Marlboro Mayor: JCP&L Should Provide Generators For All Customers

MARLBORO, NJ – After Tropical Storm Isaias rattled the Garden State and left over 200,000 Monmouth County residents without power at the height of the storm, many locals criticized power authorities for slow restoration efforts. A string of local officials also have expressed less than favorable reviews of JCP&L's storm response, with Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik serving as the latest official to offer “policy recommendations” for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

In his letter addressed to BPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso, Hornik proposed that JCP&L should provide each customer with the installation of a generator (alternatively, state or local governments can work out a competitive price and have JCP&L bestow a check to each customer in that amount). The Marlboro mayor also suggested the reimbursement of each municipality for the full cost of hiring a “liaison” to coordinate outage activity and restoration projects.

Hornik also detailed that incorrect restoration times kept Marlboro residents frustrated and (quite literally) in the dark for days on end. In fact, according to the mayor, communication from JCP&L to elected officials was so severely delayed to the point where information relayed to the Marlboro mayor was deemed too old to report.

“Where there was even information available, it was at best vague, untimely, and in some instances just plain inaccurate," Hornik wrote. "JCP&L reported updated outage figures on its website, and, at times, seemed incapable of copying the same information into an email or report for consumption and distribution by local officials. Errors were rampant."

“Forgive me for being cynical, but I am nearly resigned to the fact that the same complaints will continue to result from the same inaction,” the mayor wrote.

The storm ripped through Marlboro, according to Hornik, causing “extensive damage” and disrupting over 90 percent of electric customers in the area. The effects of the storm, even days later, proved “devastating”.

The mayor described the root of many restorative issues in the township as “lack of systems designed to assess, prioritize and schedule resources, and poor communication, both within the organization itself and with its customers.”

Hornik is far from the first official to criticize the Ohio-based First Energy subsidiary: Congressman Chris Smith, who represents New Jersey’s fourth district, wrote a similarly scathing letter to Fiordaliso regarding the power authority’s response. Read more: Rep. Smith: JCP&L's Isaias Response Was 'Extraordinarily Slow'

“Respectfully, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) needs to ask hard questions and get answers once and for all from JCP&L. And when JCP&L fails, there must be real consequences,” wrote Hornik.

“Like any customer, I merely seek JCP&L to provide a reliable service in exchange for a fair price. JCP&L fails to deliver. In fact, the company’s tactic seems to be to ask for forgiveness rather than solving the root of the problem.”

Click here to read the mayor’s full letter.

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