THE KESSEL MEDIA BLACK OUT

At a Western New York event on Wednesday, April 13, 2011, Governor Cuomo signed into law one of his leading energy initiatives, “Recharge New York” legislation which passed with bipartisan support and will reduce the utility bills of companies, hospitals and other not-for-profits.  According to Newsday, “The new program cuts an employer’s bill over the life of the seven-year contract with the state-run New York Power Authority.”

Since Kessel considered “Recharge New York” a pet project, his absence from the bill-signing event was most conspicuous.  In fact, Kessel and NYPA were not even mentioned or quoted in the governor’s press release.  All calls to NYPA’s press office were directed to the governor’s communications office.  One Street Corner correspondent reported that Kessel’s self-aggrandizement “Recharge New York” extravaganza was shelved.

A review of the governor’s website reveals no mention of Kessel’s name in any press release this year although other agency heads and commissioners are named in various announcements.  This Kessel media blackout was in effect even before word of the state Inspector General’s investigation of Richie was publicly reported.

At the last NYPA public board meeting on April 4, 2011, uncharacter-istically, Kessel did not say a word but listened chastened to new trustee John Dyson and the other NYPA trustees and NYPA senior staff discuss projects.  Following the meeting, Richie declined to answer media questions.  This behavior is bizarre for a person who has devoted his public career to governing by press release, blabbing to reporters and creating and attending public events where he can be the center of attention.

Finally, NYPA’s April 4 announcement of hydropower allocations to companies around the state, including Yahoo!, quoted Chairman Townsend and Trustee Dyson but not Kessel.  Shockingly, there was no NYPA press release on the changes approved to the controversial HTP project that Kessel has advocated for and of which the NYPA board required major reworking at the April 4 board meeting.  Things sure have changed recently at NYPA.  But there is one break in the media blackout.  Typically, Richie’s blog’s latest post is dated March 14—from Stony Brook, Long Island.

Here are some questions Street Corner has received from its correspondents:

Has Kessel been muzzled by the NYPA board?

Has Kessel been removed as a negotiator on NYPA deals?

Can he run NYPA now that he has been so publicly discredited?

Is Kessel too busy answering Inspector General inquiries to attend public events?

Is Kessel too busy emptying out his office and updating his resume?

Will Kessel’s government service, which has been marked by the wasteful expenditure of billions of dollars, soon end not with a bang but with a whimper?

Street Corner Conservative invites NYPA employees to post why they believe the once omni-present Kessel has become a recluse.

The following appears in the  April 8-14, 2011 issue of the Long Island Business News:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is revving up his minions to battle for yet another renewal of that World War II relic – rent control.

In September 1943, the federal government’s Office of Price Administration brought New York under wartime rent controls.  This interference in the real estate market, Washington promised, was to be only a temporary measure.

In 1950 federal controls were lifted, but New York – unlike all other major cities – kept the controls in place.  “As a result,” housing expert William Tucker reported, “[New York] City essentially missed the postwar boom in housing construction.  [By 1990] more than 60 percent of New York’s housing [was] more than 60 years old.”

Not only did rent control discourage entrepreneurs from investing in new multifamily housing projects, it also encouraged landlords to defer maintenance and led many to just walk away from unprofitable properties. In the 1970s, for instance, over 250,000 apartments were abandoned in New York City.  Tucker observed that “in no other city except New York has housing been lost during a housing shortage.”  By 1993, the largest owner of rundown apartment buildings was the City of New York.

This system also discouraged people from moving because they were reluctant to give up their below-market rents.  In March 1990, The Washington Times reported that the poor suffer under this program, while wealthy people take advantage of these “anti-housing regulations.”

In 1997 when there was an opportunity to abolish the control law or to significantly modify it, Gov. George Pataki – who had pledged not to give in to political pressure – disappointed Conservatives when he surrendered to leftist foes.

Commenting on the Pataki capitulation, the Daily News concluded, “the tenant side, championed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, beat back all but a few of the landlords’ demands for change.  The legislation left largely intact the protections New Yorkers have relied on since 1943.”

