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State Senator Stephen Harding (R-30) began the day vowing tough questions would be asked at Tuesday’s Appropriation Committee hearing on higher education. He even provided a preview.

Harding was quoted at length in a Tuesday morning statement issued shortly before the hearing began:

“There are many questions that demand answers. With regard to the Office of Higher Education, for example, why were former Stone Academy students told to sign a waiver of their rights against the State of Connecticut in exchange for payment of just a small fraction of the damages they incurred?”  

The new leader, elected in a Friday afternoon coup, appears to have lost his six followers in only four days. No Senate Republican on the committee posed a question to beleaguered Office of Higher Education Executive Director Timothy Larson, a Democrat and former member of the Senate.

Larson’s appearance was scheduled to coincide with the launch of the state’s scheme to require abandoned Stone Academy students to waive all rights of recovery in exchange for small recoveries based on the flawed audit of their transcripts.

There are only a dozen Senate Republicans. Three of them serve on the 53 member budget committee. Two of the three backed Harding in his quiet campaign to oust Kelly. It should not have required much effort to arrange for one or both of Harding’s supporters to raise the issues their new leader posed in his defiant there’s-a-new-sheriff-in-town statement.

Bravado married to silence is not the way forward to success.

Published February 20, 2024.

Three state agencies are marking the first anniversary of the closing of Stone Academy by escalating their war on the more than 1,000 students who were locked out of their classes.. The for-profit nursing school students did not receive a traditional teach-out to allow them to complete the courses they had paid for. Their plight has only worsened in the year that followed.

A state judge intervened on behalf of the students Friday by enjoining the Office of Higher Education (OHE), the Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Office of Attorney General from proceeding with a scheme that would required students to waive their rights in exchange for reimbursement payments that did not include courses arbitrarily delated from their transcripts during an audit paid for and overseen by OHE and influenced by DPH.

The injunction follows weeks of fruitless attempts by lawyers representing students to persuade lawyers for the state to refrain from limiting students’ rights of recovery of the damages they suffered in the long mess. Lawyers for the students explained in their motion for an emergency injunction wrote:

At issue is the State’s demand that hundreds of former Stone Academy Students sign a
waiver of rights against the State in exchange for payment of just a small fraction of the damages
they incurred because of the bad conduct of both the Stone Academy Defendants and the
Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education and Department of Public Health. The State, and its
lawyers, should know better than to seek such a waiver of rights from persons, without them
having advice of counsel and particularly where, as here, the State has an obvious conflict of
interest.

Legislators sympathetic to the students will have an opportunity to inquire why OHE supports harming students when the agency’s leader, Timothy Larson, appears before the Appropriations Committee Tuesday to discuss its funding in Governor Ned Lamont’s budget proposal.

Published February 16, 2024.

Senate Republicans forced their leader, Kevin Kelly, to resign Friday and replaced him with Stephen Harding, a first term member of the upper chamber from the 30th District, Daily Ructions has learned. In a curious decision, Kelly made plea for his colleagues’ support and they declined to give it to him in a stunning rebuke.

The move came three weeks after Kelly fired controversial chief of staff John Healey a year after hiring him. Johnny Angel, as he is known from a video introduced at a federal criminal trial, may return to the job he lost. That would be good news for Speaker Matt Ritter, his top staff members and some local golf courses.

Several of the 12 members of the dwindling Senate Republican caucus face ferocious challenges in this year’s November election. Fractures among the diminishing Republicans, which includes Q-Anon supporter Eric Berthel, will make holding those seats more difficult.

One of the short-term winners today may be the caucus’s inveterate pot stirrer, Heather Somers. The Groton Republican is talented at fomenting dissent but not in building the trust of her colleagues. There can be no other explanation for Republican senators passing over Somers, in her fourth term, for a first term member who previously served in the House.

Senate Republicans are straining to put a brave face on the upheaval they sowed. Harding and his six supporters may soon discover that five members of a dozen member laughingstock caucus can make nearly as much trouble as the other seven.

