[0:00] >> so my name is tom locascio.
[0:03] I'd like to welcome you to our december 2nd public
[0:07] comment session on the reform management contract
[0:09] with pseg long island.
[0:11] I'm going to turn it over to life as chief executive
[0:15] officer tom falcon, who's going to go through a
[0:19] presentation on some of the key elements of the
[0:22] reform contract that will be before the life of
[0:26] board on december 15th.
[0:28] and then we'll go to our public comment portion,
[0:31] tom.
[0:32] um, good evening everybody.
[0:33] and it's my pleasure to be here with you.
[0:37] I would say that it is a special treat to spend any
[0:42] evening with a group of people that want to are
[0:46] interested in and want to spend time talking about
[0:49] their local electric utility.
[0:51] you are my kind of people.
[0:53] uh, I'm joined here tonight by many members of
[0:57] lipid, senior staff and our board.
[0:59] uh, the comments as tom locascio mentioned are
[1:02] recorded, uh, they will be put online.
[1:05] uh, you will be able to look at the webinar on
[1:09] life website and a summary of the comments will also
[1:13] be provided to the lipid board at its december 15th
[1:17] meeting for their consideration.
[1:19] uh, this is one of a series of public events,
[1:23] uh, and we are also accepting written comments
[1:26] on the reform contract.
[1:27] the one thing I wanted to do is start tonight with a
[1:32] little bit of background to frame our discussion,
[1:35] and then we're here to listen to you.
[1:39] and so with that, uh, can we move to the next
[1:43] page, tom?
[1:44] so what brought us here tonight?
[1:46] it's been a rather long journey along odyssey and
[1:50] it all started as you may recall, on august 4th,
[1:54] 2020, uh, that was tropical storm east
[1:56] [inaudible] and it was a big storm.
[1:59] uh, it was very damaging to the electric grid on
[2:03] long island measured by the damage to the grid.
[2:07] it was one of our top five storms to hit the long
[2:11] island electric grid.
[2:13] it caused about 645,000 customer outages.
[2:15] uh, and it took about eight days to restore.
[2:18] we're not here though because, uh, 645,000
[2:21] outages, uh, we're here because the restoration
[2:24] did not go well.
[2:25] if it had, we understand and know that we live on
[2:30] an island and occasionally we're going to be affected
[2:33] by big storms.
[2:35] it doesn't make it, uh, something that we strive
[2:38] for.
[2:38] in fact, we strive to minimize that dislocation,
[2:42] but occasionally there will be big storms and
[2:45] there will be damaged the electric grid and it will
[2:49] take time to restore, but you have a right to
[2:53] expect, uh, good information and quick and
[2:55] efficient restoration.
[2:57] and to be able to get in touch with your local
[3:01] electric utility, these are all reasonable
[3:03] expectations and you have a right to expect that.
[3:07] and the storm didn't meet that criteria.
[3:10] in fact, all of our major it systems failed.
[3:13] and these were systems that you, our customers
[3:16] had invested a lot of money in on august 4th.
[3:20] it was not clear what was going wrong, but it was
[3:24] clear that something was going wrong.
[3:27] and on august 5th lipa at the request of its board
[3:31] began an investigation to get to the bottom.
[3:34] even while the storm was ongoing.
[3:37] you get to the bottom of what happened.
[3:40] uh, the department of public service, which is
[3:43] the staff arm of the state public service commission,
[3:46] the regulatory commission also opened an
[3:49] investigation.
[3:49] those opened on august 5th and lipid at the request
[3:53] of its board issued a 30 day report with our
[3:57] initial findings in september, that initial
[3:59] report focused on the failure of the it systems,
[4:03] their proximate causes and immediate fixes that
[4:06] needed to be done to stabilize the systems, go
[4:09] to the next page.
[4:11] then the board also requested a 90 day report.
[4:15] by the time of that 90 day report, we had looked not
[4:19] just at the proximate causes, but the underlying
[4:23] root causes of what failed and concluded that they
[4:26] were management issues.
[4:27] and then deciding that they were management
[4:30] issues.
[4:31] and that lipid pays a lot of money for management
[4:34] services, the board of trustees, as well as the
[4:38] department of public service, uh, voted and
[4:41] asked the lipid staff to either terminate our
[4:44] relationship with pseg or renegotiated unacceptable
[4:46] terms.
[4:47] the board also adopted 85 recommendations that were
[4:50] made public and that pseg filed plans to implement.
[4:53] and we have in a quarterly basis, uh, shown you the
[4:58] progress against those plans, that decision to
[5:00] either terminate or, uh, renegotiate the contract
[5:03] led to an initial view.
[5:05] once again, at the lipid board's request to hear
[5:09] and present publicly what our alternatives were.
[5:12] we delivered that report in december, which was a
[5:15] complete report, but a quick one, uh, the board
[5:19] asked us pursuant to that report and its findings to
[5:23] proceed with discussions with pseg and simultaneous
[5:26] simultaneously also evaluate our other
[5:27] alternatives.
[5:28] those alternatives included privatization of
[5:30] the utility.
[5:31] we're a public utility publicly owned or
[5:33] renegotiated contract with pseg or a contract with
[5:37] somebody else as our management service
[5:39] provider or life management.
[5:40] we issued a report on april 28th in that april
[5:44] 28th report.
[5:45] we detailed and made public, uh, our findings
[5:48] on those options, as well as the requirements.
[5:51] if we were to reach and renegotiated deal with
[5:55] pseg, what it would need to look like, go to the
[5:59] next page, uh, at points, it did not appear like we
[6:04] would be able to seek adequate terms.
[6:06] the board directed us to issue and fully explore
[6:10] alternative providers.
[6:11] and in may, we issued a request for information
[6:14] and began that process.
[6:16] we also sought from you members of the public,
[6:20] your feedback on those alternatives.
[6:22] in that report in june, by late june, we had reached
[6:26] a tentative settlement agreement with pseg long
[6:29] island that met the eight reform objectives that the
[6:32] board had set out in that tentative agreement.
[6:35] we presented those terms publicly to the board, and
[6:39] that was a settlement, but it was a term sheet.
[6:43] it wasn't the final contract language.
[6:45] if you go to the next page, I think the most
[6:50] important thing was that it ensured stronger
[6:52] management structure, accountability, and
[6:54] oversight, and it also shortened the contract
[6:57] term.
[6:57] we, uh, at that point proceeded at the board's
[7:01] direction to negotiate with pseg.
[7:03] if you go to the next page and it took until november
[7:07] 9th to reach an actual settlement agreement, a
[7:10] proposed settlement agreement, the final
[7:12] terms, and we made that more than a hundred page
[7:16] agreement available on our website.
[7:19] in addition to making that a hundred page
[7:22] agreement available on our website, we also posted
[7:25] 2022 performance metrics that would be under this
[7:28] agreement.
[7:29] and I'll talk more about those in a minute.
[7:32] you see to the right, those eight items that we
[7:36] detailed in that options analysis.
[7:38] and I'll spend a minute talking about each of
[7:42] those eight elements, the things that were requisite
[7:45] for us to continue a relationship with pseg the
[7:48] board instructed us to not come back without
[7:51] addressing at least these eight things you go to the
[7:55] next page, I'll briefly cover these and these
[7:58] materials are also available online on our
[8:01] website, but objective one, a greater share of
[8:04] pseg is management compensation had to be at
[8:07] risk.
[8:08] we pay approximately $80 million a year.
[8:11] and under our old contract, only 10 million
[8:14] of that was at risk compensation for
[8:17] performance under the new contract proposed new
[8:19] contract, 40 million or 51% of the contract fees
[8:23] would be at risk.
[8:25] number two, the board said that there have to be
[8:29] a new way of gauging performance under the old
[8:32] contract.
[8:33] the performance measures that that $10 million were
[8:36] determined by were set in 2013 and it required
[8:39] mutual agreement to update.
[8:41] I think the contract was well-intended however, as
[8:44] time marched on those measures became somewhat
[8:47] stale and reaching mutual agreement to update to
[8:50] stronger, more strict performance measures that
[8:52] also accounted for all the variety of services pseg
[8:56] provides to weipa and its customers became
[8:59] challenging under the new agreement.
[9:01] the board said, no, there has to be an independent
[9:04] process to set standards pursuant to the, uh, the,
[9:08] uh, desires of the board for the service to the
[9:12] customers.
[9:12] and that, that this contract does that.
[9:15] it also expands the number of metrics from
[9:18] approximately 25 to more than 110 covering all the
[9:22] scopes of services.
[9:23] so for example, under the prior contract, there were
[9:27] no performance measures related to the it systems
[9:30] that failed under the new contract.
[9:32] there are many go to the next page.
[9:36] it wasn't, uh, it was not just sufficient that we
[9:39] have incentives.
[9:40] we also have to have penalties for failure to
[9:44] achieve minimum levels of performance.
[9:46] and under the contract 10 to $20 million is at risk
[9:50] for exceeding budgets.
[9:51] five to 10 million is at risk for failures to, uh,
[9:56] to implement the emergency response plan that the
[9:59] lipid board and the department of public
[10:01] service approved each year, that pseg is
[10:04] supposed to execute in the event of outages.
[10:07] this is about a thousand page document, and you can
[10:11] see it on our website.
[10:13] uh, if reliability, the average minutes, uh,
[10:16] customers out of power fall below a minimum
[10:19] standard.
[10:20] there's a 10 million automatic penalty in the
[10:23] contract customer satisfaction, a 3 million
[10:25] penalty.
[10:25] and if there's two consecutive failures, we
[10:28] have the right to terminate the contract.
[10:31] I should mention failures to implement the emergency
[10:34] response plan for a 72 hour or more storm.
[10:38] also give us a right to terminate the contract
[10:42] violations of the emergency response plan or
[10:44] failure to provide safe and adequate service
[10:47] subject to an investigation, another 20
[10:49] million.
[10:50] so in total 10 million is at risk based on a
[10:54] calculation of failures to meet a minimum level on
[10:58] the emergency response plan.
[10:59] and we can terminate and additional 20 million.
[11:02] so 30 million in total, if an investigation finds
[11:06] other violations of the emergency response plan in
[11:09] the event of a major outage, a failure to
[11:13] implement minimum protocols for
[11:14] cybersecurity, also an event of failure or an
[11:17] event of default for which we can terminate the
[11:21] contract term has also been shortened.
[11:23] and, uh, the importance of this is that the old
[11:27] contract had a, uh, gave to pseg, essentially a
[11:31] right of renewal at their option for an additional
[11:34] eight years.
[11:35] so while the contract term extended to 2025, with
[11:39] that right of renewal, the contract could extend all
[11:42] the way to 2033.
[11:44] we eliminated that option, uh, of pseg to
[11:47] automatically extend the contract at their right.
[11:50] uh, if we agree to extend the contract, it will be
[11:54] based on the performance over the next four years.
[11:58] and that will be a future decision of the lipid
[12:02] board based on how the contract goes.
[12:05] number, uh, the next objective on the page, in
[12:08] the middle of the page management, it was
[12:11] ultimately a management failure.
[12:13] and you can read all about in those publicly
[12:16] available reports, but we insisted on a dedicated
[12:19] and strengthened management team with all
[12:22] the authority necessary to provide service to long
[12:25] island, to make sure that those individuals who run
[12:29] the utility every day are exclusively focused and
[12:32] dedicated and coming in every day, thinking about
[12:35] long island, it also requires the addition of
[12:38] five new senior level positions, all based on
[12:41] long island.
[12:42] uh, the contract requires a duty of candor.
[12:45] and if there's a violation of the duty of
[12:49] candor, uh, as described to you on the page that
[12:53] also provides a right to terminate the contract
[12:56] early, go to the next page.
