To do this story, the Dayton Daily News examined records provided by PUCO that detailed travel expenses since 2009 for its commissioners. The records showed that PUCO, which is funded through utility bills, spent $156,082 in travel for the commissioners since 2009.
Just before the holidays, all five commissioners and 15 employees of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio flew to Florida, stayed at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek next to Walt Disney World and attended a five-day utility regulators conference.
The cost to Ohio utility customers: $34,660.
No one says government agencies shouldn’t spend money on staff training or travel to important conferences. But small public boards — and some big ones — don’t get much public scrutiny when it comes to travel to meetings or conferences, and the public is often in the dark about how much is spent and what it is spent on.
Last year, two members of the School Employees Retirement System cancelled plans to travel to Hawaii for a conference, but only after intense media attention and a threat by state officials to block expense reimbursements for the entire pension system.
Records examined by the Dayton Daily News on the Orlando trip show that PUCO officials attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, a trade group representing state utility regulators. PUCO pays $23,689 annually to be members of NARUC and pays tuition and conference registration fees to attend its functions.
The conference agenda included meetings scheduled for eight hours a day, plus meals sponsored by those who want to influence regulators, such as America’s Natural Gas Alliance or Alstrom, an international energy giant. Three of the staff members attending the conference had their expenses covered in part by NARUC in exchange for serving on panels and one commissioner had her expenses offset by another outside group.
Henry Eckhart, an attorney who served as a PUCO chairman in the early 1970s, questioned the expense of sending so many people to a single conference.
“I’ve been to those affairs,” Eckhart said. “They put out a good agenda and then the people go play golf. Now, I don’t know that that happened but why did all five commissioners go and 15 staffers go? Couldn’t a few go and bring back the printed material?”
“Twenty people to Orlando. There is no excuse for that.”
PUCO Chairman Todd Snitchler, a Republican and former Ohio lawmaker who Gov. John Kasich appointed to the panel in March 2011, declined to be interviewed for this story.
PUCO spokesman Jason Gilham issued a statement that noted the PUCO is the fifth largest commission in the country.
“Ohio’s noteworthy involvement and leadership in NARUC provides our state’s utilities consumers with the timeliest and most expert-level service,” the statement said. “The actions of the PUCO have a much larger impact than just inside Ohio’s borders, therefore key staff specializing in certain utility industries — electric, gas, telecommunications and water — and serving in NARUC leadership roles attend to address current issues, trends and rule makings affecting utility industries and ultimately Ohio’s consumers.”
“Keep in mind that while our five Commissioners issue opinions and orders, Commissioner terms are five years in length, our staff are long-term and their expertise is an invaluable resource to the Commission,” the statement said.
Powerful board
PUCO is a powerful five-member board with a staff of 350 that regulates utilities including telephones, electric and natural gas companies. The commission is funded from fees paid on monthly utility bills paid by millions of Ohio residents and businesses. Commissioners are appointed by the governor to staggered, five-year terms, and are paid between $119,995 and $124,509 a year.
The agency was unable to answer questions about how much money it spends on staff travel each year but did release documents to the Dayton Daily News that detail travel expenses since 2009 for the five commissioners.
The documents show that PUCO has financed $156,082 in travel for its commissioners during that time. Three men — Snitchler, former commissioner Paul Centolella and current commissioner Steve Lesser — account for $93,460 of those travel expenses.
The trio traveled coast to coast, from Los Angeles to Manhattan and points in between.
Snitchler, who is expected to seek reappointment to the PUCO when his term ends this spring, was the most frequent flyer among the commissioners, making 35 trips at a cost of $34,720. Additionally, Snitchler went on two NARUC-funded international trips in 2012 — to Saudi Arabia and Hungary — that cost $7,015, according to his ethics disclosure statements.
Snitchler also attended two meetings in 2011 held by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative non-profit that advocates for free markets, limited government and reduced regulation.
For the Phoenix trip in December, ALEC footed Snitchler’s airfare and hotel bill of $649; for the Cincinnati meeting in April of that year, ALEC paid $173 in mileage to Snitchler, according to PUCO and Ohio Ethics Commission records.
PUCO covered $172 in meal per diems incurred for the two trips, the records show.
Critics say ALEC is a secretive, backdoor for corporations to write legislation on major policy issues across the country. While in the Ohio House, Snitchler was an active ALEC member.
It’s not unusual for Republican lawmakers to attend events sponsored by ALEC, which has influenced a number of bills that passed the Ohio Statehouse. But PUCO isn’t supposed to be pro-business. It was created to make sure Ohioans have safe, adequate and reliable public utilities at a fair price.
Bryan Rothenberg, director of the left leaning Progress Ohio, called it problematic that the PUCO chairman is involved in ALEC conferences.
“It sounds like the regulator needs a regulator,” he said. “The fact of the matter is ALEC is an organization where industry leaders sit alongside legislators to push conservative deregulation agendas. It smacks of impropriety for the chief regulator of utilities to be attending a conference paid by the industries he regulates.”
‘Pretty high numbers’
In general, the PUCO budgets $63,000 a year for commissioner travel — $15,000 for Snitchler and $12,000 each for the other four commissioners. In fiscal year 2012, Snitchler spent $15,026 on travel while other commissioners spent between $10,714 and $13,749, according to PUCO records.
Additional travel costs are absorbed by sponsors, such as the American Gas Association, NARUC and the Regulatory Research Association, when commissioners serve on panels or share their expertise.
Eckhart said having industry groups or other outsiders pay for commissioner travel is wrong. “If the PUCO can’t pay for it themselves and the PUCO can’t justify it, they shouldn’t be going to those places,” he said.
Records show that in-state travel is minimal but when commissioners do take those trips they tend to stay in modestly-priced hotels such as Holiday Inn. When they travel to conferences, they typically stay in the hotels that are hosting the meetings, which offer group rates.
Occasionally, though, commissioners stay in luxury hotels and resorts when the public is not footing the bill. For example, Snitchler stayed at the Annabelle Inn in downtown Aspen, Colo., last summer while attending a seminar at the Aspen Institute. Lodging cost $294.50 per night but was paid by the institute, which advocates bipartisan solutions to issues and leadership “based on enduring values,” according to its website.
Macquarie Capital also paid travel expenses for commissioner Lesser to speak to a group of investors in New York in October 2011, including an overnight at Le Parker Meridien in midtown Manhattan that cost $461.
Rothenberg criticized PUCO’s leadership for sending 20 people to Orlando and for spending so much money on commissioner travel.
“On the one hand, (utility regulation) is a very technical field but common sense says those are pretty high numbers,” he said. “I think it’s reasonable to go to conferences, but that is a large amount of money to be spending on travel.”
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