Robert DiCarlo / Ed Hennessy Repub Primary Candidates
2005-09-09 00:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Members and friends
This mornings meeting was a a somewhat different format. We had two speakers
The two speakers were the primary candidates for Brookhaven Town Supervisor, Ed Hennessy and Robert DiCarlo. The format was an opening statement of 15 minutes each. After the opening speech, each had an opportunity to address one question to each other and then the audience had a go at it. We allotted extra time than usual for that meeting

Hennessy has the experience of 12 years in town government and is an articulate spokesman for his own campaign. DiCarlo has no record in the town, but has a record of successful elected politics in another jurisdiction, as a stste senstor in Brooklyn. Robert DiCarlo is also an excellent presenter and on those points there is a lot of equality.

Ed Hennessey was first to speak and based a lot of his address to the need for transparency in government and the need to reform Brookhaven politics. “Corruption in Brookhaven is deep,” said Hennessy, and that he would work to make the processes of government more fair. He stated that a system of accountability has been formulated by him and his advisors and he went on to explain. Under Section 75, a provision for removing people from the public payroll would be used to discard dead wood in Brookhaven town would be used aggressively.

Robert DiCarlo began by reviewing his successes in previous politics including better laws governing domestic violence. Under a DiCarlo sponsored law it is now possible for a policeman at the scene of a domestic violence call to decide if an arrest is warranted. Previously the abused spouse would have to demand the arrest, and that often did not happen.

DiCarlo also made it easier to make drug arrests near school yard sales of drugs.

Mr. DiCarlo recounted a distasteful experience with the Town when he was advocating on behalf of the related family business DiCarlo Food Service. DFS was applying for a railroad siding for their facility on Ocean Avenue. The application would allow the company to use far fewer trucks on the road, but the Town gave them a rough time because of a complaint that came from four neighbors that moved in after the DiCarlo facility was built. (Editors note; LIMBA has been an advocate of more rail freight.)

DiCarlo answered the question of “how do you reform Brookhaven?” he borrowed a phrase from another politician “Blow it up.” Dismantle the dysfunctional entity and rebuild it was the essence of his remarks. He said that means running against the Republican Party, a party according to DiCarlo has ran away from what it should be standing for.

The Q&A was interesting as well. Questions on the support of Broadwater were introduced and both candidates were open to letting the discussion of Broadwater proceed, and that Hennessy was more or less on board.

Our hot topic at LIMBA is the Homeland Security Ferry Link from Shoreham to New Haven. We asked both of them if they would also support that effort. With reasonable reservations both said that the ferry link was a good idea. After the close of the meeting the candidates stayed for at least a half hour more to answer questions with people on a one on one basis. Personally I was pleased that we were able to extract straight answers from both candidates.

Please join us next week when Her Healy from United Technologies will discuss a proposed 10 Megawatt Fuel cell powerplant for Long Island. More on that next week. Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.
Ernie Fazio

Herb Healy, United Technologies- Fuel Cells
2005-09-16 00:00
Herb Healy of United Technologies’ Power division came to speak to us this morning on the current state of fuel cell technology, deployments and the Long Island fuel cell picture. As every LIMBA meeting is, this was another learning experience. UTP has several varieties of power generation technologies in a few different packages, one, a complete power, heating, and cooling plant, another is a waste heat recovery-to-electricity device, and the third is a straightforward fuel cell, with natural gas in, and 480 Volt, three-phase power out. We learned that economically practical residential fuel cells are pretty far off, due to the nature of fuel cell load characteristics. A fuel cell capable of providing the peak power needs of a single family home on long island, is just too large and expensive right now. What large fuel cells are good at is producing clean power for firms that need or want to have independence from the electrical grid, or that have a potential fuel source to recover revenue from. A landfill or farm that is producing methane gas can collect this gas, “burn” it in the fuel cell in batches, use the electricity or sell it. A hospital can use it for power insurance, heating and cooling. The Long Island fuel cell scene is currently highlighted by two projects, one in West Babylon, where LIPA is entertaining proposals to replace the existing fuel cells in its substation there, and at a Verizon facility in Garden City, where a 7 unit, 1.4 Megawatt installation is coming on line in the very near future. This facility is the largest North American fuel cell plant to date. UTP’s proposal submitted for the LIPA project will generate around 11 Megawatts if accepted. The Q & A session demonstrated that folks were paying attention, to both the technology and numbers involved. My question was concerning repowering Long Island, where do fuel cells fit, and the answer seems to be that fuel cells are a base load contributor, in small increments. I would see their primary benefit in being clean power for facilities that would be essential to social function in the event of a large power outage. A quick lesson on how a fuel cell works was also included for those members that aren’t tech heads. -Craig

