Top PSEG executives live in temporary housing on Long Island

Top executives of PSEG Long Island who have been on the job since 2014 live in rental apartments or other temporary housing here, often shuttling back to permanent residences in New Jersey on weekends, records and interviews show.

Four of the five top executives, including president Daniel Eichhorn, live in temporary housing on Long Island while maintaining residency and homes in New Jersey. A fifth executive lives here full time, the company said.

It is different from the practice — and in some cases the requirements — for the Long Island Power Authority, which has a 12-year, $3.87 billion contract with PSEG of Newark to operate the Long Island electric grid. LIPA trustees are required by state law to be residents of the service area, and all LIPA executives live on the island, a spokesman said.

PSEG Long Island executives are under no obligation to live in the service territory.

LIPA trustee Jeff Greenfield lives in Rockville Centre, which has its own municipal electric utility, but his business operates two buildings in the LIPA service territory, and he’s a longtime LIPA ratepayer. He said he believes PSEG officials should live where they serve.

“It’s a big island,” Greenfield said. “They should be able to find someplace to live permanently, raise a family and be part of the community.”

Brooke Houston, the new acting director of communications for PSEG Long Island who lives in New Jersey but stays on Long Island several nights a week, downplayed the residency issue.

“Where they [executives] go on their time off is irrelevant,” she said. “It doesn’t affect how they do their job. They’re present, they work on Long Island full time, they stay on Long Island during the week, sometimes over the weekend . . . They are certainly committed to the community,” through participation in nonprofits and providing electric service.

Eichhorn, who took over as PSEG Long Island president and chief operating officer in October, lives in a rental apartment in Westbury. He said he is in the process of making Long Island his permanent home.

Eichhorn started working for PSEG Long Island in October 2013, after a 25-year career with the New Jersey utility’s sister company, PSE & G.

“I rent a place in Westbury and I’ve been looking for another place” on Long Island, Eichhorn said. “I take it year by year.”

Despite owning a home in New Jersey, he said, “I consider myself on Long Island now.” He is “in the process of becoming a New York resident. I will be a resident of New York in 2018. My primary residence will be on Long Island.”

Eichhorn said his son is scheduled to graduate from high school in New Jersey in 2019, and the family wanted to keep continuity.

Most other PSEG Long Island executives share Eichhorn’s situation.

Vaughn McCoy, vice president for legal service, has a home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, according to public records, which do not list any New York addresses for him.

Paul Napoli, vice president of power markets and a 40-year veteran of the utility’s New Jersey parent, has a permanent residence in Wayne, New Jersey, according to records, and a temporary residence in Wantagh.

David Lyons, vice president of business services who has been with the New Jersey company since 1981, has an apartment in Long Beach and a permanent home in New Jersey.

PSEG veteran John O’Connell, vice president of transmission and distribution, has a permanent residence in New Jersey.

Rick Walden, who joined PSEG in 2013 and last year was appointed to take Eichhorn’s former post as vice president of customer services, has an apartment in Great Neck, records show, and lives full time there as an “official resident,” the company said.

David Daly, the former PSEG Long Island president who took the reins of sister company PSE & G in October, has had the same Keyport, New Jersey, home since 1992, according to public records.

Daly also owned a residence in West Hempstead while working on Long Island, he said at the time. It’s unclear whether Daly, who remains chairman of PSEG Long Island’s board, still owns the property.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.