J. Peter Lark, general manager of Lansing Board of Water and Light, took more criticism on Thursday after it came out he was in New York City for Christmas, while thousands of his customers had no power. He's pictured here at a Tuesday press conference, in which he says he now realizes it was wrong to take the trip.

Update: Lansing BWL calls off impending rate increases amid outage crisis, City Pulse reports

LANSING — J. Peter Lark, Lansing Board of Water and Light general manager, said he regrets going on vacation during a massive power outage but said he does not plan to step down.

Lark, who already was criticized for his handling of the outage, received a fresh round of disapproval on Thursday when news broke that he went to New York City a few days after the storm hit.

But he’s not resigning, and he has the support of Mayor Virg Bernero and BWL commission Chairperson Sandra Zerkle.

A massive ice storm that started Dec. 21 wiped out power to nearly 40,000 BWL customers. Lark left on Dec. 23 for New York City and returned home on Christmas.

“I will admit it was a very bad idea to go to New York to be with my wife and son on Christmas Eve, and the appearances are not good, but I will say we have handled the storm as well as could possibly be handled from our point of view, and all the time that I was in New York, we had a crack team.

“I talked with them before I left, I talked to them while I was there, and in fact on Christmas morning when I could see there was going to be more activity, and it appeared that my assistance might be of help, I wanted to join my forces as well, and actually came back a day early, took the first morning flight Christmas morning out to be with my team,” Lark said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

BWL customers were irate with the public utility’s poor communication and lengthy outage that lasted as long as 11 days for some people. Lark said he’s working to improve BWL’s outage management system, which wasn’t working correctly.

He also noted that some of the proposed improvements, such as buried power lines, cost money, so it’s a question of whether customers are willing to pay for it.

Lark plans to ask the commission for a rate increase "in the not-too-distant future," something he said he had already planned to do before the outage. The rate increase has less to do with the storm than it has to do with other factors, such as increasing financial contributions to the city of Lansing. (Note: Lark announced in late November that he'd propose a rate hike, when a notice on a Jan. 23 public hearing was released. )

He also said he doesn't want any customers leaving the utility. Lark said BWL has historically been one of the most reliable providers in the area and has lower rates. Customers who were out of power for at least 120 hours will get a $25 bill credit.

Several BWL employees attended the conference and clapped in support of their leader following the event. Amid the applause, someone (it’s unclear who he was) yelled out, “Resign. Resign now.”

Lansing City Council Vice President A’Lynne Boles said Lark has breached the trust of city residents.

Enlarge this graphic to see specific BWL outage numbers over the past nine days.

“I have a number of emails — I can';t even tell you how many — that are demanding that we hold his feet to the fire and that he resigns and allows someone to put into place the things that were not in place,” she said following the press conference.

Boles said it is Lark's decision whether he should resign, but that he needs to look at how he “rights a wrong … that he created” and consider whether it’s better to give the BWL a fresh start.

Bernero issued a statement saying it was “an ill-advised decision,” but that Lark “remains the best person to assess and fix what went wrong during this crisis.”

When asked when Bernero found out about his trip, Lark gave a flustered response. Lark said he doesn’t recall whether the mayor knew while he was in New York, but he thinks he did.

BWL Chairperson Sandra Zerkle also voiced support for Lark, noting that he received a high job rating last year and will be evaluated by the commission again in June.

“When you have something going on like this, you don't kick somebody out and try to make somebody else in charge in the middle of a crisis like this, that doesn’t make any sense either,” she told MLive.

Email Melissa Anders at manders@mlive.com. Follow her on Google+ and Twitter: @MelissaDAnders. Download the MLive app for iPhone and Android.