Suffolk Closeup - Legislator Gonzalez Confronts Smoking

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The Suffolk County Legislature since it was established 50 years ago has been a governmental trailblazer enacting first-in-the nation laws—then replicated through the U.S. These have including a ban on handheld use of cellphones while driving and sale of the drug ephedra,Legislator Sam Gonzalez creation of a bottle-deposit system and many measures barring smoking in public places.

And now, a new member of the Suffolk Legislature has introduced what would be the first-in-the-nation law to, as its title declares, “Increase the Legal Smoking Age To 25 in Suffolk County.” It would do that by banning the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to persons under 25 years old.

“I’m trying to protect the future of the kids who are living in Suffolk,” says Legislator Sam Gonzalez. “I don’t want to see them suffer later on from lung cancer, throat cancer and other cancers.” 

If Suffolk County passes his measure, “I’ve spoken to legislators in Nassau County, and if we pass it, in a matter of time, Nassau would, too,” and then there would be the possibility of action by New York State, he says. 

If a person doesn’t smoke before he or she is 25, says Mr. Gonzalez, it’s highly likely that he or she will never smoke.

Meanwhile, says Mr. Gonzalez, “I’ve been getting calls from every major tobacco company.” They don’t like his legislation.

But Mr. Gonzales is used to uphill fights.

As his legislative biography states: “Sam has spent his career as a labor advocate fighting for workers across New York State. He started his career in labor as a shop steward with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and was promoted to lead organizer. Recognized for his ability to inspire and lead, he was recruited by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 2012.” Before becoming a Suffolk legislator, he was president of IBEW Local 1430.  As a union president, he spearheaded “many of the union’s organizing drives across the state. With more than 36 years of experience in the labor movement, Sam has proven to be an exceptional leader, dedicated to charting a new course for the labor movement.”

He was elected a legislator last year in a special election and then the general election to succeed Monica R. Martinez who had won a seat representing south-central Suffolk County in the New York State Senate. They both live in Brentwood.

Mr. Gonzalez has a second measure on smoking pending before the legislature. “It just needs one more vote to pass,” he told me. This bill would prohibit smoking in multiple-dwelling buildings.

In 2015, the Suffolk Legislature, among its many bills restricting smoking, barred it in common areas of multiple-dwelling buildings and in close proximity to their entrances. Then, in 2016, it banned smoking within 50 feet of such a building.

But also needed is halting smoking in apartments in multiple-dwelling buildings, says Mr. Gonzalez. The smoke from an apartment, this bill says, can travel “through lighting fixtures, cracks in walls, around plumbing, under doors, and in shared heating and ventilation.” Says Mr. Gonzales: “It can get into the apartment next door where an elderly person might be using an oxygen tank; it could get to children.’

The bill declares that “individuals in Suffolk County should have the right to live in their own homes without breathing in second-hand smoke from sources they cannot control.”

Mr. Gonzalez once was a smoker himself—“a two-pack-a-day Newport smoker”—from the time he was 14 until he was 31 and “I first found out that I was going to be a father.” Now 59, he has not had a cigarette since.

“I ran for public office because I care about our community. I want to see our youth succeed in life—and be healthy. I want a healthy county, a healthy Long Island,” he says.

And, if his measure increasing the legal smoking age in Suffolk County to 25, introduced last month, “doesn’t get through,” Mr. Gonzalez vows: “I will be bringing it up every year.” 

There is Suffolk Legislature history in increasing the smoking age in the county. In 2014 the legislature increased it from 19 to 21. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Give Workers A Break - Don't Drive Around Construction Barriers!

By Pat Biancaniello

Road work on Lake Avenue in Saint James may seem endless but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. According to project manager, Dave Clark, there is a chance that the  project may finish up by the end of October; not a moment too soon for Saint James residents.

Currently, Lake Avenue is being paved in segment, crews are working from north to south and trying to pave at times when traffic is historically light.

A section of Lake Avenue was paved Sunday, October 4th. For months, during the construction, the road looked like a war zone.  While it is now possible to drive on the road, paving will continue in segments with partial road closures in areas being paved until completion of the project.

Paving the road requires several large and smaller vehicles to be on the road, deliveries and manual spreading of hot asphalt. Paving also requires highway department workers. To protect the workers, barriers, barrels, tape and signage is set-up informing drivers to stay off the road. Despite incorporating every safety procedure possible some drivers find their way around the barriers and onto a construction site.

On Sunday a driver managed to go around all the safeguards ending up in the Lake Ave repaving construction zone. Quick thinking prevented injuries to the driver and workers. Nevertheless, what if the determined driver was not noticed?

Disregarding the barriers causes unnecessary risk to roadworkers and motorists. Drivers must use common sense, pay attention and follow directions. Everyone must do their part to keep Smithtown’s roadworkers safe; follow safe driving practices, including slowing down.

 If a road is barricaded, if there are barrels up, if there is signage indicating that the road is closed and lastly if you see heavy equipment and workers with bright shirts working on the street do not drive around them.

