Lawmakers want LIPA to make bills public

A Suffolk County lawmaker is demanding that the Long Island Power Authority make good on its mission statement of transparency by releasing to the public the hundreds of thousands of individual charges that make up LIPA bills, including costs to respond to storms.

Legis. Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) said he will make a formal request to LIPA and state lawmakers this week in response to a Newsday report Monday that LIPA's contractor, National Grid, may have submitted invoices through LIPA's storm account for work and services unrelated to storms.

"Some of the most basic fundamentals of reviewing bills failed to be done," Romaine said. "And it is now only being done well after the fact because of the questions being raised." LIPA said it had not yet been informed of Romaine's request and declined to comment on it.

Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a letter to the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, recently called on the agency to review bills it paid in storm reimbursements last year. LIPA received $50 million in such reimbursements from FEMA.

FEMA spokesman Don Caetano said the agency is gathering bills from the New York State Office of Emergency Management, which he said received the federal disbursement. Once the charges are received, he said, FEMA staffers will review them, as they would for any other disbursement.

As for making the costs reviewable by the public, Romaine said he may suggest that LIPA upload the charges onto its public website so that outside experts can review them. He and Legis. Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon) have formed a LIPA oversight committee.

In its mission statement the authority pledges to provide "accountability and transparency" in its operations.

Matthew Cordaro, a former utility executive and co-chair of the oversight committee, said revelations about the charges highlight the structural inadequacy of LIPA, which has fewer than 100 employees to review a nearly $4-billion annual budget.

He applauded LIPA's recent decision, with the backing of LIPA trustees, to hire a first-time director of internal audit, but he wondered, "How could an entity the size of LIPA, with its financial impact, not function with an auditor and more accounting staff?"

National Grid is reviewing all 2010 storm charges at LIPA's request and has said it will reverse any charges found to be incorrect.