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State Controlling Board approves multiple agency requests, including lease for Secretary of State and funding to plug orphan wells
Summary
The State Controlling Board on Oct. 20 approved budget and contract items for several state agencies, including reimbursements to counties for election chargebacks, college construction amendments, a property purchase by Ohio State University, a lease expansion for the Secretary of State’s office, and roughly $13.8 million to plug orphan oil and gas wells.
COLUMBUS — The State Controlling Board on Oct. 20 approved a slate of agency requests that the board said would fund legal work, reimburse counties for election chargebacks, advance college construction and property purchases, expand office space for the Secretary of State, and fund work to plug orphan oil and gas wells.
President Schueller called the meeting to order and the board approved the minutes and a group of non-held items by voice vote before taking up six held items. The board accepted testimony from agency representatives and approved each held request without a recorded roll-call vote.
Among the items approved: an Attorney General package of outside-counsel budgets covering litigation and affiliation agreements; reimbursement payments tied to chargebacks from a statewide special election; a $9 million final amendment to a Lorain County Community College design-build project; Ohio State University’s acquisition of a property that includes a roughly 90,000-square-foot warehouse used by library services; a lease to consolidate parts of the Secretary of State’s office and to provide hearings space; and a Department of Natural Resources request of about $13.8 million for plugging orphaned wells.
Leslie Pyatt, chief financial officer for the Secretary of State’s Office, told the board that the reimbursement item tied to elections came from Senate Bill 54’s $15 million appropriation, which counties largely returned but a small number overspent. Tara Kinsey Lee, assistant chief in the Division of Oil and Gas, told the board the state has more than 19,000 documented orphan wells and described a risk-prioritization process that targets wells most likely to threaten groundwater.
Votes at a glance - Item 3 (Attorney General outside counsel budgets): approved by voice vote. - Item 4 (Secretary of State reimbursements/chargebacks under Senate Bill 54): approved by voice vote. - Item 10 (Lorain County Community College design-build amendment): approved by voice vote. - Item 15 (The Ohio State University property acquisition): approved by voice vote. - Item 29 (Department of Administrative Services lease for Secretary of State space): approved by voice vote. - Item 52 (Department of Natural Resources – orphan wells funding): approved by voice vote.
What comes next Board members asked staff to follow up with additional details on some items — including a request for documentation about prior and projected rent for the Secretary of State lease — but took no votes to alter the requests. The meeting adjourned after members moved and seconded an adjournment.
