Suffolk Closeup: Long Island's Solar Roadmap

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Long Island Solar Roadmap” is the title of a just-released report on how solar power has “the potential to generate more electricity than Long Island uses each year.”

The report was “spearheaded” by The Nature Conservancy and Defenders of Wildlife and involved a “consortium” of “38 local stakeholders,” says a statement issued with it.  

This included people from the Sierra Club; Renewable Energy Long Island; Long Island Regional Planning Council; Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming; Peconic Land Trust; Clean Energy of New York; Sustainability Institute of Molloy College; Long Island and New York State power authorities; Suffolk Community College; Long Island Farm Bureau; Land Trust Alliance; and from individual Long Island towns.

The initiative was supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The report not only covers what can be done but recommends strategies for “implementing” the roadmap. It describes specific solar power potentials in areas throughout Suffolk and Nassau—including, in detail, in the Town of Smithtown.  

It is available online. Its 127 pages are literally a roadmap to a sunny energy future for Long Island. The link is: http://solarroadmap.org/

The statement starts by noting “the solar carport at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge” and how it “twinkles in the sun. Since 2011, the solar canopies there, laid out in rows above the parking spaces, have generated shade in the hot summer months and carbon-free electricity all year round, along with a multitude of other benefits: improved air quality and improved public health jobs that pay above the national average; reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; and income for Suffolk County, which has leased the parking lot to the array’s developer.”

“The even better news about this solar project and ones like it—mid-to-large-scale arrays of at least 250 kilowatts,” it goes on, “is that they can play a pivotal role in meeting New York State’s nation-leading climate and clean energy goals.”

“In fact,” it says, “these arrays, also called commercial-and industrial scale solar, have the potential to generate more electricity than Long island uses each year—enough to power 4.8 million homes.”

“And…they can do it without negatively impacting many of the places Long Islanders hold dear—the region’s farmlands and forests, its cultural heritage sites and open spaces.”

“The Long Island Solar Roadmap,” it states, “explores how to advance solar development on the country’s most populated island while safeguarding the landscapes people value most and expanding clean energy, especially for low-to-moderate income residents and people of color.”

The “Roadmap offers a first-of-its-kind online mapping tool that identifies areas for responsible solar development and lays out clear strategies for lowering barriers to the clean energy technology.”

The initiative “got its start with the awareness of a problem. In 2016, several proposed large solar projects on Long Island were very publicly shot down because they would have required clear-cutting forests,” it relates. It quotes Jessica Price, the New York renewable strategy leader for the The Nature Conservancy saying “I was having lots of conversations with folks about where solar projects shouldn’t go. What I was really interested in talking about was where they should go.”

“To help figure that out,” the statement continues, “The Nature Conservancy and Defenders of Wildlife brought together utilities, municipalities, solar developers, commercial property owners, farmers and community groups to talk about what they valued and how those values could be used to inform decisions about solar siting.” They found: “Even though we don’t have large swaths of undeveloped land on Long Island, we have plenty of parking lots, warehouse roofs, brownfields, capped landfills and other areas already impacted by development.”

Also, “public opinion research…found that 92 percent of Long Islanders surveyed endorse the use of mid-to-large-scale solar, and the technology is especially popular when sited on parking lots and rooftops and when projects are developed and installed by local companies.” 

It quotes Ms. Price declaring: “Solar power offers incredible benefits. This report shows that in scaling up solar, we don’t have to choose between one ‘green’ good—clean energy—and another—undisturbed forests, open spaces, and farmland. Even on densely populated Long Island, with the right approach we have room for it all.”

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. 

A Damaged Cuomo Leaves Democrats Wondering Who Will Replace Him

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

 “A series of revelations…have damaged the New York governor beyond repair,” the headline in The New Republic magazine declared. The article below it started: “Andrew Cuomo is hanging by a thread. He may hold onto his job for another day or another week, or even longer. But he is well past the political point of no return.”

Will a Long Islander replace Mr. Cuomo as Democratic candidate for governor in the 2022 election if he doesn’t get the party’s nod to run again or loses in a primary contest? And will he resign before that?

With a significant number women of charging he sexually harassed them, and this following what’s been claimed as a state cover-up of nursing home COVID-19 deaths, a chorus of fellow Democratic officeholders are demanding he quit.

Politico, the prominent Washington-based journal, lists several Long Islanders in an article headed “The Democrats who could take Cuomo’s place.” The subhead: “With Cuomo wounded, next year could get very interesting.”