[12:58] it requires that if lippa fines and the board adopts
[13:02] with the recommendation of the department of public
[13:05] services, well, if lipid finds that there is a
[13:09] deficiency and operations, there is a period of time
[13:13] with which to correct that deficiency under the
[13:16] contract and it's term limited objective seven,
[13:18] uh, long-term planning, budgeting development, and
[13:21] cost management.
[13:22] the contract requires the development of long-term
[13:24] plans to meet the scopes of services that are
[13:28] required.
[13:28] uh, objective eight, uh, the partitioning of the
[13:31] long island.
[13:32] it systems separate from new jersey, which provides
[13:35] greater clarity responsibility.
[13:37] this was another core ease-of-use finding, and
[13:39] you can read all about it in our report.
[13:43] if you go to the next page, those described the
[13:47] contract terms, but let's come back to what we're
[13:50] trying to achieve.
[13:52] we're not just trying to achieve a better contract.
[13:55] the real ultimate goal is to provide great service
[13:59] to our customers service that you should be proud
[14:02] of, clean, reliable, resilient service at
[14:05] affordable prices.
[14:06] the lipid board has adopted standards
[14:08] directives of what that service should look like.
[14:11] and you can read all about them on our website, but
[14:15] they include great customer satisfaction,
[14:17] high reliability benchmark to the top 10% of
[14:21] utilities industry leading emergency response, clean
[14:23] energy, 70% renewable energy by 2030 and
[14:26] entirely carbon-free grid by 2040 and rates that are
[14:29] comparable to our region.
[14:31] so you can read all about the board's standards in
[14:35] this contract, provides the mechanism to make sure
[14:38] that pseg management comes in every day, focused on
[14:41] achieving those objectives.
[14:43] if you go to the next page, I mentioned there's
[14:46] $20 million at risk for meeting these performance
[14:50] standards.
[14:50] and there's another 20 million at risk for
[14:53] failures to provide safe and adequate service.
[14:56] basically subject to an investigation.
[14:58] did talk a little bit about these performance
[15:01] standards, because they're a key part of the contract
[15:05] on the next page.
[15:07] what you can see is that they cover all the types
[15:11] of services that pseg management or pseg is
[15:14] managing to, to, uh, provide services to lipids
[15:17] and its customers.
[15:18] so reliability, resilience, risk
[15:20] management, customer satisfaction, external
[15:21] affairs, it operations major projects, and they
[15:24] cover all the scopes information technology,
[15:27] customer service t and d business services, power
[15:30] supply, and clean energy.
[15:31] you can read all the details on our website.
[15:35] if you click on that link or go to ally [inaudible]
[15:39] dot com forward slash reform contract, there's a
[15:42] more than a hundred page document.
[15:45] and on that a hundred pages you can see for each
[15:49] measure how it's defined and whether how pseg would
[15:53] get paid under that measure.
[15:54] if you go to the next page, I'll just highlight
[15:58] a few examples.
[16:00] so you understand the types of things I'm
[16:03] talking about.
[16:04] for example, there are three performance metrics
[16:07] metrics of the 96 performance measures.
[16:09] there are three around asset management.
[16:11] why should you care about asset management?
[16:14] well, the utility business is a very asset intensive
[16:18] business, all those poles and wires and substations,
[16:21] and they will have to be maintained reliably.
[16:24] and, uh, not just reliably, we have to
[16:27] collect the right data.
[16:29] we have to maintain them.
[16:31] uh, and, uh, on the right schedule, we have to use
[16:35] the data that's available to us.
[16:37] doing all these things increases reliability and
[16:40] reduces costs.
[16:41] implementing a world-class asset management program
[16:43] is what this goes, uh, is about and the standards
[16:47] and progress towards that.
[16:49] you can read all about, uh, customer information
[16:52] system.
[16:52] why should you care?
[16:54] well, that's the backbone customer system that when
[16:57] you call and interact with our call center, or you
[17:01] get a bill, that's the backbone system by which
[17:04] we deliver all services.
[17:06] and if you don't have a modern customer
[17:10] information system, it's going to be very hard to
[17:13] keep up with providing the types of services that
[17:17] people come to expect in an age when you can do one
[17:21] or two clicks or use an app and find out more
[17:26] about your service, your billing, and meet your
[17:29] needs, your own way, reliability.
[17:31] there are many standards in the 2022 metrics that
[17:34] you can read about just to highlight it.
[17:37] uh, pseg has to fall within the top 10% of
[17:41] utilities for, uh, reliability on blue sky
[17:44] days.
[17:45] they have to reduce the number of customers that
[17:48] have four or more outages a year by 22%.
[17:52] next year, they have to reduce the numbers that
[17:55] have flicker outages by, uh, more than 13% and
[17:59] reduce customers with six or more flickr outages by
[18:02] 20%.
[18:03] these are all good reliability measures,
[18:05] resiliency.
[18:06] we have very aggressive storm resiliency programs.
[18:09] we all know storms are getting worse.
[18:11] we have not just things that we'll be executing
[18:15] next year, but also pilots that will lead to new
[18:19] plans and programs in future years.
[18:21] and you can read all about those types of initiatives
[18:25] that we'll be delivering on in the coming year.
[18:29] and in future years, customer satisfaction,
[18:31] pseg has to implement seven particular projects
[18:34] to improve customer satisfaction.
[18:35] next year, they have to respond to your calls and
[18:39] emails in a timely manner.
[18:41] they have to respond to social media and tweets,
[18:45] especially ones related to health and safety in a
[18:48] timely manner.
[18:49] they have to expand our low-income discount
[18:52] programs for our customers that are less well off by
[18:56] 34% compared to the historic level of
[18:58] participants.
[18:59] in those programs, you go to the next page.
[19:02] more of these measures include an integrated
[19:05] resource plan, which is something that we've run a
[19:09] public process around.
[19:10] this is planning for how we're going to meet a zero
[19:15] carbon electric grid over the next 20 years, uh, to
[19:18] deploying more energy storage on the grid in a
[19:22] word, those contracts complete the analysis to
[19:25] award those contracts by the end of next year, meet
[19:29] very aggressive energy efficiency and
[19:31] electrification goals for transportation and for
[19:33] home heating.
[19:34] these will reduce carbon in other sectors of the
[19:37] economy, not just the electric grid, but in the
[19:41] biggest sources of carbon emissions for long island.
[19:44] and you can read all about those plans on our
[19:48] website, doing things to make long island more evie
[19:52] ready, uh, simplifying the interconnection process
[19:54] for customers who want to put solar on their roof,
[19:58] uh, expanding time of use rates.
[20:00] what does that, that's an option for you to pick
[20:04] different rates that perhaps better meet your
[20:07] needs or save you money, a work management.
[20:10] we all want efficiency tracking work better.
[20:13] uh, making sure we have the right staffing levels,
[20:17] uh, reducing over time, completing capital
[20:19] projects on time.
[20:20] these are all just examples of measures,
[20:23] including the it measures where one is about, uh,
[20:27] measuring and benchmarking, uh, to a
[20:29] life, a hired a benchmark expert consultant to come
[20:32] in and look at how well we implement our major it
[20:37] systems and make sure we're following best
[20:39] practices in those areas.
[20:41] go to the next page.
[20:43] so the importance of all this is that this is not
[20:47] a, a second chance for pseg that's based in hope.
[20:51] this is a second chance based on binding
[20:54] contractual commitments with incentives, with a
[20:57] stronger local management structure that we believe
[21:00] fundamentally address the core issues out of
[21:02] tropical storm east.
[21:03] yes, we're putting this in front of, uh, our, uh,
[21:07] citizens you're on long island, our customers, our
[21:11] stakeholders, and ultimately our board.
[21:13] and what we're here to do is listen to you.
[21:17] and what you think about this, uh, our timeline for
[21:21] public review includes, uh, a, uh, having released
[21:24] the contract on our website, which you can
[21:27] download it if you have not already, uh, starting
[21:31] on november 9th, our november 17th meeting,
[21:33] where we hold heard from some members of the
[21:37] public.
[21:37] and we also discussed in detail, the contract and
[21:41] the performance standards, these public comment
[21:43] hearings, as well as the ability to submit written
[21:47] comments to help tonight, I will be accepting
[21:50] written comments through december 9th, and then we
[21:53] will be presenting the, uh, the, uh, views of our
[21:57] stakeholders to the board on december 15th.
[22:00] and they may consider the pseg contract on that date
[22:04] as well, along with metrics and budgets
[22:06] further that you can find right on our website.
[22:10] so if you go to the next page, there is a lot of
[22:15] information on the website.
[22:17] we've put out a couple of fact sheets that
[22:21] summarize this information.
[22:22] there's links here on this page, where you can find
[22:26] it on the website, but you can find everything.
[22:29] you can find all those investigative reports.
[22:32] you can find our quarterly reports.
[22:34] we issued over six written reports, each one,
[22:37] generally in the 50 to a hundred page range over
[22:41] the last 15 months, you can find previous public
[22:45] comments that we have received.
[22:47] you can find videos from the last, uh, year, uh,
[22:51] you can find summaries.
[22:52] so there's a lot of information there.
[22:55] and if anyone has suggestions or more
[22:58] information, we're happy to have it.
[23:00] and with that, if you go to the next page, we're
[23:05] going to turn it back over to you for what we intend
[23:09] to do tonight, which is hear from you.
[23:12] but I, as I started out with, uh, we're here to
[23:17] listen and we're excited that you're excited and
[23:20] have participated many, uh, of the people on this
[23:23] call participated with passion over the last 15
[23:27] months and care about your community and care about
[23:30] your electric service.
[23:31] and so we celebrate that.
[23:33] we thank you for your active involvement and
[23:36] participation, and thank you very much.
[23:39] great.
[23:40] thank you, tom.
[23:41] so this will begin the public comment portion of
[23:44] our meeting tonight.
[23:45] uh, at this point I would ask anybody that's in the
[23:50] attendee log to please raise your hand if you
[23:53] would like to speak.
[23:55] um, what I will do is I'll call off three names.
[23:59] um, and then we'll keep adding to that list.
[24:03] we do have several members of the community here
[24:06] tonight that would like to speak on this, and we want
[24:11] to make sure we give you ample opportunity, um,
[24:14] prior to calling on you.
[24:16] um, so our first three speakers, uh, based on an
[24:20] order that hands were raised, uh, legislative,
[24:23] bridget fleming, casey scheid, and fred harrison.
[24:26] so at this time I'm going to bring legislator
[24:29] fleming, um, into the panelists from hi
[24:32] legislator.
[24:32] good to see you again.
[24:35] good evening, mr. Locascio good to see
[24:37] you as well.
[24:38] I appreciate the opportunity to be heard on
[24:42] this important topic and that you'll be hearing
[24:45] from members of the public as well.
[24:48] suffolk county.
[24:48] I am suffolk county legislator, bridget
[24:51] fleming.
[24:51] I serve as the vice chair of the public
[24:55] transportation.
[24:55] the public works transportation and energy
[24:57] committee.
[24:58] I am the chair of the, uh, community choice,
[25:01] aggregation task force and the renewable energy task
[25:04] force at the legislature and the chair of the ways
[25:08] and means committee suffolk county is a major
[25:12] customer of the utility.
[25:13] our electric bill has run as high as $20 million in
[25:17] recent years on june 8th, noting with alarm that
[25:21] prolonged power outages and a breakdown of the
[25:24] system use to communicate with the public after a
[25:28] tropical depression, ies caused widespread hardship
[25:30] and tried the patients of long island electric, uh,
[25:34] customers, the suffolk county legislature, uh,
[25:36] wrote, uh, to life, a board of trustees
[25:39] unanimously urging that full consideration.
[25:41] be given to the analysis of alternative options to
[25:45] the current third party management system, rather
[25:48] than seizing the opportunity to make real
[25:50] change to the failed third-party management
[25:53] system that has given us high costs, reliability,
[25:56] and customer care failures and outdated technologies
[25:59] as the world faces increasingly alarming
[26:01] climate impacts.
