As LIPA’s board Thursday took the unprecedented step of canceling a yearlong search for a new grid manager, the authority’s top executive defended himself against the notion that his ownership of stock in a recommended contract winner influenced his assessment.

LIPA board members voted 6-0 Thursday with two abstentions and one recusal to cancel the request for proposals. The vote means LIPA will move to extend its existing contract with PSEG Long Island, whose contract expires at year's end.

Board members who voted in favor of resolution said it provided needed continuity of service with PSEG and came after considerable nonpublic discussion. Now, a group "to be determined by the board" will for the first time negotiate a contract extension with PSEG, which looks "forward to the discussion to extend its partnership with LIPA," a spokeswoman said. 

After the vote, LIPA interim chief executive John Rhodes, a former chairman of the state Public Service Commission, identified himself as the official alluded to in the board resolution, which was made public late Wednesday, that proposed canceling the solicitation after trustees became aware that a member of the LIPA panel that had recommended Quanta Services for the contract had stock ownership in the company.

As Newsday first reported Wednesday, the LIPA resolution stated that the board, after it voted 6-1 on April 30 to reject Quanta, "learned for the first time that a member of the ... selection committee owned a significant quantity of shares in Quanta from at least the beginning of the RFP process until approximately mid-December" 2024.

Rhodes asked for the floor after chairwoman Tracey Edwards had moved to adjourn the sometimes contentious trustees meeting Thursday afternoon. He pointed out that his stocks are managed by an outside financial adviser and that once he learned in December that he owned Quanta stock, "I reported that fact and sold the stock immediately."

His "prior ownership" of the stock, he said, "had absolutely nothing to do with my recommendation [in favor of Quanta] three months after I sold that stock," he said, noting his recommendation was based "entirely on the merits ..."

The review committee’s recommendation for Quanta, reached unanimously by three LIPA executives, was "clean and fully aboveboard, and solely purposed on what was best for ratepayers," Rhodes said.

Edwards sought to clarify with Rhodes that it was "not this board of trustees, correct?" to whom he had reported the stock sale. Rhodes declined to clarify, saying only, "I stand by my statement."

Several speakers criticized the trustees' decision to nix Quanta as well as the board's solicitation process. One, Billii Roberti, a Huntington Station energy consultant, drew visible anger from Edwards when she noted that new trustees, when they voted in April to reject Quanta, were "quiet. Were you intimidated by the chair [Edwards] into voting against Quanta, the same way that she has bullied long-serving high-level staff? This is a recipe for chaos."

Edwards later took aim at that statement, saying, "I’m not going to sit here and allow people to talk about the integrity of this volunteer board who is doing the best that they can. Is that bullying? No, it is not."

Trustee, Mili Makhijani said during the board meeting that her vote to reject the Quanta recommendation "was of my own volition and my own independent judgment based on the entirety of the record presented to me." She noted that she is not an appointee of the governor.

Former LIPA board member Peter Gollon noted the turmoil surrounding LIPA’s yearlong procurement and read a letter from five other former trustees to Gov. Kathy Hochul, asking for the board to reconsider the decision to scuttle Quanta’s bid. "The Three Stooges could not have done a more comical procurement than this," Gollon said.

And Micheal Menser, a Brooklyn College professor, LIPA customer and a member of energy activist group, ReImagine LIPA, spoke against the extension of the PSEG contract and the LIPA model of contracting the grid operation to a third party. He said his group is "calling for the [state] Comptroller’s office and the Attorney General to take at the operations of this board and of the CEO," given recent development.

The latest board’s actions come amid a state Inspector General’s investigation of the utility, and LIPA’s hiring of an outside law firm to handle issues surrounding the solicitation. No one at LIPA discussed the IG’s probe, but Anthony LaPinta, LIPA’s newest board member, said it was he who "advocated for the board to hire counsel to help us navigate this complicated and highly sensitive process moving forward."

"To attempt to cast the board in a negative light because of our decision to hire prominent outside and independent counsel is disappointing and wrong." said LaPinta, a prominent defense attorney.

Quanta, in a statement to Newsday after the board meeting, said it was "extremely disappointed by the LIPA board’s decision and the fact that Quanta was never given the opportunity to address any questions or concerns that any of the LIPA trustees had raised."

Quanta added, "We hope the reported investigation into this decision sheds light on the procurement process," and said it remains "steadfastly committed to LIPA customers and the goal of creating a better energy future" for LIPA ratepayers.

Edwards declined to comment to Newsday after the meeting.