Local Assemblyman to Introduce New Legislation

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) announced that he will introduce legislation this week for the Long Island Office of the Department of Public Service (DPS-LI) to review all compensation and amend the LIPA Reform Act to make the executive compensation public knowledge.

The legislation will ask the DPS-LI to also review executive pay and all fees to consultants and contractors, which is paid in connection with PSEG-LI’s operations services contract with the Long Island Power Authority.

The DPS-LI does not control the electric rates, but is ”empowered” to make recommendations to LIPA about rate petitions, according to a press release from Thiele’s office.

Recently, PSEG-LI did not make public the executive compensation for its 18 top officials because according to the release, because they stated that the information is exempt from state scrutiny or public disclosure under the LIPA Reform Act passed in 2013.

The management contract between LIPA and PSEG-LI is for a term of 12 years. The fee to PSEG-LI will increase from $45 million to $73 million in 2016.

“PSEG Long Island has been accused of hindering scrutiny of the utility’s proposed three-year rate hike by failing to respond to more than two dozen separate information requests by the Long Island Office of the State Department of Public Service,“ according to the press release from Thiele’s office.

The State Department of Public Service said in the filing to administrative law judges overseeing the rate case, that many of the 28 outstanding information requests exceeded the normal 10-day response time by as many as 27 days.

“The people’s right to review the documents and information related to the operation of its utility
company should be obvious in a democratic society,” Thiele said. “My bill would amend the LIPA Reform Act to insure that such information is available for public scrutiny. It would also give DPS-LI the right to review such information and make recommendations to LIPA about such matters.”

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