[26:02] we now see that we are returning to a
[26:05] relationship with a failed partner.
[26:07] from my perspective, this is a mistake on november
[26:11] 10th.
[26:11] in fact, senators gordon, senator gordon, and
[26:14] assemblyman feel urge the board to delay voting on
[26:18] the contract and to suspend the process until
[26:21] the current investigation by the attorney general is
[26:24] complete in her investigation as to
[26:26] whether the failed response to eis actually
[26:29] violated state law 535,000 customers were left
[26:32] without power and without any effective
[26:34] communication about when the lights would go back
[26:37] on some for as long as 10 days, the public needs
[26:42] additional time to review this contract work is
[26:45] underway, uh, by legislators to take a hard
[26:48] look at the alternative option of a fully public
[26:51] utility with some of the highest rates in the
[26:55] nation.
[26:56] and with another rate hike proposed in the 2022
[26:59] budget and more than 90% reliance on fossil fuel
[27:03] resources.
[27:03] it's high time that we pause before obligating
[27:06] rate payers to another four years with a partner
[27:10] who has failed in so many ways has not been fully
[27:14] forthcoming throughout this process and is still
[27:17] missing milestones with revamping the outage
[27:19] management system.
[27:20] um, I know, um, tom, that you mentioned that, um,
[27:24] that this all began on august the fourth.
[27:27] uh, I want to disagree with you on that.
[27:31] I think the failures, uh, at following the storm
[27:34] ease ias in fact, gave us the opportunity to take a
[27:39] hard look at a failed third party management
[27:42] system.
[27:42] unfortunately, the options analysis, which was a
[27:45] great effort that was underway in august was
[27:48] suddenly hijacked.
[27:49] and without notice to many of the stakeholders who
[27:52] had been involved, we were informed in the newspaper
[27:56] that a contract was being pursued.
[27:59] once again, with a failed partner tweaking this
[28:02] failed third-party management system will not
[28:04] serve rate payers.
[28:05] I appreciate that increasing penalties for
[28:08] failure to perform a shorter term and
[28:10] flexibility to terminate the contract for failure
[28:13] to comply with a long list of new items is moving in
[28:18] the right direction.
[28:19] but I urge you as have others to recognize that
[28:23] considerations are underway both in albany,
[28:25] under the attorney general and the state legislature
[28:28] to look, take a hard look at what you, once we're
[28:33] looking at.
[28:34] and that is a real rigorous, uh, options
[28:37] analysis and consideration of a fully public utility.
[28:40] the urgency for fresh thinking that was
[28:43] presented to us on, uh, on august the fourth, that
[28:47] the hardships that our rate payers payers
[28:49] suffered in august needs to be capitalized on
[28:52] before we move forward with a contract with a
[28:56] failed partner, I urge you to return to the public
[29:00] options analysis delay entering into this
[29:02] contract with someone, with a partner who has
[29:05] failed to be forthcoming and has failed to meet
[29:09] metrics time and time again, that basic
[29:12] third-party management system is not serving
[29:14] library.
[29:14] quit payers.
[29:15] please take the opportunity presented by
[29:18] the hardships suffered by our rate payers to take a
[29:22] fresh look and not go back to the same old ways.
[29:26] thank you very much for the opportunity to be
[29:29] heard.
[29:30] it's a tough issue.
[29:31] I wish you all the best.
[29:34] I know we're all in it to serve the rate payers in a
[29:39] reliable and cost effective way, and I offer
[29:42] my support for that those efforts.
[29:44] thank you very much and have a great evening.
[29:48] thank you, legislator fleming.
[29:50] and, uh, one other thing that I didn't mention, but
[29:54] I do think it's important is that among all of our
[29:58] termination rights is the right determinate for
[30:01] municipalization who would have to pay a penalty to
[30:04] do so about a $60 million, which was, uh, built into
[30:09] the options analysis, but that is not different than
[30:12] what we have currently.
[30:14] so I do want to just note one thing, which is, uh,
[30:19] if the governor and the legislature as a life, as
[30:22] a public entity, to decide that we should go a
[30:26] different way, uh, we have done nothing in the
[30:30] contract that precludes that decision.
[30:32] I do appreciate that.
[30:34] and I know there's no, you, you don't want to
[30:38] back and forth, but $60 million is three times the
[30:42] annual cost of electric to suffolk county, uh, uh,
[30:45] taxpayers for the suffolk county services.
[30:48] but I appreciate that.
[30:49] and I hope that you continue to think hard
[30:53] about the things that I've presented.
[30:55] thank you.
[30:56] thank you.
[30:57] thank you, legislator.
[30:59] next step.
[30:59] we'll have casey casey shy, followed by fred
[31:03] harrison and then followed by antonio cruz.
[31:05] so casey, we're going to move you in to the
[31:09] panelist mode now.
[31:11] hey guys, how are you?
[31:13] um, okay.
[31:14] uh, my name is casey shine.
[31:16] I'm the political and communications director
[31:18] for the international brotherhood of electrical
[31:21] workers, local union, 10 49.
[31:23] we represent 4,500 proud members.
[31:25] that's almost 2000 members working each day to
[31:28] operate, maintain the electrical transmission
[31:30] and distribution system.
[31:31] um, I wanted to come speak tonight on behalf of the
[31:35] union and support other advise contract between,
[31:38] uh, long island power authority and pseg long
[31:41] island.
[31:41] uh, lifetime pseg have been, they've maintained
[31:44] such a strong partnership with ivw 10 49, and
[31:48] they've always provided open lines of
[31:50] communications on issues are important to our
[31:53] members besides consistency, being
[31:54] beneficial for our workforce.
[31:56] uh, pseg took over in 2014 and the company's
[32:00] commitment to safety has resulted in a 62%
[32:03] improvement in osha cases.
[32:04] this means our members are going home to their
[32:08] families safely every day.
[32:09] uh, in addition, pseg long island's commitment to
[32:13] reliability has not only benefited customers, but
[32:15] it's created jobs for our members since they took
[32:19] over 900 miles of distribution.
[32:21] mainline circuits have been storm pardoned, uh,
[32:24] in 2021, the section circuits that have been
[32:27] storm hearted has seen a 53% reduction in damage
[32:30] leading to outages compared to the rest of
[32:33] the distribution system.
[32:35] this increases reliability and enhances customer
[32:37] satisfaction.
[32:37] uh, we're proud of the work that we do to support
[32:42] long island and we enjoy our partnership with
[32:45] light, but npcg so thank you for the opportunity to
[32:49] speak.
[32:49] uh, let's see.
[32:51] it looks like a beautiful cat.
[32:53] thank you.
[32:54] you didn't do this all day.
[32:57] so just now just to start.
[32:59] all right, thanks guys.
[33:01] okay.
[33:01] next up will be fred harrison again, followed
[33:04] by antonio cruz.
[33:06] and then charles means, uh, and one of the
[33:09] reminder we are timing everyone.
[33:11] there is a five minute limit per speaker.
[33:14] um, so far we've been held to that.
[33:17] so we are keeping track and we will let you know
[33:22] if you hit that point.
[33:24] fred, you're moving in now I've read the floor is all
[33:28] yours.
[33:29] okie dokie.
[33:30] thank you.
[33:30] uh, I'd like to start by.
[33:33] my name is fred harrison.
[33:35] I'm a homeowner in merrick.
[33:37] I'd like to start by thanking, uh, the life of
[33:41] staff and mr. Falcon for their work and for that
[33:45] thorough presentation tonight.
[33:46] um, I'd like to say about the new contract, the
[33:50] following, the proposed new contract documents,
[33:52] how peace ag has been a money pit for rate payers.
[33:56] uh, I thought that the cost of having pcyc
[34:00] managed system was $80 million per year.
[34:03] that's wrong management fees and profits.
[34:05] only part of the story, looking at all the new
[34:09] metrics and deliverables required by the proposed
[34:12] agreement.
[34:12] those 96 performance standards makes it pretty
[34:15] clear.
[34:15] that piece said long island has been getting
[34:18] paid for work.
[34:19] it has not done adequately, and it's not
[34:23] just it work.
[34:24] this is the eighth year of pcyc managing the system.
[34:28] they profited handsomely receiving hundreds of
[34:30] millions of bottles, of rate payer money in fees
[34:34] and profits.
[34:34] what have we gotten for our money accompany, which
[34:38] he needs intensive supervision in virtually
[34:40] every area of operation, transmission and
[34:43] distribution on t power supply programs.
[34:45] you name them mr. Falco, 13 major operation areas
[34:49] and all, and this is no ordinary contractual
[34:52] supervision.
[34:52] leica will be closely watching p sec and dps
[34:56] will be watching as well.
[34:58] lots of rate payer money and staff time will be
[35:02] devoted to all of this.
[35:04] I was a high school teacher for decades.
[35:07] the contract reads like a pins petition on steroids.
[35:11] what exactly does of corporate bring to the
[35:14] table?
[35:14] how does piece of tech management contribute to
[35:17] pair interests?
[35:18] the evidence leads to the conclusion that piece sex
[35:22] orientation is to advance peace.
[35:24] and that's understandable.
[35:25] we've seen that in their past performance.
[35:27] we see it in their new ad campaign on subs september
[35:32] 22nd, mr. Eichorn declared in a report to the lack of
[35:36] board that peace was quote back to controlling the
[35:40] messaging unquote that's for sure.
[35:42] and it's new ads piece seg takes credit for the hard
[35:46] work and goodwill of its workers.
[35:48] it takes credit for the programs and improvements
[35:51] paid for by life and its repairs.
[35:54] not by pisa.
[35:56] they don't do the job they're paid to do, but
[36:00] they do take credit for what others do.
[36:03] not a bad racket.
[36:04] mr. Icahn's language gives it all away at that same
[36:08] september 22nd meeting, he reported that quote, the
[36:12] next storm will benefit us.
[36:14] we welcome the next storm.
[36:15] mr. Falco remembers that incident.
[36:17] can you imagine welcoming a major storm?
[36:20] think the death toll from ida, mr. Eichorn was not
[36:24] thinking about me or my neighbors.
[36:26] he's focused on what's good for peace second at
[36:30] shareholders.
[36:30] so the contract is clear evidence that you do not
[36:34] and cannot trust pisa.
[36:36] you've said that if the inadequate all contract
[36:39] remains in force, the misfeasance suit continues
[36:42] and we have a peace sag, which must be heavily
[36:46] policed by lifeline.
[36:47] if we have a new, stronger agreement, that it is a
[36:51] much better and stronger agreement, no doubt.
[36:54] we have a piece that must be thoroughly policed,
[36:58] either way.
[36:58] we have the albatross of peace and it's 80 million
[37:02] in fees and profits.
[37:04] we are counting on you to find a way out of this.
[37:09] we need you to outline a clear roadmap leading to
[37:12] the well-documented rate savings there for the
[37:15] taking.
[37:16] we don't need [inaudible] or any other profit molded
[37:19] service provider to manage things for us.
[37:22] we trust the capabilities of a life of staff.
[37:25] they are very good at what they do.
[37:29] they are fine public servants.
[37:31] we hope that you trust them to trust them enough
[37:34] to run the system without peace sec.
[37:37] thank you.
[37:38] thank you, mr. Harrison, for your very consistent
[37:42] interest in lipid fairs over the last year, you've
[37:45] come to many, many board meetings and public
[37:48] comment hearing.
[37:49] so we do appreciate your interest.
[37:52] thank you.
[37:53] okay.
[37:53] next up, we will have antonio cruz followed by
[37:57] charles leaves and then eric weltman antonio,
[38:00] we're going to move you in to the panelists for you
[38:04] now.
[38:05] awesome.
[38:05] can y'all hear me?
[38:07] okay.
[38:07] great.
[38:07] thank you so much.
[38:09] and to begin, um, mr. Falcon, I saw that,
[38:13] um, in 2019, your base pay was over $280,000.
