Kessel mulls his post-NYPA options

It's hard to think of the electric power structure on Long Island, or in New York State, without thinking of Richie Kessel.

The outspoken, hard-charging, omnipresent Kessel stepped down at the beginning of this month as chief executive of the New York Power Authority during a state inspector general's investigation into donations and other expenditures he made during his three years at NYPA, which provides power mostly to upstate communities but also several on Long Island.

Kessel's departure marks the end, for now at least, of a public career that began more than 30 years ago, when he used to walk into the Newsday offices in Melville on Saturday mornings, pitching news releases he wrote about consumer matters. Kessel went far and wide after that. He led the successful opposition to the then-Long Island Lighting Company's proposed nuclear power plant at Shoreham. For more than a decade, beginning in 1989, he was chief executive of LIPA. He led negotiations on the decommissioning of the Shoreham plant. He was a force behind LIPA's May 1998 takeover of LILCO. In 2003, the state controller's office accused him of spending more than $45,000 to conduct what it called improper political polls. Kessel denied any wrongdoing.

He headlined countless business and civic meetings across the Island and the state. He seemed never to run out of breath. Now, Kessel, 61, is at home in Merrick with his wife and 3-year-old son. His plans? "I'm looking at a number of options," he told us the other day. "I'm looking at both public and private sector options. I have been in public service a long time. I love it."

Will he make a decision soon? At some point soon, Kessel said.

"I'm not the kind of guy to sit around."