Courtyard Marriott
5000 Express Dr. S, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
(Next to Red Lobster and Smokey Bones)
PSEG Rebates
10/16/25
S.C.E.C.A. General Membership Meeting Minutes
There were approximately 20 members in attendance. Those Officers and Board of Directors present were: Rob Szalay, Mahesh Panchal, Tom Orlando, and Rob Tschoke.
Excused: Dave Kennedy, Joe Mikulas, Jack Morrell, John Ricciardi and Michael Towers.
Called to Order: 7:29 p.m.
Rob Szalay led the Pledge of Allegiance. A motion to accept the General Meeting Minutes of 9/18/25 was made by Ralph Lambiase and seconded by Mahesh Panchal.
**President’s Report:
Rob S. reported last month we had a lot of people here (52) it is light tonight because we had the Expo yesterday and there are other events tonight.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Treasurer’s Report: Tom Orlando
Tom O. reported the income for the month ending September 2025 was $20,770.35, which is mostly membership dues, Expo and newsletter ads and the expenses were $9,298.33 mostly from the Expo. Everything is normal. He sent out dues’ notices on 7/1, 8/1, 9/1 and 10/1. There are still about 25 members that have not paid. Rob T. will be reaching out to them. He emailed the dues notice the first month, then did email and mail the rest of the months. Please pay your dues. There is only 1 ad not paid by ABB. A motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report was made by Mahesh Panchal and seconded by Rob Tschoke.
Secretary’s Report: David Kennedy
Dave was not feeling well. Rob S. read his report: “Sorry guys, not feeling good today, so I will not be at this meeting. Answered calls for a few days while Barbara was away in September. Most were about the CEH class on Saturday and as I heard it filled up again.
I read through the minutes from the last meeting. I made a few changes and approved them.
The SCECA East meeting was held in the Lobster Roll, and we had 32 in attendance; one new member joined that night; a Sean Devlin an inspector from Southold.
Mike Towers gave a highly informative Program on generators.
The Holiday Party will be at Smokey Bones again this December 4th, at 7PM. I secured the date with the restaurant, and the board will work on the menu at the next board meeting.
I look forward to seeing you all at our next General meeting and of course the holiday party the First Thursday not the Third in December. Submitted for the record. SCECA Secretary David Kennedy”
Rob S. added we are doing the party earlier because of the holiday so we will not have a meeting the 3rd Thursday of December. We will send out a reminder to everyone. A motion to accept the Secretary’s Report was made by Mahesh Panchal and seconded by Tom Orlando.
Legal Counsel: Michael Ganz
Mike was not present. Rob S. said Mike is our lawyer on staff. If you have any questions and concerns he has his email in the newsletter and more than happy to answer your questions.
Insurance: Patti Jost from Borg & Borg,
Patti was not present. You can also call Patti with questions if you’re not sure of your insurance needs. She has a wealth of information.
PROGRAM(S) Our program tonight was canceled so John Cangemi will go over some things on the new code and field questions. He went over some questions people have asked him. The code takes effect 1/1/26 so if you draw a permit right now. Use the 2017 code. After 1/1/26 you will have to draw a permit to the 2023 code. Right now, you can choose either code but after 1/1/26 you have to go with the new code. And they do not give you six months before the new code takes effect; it is 90 days now. The code cycle is a 3-yr cycle. 1st year proposals are submitted; 2nd year you get a public notice of the change – this is the comment stage. Cannot introduce anything new. 3rd year there is a general meeting about the changes, and you can give them your opinion. Then there is the preliminary writing of the code. These are the steps. We have 20 code making panels and each one can have up to 20 voting members on it. Technology usually precedes the code. If it is not available, the inspector has the authority not to enforce the rule because that type of equipment is not available. If the language in the code says, “this shall be this,” you cannot make an interpretation. It was made for you. Proposals are called public inputs now and they had 3,007 of them. Have to go through in a couple of days. Then public comments come and then changes are made. If you need to know what the fault current is, the code says, “you shall not use anything above its rating.” You need to call the utility to see what it is. They will tell you what it is at the terminals of the transformer, and you may have to add impedance. They changed the working from available fault current to fault current. They took out the word available. It applies to all the equipment on the line. Reconditioned equipment is another thing that showed up in the 2023 code. Reconditioned is when you bring it back to the exact specs it started with from the manufacturer. Repair is different. Definitions used to be in each one of the articles and they took up a lot of room. Now they took all the definitions and put it into Article 100. You have to be careful when you read it. Because some have changed. One in particular – “likely to become energized” definition changed. The new definition is “likely to become energized including failure of any installation or spacing.” If I have THHN wire