SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: March Is Decision Time For LIPA

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The model for contracting out LIPA’s responsibilities to a private company is a two-time loser,” says Fred W. Thiele, Jr., a leader in calling for true reform of the Long Island Power Authority. LIPA, says Assemblyman Thiele, needs to return to “the vision of its sponsors” and be a “public utility accountable directly to Long Islanders.”

LIPA is to make a decision later this month on going back to that vision—to be a true public power utility operating Long Island’s electric grid itself, not contracting that out to a private company.

London, England-based National Grid which earlier operated the grid for LIPA was fired after its massive failures in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened and pushed for National Grid to be replaced by Newark, New Jersey-based PSEG. In last year’s Tropical Storm Isaias, PSEG repeated National Grid’s storm failure with about half of LIPA customers left in the dark without electricity.

After these two big utility strikes, “There is no reason to think it would be any different a third time,” says Mr. Thiele of Sag Harbor.

LIPA, beyond suing PSEG for $70 million and charging “corporate mismanagement, misfeasance, incompetence and indifference, rising well beyond the level of simple negligence” for PSEG’s terrible Isaias performance, is now considering a return to the original vision of it being a full public utility.

LIPA describes that, in a report issued in December, as the “Municipal Management Model.” This, says the report, “is an alternative to LIPA’s present arrangement with PSEG Long Island.” LIPA lists economic advantages. “Rather than paying PSEG Long Island $77 million in management fees and $20 million in affiliate service charges annually, the LIPA management team would design, integrate, and bear the costs of the entire delivery chain.” It notes the “municipal management model” has “been successfully executed by numerous public power and cooperative utilities, many of whom are ranked among the best utilities in the country for customer satisfaction and reliability.”

Indeed, a good chunk of electric utilities in the United States are public power utilities, not private utilities with profit central often at the cost of public service. Public power utilities are in a better position to underground electric lines, a key to enhancing the reliability of electricity on often storm-battered Long Island.

The original model for LIPA was the Sacramento Municipal Utility District providing electric service to an area California with a comparable number of ratepayers as in LIPA’s territory. SMUD has an elected board of seven trustees, and LIPA was to have elected trustees, too. But Andrew Cuomo’s father, then Governor Mario Cuomo, undid that provision after LIPA’s formation in 1986 and replaced it with having LIPA’s nine trustees appointed, five by the governor and two each by the State Assembly speaker and State Senate president. Year after year, Mr. Thiele has introduced legislation restoring having LIPA trustees elected by Long Islanders.

The December LIPA report says under the “Municipal Management Model” and “given its direct accountability for operations, LIPA would be equipped to be far more transparent and responsive.” Important for this to be a reality would be having trustees of a strengthened LIPA elected. They would have to run for office, as do those at SMUD. And this way, electric service would be under the control of the people of Long Island. 

An outrageous example of the kind of utility governance that should never be is an entity called the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. It operates 90 percent of the electric grid in Texas.  How are the 15 members of the ERCOT board chosen? “Board members are appointed by a nominating committee made up of current members,” noted the Austin American-Statesman last month. An investigation by the Texas state capitol’s newspaper also found “one-third of its board lives out of state.” 

With frigid weather hitting Texas and freezing the blades of wind turbines, the anti-environmental governor of Texas blamed green energy for the weeks for electric outage that impacted 4.5 million ERCOT customers. But, as Forbes magazine (not known exactly for a green commitment) reported, for dealing with cold weather, wind turbines “are typically equipped with de-icing and other tools.” That simple fix was beyond the insider-board of ERCOT. Ah, anti-freeze!

Ah democracy! LIPA should decide to operate the Long Island electric grid itself—with the people of Long Island overseeing LIPA by electing the members of its board. 

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. 