High on the list is New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. As to “why he can win,” Politico declares: “DiNapoli, the state’s elected chief financial officer, has a longstanding reputation as the nicest man in Albany, and he’s served in statewide office since 2007 without a whiff of a scandal. Those would obviously be great selling points if voters’ biggest takeaway from the ongoing crisis in Albany is that they should elected somebody who isn’t a bully.”

Further, Politico points out that Mr. DiNapoli “led the Democratic ticket in vote-getting in the past, with his 67 percent in 2018 outpolling Cuomo by a solid 7 points.”

A wrinkle: Mr. DiNapoli would “have to end his career as comptroller for governor…

a job that he seems happy to keep, and one that most people would think is his for however long he wants it.”

Mr. DiNapoli, of Great Neck Plaza in Nassau County, would make an outstanding candidate for governor. I covered him for decades in his time as a highly-productive and extraordinarily collegial member of the State Assembly. Also, for many of those years, he chaired the Legislative Commission on Water Resource Needs of New York State and Long Island. 

The Politico list also includes Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Nassau County executive Laura Curran.

Meanwhile, CNBC has just reported that Representative Tom Suozzi, whose Congressional District includes part of Suffolk, is interested in running for governor. 

Mr. Suozzi, a former and able Nassau County executive, tried earlier to run for governor but lost a Democratic primary to Eliot Spitzer in 2006. Mr. Spitzer would later resign the governorship, bowing to pressure, in the wake of allegations he repeatedly used the services of a high-priced prostitution ring.

Mr. Suozzi is a resident of Glen Cove. He was elected in 2016 to the House of Representatives from the 3^rd C.D. which includes northwest Suffolk and the northern portions of Nassau and Queens Counties.

Both Messrs. DiNapoli and Suozzi “have been engaging with supporters and party leaders to discuss potentially running for governor in 2022,” reported CNBC.

The Politico list also includes figures from New York City and upstate. Among those from the city are Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and, from upstate, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. Ms. Hochul would succeed Mr. Cuomo if he resigns, and  would “suddenly have all of the advantages of incumbency” in then running for governor, notes Politico. 

Ms. Hochul would be New York’s first female governor. Her website biography relates how she was raised in Buffalo in a “blue-collar family that instilled a deep passion for public service and activism. She continued that fighting spirit as a student organizer, as a young attorney and aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan…” In 2011 she “entered a special election in the most Republican Congressional district in the state, and against all odds, won as a proud Democrat.”

Andrew Cuomo has very much wanted a fourth term as governor, something which eluded his father, Mario, defeated in his bid for a fourth term by Republican George Pataki in 1994. Andrew Cuomo maintains he is innocent of all charges and, strong-willed, he is holding on.

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 County Legislator Pleads Guilty Waives Right To Appeal

DA SINI: SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATOR PLEADS GUILTY TO FILING FALSE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE FORM, VIOLATING SUFFOLK COUNTY ETHICS CODE

Defendant Failed to Report Outside Employment and $60k in Payments He Received Through Shell Corporation Created in Wife’s Name

(RIVERHEAD, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the guilty plea of a Suffolk County Legislator for filing a false financial disclosure form with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics.

Rudolph Sunderman, 51, of Mastic, has served as a Suffolk County Legislator representing Suffolk County’s Third Legislative District since January 2018. He pleaded guilty today in frontRudolph Sunderman, 51, of Mastic, has served as a Suffolk County Legislator representing Suffolk County’s Third Legislative District since January 2018. of Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony Senft, Jr., to Intentional Failure to File an Accurate Financial Disclosure Statement, an unclassified misdemeanor and a violation of the Suffolk County Code of Ethics. Pursuant to the plea agreement, he was sentenced to a conditional discharge, has waived his right to appeal, and will be required to pay a $1,000 fine.

“This legislator was told by the Suffolk County Board of Ethics that he was not permitted under the law to continue to get paid by the Centereach Fire District on top of his six-figure legislator salary,” District Attorney Sini said. “Instead of simply doing the right thing, he created a sham company in his wife’s name to try to get around the ruling. When the Board of Ethics started asking questions about this employment, he filed a false Financial Disclosure Form with the Board of Ethics concealing $60,000 in outside income paid to that company for his continued work for the Fire District.”

“After the Board of Ethics referred this case to my Office for investigation, our investigators and prosecutors meticulously gathered the evidence and presented it to a grand jury of the defendant’s peers, which indicted him with a series of crimes. For the next year and a half, we insisted on a criminal conviction either by plea or trial. That brings us to today, where the defendant admitted to his conduct in open court and pled guilty to a crime. As a result of today’s guilty plea, the defendant is a convicted criminal who is disqualified from holding the position of trust that he betrayed through his actions.”

