COLUMBUS, Ohio - On February 21, 2024, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General (OIG) received a complaint alleging that co-sponsors of a project to build a roundabout at the intersection of State Route 162 and River Styx Road in Medina, County, OH, submitted a fraudulent application to obtain federal funding from a roadway program that pays for eligible project costs, including construction costs. The complaint alleged that project co-sponsors, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Medina County Engineer’s Office, submitted a program application for federal funding under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program. The complainant alleged that the co-sponsors submitted the CMAQ Application to the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), and that the submitted application contained false information, including among other items, a false entry for a transportation system performance metric known as level of service (LOS) for the existing intersection. The Office of the Ohio Inspector General opened an investigation to evaluate the actions taken by ODOT District 3 Planning Engineer Scott Ockunzzi on the CMAQ application to obtain federal funding for the roundabout project. The investigation focused only on the actions of Ockunzzi because the OIG’s jurisdiction is limited to state employees and vendors who do business with the State of Ohio.
Investigators obtained and evaluated applicable records and related email exchanges and conducted interviews of relevant persons to evaluate the accuracy of the information submitted in the application for funding. Much of the investigation centered around documents and responses to questions in the CMAQ application pertaining to the LOS for the intersection; specifically, the response to Question 4 on the 2021 CMAQ Application which asked for information regarding existing levels of service (LOS) for the Medina County project. LOS is a metric for reporting transportation system performance and traffic flow. LOS uses an “A” through “F” scale with an “A” indicating the best LOS and an “F” indicating the worst LOS. CMAQ applications are scored on a 100-point scale. Investigators learned that existing LOS account for 15 of the 100 available points on the application and that NOACA does not allow the use of forecasted LOS metrics as a proper response to this question.
Investigators obtained and reviewed two operational studies of the intersection conducted by ODOT and authored by Ockunzzi. The first study occurred in March 2019, resulting in an existing LOS at the intersection of “D” in the morning and “C” in the evening. The 2019 study contained the last known existing LOS for this intersection. The second study was dated April 2021 and reported a forecasted LOS of “F” for both the morning and the evening at the intersection for the year 2046, 25 years in the future.
Before the final 2021 CMAQ Application was submitted to NOACA by Medina County Engineer Andrew Conrad, Ockunzzi edited the application on May 25, 2021. One of Ockunzzi’s edits was on Question 4 of the CMAQ Application, in which he selected a check box of LOS “F” under existing LOS at the intersection. Conrad confirmed in an interview with investigators that he received this edit from Ockunzzi and that this edit was included in Conrad’s submitted final 2021 CMAQ application. Ockunzzi was also interviewed about this edit. Ockunzzi confirmed to investigators that he made the edit and that it was a false entry on the application. Ockunzzi also told investigators that he knew the last known existing LOS in 2019 was a “D” in the morning and a “C” in the evening. According to Ockunzzi, he did not know why he selected the LOS “F” entry on the application. Ockunzzi told investigators that he remembered speaking to NOACA in advance of the application, but he could not recollect the person he spoke to, and that he vaguely remembered receiving advice to enter the LOS “F” on the CMAQ Application. Ockunzzi explained to investigators that he recalled discussing the application with three NOACA officials. Investigators interviewed the three current NOACA officials named by Ockunzzi, and one additional former NOACA official, who all confirmed that they did not tell Ockunzzi to list an “F” LOS answer to Question 4, existing LOS, on the 2021 CMAQ Application.
On May 25, 2021, Medina County Engineer Andrew Conrad submitted via email the 2021 CMAQ Application to NOACA to obtain federal funding for the roundabout project. The submitted application included Ockunzzi’s incorrect entry of LOS “F” for existing LOS and a copy of ODOT’s 2021 operational study to support the existing LOS metric of “F.” On January 19, 2022, NOACA awarded $2 million from the CMAQ program to pay for the construction costs of the roundabout project.
Investigators found reasonable cause to believe a wrongdoing occurred when Ockunzzi made the incorrect entry on the 2021 CMAQ Application for the Medina County project, violating ODOT Policy 17-015 (P) – Work Rules and Discipline, 4. Failure of Good Behavior and 5. Dishonesty.
The Office of the Inspector General is referring this report of investigation to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program for consideration.
Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2024-CA00005 is now available at: https://watchdog.ohio.gov/2025-investigations.