Moke McGowan Long Island Convention & Visitors Bur.
2005-09-23 00:00
Members and friendsThis morning our speaker Moke McGowan, gave us an overview of one the island’s biggest revenue industries. Moke is president of the LI Visitors and Convention Bureau., and it was interesting listening to the perception of what this island offers from someone who is new to the region.
Mr. McGowan is a native of Hawaii, and prior to coming to Long Island he was head of a similar agency in South Carolina, where he was reputed to having boosted tourism in that state. His enthusiasm for Long Island is genuine, and he remarked to us that Long Island is a varied and interesting “product.” I never thought of the island as a product, but if that’s what you’re selling, I guess the word is appropriate. He made a big thing out of the various aspects of Long Island including the less traveled places for Long Islanders such as Fire Island, and places of the North Fork.
The revenues from tourism and hospitality in the bi-county region is $3 1/2 billion dollars. Sales taxes from this source for both counties is $70 million. Not a small industry to be sure. Mr. Mcgowan went on to explain some of the methods of selling Long Island to other areas as a desirable destination. One of the more important connections to the world is the use of the Internet. By the use of a well designed website, the islands attractions are brought to other people in a very cost effective way. The speaker reinforced what most of us already acknowledged – Long Island does have a lot to offer.
Next week there will be no meeting. Our next meeting will be Oct7th. Have a nice weekend.Ernie Fazio

NO Meeting
2005-09-30 00:00, 2005-12-23 00:00

Dr. Matt Cordaro, Hurricane Preparedness from a utility exec
2005-10-07 00:00
Hurricane Preparedness from a utility executive perspective

Barry Greenspan NY State Economic Dev
2005-10-14 00:00
Members and friends
Barry Greenspan gave us a very straight forward talk about the programs that are available through NY State Department Economic Development, also know as Empire State Development, the agency he represents.
Barry outlined the type of qualifying businesses that would benefit from a relationship with his office.
The agency does not help retail businesses fro example. On the other hand a manufacturer or a distributor would qualify for help. He made it clear that a business that was starting up, even if they qualify in every respect may not get help if they are far along in their plans, therefore he advises get involved with NYSED early in your planning.
The mandate for the agency is to attract jobs, or at least, prevent jobs from leaving.
My obvious question was about being blackmailed by an employer. If an employer threatened to leave could he get some the benefits of the agency based on a threat to leave? Barry reassured us there had to be a credible threat including established contacts with out of area development offices.
What kind of help? Loan participation. The agency has a direct loan program that is advanced at good rates and will support 40% of the loan. The rest of the money must be obtained through the normal banking channels.
Those companies that create high paid jobs are given preference over employers that create low paid jobs.
There is also an obligation on the part of the employers to maintain those jobs over a specified time span. Those who fail to meet the promised job commitment, or those that create jobs that rapidly disappear will be asked to return some of the help they received by a formula that the recipient accepts from the beginning.

The overriding message that I got was, get involved with ESD early. You may have a business that does not qualify, but there is a good chance that you will. In any event there is a revolving loan program that is available to some businesses that may not otherwise qualify for the core benefits of the agency.

Next week we will have Frank Russo representing “Long Islanders for Education Reform.”
This is an important topic because it affects our taxes. Meanwhile, have nice weekend.
Ernie Fazio

Frank Russo, School reform
2005-10-21 00:00
Members and friends
This morning’s speaker, Frank Russo, who is affiliated with a group called Long Islanders for School Reform (LIFER) website, lischooltax.com was a font of information.

Long Islanders have complained about the high school taxes for many years. We appear to have thrown up our arms in surrender. Now this group emerges and they are showing us that there are ways of making our school taxes lower without the prospect of compromising the quality of education.

Mr. Russo pointed out to us that the school boards have powers that they simply do not exercise. For example the board has a lot of say over salaries. Each district maintains they must keep salaries high to be competitive in hiring able teachers. This argument loses credibility when each job opening in almost any school district on Long Island has between 100 and 130 applicants. Surely there are capable candidates among a pool that large.
Mandates are often cited as constraints on board decisions, however building budgets and salaries are the largest part of the budgets and school boards have control of that. Of course there are mandates that have to be met, and they comprise about 15% of the budget, but state aid always more than covers that portion.

One of the factors in personnel cost is the pensions. Overtime and extra assignments in the final years of employment are used to calculate the pension amounts. This results in pensions that nearly as high as their working status pay. Only in government employment will you find this, and no where in industry is this done, according to Russo.

Contingent school budgets are allowed to be 120% higher than the CPI. Than negates the meaning of Consumer Price Index.

There were several other anomalies cites by Mr. Russo that keep these school costs spiraling upward. One of them being, the Wicks Law which makes new construction more costly.

Mr. Russo was asked about school consolidation, and he did not think that was as big a factor. I found that interesting because one of our up coming speakers will be making consolidation his central point.

This was not a fire and brimstone speech, but rather a reasoned argument for change.

Next week our speaker will be our newly elected assemblyman Mark Allessi. More on that next week. Meanwhile have nice weekend.
Ernie Fazio

Marc Allessi
2005-10-28 00:00
516 503-5836

Nassau Legislator, Roger Corbin, School Consolidation
2005-11-04 00:00
Members and friends

Today’s speaker was Roger Corbin, Majority leader in the Nassau County Legislature. His focus was on the cost and complexity of our many taxing districts. His perms is that leads to duplication of departments and services.

