergy’s corruption and did nothing while it was happening, despite a $2 billion cost to citizens.
The 20-year prison sentence imposed on Householder was considered necessary to deter government corruption in Ohio because there had been no sign of protective response from state government.
That is still the case as Randazzo faces bribery charges.
Governor DeWine’s greatest failure is not the appointment of Randazzo despite knowledge of his ties to FirstEnergy, it’s the lack of reform to prevent the corruption rocking his administration from continuing in the future.
Yet, neither DeWine nor majority Republicans in the legislature appear ready to reform the corrupt way of doing business in the Capitol.
