Ohio Rev. Code § 4901.18
The public utilities commission shall appoint one or more examiners for the purpose of making any investigation or holding any inquiry or hearing which the commission is required or permitted to make or hold. Such examiners may administer oaths, take depositions, issue subpoenas, compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, accounts, papers, records, documents, and testimony, examine witnesses, receive evidence, certify to official acts, and perform such other duties as are prescribed by the commission. The commission shall, by general order or in its order of appointment, prescribe the authority and duties of such examiners. Unless otherwise provided in the order appointing the examiner, such examiner shall report his findings and recommendations to the commission and file with it the testimony taken before him. The findings and recommendations of such examiner are advisory only and do not preclude the commission from taking further evidence. Any such findings made or order recommended by any such examiner, which are approved and confirmed, or modified, by the commission and filed in its office, are the findings and order of the commission.
R.C. § 4901.18