Letter: LIPA better as a public utility
Photo credit: Charles Eckert | QUEENS, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 05, 2012. LIPA workers set up a temporary transformer station in the parking lot of what used to be Peninsula Hospital in the Arverne section of the Rockaway's. Photograph by Charles Eckert.
One of the "cons" listed in the news article "Public vs. private" [Jan. 21] was that a public utility wouldn't be able to recruit top-level employees. This is nonsense. The private sector has much worse job security. Who wouldn't jump at the chance of a job with the possibility of some longevity?
One of the biggest reasons that the recession has lasted so long with so few jobs created is that public-sector hiring has been at freeze or near-freeze levels.
A fully public utility, answerable to the voters of Long Island, would not only increase accountability, it would be a shot in the arm to the local economy.
Ann Kemler, Long Beach
