LIPA panel meeting draws outrage, criticism

Daily Point

Exposing problems at the LIPA commission

A meeting of the commission on the future of the Long Island Power Authority took a bizarre turn last week — and it has led some of the Island’s largest business advocates to call for big changes.

The commission’s advisory committee held an in-person meeting, open to the public, at Farmingdale State College Friday. Participants included consultants, outside counsel and elected officials who attended virtually. Those on Zoom were projected onto two enormous screens, so the in-person crowd could see them.

About two hours into the meeting, commission executive director Rory Lancman told The Point, he looked up at the screens to see “someone in a state of undress acting inappropriately.”

Lancman first thought the meeting had been Zoom-bombed, but then realized the inappropriate actor was Gary Saleba, an executive with GDS Associates, the commission’s consulting firm. Lancman quickly closed his laptop, which took the Zoom projection off the large screens, but upon checking a few moments later, realized the bad behavior was still ongoing. He again closed his laptop, but after a second check a little later, found the behavior had stopped.

After the meeting ended, Lancman said, he consulted with state Assembly counsel and then told the consulting firm that Saleba could no longer work on anything having to do with the LIPA commission, which is considering the potential municipalization of the utility. By the end of the weekend, Lancman said, Saleba had been fired.

But by Monday, several local advocacy organizations were using the unseemly incident as an impetus to push for larger change. A joint letter — from the Long Island Association, the Association for a Better Long Island, the Long Island Builders Institute and Ignite LI — said the draft report should no longer be trusted.

“Clearly, its author has issues that requires [sic] his work to be dismissed and a new study should be professionally undertaken by someone other than Mr. Saleba,” the letter said.

The groups also noted that the draft report lacked “a current, independent, financial impact analysis,” saying that such an inquiry should be “undertaken immediately.”

Lancman, however, pushed back. He noted that Saleba was one of “about a dozen” authors of the report, and added that “there could not be a more independent review of LIPA and PSEG’s finances than what was conducted here.”

“I think it’s a desperate Hail Mary to try to slow the inevitable conclusion that LIPA’s ratepayers are wasting about $50 million a year by having PSEG run our electric grid and I think that people are surprised at how expeditiously and thoroughly we are moving through this process to deliver our final product to the legislature,” Lancman said of the letter.

In an official response to the organizations, Lancman noted that “the data and analysis in the report stand on their own merits,” adding that commission officials “welcome any corrections in our data or analysis.”

But the organizations say they had begun to draft the letter even before Friday’s incident.

“We had serious concerns regarding the validity of the report considering the lack of independent research that was conducted despite our requests,” ABLI executive director Kyle Strober told The Point. “The event that occurred on Friday only exacerbates those concerns and the credibility of that report.”

“The thought that this report would be passed by the New York State Legislature is the real Hail Mary,” Strober added.

Commission co-chair State Sen. Kevin Thomas told The Point that he left the meeting just before the incident, but was briefed afterward. He said that beyond Friday’s events, there is still an opportunity to make additions or changes to the report.

“This draft report is just that — a draft report,” Thomas said. “My only goal is to make sure my constituents have the best possible options. Everything needs to be looked at. That’s what this report should do.”

Thomas’ co-chair, Assemb. Fred Thiele, also left before the incident began, but called it “bizarre and reprehensible and unprofessional all at the same time.”

“We as a commission have a task to go ahead with and we will,” Thiele said. “But we’ll have to make an extra effort because of … [Friday’s event] to maintain the credibility of the commission and the work product the commission generates.”

Thiele said he informed state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli about what happened Friday. DiNapoli is reviewing the draft report, a process slated to be completed as soon as next week.

“We’ll decide at that point whether there are further actions that we need to take to assure the public that we’ve got a comprehensive, quality report to present to the legislature,” Thiele said.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

A hostage to politics

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Final Point

Why a sudden ‘discovery’ push collapsed in Albany

New York’s district attorneys have continually complained in recent years that a 2019 statute governing pretrial discovery overburdens their offices to the detriment of law and order. Some critics have called it worse for cracking down on increased crime than the restrictions on judges setting bail — a reform that once again is due to be dialed back somewhat as part of a pending budget settlement this week. Last week, three palpably progressive New York City district attorneys — Alvin Bragg of Manhattan, Darcel Clark of the Bronx, and Eric Gonzalez of Brooklyn — drew attention in the thick of late budget talks with their explicit calls for reform.

Prosecutors say they are burdened with forbidding deadlines to supply bigger mounds of pretrial evidence. If they skimp, defense attorneys can use that to dismiss cases. Meanwhile, guilty pleas are down and dismissals are up, state data indicates. But public defenders, who nowadays have increased influence in Albany, argue that if the discovery rules are eased, prosecutors will habitually conceal exculpatory evidence.

But the prosecutors’ proposal — to put more of an evidence burden on the defense — has fallen off the table. One representative of the prosecutors closely monitoring the process told The Point: “The legislature kept whittling [the relevant language] down in every regard so the result would have been less than cosmetic. It would be better for us to start from scratch.”

Still, the state budget rumbling toward passage this week is expected to increase funding for the DAs’ offices so they can meet their greater discovery requirements and see fewer dismissals. Exact dollar amounts and final terms are still awaited.

Discovery and evidence are not fiscal issues, anyway. These were introduced during the budget process because that’s when a governor can exercise the most legislative clout. The annual Albany session traditionally doesn’t break until June, so we might yet hear more on the matter in the coming weeks.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison