Staff presses Flatiron on community giving; hearing moves to confidential record for business-sensitive details

During staff questioning of Charles McGovern, staff flagged the company’s community engagement plan and asked about a community giving program said to provide quarterly scholarships to local nonprofits. McGovern deferred specific rollout questions to Sara Salem, who was online later in the hearing and could address program details.

Staff asked about timing and duration and noted the program description appeared in rebuttal testimony scheduled for public and confidential versions. Because answers risked revealing confidential commercial information, counsel and the chair agreed to move to confidential record procedures: non-Public Service Commission employees and those without NDAs would be placed into breakout rooms or temporarily removed from the public livestream while the confidential portion proceeded. "We should put the people who are in the confidential testimony into a breakout room," one participant suggested; the chair then directed staff to implement the procedure.