Jack Shannon remains.

Published February 16, 2024.

Martin “Bo” Burke has departed this world at 83 years old. We are all in his debt.

The Vernon Democrat may have been the most consequential one-term legislator to serve in the state House of Representatives. In 1975, Bo was the driving force behind the drafting and passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He was a freshman from Vernon, winning the 56th House District in the 1974 Watergate election that saw Democrats win 118 of the lower chamber’s 151 seats.

Ella Grasso, also elected in 1974, brought a reforming spirit to the governor’s office. She had served three terms as secretary of the state (1959-1971) and was a natural ally of open government supporters, including the freshman from Vernon.

For nearly 50 years, Bo has been recognized as the author of the FOIA. The legislature was thinly staffed in 1975 compared to what it has become. A lawmaker had to immerse himself in the task of drawing legislation, especially a bill creating new rights and the mechanism to enforce them. Bo Burke, a master of details, met his moment. Grasso signed the bill during the first year in office. It was among her most enduring accomplishments.

Requiring most local and state government public meetings to be open to the public was not Connecticut’s tradition–or that of any other state. Access to government documents was limited–often at the sufferance of appointed and elected public officials.

Bo Burke changed that 49 years ago. Connecticut’s FOIA, the first and most sweeping of its kind, became a model for the nation and then, as freedom defeated servitude with the fall of the Soviet Union, an inspiration and guide to hundreds of millions of people around the world as they sought to secure their freedom under the rule of law. Connecticut’s law showed them the way forward.

Bo declined to seek a second term in 1976 because the legislature can be difficult to balance with a law practice and life with a young family.

Politicians can spend decades in elected office and never do more than dutifully cast roll call votes and raise money. Few in their first of two years in office craft, guide, and see signed into law legislation that becomes an indispensable to creating and sustaining free societies in a modern world.

Bo’s interest in the FOIA never diminished. He would often contact journalists to discuss attempts by governors and legislators to weaken the public’s right to know how government conducted its business. His knowledge encompassed not only the spirit of the law but also its fluid details. His passion for its purpose and dismay at the attacks it stirred among a string of hostile governors and legislators never flagged.

A decade after Bo left office, voters of the 56th House District elected Joe Courtney to represent them. He served for four terms and decided not to seek a fifth in 1994. Twelve years later, Bo was delighted when his friend and colleague in overseeing Vernon’s legal affairs was elected to Congress from the state’s 2nd District.

Later this month, Joe Courtney will introduce a tribute to Martin “Bo” Burke into the Congressional Record.

Published February 14, 2024.

The Courant’s Ed Mahony reports on another stunning development in the saga of turmoil in the Division of Public Defender Services. Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis is testing the capacity for surprise of Division employees, the Public Defender Services Commission and the public.

Bowden-Lewis, according to The Courant, “instructed an information technology staffer to download confidential email and possibly other files from computers used by two senior lawyers who are considered to be among her critics.” When agency IT director Greg Dion received an alert that security protections had been overridden, he notified the two senior lawyers whose email accounts had been breached. Bowden-Lewis and director of Human Resources Paula Lohr suspended Dion and escorted him out of the agency’s Farmington Avenue office, according to Mahony.

The head of a state agency engaging in such conduct will send tremors through state government if there are not immediate repercussions.

The incident prompted commission chairman Richard Palmer, a retired member of the Supreme Court, to issue another statement expressing dismay and hinting at action. Palmer wrote:

