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Aug 1, 2006 12:00 am US/Eastern
Con Ed Chief In Hot Seat To Answer Questions
First Six Hearings Kicks Off At City Hall
by Marcia Kramer
QUEENS (CBS) ―
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Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke will face tough questions at public hearings on the Queens outages.
CBS
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A Con Edison worker repairs an overhead secondary line in Woodside, Queens, on July 24. (AP)
AP
Today Kevin Burke swore to tell the truth to residents and politicians affected by blackouts in Queens last week.
The City Council showed it was serious when they took the unusual step of putting the Con Ed CEO under oath. It might have been the nicest question he got all morning.
Watch Crisis In Queens: A CBS 2/wcbstv.com Town Hall...What Went Wrong?
Are You A Victim Of The Crisis In Queens? Learn How To Complain So It Counts, And Get A Claim Form So You Can Get Reimbursed For Your LossesConsider this exchange after Burke admitted it was four days before he knew the actual number of affected customers was over 100,000.
Burke: "On Thursday we thought there were 2,000 affected customers based on calls we were getting "
Eric Gioia: "pardon me for laughing. It seems to be absurb. It's like a weatherman who doesn't have a window to look outside and see the weather. It took you 4 days to realize that in Woodside all the lights were out?"
In his testimony, Burke admitted Con Ed needed to improve it's system for determining the number of people affected by outages.
"Clearly the events of the last two weeks have demonstrated that we need a better system for estimating how many customers are without power," he said.
This week begins the first of six scheduled council hearings at City Hall, following the nine-day blackout that finally ended last week. There are many questions that Queens residents want answered, as the political fall out continues from the blackout that affected tens of thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses.
"Right now this thing is being held together with bubblegum and scotch tape solution, and we're really scared," said Gioia (D-Queens).
Burke arrived at City Hall early and received special treatment -- his chauffer-driven maroon car was allowed to park in the City Hall parking lot, usually reserved for the mayor and certain elected officials. The hearings came as Mayor Bloomberg remains under fire for urging New York to thank Burke for doing his best to fix the system. Queens councilman Peter Vallone took a shot at the mayor for that.
"I have 2 words and they are not thank you.... they are answers now...," he said
Con Ed is offering, $7,000 in reimbursement for business and $350 for residents to cover spoiled food. But of course the bigger concern is how to prevent another blackout in the future.
"Right now I'd ask every New Yorker to conserve, and frankly, to say a little prayer because I don't know anyone who's got any faith left in Con Edison," Gioia said.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