DA Announces Charges In Wrong-Way Crash With Fatality On Sunken Meadow Parkway

DA SINI: FDNY FIREFIGHTER INDICTED FOR ALLEGEDLY DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED, KILLING MAN IN WRONG-WAY CRASH 

(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the indictment of an FDNY firefighter for allegedly driving while intoxicated and killing a man in a wrong-way motor vehicle crash on the Sunken Meadow Parkway in November 2020.

 “This was a senseless tragedy caused by someone who was sworn to protect the safety of others,” District Attorney Sini said. “His blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit when he made the decision to get behind the wheel of a car – a decision that proved to have fatal, devastating consequences. There is no excuse for it. My Office will seek to hold him accountable and obtain justice for the victim.”

Joseph Norris, 38, of Babylon, is charged with Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, a class B felony; Vehicular Manslaughter in the First Degree, a class C felony; Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class C felony; Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second Degree, a class D felony; Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated, a misdemeanor; two counts of Driving While Intoxicated, a misdemeanor; Reckless Driving, a misdemeanor; and Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree, a class A misdemeanor. Norris has been employed by the FDNY since 2006.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2020, Norris was allegedly driving a 2008 Chevrolet Colorado southbound in the northbound lane of the Sunken Meadow Parkway near exit SM3A in Smithtown when he struck a 2007 Mazda CX7 SUV. The driver of the Mazda, Anthony Mariano, 44, of Kings Park, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Norris was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore with serious physical injuries. A chemical test of Norris’ blood following the crash revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.29 percent.

Norris was arraigned on the indictment today in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Stephen Braslow and bail was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond. He is being represented by Anthony LaPinta and is due back in court on April 15.

If convicted of the top count, Norris faces a maximum sentence of eight and one-third to 25 years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Raymond Varuolo and Maggie Bopp, of the Vehicular Crime Bureau.

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

Suffolk Closeup: The G In PSEG Could Stand For Goofy

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The G in PSEG could stand for Goofy. 

 PSEG this month faces loss of the 12-year contract it got in 2013 to operate Long Island’s electrical grid for the Long Island Power Authority. This stems from its massive failures during Tropical Storm Isaias in August 2020 when more than 500,000 of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers lost power, many for days, and communications with PSEG to report outages and find out what was happening were impossible. 

As Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was central in getting PSEG to replace National Grid as LIPA’s private contractor—after National Grid’s major failures in Superstorm Sandy—said of PSEG’s Isaias performance: “Utility companies are beholden to ratepayers, and when that service is inadequate—or as in this case, a complete failure—those utilities need to be held accountable.”

LIPA is to make a decision later this month about going back to the original vision of LIPA when it was created by the state in 1986: being a full public utility operating Long Island’s electric grid itself and not jobbing that out to a private company. LIPA is also considering an alternative: strengthened provisions in its contract with PSEG.

It should decide to be a full public utility.  

And, also, the state should restore another part of the original vision for LIPA—having LIPA’s trustees elected. This would enable the Long Island public to control their public utility. (Now LIPA trustees are appointed, five by the governor, and two each by the State Assembly speaker and State Senate president.)

A big problem for Newark, New Jersey-based PSEG is its historic and current goofiness.

For example, before Isaias struck, LIPA was having an extremely tough time getting through to PSEG executives assigned to Long Island because they were in Puerto Rico as PSEG sought a contract to operate Puerto Rico’s electric grid. “If you wanted to contact the [PSEG] management team you had to call them in San Juan,” LIPA Chief Executive Tom Falcone told Newsday. PSEG didn’t get the Puerto Rican contract after all.

A huge historic PSEG goofiness story involves Richard Eckert, then PSEG’s vice president for engineering and construction, and a brainstorm he had in 1969 while taking a shower.

Opposition was increasing to building nuclear power plants in populated areas and there was the problem concerning the mammoth amounts of water they need as coolant—a million gallons a minute for a standard nuclear power plant. So, what came to Mr. Eckert was the notion of putting nuclear power plants in the ocean. And that became PSEG’s scheme—a string of nuclear power plants in the Atlantic starting off of southern New Jersey running north to 20 miles off Long Island.