“The Commission and I were recently informed that Mr. Dion has been suspended with pay by the Chief Public Defender, who neither notified nor consulted the Commission prior to taking this action or anytime thereafter. I do know, however, that Mr. Dion is very highly regarded as an accomplished member of the Division’s Management Team, and I have asked the Chief Public Defender to provide me immediately with answers to a number of serious questions I have regarding her action against him. But from what I have already learned about Mr. Dion’s suspension and the reasons for it, I’m very concerned about the propriety of that action as I understand that the conduct that resulted in Mr. Dion’s suspension was intended merely to ensure the security and integrity of the Division’s IT system for the protection of private, confidential, and privileged communications of two senior Division attorneys, Deborah Del Prete Sullivan, Legal Counsel, and Joseph Lopez, Director of the Complex Litigation Unit, whose email accounts were accessed without their knowledge or consent. I also note that both Attorney Sullivan and Attorney Lopez have worked cooperatively with the Commission, in the best interests of the Division, since the Commission’s appointment nearly a year ago. For now, I can add only that I have been in contact with the other members of the Commission, and we may well call a special meeting of the Commission in the very near future to address this issue.”

Greg Dion told Bruno Matarazzo Jr., of the Republican American, “I’m disappointed this happened to me for doing the right thing and reporting something that compromised the integrity of the systems and the agency,” Dion also expressed dismay that a subordinate used their position to get access to email accounts that should not have been breached.

A special meeting of the Commission would come on the heels of Tuesday’s regularly scheduled February meeting. That meeting is said to have included raised voices when the Commission met in executive session behind closed doors. The doors may have been closed but they are not soundproof.

Published February 8, 2024.

Governor Ned Lamont will need to adjust his budget proposal. The State Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a 2021 trial court decision awarding a Bristol family $34 million in damages arising out a negligent 2014 fertility procedure.

Aaron and Jean-Marie Monroe-Lynch learned in 2014 that they were pregnant with twins after a fertility procedure at UConn Health. Tragedy followed when the twins were born and discovered to have been infected with Cytomegalovirus (CMV). Shay was born dead. Her brother Joshua was born severe birth defects, including catastrophic neurological and developmental disabilities. Joshua requires constant care.

Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Joan Alexander noted in her opinion excoriating UConn Health’s fertility program, “it is clear that the state is both the party best equipped to avoid mishaps of this sort and the party best positioned to absorb and spread the costs of Joshua’s lifelong care. See Doe v. Cochran, supra, 332 Conn. 369. With respect to avoiding the harm, the state offers a highly specialized medical service that poses particular risks best known to the state and most efficiently pre- vented by it. The state regularly shepherds inexperi- enced and medically unsophisticated patients through the complex process of assisted reproduction. It would have required little effort and even less financial cost for Benadiva or a member of his staff to confirm the CMV status of the donor and to counsel Jean-Marie to select a different donor or, at least, to obtain her informed consent to be certain that she fully understood the serious risks of going forward under the circumstances.”

The plaintiffs were represented by the Walsh Woodard law firm located in West Hartford.  The case was tried by Attorneys Michael Walsh, Karolina Dowd, and Caitlyn Malcynsky.  After the trial, the case was handled by Attorney Linc Woodard.  The appeal was handled by Attorney James Healy.  

The Superior Court decision by Judge Mark Taylor and the emphatic unanimous high court opinion should prompt a review by the legislature on how the fourth branch of government, the University of Connecticut, handles claims against it: poorly. It should no longer be allowed to act as its own claims adjuster. UConn and the public would benefit from an independent review board that can assess claims and steer them to a resolution when the facts merit it.

UConn’s arrogance was on display in today’s fertility case and also in former UConn men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie’s claim for breach of contract and racial discrimination. UConn paid $15 million to Ollie, including $3.9 million to resolve his racism claim against the state’s premier public university.

This year’s UConn budget did not include an allocation sufficient to pay the medical malpractice claim, though observers were skeptical of its appeal strategy. The legislature will have to find the money and ought to ask probing questions on what steps UConn took to engage in meaningful settlement negotiations with both the Monroe-Lynch family and Ollie.

Published February 6, 2024.

That didn’t take long. Farmington Republican John Healey will no longer serve a chief of staff to the Senate Republican Office. Veteran Republican Gary DeFilippo, former Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner in the Rowland and Rell administrations, will fill the vacancy as the dozen members of the minority caucus brace themselves for some serious headwinds.

