COLUMBUS Utility watchdog resigns, citing personal criticism

A Youngstown lawmaker said the resignation does not end any investigation of the consumers counsel.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
COLUMBUS -- State utility watchdog Robert Tongren resigned Wednesday, citing growing criticism of his decision to destroy a report that recommended shielding some northern Ohio electricity customers from paying billions of dollars.
"I am greatly concerned about the intense public attention focused on decisions made by the Ohio Consumers' Counsel," Tongren said in a letter to Jerome Solove, the agency's governing board chairman. "It is my fear that this controversy will impede the future work of the office."
The board voted 5-2 Wednesday to accept a resolution supporting his resignation.
"The consumers of Ohio had lost confidence in the consumers' counsel, and he couldn't effectively continue in that role," said Helen MacMurray, a suburban Columbus board member who supported his resignation.
John Steinberger, a St. Paris board member who voted against accepting the resolution, said Tongren accomplished tremendous things on behalf of consumers.
"I think it's unfortunate that one incident, which has yet to be fully investigated, caused Rob to resign," he said.
FirstEnergy
Tongren was Ohio's second consumers' counsel since lawmakers created the post 26 years ago amid the energy crisis. His office represents residential customers in rate cases before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
The study that was destroyed included a consultant's recommendations on how much FirstEnergy Corp. should be allowed to collect to recoup what it spent building power plants before the electricity market was deregulated in 2001.
The analysis by Boston-based La Capra criticized FirstEnergy's power-plant costs, estimated at $8.7 billion, a figure that includes taxes collected by utilities on behalf of state and local governments.
Without those figured in, the estimated cost to consumers is about $6.9 billion.
The consumers' counsel estimated a much lower figure of $2.6 billion, using internal research and the La Capra analysis.
Investigation
Members of the Senate public utilities committee last week questioned Tongren over discarding the 3-year-old preliminary report. The Akron-based utility was allowed to keep charging the fee under deregulation. The costs already were figured into customer bills, which did not increase.
"It would seem that the so-called watchdog who became the lapdog for the utilities saw an exit for his job as an easy way out," said state Sen. Robert F. Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat who has been critical of the consumers counsel.
"This does not end and should not end any investigation of the consumers counsel," said Hagan, the ranking minority member on the Senate Energy and Environment Committee.
Inspector General Tom Charles confirmed last month that his office was investigating Tongren's office but declined to comment further.
Tongren told the Senate committee Oct. 30 that he believed the document was no longer important because it had been more than a year since his office had been involved in the FirstEnergy case.
Tongren said his office discarded the $579,000 draft report in July, months after his staff changed an internal policy, requiring records to be kept for one year instead of two.
Eric Stephens, deputy director for the counsel, was named acting director of the agency Wednesday.