At LIPA’s last Board of Trustees meeting it was announced that the authority would be
moving forward with all dispatch in making decisions on its future structure and the Management Services contract within 100 days. Since these are probably the most important decisions LIPA will probably make and with vacant Board positions and no CEO, this rush to judgment is unreasonable, impractical and ill-advised.
Before anything can be decided, a comprehensive management audit of LIPA’s operations and practices must first be conducted along with the Governor’s announced State Inspector General audit. Only then will the root causes underlying all of LIPA’s current problems and faulty performance become evident. How can you move to restructure an organization to fix things when you really do not have a solid idea of what you are trying to fix.
First things first and in this case what LIPA immediately needs to do is negotiate an extension to its MSA contract with National Grid. This would provide the time needed to complete audits of the authority to determine where things went wrong and then proceed on a measured pace to develop an appropriate structure and contract for the future. With among the highest rates in the country, LI ratepayers cannot afford to live with
continuing LIPA miscalculations born out of haste.
Quote in quote “How can you move to restructure an organization to fix things when you really do not have a solid idea of what you are trying to fix.” The writing it’s been all over the wall for years; let’s bring a new board elected and supervised by us the payers. Enough said. Let’s get to it.