Governor Ted Strickland
COLUMBUS — Ohio Citizen Action today filed a formal public records request with the Office of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland for documents concerning the role Governor Strickland and his staff played in securing State money for the controversial proposed Baard Energy refinery in Wellsville.
Catherine Turcer, Director, Money in Politics Project, Ohio Citizen Action, wrote Gov. Strickland, saying, “Pursuant to Ohio public records law, O.R.C. 149.43, I hereby request all records, created, received by, or coming under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Governor, State of Ohio, between November 13, 2008, and January 26, 2009, regarding the proposed Baard Energy Ohio River Clean Fuels refinery in Wellsville, Ohio, and the Columbiana County Port Authority. As used in this request, the term “records” includes but it not limited to reports, studies, maps, charts, contracts, memoranda, documents, correspondence, ordinances, notes, emails, electronic records, contents of any wire or electronic communication, facsimiles, and invoices. Consistent with the law, we expect a response to this request within seven business days.”
The Baard Energy refinery project, which had been turned down twice previously for funding by state agencies, and received low evaluations from state development professionals, suddenly in December, 2008, found itself the recipient of $500,000 of public funds, and then five months later, another $4.5 million. How did this happen? The chronology is instructive:
The Columbiana County Port Authority had applied for a grant for the Baard Energy refinery from the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) Job Ready Sites program in its first round of grants, under the Taft Administration. Taft turned them down.
When the Strickland Administration opened the second round, the Columbiana County Port Authority submitted a $5 million application to buy land for the refinery.
ODOD professionals spent four months (May 15 – September 12, 2008) reviewing 55 applications. On November 13, 2008, Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, then serving as ODOD Director, announced the second round of Job Ready Sites grants; the Columbiana County Port Authority request for $5 million for the Baard refinery was not among them. ODOD also released its internal score sheet for all applications they had evaluated. The score sheet ranked the Columbiana County Port Authority proposal 52nd out of the 55 projects.
This denial was followed by a flurry of activity:
- November 17, 2008: State Representative Linda Bolon, whose district includes Wellsville, met with Gov. Strickland’s Chief of Staff, John Haseley, to discuss the proposed Baard Energy refinery, according to a memo from Steve Dopuch, then Vice President of Baard Energy, subsequently promoted to President.
- November 21, 2008: First day applications are accepted for ODOD Logistics and Distribution loan program.
- November 24, 2008: Tracy Drake, CEO, Columbiana County Port Authority, sent by overnight delivery to Brad Biggs at ODOD, a spreadsheet of option properties for the refinery site.
- December 5, 2008: Drake sent Nyla Potter, Program Coordinator, ODOD Logistics and Distribution Stimulus Program, a Letter of Intent to apply for a $6 million loan for land acquisition for the Baard Energy refinery.
- December 8, 2008: Potter sent the Columbiana Letter of Intent to officials at ODOD and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for review, asking for comments by December 12. Within two hours, she received an assessment from Lou Jannazo, Chief, Project Development, Ohio Rail Development Commission, ODOT. Jannazo summed up his comments as follows: “Doesn’t sound like this is what the program is about, at least not until and unless Baard gets its financing and can actually build the coal to fuel plant.” In his evaluation sheet, Jannazo was more blunt:
“What is the status of Baard’s financing of the $6 billion plant? [The following sentence was crossed out later, by whom we don't know] How in the world can anyone finance anything of that magnitude in this tight credit environment? Is the US Department of Defense, or other federal agency, providing Baard with assistance (loan guarantees, contracts to purchase the fuel, etc.) to help get the fuel plant going? [Following sentence crossed out later] Will this assistance be sufficient to help Baard get financing?”
- December 12, 2008: Potter wrote Drake, encouraging him to submit an application, based on his Letter of Intent.
- December 15, 2008: The Strickland Administration added an “additional item” to the Ohio Controlling Board agenda: “[The Ohio Department of] Development requests Controlling Board approval to release $500,000.00 from fund 7012, line item C19502, Job Ready Sites to the Columbiana County Port Authority for payment options in the acquisition of land in support of Baard Energy LLC’s new facility in Yellow Creek Township, Columbiana County.” The Controlling Board minutes show a personal appearance by Lauren Goode, then chief of staff to Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, to argue for the proposal, and the item was approved without objection.
- December 19, 2008: Tracy Drake submitted a draft application for the Logistics and Distribution loan to Steve Schoeny Director, Strategic Business Development Division, who had offered to provide advice on strengthening it.
- December 30, 2008: Tracy Drake submitted a final application for the Logistics and Distribution loan to ODOD.
- January 26, 2009: Gov Ted Strickland and Lt. Governor Lee Fisher announced a $4.5 million Logistics and Distribution Stimulus loan to Columbiana County Port Authority for Baard refinery land acquisition. on May 4, 2009, the Ohio Controlling Board approved it. The announcement includes the note that “The loan may be forgiven upon attainment of project specific terms.” These terms, however, have yet to be made public.
The total of the grant and the loan/grant was $5 million, the same amount the Columbiana County Port Authority had requested for the Baard Energy refinery in the first place.
The result of this flurry of activity was that the objections of professional staff within the Departments of Development and Transportation were circumvented, and public money went to a favored project, located 16 miles from Governor Strickland’s home in Lisbon, and one that Governor-elect Strickland endorsed on December 27, 2006, two weeks before he was inaugurated.
– Paul Ryder, Organizing Director, Ohio Citizen Action
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