Pols: LIPA 'failed miserably' after Irene

State Senate Republicans skewered top LIPA and National Grid officials during a hearing in Mineola Thursday, saying the companies "failed miserably" to communicate with ratepayers and coordinate with road crews in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene.

Separately Thursday, LIPA trustees delayed by three weeks a critical vote on how the electric grid will be managed by LIPA in the future. It had been scheduled for next Thursday. Trustee Howard Steinberg, in pushing the vote to an Oct. 27 trustees meeting, cited the loss of "several weeks of deliberations" on the matter because of the storm.

Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), who called for a delay in the LIPA restructuring vote pending an independent probe of LIPA, set the tone of the hearing at the Nassau Legislature in Mineola by asking utility officials, "What the hell happened?"

He led criticism of everything from LIPA's days-long delays in communicating with customers to the utility's website.

"The plan didn't work -- there's no other way to put it," he said. "Your website was a disgrace. It didn't update" with promised restoration times, instead telling customers crews were assessing outages "for three days." He said the system "needs a complete overhaul."

LIPA chief Michael Hervey said that while he believed the authority's response to Irene was "swift, strong and on par" with other regional utilities, he added, "we also understand customers' frustration" with the lack of real-time restoration information during the storm, among other problems.

He said LIPA has begun a series of reviews, both internally and by bodies such as the state Public Service Commission, to identify problems and fix them.

John Bruckner, president of National Grid's Long Island electric operations, called the restoration effort an "immense undertaking."

He thanked customers for their patience and said there will "always be those who question and critique" performance, but he commended workers for the "successful restoration effort."

Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) then unleashed on both utility officials for "patting yourselves on the back."

"I think you both failed miserably," Fuschillo said, raising his voice. He noted Hervey made an appearance at a news conference in his district at the request of a Nassau lawmaker two days after the storm, but outages there continued.

"Everybody left and nothing happened," Fuschillo fumed.

Sen. Jack Martins took issue with the utilities' failure to work completely with town and village road crews, who had to wait critical days for wires to be de-energized so trees could be removed.

"A common complaint was there wasn't a LIPA truck or National Grid crew to be found, and no way to reach out to anyone to coordinate," said Martins (R-Mineola).

Bruckner said the utilities had to balance fixing 7,000 downed wires against the need to restore large numbers of customers by fixing large transmission wires. The utilities also didn't have as many high-voltage line crews during the first two days of the storm as LIPA anticipated.

Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who said Donald Trump would have told the utilities "You're fired," questioned officials about the tree-trimming and system strengthening budget before the storm. Bruckner said it has remained consistent at about $20 million a year.

Meanwhile, Steinberg took issue with a story in Newsday's Thursday editions saying the authority is reviewing a potential $600 million liability relating to pensions for past and future National Grid employees. Steinberg called "nonsense" the notion that "LIPA will somehow have to write a big check for hundreds of millions of dollars," or that it will result in a rate increase.

The story said LIPA ratepayers could be "on the hook" to pay the costs in the future depending upon the outcome of negotiations with National Grid. LIPA expects to resolve the dispute before year's end, an official said Thursday.

Asked why the potential liability was never publicly discussed during any prior trustees meeting, including during discussions of LIPA's future structure, Steinberg said, "When we have something to talk about, we'll talk about it."