The former chief of staff of the state agency responsible for regulating Ohio utility companies told jurors Friday about his long night of drinking with a power company’s CEO and its lobbyists. 

Their March 2016 dinner at Mitchell’s Steakhouse followed by drinks until close at the Char Bar, a dive known for its Long Island ice teas, was a celebration, according to testimony from Jason Rafeld. 

Rafeld, a utility lawyer, worked as chief of staff of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, a top staff role that requires appointment from the governor. Rafeld appeared Friday as the first defense witness for ex-FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and senior vice president of external affairs Mike Dowling. He left the PUCO for the private sector in 2017, before informally vying for a PUCO appointment as a commissioner in 2019. 

The bar trip came just after the PUCO issued a ruling allowing FirstEnergy’s regulated distribution utilities to charge ratepayers to buy billions of dollars’ worth of electricity from FirstEnergy Solutions, an unregulated affiliate that owned coal and nuclear plants. 

Rafeld’s testimony supported a key argument for the defense: FirstEnergy preferred Rafeld for a 2019 opening as chairman of the PUCO as Gov. Mike DeWine took office. Prosecutors say Jones and Dowling paid a $4.3 million bribe in January 2019 to Sam Randazzo, another utility lawyer, for the role of PUCO chair. The company’s apparent support for Rafeld would seemingly undermine the notion that it bribed Randazzo. 

But on cross-examination with Assistant Attorney General Matt Meyer, Rafeld was asked about his late night at the bar with Jones, FirstEnergy’s state lobbying director Ty Pine, company lobbyist Justin Biltz, and Matt Evans, president of Boich Companies, a coal brokerage. 

“I was happy about it,” Rafeld said of the PUCO’s ruling, which he said was issued either the day of their bar run or the day before. “I recall all of them being happy.”

The celebration occurred, as prosecutors led Rafeld to acknowledge, while he served as a senior staffer for a regulatory agency whose mission is to ensure all Ohioans have access to safe and reliable utility services at fair prices, while facilitating a competitive market. 

The victory was short-lived. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission weeks later overturned that PUCO ruling, siding with its critics who called the power purchase agreement a bailout being foisted upon the ratepayers. This federal ruling wrenched the regulatory process that birthed FirstEnergy’s lucrative and complex relationship with Randazzo.

Rafeld left the agency for a career in private practice as a utility lawyer before the opportunity arose for the PUCO seat won by Randazzo. 

The state and federal accusations against Randazzo, who died by suicide before his trial, have brought immeasurable reputational damage on the PUCO since the FBI raided Randazzo’s home in October 2020. Rafeld’s testimony regarding the Char Bar outing raises broader questions as to whether the PUCO as an institution maintains independence from the industry it regulates. 

PUCO Chair Jenifer French, through a spokesperson, said “no” when asked by Signal Ohio whether Rafeld’s fraternization with a regulated utility would be tolerated from staff today. 

‘FirstEnergy had offered their support should I choose’

Rafeld, formerly a commissioned naval officer, said he first met Jones in 2016 to discuss FirstEnergy’s request to enter a “power purchase agreement” with its subsidiary. They met for what was supposed to be a quick breakfast and turned into a three-hour meeting after both men realized they served in the Navy. 

It was Evans, from Boich Energy, who Rafeld said first suggested he vie for a nomination to an open PUCO seat. Rafeld said he received words of encouragement from both American Electric Power and Duke Energy, two of the other major investor-owned utilities in Ohio. And Rafeld said he had dinner with Biltz, Dowling and another FirstEnergy official for dinner in November 2019 as he mounted his campaign for the commissioner job. 

“I felt very clearly and confidently that FirstEnergy had offered their support should I choose to pursue the chair position, and they made me feel certain that they would be 100 percent behind me and do whatever they could to help install me in that role,” he said. 

Rafeld said Jones told him on a phone call he was “grateful” Rafeld would return to the PUCO as a commissioner. Even Randazzo himself, Rafeld said, encouraged him to run.

However, by January 2019, after Randazzo’s company received a $4.3 million payment from FirstEnergy that prosecutors say was a bribe, Randazzo privately told Rafeld that the DeWine administration asked him if he would accept the position of chairman if offered. Randazzo said yes, according to Rafeld. 

“[I felt] very confused, frustrated, a bit like the rug had been pulled out from underneath, a little bit of shock,” Rafeld said. 

Rafeld was planning to submit his formal cover letter on the final day of the application window when he received a call from Evans, who had just spoken with Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. Judge Susan Baker Ross prohibited him from testifying about the contents of the call, but allowed him to explain his understanding. Don’t apply. So he didn’t, he said. 

“I did work in part in government relations, and so starting off with a new administration being frustrated with you is not a good way to be a government-relations professional,” he said.

Due to a scheduling conflict, defense attorneys arranged for Rafeld to testify before they mounted arguments calling on Judge Baker Ross to dismiss the case outright. Assuming those fail, defense lawyers are expected to summon further witness testimony Wednesday, including now-Sen. Husted.