YOUNGSTOWN — Reg Martin, the ousted receiver for SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC, is seeking $35,246.20 in fees and expenses for less than three months of work in which the troubled utility company failed to provide basic services. That amount is on top of the $44,03.85 he received for two previous months overseeing it.

Also, Kenneth R. Goldberg, removed as Martin’s legal counsel, wants $20,325 for three months of work in addition to the $21,900 he’s already received.

The decision to pay Martin and Goldberg rests with Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio. He approved the previous payments to the two as well as a Feb. 11 motion by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to remove Martin as SOBE’s receiver.

Donofrio got rid of Martin and Goldberg on Feb. 17, agreeing with a PUCO request the same day to replace them with Akron attorney John C. Collins as receiver and Michael J. Moran, a Cuyahoga Falls attorney, as his legal counsel.

In that Feb. 17 order, Donofrio gave Goldberg 30 days to “submit a final motion for approval of fees and costs of the outgoing receiver, his counsel,” which is “subject to approval of the court.”

If the final payments are approved, Martin would receive $80,050.05 and Goldberg would get $42,225 in total for five months of work for SOBE that included obtaining three boilers — all of which failed at various times, including all at once, to provide proper steam heat and hot water for much of downtown Youngstown.

Martin was paid $200 per hour and Goldberg $375 per hour. Collins is receiving $300 per hour and Moran $350 per hour.

Martin’s final bill request of $35,246.20 is for the period between Dec. 1 and Feb. 26 as he was permitted to stay on the payroll during the transition.

Martin listed 163.5 hours of work at the $200-per-hour wage as well as 24 hours of “office work” for his company at $45 an hour. He also received 70 cents per mile for one trip to Youngstown from his Columbus-area home during the three-month period, one trip to Youngstown that he failed to include on a previous request for payment and a drive to Virginia to look at a boiler.

Martin’s itemized billing included expenses for searching for the boilers, setting up a bank account, discussing a $750,000 payment he received as receiver from Enbridge Gas Ohio’s settlement of the 2024 Realty Tower gas explosion investigation by the PUCO that paid for the rented boilers, email and text message exchanges and reading news articles, including three from The Vindicator.

Martin also billed for receiving numerous calls and emails from SOBE customers — the utility is supposed to service 28 downtown buildings — about the company’s repeated issues that resulted in no heat for days, including when temperatures dropped below zero degrees.

Martin’s bill including seeking payment for “customer complaints out of hand” on Feb. 3. Two days later, he charged for suggesting “an independent expert, if needed, to counter misinformation from customer.” On the same day, he wrote on his bill: “Due to continued level of unfounded derogatory comments from the public, I question (my) continuance in case despite that it all stems from boiler problem over the last three months.”

On Feb. 8, he wrote on his bill: “Definitely a boiler mechanical problem, which I will be blamed for.”

On Feb. 13, he billed for reading articles in The Vindicator about his removal as receiver as well as for texting and calling Goldberg asking that changes be made to indicate it was a resignation and not a termination.

The motion from an Ohio assistant attorney general representing the PUCO states Martin was being “removed and replaced,” and that he “agreed to resign.”

Goldberg’s final bill of $20,325 is for 54.2 hours of work from Nov. 25 to Feb. 23.

Goldberg’s work didn’t include working more than four hours on any given day.

Goldberg billed for work on the Enbridge agreement, talked with PUCO officials, Martin — including to discuss complaints from customers — as well as for preparing court documents, working out Martin’s resignation and a total of $262.50 to review three Vindicator articles about what was happening with SOBE.

On Sept. 26, Martin was appointed as SOBE receiver and Goldberg as his legal counsel by Donofrio at the PUCO’s request as the company was insolvent and unable to provide heat to its customers. A rented 800-horsepower boiler was removed Sept. 30 from SOBE because the company defaulted on paying for the equipment that provided heat and hot water to its customers.

SOBE owed $383,214 in back payments to the steam plant’s owner, Wabash Power Equipment Co. of Wheeling, Illinois. The repossession would have made the company unable to provide utilities to its customers.

But the equipment rented by Martin proved to be unreliable.

SOBE’s boilers repeatedly failed to provide proper heat and hot water for its customers, forcing a number of them to shut down.

In a Jan. 29 court filing, Goldberg blamed the problems on SOBE’s customers. The customers strongly denied that.

Several buildings were without heat for five days, starting Feb. 7, after the failure of two SOBE boilers, including an 800-horsepower one that arrived Feb. 1.

That came only days after SOBE couldn’t provide heat from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, and Feb. 3 in some buildings, during days when the temperature was well below zero. Even after steam heat started flowing, some businesses couldn’t get it because of broken pipes.

Without the repossessed boiler, Martin was able to rent a 650-horsepower steam plant that was hooked up about 10 days after the other was taken away.

Because of the $750,000 Martin received from Enbridge, he was able to rent a 200-horsepower boiler.

Martin also used the Enbridge settlement money to rent an 800-horsepower boiler, which arrived Jan. 30. But that and the 650-horsepower boiler failed Feb. 7 with heat not restored to buildings until Feb. 12.

Before Martin’s removal, the city of Youngstown filed a motion to intervene in the SOBE case and require him to “provide necessary and adequate service to customers as required by Ohio law, order the receiver to inform SOBE customers and counsel for the PUCO of any maintenance issue that could affect customers within eight hours of said issue, order the receiver to inform this court and the PUCO within 24 hours of any temporary outage of SOBE Thermal’s systems, direct the receiver to escrow funds payable to the receiver and the receiver’s counsel with the clerk of courts until SOBE has proven it is consistently operational, and any other relief this court deems just and equitable.”

Goldberg filed an objection Feb. 13, two days after the PUCO sought to remove Martin as receiver.

An attorney for the PUCO on Feb. 23 wrote the agency didn’t object to Youngstown’s request to intervene, but asked Donofrio to reject the city’s cross-claim against SOBE.

Magistrate Nicole M. Butler on Thursday gave Youngstown 14 days to file an amended motion to intervene with the PUCO then having 14 days after that to file any response.

The case is set for an April 15 telephone status meeting