[38:16] and, you know, for the sake of creating
[38:19] cost-effective measures for ensuring people have
[38:22] access to public utilities, um, ensuring
[38:24] that electricity access is basically a right at this
[38:28] point.
[38:28] um, I think we need to address some concerns
[38:31] about, um, the privatization of our
[38:34] electric grid and our energy system here in long
[38:37] island.
[38:38] um, I see that the contract being proposed,
[38:41] but essentially render long islanders putting the
[38:44] cost of and efficiency, whether that is in the
[38:47] form of a 2.3, um, price hike in 2021 in 2022 is in
[38:52] your contract, which I believe even pseg
[38:55] projected was supposed to be lower in costs, but
[38:59] anyway, or in the tens of millions of dollars, uh,
[39:03] should pseg fail to meet the demands for
[39:06] eco-friendly efficient and consistent power
[39:08] distribution on long island.
[39:10] now I bring this up because regardless of good
[39:13] faith arguments or speculation, which is
[39:15] essential, but long islanders are going to be
[39:19] doing at this point, because at the end of the
[39:23] day, until we have a dangerous storms and stuff
[39:26] like that, that are caused by climate change, which
[39:30] again, pseg is not even projecting, um, to meet
[39:33] these deadlines by like 2040, which is still
[39:36] beyond recommendations to meet this by 20 25, 20 30.
[39:40] so again, we are seeing issues with this, but, um,
[39:44] I don't think long islanders should be paying
[39:47] 30 milli should have paid 30 million for a poor
[39:51] system maintenance and stuff like that.
[39:54] and I believe that if we need this supplies, we
[39:58] could see cost cutting measures like municipal
[40:00] bond access department income, and having this
[40:03] all be, um, essentially streamlined.
[40:05] in my case through suffolk county departments, like
[40:08] the public works department and
[40:10] infrastructure funding, as well as the long island
[40:13] power authority, all of these institutions can do
[40:16] a lot more to ensure unionized jobs, lower
[40:20] costs, um, safer electric systems, et cetera.
[40:23] so to bring this back, and again, I'm really
[40:26] trying to be brief here.
[40:28] this contract really doesn't address the
[40:31] concerns that a lot of us have.
[40:33] this contract creates more administrative level jobs
[40:36] that would be salaried and protected this, um,
[40:39] doesn't ensure that, um, we'd actually be
[40:42] addressing as well as the inflation crisis here in
[40:46] long island because higher utility costs are part of
[40:49] that problem.
[40:50] and that's why this crisis goes beyond just keeping
[40:53] the lights on so people can afford to actually
[40:57] sustain or live on these costs than just access
[41:00] another barrier for people to be able to live here.
[41:04] and that's really what a lot of this comes down to.
[41:09] so people are paying for an efficiency,
[41:11] subcontracting, and privatization.
[41:13] then we see that climate change, electricity access
[41:16] and power redistribution.
[41:17] aren't the priorities.
[41:18] so again, regardless of good faith arguments, I
[41:21] really do think that, um, like, uh, should undergo
[41:25] municipalization efforts.
[41:26] I think we need to ensure that efforts to make sure
[41:30] that this is strictly a public utility and not
[41:33] something that is contracted would make this
[41:36] far more efficient, far more safer, and far more
[41:40] cost effective.
[41:41] thank you.
[41:42] thank you, antonio.
[41:43] uh, next step is charles then eric weltman and then
[41:47] margaret mahler will be up next on charles.
[41:50] we're going to move you in to panelists view now.
[41:54] good evening.
[41:55] my name is charles nunez and the ecosocialist
[41:58] working group chair of the nassau county chapter, the
[42:02] democratic socialists of america and a partner in
[42:05] the re-imagined life.
[42:06] but coalition, I keep my statement relatively
[42:09] brief, but I'm just going to come tonight to say
[42:13] transparently I'm off from the time of tropical
[42:16] storm.
[42:16] esa is he sets failures, which they lied about on
[42:20] multiple occasions.
[42:21] you all even sat there on the board, calling out to
[42:25] your sides lies.
[42:27] dan eichorn lie to everyone's faces multiple
[42:29] times about the progress we were assured that you
[42:33] said had gotten their act together.
[42:35] but when hurricane henry was threatening to coast,
[42:38] my memory, according to my memory, I remember seven
[42:42] to 14 day warnings of failure, potential
[42:45] failures.
[42:45] you know, power might be also in 14 days.
[42:49] I thought pcyc had said they were fixed
[42:52] everything, but that's, that's what we heard.
[42:54] thankfully for long islanders.
[42:56] henry did not hit long island and mind you, it
[43:00] hit rhode island and their power was back in one or a
[43:05] one to two days.
[43:06] I believe, you know, versus the seven to 14
[43:10] days that piece said was warning us about, you also
[43:14] said at the beginning of this, that to listen to us
[43:18] through the public comments, 90% of the
[43:21] comments or for full municipalization.
[43:23] tell me how us coming here.
[43:26] talking about a renewed contract with p sag was
[43:29] listening to us.
[43:30] it wasn't, I'm just going to say this in closing.
[43:34] if you all vote for this contract, you all should
[43:38] resign.
[43:38] and if you don't, the legislature needs to step
[43:42] in and take over.
[43:44] and if they don't, then they should resign.
[43:47] thank you.
[43:48] okay, eric, weltman followed by margaret
[43:50] mahler and then laura mckeller, eric, we're
[43:53] going to move you in now, eric, you're on mute.
[43:57] sorry about that.
[43:59] great.
[43:59] my name is eric weltman and I'm a new york senior
[44:03] organizer with food and water.
[44:05] watch a national non-profit environmental
[44:07] organization, food and water watch is a proud
[44:10] member of the re-imagined lipid campaign, along with
[44:13] the long island, progressive coalition,
[44:15] mothers out front or energy, and so many
[44:19] incredible activists and allies.
[44:20] and we're here to send a message to the lipid board
[44:24] and to governor hoeckel long island deserves long
[44:28] island needs a publicly owned, controlled and
[44:30] managed power authority.
[44:32] long island deserves long island needs to sever its
[44:35] relationship with pac and g a company with a track
[44:39] record, a long track record of failures and
[44:42] lies.
[44:43] it's time to establish new standards for
[44:45] accountability, equity, resilience, and democracy
[44:47] in our energy systems, and to create an institution
[44:51] that's equipped to meet these standards and one
[44:54] that will prevent climate catastrophe by moving the
[44:57] region off fossil fuels and transition long island
[45:00] to soar and wind power.
[45:03] the time has come.
[45:04] the time has come for the long island power
[45:08] authority to end its relationship with pse and
[45:11] g.
[45:11] and to finally end decades of failed public private
[45:15] partnerships, they have put profit over people, no
[45:18] contract, no contract can alter repair or rectify
[45:21] the fundamental disconnect between pse and g and the
[45:25] region's needs.
[45:25] the fact that the proposed contract contains a duty
[45:29] of candor requirement is alarming.
[45:31] we have to ask pse and g to commit not to lie.
[45:36] what if they're lying about not lying, no
[45:39] contract can overcome the fact that this is a flawed
[45:43] model that is causing widespread widespread
[45:45] hardship at great pasta rate pairs.
[45:47] long island has been repeatedly battered by
[45:50] storms, the intensity and fruit qfc, which are
[45:53] heightened by climate change.
[45:55] climate change is an existential threat to long
[45:58] island.
[45:58] creating an urgent need to move off fossil fuels.
[46:02] we must stop transporting and burning
[46:05] frack gas.
[46:05] public power is the means by which we can ensure the
[46:10] long island fulfills our legal and moral obligation
[46:13] to transition to a hundred percent clean, renewable
[46:16] energy.
[46:17] we have a new governor.
[46:18] we have new board members and even more will be
[46:22] appointed the hopeful administration and the
[46:25] lipid board have the opportunity to acknowledge
[46:28] and move past the mistakes of andrew cuomo and put
[46:31] the relationship with psng where it clearly belongs
[46:35] in the dustbin of history.
[46:37] food and water roster concludes with our call to
[46:40] governor cuomo.
[46:41] coco now is our moment to re-imagine lippa and
[46:44] corporate control and abuse of our energy
[46:47] systems and realize the benefits of public power
[46:50] and formulas of smoothness or polarization, real
[46:53] accountability where liable service, affordable
[46:55] power and a transition off fossil fuels.
[46:58] thank you.
[46:59] thank you, eric, for your comments.
[47:01] next, we're going to move in margaret mahler
[47:04] followed by laura mckeller and then mike brady will
[47:08] be up after laura.
[47:10] hi, welcome.
[47:11] hello.
[47:11] hello.
[47:12] all my name is margaret maher.
[47:14] I'm a volunteer for food and water watch.
[47:17] I'm a long island power authority rate payer as
[47:21] well.
[47:21] and I just want to put my 2 cents in saying that we
[47:26] need public power.
[47:27] now this new contract with pse and g does not fix or
[47:32] lower outreach.
[47:33] we need to manipulate view, sorry, municipalize.
[47:36] now we all know how much it costs to live on this
[47:40] island.
[47:41] it is so expensive between the taxes, the water, the
[47:45] gas, the electric, these municipalities should all
[47:47] be public.
[47:48] we pay high bills that seem to serve stockholders
[47:52] over rate payers.
[47:53] and this is just unacceptable.
[47:55] we had many issues in the past, such as tropical
[47:59] storm isis in 2020 pse and g needs to be held
[48:03] accountable for their readiness of this storm.
[48:06] we know they lied about their preparedness, their
[48:09] response and the upgrades it made afterwards.
[48:12] we want public power to serve the rate payers, not
[48:16] the stockholders.
[48:17] I can't even say this enough, who benefit from
[48:20] our hard earned money, our money that we make, we are
[48:25] giving away to stockholders the amount of
[48:27] money that is made millions upon millions
[48:30] every year is unbelievable.
[48:32] speaking for myself and my neighbors.
[48:34] we, the public want the board to terminate its
[48:38] contract with pse and g and commit to public
[48:41] power.
[48:42] utility utilities like power and water should be
[48:45] public.
[48:45] they should all be public.
[48:47] we need to go green to fight climate change.
[48:51] we need governor hocal to champion this cause this
[48:54] is extremely important.
[48:55] we are paying so much money and the benefit to
[48:59] us is very, very little.
[49:01] it's really upsetting.
[49:02] and one other thing, before I close, I don't
[49:06] know who cuts the trees or who you hire to cut the
[49:11] trees, but it is awful.
[49:13] I just want to put that in there.
[49:16] I thank you for letting me speak and say my piece.
[49:20] thank you very much.
[49:22] thank you, margaret laura mckeller, you are up next
[49:26] then followed by mike brady and then call
[49:29] merchenson after my hi laurie.
[49:31] you're in the panelist view.
[49:33] you're on mute.
[49:34] am I unmuted?
[49:35] can you hear me?
[49:37] yep.
[49:37] okay, good.
[49:38] so my name is laura mckeller.
[49:41] uh, I am a rate payer in greenlawn, new york.
[49:44] I am also a, um, I'm a registered nurse and I'm a
[49:49] mother of two teenage boys.
[49:51] um, I think one thing that I've heard over and over
[49:55] again, and I myself have said in these meetings is
[49:59] that we are just all really fed up with pse and
[50:04] g we are, we're just done.
[50:06] we we're done.
[50:07] we are done with this relationship.
[50:10] um, not only were they ill prepared and not only was
[50:14] their response poor to issais.
[50:16] um, we relied too.
[50:17] now, if this were any other relationship in my
[50:21] life or in my children's lives or my friends'
[50:25] lives, I would say just ended if this were an
[50:28] obstetrician, for example, um, I would not be setting
[50:32] new performance standards.
[50:33] I would not be, um, creating a shorter
[50:36] contract with him or her.
[50:39] I would not be setting any sort of differences in
[50:43] risk and compensation.
