Limba

Kenny Moore VP Keyspan
2006-02-10 00:00 (America/New_York)
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

No Meetiing
2005-12-23 00:00

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

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

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

NO MEETING THANKSGIVING
2005-11-25 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 Holiday
2005-11-11 00:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert DiCarlo / Ed Hennessy Repub Primary Candidates
2005-09-09 00:00
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

NO MEETING LABOR DAY WEEKEND
2005-09-02 00:00

Tim Knight, Newsday Publisher
2005-08-26 00:00
This morning the publisher of Newsday, Tim Knight was our speaker. Tim began his formal remarks by addressing the advertising scandal at the paper. To his credit he did not minimize the problem. Newsday had inflated its readership numbers that determine advertising rates. He then said “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” He was candid about the problem and he explained how the rate complaints were resolved with the advertisers.

He then discussed with us the separation of news and editorial content. It may be hard for many of us to believe that a credible separation can exist. I personally believe it is possible, but doesn’t always happen that way. The Wall Street Journal for example is a very conservative paper, but the news section of the paper can be very even handed. In fact labor relations with unions at the Journal are among the best in the business. And speaking of unions, Newsday is about to embark on labor negotiations as the long term contracts are due to expire soon. He is confident that negotiations between the union and Newsday will come to a fruitful conclusion. Negotiations are beginning early.

Newsday, under Tim’s leadership is in an introspective mode. Many facets of the business are being revisited. The stakeholders, according to Tim, include the general public, the readers, and the employees. There is a need to balance the needs of all of the people that this enterprise effects. This is not easy, and during the Q&A I asked about how you keep this message going. Tim conceded that was in fact the most difficult thing to do, but at the same time, absolutely necessary.

Mr. Knight enumerated the major problems that would continue to be of interest to Newsday. Among the more important issues are education, and affordable housing. Tim Knight is a fresh face and he appears to be committed to building a paper that is worthy of a world class status. He also seems to have the credentials as a newspaper man. We wish him well and thank him for his presence at LIMBA.

In the photo:Ernie Fazio, LIMBA, Tim Knight, Newday Publisher, Mohinder Sigh, Marc Simeone, Nassau County Police

Iraq and Oil
2005-08-23 00:00
Let me begin by saying I hate this war. I have hated this war long before it began. When we celebrated “Mission Accomplished” on the deck of the carrier a friend said to me “Now what do you think, now that it’s over?” I said it’s not over, and if it is over, and the Iraqi people have democracy tomorrow, it still will not have been worth subverting the constitution to go to war.

The question is what do we do now? The president says “Stay the course” What course? Senator Russ Feingold says set a timetable, and the rest of the democrats are saying some variation of what the president is saying. Meanwhile I’m thinking of the warning called the Pottery Barn scenario issued by Colin Powell, when he said, “Mr. President if you break it you own it.” I’m afraid I have to agree with Mr. Powell. But there is a way out of this mess.

If we mobilize this country to be self-sufficient and be able to function without imported oil we could break the back of this insurgency. Impossible? No, Expensive? Yes! But how expensive is running a war? $5billion per month? Forty soldiers per month? Hundreds of Iraqi civilians per month? What about the unfathomable lost humanity of our young soldiers. What about the legion of homeless, broken men and women that will eventually return and roam our streets aimlessly, the way many of our unfortunate Viet Nam era soldiers are doing right now.

Many, or perhaps most, of the fighters are native to these other Arab states. I believe that they are watching this struggle with some degree of satisfaction. These insurgents are being supplied by some of our so-called allies.

By creating an alternate scenario we can seriously depress the price of oil. When the Saudi’s, the Kuwaiti’s and the other oil producing countries realize that we are serious and are willing to sacrifice, they will participate in the pacification of Iraq. They will step up to the plate and intercede in Iraq. They will provide some of the wealth that is needed to bring that country the peace it so sorely needs. They could begin by sealing the borders of Iraq. But what kind of a situation will bring them to the table?

Here is what I envision
War on Oil

I would like this country to declare war. Not the kind of war we are used to. The kind of war we need to engage in is much more difficult. A war without blood and guts, but a war that will require real heroism.

