The Public Service Commission, an otherwise sleepy agency charged with regulating D.C.’s gas and electric utilities, seldom makes the news. But for the past few months, the PSC has been hiding a sexy secret. A now-former chief at PSC was caught having sex with a co-worker while on the clock and filming it with his work phone, the city’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability found back in May.

Udeozo Ogbue, until recently the chief of the agency’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement, admitted to the risque behavior in a settlement agreement with BEGA released on May 2. He agreed to pay $10,000 in fines in lieu of pursuing a full hearing on the matter, easily one of the largest penalties levied by the ethics agency in recent years. (Only former Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans managed a heftier total, earning a combined $55,000 in fines in the wake of his various scandals.)

Kellie Didigu, a spokesperson for the PSC, tells Loose Lips via email that Ogbue no longer works for the agency, as of May 27. She declined to comment when LL asked whether Ogbue was fired or he resigned, and he could not be reached for comment.

According to the BEGA settlement, the PSC learned about all of this when Ogbue turned in his work phone to the agency’s IT department in exchange for a new one. The commission found “40 sexually explicit images” on the phone and in his storage cloud, including “images and videos of [Ogbue] performing sexual acts with one of his PSC colleagues.”

“[Ogbue] could not explain how the images got onto his work cell phone but ultimately acknowledged that the work cell phone, images, and videos belonged to him,” according to the settlement. 

The agreement adds that “the video and several of the images are date-stamped on weekdays at different times of the day.” Not exactly what taxpayers were probably hoping for from Ogbue as he drew his annual salary of nearly $165,000.

He agreed to pay an initial lump sum of $4,000 by June 3 and to a $300 deduction from his biweekly paycheck until the remaining $6,000 was paid off. But since he’s no longer working for the PSC, Ugbue must pay off the remaining balance in full by May 1, 2025, according to the agreement.

The settlement makes no mention of the fate of the co-worker involved with Ogbue, and there does not appear to be any other BEGA case pending against anyone else at PSC over this matter. (Though LL would imagine that they are equally guilty of running afoul of the section of the city’s personnel manual banning the use of “government time or resources for other than official business,” also cited in Ogbue’s settlement.)

Ogbue was a senior manager at the PSC and a 17-year veteran of the agency, according to the BEGA settlement. Commission documents suggest he was in charge of managing a $400,000 federal grant this year, among other duties. Ogbue even traveled to Tanzania on the agency’s behalf to work on natural gas projects, earning industry accolades for his work.

There’s no indication in the BEGA settlement that Ogbue’s paramour was a subordinate, though LL does find it notable that city employees just keep getting caught using their work phones to send and receive sexy pictures, particularly those employees in positions of authority.

Mayor Muriel Bowser took some prudent steps to update the city’s policies around interoffice relationships in the wake of the John Falcicchio sexual harassment scandal. But none of that will matter if people in managerial roles in the District government can’t keep it in their pants while they’re at work.