State investigators were supposed to be looking out for New Yorkers’ safety — but instead were protecting Con Edison, a shocking state inspector general’s report revealed yesterday.
Two employees of the state Public Service Commission gave the utility secret details of its probe of a deadly 2008 natural-gas blast in Queens, the IG said.
A Con Ed consultant tried to use the leaks he got from the investigators to deflect blame for the July 25, 2008, blast at 147-25 Sanford Ave. in Flushing, which killed Edgar Zaldumbide. He died of horrible burns after 11 weeks in the hospital.
But the consultant’s effort to shift blame away from Con Ed seems to have failed.
The commission last year ordered Con Ed to pay a $1.5 million fine over the blast, which occurred as its workers were trying to fix gas service in the apartment building.
Zaldumbide was injured as he tried to reignite the pilot light on his stove. His 2-year-old daughter, also burned, was among 16 people injured the explosion.
Weeks after the blast, the Con Ed consultant — a retired PSC employee — e-mailed his ex-colleagues demanding a copy of their draft.
“Where the **** is it!!!!!!!!” he wrote.
That night, a PSC supervisor — identified by the IG as Joseph Klesin — gave the confidential document to the consultant.
The consultant — not named in the IG report — was unhappy with the draft. “How can you allow this to go to Albany?” he said, demanding “a cleaner report.”
“It’s obvious that every opportunity to [cast] a cloud or suspicion that the company may have been at fault was grabbed,” the consultant complained.
Over the next 10 months, Klesin and another PSC employee, Steven Blaney, allegedly provided the consultant with more drafts.
The consultant proposed rewrites and additions. One suggested addition read: “Although [Con Ed] failed to follow their existing procedure, it is staff’s opinion that this failure was not contributory to the incident.”
Ultimately, none of the consultant’s ideas was included in the final report, which the IG says was never formally submitted to the five PSC commissioners anyhow.
Klesin resigned from the PSC and disciplinary charges are pending against Blaney, the IG says.
Con Ed said yesterday that it expects its contractors to follow “the same high ethical standards as our employees.”
It declined further comment, saying the blast is still the subject of litigation.