According to Corbin, the city of Great Neck has six police departments, and none of them have the resources to properly investigate a serious crime. Therefore they turn over those crimes to the Nassau County Police. There are too many school districts, with each of them having an overburden of management personnel. He cited many other examples including sanitary districts, fire districts etc.

He is anti ‘big box.” Corbin says these big box stores bleed the economic life out of the downtown areas. He gave the example of Steinway Street in Queens as a functioning business district. People in the area are near the stores they need to visit. Money tends to recalculate locally and feed back to the indigenous stores.

Mr. Corbin would like to see tax revenues distributed countywide instead of the way it is used now. He gave an example of the large tax revenues that are collected in and around the Roosevelt Mall, and most of it does not go to Westbury, and Westbury suffers.

There are islands of poor districts that have very little commercial tax revenues while neighboring areas have an embarrassment of riches. Roosevelt was given as an example of that. In the case of Roosevelt there should be no school district at all, according to Corbin. Roosevelt is only one mile square, and could easily transport the students from that locale to the surrounding schools. Roger is not shy about telling you that the racial factor is the reason that does not happen.

I pointed out the politics of his proposals are difficult, but his attitudes. “Do what Reagan did, take it to the people.” Moving his agenda along will be difficult, but he is energetic and I wish him luck.

Action Item. LIMBA would like to see the proposal that addresses transportation issues passed. This proposal will, I believe be good for Long Island

Next week there will be no meeting because of Veterans Day.
Have a nice weekend.
Ernie Fazio

NO MEETING Holiday
2005-11-11 00:00

Sarah Lansdale Exec Dir, Sustainable Long Island
2005-11-18 00:00
Members and friendsThis morning’s speaker, Sarah Lansdale was a font of good information. Sarah is the Executive Director of Sustainable Long Island. This conscientious veteran of the Peace Corp took us through several scenarios where SLI has had an impact.
In New Castle Sustainable Long Island engaged the community and asked what they thought they needed. The concessus of need was that a pharmacy, a bank, and a supermarket would be most important. SLI put out a request for proposals. They were pleasantly surprised by the number of proposals that were received. Which makes you wonder why the private sector needs to be goaded into participation in the first place. Perhaps they just needed a catalyst like SLI to make things happen.
The Port Washington peninsula has six mayors. In an atmosphere where the NIMBY phenomenon is such an impediment to getting anything done, SLI was able to move the community to action. Ms. Lansdale, and Sustainable Long Island’s approach is to gather the players and ask them what they think should be done. After getting the interested parties to agree on a plan of their making, it is a lot easier to move to the action plan. SLI has funds and expertise to begin the plan.
In Wyandanch the main road is Straight Path. This road has had a terrible record pedestrian deaths. In addition it is an area in disrepair and other problems stemming from being a low income minority area. SLI went into that area and tried to identify the core of concerned citizens and found that there was no identifiable group. Their first chore was to bring out those citizens that would speak for the community. That’s what they did, knowing any solution that did not come from respected members of that area would go nowhere.
Sustainable Long Island has also been helpful in identifying brownfields.. There are 68 of them in Nassau and Suffolk. Where a developer can show a new and economically important use for an identified brownfield, Sustainable Long Island can provide the remedial funds. Sarah is an excellent spokesperson for a worthwhile organization.
### December 9th Our Holiday Party will be held at the regular time. We want to book this in advance because it has been a sellout in the past. The entertainment has been topnotch in the past and will be again this year. Hold the date. Previously I sent out a message saying the time would be changed. We are changing that back to the same time 8:30AM. This will be a full breakfast and the gate fee is $30 for members and non-members. This event sells out every year so make your reservations early
We are planning on having four sponsors for this event, with banners displayed. We have three sponsorships signed and one available.
Please bring an unwrapped toy for the Christmas Magic effort.
Next week I’ll write my Thanksgiving thoughts, meanwhile, have a nice weekend. Ernie Fazio

NO MEETING THANKSGIVING
2005-11-25 00:00

Ron Manning, Healthcare in Suffolk County
2005-12-02 00:00
Members and friendsThis morning’s speaker was Ron Manning, Asst. Director of Patient Services, Suffolk County Heath Dept. I learned from Ron’s presentation of a system that I was hardly aware existed.
There are 11 Suffolk County Health Centers. These centers are serving those communities where there is a serious need. However they are open top all who should apply. They have a patient list of 60,000 people. The patients are charged on a sliding scale and about 40% of the patients are not charged at all. Some of the patients do have insurance and use these facilities because they are convenient, or for other personal reasons.
This system reminded me of the US Public Health facilities that existed in the city of New York when I was a child. The function of a facility such as this goes far beyond the care of those who need the services. It addresses the need to control communicable diseases by keeping the less fortunate healthy. In a sense, whether we need these services ourselves or not, we in the general population are among the beneficiaries
Mr. manning answered many questions about how the funding is done, as well as what special services are made available to the population that unit serves. Overall this was a very informative meeting, and I’m sure we only scratched the surface.
Next week is our annual Holiday Gathering. There are a few seats left. See attachment. Meanwhile have a nice weekend.Ernie Fazio

Holiday Party
2005-12-09 00:00
Members and friends

Today’s meeting of LIMBA was a celebration of the holidays. Many old friends responded to the Holiday Gathering invitation. The entertainment was provided by the multi instumented Larry Siegel, and an old favorite, Jim Graseck on his violin. Jim has earned the nickname as the “Victor Borge of the violin” and they both delighted the audience. Larry with his humorous songs and Jim with his running monologue as he played beautifully executed pieces on the violin, and really connected with an appreciative audience. The entertainers even indulged me, by asking me to sing a few songs.

