Brookhaven forges plan for $4M in grant money

August 18, 2009 By Brookhaven officials have put aside their differences and crafted a plan to give community groups the remaining $4 million in grant money the town is set to receive from the Caithness Long Island power plant.. The money comes from Caithness and Long Island Power Authority as part of a $5-million "community benefits package" to the town. Town board members squabbled in recent weeks over how the money - which is set aside for groups in communities around the plant - should be allocated.. A standoff occurred after the town board approved about $330,000 for Lighthouse Mission, a Patchogue charity, and the North Patchogue Fire Department without first getting recommendations from the Caithness Advisory Committee, a citizens group. Councilwoman Connie Kepert said the allocations "circumvented" the citizens group; Councilman Tim Mazzei said the organizations needed the money to operate.. Kepert proposed to split responsibility for distributing the money between the three town board members who represent areas around Caithness - herself, Mazzei and Councilman Keith Romaine.. But Kepert and Mazzei said they have agreed to let the advisory committee make recommendations before the town makes any future grants, and Kepert's legislation has been scrapped.. "I didn't think it would be this difficult to give away give 5 million dollars," she said.  

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From the Long Island Advance
June 11, 2009

Caithness taken to Supreme Court
Yaphank and Medford civics file suit claiming Caithness approval was driven by money

By LINDA LEUZZI

While the Caithness Long Island Power Plant is scheduled to open soon, the owner of East End Property Company LLC, which includes the nearby Atlantic Point apartments, as well as the Yaphank Taxpayers and Civic Association and South Yaphank Civic Association along with others from Medford, filed a lawsuit against Caithness and the Brookhaven Town Board of Brookhaven with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“They have 30 days to respond and then it gets considered by the court,” said attorney Robert Calica, of Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP, a Garden City firm. The petition was filed nearly three weeks ago. “Routinely, they don’t release the next round of decisions until October,” he said. “Whether they do it before, I’m not sure.” Calica was asked if he thought the petition had a chance. “Yes, I think it has a shot,” he answered. “It’s a very striking and unusual case and New Jersey has looked at this exact issue and said it’s illegal and condemnable.

The issue is: Can a national developer come into a cash-strapped community and say, ‘Can we buy our way into putting in a power plant?’ It’s a national precedent and this one has unique and compelling features.” The lawsuit is the second one the group has filed. In the first lawsuit, the issue was that the town’s environmental impact statement was flawed, said John McConnell, who is among the petitioners. The appellate court agreed with the town and stamped the EIS as thorough.

The town board had initially voted down the power plant 4-to-3 in 2006. “It was revoted a month and a half later, 5-to-2 in favor,” McConnell explained. “The only thing that changed was the amount of community benefits. Caithness started with community benefits of $139 million to $170 million and then $200 million and that was pilots and community benefits. Five civics were against and three changed their minds after they got their money.”

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From Newsday
May 26, 2009

Opponents file against Caithness in U.S. Supreme Court

By MARK HARRINGTON  

Opponents of the Caithness Long Island power plant have taken their case against the soon-to-open facility to the highest court in the land, arguing in a long shot legal filing that approvals by Brookhaven Town were "corrupted" by unlawful "payoffs." In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court late Friday, the owner of a nearby Atlantic Point apartment complex, residents and civic groups are asking the court to nullify the approvals, which ultimately paved the way for construction of the plant. The 350-megawatt facility, which will supply most of its power to the Long Island Power Authority, is scheduled to begin operating June 10. The petition follows a series of unsuccessful claims filed in New York court, culminating the New York Appellate division's refusal to hear the case in February. "If left to stand, the destructive precedent of the New York courts will invite corruption of local land use processes in a manner which the U.S. Constitution clearly forbids," last week's filing stated.

After initially voting to reject the environmental and zoning approval in 2006 for the plant, the Brookhaven Town council overturned itself after millions more dollars were committed by Caithness and LIPA. Town officials have said environmental, rather than financial considerations, influenced their decision on revote. But Rob Calica, an attorney for the opponents, said payment of $150 million to $200 million in "community benefits" to the town and local constituent groups tainted what was supposed to be an essentially judicial environmental review. "No court should tolerate the corruption of the local approval process which occurred when a national developer backed a Brinks truck up to the door of Brookhaven Town Hall and started to count out the amount of cash payable to the legislators' pet local projects in exchange for granting environmental and zoning approvals," he said. If the Supreme Court hears the case and accepts the opponents' position, it would nullify the approval, forcing the plant to close, Calica said.

However, noting that only around 75 of the more than 8,000 petitions the high court receives each year are reviewed, Stephen L. Wasby, professor of political science at the University at Albany and author of a textbook on the Supreme Court, said, "It has a very slim chance." A Caithness official downplayed the filing. The case "has been thoroughly vetted by the New York courts, and Caithness has been vindicated every step of the way," said Caithness senior vice president Ross Ain in a statement. "We . . . anticipate that Atlantic Point's meritless petition to the U.S. Supreme Court will be unsuccessful." Jeltje DeJong, an attorney for the Town of Brookhaven, said she was "pretty surprised" by the filing and added, "I really don't think [plant opponents] have much of a chance. I thought this was pretty much a dead issue." Brookhaven, she said, will likely file papers in response to the petition. LIPA spokesman Ed Dumas said, "New York courts have consistently upheld the actions of LIPA and its developer, Caithness, and I trust the Supreme Court would as well if they chose to hear this." John McConnell, a Yaphank resident who is named as a plaintiff in the case, said he was pleased to see it move forward. "I'm cautiously optimistic," he said. "We thought from the beginning that the way the town went about this was procedurally wrong and tilted in LIPA's and Caithness's favor. I'm happy it's in the Supreme Court."

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