and it is listed and I am looking at the conduit and asking is that conduit likely to become energized, according to the new definition, yes. So, almost anything can be “likely to be energized.” We never used to think about that. Accessible definition changed. If you look at the operation of a GFCI and it has to be readily accessible, what has to be readily accessible? The receptacle? No, the actuator has to be. If I have a piece of equipment on the roof, that receptacle only has to be readily accessible from that area where the equipment is. You measure from the area where the equipment is. Within 25 feet of the equipment at the same grade level. Line of sight definition is – clear path or vision and within 50 feet but no barrier in the way. Ground conductor changed to the equipment ground conductor. There are new articles in the code. Article #311- all medium voltage (means you need to be qualified – need experience and identify the hazards) Article 70E – Safety in the workplace – is a guide. OSHA is the enforcing the Federal register. The definition of a qualified person is almost the same as the code, but they add “and has demonstrated.” Another question that has come up to John: Copper coated aluminum conductors – can you use them? John says yes you can; it never said you couldn’t use it; but there was not much call for it. Now it has come back. It has to be a listed conductor. And the way it is connected between the copper and aluminum is important and part of the listing and so is the grade of the aluminum – it has to be a series 8000 which is a softer aluminum. You can use regular receptacles and wire nuts. The new conductors they want to come out with are going to be a 14-gauge copper coated aluminum conductor for a 10-ampere branch circuit. Smallest rating they can have. It can be used for LED lighting circuit. Cannot run a piece of equipment off of it. It is not for general purpose. It is limited; a class 4 circuit. Medium voltage definition – 1,000 to 35,000. The lowest medium voltage cable out there is 2k. Table 310-16 tells you different wiring methods and voltage they would be able to carry. It used to only cover wire that was up to 600 volts. That changed; now you can have wire in that cable that can be rated up to 1,000 volts. THHN is rated 600 volts. That didn’t change. The cut off limit is 35,000 volts. We do not have a definition of low voltage. If it is less than medium it must be low voltage and can be a type of low voltage. Section 110.14 covers terminations listed for AWG type of conductors. Anything other than the standard is not acceptable unless it is marked for that but it always has to be marked first with the AWG. GFCI requirements – article 310.8 has parts A-F. A – 120 V to 250 V – that was one of the changes – single phase – residential, B other than dwellings, C special locations
Indoor damp and indoor wet locations – a carwash – outdoor location, an operating room is considered in indoor location – wet does not have to be water.
Rob S. said every month we can have these small code sessions during the meeting to get everyone acclimated to what is going on with the new code.
Rob S. introduced Pete Davis and John McGee from LaSalle Reps who handed out there line card to show what they sell and do.
John Sica from Turtle also attended the meeting.
By-Laws & Nominating: Jack Morrell
Ralph retired from the board. Jack is doing the By-laws again. Nothing to report.
Education/Seminars: Rob Szalay, Mahesh Panchal
Rob S. reported we have a class October 25 that is closed. We have a class November 22. That will fill up fast. We already have a waiting list. You have to sign up right away. You can always take the course for education also, not just for license renewal. It will be at our office in the conference room. There used to be a six-month window for the new code. Not anymore. It is about 3 months. If anyone has anything you would like to see on a program, please email the office.
Electrical Safety: Robert Tschoke
Rob S. said if you see something that is shoddy work, you can take a picture but do not mention any names. It is good to bring it to the industry to see what is not supposed to be done. Rob T. added he never used to wear gloves while working. His son started getting him to wear gloves. now they have these new gloves you can scan with your phone, and they are skintight and feel good. Also wear goggles. He wears safety gloves now.
Entertainment: Dave Kennedy, Mahesh Panchal
Reported under Secretary’s report.
Good & Welfare: Joe Mikulas
Joe is not present and had nothing to report. Rob S. added if you know anything you would like to report, let us know.
Inspection Agencies:
Certified Electrical Inspectors: #896-A Rob Ceriello was present was not present.
EII: NYBFU: #1109-A Philip Goehring was not present. Rich Jendzo was present. Rich said to the guys that are doing solar, Do Not cut tabs off the box. The door has to open a full 90 degrees. That is with any electrical box. Also, bond wire cannot use insulated conductor. It has to be bare, and you do not need Scotch coat. It is a good idea, but it is not required by the code.
Suffolk Bureau of Electrical Insp.: #856-A Gene Surdi was not present.
Southampton Town: Ron Linsalato was not present.
Alliance Electrical Inspect. Ltd.: Michael Dumitru was not present.
Licensing: Michael Towers, Jack Morrell, Rob Szalay
Tom O. reported he just renewed his Long Beach license which has to be renewed by 11/30. It has to be notarized.