The Hilton Garden was at its best, Bill Armstong and his staff were great and the room was decorated in a festive holiday tradition. Many thanks ti Bill, Therese, and the rest of the Hilton Garden staff.

We were able to provide a very well received event at a reasonable cost because our sponsors offset our extra costs. Our sponsors for the event were Terry Townsend, Kelly Gutradt-The Tuttle Agency, Vincent Frigeria-Keyspan, Joy Munro-AFLAC, and Froydis Cameron-Broadwater. Thanks to all.

Next week we will have an interesting presentation on a major development project being promoted by Charles Wang. It’s called the Lighthouse, and it is dramatic. I’ll Have more on that next week. Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.

Ernie Fazio

Charles Wang- CA founder "The Lighthouse"
2005-12-16 00:00
Members and friendsOur speaker this morning had a packed house. LIMBA board member, and former Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney Introduced the speaker.
The topic involved one of the most ambitious plans conceived in recent times. Charles Wang, who we identify as the founder of Computer Associates, is continuing to think big with his concept of the Lighthouse Development. This project has, in the words of famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, has “the power stir men’s blood.”
The Lighthouse Development encompasses a myriad of mixed uses, including retail, bistro’s and restaurants, cultural venues, health and fitness facilities, sports arenas, parks, and commons that will be attractive to families and pedestrians. While it is the central structure, known as The Lighthouse, that claims the name to this vision, it is all the other elements that combine to create a proud venue.
The graphics for this endeavor are breathtaking. While watching the animation, which was very professionally done, I could sense myself breathing deeply as I watched the concept unfold on the screen. The graphics lasted about 8 minutes and then Charles spoke to the audience in his very communicative style that he is famous for. After that portion he asked the audience for questions, which they were eager to give him.
Usually the Q&A is the most interesting part of the program, and the axiom proved true again. Mr. Wang has an easy and fluid style. He is succinct, pithy, informative and charming. When asked about the best case scenario for starting, the answer was three years. There was a question about legislative support and sadly, political people are not eager to think as innovators. There were questions about transportation links, parking, and power generation needs. There were no questions about esthetics, which were so well dealt with in the graphics.
After we adjourned Mr. Wang remained to answer many questions on a one on one basis, as well as pose for many pictures.
For the next two weeks we will adjourn for the holiday recess and return on January 6th, when Congressman Tim Bishop will be our speaker. More on that later, meanwhile have a great weekend.
Ernie Fazio

No Meetiing
2005-12-23 00:00

Congressman Tim Bishop
2006-01-06 00:00
This morning we had Congressman Tim Bishop from the 1st Congressional District speak at LIMBA

He was asked to give a congressional update.

Mr. Bishop began with talking about unfinished business. He spoke about education cuts when asked about “no child left behind.” These cuts are having a detrimental impact on Long Island. He went on to say that these are real cuts, not due to inflation. The absolute number of $’s are down.

The Alternative Minimum Tax, which vexes many two earner families on Long Island, was not dealt with in the last session, while taxes cuts on high income people were enacted.

He discussed Pay-Go which was the system of budgeting that was agreed upon by president Clinton and his Republicn dominated congress. Basically no budget item could be introduced without a cut somewhere else. A discipline that has gone by the boards.

I began the questioning by taking Tim to task on how the congress gave away its constitutional right to declare war. Since the people’s House is the only body that can legitimately declare a war, why give that responsibility away, precluding in depth debate? He explained that the mood of the country was altered by memories of 9/11 and also by the {hyped} information that was given to the congress.

When asked about immigration policy, he was supportive of some kind of guest worker program. The bill that passed the House would make 11 million people criminals. This bill has just about no chance of getting through the Senate.

Infrastructure bills include funds for the Brooklyn to New Jersey Tunnel. While this tunnel may be useful in the future it does nothing for us in the next 10 years. East Side Access, the Second Avenue Subway funds were allocated too. This is good news for construction jobs and the future efficiency of transportation.

Bishop was somewhat critical of the energy bill which focuses on domestic drilling for oil. His criticism was centered on the simple fact that the US has only 2% of the know oil reserves and uses 25% of the oil in the world. In other words no matter how much you drill, it-aint-gonna-happen. Mr. Bishop suggested that a “Manhattan” like project to solve energy needs is what we should be doing.

He spoke about Iraq and the prospects for success. His thoughts were less sanguine than the happy talk you get from the White House. He stated that he hoped that the Iraqi’s would be able to shoulder their own responsibilities by midyear, otherwise an uncontained civil war could be the results. A civil war that could spill over to Syria, Turkey and Iran.

