The Democratic candidate running for Ohio Attorney General has filed an ethics complaint against the chairman of JobsOhio, as the state's economic development arm faces scrutiny over its investments and activities.
John Kulewicz, an attorney and Upper Arlington City Council member, said in a statement he's concerned about a $100 million grant JobsOhio approved to what he believes is likely American Electric Power, which has connections to Josh Rubin's lobbying firm CJR Group. Kulewicz's opponent in November's election, Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, said Kulewicz is "flinging mud at the wall to see what will stick."
The basis of Kulewicz's complaint filed with the state inspector general was this grant to fund small model nuclear reactors to power data centers. Kulewicz argues AEP is so far the only major utility company to express interest in this potential power generation supply.
Rubin is the CEO of CJR, which lobbies on behalf of AEP. Kulewicz's complaint, in effect, argues the program could funnel money to Rubin's client. He argues it is a conflict of interest.
“Ohio needs an attorney general who will put a stop to self-dealing and backroom deals by enforcing transparency and accountability of public officials,” Kulewicz said. “Most importantly, mini-nuclear reactor technology in local communities deserves transparency, scrutiny, and local involvement in the decision-making process."
He told WOSU the conflict of interest concerns combined with a lack of oversight of the agency is what prompted this.
"Jobs Ohio is basically asking us to take their word for it. You know, what concerns me is we're not allowed to probe into that," Kulewicz said.
JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said in a statement the five year, $100 million JobsOhio Opportunity Initiative is not a grant, loan or other program provided to any one company, and no incentive agreements related to this initiative have been signed at this time.
Englehart said JobsOhio and its board of directors, which Rubin chairs, conducts themselves with the highest ethical standards. He said the board members often also recuse themselves from discussion and voting on specific incentive proposals for the mere potential or perceived conflicts of interest.
"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 will recuse themselves from discussions and voting on such proposals," Englehart said.
Faber, the Republican running against Kulewicz, said he has been a consistent proponent of transparency since he became auditor.
Faber said he would welcome even more transparency if the legislature grants that authority, but cast doubts on this specific complaint by criticizing Kulewicz.
"My opponent appears to be flinging mud at the wall to see what will stick. As attorney general, I’ll enforce the law and continue my well-established record of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse," Faber said.
Kulewicz said Faber, when he was a leader in the Ohio General Assembly a decade ago, supportewd the barriers to public knowledge that exist for JobsOhio today.
"The General Assembly did not trust the people when it enacted all the barriers to information back in 2011 with the strong support of Auditor Faber, but I think it's a good time for us to reevaluate that now," Kulewicz said.
Some members of the Ohio General Assembly are pushing for reform to JobsOhio in the wake of former Ohio State University President Walter "Ted" Carter's resignation this year. Carter gave inappropriate access to university resources to a podcaster, who had a contract with JobsOhio.
That contract went unfulfilled when "The Callout" podcast host Krisanthe Vlachos didn't finish recording enough episodes to complete the deal.
Those reform efforts are unlikely to advance this year.
