Responsibility. It’s Electric!

Turn the lights on Long Island. We have been sitting in the dark a lot longer than two weeks. More like two decades.

Taxpaying citizens elect those officials we believe have the most dedication and leadership potential to do what is best for the communities they serve. We call them senators, presidents, governors, mayors supervisors, council members and such. Before we elect them we get to know them through debates, speeches, the media and our own research. Once they win an election and our confidence then we expect them to look out for our families, businesses, schools and homes.

When they need assistance to help them get the job done we rely on their determination to hire the right men and women to run our utilities, supervise our schools and provide the security, energy and quality of life we expect our taxes to be paying for. 

Here is where we have regrettably been left in the dark for too many years. The current calamity we are facing is due to the negligence and lack of attention to responsibility by the Long Island Power Authority’s executive leadership and board members. Their personal failures have added light to a terrible ongoing tradition of nepotism and cronyism that has filled our utilities, schools, public institutions and essential services with highly paid incompetents.

When elected officials fill high paying jobs with their unqualified friends and political connections they are abusing the trust we blessed them with on election day. When a local school board hires a superintendent of little experience and talent or a trusted member of congress hires an unemployable relative creating a no show job, we citizens are left sitting in the dark.

If you have attempted to contact any LIPA executive this week you likely know that hiding out is what incompetent folks do best. This should be unacceptable. We should demand access to those who are responsible for providing the important services we expect. The problem here is that our busted system holds no one responsible. 

The most common tool used by those we trust to lead us is the finger they too easily point to someone else to apply blame. Long Island won’t have to wait to experience this leadership action as finger pointing becomes the norm over the coming weeks.

The hurricane of 2012 should be our wake up call. There will likely be natural disasters to face in our future. Now is the time to demand that our elected officials accept the responsibility of leadership and clean house. When crisis hits it’s too late to sweep the incompetents out the door with the flood water. Responsibility means being prepared for a crisis with the right tools, procedures and leadership.