LIPA's power play: Authority requested, and got, review of law designed to separate powers of CEO, board member.

Publication: Newsday (Melville, NY)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Newsday

Byline: Mark Harrington

Nov. 29--Even as it moved to comply technically with a reform act requiring that it separate its chairman and chief executive roles, the Long Island Power Authority quietly requested a review of the new law that would carve out a special role for longtime chairman Richard Kessel, state legislative sources said. Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale), who sponsored the Public Authorities Reform Act, said a review was under way, based in part on LIPA's request. "We are reviewing whether the theoretical virtues of a hard separation between executive and board functions makes sense in every case," Brodsky said last night.

But LIPA denied it sought such a change. "LIPA has no interest in changing the state law that prohibits board members of public authorities, including the chairman, from serving as chief executive officer ... or any other equivalent position while also serving as a member of the board," spokesman Bert Cunningham said. A legislative source who was approached on the request understood it differently. "They [LIPA] were attempting to be excluded from that section of the law so [Kessel] could continue with...

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