An Open Letter to Governor Paterson regarding ending
the Kessel Madness

Governor Paterson expressed the outrage of the State in his extraordinary “Open Letter” to Richie Kessel, NYPA CEO, yesterday.  In the short, curt letter addressed to “Mr. Kessel”, Paterson urgently asked Richie and NYPA to reconsider its proposed rate increase and to forego proposed bonuses in the amount of approximately $3.4 million.

In making his request, the Governor noted that we are living through a “time of economic hardship and shared sacrifice” and that Kessel’s rate increase could have a negative impact on businesses and nearly 2.5 million New Yorkers and that in today’s economic climate it was “inappropriate” to propose incentive compensation for any NYPA employees.

Governor Paterson’s request was right and timely and his brusque tone appropriate for one of the laggards of the Paterson Administration.  In light of Kessel’s embarrassing record during the last six months catalogued in these pages and those of The Buffalo News, Newsday, Niagara Gazette and Watertown Daily Times, it is time for the Governor to take the next step and take advantage of the propitious opportunity presented by NYPA’s March 31 Board meeting.

At the meeting, the agenda is expected to include the appointment of Kessel as NYPA CEO.  Street Corner Conservative calls on Governor Paterson to request that the NYPA Board, which voted to elect Kessel in September 2008 by a 4-2 vote, not act on his appointment.

The Governor has at least three options:

• First, end the embarrassment and preclude further Kessel shenanigans by firing Kessel now;
• Second, request that the NYPA Board not act on the Kessel reappointment at the March 31 Board meeting and leave Kessel in place as a wounded and weakened lame duck who will be afraid to hire more Long Island campaign staff, increase rates, enhance subsidies to Long Island at the expense of upstate and otherwise damage the Administration with upstate voters; and
• Third, allow Kessel to do the right thing and resign although LIPA observers will remember that Kessel resisted to the end when former Governor Spitzer fired him in the early months of his term.

Richie Kessel continues to stonewall Street Corner Conservative’s Freedom of Information Request for Kessel’s “schedule and/or calendar kept and compiled on a daily basis” from September 24, 2008 through and including February 13, 2009. To release this information would be very easy. Street Corner Conservative has been informed that Kessel keeps his calendar on a “At a Glance” monthly desk pad that is 22” by 17”. Three such calendars are kept: one for his secretary, one for Kessel and one for Kessel’s home. To comply with the FOIL request would entail making copies of 5 pages of his 2008-2009 monthly calendar desk pad.

Kessel refuses to release the 5 pages because he knows it would reveal that he spends most of his time on Long Island pursuing his personal political agenda. Just last Thursday, March 19, Kessel held another NYPA press conference on Long Island, this one at West Babylon. Long Island’s load constitutes just 2% of NYPA’s electrical power, but Kessel spends 98% of his time on Long Island.

Richie Kessel has hired another Long Island politico to serve as his Special Advisor at NYPA. According to Celeste Hadrick of Newsday, Fran Evans, who has no experience in the electrical power field, worked for Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs when she was Presiding Officer and as Huntington’s public information officer. She started on the NYPA Payroll on February 4. According to Map Quest, Fran Evans daily commute from her home in Huntington is nearly 100 miles and takes 2 hours and 20 minutes roundtrip without traffic and weather. NYPA Employees should keep track of Evans attendance record at the NYPA White Plains headquarters. One wonders whether Richie Kessel is assembling a team to run NYPA or a campaign team for Nassau County Executive courtesy of upstate electric customers.

At NYPA’s March 19 Rate Increase hearing in Albany (since it was not held on Long Island Kessel did not attend), Senator George Maziarz of Niagara County testified that Richie Kessel is a liar and a cheat:

“… you have the audacity to steal power from St. Lawrence, and to a lesser extent Niagara, and send it down to the Brookhaven Lab on Long Island? To a federal government facility? You can’t do our projects, but you magically find power to give to Mr. Kessel’s Long Island friends? Disgraceful.

“I called you liars to begin with and now I will call you thieves, robbing Upstate in the middle of the night to make yourselves the heroes of the Paterson Administration and Long Island.

“I call on NYPA to reject this electric rate increase – again, really this hidden tax – on Upstate electricity customers. And I call on Governor Paterson to take a look at how Upstate is having its natural resources pillaged to the benefit of other regions of the state while our economy withers on the vine.

“We’ve been lied to. We’ve been cheated. And we’ve had enough.”

Street Corner Conservative agrees with Senator Maziarz’s analysis. In the near future, Street Corner Conservative will review Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins’ demands to Governor Paterson and Richie Kessel that Richie’s NYPA abuses stop. So, the outrage against Richie Kessel’s abuses are bipartisan and growing.

On February 17, 2009, Street Corner Conservative filed a Freedom of Information Request with NYPA to receive, among other things, Richie Kessel’s “schedule and/or calendar kept and compiled on a daily basis” from September 23, 2008 through and including February 13, 2009.

Mary Jean Frank, NYPA’s Associate Corporate Secretary, replied to the request on February 24, 2009 and said NYPA “will advise you whether your request will be granted on or about March 10, 2009.”

On March 10, 2009, Ms. Frank e-mailed this excuse: “Because of the potential number of records that may be responsive to the remainder of your request, Authority staff will need an additional period of time to identify, locate, retrieve and review any such responsive records and will contact you on or about May 6, 2009 with the status of your request.”

WHAT NONSENSE! To e-mail Richie Kessel’s daily calendar for his first four months in office should take under 5 minutes.

Richie Kessel, who purports to be a transparent reformer, obviously is stonewalling the FOIL request for his calendar. That’s because he spends very little time in the White Plains office or upstate on NYPA business. He is too busy pursuing his personal political agenda on Long Island. NYPA employees claim he doesn’t even show up at the White Plains office to pick up his pay stub.

Richie Kessel recently told Dan Janison of Newsday (March 19, 2009), “Most of the time I’m upstate. I’m on Long Island sometimes because of energy projects that impact Long Island…. But a preponderance of my time and effort are aimed at upstate.”

Which is it Richie: Do you spend most of your time upstate or spend most of your time on Long Island thinking about upstate?

Richie Kessel quit hiding behind your corporate secretary. Be a man and release your calendar.

Street Corner Conservative wants to thank the many dedicated and hard working NYPA employees who have provided information concerning their absentee CEO, Richie Kessel.