ALBANY — Diane Burman, a member of the state Public Service Commission, is a frequent voice of dissent on the utility-regulating board, often making her concerns known when sweeping changes are made with little public input.
But when the commission took the drastic step Friday of ordering Charter Spectrum — New York's largest cable provider — out of the state, Burman never had the chance to air her grievances: The meeting was quickly scheduled for a day she says the chair knew she would be out of town.
In an interview with the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau, Burman declined to say how she would have voted on the measure, which rescinded the commission's 2016 approval of the Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable merger and gave the company 60 days to put together a plan to exit the state.
Burman did say, however, that she was on a "planned vacation" the commission was aware of when the meeting was scheduled.
"I can't speak to why they would hold a special session without me," she said. "It was a planned vacation and I was coming back Saturday. It's for the chair to decide when they need to call the special session."
Commission responds
James Denn, a spokesman for the commission, did not respond directly when asked whether PSC Chair John Rhodes knew Burman was on vacation and would be forced to miss the meeting when he hastily scheduled it Thursday evening, just 18 1/2 hours before the meeting took place.
Denn also refused to answer whether Rhodes had been made aware if Burman had any reservations or opposition to the Charter vote when he scheduled the meeting.
The commission voted 3-0 to move to kick Charter Spectrum out, with Rhodes and fellow Commissioners James Alesi and Gregg Sayre speaking in favor of it. It was the bare minimum required for a quorum.
"The commission needed to address ongoing violations in a timely manner," Denn said in a statement.
"It is a matter of public record that the majority of the commissioners voted in favor of the decision. The commission moved forward to promptly protect the interests of New Yorkers."
Burman's vote would not have changed the outcome of the commission's action Friday, but she would have been given a chance to speak on the public record, which she has often done as a dissenting vote since she was first appointed to the board in 2013.
Ongoing feud
Charter Spectrum has about 2 million customers in New York.
The company and the Public Service Commission have been feuding over broadband internet access in less-densely populated areas of the state, which the company was required to expand as part of the 2016 merger.
At issue are 18,000 addresses Charter is counting toward its expansion benchmarks that the commission says are invalid. Many of those addresses are in New York City, which the state says shouldn't count toward the expansion goal.
That led to the commission's vote last week to rescind the merger approval, which Charter is expected to fight and the commission had been threatening for weeks.
The commission advised the public of Friday's 12:30 p.m. meeting at around 6 p.m. Thursday night.
Little notice
The state's Open Meetings Law requires at least 72 hours notice when a public meeting is scheduled at least one week in advance.
When a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, public notice is required "a reasonable time prior thereto," according to the law.
Rhodes determined Thursday that the commission would be ready to vote Friday, according to the Public Service Commission. That means the latter measure would apply.
Robert Freeman, the head of the state Committee on Open Government, said whether enough notice was given depends on when members of the commission were informed of the meeting.
"If they knew on let's say Tuesday or Wednesday, from my perspective it would have been unreasonable to have waited until nearly 6 p.m. on Thursday to give notice for the meeting on Friday," Freeman said.
Charter Spectrum, meanwhile, has not signaled what it's next step will be and whether it plans to challenge the commission's order in court.
In a statement Friday, company spokesman Andrew Russell suggested the commission's vote was politically motivated.
"In the weeks leading up to an election, rhetoric often becomes politically charged," he said.