There was very little said about the scandal that is presently unfolding in Washington. That’s probably just as well since there is so much more to know about that pot of swill.

When the meeting was adjourned Mr. Bishop gave a lot of time to those people who wanted to ask questions on a one to one basis.

Dan McGowan Pres HIP "Universal Health Care"
2006-01-13 00:00
This morning’s program was introduced by Jeff Levy, from Leadership Solutions.
Our speaker was Dan McGowan, President of HIP NY. Mr. McGowan was asked to speak at LIMBA because I heard him say, at another venue, that universal health care is where we should be going. “The number of uninsured are rising, and the insured are fewer. We now have 46 million uninsured people in this country”
Mr. McGowan noted that he had misgivings about other universal healthcare plans in other countries. On the other hand while having shortcomings, all of these plans had better outcomes than our system. “The United States has better health facilities than any country in the world, bar none. The expense far exceeds the per capita costs of any country, but in terms of successful outcomes we are 37th.” In those 36 countries that precede us there are some pretty poor countries. We ought not to be proud of that.
It is McGowan’s contention that preventive, and early care would contribute to better outcomes. Of course that means putting money and resources in play before the patient needs expensive care. He gave an example of statistics he had on the Hispanic segment of the population that was experiencing a high rate if hip and knee replacements. The rate was many times higher than the insured people of similar demographics. These were workers did hard physical work, and had no easy access to care. The lack of early care resulted in these expensive procedures.
These “penny wise and pound foolish” approaches to healthcare absorb more resources than a carefully coordinated approach to health care would.
Mr. McGowan was critical of the costly prescription drug plan that was recently enacted. He said the plan does not allow for competitive bidding, as a result the plan is costing three times what it should.
During the Q&A Dan was asked. What do we do? “Stop letting others make decisions for you. The insurance companies are protecting their interests, the hospitals theirs, the drug companies theirs, and the doctors theirs. Who is speaking for the American people? The answer is no one.”
Dan stated early in his address that universal healthcare would not end the insurance industry. {Which may be true. Back in the 30’s when social security was being shaped, they argued that SS would kill the life insurance business. It didn’t! In fact the greater awareness of the need, enhanced the life insurance business.}
Judging from the passionate involvement of the audience, this is an important issue. Small business people are throwing up their hands, and big business is suffering through. Toyota had been looking to construct a new production facility in the United States. They were actively considering three sites in three states in the US. The cost of health care was the determining factor and Toyota is now building the plant in Canada.
Thank you Mr. Mcgowan for an interesting and informative meeting.

Round Table Discussion
2006-01-20 00:00
This morning we had one of our “round table” discussions. The item of repowering is now in the works, and when we find ourselves in a mode where we are seeing changes, it makes sense to look at where else we can make our influence felt.

Last week we had a powerful, thought provoking presentation from HIP’s president Dan McGowan. We floated the idea that we may have an effect on the thinking of our legislators regarding healthcare. After an interesting discussion we decieded that we should make an effort to create change of thinking on this topic.

We discussed the idea of creating a panel on healthcare. The proffessionals on the panel will give us their take and then open up the discussion to the comments and questions of the audience. Roger Ulanoff said that we could make a proffessional quality tape of the session, edit it and put it on our website as a streaming video. We could do one of these programs every three months reaching into other pressing topics.

In addition to Healthcare we may handle Education School Consolidation, Land Use, Waste Handling, and Transportation. We may not address all of these topics but we will refine our goals as we move forward.

The committee that will organize the education segment has been tentatively formed. The participants are Cliff Sondack, Tony Casserta, Irv Hansen, Walter Bernstein, Jim Trudden and Charlie Richardson.

After we have established the success of the first program we will tackle the others. We are excited that LIMBA is making a dramatic foray that will bring attention to these important issues. Our unflagging efforts have paid off in the past. They will in the future as well.

Randy Croxton
2006-01-26 00:00
Mr. Croxton is an architecht of notable fame and a recipient numerous awards for designing low energy use buildings. These buildings excell in comfort and livability. He will be discussing the possibilities that are available to us. The reduction in building operating costs, the comfort and health of the people that use these buildings, and the lower pollution these buildings create will be the focus.

MTA Inspector General, Matthew Sansverie
2006-01-27 00:00
This morning we had a very interesting presentation from Matthew Sansverie. Matthew is the Inspector General of the MTA.
The term “Inspector General” explained Sansverie came from Napoleon Bonepart. When Napoleon asked his generals to give a report on conditions and progress they tended to give rosy reports. However Napoleon needed the truth, so he assigned a general without a command of his own, to report on the other generals and their commands. The term Inspector General was coined.
Mr. Sansverie explained his function as an overseer and then gave a number of specific examples. Once while having investigators on the yard premises of Metro North his investigators noticed that the employees were apparently leaving the premises approximately one hour after they arrived. The employees were punching in and then leaving for home.

Contractors were reporting that they were paying the prevailing wages and computing the wage bills they submitted an a larger workforce than they actually used, pocketing the difference. Other contractors were getting jobs while having hundreds of thousands of state tax bills outstanding. Sansverie stopped that practice by coordinating with the tax department and paying tax money owed to the state from the contractors earnings.