This became one of my early articles on nuclear power and my first about PSEG.

I was driving along Dune Road near Hot Dog Beach in the Hamptons and noticed that a big meteorological station had suddenly popped up. On the chain link fence surrounding it was a sign with the name of Brookhaven National Laboratory. I called BNL and was told it had set up the station because a company from New Jersey, PSEG, planned to site nuclear power plants in the Atlantic. A BNL spokesperson said the laboratory had borrowed a 75-foot LST from the U.S. Navy and was also using aircraft and a trawler. Clouds of white smoke were being sent up to determine likely dispersal patterns of radioactivity from the floating PSEG nuclear power plants.  I was told the clouds, representing radioactivity, usually floated to Long Island because of prevailing winds being from the southwest.

PSEG convinced Westinghouse to manufacture the floating nuclear power plants. In 1970 Westinghouse set up Offshore Power Systems to construct them at a massive facility built on Blount Island off Jacksonville, Florida. The plants were to be towed up the Atlantic into position. In a book I wrote, Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power, I showed an Offshore Power Systems sales brochure and featured three pages on the project. Offshore Power Systems went bust in 1984, after losing $180 million (in 1970s dollars) on the failed venture. PSEG itself, meanwhile, according to NJ Advance Media, “sunk millions into the project and [its] customers would spend the next 20 years paying off a large share of those costs.”

More next week on the Long Island electricity decision ahead.

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. 

NYS Senator James Gaughran A Leader In Fighting Real Estate "Steering"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

At a public hearing of the county’s Fair Housing Task Force this month on what government has done—and likely will do—in the wake of the Newsday expose of widespread racial “steering” in real estate sales in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, a state senator from Suffolk described his immediate action.

“I asked what is the law?” said Senator James Gaughran from Northport, who is an attorney. He said he was “shocked” to find that “violating” New York State’s Human Rights Law was “not a reason” for the state’s Secretary of State to “revoke a salesperson’s or real estate broker’s license.” So he promptly went to work on a bill to allow the Secretary of State “to revoke or suspend” the license of “any real estate salesperson or real estate broker found to be steering,” and also impose a fine.

His bill passed the Senate 59-to-1 (the only dissenting vote that of Senator Andrew Lanza of Staten Island). The sponsor of the bill in the State Assembly, where it passed unanimously, was Kimberly Jean-Pierre from Wheatley Heights. 

It was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo in August of last year. Said Mr. Cuomo: “We have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind in New York and the sheer scope and breadth of the unscrupulous and discriminatory real estate practices uncovered on Long Island is repugnant to who we are. While the federal government is focused on gutting fair housing regulations that have helped so many Americans, we are vastly expanding the state’s ability to crack down on unethical real estate agents and protect hard-working New Yorkers looking for a community to call home.”

Beyond Newsday’s investigative reporting, three Senate committees—on Investigation and Government Operations (of which Mr. Gaughran is a member); on Housing, Construction and Community Development; and on Consumer Protection—conducted a joint investigation. 

These included hearings for which subpoenas were issued to real estate personnel to force their testimony and also, said the 95-page report issued by the committees, “compelling their disclosure of corporate policies, training materials and staff manuals concerning compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act and any similar state or local laws.”

Mr. Gaughran, a former Suffolk County legislator, spoke about the report, titled “Final Investigative Report Fair Housing and Discrimination on Long Island,” and the 11 bills growing out of the state probe. The bills, passed by the Senate, are now heading to the Assembly. 

One of the bills requires the New York State Attorney General to regularly do the kind of testing Newsday did—sending testers into real estate offices to probe for discrimination. The newspaper, over three years, used testers in areas throughout Suffolk and Nassau Counties and found that many real estate agents directed minority potential homebuyers to neighborhoods based on their race. Some 49% of black testers and 39% of Latino testers were subjected to this, Newsday reported. That’s to a large degree why there what are called “ghettoes” on Long Island where minorities are concentrated, and thus Long Island being considered among the “most segregated” areas in the United States. Newsday’s series was headed “Long Island Divided.”