Since that time, the state Legislature has routinely extended rent control laws without a fuss and as a result, the government still regulates more than 1.1 million apartments in New York City and thousands of units in Nassau County including Great Neck, Long Beach and Glen Cove.

With the present law set to expire on June 15, there is talk of eliminating the vacancy decontrol mechanism which kicks in when rent exceeds $2,000 a month.

Back in 1993, liberals signed on to the $2,000 decontrol clause – which has liberated over 100,000 city apartments during the past 18 years – because they figured it would only affect rich people.  However, with that monthly nut now common to tenants across the economic spectrum, they have changed their tune.

Eliminating or increasing the ceiling will harm both tenants and the real estate industry.  At the present time, rent control regulations cause approximately 13 percent of regulated apartment buildings to incur annual financial losses.  More stringent guidelines would only exacerbate this situation and force additional cutbacks in tenant services and building maintenance.

It’s time to liberate New York housing. “In reality,” the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas has observed, “the best thing for the vast majority of tenants would be an accelerated end to all price controls. … The end of rent laws would increase supply, pulling down prices on today’s nonregulated units.” The end of rent control would also lead to a surge in investment in housing at a time when construction labor unemployment rates are high.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has been telling Conservatives that he and his GOP conference have “found their way” and will no longer pursue Democratic-lite policies.

If Republican senators wish to be true to their word, they now have an incredible opportunity to strike a blow for freedom and to promote new investments in rental housing by either letting the rent control laws sunset or insisting on genuine free market reforms.

Street Corner Conservative.com has filed a request under New York State Freedom of Information Law with the FOIL officer of the New York Power Authority requesting certain public records of NYPA relating to various activities and policies of the C.E.O. of NYPA, Richie Kessel.

Street Corner Conservative will keep its readers informed of NYPA’s response to the FOIL request.

The following is the text of the letter sent today to NYPA’s FOIL officer:

New York Power Authority
Office of the Secretary
123 Main Street, 15-M
White Plains, NY 10601

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am a taxpayer and resident of the State of New York and pursuant to New York Public Officer Law and the provisions of the regulations of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) adopted pursuant to the Public Officer Law (21 NYCRR Part 453), I demand access to the following records by email to me if possible:

1. Information and records as to contributions, grants, donations, sponsorships, payments and purchase of tickets (collectively, “Expenditures of NYPA Public Money”) to or from not-for-profit entities, colleges, universities and research centers (collectively, “Recipients of NYPA Public Money”) from NYPA or any subsidiary or affiliate for the period January 1, 2011 through and including March 31, 2011;

2. Information and records as to whether each Expenditure of NYPA Public Money to each Recipient of NYPA Public Money from NYPA or any subsidiary or affiliate for the period January 1, 2011 through and including March 31, 2011 was processed in full compliance with NYPA board or entity policy and procedure for Expenditure of Public Money;

3. For each Expenditure of NYPA Public Money which involved purchase of tickets for an event held outside a NYPA facility, provide the names and relationship to NYPA of each person who used the ticket purchased or acquired by or through the Expenditure of NYPA Public Money;

If all of the records I have requested cannot be e-mailed to me, please inform me by e-mail of the portions that can be e-mailed and advise me of the cost for reproducing the remainder of the records requested.

If the requested records cannot be e-mailed to me due to the volume of records identified as responsive to my request, please advise me of the actual cost of copying such records onto a CD-ROM, if that is possible.

Please advise me of the cost of providing paper copies of the requested records.

If my request is deemed to be too broad or not to reasonably describe the requested records, please contact me via e-mail so that I may clarify my request and, when appropriate, please advise me as to how NYPA records are filed, retrieved, or generated.

If for any reason any portion of my request is denied, please inform me of the reasons for the denial in writing and provide the name, mailing address, and e-mail address of the person to whom an appeal should be directed. Thank you for your expected cooperation.

Very truly yours,

George J. Marlin