Of course, some of these offenses were criminal, and they were referred to prosecutors. I told Matthew he reminded of prosecutor Fitzgerald who is prosecuting Libby, and I asked what motivated him. He said “doing the right thing.” I believe him, it motivates me.

As usual the Q&A was lively and we did not get to all of the questions, but Matthew was gracious and answered questions from many people after we officially ended the meeting.

Terrel Cass, Gen Mgr WLIW Ch 21
2006-02-03 00:00
Members and friends
Well, today was real treat. Our speaker was WLIW General Manager Terrell Cass. It is refreshing when a man who has such a serious message can deliver it in such a humorous manner.
Public television has played and is playing such a big part in our lives. To know that conscientious people are at the helm of this most valuable resource is encouraging.

One of the WLIW presentations that Mr. Cass spoke about was the travel films. In particular is the film of New York. This production is magnificent and breathtaking. Similar films have been produced by the station in Italy, Scotland, and various other parts of the world. Cass gave us some insights on how these films are produced.

The films are shot from cameras that are located in a bubble under a helicopter that was designed for this purpose. The vibration suspension systems that float the cameras gives steady flowing pictures of the landscape below. The effect is that of what an eagle may see while in a glide. These films are so popular, and they serve a great material for the stations fund raisers.

Mr. Cass spoke about WLIW’s affiliation with WNET in New York. This joining of forces has been a big plus for our Long Island station. I asked Terrel if he was afraid the WNET partnership would lead to the loss of its Long Island identity. He said that that concern was dealt with in the original agreement. The marriage is three years old now and the net gain to Long Island is the resources of a much wealthier partner while maintaining a Long Island centric station.

We asked him about the technical advances in the broadcast quality. Here again WLIW was a winner. The analog signal is being replaced with a digital signal, which results in a much higher quality signal, a feat that is expensive and probably would not have been available without the resources of WNET.

The bad news is that the government funding has decreased to only 9% of the total budget and at WNET is only 6%. However that is also the good news, since the these units are viable based on what we, the public, can provide to support them. Unfortunately many places in the country are more dependent on government subsidy, which limits the quality and quantity of programming available to them.

This was a very lively meeting and we thanked him for an excellent presentation. Mr. Cass stayed on to answer many questions on a one to one basis after we officially adjourned.

Kenny Moore VP Keyspan
2006-02-10 00:00
Kenny Moore of Keyspan has the title of Corporate Ombudsman. He gave a talk at LIMBA this morning that was as instructive as it was entertaining. People who come to LIMBA don’t necessarily expect to be entertained, but when we are, it makes the message that much better. Throughout, his remarks were peppered with humorous asides, and self deprecating humor.

He began by playing a piece that was first seen on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” show and the segment showed how the company has paid a lot of attention to concepts that include “emotional intelligence.” The idea being that the nuts and bolts of business are important but the business model that recognizes that there are real people working in the company, and they have emotional needs that must be recognized.

People in the company who have been ignored or otherwise treated as having little value tend to shut down. Even while most people will continue to perform at an acceptable level, they may never again give you their creativity and innovation. I asked Kenny what is the demonstrable effect of encompassing the needs of the whole person. He looked at me for a long pause and said, “You’re asking the wrong question.” In essence his reply was that all of this may not measurable, but still very important.

During Q&A Kenny was asked, “What about companies that are more representative of people in this room, meaning 5-50 employees. Do the same rules apply? He seemed to like that question because he gave it a lot of time. Implementation of his concepts in a small company, in his opinion, would be different, but only in the details.

Kenny remarked that the image of corporate America is distorted. There are many companies that have a deep sense of service and conscience. The Enrons are not the predominate model. He also said that the concepts that Keyspan has embraced are becoming more and more the norm. Ending on that high note we adjourned the meeting.

No Meeting President's Day Weekend
2006-02-17 00:00

Bill Chaleff Innovative Green Achitecture
2006-02-24 00:00
This morning’s meeting was advertised as a discussion of energy efficient homes. In fact it was so much more. Bill Chaleff of Chaleff & Rogers Architects began the session speaking about the reality of global warming. The phenomena known as the “green house effect”is very much upon us, and the cause is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels.

The presentation was surprisingly technical, but delivered in a way that was easy to understand. The means of heat transfer were explained as, conductive, convective, and radiation. Those terms were explained to the satisfaction of this general audience. In explaining radiation Bill pointed out that the sun travels across millions of miles of space at absolute zero, (-453F) and only creates heat when it enters the earth’s atmosphere. He explained that the earth’s greenhouse is what makes life possible. On the other hand, an enhanced greenhouse effect would have devastating effects on the planet.

Chaleff explained that energy is the main driver in the creation of the modern society. He went on to say there is no direct correlation between energy consumption and the quality of our lives. Americans use 3 times as much energy per capita than modern societies in Japan, Germany, Scandinavia, and other first world nations. The reason that these countries use less energy is the design of their buildings and automobiles.