Prior to his election to the Suffolk County Legislature in November 2017, Sunderman was employed as the district manager for the Centereach Fire District, earning approximately $175,000 a year, and as the district secretary for the Center Moriches Fire District, earning approximately $20,000 a year. On December 6, 2017, Sunderman received an opinion from the Suffolk County Board of Ethics that continuing to serve in these roles while serving as a legislator would constitute a violation of the Suffolk County Code. Sunderman resigned from his position with the Center Moriches Fire District.

Sunderman attempted to circumvent the Board of Ethics’ ruling with respect to his employment with the Centereach Fire District by creating a shell company, Now That’s Fire Management, Inc., in his wife’s name and arranging for the Centereach Board of Fire Commissioners to hire him through that company for $10,000 per month. Between January 2, 2018, and June 30, 2018, despite the Board of Ethics’ determination, Sunderman continued to work for the Centereach Fire District, resulting in $60,000 in payments to Now That’s Fire Management, Inc.

Following receipt of a complaint, the Suffolk County Board of Ethics began an investigation into Sunderman’s employment with the Centereach Fire District. On April 23, 2019, while the Board of Ethics’ investigation into his conduct was underway, Sunderman intentionally failed to disclose his outside employment as well as his wife’s income from the Centereach Fire District on a financial disclosure form filed with the Suffolk County Board of Ethics for the 2018 reporting year.

Following the investigation, Sunderman was indicted and arraigned on July 16, 2019.

Sunderman was represented by Raymond Perini.

This case was prosecuted by Bureau Chief Marc Lindemann and Assistant District Attorneys Kevin Ward and Sean Buckley, of the Public Integrity Bureau.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Stony Brook University's COVID-19 Distribution "Very Impressive"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The process of getting a vaccination at Stony Brook University to prevent COVID-19 was amazingly well-organized. I had been concerned about getting to the site where shots were being given on the sprawling Stony Brook campus but signage was abundant. And traffic was directed by National Guard soldiers and Stony Brook University Police. 

There was an enormous number of people at various stations inside the campus building being used for vaccinations—many of them drawn from the various Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook. They were consistently helpful. 

Quite an activation of resources! Very impressive!

Getting an appointment wasn’t easy but I kept trying by calling the state’s “vaccination hotline” (at 833-697-4829). And, finally, I landed a slot.

I was given the shot—of the Pfizer vaccine—by a team two young women who attend the Stony Brook School of Nursing. I told them, as the needle was prepared, about being a journalist and having written articles about the founding of their school in the early 1970s.

I suggested they Google the name of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino to learn about why, largely because of his leadership, the Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook—including the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Dental Medicine—are unusual. Dr. Pellegrino pioneered interdisciplinary health science education and clinical care at Stony Brook as its vice president for health sciences.

When the needle went in, I didn’t feel it. It was the thinnest needle ever poked into me. I was told there might be moderate pain in my upper arm afterwards. As I write this, the next day, any pain has disappeared.

After the shot I was directed to a big room in which the newly vaccinated were to sit for 15 minutes, to wait to make sure they were OK. Chairs were socially-distanced. On a big screen, a video program was being played on the history of health sciences at Stony Brook.

It was déjà vu time. It brought me back to covering Stony Brook way back—and getting to know its students, faculty and administrators—and especially the visionary Dr. Pellegrino. 

The arrival of Stony Brook University was a shock for some communities and people in Suffolk. There was “town-gown” conflict. The top administrators of the university met with the top editors of the daily Long Island Press and asked, an editor later told me, if they could assign a reporter who might be “sensitive” regarding the conflict and also what was happening at the university. At that time, 1969, I had begun this column, published every Sunday in The Press, reported on Suffolk politics and government and did investigative reporting. And this was added.

Watching that video, those years came rushing back. In it were people I had interviewed and programs I had written about—and a photo of Dr. Pellegrino.

I related in pieces back then Dr. Pellegrino’s story—how he was the son of Italian immigrants and faced problems getting into a medical school because of being an Italian-American. He spoke of a letter he received from one Ivy League medical school saying he would be “happier” with his “own kind.” His college advisor, he said, suggested he change his last name. He refused. 

But his father, in the wholesale grocery business, serviced a restaurant near NYU at which the dean of NYU Medical School had lunch regularly. Its owner introduced him to the dean, young Pellegrino applied to the school, was accepted and graduated in 1944. 

