A little more brightness at future STRS meetings?

More than a charade

Cincinnati Post, April 10, 2007

A curious bit of political theater has been playing out in Columbus over the past few days.

You could, if you were so inclined, call it a charade. But we prefer to think of it as a morality play.

The lead actors in this little drama are Ohio's newly-elected attorney general, Marc Dann, a Democrat with a reputation as something of a flamethrower; Ted Strickland, Ohio's newly-elected governor, a Democrat with a sedate temperament but a demonstrated willingness to stir the pot; and four of the five members of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio - Alan Schriber, a Cincinnati resident, political independent and veteran chairman of the regulatory panel; Valerie Lemmie, the former Cincinnati city manager, also a political independent; Ronda Hartman Fergus, a Republican; and Paul Centolella, a Democrat who once worked for the Ohio Consumers' Counsel.

Schriber, Lemmie and Fergus were appointed to their positions by former Gov. Bob Taft. Per standard practice, Taft had made his choices from lists of nominees - four for each post - that had been sent to him by the 12-member PUCO Nominating Council. Strickland appointed Centolella through a similar process, but he has not yet been sworn in.

Last week, Dann publicly called on Schriber, Lemmie and Fergus to resign, and opined that Fergus' pending appointment should be invalidated as well. Dann had taken it upon himself to review the procedures used by the nominating committee, and discovered that it had voted in secret sessions to approve the nominees. Ohio's "sunshine'' law, Dann noted, requires that such votes be taken in public session.

To his credit, Strickland promptly made it known that he would reappoint Schriber, Lemmie and Fergus if they resigned, provided that the nominating committee properly recommended them to him in an open session.

That set the stage for what happened Friday, when the trio submitted their resignations, effective April 15, from jobs that pay more than $95,000 a year. (The pay is just part of the reason PUCO appointments are prized; they are also posts that exercise considerable power over key parts of Ohio's infrastructure.)

The nominating committee is now gearing up to not only reconsider the three impending vacancies, but to redo Centolella's nomination as well.

Much ado about nothing? Superficially, maybe. But the underlying point is quite important. Sunshine laws - which declare that government meetings, records and the like should be open to the public - are hugely important, not just to the press, but to all Ohio citizens. Dann is absolutely right to insist that state agencies abide by the letter of the law. If it takes a stunt like this to drive home that point, so be it.

Strickland also deserves a round of applause here. Dann presented him with an opportunity to stack the PUCO with commissioners who are more in tune with his philosophy regarding electrical power generation, telecommunications policy and the like. By honoring his predecessor's appointments, Strickland not only refrained from politicizing the PUCO, but also buttressed Dann's contention that he was just trying to do the right thing by insisting that Ohio's sunshine laws are obeyed.