Of the 82 million barrels of oil we use every day, 10% comes from the Middle East. Reducing our needs by 10% according to Mr.Chaleff would be very easy, and without inventing another new thing.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses that were passive solar 60 years ago. This technology made inexpensive to heat, and more comfortable than standard construction. Montezuma’s castle was solar designed to take advantage of the heat gathering design in winter while using the cooling aspects of the design in summer. Today we can parlay that knowledge using materials in buildings such as Structurally Insulated Panels, or SIP’s as they are called..

Structural Insulated Panels are also not new. It has been in use about 40 years. SIP’s create a building envelope that is easy to heat, easy to construct, creates a quiet environment, and is incredibly strong. When hurricane Andrew swept across Florida years ago there were a few house still standing when it was over. Those house used SIP design.

These low energy use designs make all other means of energy more viable, regardless of cost, because we will use so little of it. Can we actually shake this addiction to oil? The answer for me was buttressed by this very interesting discussion. Yes, we can!

Congressman Nadler, The benefits of a new Jersey Tunnel
2006-03-03 00:00
This morning our speaker was Congressman Jerry Nadler. The congressman has been keenly interested in transportation issues going back to when he was a state assemblyman.
Mr. Nadler began with a historical overview of transportation infrastructure, and how the building of the Erie Canal catapulted New York from handling 2% of the international trade to 38%. Efficiencies were gained again when the Erie Lackawanna railroad was built. According to the congressman, the slide to oblivion has been constant as the world changes about us. To paraphrase the congressman, the state of rail freight is sorely lacking.
He spoke about the transportation bill that was recently passed. The presidents guidelines dictate that only money developed by highway funds (gas taxes) could be used. That would come to $256 billion The actual needs would have required that $390 billion be spent. The final bill came $286 billion. In this scenario the infrastructure will fail at a greater rate than it can be restored.
Fuel taxes are collected on each gallon of fuel. As fuel increases in cost we buy less of it, resulting in lower and lower revenues being collected.. On the other hand if we continue to increase the number of vehicles on the road, we may get higher revenues, but we also put an even higher stress on our infrastructure, resulting in more need to rehabilitate the infrastructure.
But Mr. Nadler’s main reason for speaking today was to discuss the merits of a proposed freight tunnel. Specifically a rail freight tunnel that will connect New Jersey to Brooklyn. By using a tunnel to come into Brooklyn and therefore, Long Island we could eliminate 1 million trucks from the streets of New York. Moreover this redundancy that would be created would relieve the traffic from the George Washington Bridge. Presently 80% of all food coming into New York is brought in over the GWB. If terrorists are successful in bringing down that bridge, New York would not be able to adequately supply itself.
Rail freight coming and going on Long Island comprises only 1.8% of the total, whereas in other parts of the country it is more like 40%. We can do better. The cost of the tunnel is estimated at $4.2 Billion for a two track system and the payback would be substantial.
Mr. Nadler covered some peripheral issues of rail freight that need to be addressed. For example; In New York State we don’t allow freight rail cars to exceed 286,000 lbs. The rest of the nation allows 335,000 lbs cars. Our infrastructure is capable of handling it, and presently we allow the passenger lines to use locomotives that are substantially heavier. This makes no sense.
The congressman was very knowledgeable on every aspect we could think of asking him about. And we did ask a lot of questions. Some of them were covered in this piece. The conversations that were developed continued long after the meeting had formally adjourned. The LIMBA board will decide on the support of this project based on the usefulness to Long Island. This letter reaches several thousand subscribers and any comments from our readers will be helpful

Angie Carpenter, Keeping balance in local government
2006-03-10 00:00
Friday morning we had the pleasure of hearing from Suffolk County’s Treasurer, Angie M. Carpenter on the subject of what her office does and why it is important for the county to continue to have an independent Treasurer. Angie opened up with a little of her background as a small business career before she went into public service, which is focused on making Long Island a place where we live, not leave. After term limits pushed her out of the Legislature, she arrived at the Treasurer’s office expecting to find a laid-back, slow paced office, but found herself with a dedicated, motivated staff. She explained the different divisions of the Treasurer’s office, their functions and how they interface with Suffolk’s town Tax Recievers and the public.Having laid the foundation of the function for the office, she presented her case for maintaining the Treasurer’s office, by noting how the major bond rating agencies liked the way that this was constructed, and pointing out that after the Orange County, CA’s bankruptcy debacle, they changed their model to Suffolk’s style, with the independent Comptroller and Treasurer. Presently, the Treasurer is an elected post, which serves to maintain that independent watchdog status over the County’s finances. She also followed up her explanation of her office’s function with her view of what the savings to the county would be if her office was eliminated. The only jobs that would go away were her’s and a few deputy positions, because the functions that the Treasurer’s office performs are not currently duplicated in the Comptroller’s office. She also reiterated that there is strong support in the Legislature for maintaining the status quo, and recounting a story that affirms her conviction that she believes in the process and structure of the office. A legislator said that they might support the move to eliminate the position, but would want it to take effect after her term was up, because she was duly elected, and to not serve out her term would be changing the rules of the game in midstream. Angie was willing to say that if it is the right thing to do to eliminate her office, then do it now, to save the money, rather than simply playing out the string until it’s end. She strongly believes in this, and her independence was shown in the Q & A session. One of our members fired a question asking her position on the county keeping the difference in the sale price and taxes owed on a delinquent property, and used the example of what happened to a family in Amityville last year where the difference was quite substantial, and it was a story that tugged at everybody’s heartstrings. Instead of pandering to the crowd and agreeing that this was an egregious example of greed by the county, Angie explained that some procedures were dictated by state law, and spoke to the additional costs associated with seizing a property and auctioning it off, and keeping the consequences of tax delinquency in the forefront of the public’s mind.As always, it was another jump start to our Friday morning, with a substantial breakfast for the mind and an exchange with an important public official on a timely subject.This meeting was presided over, and recap written by Craig Plunkett EMF