[50:44] I would say this person does not delivery my next
[50:48] child.
[50:48] um, and I think that's what we need to do.
[50:52] um, not only because of what we've seen in the
[50:56] past, but because of what we are going to be
[51:00] encountering in the future, we are truly at a
[51:03] crossroads right now that I think all of us see
[51:07] ordinary people like me see, in terms of climate
[51:11] change, not just in terms of storms, but we see
[51:15] what's going on out west.
[51:17] we see the threat to our food.
[51:20] we see the threat to our health health.
[51:23] we see potential changes as the infectious disease
[51:26] of elderly people dying because they're too hot.
[51:29] like we see the threats, we cannot turn away
[51:33] anymore.
[51:33] um, so as we end the relationship with pse and
[51:37] g, this gives us an opportunity for a new
[51:40] relationship, that public power grants us.
[51:43] um, we're also going to have to entirely change
[51:47] the way that we produce and consume energy.
[51:50] we have to do it.
[51:52] there is no option.
[51:53] um, and on top of it, the way we consume energy is
[51:58] actually going to be more electrified.
[52:00] so it's going to be putting even more pressure
[52:04] and strain on the infrastructure that is in
[52:07] turn, also threatened by these storms that are only
[52:11] going to get bigger and bigger.
[52:13] um, so in the process, we also need to be creating
[52:17] clean energy and efficient energy.
[52:19] we need to get away from fossil fuels so that we
[52:24] are not exacerbating the problem that is creating
[52:27] the storms.
[52:28] um, but it's not all doom and gloom.
[52:31] like I said, it really is an opportunity for public
[52:35] power.
[52:35] this is a huge opportunity for us.
[52:38] um, we can create new jobs.
[52:40] we can make sure that those jobs are going to
[52:44] people who have been most unjustly effected by
[52:47] climate change by pollution, by all of this,
[52:50] by just the unfairness of life itself.
[52:54] this is a huge opportunity and we cannot
[52:57] rely on a corporate entity to do this.
[53:00] this is something that we have to do together as
[53:04] communities, as government, as scientists,
[53:06] and we need community input.
[53:08] we need community members at the table.
[53:10] I said before, in other meetings, we know what we
[53:14] need.
[53:15] we know what we want.
[53:17] and when we work together with experts and we work
[53:21] together with labor, we can do this.
[53:23] we do not need pse and g um, we need to end, um, we
[53:29] need to end this relationship and we need
[53:32] public power.
[53:33] thank you so much for letting me speak.
[53:36] thank you, laura, for your comments on next up
[53:40] will be mike brady followed by ryan madden
[53:43] and then george, povo like, we're bringing you
[53:46] in now.
[53:47] I, can you hear me?
[53:49] we can.
[53:50] great.
[53:51] uh, my name is michael brady and I am a repair
[53:55] from kings park.
[53:56] I am also an attorney by profession and I am a
[54:00] volunteer with law and progressive coalition and
[54:03] cooperation long island.
[54:04] I'm here to encourage the board to end leiper's
[54:08] relationship with pse and g and to instead pursue
[54:11] full municipalization of the long island power
[54:14] grid.
[54:15] other speakers tonight have.
[54:16] and we'll continue to outline for you a variety
[54:20] of excellent reasons for municipalization,
[54:22] including enormous cost savings, operational
[54:24] efficiency, and the overwhelming public
[54:26] support that has been expressed in virtually
[54:28] every recent meeting of this board.
[54:31] as well as into public hearing that was held in
[54:35] may your own options analysis shows the
[54:37] overwhelming benefit of full municipalization.
[54:39] it is abundantly clear that this is the only way
[54:43] to go yet, almost immediately after the
[54:46] hearing in may this board, perhaps with some strong
[54:50] prodding from a certain governor, decided to
[54:52] pursue a different path and double down with pse
[54:56] and g despite its abysmal performance.
[54:59] well that governor is gone now.
[55:01] so perhaps we can revisit things and pursuing a
[55:04] rational course.
[55:05] I'd like to take a different tack and try to
[55:09] convince you to change this course because
[55:12] entering this contract is a horrible business
[55:15] decision.
[55:15] as an attorney, I often tell my clients that a
[55:19] contract is only as good as the parties that are
[55:23] involved in the transaction.
[55:24] it is my belief that pse and g is not a good
[55:29] partner and cannot be trusted.
[55:31] why do I believe that?
[55:33] because the lipid board has repeatedly told me, so
[55:37] the board has accused pse and g of being woefully
[55:41] unprepared for hurricane.
[55:42] I say, yes, the board has repeatedly told us that
[55:46] pse and g is not meeting the benchmarks that were
[55:50] set to ensure that assistance upgrades were
[55:52] completed in a timely manner.
[55:54] so that such a disastrous storm response never
[55:58] occurs again.
[55:58] why would you trust pse and g and reward it with a
[56:03] new contract?
[56:04] well, we're told that this new contract is the
[56:08] best deal that lipid has ever had, and that
[56:11] includes large compensation penalties at
[56:13] pse.
[56:14] and g fails us again to that.
[56:16] I say, so what, I'm here to tell you that as rate
[56:21] payers, we don't want pse and g to reimburse our
[56:25] money.
[56:25] we don't want them to be paid in the first place.
[56:30] what we do want is for our money to go towards a
[56:34] durable and reliable power grid.
[56:36] we want accessible communications and updates
[56:39] in the advent of power outages.
[56:41] we want rapid and efficient restoration of
[56:44] service.
[56:44] we want to pay electric fees that are not among
[56:48] the highest in the country.
[56:50] we want a utility that is agile and capable enough
[56:54] to rapidly complete the critical transition to
[56:57] renewable energy as mandated by the climate
[57:00] leadership and community protection act.
[57:02] as margaret said, we don't want our money going to
[57:06] shareholders, which has been happening for far too
[57:09] long after we built bailed out lipid, I'm sorry, loco
[57:13] so many years ago, um, at a cost that we're still
[57:17] paying today.
[57:18] what we demand is utility that is responsive and
[57:21] accountable to the people we demand public power.
[57:24] thank you.
[57:26] thank you, mr. Brady.
[57:27] uh, next step.
[57:28] we'll have ryan madden then george paval and then
[57:32] timothy carson after george ryan, we're moving
[57:35] you in now.
[57:36] can you hear me wonderful.
[57:38] um, good evening, everyone and lovely to see everyone
[57:42] again this week.
[57:43] uh, my name is ryan madden.
[57:45] I'm the sustainability organizer with the long
[57:48] island progressive coalition.
[57:49] uh, we are a grassroots community-based
[57:52] organization founded in 1979.
[57:53] we fight for structural change at the local state
[57:57] and national levels to attain racial justice,
[57:59] build community wealth and realize adjust, transition
[58:02] to a hundred percent renewable energy future
[58:05] beginning in november of, uh, 2020, the long island,
[58:08] progressive coalition, suffolk county and nassau
[58:11] county chapters of dsa and food, or waterwatch came
[58:14] together to urge the long island power authority,
[58:17] determinate his contract with pse and g long island
[58:21] municipalize and democratize in the
[58:23] aftermath of tropical storm, sis, which resulted
[58:26] in a 645,000 long island residents without power
[58:29] for on average, more than two to seven days.
[58:32] over the past, we have built a network of
[58:36] supporters through the re-imagined lipid
[58:38] statements consistently mobilized rate payers to
[58:40] weigh in at monthly board meetings, held forums on
[58:44] the benefits of public power with diverse
[58:47] stakeholders and decision makers created toolkits.
[58:49] this for additional public action, worked with
[58:52] relevant elected officials to amplify those issue
[58:55] statewide and publish op-eds and letters to the
[58:58] editor and multiple media outlets and light all, all
[59:02] of this.
[59:02] um, the groundswell of community elected and
[59:05] public support, um, for, uh, the full
[59:08] municipalization of the long island power
[59:10] authority.
[59:11] uh, we are here to say that this new contract
[59:14] does not fix the fundamentally flawed model
[59:17] of our utility and that we need to meet as flies.
[59:22] it is impossible to comment on this reform
[59:25] contract without noting the structural issues
[59:27] surrounding this.
[59:28] we are also concerned as was raised earlier that
[59:31] this contract is moving forward.
[59:33] uh, moving ahead, uh, before the attorney
[59:36] general finishes or investigation into whether
[59:38] pse and g has failed sis response broke state laws,
[59:42] uh, and before we know the responsiveness of the new
[59:46] storm outage management computer system that pse
[59:49] and g has been collected to deliver on, we urge the
[59:53] lipid board to delay this vote and suspend this
[59:57] process until they have more information on which
[1:00:00] to make a sound decision as was noted earlier, too,
[1:00:04] um, and reflected by, um, by other speakers, is that
[1:00:08] decisions about the future of the long island power
[1:00:11] authority and its relationship to pse and g,
[1:00:15] um, should belong to the rate payers of this region
[1:00:19] and the rate payers of this regional loan and
[1:00:22] former governor.
[1:00:23] andrew cuomo only had his legacy in mind when he
[1:00:27] pushed light pcyc to renew terms earlier in july.
[1:00:31] he, in that decision deliberately ignore long
[1:00:33] island rate payers and elected officials, um, and
[1:00:37] instead exerted his influence on behalf of pse
[1:00:40] and g as was mentioned, his resignation, this
[1:00:43] entire deal has been called into question, and
[1:00:46] we believe the onus is now on governor.
[1:00:49] hocal just your course back towards public power.
[1:00:52] she must reject her predecessors failed vision
[1:00:55] for our region and embrace a power proven model for
[1:00:59] ensuring long island enjoys, reliable,
[1:01:01] affordable, and renewable power, regardless of the
[1:01:04] content of this new contract, a decision to
[1:01:07] move ahead and not commit to public power, um, would
[1:01:11] be an insult long island and rockaway's
[1:01:14] communities, the dereliction of
[1:01:15] responsibility to the need of democratic management
[1:01:18] of our system and a grave mistake as the climate
[1:01:22] crisis worsens, as we know, lipid can save
[1:01:25] nearly $1 billion over the next day decade through
[1:01:29] this process.
[1:01:30] so instead of bonuses to unaccountable managers and
[1:01:33] dividends to distant stockholders, we could see
[1:01:36] lower rates and improved services for customers.
[1:01:38] it was communicated earlier this year, uh,
[1:01:41] during a new york state senate budget, hearing
[1:01:44] that life, uh, had in its power, the ability to
[1:01:48] municipalize on its own, once the tentative
[1:01:51] agreement was struck in july, this assertion was
[1:01:54] walked back and pushed to albany to decide while we
[1:01:58] will work with albany to make necessary legislative
[1:02:01] changes.
[1:02:02] we asked that lipid continue to flesh out
[1:02:05] options for and support the development of a
[1:02:08] roadmap to a fully system.
[1:02:10] if the lipid board does move ahead with this
[1:02:13] contract, it must at the very least commit to not
[1:02:17] renewing it.
[1:02:18] after 2025 and began working with community
[1:02:21] stakeholders right now to build a public power
[1:02:24] system, we deserve lipid must also heat the call to
[1:02:28] engage in more robust, intentional community
[1:02:30] engagement in the conduct of utility operations.
[1:02:33] while these public comment sessions are
[1:02:36] appreciated and vital, they also feel somewhat
[1:02:38] insincere by their impact.
[1:02:40] maybe not by their intense, the public had
[1:02:43] less than 30 days to read a 300 page contract,
[1:02:47] digest it, develop comments on it, and then
[1:02:50] deliver those comments.
[1:02:51] the majority of the turnout for these, uh, um,
[1:02:55] sessions is based on the work of community
[1:02:58] organizations like ours and not the efforts of the
[1:03:02] utility to seek input.
[1:03:03] and as seen during the options analysis comment
[1:03:06] sessions, public input does not translate into
[1:03:09] utility response.
