NYPA Trustees Honor Charles Poletti

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Connie Cullen
(914) 390-8196
Connie.Cullen@nypa.gov

September 17, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHITE PLAINS—New York Power Authority (NYPA) Trustees Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution honoring Charles Poletti and citing “their appreciation and admiration for his many contributions to the Power Authority, his state and his country.”  Poletti was the only person to serve both as New York State Governor and as a Power Authority trustee.  He died on Aug. 8, 2002, at the age of 99 in his home in Marco Island, FL.

“It is fitting tribute to Charles Poletti, whose remarkable career spanned public service, including distinguished work at the Power Authority, and the private sector, that the permanent and legal proceedings of the Power Authority record for posterity, this heart-felt resolution,” said Louis P. Ciminelli, chairman, of the Power Authority.

Highlights of the resolution included Poletti’s own comment about his long and dedicated service to the Power Authority, “I have more years devoted to the New York State Power Authority than anybody else in the world.”

The resolution documents Poletti’s illustrious career by stating “his record of accomplishment included service as Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as a practicing attorney and a justice of the State Supreme Court, as a labor arbitrator and as the official responsible for foreign exhibits at the New York World’s Fair of 1964/65.”  The resolution noted that “after leaving the Statehouse, Mr. Poletti served as a U.S. Army civil affairs officer in Italy during World War II, playing a pivotal role in the revitalization of that country after the fall of the Fascist regime and attaining the rank of Colonel.”

Related to his significant contributions to NYPA, the resolution also notes “Mr. Poletti’s ties to the New York Power Authority predated even its birth, through his service as a lawyer for a state commission that recommended the Authority’s creation and his work in drafting the 1931 legislation which met that objective.”

His work on behalf of the Power Authority continued as the resolution states, “Mr. Poletti was active in the long effort to win federal approval for construction of the Authority’s first project, on the St. Lawrence River, and later served as Trustee from 1955 to 1960, the crucial period in which the St. Lawrence Project was built and the Authority’s Niagara Project largely completed.”

In 1982, the Astoria 6 power plant in Queens was renamed for Mr. Poletti, as the Power Authority trustees commented in today’s resolution, “in recognition of his extraordinary achievements.”

The resolution concludes by expressing sincere condolences to Mr. Poletti’s wife, Elizabeth; his children and his grandchildren.