Dr. Pellegrino described to me his dream of integrating medical sciences with the humanities and social sciences. And the hospital he planned, he said, would be nurturing and patient-centered. He maintained that medicine is a “moral enterprise” with a doctor having a “covenant” with his or her patients. He was dissatisfied with the direction medicine was taking, with health care being turned into, he said, a commodity, a business. Stony Brook, he said, would be different. It has been.

Dr. Pellegrino went on to become president of the Catholic University of America, He taught up to the week of his death at 92 in 2013. He attended mass daily. He authored or co-authored 23 books and is considered a founder of the field of bioethics.

The 15 minutes up, I left Stony Brook, vaccinated and smiling.

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. 

St. James Man Indicted For String Of Burglaries And Attempted Theft Of ATM

DA SINI: ST. JAMES MAN INDICTED FOR ALLEGED STRING OF COMMERCIAL BURGLARIES; DEFENDANT, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED FOR ATTEMPTED ATM THEFT 

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the indictment of a St. James man for allegedly committing a string of commercial burglaries in November 2020. The defendant and an accomplice are also indicted in connection with the alleged attempted theft of an ATM.

“These two individuals are alleged serial burglars who were targeting businesses and driving crime in our community,” District Attorney Sini said. “This was excellent work by our Major Crime Unit and the Suffolk County Police Department to apprehend these defendants and bring significant charges against them.”

Kieran Fichtner, 27, of St. James, is charged with three counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a class C felony; two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony; six counts of Burglary in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony; four counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Fifth Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree, a class D felony; Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, a class D felony; five counts of Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class E felony; Attempted Burglary in the Third Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; two counts of Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree, a class A misdemeanor; two counts of Petit Larceny, a class A misdemeanor; and two counts of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree, a class B misdemeanor.

Michael Parise, 46, of Stony Brook, is charged with Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Criminal Mischief in the Second Degree, a class D felony; and Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class E felony.

Throughout November 2020, Fichtner is alleged to have committed numerous commercial burglaries while on supervised release with GPS monitoring for an unrelated pending charge for criminal possession of a weapon. The alleged burglaries took place on:

·         Nov. 4, 2020, at St. James Jewelry, located at 483 Lake Avenue in St. James

·         Nov. 19, 2020, at Center Gold East, located at 151 Route 25a in Sound Beach

·         Nov. 19, 2020, at Pattern Finders, located at 128 E. Main Street in Port Jefferson Station

·         Nov. 23, 2020, at R&S Jewelry, located at 285 Route 25a in Rocky Point

·         Nov. 24, 2020, at Raan Thai, located at 203 Terry Road in Nesconset

·         Nov. 25, 2020, at Subway, located at 43 Railroad Avenue in Ronkonkoma

On Nov. 28, 2020, Suffolk County Police Department Major Case detectives observed Fichtner and Parise allegedly attempt to steal an ATM from Chase Bank located at 705 Smithtown Bypass in Smithtown. Fichtner and Parise fled in a vehicle. The detectives initiated a pursuit with assistance from the Suffolk County Police Electronic Investigations Unit, Aviation Unit and K-9 Unit and apprehended Fichtner.

On Nov. 28, 2020, detectives executed a search warrant on Fichtner’s vehicle and recovered a loaded 9mm pistol, approximately one gram of cocaine, and a New York State Corrections jacket that the suspect had been observed wearing during several of the burglaries. A forensic analysis conducted by the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory concluded that the 9mm pistol had been used in two shootings in November in residential neighborhoods. No victims were injured in the shootings.

Detectives also executed a search warrant at Fichtner’s residence and recovered jewelry, art, two shotguns, trailers, motorcycles, and one Mercedes, which had all been reported as stolen. Police also recovered an eagle statue that had been reported as stolen from a World War II memorial at Washington Memorial Park Cemetery in Mount Sinai.

Parise was arrested last week on unrelated charges in connection with numerous alleged commercial burglaries, at which time he made admissions to police regarding his involvement in the November ATM theft. Parise also made admissions to detectives that Fichtner would fire the pistol in residential neighborhoods to distract police in order to commit burglaries nearby.

Fichtner was arraigned on the indictment in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Stephen Braslow on March 5 and bail was set at $150,000 cash, $300,000 bond or $500,000 partially-secured bond. Fichtner is being represented by George Duncan and is due back in court on April 9. Parise was arraigned today and bail was set at $150,000 cash, $300,000 bond or $400,000 partially-secured bond. Parise is being represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County and is due back in court on April 14.

If convicted of the top count, Fichtner faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. If convicted of the top count, Parise faces a maximum sentence of 3 ½ to 7 years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney James Scahill, of the Felony Offense Bureau’s Major Crime Unit.

A criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.