[1:03:10] it often feels that proposals put before us to
[1:03:13] comment on our decisions already made.
[1:03:16] we need a democratic lipid that is accountable to our
[1:03:20] region's communities.
[1:03:21] a lipid that is led by those most impacted by
[1:03:24] decisions concerning our energy system.
[1:03:26] that includes rate payers, workers, municipalities,
[1:03:29] community organizations, low-income households, and
[1:03:31] environmental justice communities.
[1:03:32] we must ensure that those who use pay for and work
[1:03:36] for the system have a say in how it runs despite the
[1:03:41] flawed model utilized and its conduct lipid is, and
[1:03:45] probably claims to be a public power utility.
[1:03:48] and that must mean the operation management and
[1:03:51] policy making of the electric utility
[1:03:54] exclusively by the public for the public interest,
[1:03:57] which can only be the case with ongoing and
[1:04:00] meaningful engagements.
[1:04:01] lipomas heed the call for public power, which only
[1:04:05] grows louder every day on long island throughout the
[1:04:08] state and across the country.
[1:04:10] we can not afford more delays, further delay as
[1:04:14] for their time money and resources waste on a
[1:04:17] utility model that is structurally unreliable
[1:04:20] and accountable and more expensive, more expensive.
[1:04:22] none of this is addressed by the proposal before us
[1:04:26] today, and we deserve better.
[1:04:28] thank you for your time.
[1:04:31] thank you for your comments, brian.
[1:04:33] I was certainly always going to do want to
[1:04:37] acknowledge the tremendous amount of time that ryan
[1:04:40] has spent, and he's been at every life, a board
[1:04:44] meeting and follow these first so closely.
[1:04:47] so I do appreciate that.
[1:04:49] uh, so george will be next followed by timothy
[1:04:53] carson and then william novella, george, we're
[1:04:55] bringing you in now, george you're on mute.
[1:04:59] hey everybody.
[1:05:00] it's george paul, val from all our energy executive
[1:05:03] director.
[1:05:04] uh, look, all our energy is a long island energy
[1:05:07] and environment protection non-profit organization.
[1:05:09] and I want to thank you, tom.
[1:05:12] and the board for all of the work that you have
[1:05:17] parked to improve our utility over the past 16
[1:05:20] months in the push to move to what was for everyone
[1:05:24] involved, the obvious choice of public power.
[1:05:27] it's not that this contract doesn't make an
[1:05:30] improvement.
[1:05:31] the problem is not just about the contract, nor
[1:05:34] the contractor.
[1:05:35] it's the system of a public private
[1:05:38] partnership.
[1:05:38] it just continues to leave long islanders vulnerable,
[1:05:41] to storms in favor of profits and business
[1:05:44] interests above rate payer interests and leaves us
[1:05:48] not ready for the future.
[1:05:50] that system just has to go.
[1:05:52] we need a full public takeover of pseg long
[1:05:55] island operations to the municipal and accountable
[1:05:58] lipid to gain greater grid security, cost reduction,
[1:06:01] resiliency, responsiveness, and
[1:06:02] accountability.
[1:06:03] any new contract merely just extends the current
[1:06:06] problems, risks, our safety and delays.
[1:06:09] the inevitable transition that we truly thank the
[1:06:12] past and presently outgoing board members for
[1:06:15] their service with much of the board to be new
[1:06:19] members early in the year, we do feel having them
[1:06:23] decide such an important matter and then leave in
[1:06:26] the coming weeks, just diminishes the great work
[1:06:29] the board has done, and it diminishes accountability
[1:06:32] that has been so missing from this entire process.
[1:06:36] this regression back to unaccountability was
[1:06:38] dropped like a bomb on all of us by the disgraced
[1:06:43] former governor, and for better, for worse.
[1:06:45] this allows his outgoing appointees to approve his
[1:06:49] backroom deal and walk away.
[1:06:50] and likewise we'll allow any new board members
[1:06:54] simply to point to the past board, uh, leaving
[1:06:57] the rest of us vulnerable for this, uh,
[1:07:00] accountability, uh, that will be missing.
[1:07:03] additionally, those contract on paper allows
[1:07:05] for more metrics for accountability.
[1:07:07] will the board actually go out of their way to fully
[1:07:12] enforce it?
[1:07:12] when we will be faced with the same question then,
[1:07:16] which is who will control our grid.
[1:07:19] if an unhappy contractor holds all the power and
[1:07:23] stands between us and our grid, the provision for
[1:07:26] nearly a year severance as well in management fees
[1:07:30] for failure on such a short term contract still
[1:07:33] leaves us in diminishing returns.
[1:07:35] it might be a bonus for them to even get fired.
[1:07:40] at some point, the proof of this is, is this being
[1:07:44] a possible outcome is pseg long island testifying to
[1:07:47] the new york state assembly a month after
[1:07:51] this, uh, contract was announced that everything
[1:07:53] was under control and not going to be a problem.
[1:07:57] and then just a few days later with hurricane henri
[1:08:01] coming up the coast, we were told to prepare for
[1:08:05] 10 to 14 days without power.
[1:08:08] wait, what?
[1:08:09] anyway, not withstanding that there still is no
[1:08:12] guarantee.
[1:08:12] they are going to be a willing and cooperative
[1:08:16] participant in any transition away from them
[1:08:19] ever.
[1:08:19] and I see little difference, whether it
[1:08:22] happens sooner or later, they have done much to
[1:08:25] prove that they will not act in a way that benefits
[1:08:30] us as, uh, as, as shown by their public duty attested
[1:08:34] in accuracies and untruths, um, which I've
[1:08:37] just mapped that past the breaking point.
[1:08:39] we cannot allow them to continue to hold our power
[1:08:43] over us.
[1:08:44] we need to take it back.
[1:08:46] this resolution to the ongoing problems though,
[1:08:49] exemplifies why we believe that the lipid board and
[1:08:53] ultimately governor hogan have a responsibility to
[1:08:55] steer our course forward towards public power.
[1:08:58] thank you all so much.
[1:09:00] thank you, george timothy carson.
[1:09:02] you're up next followed by william novella then
[1:09:05] jennifer green.
[1:09:06] good afternoon, everybody.
[1:09:08] uh, my check.
[1:09:09] everyone can hear me right.
[1:09:11] cool.
[1:09:11] could even hear me, everybody.
[1:09:13] I live in cinereach.
[1:09:15] my name is tim and I'm an organizer with the suffolk
[1:09:19] county democratic socialists of america.
[1:09:21] this reformed contract with peace egg is a half
[1:09:25] measure when leiba needs to use a full measure.
[1:09:28] the contract needs to be terminated.
[1:09:30] the failed public private partnership model needs to
[1:09:34] go and like it needs to be fully democratized, a
[1:09:38] shorter leash on pse and g doesn't mean much when
[1:09:41] public power is a better deal for long island.
[1:09:45] maybe there's a $60 million fine.
[1:09:47] like you said, mr. Falcon, but lipid zone analysis
[1:09:51] says it would save nearly a billion dollars over the
[1:09:55] next decade.
[1:09:56] if the piece of that contract was terminated in
[1:09:59] favor of full municipalization, the only
[1:10:01] reason the contract was agreed upon the first
[1:10:05] place is former governor cuomo.
[1:10:07] so why should we settle for this?
[1:10:10] exactly long island can make such a powerful
[1:10:13] statement by severing ties with wasteful and
[1:10:16] inefficient management of psa and siding with the
[1:10:19] people that serves stakeholders and
[1:10:21] ratepayers and climate change is unfortunately
[1:10:23] here to stay.
[1:10:24] we can expect some storms in the future to be worse
[1:10:29] than tropical storms that we've witnessed in the
[1:10:32] past.
[1:10:32] personally, I want us to be prepared in the best
[1:10:36] way we can not by having a private management service
[1:10:40] provider, but a publicly owned and operated
[1:10:43] utility, which of course already service about 15%
[1:10:46] of americans are 13% cheaper and have 46% fewer
[1:10:49] power outages.
[1:10:50] the benefits of public power check, all the
[1:10:53] boxes.
[1:10:54] the choice is easy.
[1:10:55] terminate the contract with peace sag and let's
[1:10:59] democratize our power system.
[1:11:00] thank you.
[1:11:01] thank you, timothy.
[1:11:02] uh, william develo will be up next followed by paul
[1:11:06] merchenson.
[1:11:07] I know, um, there were some folks that had their
[1:11:11] hand up to put them down.
[1:11:13] um, if there are people that would like to speak
[1:11:17] on this matter, I would ask, please raise your
[1:11:21] hand, william and the vela.
[1:11:22] we are gonna move you in.
[1:11:25] okay.
[1:11:26] thank you.
[1:11:26] my name is william novella.
[1:11:28] I am a member of the nassau county chapter of
[1:11:32] the democratic socialists of america.
[1:11:34] and you know, when I came here tonight, there are a
[1:11:39] few words that I had when I thought of pse and g um,
[1:11:44] one was albatross.
[1:11:45] the other was parasite, and either one was changed
[1:11:48] by the presentation presented the speed,
[1:11:51] meaning by life.
[1:11:52] uh, there was absolutely nothing in that
[1:11:55] presentation that demonstrated that pse and
[1:11:57] g is performance in their time.
[1:11:59] contracted out by life, uh, has done anything to
[1:12:03] benefit really long island and has done nothing but
[1:12:07] cost taxpayers much and bring harm to the people
[1:12:10] in our communities.
[1:12:11] excuse me, the relationship here seems to
[1:12:14] be that lipid seems to be meaning to pay more and
[1:12:18] more, create more and more metrics in order to
[1:12:22] oversight pse and g for the work that they're
[1:12:25] supposed to be doing on their own, creating more
[1:12:29] costs for a mill managed relationship.
[1:12:32] that seems to be quite more contractual and quite
[1:12:35] frankly, abusive for the people of long island who
[1:12:39] are clearly having this thrusted upon them.
[1:12:41] because I would say that there are very few people
[1:12:45] from the ordinary public.
[1:12:47] you you're to actually give public testimony.
[1:12:50] many of us who are privileged to be here this
[1:12:54] evening, and quite frankly, you know, having
[1:12:56] less than two months to provide public testimony
[1:13:00] on it is very disingenuous on your part to push
[1:13:04] forward such a contract on people.
[1:13:06] so it seems to me that there seems to be very
[1:13:10] little to be done here.
[1:13:12] and this seems to be a decision that is going to
[1:13:16] be pushed down no matter what happens after
[1:13:20] december 9th.
[1:13:20] so I just wanted to express that clearly
[1:13:24] universalization would be the best course of action
[1:13:27] that pse and g needs to be eliminated as a working
[1:13:31] partner with lipid as soon as possible.
[1:13:34] and if that is not the case and the flippa
[1:13:38] refuses to do that, then it is up to the public and
[1:13:42] to the state government to thrust a decision to
[1:13:46] change that.
[1:13:47] and that's where I'm at.
[1:13:49] thank you.
[1:13:49] and have a
[1:13:51] good evening.
[1:13:52] thank you, william.
[1:13:53] next step will be paul merchenson, uh, followed
[1:13:57] by jeremy joseph, and then jennifer green.
[1:13:59] okay.
[1:14:00] call your unmute.
[1:14:01] okay.
[1:14:02] thank you.
[1:14:02] um, my name's paul mark wilson, uh, I'm uh, on the
[1:14:07] steering committee of transition town, port
[1:14:09] washington.
[1:14:10] we are a local community group on the port
[1:14:13] washington peninsula, where our mission is to,
[1:14:16] um, make our community safe, secure, sustainable,
[1:14:19] and resilient in the face of climate change.
[1:14:22] and clearly this issue is, uh, you know, uh, dear to
[1:14:26] our mission of accomplishing those
[1:14:28] objectives.
[1:14:28] uh, so we're really urging, um, light, but not
[1:14:32] to make a rush to judgment.
