Both candidates for Ohio attorney general are calling for more transparency from a controversial economic-development agency. The comments come after one of them filed an ethics complaint against the lobbyist who also chairs the board of the agency, JobsOhio.
The chairman, Josh Rubin, is also CEO of CJR Group, which counts American Electric Power among its clients. In his role with JobsOhio, the complaint says, he could be in a position to steer millions in what used to be public dollars to the massive utility.
“This calls into question whether Mr. Rubin has used his position as the board director of JobsOhio to create a fund for the benefit of his firm’s lobbying client, AEP,” the complaint filed last week by Democratic Ohio attorney general candidate John Kulewicz says. “This is a serious apparent conflict of interest.”
He was referring to a $100 million fund that would aid the creation of small-modular nuclear reactors. AEP is already exploring construction of such plants in Indiana and Virginia.
JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said that his agency had not yet signed any agreements to disburse the funds.
Rubin didn’t respond to a call requesting comment.
A spokeswoman for AEP said that its regulated business is prohibited by state law from owning generation assets, but a bill in the legislature would change that, allowing it to build nuclear generation and charge customers for for the cost.
JobsOhio has stirred controversy since former Ohio Gov. John Kasich helped lead its creation in 2011. AEP has stirred it more recently.
JobsOhio describes itself as a “a private nonprofit corporation wholly funded by an independent private source.”
However, it was created by the legislature and was given the sole opportunity to lease the state liquor franchise for much less than it was worth. It has since provided more than $1 billion in what at least used to be public money as incentives to businesses, but it has struggled to show that it’s produced significant results.
Even so, Gov. Mike DeWine last year extended JobsOhio’s lease of the liquor franchise to 2053, without making it return any more money to taxpayers.
And almost since its beginning, the agency has been accused of conflicts of interest and other cozy arrangements.
In 2014, the Ohio Ethics Commission notified two Marathon Petroleum Corp. executives who also sat on the JobsOhio board that they had potential conflicts because Marathon was receiving benefits from JobsOhio.
Other board members’ ties to corporations enjoying JobsOhio largesse have included Sherwin-Williams, Bob Evans, Procter & Gamble, and Manta Media.
Then in 2024 came news that JobsOhio granted more than $2 million in economic incentives to a company run by a man who also heads up a regional entity created by JobsOhio.
Most recently, the public learned in March that JobsOhio gave $60,000 to a woman with whom then-Ohio State President Ted Carter had an “inappropriate relationship.”
She was paid to produce four podcasts, but only one was made.
Exempt from open-records law, JobsOhio refused to say whether it had underwritten any podcasts other than one by a special friend of the president of Ohio’s flagship university. Carter resigned over the relationship.
Kulewicz, the Democratic AG candidate, told Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer that Rubin’s dual status as chairman of the JobsOhio board and lobbyist for AEP might raise the appearance of a conflict.
“In effect, JobsOhio, using Ohio liquor profits, is paying AEP to develop mini-nuclear reactors that will have little to no local oversight and be owned by the utility company itself,” Kulewicz said in a written statement. “And the CEO of the firm that lobbies for AEP is the chairman of the state agency that is granting the $100 million to develop the technology.”
Englehart, the JobsOhio press secretary, said no money for reactors has been released. He added that his agency has rules to avoid ethical conflicts.
“JobsOhio and its board of directors conduct themselves to the highest ethical standards,” Englehart said in an email. “We don’t discuss the companies we are in conversations with. Any board member with an actual or possible conflict of interest on specific grant or loan proposals for a company must disclose it and it and will recuse themselves from discussions and voting on such proposal.”
Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, the Republican candidate for attorney general, said that JobsOhio should be more transparent.
“I’ve been a consistent proponent of sunshine in government throughout my career,” Faber said in an email. “I’ve called for more transparency at JobsOhio specifically, but that must be tempered by its structure and purpose. The General Assembly created JobsOhio as a public/private partnership, and that comes with limitations.”
And while AEP said that state law doesn’t allow its regulated business from owning generating capacity, President and CEO Bill Fehrman in May told shareholders it was interested in doing so in some capacity.
“… we continue to evaluate nuclear solutions, aiming to position AEP at the forefront of next generation baseload technologies,” he said. “As we have previously mentioned, we are actively reviewing several potential sites and interconnection locations as we assess how nuclear can play a meaningful role in the future to support load growth.”
With a bill in the legislature to change ownership rules and with JobsOhio creating a $100 million fund to subsidize the business, AEP might be interested in getting some of that money.
Asked if Rubin has a conflict in his roles as chairman of the JobsOhio board and CEO of a lobbying firm that works for American Electric Power, AEP spokeswoman Tammy Ridout said Rubin didn’t work directly on her company’s account.
“Two members of CJR Group, not Josh Rubin, work with that regulated side of the business,” Ridout said in an email.
As CEO and founder of CJR Group, Rubin is likely to share in any profits the firm receives from its business with AEP.
The utility has stirred controversy of its own.
It paid more than $900,000 through a 501(c)(4) dark-money group to support a ratepayer-financed bailout that has been called one of the the biggest bribery scandals in Ohio history. AEP wasn’t accused of criminality, but it received well over $200 million from the bailout.
In addition, the politician at the center of the scandal, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison for his involvement.
Just after the bailout passed in 2019, AEP funneled another $500,000 through the same dark-money group to fund a plan that could have kept Householder in the speaker’s chair well into the 2030s, witnesses testified at his trial.
Earlier this year, with Ohioans’ electricity bills spiking, AEP generated more controversy when the Energy and Policy Institute reported that CEO Fehrman will receive $37 million this year — making him by far the highest-paid utility executive in the United States.
Ridout said her company objects to the notion that AEP might put the interests of its executives and shareholders ahead of those of its customers.
“Any suggestion that we would pursue actions contrary to the best interests of our customers is categorically false,” she said. “Putting our customers first and operating with integrity are our top priorities, and we take issue with any implication to the contrary.”
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.