The Long Island Power Authority Board must be replaced by an elected board of trustees.

Last week I attended a LIPA board meeting and was amazed at the disregard the board has for ratepayers and their right to fair and equitable treatment.

Chairman Kessel told the public:

The LIPA Board decided to distribute $232 checks to Nassau County LIPA ratepayers and $101 checks to Suffolk County LIPA as a one time repayment of court ordered judgments awarded to ratepayers. The checks are being sent to rate payers in spite of a recent court ruling declaring that RICO monies must be returned to ratepayers according to how much the ratepayers paid and the Shoreham judgment is under appeal.

The LIPA board is using money borrowed on behalf of LIPA ratepayers to fund the RICO-Shoreham $232 and $101 payments to the same LIPA ratepayers who will have to pay back the borrowed money plus interest as part of their electric bills.

LIPA is borrowing the money to give Brookhaven and Suffolk County taxpayers time to pay an uncollected judgment that is currently under appeal.

The rush to get the checks to the ratepayers has nothing to do with the upcoming elections.

The convoluted logic is exactly why Long Island electric users pay more for electricity than anyone else does.

The LIPA board is discriminating against commercial ratepayers by reducing their share of the RICO-Shoreham refund and forcing them to pay back a larger portion of the borrowed money to satisfy LIPA's political agenda.

Chairman Kessel said the decision to borrow money to pay for the RICO-Shoreham refund checks rather than collect on judgments was made to benefit Suffolk County and Brookhaven. LIPA's responsibility is to LIPA ratepayers not counties, towns and school districts. Kessel and his politically appointed board are forcing every ratepayer to take out a loan and repay it with interest to support a political agenda. The claims that the checks have nothing to do with upcoming elections lack credibility.

LIPA's board is made up of political appointees with stronger allegiances to politicians and big money than ratepayers. They are more interested in political agendas than ratepayers. That is why LILCO was continually able to beat the pants off of LIPA during negotiations. Political decisions have allowed municipalities to overtax high volume commercial customers to get special discounts, high volume personal users made to pay higher rates and all ratepayers forced to borrow money to repay themselves for court ordered repayments of overcharges.

Long Island needs an elected LIPA board that is responsible to the ratepayers of Long Island not Albany politicians and Wall Street investors.