Irwin Kellner NorthFork/CBS Marketwatch Economist
2006-03-17 00:00
This morning’s speaker, Dr Irwin Kellner, was his usual, informative self. Dr. Kellner likes to pepper his talks with some humor which went over very well, but there was no doubt about the seriousness of his message.
Irwin began by stating that we were still in an expansion mode for the economy and it’s conceivable that the expansion will last a little longer. He explained that the job creation that has been touted, recently has actually been quite anemic. Among the pitfalls, as he sees them, are the fact that our savings rate is negative. Personal debt is higher than ever. Wages are flat, and we are spending more than we are earning, which is not sustainable. According to Kellner “The days of wine and roses are over”
The outlook for the future is weak, so investments in the stock market may not be the best move.
Home prices are showing higher values, but again this is misleading. On the high priced homes the market prices may be rising, but in the less expensive homes the prices are falling. Moreover there are 66% more houses being offered than a year ago. Having many houses for sale has a tendency to depress the price.
The national debt will absorb more and more of the available capital, and that will have the effect driving up interest rates.
The message was that general slowdown of the economy should be expected.. Long Island, while not immured to the national outlook of a slowdown, does have some bright spots that will help us. We are far more diversified than we were in the past. There are no large companies that have so many employees that a shutdown would cripple the economy.
Later in the Q&A, Irwin was asked if the unemployment rates really tell the story. Dr. Kellner told us the relatively low unemployment rates, approximately 5%, fails to acknowledge the people who are no longer counted because they gave up looking for work. It also fails to account for those who are working in jobs that pay far less than the jobs that were lost, and finally there is no differentiating a part time worker from a full time worker. If we take these factors into consideration our unemployment rate is more like 10%.. Not a pretty picture, for sure, but Long Islanders should fare better than the rest of the nation.

Irving Like, Protecting Fire Island -Holiday Inn
2006-03-24 00:00
Among the many endearing features of Long Island are the ocean beaches. These beaches are vulnerable to storms and the cost to maintain them is a source of some controversy. Irving Like, Counsel for the Fire Island Association, spoke this morning to bring a better understanding of what those beaches mean to all of us, and how that cost is borne.

The discussion began by outlining how important those beaches are to the Long Island economy. Over 2 million people visit Fire Island each year and hundreds of millions of dollars are attracted to Long Island simply because these beaches exist. Of course these beaches also are also a major recreational asset for all of Long Islanders. The south shore of Long Island is an enormous potential flood plain. A category 4 storm would inundate the south shore communities all the way up to Sunrise Highway. There are 73,000 homes and hundreds of thousands of people that would be affected. The barrier beaches are a natural buffer, that if left to erode would end the protection afforded by those barrier beaches.

Fire Island is 32 miles long. Only 6 miles of the island contain residences. The balance, 80%, of the land is state, federal, and town properties. Some of it is parks, such as Robert Moses Park, Bellport Beach, and other municipal public uses, but most of it is still wild. This necklace of barrier beach contains an enormous reserve of wild life, making it the largest natural preserve in the region. Hundreds of species of birds, fox, owls, and aquatic life have found a haven here.

The question was posed as to why the people that live there do not pick up the cost, since they are the primary beneficiary of this valuable asset. Well, in fact they are big contributors. The formula for funding beach replenishment is 65% federal and the balance comes from state and local sources. The amount that is paid by local government works out to be $10 million. $5 million is paid by the residences of Fire Island, and $5 million by the rest of Long Island. Is that fair? Well, to put that into perspective. The $5million cost is shared by 17,000 people on Fire Island, and the $5million paid by the mainland is shared by 2 1/2 million people. In other words the cost to the mainlanders is minuscule, while the cost to the Fire Island residences is substantial.

Mr. Like went on to explain that there is a plan in effect right now. However the Army Corp of Engineers has yet to act on it. By virtue of earlier legislation the 100 year plan for the barrier beaches was to be completed in 1999. The plan would by, necessity, benefit the entire island in order for it to be effective. Two federal agencies have failed to act on legislation that presently exists. In the meantime nobody is letting the major recreational areas to be reclaimed by the sea, but the remedies are “band aids” and in the long run more costly that a comprehensive plan.
