LIA tightens up its mission

The Great Recession was still raging when Kevin Law became president of the Long Island Association in September 2010. Law decided to "refocus" the organization's mission to economic development and job creation.

Law, who had been chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority, has created several organizations under the LIA's auspices that are chaired by high-powered Long Island business leaders.

Perhaps the best known is Accelerate Long Island, which is attempting to take highly technical research conducted at Long Island's labs and universities and find people to turn the work into businesses.

"I'm trying to refocus the mission to economic development, job creation, tax policies that are favorable to business and land use," Law said last week. "The LIA in the past was getting involved in a whole host of other issues. It even described itself as an umbrella organization. It even got involved in educational issues.

"The message [of the LIA] was getting muted," Law said. "That is known as mission creep."

Last week, Law brought in -- part time at least -- Jim Morgo, who has worked on economic development issues for years in Brookhaven Town and Suffolk County.

Part of Morgo's job will be to bring together the different business and development groups. Morgo will be working with Long Island's eight industrial development agencies, which Law has brought together to meet on a regular basis to share ideas.

"I always thought the LIA should be an instrument of regional unity," said Morgo, who resigned Friday as chairman of the Suffolk County IDA.

Resi Cooper, the top Long Island aide to former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was hired to temporarily serve as a consultant to Accelerate Long Island, working under Law.

Cooper said she has set up a meeting for June 19 where investors will be shown several new technologies.

If the LIA does not help grow the economy, "we're not going to be sustainable," Cooper said.

There are questions about whether Law's efforts can succeed. MitchPaley, chief executive of the Long Island Builders Institute, who was an LIA vice president for years, said he agrees with the need to focus on jobs.

"The LIA obviously has a lot of clout, and Kevin is very influential," Paley said. "It's a fair statement to say he's trying to do that.

"Time will tell whether he will get things that way."