OHIO State's utility watchdog defends actions, outings

The official says the golf outings are during off hours.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio's top utility watchdog has golfed with executives of the companies whose practices his office examines, or attended the same legislative fund-raisers, The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.
Ohio Consumers' Counsel Robert Tongren defended his action, saying his approach favoring compromise rather than confrontation has saved Ohio consumers $1.7 billion in utility costs since he was appointed in January 1994.
The newspaper reported that Tongren frequently has golfed with officials from SBC, Columbia Gas, FirstEnergy and other companies Tongren is supposed to negotiate with and sometimes fight in court.
The newspaper also said Tongren attended 82 political fund-raisers, mostly for Republicans, from 2000 to 2002. Statements filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission show he regularly received free tickets to events that often attracted representatives of utilities.
Advocate's comments
"It seems to me he's doing a lot of partying and a lot of golfing while the ratepayers are doing a lot of paying," said David Hughes of Citizen Power, a Pittsburgh-based consumer advocacy group often involved in Ohio utility issues.
Tongren told The Associated Press on Sunday that he attends fund-raisers or golf outings, all on his off hours, to grab rare face time with lawmakers and utility executives. He attends more Republican events because that's the majority party in the Legislature and executive branch, he said.
"You use that time as profitably as you can to get your points on behalf of residential customers across," Tongren said. "Sometimes you have arguments. Sometimes it's not very much fun."
He's played only a few rounds this year because of a recent back operation.
Also, the newspaper reviewed Tongren's time sheets, saying Tongren took off full or part days on three-fourths of the Fridays from May 2002 to June 2003.
Tongren said he was using a combination of vacation hours and compensatory time -- hour-for-hour time off that state employees in his classification receive for working more than 40 hours a week. In 29 years in state government, he's also built up the maximum 720 hours of vacation time.
"I have a lot of time available because I work a lot of hours," he said.
Destroyed draft
Tongren came under fire last week after it was revealed he destroyed a year-old draft of an unfinished consultant's report that would have recommended shielding some northeast Ohio utility customers from paying billions of dollars.
Tongren argued that he got a better deal for consumers by not fighting FirstEnergy Corp., because courts likely would have sided with earlier rulings in the matter by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
The Ohio Taxpayers Association and Citizen Action -- consumer groups whose views differ on a number of issues -- called for his ouster.