New list of PUCO finalists includes candidates with utility industry ties

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine has been handed a list of four finalists for a seat on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, including two candidates with ties to the utility industry.

DeWine now has 30 days to choose one of the four names put forward by the PUCO Nominating Council on Monday:

• Incumbent PUCO Commissioner Dan Conway, a Republican former utilities lawyer
• Stephen Serraino, a seven-time applicant and political independent who’s an executive with the Upper Peninsula Power Company in Michigan
• Dan Wilczynski, a Toledo-area Republican and a process safety manager at Marathon Petroleum
• David Yarnell, a Westerville Republican who works as utilities services manager at SAM Companies, a construction firm.

In the wake of the House Bill 6 scandal, in which FirstEnergy Corp. admitted to bribing top state officials — including former PUCO Chair Sam Randazzo — DeWine told Gongwer News Service in January that, going forward, he would not appoint people to the five-member PUCO who had “background or connections in the industry.”

DeWine has the option of rejecting all four names and asking the PUCO Nominating Council to send him a list of four new candidates to choose from. The Greene County Republican did that before nominating current PUCO Chair Jenifer French, a former Franklin County judge.

Anyone DeWine nominates to the PUCO must first be confirmed by the Ohio Senate.

The PUCO Nominating Council itself has recently seen some turnover. Longtime council Chair Michael Koren resigned last month, citing health issues. Koren, who helped FirstEnergy lobby for HB6 in 2019, was one of four members of the 12-member nominating council who backed the scandal-ridden energy law that gave a $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout to two nuclear plants owned by a then-subsidiary of FirstEnergy.