Healey, seen first and foremost as a loyalist to popular New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, has been perceived as having Stewart’s interests as much in mind as the caucus’s, which are urgent. Stewart, re-elected to a sixth term in November, has not thrived in state party politics. She dropped her 2018 bid for governor on the eve of the state convention to make a late run at the second spot on the ticket. Stewart lost the lieutenant governor primary to Southington Republican Joe Markley.

Healey came into public view in May 2013 when he was revealed on a FBI recording as carrying illicit cash from then-House Republican Leader Lawrence Cafero’s office to a law enforcement co-operator who had put the money in Cafero’s office refrigerator. Cafero had Healey, who he dubbed Johnny Angel, take the money to FBI informant Raymond Soucy. Neither Cafero nor Healey notified law enforcement authorities of the bribery attempt.

Veteran staffer Jack Shannon remains.

The regular session of the legislature begins Wednesday.

Former state Senator Craig Miner will be nominated to serve as the state auditor reserved for a Republican. Miner will succeed Clark Chapin, who preceded Miner in the 30th Senate District.

Miner served in the House for 16 years before winning a seat in the Senate in 2016. He did not seek a third term in 2022. Miner earned a reputation for posing probing questions to legislators, administration officials, and others who came before legislative committees.

He has been working part-time for the Senate Republicans since his third term ended in January 2023.

The job of auditor is one of the legislative branch’s top paying positions and may provide a significant boost to Miner’s state pension.

Republican have a long, though not uninterrupted, history of nominating distinguished public servants to a position long considered free of partisanship. They include Leo Becker, Robert Jaekle and the late Bob Ward.

Published January 31, 2024.

State Representative Josh Elliott (R-Hamden) requires money from lobbyists before he can “focus on the important work ahead.” It’s a curious pitch but Elliott is working the same ol’ corner in his pre-session PAC fundraising event.

Build for the Future PAC’s notion of building is an old one. Shake down lobbyists for contributions, sell a few advertisements for a bogus program book and then make donations to Democratic town committees around the state. Those seem to be Elliott’s notion of “building strong relationships with key shareholders….” In the fall of 2022, those included the Vernon, East Windsor and Ellington Democratic town committees.

One item on Elliott’s agenda last year was to enact legislation that would levy fines on voters who chose not to vote. That proposal–which saw several House Democrats and one Senate Democrat join Elliott in seeking to punish working people who did not fit their ideal of a citizenship–died.

Before the Hamden Democrat begins focusing on more rules for the rest of us, maybe he could take more care with his PAC filings. Leapin’ lizards, last year’s first report from Build the Future included 14 contributions from lobbyists in which the box that asks if the contributor is a lobbyist or a spouse or dependent of a lobbyist checked the “no” box. Each one had listed his or her occupation as lobbyist.

Published January 30, 2024.

Windsor Democrat Ayana Taylor is off to an impressive start in her bid to unseat 2nd Senate District Democrat Douglas McCrory. The third term board of education member filed her campaign committee documents on December 10th, announced her candidacy in Hartford several days later and filed a campaign finance report on January 10th that revealed she has qualified for public financing, reporting raising $16,591.00 in small contributions. Taylor will receive the grant if she wins the party endorsement at a May convention or qualifies to a primary against the party endorsed candidate.

Daily Ructions regrets not including Taylor in a profile of the emerging contest published Thursday.

Taylor has deep roots in Hartford and Hartford Democratic politics, as well as support in Windsor. She is a serious contender and whether by delegates or signatures, will be on the August primary ballot.

Windsor Democrats may not have as much experience as Bloomfield ones in trooping to the pools for spring or summer primaries, they turn out to vote better than Hartford Democrats. The abysmal showing by Hartford Democrats in September’s mayoral primary is a powerful temptation to ambitious Democrats in the parts of Windsor and Bloomfield that along with a portion of Hartford comprise the 2nd.

Taylor possesses the sort of ties that can make a difference in a crowded or low-turnout primary. She’s a realtor, has belonged to the same church for decades and has served in a consequential local office.

Published January 26, 2024.