Yonkers Insider: Westchester County Legislator Kitley Covill Report.

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

While we know that there will be legislative hearings, Public Service reviews, complaints investigated, and likely action taken by the PSC and others, I write as a final update on Altice/Optimum’s position on the issue of credit for time out of service.  Altice held daily municipal phone calls and while the first two were disorganized and had no operational employees on the call, the last three days saw more organization and responsiveness to elected officials’ plea for restoration and credit. Notably no other cell or internet provider reached out to municipal officials at the county level for calls. Here is the Altice/Optimum response:

“We know how important your Optimum service is to you. Tropical Storm Isaias was one of the most powerful storms to strike the Northeast in years and our crews have been working around the clock to repair damage and restore your service as power returns. We appreciate your patience and will be providing a credit for the time that your Optimum services were not available when power was restored. There is no need to request this credit, we will simply apply to your account in the next several weeks.”

All utilities are required by the Public Service Commission to file an emergency preparedness plan annually, and then within the next few weeks reports about this particular storm which will then be compared to the emergency preparedness plan.  The documents will also be reviewed for accurateness based on what was observed and recorded by the utilities on phone calls and emails.  

The pace of review is slow, but thorough.  I expect to review all of the documents as well, and will attend the hearings and give testimony, as I did during the March 2018 Quinn and Riley storms. 

I will update this email, likely months from now, when all of the documents have been filed.  If you want to file a complaint with the Public Service Commission you may do so here. http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/All/755C4F39A58C924C85257B2F0067FCA5?OpenDocument

It has been a rough couple of weeks in a year with many challenges.  Let’s hope we will not see more storms of this magnitude as we navigate the next few months.

Very truly yours,

Kitley S. Covill
County Legislator, District 2
914.995.2810