New Energy Director Hits the Ground Running

On only his second day as Bedford's new director for the energy retrofit program, Thomas Bregman rattled off a long list of tasks he's working on to develop the town's home efficiency program.

"My top three priorities are to find a marketing partner to help us brand the program, develop an online presence and data capabilities that go along with it, and work on the financing aspect," he said.

He's been tasked with large responsibilities with over a million dollars in federal grants attached, but with over 20 years of experience in management, environmental advocacy, campaign and marketing experience, he's more than capable, said Mark Thielking, Bedford's director of energy resources, who helped select Bregman from a pool of 20 applicants.

Bregman has long been environmentally active—he was instrumental in preventing the construction of a golf and shopping center in his hometown of Cornwall. He expanded his knowledge of sustainability issues through a consulting business he ran with his partner, Simon Gruber, for the past two years.

It was at Green 2010, a conference they planned on sustainable economies in the Hudson Valley Region, where Bregman and Thielking first met.

Prior to his appointment, Bregman was part of a team that built a national database of 200 million voters  for Catalist LLC, a political data and consulting company in Washington, D.C. Before that, he worked on a number of political campaigns—including his own.

"At the community level, I've always been active. Though I was unsuccessful [in a bid for an Orange County legislator seat] running a campaign was incredible valuable for me to learn about outreach and grassroots advocacy. Some of the technological tools I used for Howard Dean in '03 and and John Hall in '06 are standard in campaigns today, " said Bregman.

He'll use that experience to mobilize the grassroots army involved with Bedford 2020, the volunteer drive to cut greenhouse emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020.

To accomplish his first two priorities, Bregman will work with the soon-to-be-identified marketing partner and software developer to conduct outreach and education in the community to build out the program, and create online resources for homeowners seeking energy retrofits.

The third priority for Bregman—the financing plan for the retrofits—is trickier. The town received word this summer that Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, as it's known, a program allowing homeowners to borrow the money they need for energy retrofits and repay it through an incremental property tax charge, is in limbo.

"The issue with PACE is that it's senior to the mortgage—that is, in the unlikely case of a problem paying the mortgage or a foreclosure, the PACE payment would be paid off along with the taxes before the mortgage. And the Federal Housing Finance Agency has a problem with that," said Thielking.

While calling the loss of PACE a 'major setback,' Thielking said the grant award was based on their ability to raise awareness about home energy efficiency in the community, and they will march forward with that goal while working on alternate financing plans.

Bedford 2020 will also market a financing plan that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is working on, which will resemble a more traditional loan product with banks as lenders, according to Thielking.

In the meantime, Bregman's salary and benefits are covered with the $1.26 million Department of Energy grant awarded directly to Bedford in June.

A Long Island native, Bregman has lived in Orange County in the town of Cornwall for almost twenty years. He graduated from SUNY Stonybrook and will complete and executive MBA program from Antioch New England Graduate School in 2011.