Gioia tells Con Ed to sell land, not hike rates

Instead of hiking gas and electric rates again, one Queens City Councilmember offered a different solution to Con Ed - sell its waterfront property in Long Island City.
City Councilmember Eric Gioia, who represents Long Island City and is a frequent critic of Con Ed, believes the utility giant should sell its nearly 11-acre site that it currently uses as a training facility for employees.
The valuable land, of which Gioia said a substantial portion is being used as a parking facility, could net Con Ed nearly $500 million and spare customers significant monthly increases on their bill.
“The first thing you learn when you run a business is that efficiency is the most important principle, and simply put, Con Ed is not running efficiently,” Gioia said. “They’re a bloated monopoly who rather than maximizing assets is fleecing its ratepayers.”
However, Chris Olert, a spokesperson for Con Ed, quickly dismissed Gioia’s suggestion and emphasized the important role the training facility plays in the company as well as the community.
In addition to training new and veteran Con Ed employees and keeping them up to date with the latest technology, Olert said that other groups outside of Con Ed also use the facility.
“If we didn’t have it there [Long Island City], we would need it somewhere,” Olert said.
Still, others in the Queens community believe that the company’s recent history, including leaving western Queens residents in the dark for up to 10 days during the summer of 2006, and multi-million dollar salary for its CEO comes on the backs of its customers.
“Instead of trimming corporate waste, Con Edison makes the public pay more so it can increase executive salaries and investor dividends,” said Queens Assemblymember Michael Gianaris, another frequent critic of Con Ed. “The time has come for Con Edison to stop using its customers’ hard-earned money as a slush fund to finance its irresponsible excess.”
Gioia’s suggestion comes on the heels of Con Ed asking the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) for rate increases that would raise revenues by between $557 million and $654 million in 2009. The year before, the PSC granted a 4.7 percent or $450 million increase to Con Ed in 2008.
“People are paying more for the same bad service, this wouldn’t work in any other business,” Gioia said. “If Coca Cola doubled their price, a lot more people would start drinking Pepsi, but because Con Ed has a monopoly, it doesn’t work that way.”
Meanwhile, Con Ed officials maintain that the increases are necessary to offset the hikes in oil and gas as well as the capital projects planned and currently underway throughout the city.