Lawmaker moves to expand oversight of LIPA

Even as lawmakers and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's staff continue to meet to hammer out alternatives to a LIPA rate-hike bill, Assemb. Robert Sweeney has also been working to persuade state regulators to take on bigger oversight roles of the embattled authority.

Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), sponsor of the bill, said his staff, and that of co-sponsor Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), will meet with Cuomo's in Albany Tuesday to discuss a range of options to put a microscope on LIPA rate increases.

The state legislature has already passed a bill approving Public Service Commission reviews of LIPA hikes greater than 2.5 percent in a year, but Cuomo has yet to sign it. The holdup: Cuomo's staff is worried Wall Street bond-rating agencies will downgrade LIPA if the authority doesn't have free reign to raise rates.

A Cuomo spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.

Sweeney said he's exploring greater oversight roles for the attorney general and comptroller beyond their mostly "pro-forma" scrutiny of contracts and occasional audits. He has been discussing regular audits and a review of LIPA practices, among other things.

Eric Sumberg, a spokesman for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, confirmed the office has had recent meetings with Sweeney on the oversight role. "Comptroller DiNapoli shares . . . Sweeney's concerns about the operations of LIPA. The comptroller is open to finding ways to increase oversight of the authority," Sumberg said.

LIPA spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced an initiative to work with the comptroller's office to police public integrity. The initiative expanded the attorney general's jurisdiction to the state's public authorities, which it called "a shadow government that operates out of the public eye and often without accountability." A source close to Schneiderman's office said the new initiative could encompass greater LIPA oversight, one that would not require new legislation.

Sweeney Monday said he would like the LIPA bill to provide a way for ratepayers to air gripes about the utility outside the authority itself. At present, all such complaints are handled by National Grid reps, with no ability to elevate them to the Public Service Commission, as customers of regulated utilities can.

"At least on a periodic basis, we want the ratepayers to have some place where they can talk, complain, throw out ideas and suggestions," Sweeney said.

LaValle said talks with Cuomo could result in "any combination of things that provide a greater degree of oversight than we have now."

Some ratepayers say LIPA is ripe for oversight. Andrea Moskowitz of Merrick said she spent Monday battling with LIPA tree-trimming crews who blocked access to her driveway, then "butchered" a tree on her property.

"These people have to be regulated by somebody, I thought," she said. "Apparently not. They can come into my yard, do whatever they want and I can't do anything about it."

But Gerald Norlander, former executive director of the Public Utility Law Project, and now an Albany electricity policy consultant, said his reading of the state Home Energy Fair Practices Act provides for LIPA ratepayers to be able to elevate complaint calls to the PSC. "It was the idea from day one," he said.