The war we need to declare is the one against oil, oil, not the countries that produce it. How do we begin? First, use all of the present technology we have, and then go on from there.

Most of the steps we can, and must do will work over a long planning span, and I will mention them, but the steps we must take need to be immediate.
During WWII the allies were very successful at depriving the German military machine of its oil supply. The Germans began synthesizing oil from other sources. It was costly but it worked. With today’s technology we can do much better than the Germans did, and it would still be costly but compared to war it would be cheap. Moreover the results of our efforts would be a permanent part of our matrix of energy supply, and would be achievable on a basis that would be very competitive with the oil we buy from abroad. That’s what we could do immediately. The Middle East oil producers would see their major oil customer shrinking and work very hard to quell the instability inside Iraq.

Going forward we need to do many more things to bring down the usage by conservation, and here are some of them.

Buildings
The best building codes in the country have heat transfer guidelines that are woefully lower than what we’ve known to be possible for at least 40 years. We must double the requirements on homes and commercial establishments. We can do this with no new technology. The additional cost of a $300,000 home is about $10,000. The annual savings is about $1575 estimated on a 700 gallon savings at $2.25/gallon. Payback will be less than 6.4 years. If the cost oil increases the payback period will be shorter.

Motor vehicles
At the same time double the required gas mileage on trucks and personal cars. At the moment the only technology that can achieve this is the Hybrid engine design. The cost of driving a car 20,000 miles that gets 21 miles per gallon, using gas that costs $2.80 per gallon is $2,667. Presently the hybrid costs about $3,000 more. The payback is less than 2.24 years if your gas mileage is raised to 42 miles per gallon, and maintenance costs are lower.

Electric Power
Conservation
Electric power is wasted in this country in ways that other countries find hard to believe. The litany of possible improvements is enormous, but let’s starts with conservation.
Light Emitting Diodes (LED) use about 3% of the power that is used by an incandescent lamp. Presently they are suitable for traffic lights, exit signs, and numerous other 24/7 applications. (Traffic lights have four 150 watt lamps on at all times, that is 600watts 24 hours per day 365 days a year. The total kilowatt-hours per year are 5,256 @ 12cents /kWh costs the municipality $630 per traffic signal. The annual cost of operating an LED traffic lamp is $19 plus the cost of operating the controls about $18)
That’s one example but there are many.
Solar Photovoltaic Generation
Solar photovoltaic is still relatively expensive, but there are many applications for solar PV that does make sense right now, but if you put solar PV in a context of a war effort, that changes everything. With the building of a vibrant solar PV industry, advances in its use and new product development will come. In industrial parks on Long Island and throughout the nation there are millions of acres of rooftops suitable for collecting solar power.
Wind Generation
The advances in wind generation have been dramatic. We are now at the point where wind generation is only slightly higher in cost than the most economical fossil fuel plants.

Distributed Generation
Distributed generators are no more efficient than central station power plants. Their advantage is that they use the power they create on-site. That means there is no additional distribution line loses getting to the point where it is used. Therefore distributed generation is 11% more efficiently than central power production. There is an additional efficiency if the waste heat can be used for heating, laundry, and even cooling. And, of course, if properly designed, from failures to the power grid.

Development of super strong lightweight composites. The cost in fuel to move a vehicle is directly related the weight of the vehicle. Making lighter cars will further increase gas mileage. Lighter, but stronger materials in cars will also make them safer.
Developing a first class efficient rail system that will move people and freight at high speeds. A modern rail system made of super strong lightweight materials using MagLev technology will make the United States the leader in transportation systems. These transportation systems could be the next generation’s jobs as we produce this technology for the world.

The key to every advance the modern world has known has been tied directly to energy. The electrical power industry has been very instrumental to advancing the commercial industrial and educational, advances of America and every other nation on earth. Energy is the reason we live well and the reason we are vulnerable. We need to stop acting like victims. We need to create the systems that will save this country from the unreliable dictators of the world, not by invading them, which hurts us as much as it hurts them, but making what they produce irrelevant to our survival.

