Long Island Power Authority Chairman Howard Steinberg has resigned, effective immediately, leaving the beleaguered utility's board of trustees in danger of not being able to run the business.
According to several published reports, Steinberg sent Gov. Andrew Cuomo a letter Friday afternoon claiming that his full-time responsibilities in the private sector have made it impossible for him to devote the time needed to deal with the utility's challenges.
The move leaves LIPA's board of trustees with eight members, the smallest possible size it can operate as to be able to conduct business.
Steinberg, who was appointed to the unpaid position on LIPA's board in 1999 by Gov. George Pataki, joins chief operating officer Michael Hervey, customer relations vice president Bruce Germano and fellow trustee X. Cristofer Damianos as LIPA leaders who have resigned following Superstorm Sandy. The storm, which knocked out power to more than 1 million LIPA customers when it hit Oct. 29, exposed the utility to harsh scrutiny from the public and elected officials over its response and lack of preparation for the storm.
Much of that ire has been directed at the utility's leadership, which includes LIPA's management and trustees, for communication breakdowns that left customers in the dark about when their electricity would be restored.
The New York Times has also reported that a LIPA trustee meeting held by Steinberg four days before the monster storm pummeled the region was only 39 seconds long.
Cuomo also accused the utility of running out of electric poles in the middle of the recovery.
The governor, who has the power to appoint several trustees to the board, has publicly called the utility broken and has created a Moreland Commission to investigate LIPA and make recommendations on its future.
now onto healthcare
Like it or not, we cannot afford a public utility that will function routinely in extraordinary conditions. We want one, but we don't want to pay for one. The best way to run a large organization is to promote competent experienced people from the inside. The problem is that those that are attracted to these positions spend more time promoting them-selves than tending to their tasks. Try appointment instead of application. If we had a perfect world we could overcome perfect storms. We don't have a perfect world. We are left with the practical, politically unsatisfying, need to promote the most experienced, competent individuals from inside the organization. Unfortunately, after the storm & public scrutiny passes, the selection criteria used to promote individuals defaults to the most popular or the most politically expedient.
If they were able to run the business correctly from the start the board members would probably still be there...
we have to think realistically.
During my time, living in Longmont, Colorado, the total time the power has gone out, that I know about over the pat 15 years, has been less than 4 hours. We get powerful wind storms, summer storms and winter storms here, and some of the winds exceed what Long Island endured during Sandy. The problem is that all that money people pay to LIPA does not get re-invested in the utility. This explains why power poles just snapped, untrimmed trees came down on power lines and not protecting vital generation facilities from flooding. The blame really starts with LILCO, falls to LIPA and the New York State government. As fro fixing the problems; it will cost millions of dollars and Long Island will still end up with one of the highest utility rate sin the country. Long Island short start with forming a not fro profit utility and endure pain to bring their infrastructure into the 2010s and not keeping it in the 1950s.
it is however, incompetent and criminal to appoint not a single engineer to the LIPA board.
And by the way, Mr. Steinberg? Nice dye job.
We should also privatize trees - The private sector will make sure a tree never falls!
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