PSEG Representatives: Joe Mikulas, Jack Morrell, Rob Szalay
Rich reported we had some personnel moves. Jim Domochvich will be retired at the end of this month. Tony Ibraham will replace him. One of Rich’s guys Ken Muchi retired first of this month. He was a great guy and will be sorely missed. He worked in the Riverhead office. His retirement party is tonight. Rich was there earlier. Regarding what John said about the transformer fault, PSEG gives to you at the terminals. They have higher impedance, so the fault tends to be a little lower. He usually gets requests for the 3-phase transformer. I can be 70,000 to 30,000 depending on the size of the transformer. You can request a spec letter from PSEG – mainly for commercial. Rich Inserra brought William McMahon. He is at the Greenlawn office. The riser fees have gone higher and at the beginning of the year will go up again. Rob S. said Tom DiBella will get the information on the riser fees, and we will post it. The website for PSEG is now PSEGLINY.com. You can get to their website by going on the SCECA website; we have a link. Rich’s new email address is Richard.Inserra@PSEGLINY.com and BRS@PSEGLINY.com. They will forward the old email addresses for about 1 year. Member Kevin Budka asked for a program on utility poles – cradle to grave. Rich said Osmose inspects the utility poles. A yellow tag on the pole means reinforce it, 1 white tag means replace it within a year, and 2 white tags means replace it sooner. Verizon reinforces poles with steel trusses, and they own 40% of the poles. PSEG owns 60% and they replace poles do not reinforce them. If a pole is owned by Verizon that needs to be replaced, PSEG tells them they have to replace it. They can refuse. If we replace it they would only have to pay us like $1,200, whereas it costs us 8,000 to 9,000 to replace a pole. One member complimented the smart meters because they help diagnose outages. He had a service call a couple of weeks ago; the lights were blinking. He called up PSEG, and they said the meter went out at 5 pm. They came out and knew it was on the lineside of the meter. He did not have to do anything; it saved him a lot of work. Rich said one of the advantages of the smart meter is when there is an outage it reports back to the outage management system, and it will say if a particular transformer is out of power or a whole branch. It helps them diagnose outages. Another member had a call. There were 17 GFI fault breakers that blew at the same time. When reset, they kept tripping. What would cause that? Rich said it was probably a surge. The utility is not liable for equipment failure. You have to go through homeowner insurance. Rich will be retiring the 1st quarter of 2027.
Membership/Plaques & Awards, Skills USA: Robert Tschoke/Jack Morrell
Rob T. reported on the SCECA East meeting at the Lobster Roll. We have to be patient. Michael Towers did a great job on the generator presentation. We are investing $40 a head for dinner. We had 31 attend with about 15 contractors there. We are staying with it. We are moving the venue to the Westhampton VFW hall. Ed Seltenreich has his CEH classes there. We need more east end electricians to attend. The only way this is going to happen is we have to talk it up. Rob will be calling the 25 unpaid members. He is looking for any ideas to reach guys to become members. Rob S. told the members if any of them are interested in joining a committee with Rob T., he could use the help.
Nassau Electric League: Mahesh Panchal, Tom Orlando
Meets 2nd Wednesday of the month at Knights of Columbus Hall in Hicksville
Mahesh reported they will have a program on the code changes by Ray Lopez.
IAEI: (Independent Alliance for the Electrical Industry) Mahesh Panchal, John Ricciardi, Tom Orlando
Meetings are 1st Wednesday of the month in Farmingdale at Allen Park Town Hall building at 6:30 pm.
Mahesh reported they did not have a meeting in October. Next meeting will be about the code changes maybe by John Cangemi. Member Keith Budka asked if the IAEI gives a code class, can you use it for the ICC certification? The answer is yes you can. Rob S. said when we get information from Rob Ceriello, and we will email it to our members.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS: (Rob Szalay and Jack Morrell)
Joe Mikulas, Editor – “Light,”
Rob S. reported this is how we promote the organization and includes the website, newsletter and emails.
Joe was not present.
Energy Expo: Rob Szalay, Jack Morrell, Dave Kennedy
10/15 2 pm – 8 pm Radisson Hotel 110 Motor Parkway, Hauppauge
Rob reported we just finished the Expo last night. Thanked all who participated. We had more traffic this year than last year. It is an annual event. It is not just electric. We are getting more HVAC and plumbing. However, there was no solar. He asked for any comments. John Cangemi thinks it was a good move to do it with the NEL. Rob S. said we will try to make it bigger and better next year. If some members want to get involved with this, we welcome you guys; you don’t have to be on the Board. You will get to network and meet the other vendors.
Legislative Review: Jack Morrell
Jack was not present. Nothing to report.
Old Business:
Nothing to report.
New Business:
Nothing to report.
Raffles:
$100 attendance award was drawn for Scott Eastman (#765-C) who was not present to win.
A motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:20 p.m. was made by Mahesh Panchal and seconded by Rob Tschoke.
Respectfully submitted,
APPROVED BY:
11/3/25
Barbara George Dave Kennedy
Recording Secretary Secretary