Friedeman seeks reappointment to utility regulator
By Jim Provance / The Blade
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:35:17 GMT
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COLUMBUS — The sole northwest Ohioan in more than a decade to serve on the state's powerful regulatory panel overseeing utilities hopes to hold onto his seat.
Commissioner Lawrence K. Friedeman, a Waterville resident and the commission’s only Democrat, was among four names submitted to Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday for possible appointment to a full five-year term on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
A PUCO nominating council interviewed five candidates before forwarding four for consideration.
Mr. Friedeman received 10 positive votes, the second-highest total, from the nominating council.
Also among the four was another Lucas County resident, Holland attorney Stephen R. Serraino. He received nine positive votes. He is general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief ethics officer with investor-owned Upper Peninsula Power Co. in Marquette, Mich.
A political independent, he stressed in his application that “my political views are conservative.”
The only candidate to receive a unanimous 11 votes of support from the council was Gerardo Torres, a finance manager and supervising management analyst for the city of Cincinnati. He’s a Republican.
Rounding out the recommendations was Ronald Russo, a Willoughby attorney and Democrat who has been involved in the development of utility-scale solar farms. He received seven positive votes.
The only one of five candidates interviewed to not make the cut was Robert L. Weise, Jr., a Cleveland attorney and Republican. He received one positive vote.
The PUCO regulates electric and natural gas utilities, telephone companies, water and wastewater companies, rail, and trucking. It determines what costs utilities may pass on to their customers and has come under fire in recent years over surcharges it allowed electric utilities for grid modernization that were later struck down as improper by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which represents residential customers before the commission, has complained that too many of the commissioners were too closely tied to the utilities they now regulate.
Mr. Friedeman was originally appointed in 2017 by then Gov. John Kasich to complete the last three years of an unexpired term.
State law prohibits more than three members of the five-member commissioner from being of the same party. The four other current commissioners include two independents — Sam Randazzo, the chairman, and M. Beth Trombold — and two Republicans — Dennis Deters and Daniel Conway.
All commissioners are appointed by the governor, and this pick would be Mr. DeWine's third in just over a year. He has 30 days to make his selection or to ask the council to submit more names.
Mr. Friedeman's current term will expire on April 10. Prior to joining the commission, he'd spent 20 years in the natural gas sector, most recently as vice president of regulatory affairs and compliance at IGS Energy.
Prior to his appointment, the state panel had not had representation from the Toledo area since Judy Jones left in 2007.