LIPA trustees choose Carrie Meek Gallagher as new chief executive officer

LIPA's top watchdog is now its top executive. 

In a vote at its headquarters in Uniondale Wednesday, LIPA's nine trustees voted unanimously to approve the appointment of Carrie Meek Gallagher as the authority's president and chief executive officer. Gallagher had been director of the Long Island office of the Department of Public Service, the agency that has "review and recommend" oversight of LIPA without full regulatory jurisdiction. 

She replaces John Rhodes, the interim CEO who took the job in March 2024 after the abrupt departure of 10-year veteran Tom Falcone following Gov. Kathy Hochul's appointment of new board members. 

Gallagher said she was "honored to be entrusted with this incredible responsibility at this pivotal moment in LIPA's history."

Gallagher's appointment comes amid one of LIPA's most turbulent periods as the utility faces a state inspector general investigation and at least one internal ethics complaint tied to the authority's efforts to find a new grid operator.

The turmoil followed a vote by LIPA trustees in April to reject a recommendation from a panel of LIPA executives, including Rhodes, to award the utility's grid management contract to Quanta Services, replacing PSEG Long Island, whose contract expires at year's end. The six board members who voted to reject the recommendation said they did their own extensive research and investigation. They have since named a new committee that for the first time includes board members to negotiate a contract extension with PSEG for up to five years.

One ratepayer/activist at the board meeting suggested Gallagher has her work cut out for her. "Confidence in LIPA’s trustees has been shaken," said Fred Harrison of Merrick, alluding to the Quanta matter and PSEG's flagging performance metrics. "The restoration of that confidence will take leadership and that begins with making sure that ratepayers come first."

Gallagher has been director of the Long Island DPS office since September 2021, taking the post after she served as acting deputy secretary for energy and environment under former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Gallagher had been seen as an eventual replacement to become state Department of Environmental Conservation ommissioner at the time, but former Commissioner Basil Seggos stayed on past a planned departure date, sources said. 

Gallagher also has served as Long Island regional director of the state DEC, a post she held for just over five years, starting in 2015; she also worked as chief sustainability officer at the Suffolk County Water Authority and as commissioner of energy and the environment for Suffolk County. She’s been a front-runner for the LIPA job since at least January, Newsday has reported. Officials said she was selected from a list of more than 100 applicants. 

LIPA chairwoman Tracey Edwards praised Gallagher as an official who "understands the politics and the patience that is required to be a Long Islander and work with Long Islanders and respect all of the needs."

A Newsday Freedom of Information request to DPS returned no documents that indicated Gallagher had sought, received or required any special ethics clearances to seek the LIPA job while serving as LIPA’s quasi-regulator. One expert wondered why. 

"If she’s been interviewing [and] is actively under consideration for a position at LIPA, she should have been recusing herself with respect to LIPA," said Paul Sabatino, former counsel to the Suffolk County Legislature. 

DPS in a statement said because Gallagher’s employment transfer is "government to government, there were no ethical constraints to her transferring to LIPA." The agency said she did an "outstanding job" leading its Long Island office "and we fully expect she will do excellent work managing LIPA and overseeing" PSEG.

Gallagher graduated top of her class from Amherst College, and earned a master's degree from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Hofstra University.

Suffolk Legis. Steve Englebright, who has known Gallagher for decades, said she is well-suited for the job.

"She knows her way around local government, state government, and everything in between and she is a proven problem solver," said Englebright, a former state assemblyman who attended Gallagher's Gold Award ceremony when she was a teen in the Girl Scouts. "That’s what LIPA needs now: Someone who knows how things work and how to get things done." 

But some have criticized her oversight role of LIPA and PSEG as light-handed, particularly after LIPA’s board rejected the Quanta bid. Gallagher, who pledged to make DPS a more visible agency when she joined it in 2021, has attended at least one of the board meetings at which speakers have questioned or criticized LIPA’s moves, but neither Gallagher, nor DPS, have publicly weighed in.

In a post on LinkedIn, former Suffolk County Legislature LIPA Oversight Board member Peter Schlussler noted the DPS office is the "last line of defense against potential abuses or questionable dealings. Yet with every fresh revelation of questionable conduct, not a single word of public comment, inquiry or condemnation comes from her."

James Denn, spokesman for DPS, explained that the agency Gallagher oversees "does not have oversight function over LIPA procurement actions."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.