"Back The Blue" Rally In Hauppauge

By Pat Biancaniello

The Suffolk County H. Lee Dennison Building was the backdrop for a “Back the Blue” rally in Hauppauge Sunday, October 4th. More than 1,000 people, some masked and some not, gathered to show their support for police and to show support for the reelection of Donald Trump in November. 

Before the politics began, a very courageous young woman, Genesis Villella spoke about the horror of having her mom “assassinated” because she wore a police uniform. Genesis Villella is the daughter of NYPD Detective Miosotis Familia, the mother of three children, who was shot and killed while sitting in her police car on July 5, 2017.

“It is so important for me to be here to talk about my mother and what she meant to me and my siblings. My mom was my very best friend  and it is so important to talk about who she was as a person, especially since all these violent attacks taking place around the country on innocent police officers because of their uniforms, just like my mother was targeted. It is so important to support all the police officers across the country and in NY to let them know that we have their backs and will always be here to support them.” 

Genesis VillellaIf there ever was a message that would resonate with everyone, regardless of political affiliation, it was Ms. Villella’s message. It was heartbreaking.

Also speaking was Suffolk County resident retired police officer Kathleen Vigiano, president of Survivors of the Shield and widow of Detective Joseph Vigiano. Detective Vigiano wasKathleen Vigiano killed in the line of duty on September 11, 2001. Ms Vigiano addressed the crowd and challenged the press to report the numbers and challenges police officers face every time they make a radio run or put their lives on the line taking illegal guns off the street. She encouraged the audience to do more than “Back the Blue”, telling the audience to make sure they vote for candidates who support safe communities and the police who patrol them. Vote for DA’s who prosecute criminals and politicians who will give police officers the tools needed to do their jobs.

But this was a political event. This was a Police Benevolent Association (PBA) sponsored event and Democrats were the enemies. President of the PBA Noel Di Gerolamo hit the Dems hard, blaming them for creating an abyss. “It’s gonna get political.” “People who wear the blue uniforms, they’re not from any particular party, but we saw one party over the last six months totally abandon every single member of law enforcement, did nothing but vilify the people who went out day after day. They sheltered in place but guess what? They’re the enemy now. Because blue is gonna paint this state red.”

National Grid Seeking $1 Billion In Rate Hikes To Pay For New Proposals

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 Despite New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed last year that sets a goal of 70 percent renewable energy in the state by 2030, and the state ban in 2014 on the environmentally polluting process of fracking in New York, National Grid is moving ahead with a major expansion of the transport and distribution of fracked gas—with Suffolk and Nassau Counties primary repositories. 

National Grid, a British company which acquired Keyspan for $7.3 billion in 2006 and is the monopoly gas utility on Long Island, claims the expansion of pipelines, compressed fracked gas sites and other facilities for bringing fracked gas here is necessary because of a “gas shortage.”

Six of the eight projects involving fracked gas that National Grid is seeking to have the state Department of Public Service to give its OK to are in Suffolk and Nassau—three in Suffolk, three in Nassau. And, the company is seeking state approval for nearly $1 billion in rate hikes to pay for its new gas proposals. 

“The National Grid claim of a ‘gas shortage’ is false,” declares Kim Fraczek, director of the Sane Energy Project, a leader in the recently successful battle against the Williams Pipeline. “What National Grid is trying to do now,” says Ms. Fraczek, “is expand the fracking infrastructure and get more residents hooked onto fracked gas especially in Suffolk County where there is a minimum use of gas now.”

The Williams Pipeline, pushed by National Grid, would have brought fracked gas from Pennsylvania, through New Jersey, then 23 miles underwater south of Staten Island, under New York Harbor, to the Rockaways, part of National Grid’s territory.

As public and governmental opposition to this $1 billion project mounted, National Grid threatened a “moratorium” on new gas hook-ups despite reports showing there was no “gas shortage” as claimed by the company to justify the Williams Pipeline. Governor Andrew Cuomo stood up to National Grid calling for a state probe of the “moratorium.” Meanwhile, there was intense grassroots action including demonstrations. The state Department of Environmental Conservation denied a water quality permit needed for the pipeline and also cited the Climate Act, and earlier this year the fight was won. 

The Sane Energy Project is now involved in challenging National Grid’s new scheme to get fracked gas to Long Island and “create captive fossil fuel customers when we should be moving Long Island to a renewable jobs economy,” says Ms. Fraczek. The New York City-based organization describes itself on its website—https://www.saneenergy.org/—as “committed to replacing fracked gas infrastructure with community-led, sustainable energy. We oppose the development, transport and export of fracked gas—‘natural gas’—in favor of an urgent and just transition to a renewable economy with the goal of zero fossil fuel or nuclear dependence.” 

Fracking is a huge environmental and health threat. Some 600 chemicals—many of them cancer-causing—and massive amounts of water under pressure are sent underground to break apart shale formations and release gas and oil. There are constant leaks from the piping bringing the petroleum up causing groundwater to become contaminated by it and the chemicals.