The Senate committees’ report states: “Formalized discrimination in residential real estate sales has a long history in the United States, becoming more pronounced as Black Americans migrated to northern states during the early 1900s.” It quoted from a “Code of Ethics” of the National Association of Real Estate Boards adopted in 1924 that stated, “A Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood…members of any race…whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood.”

The law providing for the revocation or suspension of licenses to sell real estate can be a key to challenging a discriminatory practice—as long as there is regular testing so evidence can be brought against the offending real estate people. And, among the 11 bills is a measure raising fees for state licenses to sell real estate with that extra money to be used to fund fair-housing testing. Other bills requires real estate agents to take additional hours of anti-bias training for license renewal and would allow the state Division of Human Rights to mete out compensatory and punitive damage awards to victims of bias in real estate sales.

Suffolk Legislator Sam Gonzalez of Brentwood, chair of the county’s Fair Housing Task Force, who presided at the public hearing, said it will soon be making recommendations focusing specifically on Suffolk County.

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. 

Otters In The Nissequogue River - Who Knew?

Most people are surprised when they learn that otters can be found in the Nisseqogue River. Otters in Smithtown, who knew? Seatuck Environmental Association knew. 

Seatuck is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization based at the Suffolk County EnvironmentalLI Nature Org Center at the Scully Estate in Islip 550 South Bay Avenue, Islip NY 11751.

Seatuck is offering the public an opportunity to participate in monitoring projects, including monitoring otters, on Long Island. The organization is offering a web-based educational series for those interested in wildlife conservation. 

The educational webinar series highlights various community science opportunities that have been launched by Long Island environmental groups in support of local wildlife conservation efforts.

Anyone interested in helping scientists with their projects and learning about what is being done for water quality, horseshoe crabs, bats and an emerging coyote population – among other Long Island centered research — can tune in to the coming 2021 webinars. Seatuck Environmental Association, Long Island Sound Study, and New York Sea Grant is hosting the series.

“Community Science LI” spans the next seven months, coinciding with the volunteer monitoring season for each project. The webinars include monitoring projects focused on water quality, horseshoe crabs, bats, eastern coyotes, and diamondback terrapins - and incorporate presentations from local researchers, environmental management leaders, and community science project coordinators.

“Community Science LI” featured its first webinar in the series titled, “River Otter Monitoring”, on January 27th from 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM. The webinar drew over 300 attendees from various backgrounds, including members of the general public, students, professors, teachers, and environmental professionals. Most were from Long Island, but a few tuned in from New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and even California. During the webinar, Wildlife Biologist Mike Bottini and Seatuck’s Policy Program Coordinator Arielle Santos discussed the natural history of River Otters on Long Island, their current distribution, tips on identification, and how to survey them in the field using the free Survey 1-2-3 platform. The recorded webinar and associated resources can be found on Seatuck’s website at https://seatuck.org/otter-watch/.

The next webinar will cover River Herring & American Eel monitoring on Long Island. The annual volunteer River Herring & American Eel Survey is one of Long Island’s longest running community science projects. Started in 2006, the survey engages volunteer community scientists to monitor runs of migratory river herring and American eels in rivers and streams across Long Island. The survey, organized by Seatuck and partners at the Long Island Sound Study, Peconic Estuary Program and South Shore Estuary Reserve – aims to find the waterways where “remnant” runs of river herring still exist and then to monitor the size and timing of those runs. This information is vital to improve access and restore local populations of these ecologically important fish. All webinar attendees will be able to participate in in-depth discussions with local project coordinators on how to survey for river herring and American eel in their communities. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 25th, from 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM. Registration is required.

For more information on future webinars, the full event schedule, and registration information, visit https://seatuck.org/community-science-webinars/.