Alesi on tap for new NY post

Joseph Spector | Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY — Former Sen. James Alesi is expected to be nominated this week as a commissioner on the powerful Public Service Commission that oversees New York's utilities and energy policies.

The former Rochester-area senator didn't seek re-election in 2012 after two decades as a state lawmaker.

Alesi, 69, currently sits on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, which comes with a salary of $90,000 a year.

The new post comes with higher pay: $109,800 a year.

Alesi confirmed Monday he is expected to be nominated for the position by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Then his former colleagues in the Senate would have to confirm him.

The clock is ticking, though: The legislative session is set to end Wednesday.

Alesi said he was hopeful his nomination would be approved, and he said he would look forward to serving in the new role.

"It’s going to be an incredibly interesting time in the next decade or so because of the goals that have been set for renewable energy and sustainability," he told the USA Today Network's Albany Bureau.

"It should be very interesting and quite a challenge."

The commission has five members, but has three vacancies.

The governor appoints the board. The positions are for six years.

Alesi was the first of four Republicans in 2011 to say he would vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage — a top priority for Cuomo at the end. The bill passed in a dramatic Friday night, making New York the largest state at the time to legalize it.

After he left office, Cuomo named him to the unemployment board.

Alesi also collects a roughly $35,000 a-year pension for his state service.

The Livingston County Conservative Party knocked Alesi's pending nomination, raising his past flap over allegedly trespassing on a couple’s property that he later sued and saying he is unqualified for the PSC post. The party opposed Alesi's support of same-sex marriage.

"There's only one reason for Governor Cuomo to put someone as unqualified and disgraced as Jim Alesi on the Public Service Commission, and that's control," county Conservative Party chairman Jason McGuire, who also heads the conservative New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, said in a statement.

Alesi's pending appointment was first reported Monday by the New York Daily News.