Utility leaders, who no longer live on LI, should heed local concerns

Looking at the world through my grandson’s toddler eyes, I remembered the capacity to amaze in some of the ordinary things I take for granted. For instance, the garbage truck. What has been for me a mundane part of suburban life for decades was cast in a different light when he bellowed over to me, awash in excitement, “Papa! Come see this!”

“This” was a sanitation truck in the Town of Islip, and workers were picking up the cans I’d dragged down to the curb the night before. But to little Tommy, the compacting mechanism in the back was a magic show, with scraping teeth that made all the neighborhood’s trash disappear.

This is the gift the young ones bring us: a perspective of awe and wonder. I was reminded of the Sesame Street song: The people in your neighborhood. The postman, the crossing guard, and yes, the sanitation workers. These people are the lifeblood of our communities. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of this, especially as the leadership for other essential community-based organizations, like our utilities, are increasingly not the people from the neighborhood.

Acquisitions and mergers have divorced their headquarters and corporate decision-makers from our community. For example, electricity (PSEG) is in New Jersey. Natural gas (National Grid) is in the United Kingdom. Cable television (Altice) is in France. Telephone (Verizon) is in outer space.

The utility leaders of yesterday were foundations in the community. Their voices and influences expanded beyond their parochial responsibilities to the stewardship of the Long Island region. Sadly, the structural changes diluted much of the attention to Long Island’s civic and social fabric once paid by many of those company leaders. In the past, utility business leaders were visible and active community stakeholders.

This consolidation of local utility and telecommunications companies has fostered a disconnect between corporate leadership and the communities they serve. Back in the 1980s during Hurricane Gloria, contractors, utilities, and workers from every profession came together to clear the roads so that the electrical, gas, and telecommunications people could restore service. The faces of the chief executives of those companies who greeted us from the newspapers and TV were familiar. Even if they were targets for our frustration and criticism, they were invested — because they lived here.

Without the strength of those local ties, something needed to be done. Last month, the Long Island Contractors’ Association, or LICA, brought together the regional leadership of all the major utility and telecommunications companies to have a constructive dialogue about their projects and missions for the next five years. All of them — apart from the chief executive of Verizon, whoever that is — showed up for this inaugural event. Even LIPA and PSEG-LI arrived ready to play nicely in the construction sandbox and talk about a shared vision, which included a coordinated effort to improve response time and communication with the community and to upgrade the region’s infrastructure in preparation for electric vehicles.

LICA doesn’t have an answer for the economic structure that allows for international corporations to buy out local companies and export leadership to distant lands. But we do know that often solutions lie in face-to-face conversations. I overheard a former local political figure mention recently that “it’s difficult to hate up close.”

If our energy leaders can find a way to engage in constructive dialogue right here on Long Island for the sake of the community, there is hope for all of the people in the neighborhood.