Key jobs unfilled at LIPA

Add chief financial officer to the list of high-level positions that are not permanently filled at the Long Island Power Authority.

In late December, LIPA announced that Herb Hogue, who had been on the job for nearly three years, was departing to "pursue other opportunities." Hogue left at the end of the month. He didn't return a call to his Mercer Island, Wash., home.

The vacant top-finance slot and at least three other key positions at LIPA, including chief executive, are not permanently filled. The chief executive post has been vacant since Kevin Law left in September, 2010. Michael Hervey, a candidate to fill that slot permanently, has assumed the title on an interim basis.

Other positions that are vacant or soon to be: chief auditor, a new position, and director of communications, after Vanessa Baird-Streeter announced this week she would join the County Executive Steve Bellone's administration in Suffolk County.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is also expected to appoint a chairman for LIPA. The current chairman, Howard Steinberg, has been filling the post even though his term expired at the end of August. A Cuomo spokesman wasn't available Wednesday.

Kenneth Kane, a LIPA veteran who has been the authority's controller, has been assigned the CFO job on an interim basis, and is considered a candidate for the job.

Baird-Streeter, who leaves her post Jan. 23, said LIPA is vetting a chief financial officer candidate, suggesting someone may be hired soon. She also noted that the chief executive slot, when a final appointment is made by LIPA trustees, must undergo a State Senate confirmation process. She said the chief auditor slot, which was nearly filled last year until the candidate dropped out at the last minute, is a new post intended to give additional scrutiny to expenses such as storm costs.

"It's not like you had these vacancies for an inordinate amount of time," she said.

The vacancies come at a crucial time for LIPA. After choosing PSEG of New Jersey to take on management of the electric grid by 2013, LIPA must begin a complex two-year transition to the new company from National Grid. LIPA is also cooperating on at least three separate state audits, by the inspector general, the comptroller and a storm audit directed by the Public Service department.

Matthew Cordaro, co-chair of the Suffolk Legislature's LIPA Oversight Committee, called it "vital to have a CFO as they go through this transition and with a state inspector general's audit under way."

The problem LIPA faces, Cordaro said, is that it cannot offer executive candidates the same level of pay as an investor-owned utility. That issue is compounded by the cost of living on Long Island, which is exacerbated by high energy costs.