[1:14:34] please let the attorney general finisher
[1:14:37] investigation delay your vote until all the
[1:14:39] information is there.
[1:14:41] and I believe, I hope that the timing of this public
[1:14:45] session is to allow you to hear and gain enough
[1:14:49] support from the public to do that and to move down a
[1:14:54] more responsible path, secure and affordable
[1:14:56] power.
[1:14:56] it's too important to be subject to private profit.
[1:15:00] um, I was, you know, I was struck as eric weldon was
[1:15:05] by the phrase duty of candor.
[1:15:07] and I just have to say that, uh, I've spent over
[1:15:12] 40 years, um, in the, in the private sector
[1:15:15] managing, uh, large management and, uh,
[1:15:18] capital projects and a lot all over the world and
[1:15:21] never have I come across that phase.
[1:15:24] now I understand in the public sector that there
[1:15:28] are regulations and there are different things that
[1:15:31] affect, uh, contracts, but I've also worked in highly
[1:15:34] regulated industries in highly regulated
[1:15:36] environments.
[1:15:37] and that phrase to me is a exclusionary phrase.
[1:15:40] it just indicates that there is no level of
[1:15:44] trust.
[1:15:44] and you've, you've indicated that in
[1:15:47] yourselves, in the past dealings, this is not an
[1:15:50] organization pse and g that's forthcoming and
[1:15:53] honest and trustworthy, and they need to be
[1:15:56] eliminated on that basis if not poor performance.
[1:15:59] so, um, it also speaks if that, if that was in prior
[1:16:04] contract, it speaks to the bankruptcy of the model,
[1:16:07] the private public partnerships.
[1:16:09] and again, municipalization has a
[1:16:11] much better track record in terms of performance
[1:16:15] and, uh, and course delivery.
[1:16:17] so again, it's, it's just, I feel for you because you
[1:16:21] have to be shaking your heads off screen and
[1:16:24] saying, yeah, we know this, we know this, we
[1:16:28] know this, but you obviously have a lot of
[1:16:31] other things to, uh, uh, you know, to navigate in
[1:16:35] terms of your decision making.
[1:16:37] but, uh, the public voice has to be an important
[1:16:41] part of that.
[1:16:42] so, you know, as, as, as have said, public power is
[1:16:47] not new.
[1:16:48] it works.
[1:16:48] it's something whose time has come, it's too
[1:16:52] important, uh, uh, to, to put profit over a public
[1:16:55] safety.
[1:16:56] and I just want to say on a personal note that, um,
[1:17:01] in the park section of port washington, where I
[1:17:04] lived during, uh, ida, three of my neighbors,
[1:17:07] their basements completely flooded.
[1:17:09] now, I'm bringing that up, not to say that, that,
[1:17:13] you know, that's a direct result of a pse and g is
[1:17:18] mismanagement or that they all lost power, but it
[1:17:21] indicates the severity of the climate events that
[1:17:25] were facing these, uh, black swans are a hundred
[1:17:28] year events that you're talking about.
[1:17:30] they are totally unprepared to deal with
[1:17:33] that.
[1:17:34] we need a totally different model that can,
[1:17:37] that can handle events that cannot be foreseen
[1:17:40] because every year in every community we see
[1:17:43] these is, there are things we read in the papers.
[1:17:47] these are the things people are experiencing
[1:17:50] and people feel threatened.
[1:17:51] this is not just about their rates.
[1:17:54] it's about their lives, their security, even if
[1:17:57] they don't drown in their basements, as other people
[1:18:01] have done in the region, they're at risk of living
[1:18:05] in homes that have mold and have other, uh, health
[1:18:09] and safety results as, as a result of climate
[1:18:12] events, living and occupying a home that has
[1:18:15] gone without power for any substantial length of
[1:18:18] time, also prevents those risks.
[1:18:20] so these are things that are affecting people's
[1:18:23] safety, security, and lives.
[1:18:25] and I just want to leave it at that because I think
[1:18:30] that the personal element is very important.
[1:18:33] you have safety of people and their livelihood in
[1:18:36] your hands.
[1:18:37] please make the responsible decisions.
[1:18:39] thank you.
[1:18:40] thank you.
[1:18:41] call, uh, next up will be jeremy joseph followed by
[1:18:45] jennifer green and then amber ruth her, uh, again,
[1:18:48] a reminder, if you are on and would like to comment,
[1:18:53] you do need to raise your hand to do so.
[1:18:57] jeremy you're being brought in now.
[1:18:59] uh, so I guess my guiding principle for this is
[1:19:03] pretty simple.
[1:19:04] uh, utilities are a service to the public and
[1:19:08] they should be publicly owned.
[1:19:09] uh, in contrast investors in private corporations
[1:19:12] like pseg have one motive it's making profit.
[1:19:15] uh, you cannot provide an essential service to
[1:19:19] people while operating under a profit motive.
[1:19:21] these things are fundamentally opposed.
[1:19:23] uh, a public utility should be accountable for
[1:19:26] whether it is accountable to the people it serves.
[1:19:30] uh, whereas a privately operated utility only
[1:19:33] answers to its shareholders.
[1:19:34] uh, if pseg were completely competent in
[1:19:37] its current role, uh, hypothetically speaking,
[1:19:39] they would still fundamentally not be able
[1:19:42] to serve the needs of our communities.
[1:19:45] uh, one of the greatest needs, if not the greatest
[1:19:49] is to transform our energy system into one that is
[1:19:53] environmentally sustainable.
[1:19:54] uh, no one should trust a private corporation to
[1:19:57] drive these critical changes.
[1:19:59] they're only interested in these changes as long.
[1:20:02] it is, it is profitable for them.
[1:20:05] uh, I'm not willing to leave our environmental
[1:20:08] fate in the hands of shareholders.
[1:20:10] um, now as it stands, uh, pseg has not shown
[1:20:14] themselves to be a competent partner.
[1:20:17] they have a long history that falls well short of
[1:20:21] our expectations, and they have not even provided
[1:20:24] adequate service under a current agreements.
[1:20:26] so why are we extending more grace to a
[1:20:30] relationship that shouldn't exist in the
[1:20:32] first place?
[1:20:33] um, so I know tonight and even over the however many
[1:20:37] months, this process has gone on that.
[1:20:40] you've heard from private citizens, from advocacy
[1:20:43] groups, even from politicians like
[1:20:45] legislator fleming tonight, who is
[1:20:47] extensively very connected to this sort of issue.
[1:20:50] um, and if overwhelmingly, oppose, continuing this
[1:20:52] relationship with pseg, the only people I've heard
[1:20:56] speaking in favor of this contract are those who
[1:20:59] directly benefits from this con, this, this
[1:21:02] relationship rather, uh, I don't really see any
[1:21:05] ambiguity and these discussions, uh, all
[1:21:07] community stakeholders would benefit from a full
[1:21:10] month municipalization of our power grid.
[1:21:13] and this relationship with p seg should end.
[1:21:16] thank you.
[1:21:17] thank you, jeremy.
[1:21:18] uh, jennifer green, then amber ruther and then
[1:21:21] billy roberto.
[1:21:22] and I would remind everyone, if you do have
[1:21:26] an interest in speaking tonight, raise your hand.
[1:21:29] there's a button on the bottom of the screen on
[1:21:33] zoom.
[1:21:33] somebody had suggested we point that out in case
[1:21:37] there was some confusion.
[1:21:38] so jennifer, we're bringing you in now.
[1:21:41] thanks soundcheck.
[1:21:42] can I be heard?
[1:21:44] we can hear you.
[1:21:45] great.
[1:21:46] hello, and thank you all for the opportunity to
[1:21:49] speak.
[1:21:49] turn on my camera.
[1:21:51] there we go.
[1:21:52] this is my first time at a public hearing and I will
[1:21:57] be brief.
[1:21:58] I am a longtime rate payer in bellport.
[1:22:01] I'm also a member of suffolk county, democratic
[1:22:04] socialists of america, and I'm the daughter of an
[1:22:08] energy economist who studied utilities among
[1:22:10] other things.
[1:22:11] and if he were alive today, I know he'd be here
[1:22:15] speaking to you too.
[1:22:17] so I'm here tonight to add my voice to the many who
[1:22:21] are calling for full municipalization of long
[1:22:24] island's power third-party management.
[1:22:26] isn't what we need publicly owned utilities,
[1:22:28] better on numerous counts.
[1:22:30] and when I learned that the former governor may
[1:22:34] have exerted undue influence undemocratic
[1:22:35] interference.
[1:22:36] I was disturbed.
[1:22:37] we deserve better.
[1:22:38] I, and so many others don't want to see you vote
[1:22:43] in favor of this contract.
[1:22:45] we want life, but to commit to public power.
[1:22:48] thank you.
[1:22:49] thank you, jennifer and birther will be next and
[1:22:53] then followed by billy rubber king.
[1:22:56] hello, my name is andrew ruther and I'm with
[1:22:59] alliance for a green economy, which is a member
[1:23:03] of the statewide public power in new york
[1:23:06] coalition, as well as an intervener in utility rate
[1:23:09] cases around the state.
[1:23:11] um, and I'm here to ask for an end to like this
[1:23:16] contract with pcyc in favor of fully public
[1:23:19] power that is democratically controlled
[1:23:21] for now.
[1:23:21] I urge the wipe of board to delay this vote,
[1:23:25] suspend this process and fully commit to developing
[1:23:29] a roadmap for public power.
[1:23:31] we will also be working on developing legislation to
[1:23:34] implement public power with the real logic
[1:23:37] reimagine lipid coalition, since legislation is
[1:23:39] clearly needed at this point, this new contract
[1:23:42] with p sec, well making minor reforms does nothing
[1:23:46] to address the root of the issue with their poor
[1:23:50] performance, that their for-profit monopoly, who
[1:23:52] profit for providing an essential service because
[1:23:55] of this, no matter how much we try to micromanage
[1:23:59] them with complex incentives, which
[1:24:01] essentially amounts to doing their job for them.
[1:24:04] and no matter how exhaustively we spell out
[1:24:07] their responsibilities in a contract, they will
[1:24:10] always have an incentive to prioritize their
[1:24:13] profits over workers, rate payers in the environment.
[1:24:16] and they will always have an incentive to find
[1:24:20] loopholes to lie and misreport metrics to do
[1:24:23] the bare minimum in terms of service, to defer basic
[1:24:27] grid maintenance and to operate with a skeleton
[1:24:30] crew of workers who are then unable to restore
[1:24:33] power quickly during climate disasters.
[1:24:35] so just tropical storm as aas, and then intervener
[1:24:39] and utility rate cases around new york.
[1:24:42] and I've seen the ways in which complex performance
[1:24:45] metrics such as earnings adjustment mechanisms have
[1:24:48] largely failed to address performance issues and
[1:24:51] have only led to increased rates for rate pairs at a
[1:24:55] time when over a million new yorkers already can't
[1:24:59] afford their utility bills.
[1:25:00] there's also no true way to hold.
[1:25:03] [inaudible] accountable to the people they asked
[1:25:06] sensibly serve.
[1:25:07] while the dps may find them for more poor
[1:25:10] performance, they're unable to find them an
[1:25:13] amount that would severely impact share holder
[1:25:16] profits, because then psa's cost of capital
[1:25:19] would go up harming rate payers, and they may even
[1:25:23] become unable to raise the capital, but they need to
[1:25:26] function a basic human need.
[1:25:28] that's a national monopoly should never be left up to
[1:25:32] a for-profit and long islanders have been harmed
[1:25:36] by the impacts of failed public private
[1:25:38] partnerships for far too long.
[1:25:40] we've seen the worst case scenario of what can
[1:25:44] happen in places like texas or the energy people
[1:25:47] need to survive is treated as a commodity to profit
[1:25:51] from instead of as a human, right.
