Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) asked Long Island Power Authority officials in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to speed power restoration to a client of D’Amato’s lobbying firm, a Roslyn-based insurance company that has paid D’Amato’s business more than $300,000 in retainers since 2007.
A review of hundreds of e-mails between LIPA employees and North Hempstead public officials, obtained by Blank Slate Media in a Freedom of Information Law request, shows that D’Amato sent a message to then-LIPA COO Michael Hervey asking for accelerated restoration to Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, a client of D’Amato’s lobbying firm Park Strategies.
After receiving a copy of the e-mail from D’Amato’s personal assistant, Martins forwarded the request to LIPA Government Relations District Manager Lauren Brookmeyer, who served as a point person for the utility’s communications with Nassau public officials in the aftermath of the storm.
LIPA did not dedicate any extra resources to Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers or change its restoration priority following the requests, according to LIPA spokesman Mark Gross.
“My understanding from my conversation with Lauren [Brookmeyer] is what we do with any of those calls is we let the electric service know about it, but obviously there’s no special treatment,” Gross said. “We wouldn’t pull resources from one job to another job in that scenario.”
Gross said he did not know and could not comment on whether other public officials or lobbyists had petitioned LIPA on behalf of specific companies.
The messages to LIPA officials came more than a week after Hurricane Sandy caused extensive damage in Nassau County, while businesses and residents were still in the midst of a widespread blackout that drew harsh criticism of LIPA from local officials.
One of those business still without power was Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, which insures over 12,000 doctors and is one of the 10 largest professional liability insurers in the country, according to its Web site. The company refers to itself as both Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers and PRI.
“We received numerous calls from residents and business owners who were without power following Superstorm Sandy. In an effort to help our constituents, we forwarded the information in each instance to LIPA to inform them of the outage. When we were notified that PRI’s power was still out over 10 days after Sandy struck, we forwarded that information to LIPA as well,” wrote Martins spokesman Joseph Rizza in a statement.
Other e-mails obtained through the FOIL request show Martins petitioning for residents and requesting estimated times of restoration for his constituents.
But of the dozens of e-mails sent by public officials to LIPA and reviewed by Blank Slate Media, Martins’ and D’Amato’s missives were the only examples of advocacy for a specific company.
“I know you are overwhelmed right now and I understand your frustrations. Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, the area’s largest insurer, has been out of power for 10 days. Over 300 people have not been able to work,” D’Amato wrote on Nov. 8 to Hervey, who announced his resignation from LIPA less than one week later amid a storm of criticism surrounding the utility’s handling of the outages.
“They have not been able to reach anyone at LIPA and believe they are unaware that their power isn’t fully restored,” D’Amato continued. The former senator, who also served as Town of Hempstead supervisor, ended his letter to Hervey with an appeal to “help get these people back these work today.” The letter listed the cell phone number of Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers’ CEO Anthony Bonomo.
D’Amato’s executive assistant then sent a copy of the e-mail to Martins, who forwarded it to Brookmeyer.
“Please call when you can to discuss,” Martins wrote to Brookmeyer. “I hope that this is an easy fix (if there is such a thing) and we can get the business up and running and literally hundreds of people back to work.”
D’Amato declined to comment for this story.
Bonomo has a history of political ties to D’Amato, who has earned a reputation as a political power player in the state since losing his Senate seat to Chuck Schumer (D) in 1998. In one oft-cited incident, D’Amato’s firm was paid $500,000 for a single phone call the former Senator made to the Metropolitan Transit Authority on behalf of a Manhattan building owner.
Bonomo co-hosted a John McCain campaign fundraiser with D’Amato in 2008 and directed $47,500 to former Gov. David Paterson’s campaign funds while D’Amato was raising funds for Paterson, according to a 2009 Village Voice article by investigative journalist Wayne Barrett.
D’Amato also helped PRI avoid a state takeover in 2008 by lobbying lawmakers to exempt the company from state cash-reserve requirements, according to a 2009 New York Times article.
PRI has paid $305,000 in retainers to Park Strategies since 2007 according to state lobbyist filings, including the most recent payment of $30,000 for the last half of 2012.
