Kevin Law leaves LIPA to mixed reviews after 3 years

He issued an executive order mandating that the cost of all LIPA energy projects be disclosed before being undertaken but consistently fought a popular state bill for scrutiny of LIPA rate increases.

He scuttled an unpopular offshore-wind program, only to propose one five times as large.

He brought LIPA rates back to 2005 levels, but did little to address the authority's 800-pound gorilla, its $7-billion debt, which still heavily impacts rates.

Kevin Law's three-year term as chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority has been marked by a long list of accomplishments. But as much as Law brought levels of managerial vigor and accountability to the authority, the realities of the job required compromises that tempered his achievements, observers say.

"He approached the job as a politician would," said energy expert Matthew Cordaro, who described Law as an "energetic and devoted" manager, who "worked long hours and bent over backwards to listen" to criticism. But Cordaro, who is among a handful of people vying for the soon-to-be-vacant post of chief executive, added, "I think he was very limited by his lack of experience, as any politician would be."

In an interview Friday, Law, who will become head of the Long Island Association on Sept. 1, argued it was precisely his political skills and connections that have helped guide the authority away from a legacy as frequent public punching bag. "You have to have a good political demeanor to do this job," he said.

Law came into office in October 2007, after serving as deputy chief county executive under Steve Levy.

He promised new levels of transparency and quickly dispensed with some of LIPA's most controversial practices and projects. He ended a history of bonuses that awarded employees and executives cumulatively hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, took a $295,000 salary himself but never took a raise.

He stopped paying outside lobbying firms, and the longtime practice of charitable giving to outside organizations, saying he could not sanction philanthropy on behalf of rate-weary LIPA customers.

And when Newsday published a series of stories detailing the cost of large projects whose price tags of more than $6 billion had never been disclosed, Law acted decisively to change LIPA policy.

All new energy projects from 2008 onward would disclose the cost before approval. "If vendors don't want to bid on projects because of that, so be it," Law said at the time.

Those changes earned him fans among people who were frequent and vocal critics of the old LIPA.

One of them, Assemb. Marc Alessi (D-Wading River), credited Law with putting millions of dollars in contracts out to bid, after years of sole-sourcing. But Alessi was on the receiving end of Law's efforts to torpedo bills that would have mandated a Public Service Commission review of LIPA rate increases of more than 3 percent. "I wish we could have gotten further with that," Alessi lamented.

Law said bond rating agencies threatened downgrades if the measures were approved and counts a Fitch upgrade of LIPA this year as among his accomplishments.

Others say Law's stance hurt ratepayers.

"He did actively oppose additional oversight of LIPA, which from my viewpoint was extremely unfortunate for LIPA and consumers," said Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), who crafted several compromise measures to push through the oversight bills, to no avail. Instead, Law had an outside firm audit LIPA's controversial power supply charge.

Sweeney said he was particularly alarmed that LIPA's debt load wasn't addressed during Law's tenure, even though Law frequently raised alarms about its impact on bills. Debt went from $6.926 billion at the end of 2007 to $6.914 billion at the end of July, including a recent $200 million more this year.

"Everyone knows that is the biggest single problem in terms of rates, and yet very little has been done by Kevin and others to reduce it," Sweeney said.

Former LIPA trustee Shelly Sackstein questioned Law's claim of greater transparency, noting that his organization, Action Long Island, was barred from a stakeholders' meeting over bidding for LIPA's grid-management contract.

But Law helped soften the public impact of potential disasters. When a nor'easter put hundreds of thousands in the dark in March, he dodged direct flak by saying the storm was unexpected.

"I think he's done a great job at LIPA," said Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone, one of thousands of LIPA customers who spent five days without power.

Bellone said he was grateful to Law for scuttling the Jones Beach wind farm project, which his constituents opposed, as unfeasible, while backing Babylon's Green Homes initiative for energy efficiency. Recently, Law has been the driving force behind another wind farm project that could be nearly five times larger than the Jones Beach project.

But environmentalists say it took time for Law to come around to their way of thinking on renewable energy and efficiency. "I would still argue there's not enough money for these programs," said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a LIPA-funded green-energy promoter.

Raacke said he wished Law had promoted green energy sooner.

Law's departure also leaves on the table questions about LIPA's relationship with National Grid. Two big National Grid contracts expire in 2013, and new bids for the work went out only recently.

"The next leader of LIPA is going to have a lot of issues on the table to deal with, particularly the high rates" and the aging LIPA infrastructure, Bellone said.

Suffolk Legis. Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon) said Law, his longtime friend, was hampered by a short tenure.

"There's only so much you can do in three years," Horsley said. "But I think he put LIPA on a better path in the last three years, at least in the mind of ratepayers."