Congressman Tim Bishop, Congressional update.
2005-08-19 00:00
Members and friends
This morning our speaker was supposed to be Congressman Tim Bishop. Mr. Bishop made a valiant effort to be there but was suffering from a painful, but not life threatening health problem. As a result he turned back at the last minute and went home. His representative, Jennifer Gunn, was there to read some of the points the congressman was going to make.

I will highlight some of the points;
The president’s transportation security request was disproportionately skewered toward aviation. $4.7 billion for aviation and $32 million for rails, buses, and other surface transit systems

The House and Senate passed risk based formulas for homeland security and the congressman supports that approach.

$286.5 billion will be authorizes for highway and public transit projects (there was plenty of pork in this bill but the 1st congressional district will be getting $45 million. (At least we have something to oink about).

The energy bill is an item the congressman rejected because it was heavily tilted to subsidies for oil exploration and very little went to alternative fuels and conservation.

CAFTA, the Caribbean version of NAFTA, was rejected by the congressman because of the negative effects on American labor.

After Jennifer Gunn made Congressman Bishop’s major points we began a discussion among the participants in the room. Fortunately the people in the room included some folks with real expertise and knowledge. Keyspan’s Vincent Frigeria was there to clarify the company’s position on using its property at Shoreham for a ferry point. According to Vincent all the stakeholders, including the neighbors, must have a say in the process.

Gerry Fitzpatrick was there to reiterate his belief that the ferry technology that he is advocating addresses the objections to ferries, including, wake, fuel costs and speed.

Nancy Douzinas from the Rauch Foundation was there to discuss the needs of Long Island that are better addressed if you know the facts about the demographics of the region. The Rauch Foundation has created the Long Island Index. Their work has been an excellent guideline for making recommendations based on perceived needs and known resources.

The meeting was held as a moderated large discussion and many people contributed to that discussion. As a result a lot of ground was covered on the topic of transportation, but there were other issues too. We miss the speaker when an emergency prevents him from being there, but an interesting and enlightening discussion always takes place anyway, due to the knowledge of the audience.

Thanks to all for being there and participating. Next week we will have the publisher of Newsday, Tim Knight. I’ll have more on that next week.
Meanwhile have a nice weekend.

Ernie Fazio

Felix Grucci
2005-08-12 00:00
Members and friends,
Last Friday our speaker was former congressman Felix Grucci. I asked Mr. Grucci to comment on his take on things. I thought that because he is not in elected office, he would give some opinions that were not biased by the need to be reelected. Felix began by reminding us of what he considered successes in the course of his public service. One of his initiatives was affordable housing and this dates back 30 years while in town government. As I write this on Monday morning I find this particularly interesting. I spent this past weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. In a mansion tour of Alva Vanderbilt’s home, the narrator gave as one of Alva’s causes “affordable housing” for the craftsman and gardeners that serviced the mansions of Newport’s wealthy. Hmmm…, I thought, this problem is going to be with us for a while to come. Mr. Grucci while in local office began a program called “Dress for Success.” This program was designed to instruct underprivileged women on dressing for the workplace. It doesn’t occur to most of us that this is not second nature to some people, and apparently it helped. Another initiative was “Brookhaven Classroom” This program was designed to show school children how government works. (I hope they didn’t show them everything). Mr. Grucci went on to tell us about his part in the tax relief measure brought about by President Bush. He agreed with the president’s tax policy. His rationale being that people are better stewards of their money than the government. Of course I did not take issue with the congressman on that one, because I vaguely recall in my youthful indiscretions, being in a drunkard stupor with my shipmates, and being far more responsible with my money than these folks in Washington are now. Mr. Grucci is a well practiced public speaker and it was fun seeing him again. I liked his presentation. He is confident, at the same time he demonstrated humility. As usual there were numerous questions. Mr., Grucci was his usual gracious self and entertained all of the questions and stayed long after the formal close of the meeting. Thank you Felix and we hope you can come again. This week we will have as our speaker Tim Bishop our current congressman for the district. I’ll have more on that in Tuesday’s announcement.
My best to all,
Ernie Fazio

Brian Foley , candidate for Town of Brookhaven Supv.
2005-08-05 00:00
