NEW YORK — Queens City Councilman Rory Lancman on Friday was appointed to a position in the Cuomo administration working to regulate power utility companies.

Lancman will leave his seat next week to serve as Special Counsel for Ratepayer Protection. The newly created position calls upon Lancman to review the performance of utility companies across the state and determine whether they are fulfilling their obligations to ratepayers.

This week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he will support legislation that will crack down on utility companies. Cuomo has been highly critical of Con Edison and others who sometimes fail to restore power quickly enough to customers after major storms. Lancman’s new role will be to ensure that the utility companies fulfill their obligations and live up to expectations by making the right investments in infrastructure. 

Lancman is scheduled to resign his northeast Queens seat next week, which will leave the constituents of the 24th District without a representative until it is filled in a special election. The responsibility to call that election falls to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The resignation means there will soon be at least five vacancies in the City Council, two in Queens, and three in the Bronx.

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