[1:25:54] there's a reason that p sag has poor risk
[1:25:58] management.
[1:25:58] it's because they know the biggest risks of their
[1:26:01] utility operations.
[1:26:02] the risks of climate change, the risks of
[1:26:05] safety issues for workers and the risks of blackouts
[1:26:09] that will force people to miss work through his food
[1:26:13] and medication, or even freeze to death will fall
[1:26:16] on the backs of long islanders, not on
[1:26:20] shareholders in any private monopoly, risks
[1:26:22] and costs are socialized and profits are
[1:26:25] privatized.
[1:26:25] peace is the only utility in the country that
[1:26:29] operates with a public private partnership model.
[1:26:32] and there's a reason for that.
[1:26:34] it doesn't work in the words of assembly member,
[1:26:38] doug smith.
[1:26:38] we have a frankenstein monster of utilities.
[1:26:41] it's the worst of both worlds.
[1:26:44] life is unaccountable to the people and we have the
[1:26:47] monopoly of peace egg, which under the current
[1:26:51] structure is guaranteed to make a profit while
[1:26:54] utilizing lipos nonprofit status.
[1:26:55] it's reprehensible that the options analysis,
[1:26:58] which clearly showed that a fully public system was
[1:27:01] by far the best option for rate payers and that the
[1:27:06] public hearings were around 90% of testimony
[1:27:08] was in favor of public power.
[1:27:11] it was essentially ignored and overruled by a
[1:27:14] backroom deal made by disgraced former governor
[1:27:17] andrew cuomo.
[1:27:17] we believe the onus is now on governor hoco to steer
[1:27:22] a chorus back toward public power.
[1:27:24] she must reject your predecessor.
[1:27:26] so's failed vision and embrace a proven model for
[1:27:30] ensuring long island has reliable, affordable, and
[1:27:33] renewable power.
[1:27:33] why should long island rate pairs be forced to
[1:27:37] pay 65 to $75 million more per year for public
[1:27:41] private partnership that continually fails them?
[1:27:43] u s the u s already has 2000 fully public
[1:27:47] utilities are electric co-ops and we know they
[1:27:50] work.
[1:27:51] we don't need to guess on average, they're 13% more
[1:27:55] affordable and have passed the average direct outage
[1:27:58] duration times of private utilities.
[1:28:00] public utilities also have more freedom to innovate.
[1:28:03] many have expanded, renewable energy and
[1:28:05] electric heat pumps more quickly than private
[1:28:08] utilities.
[1:28:08] and chattanooga's electric power board was the first
[1:28:12] to invest in fiber optics, laying the groundwork for
[1:28:15] world-class grid.
[1:28:16] and that has reduced power outages by 60% and save
[1:28:20] this city close to $60 million annually.
[1:28:23] we know public ownership in and of itself is not a
[1:28:27] panacea.
[1:28:28] we also need robust democratic governance
[1:28:30] mechanisms to ensure that the interest of workers
[1:28:33] rate payers reliability and the environment are
[1:28:36] balanced.
[1:28:36] that's why I also support the proposal to add an
[1:28:40] observatory and an elected light lipid board that
[1:28:43] would foster public engagement.
[1:28:45] people that are tired of spending hours at sham
[1:28:49] public hearings, where they have no real voice or
[1:28:52] influence this board has a choice to make vote in
[1:28:56] favor of the contract and betrayed like this rate
[1:29:00] pairs or cut ties with pcyc and commit to fully
[1:29:03] public power on long islands.
[1:29:05] I urge you to do the ladder.
[1:29:08] thank you.
[1:29:09] thank you, amber.
[1:29:11] uh, next step is billy roberto.
[1:29:13] uh, at this point, following billy, uh, there
[1:29:16] are no other members of the public than currently
[1:29:20] have their hands raised.
[1:29:21] so I would encourage anyone that is here that
[1:29:25] has not yet spoken that would like to please raise
[1:29:29] your hand.
[1:29:29] now we're going to bring billy in right now.
[1:29:33] good evening.
[1:29:34] my name is billy [inaudible].
[1:29:36] I'm a member of mothers out front and have been a
[1:29:40] homeowner in huntington station for 25 years.
[1:29:43] I have lived through life, a key keyspan like the
[1:29:47] national grid and lipid pc.
[1:29:49] and I can tell you the public private model does
[1:29:53] not work.
[1:29:54] how many times does the model have to fail before
[1:29:58] we rejected in favor of a fully public liper?
[1:30:01] yes, this contract is better than the previous
[1:30:04] one, but a less flawed contract cannot fix a
[1:30:08] totally flawed model.
[1:30:09] I will not belabor what has gone wrong.
[1:30:12] others.
[1:30:13] I've already done that.
[1:30:14] what I will do is share my vision of what we need
[1:30:19] from an electric utility and what life it can be.
[1:30:23] if the cheapest one is the one we don't use, then the
[1:30:28] cheapest private partner is none.
[1:30:30] libre can do better as a municipal utility, but how
[1:30:33] we redesign lipase key.
[1:30:35] that is why I'm part of the re-imagined life.
[1:30:39] a coalition.
[1:30:40] we are calling on governor hochul to support us in
[1:30:44] pursuing a path to an innovative, fully public
[1:30:47] utility model.
[1:30:48] the light by electric rate payers.
[1:30:50] I believe that with the legislation being prepared
[1:30:53] with the help of re-imagined lipid
[1:30:56] coalition, we can have a light, but that will
[1:30:59] become all we needed to be.
[1:31:01] we need a customer focused utility that is
[1:31:05] accountable, reliable, transparent, and equitable
[1:31:07] with more public input and better leadership in
[1:31:10] decarbonizing our buildings.
[1:31:11] we need a light bulb that answers to its customers.
[1:31:15] we need leadership focused on moving aggressively
[1:31:18] towards electric electrification and the
[1:31:19] greening of our grid.
[1:31:21] our future lies in electrification.
[1:31:23] and for that, it needs to be reliable and renewable.
[1:31:27] we need to revise the rate structure and make it
[1:31:31] totally transparent.
[1:31:32] as it stands now, delivery and service charges are
[1:31:35] skewed lower for fossil fuel users and higher for
[1:31:39] all electric homes.
[1:31:40] as the state moves into electrifying all business,
[1:31:43] all buildings, we must have a rate structure that
[1:31:47] shortages customers for what it actually costs to
[1:31:50] deliver service.
[1:31:51] this should be the same for both me and my
[1:31:55] neighbors, but I pay more because I heat with an
[1:31:59] electric heat pump volume metric consumption costs
[1:32:02] can be recovered via charge, separate from the
[1:32:05] delivery charge.
[1:32:05] your current rate plan for 2022 creates a quote solar
[1:32:09] tax for new solar adopters.
[1:32:11] if instead, the basic service charge a per day
[1:32:15] rate included all the costs associated with the
[1:32:18] operation and maintenance of electric grid,
[1:32:20] including the cost of debt service and the transition
[1:32:24] to a new bubbles, but not the amount of kilowatt
[1:32:28] hours consumed.
[1:32:29] it would create a level playing field for all.
[1:32:32] after all those with net metered solar systems like
[1:32:36] me utilize the grid to and should pay for its upkeep,
[1:32:40] as it is those who make this transition early,
[1:32:44] like me are being penalized by the system
[1:32:47] charges.
[1:32:47] while those who remain on fossil fuels are
[1:32:50] unintentionally incentivized to stay on
[1:32:52] them.
[1:32:53] this works against the goals of the climate
[1:32:56] leadership and community protection act and light
[1:32:59] bulb because the leica will benefit from the
[1:33:02] increased consumption as electrification advances.
[1:33:04] I trust that as we move into the future, both
[1:33:08] municipalization and a new rate structure will be
[1:33:11] instituted for the betterment of our children
[1:33:13] and their children.
[1:33:15] thank you.
[1:33:16] thank you, billy.
[1:33:17] uh, we did have one additional hand raised a
[1:33:21] christian array.
[1:33:21] we were going to bring in right now.
[1:33:25] here we go.
[1:33:26] hi, my check.
[1:33:27] cool, good evening.
[1:33:28] my name is krishna house and I am the co-chair of
[1:33:33] suffolk county.
[1:33:34] dss looked so a working group, suffolk county dsa
[1:33:37] is a full partner in the public power, new york
[1:33:41] coalition and to re-imagine the lipid
[1:33:43] campaign, the lipid board members zoned findings
[1:33:46] after tropical storm [inaudible] are enough to
[1:33:49] disqualify pisa from handling our electric
[1:33:51] grid.
[1:33:52] yet the lipid board is poised to hand it right
[1:33:56] back to the company that failed to take care of it
[1:34:00] further.
[1:34:00] the board determined that repairs can save nearly a
[1:34:04] billion dollars over the next decade.
[1:34:06] if it terminated the contract with pcyc, they
[1:34:09] therefore have the responsibility to explain
[1:34:12] why that money will be going to management fees
[1:34:15] and not improving our infrastructure.
[1:34:17] there are forms list open the terms of the contract
[1:34:21] are positive, but we have no confidence that they
[1:34:25] will be fully implemented.
[1:34:27] pcyc has continued to lie and slow roll.
[1:34:30] its promised improvements after sies and we are
[1:34:33] still left in the lurch.
[1:34:35] tonight is the only say we like the repairs we'll
[1:34:39] have in the decision.
[1:34:40] when we spoke last summer, we were nearly unanimous
[1:34:44] and asking them like, [inaudible] full
[1:34:46] municipalization.
[1:34:47] yet you members of the light bulb board ignored
[1:34:50] us.
[1:34:51] when governor cuomo called you listen officially,
[1:34:53] cuomo's no longer in charge yet.
[1:34:56] this contract has his fingerprints all over it.
[1:34:59] now with less than a month until your terms expire,
[1:35:03] you're carrying out the disgrace governors
[1:35:05] commands without second thought.
[1:35:07] fortunately, when you municipalize, we will end
[1:35:09] the days of points of boards that ignore to
[1:35:13] people.
[1:35:13] and we will democratize like was born then and
[1:35:17] will be cleared that if anyone wants to take
[1:35:20] leadership of our electric grid, they will have to
[1:35:24] listen to liberate pairs, not political leaders.
[1:35:27] thank you.
[1:35:28] thank you, christian.
[1:35:29] okay.
[1:35:29] this time we have no one else lined up in the queue
[1:35:34] to speak one last opportunity for anyone
[1:35:37] that may have missed the raise hand function in
[1:35:41] zoom.
[1:35:41] okay.
[1:35:41] being none on tom, I will turn it back over to you
[1:35:46] to close.
[1:35:47] I just want to thank everybody for spending
[1:35:50] your evening or a good portion of it with us
[1:35:54] talking about electricity.
[1:35:55] as I started off with york, my kind of crowd
[1:35:59] that you want to spend your evening talking about
[1:36:03] electric.
[1:36:03] uh, when I go home, my wife doesn't have the same
[1:36:08] level of interest that I get here.
[1:36:10] so I really appreciate it.
[1:36:12] uh, and thank you for contributing to our public
[1:36:16] dialogue.
[1:36:16] uh, we will be, uh, conveying this material,
[1:36:19] uh, on our website.
[1:36:21] we will also be accepting additional public comment
[1:36:24] at our december 15th meeting and in writing.
[1:36:27] so if you're no anyone that wants to contribute
[1:36:31] that wasn't able to make it tonight.
[1:36:34] uh, we have a couple more opportunities, but with
[1:36:37] that really appreciate everybody coming out.
[1:36:39] your thoughts are important, especially when
[1:36:42] I acknowledge many of you that have been, uh,
[1:36:45] consistently interested reading reports, uh,
[1:36:47] showing up at board meetings, contributing to
[1:36:50] the public dialogue for a very long period of time.
[1:36:54] and you are heard.
[1:36:56] so with that, thank you very much.
[1:36:58] and I look forward to continuing our conversation.