COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Three ex-commissioners spanning eras and political affiliations appealed to Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday to support bold steps to protect the integrity of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio after a former chairman hand-picked by DeWine resigned amid a $60 million federal bribery scandal.

The letter from Ashley Brown, J. Michael Biddison and Todd Snitchler — a Democrat, independent and Republican, respectively — came the same day candidates to be ex-Chairman Sam Randazzo's successor were being interviewed. The selections of the PUCO Nominating Council were expected to be sent to DeWine later Monday.

The best way to restore public confidence in the commission, they wrote, is for the PUCO to act “swiftly, definitively, and affirmatively to exert the full extent of its regulatory authority” and to make clear that “unlawful, unethical, improper activities or any activities given the appearance of the same, are simply not tolerable.”

The letter, also copied to sitting commissioners and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, urged the PUCO to both revisit Randazzo's actions and to engage a third-party investigator to review recent actions of FirstEnergy Corp., the company alleged to have underwritten bribes to then-House Speaker Larry Householder that paid for a scheme resulting in successful passage of a $1 billion bailout of two nuclear plants.

A third-party review similar to what was requested is already under way, said PUCO spokesman Matt Schilling, and legal filings are pending that would open Randazzo's voting history to scrutiny.

The ex-commissioners said the PUCO has the power to go even further. It could require a board of directors realignment at FirstEnergy, for example, or even block what is the state's largest utility and its affiliates from continuing to operate in Ohio.

The three men — two appointees of Democratic Gov. Richard Celeste and one, Snitchler, who served as chair under Republican Gov. John Kasich — also urged DeWine and the commission to consider re-examining FirstEnergy electric rates, which were set through a 2007 case that hasn't since been revisited.

The fate of the bill at the heart of the bribery scandal, House Bill 6, is being debated at the Ohio Statehouse, where a lame duck session is set to wrap up Tuesday.

Gillispie reported from Cleveland.