CLEVELAND — Editor's Note: The above video is from a previously published, unrelated story
The state of Ohio is expanding its audit of FirstEnergy with the goal of ensuring that the utility rates paid by customers do not include the charges for the naming rights of FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has directed its independent auditor, Blue Ridge Consulting Services, to examine the rates charged by Cleveland Electric Illuminating, Ohio Edison, and Toledo Edison. The expanded audit will include a review as to whether or not the costs of the naming rights for FirstEnergy Stadium have been paid by utility customers after PUCO says "questions have been raised."
The audit report is due to be submitted to PUCO on November 19, 2021.
PUCO says promotional advertising is not eligible to be included in regulated utility rates.
In 2013, the Browns and FirstEnergy agreed to a 17-year, $102 million deal for naming rights of the stadium.
Earlier this month, two local members of the Ohio House of Representatives urged Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, along with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, to change the name of the stadium due to FirstEnergy's role in a $60 million bribery scandal.
In July, FirstEnergy Corp. admitted criminal wrongdoing as part of the ongoing federal probe of the public corruption scheme involving former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and potentially others at the Ohio Statehouse. The company agreed to pay a $230 million penalty.
PUCO notes that it has four separate pending investigations related to FirstEnergy and the scandal surrounding House Bill 6.
You can read PUCO's request to Blue Ridge Consulting Services to expand its audit on FirstEnergy below: