Ohio State Building in Columbus. (Photo: David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Both Ohio attorney general candidates are calling for more transparency from the controversial economic development agency. The comments come after one of them filed an ethics complaint against the lobbyist, who also serves as chairman of the JobsOhio agency board.
CEO Josh Rubin is also CEO of CJR Group, which counts American Electric Power among its clients. In his role at JobsOhio complaint claims he could be able to divert millions of dollars of once-public dollars to the massive utility company.
“This calls into question whether Mr. Rubin used his position as a JobsOhio board director to create a fund for his company’s lobbying client, AEP,” states the complaint filed last week by Democratic Ohio attorney general candidate John Kulewicz. “This is a serious, apparent conflict of interest.”
He was referring to a $100 million fund to lend a hand create small-module nuclear reactors. AEP is already considering building such plants in Indiana and Virginia.
JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said his agency has not yet signed any agreements to disburse the funds.
Rubin did not return a call seeking comment.
An AEP spokeswoman said state law prohibits its regulated business from owning generation assets, but Bill the legislation would change this, allowing it to build nuclear power plants and charge customers for those costs.
JobsOhio has been controversial since former Ohio Gov. John Kasich helped lead its creation in 2011. AEP recently stirred it up.
JobsOhio describes itself as “private, not-for-profit corporation entirely financed from an independent private source.”
However, it was created by the legislature and given the only opportunity to lease the state’s alcohol production franchise for much less than it was worth. Since then, it has provided more than $1 billion in incentives to businesses that at least once were public funds, and yet they are tried to demonstrate that it had produced significant results.
Still, Gov. Mike DeWine last year extended JobsOhio’s liquor franchise lease through 2053, without returning more money to taxpayers.
And almost from the beginning of its existence, the agency has been accused of conflicts of interest and other intimate arrangements.
In 2014, the Ohio Ethics Commission notified two Marathon Petroleum Corp. executives who also served on JobsOhio’s board that potential conflicts existed between them because of Marathon received benefits from JobsOhio.
Other board members’ connections to corporations benefiting from JobsOhio’s generosity are included Sherwin-Williams, Bob Evans, Procter & Gamble and Manta Media.
Then in 2024 came the news that JobsOhio has awarded over $2 million in economic stimulus for a company run by the man who also heads a regional unit created by JobsOhio.
The public most recently learned in March that JobsOhio gave $60,000 to a woman with whom then-Ohio President Ted Carter had an “inappropriate relationship.”
She was paid to produce four podcasts, but only one was produced.
Exempt from open recording laws, JobsOhio declined to say whether it underwrote any podcasts beyond the one hosted by a special friend of the president of Ohio’s flagship university. Carter resigned from the union.
Kulewicz, the Democratic AG candidate, told Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer that Rubin’s dual status as chairman of the JobsOhio board and as a lobbyist for AEP could create the appearance of conflict.
“In effect, JobsOhio, using Ohio alcohol profits, is paying AEP to develop mini nuclear reactors that will have little or no local oversight and will be owned by the utility itself,” Kulewicz said in a written statement. “And the CEO of the firm lobbying for AEP is the president of the state agency that awards $100 million for technology development.”
Englehart, the JobsOhio press secretary, said no money was spent on the reactors. He added that his agency has policies to avoid ethical conflicts.
“JobsOhio and its management act in accordance with the highest ethical standardsEnglehart said in an email: “We do not discuss companies with which we interview. Any board member who has an actual or possible conflict of interest in connection with any particular grant or loan proposal to the company must disclose the conflict of interest and withdraw from the discussion and vote on such proposal.”
Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, a Republican candidate for attorney general, said JobsOhio should be more see-through.
“Throughout my career, I have been a consistent supporter of sunshine in government,” Faber said in an email. “I have specifically called for more transparency in JobsOhio, but this needs to be tempered given its structure and purpose. The General Assembly created JobsOhio as a public-private partnership, which comes with limitations.”
And although AEP has said state law does not allow its regulated business to own generating capacity, president and CEO Bill Fehrman in May told shareholders it was interested in doing so in some capacity.
“… we continue to evaluate nuclear solutionsstriving to position AEP at the forefront of next-generation baseload technology,” he said. “As we mentioned earlier, we are actively reviewing several potential sites and interconnection locations, assessing how nuclear power can play a significant role in the future in supporting load growth.”
Due to the bill changing the ownership rules and JobsOhio’s creation of a $100 million fund to subsidize the company, AEP may be interested in receiving some of this money.
Asked whether Rubin had a conflict over his roles as CEO of JobsOhio and CEO of a lobbying firm working for American Electric Power, AEP spokeswoman Tammy Ridout said Rubin did not work directly for her company.
“Two members of CJR Group, not Josh Rubin, work in this regulated part of the company,” Ridout said in an email.
How CEO and founder of the CJR GroupRubin will likely share in any profits the company makes from its partnership with AEP.
The tool itself has sparked controversy.
It paid more than $900,000 through a 501(c)(4) obscure money group to support a taxpayer-funded bailout that has been called one of the largest bribery scandals in Ohio history. AEP was not charged with a crime, but it received well over $200 million from the rescue package.
Additionally, the politician at the center of the scandal, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, is serving 20 years in federal prison for his involvement.
Witnesses testified at his trial, just after the 2019 bailout ended. AEP funneled another $500,000 through the same obscure money group to fund a scheme that could have kept Householder as speaker until the 2030s.
Earlier this year, as Ohioans’ electric bills skyrocketed, AEP sparked more controversy when the Energy and Policy Institute reported that CEO Fehrman would receive $37 million this year, making him by far the highest-paid utility executive in the United States.
Ridout said her company opposes the notion that AEP could put the interests of its executives and shareholders ahead of those of its clients.