A landmark TV documentary on this was Gasland, nominated for an Academy Award in 2011. It and its sequel, Gasland Part II, both directed and reported by Josh Fox, include numerous scenes of homeowners turning on their water faucets, setting a match to what is coming out—with the result: the mix of water and gas bursting into flames. Many people interviewed had become seriously ill.

The three fracked gas projects National Grid wants to build in Suffolk are an “expanded transmission” facility in Riverhead for $25 million, over 14,000 feet of new “Southeastern Suffolk transmission mains” for $40 million, and expansion in Northport of the Iroquois Pipeline crossing Long Island Sound to cost $272 million.

Ms. Fraczek says what’s especially “heinous” about the National Grid move is that New York passed the Climate Act to reduce “the use of fossil fuels—like gas—and have energy based on sources that don’t contribute to climate change. But National Grid is pushing in the other direction for its profit. There are many alternatives to gas including energy efficiency retrofits, air source heat pumps that can be installed in homes, solar thermal systems and geothermal systems Maybe we should just do away with this corporate shareholder model and push for New Yorkers to own our own power grid and cut out the expensive middle-man.”

Because of the climate crisis, she says, “California is burning, the Gulf Coast is flooded by hurricanes one after another, and Long Island, a waterfront community surrounded on all sides by rising water stands to be threatened. We want to make sure all the nature and beauty of Long Island is not underwater because of decisions favoring fossil fuel giants over the future.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Suffolk Closeup - Petition To End LIPA's "Poison Pill"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. is preparing legislation to require the Long Island Power Authority to allow Long Islanders to make use of Community Choice Aggregation in the same way the rest of the utility ratepayers in New York State can.

“My fear from the beginning was that LIPA would stick a poison pill in any CCA program for Long Island—and it has,” says Mr. Thiele.

Meanwhile, the Town of Southampton and the citizens’ initiative Choice Community Power are spearheading a petition drive on this, too. A petition to LIPA trustees has just gone up on the town’s website at http://southamptontownny.gov/LIPA 

Community Choice Aggregation, CCA, is a program a municipality can adopt covering users of electricity and gas in its area. The municipality could necessitate all or some portion of the supply generated by renewable sources such as solar and wind and thus encourage the use of renewable energy. And the municipality through a “CCA administrator” could seek competitive bids for electricity and gas. In this way CCA would facilitate the purchase of energy on the open market so ratepayers would not have to settle for price charged by their area’s utility. 

But LIPA, charges Lynn Arthur, energy chair of the Southampton Town Green Sustainability Advisory Committee and a leading proponent of CCA, says LIPA has undermined that aspect of CCA here. It has placed CCA under its “Long Island Choice” program with “an adjustment” that would eliminate the cost savings.

This, says Mr. Thiele, is the kind of “poison pill” he feared. “This surcharge, this poison pill, would take away any financial incentive for CCA,” said Mr. Thiele, of Sag Harbor, chair of the Assembly’s Local Governments Committee. 

Says Mr. Thiele: “I was always skeptical that LIPA would move forward on CCA because there’s nothing in it for them—although there’s a lot in it for ratepayers.” Mr. Thiele’s legislation would have LIPA “provide CCA to Long Islanders under the same terms that the state Public Service Commission provides for CCA to operate in the rest New York State—and that’s without a surcharge.” 

In 2016 the PSC opened up having municipalities in the state arrange for CCA programs. CCAs have formed across the nation with other states authorizing local governments to start them including New Jersey, California, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and Rhode Island. On Long Island, the Towns of Hempstead, Southampton and Brookhaven have passed measures providing for CCAs. 

The petition on the website of Southampton Town reads: “Dear LIPA Board Members, It is important that Long Island residents are no longer left behind. CCA authority has been enabled for the rest of the state since 2016 and each of the New York State investor-owned utilities have already implemented” CCAs. “It is important that Long Island municipalities are able to source the electricity power supply for residents and small businesses, to access clean energy markets, and to protect consumers with fixed electricity rates without cancellation fees. Further, the option of CCA on Long Island is essential for the success of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 declaring the environmentally critical standards of reaching 70% renewable electricity power supply by 2030.”

Jessica Strombach, managing director of Joule Community Power, the “CCA administrator” for Southampton Town, in a letter to LIPA CEO Tom Falcone and the LIPA board, wrote: “Southampton, Brookhaven and Hempstead have recently passed CCA laws and several other municipalities throughout Long Island are also considering passage of such laws. However, we are concerned because it has become clear to us that the structure of the LIPA Choice Tariff will not allow for a competitive CCA electricity supply process. This construct therefore blocks our authority, Governor Cuomo’s agenda, as well as our own important municipal agenda. Indeed, as of today, the LIPA Choice Tariff, combined with LIPA billing limitations, blocks CCA in its entirety. This undermines the opportunity for all of Long Island….LIPA asserts that this energy charge is simply a pass-through…for LIPA’s purchase of on-Island capacity for which no market exists.” This, she says, creates “two classes of NY citizen” with Long Islanders “denied the right” of those “in the rest of the state.”

Mr. Thiele comments that the LIPA “extra charge” for CCA users is “another one of these cases of LIPA’s lack of accountability, lack of transparency and lack of oversight.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.