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The purchase of the Journal Inquirer by Hearst Communications has brought quick and dramatic changes, marking the inevitable transformation of a singular Connecticut newspaper. Few family-owned newspapers endured as long as the JI in the last two decades of print retrenchment.

Nothing will diminish the JI’s years of fearless reporting in north central Connecticut. When I was first elected to the legislature in 1988, I was surprised to learn from colleagues that few represented two-newspaper towns. They knew nothing of the joys and benefits of newspapers competing with each other for stories in what was affectionately known as JI Land, the more than a dozen towns the paper covered with brio.

Reporters stayed to the end of town council, board of education and zoning meetings. Nearly every town had a reporter on the beat full-time. They all made friends with town hall and other local employees. And they were fearless–if they were not they learned how to conceal doubts.

Reporters knew how to use the business end of the Freedom of Information Act–a national model when it was enacted in 1975 with Governor Ella T. Grasso’s support during her first year in office. The paper had a particular knack for discovering mayors who’d operated their cars in ways the law did not permit but sometimes the police did. At least two thought unbeatable were defeated on the strength of JI reporting.

The paper kept a close eye on local zoning boards. Land use has long been a hive of manipulation, favors and outrage.

A reader survey a few decades ago, according to Joe Courtney (we all liked to know who was reading what), revealed readers paid the most attention to the paper’s coverage of school sports. Second were the commentary pages. Battles would break out on the letters to the editor page and rage for weeks. Campaigns hustled to submit letters from supporters before the election cutoff.

JI reporters were fixtures in local courthouses. Sometimes judges–who can be sensitive to public attention–took offense at the paper’s reporting and would disparage the paper from the bench or, in one case, wait for an opportunity to strike in a courtroom. It never worked.

The Ji newsroom was long a rollicking place doing serious work. The reporters were often young and tireless in the pursuit of a story. Their editors were supportive and savvy. For the subjects of a story, the hours between a call from a JI reporter and the paper’s publication in the afternoon could be marked by some trepidation.

Presiding over it all from her office near the front entrance was publisher Elizabeth Ellis. It’s for the best that democracies do not produce many citizens who are able to sustain a regal air. Mrs. Ellis–as she was always known–did. She possessed presence, a formidable air derived from never countenancing bullies. She did not flinch in the face of threats–and they came by phone, letter and over the transom. She reigned for five decades in the service of truth and the joy of a free press.

The day after I first won an election, I went to the JI in Manchester to place an ad thanking the voters of the 14th House District for narrowly electing me. As I sat in the waiting area, Mrs. Ellis emerged from her office, walked in my direction (I thought, “I wonder where Mrs. Ellis is going.”) and congratulated me in her distinctive voice. That I remember it clearly 35 years later is a measure of our own Mrs. Pinchot’s stature.

The Elizabeth Ellis JI made Connecticut a better place to live, serve and participate. Among her many gifts, she nurtured a newspaper with a personality, one that celebrated its own feisty reporting. On some afternoons, the paper practically vibrated with delight in telling what others had done. It was often an adventure to read and sometimes you knew you were witnessing its golden age.

Published June 7, 2023.

The state budget gives the Travis Simms Foundation $150,000 a Youth Services Prevention grant, a program administered by the state’s Judicial Department. State Representative Travis Simms (D-Norwalk) has been attempting to launch and sustain a youth boxing program bearing his name for nearly a decade.

Simms made a previous bid for public funds for the foundation in 2014 when he was the minority leader on Norwalk’s city council. Nancy on Norwalk reported the details.

The Travis Simms Foundation, Inc., was dormant for six years and scheduled for dissolution this month until an annual report was filed with the Office of the Secretary of the State in March of this year. The document lists Sandra Stokes as a board member and Travis Simms, Jr., as founder and executive director. The foundation describes itself as “promoters of performing arts, sports and similar events without facilities” in its revised filing.

The $150,000 grant is the fifth largest of the 281 listed in the section 39 of the budget.

Both Simmses list the home they share with Representative Simms as the business address of the Travis Simms Foundation. Representative Simms was a light middle weight champion boxer in his youth.

The legislature moved the generous grant program from the jurisdiction of the Office of Policy and Management–which has many resources to monitor the spending of state funds–to the Judicial Department–which is given little money to keep a close eye on where the millions given away each year go–several years ago.

It is rare to include a program named after a legislator and run by his or her family in the grant bonanza.

Published June 5, 2023.

The biennial budget and implementer bill is available for examination as the legislature prepares to vote on the 832 page legislation. It is far more than an appropriation of $50 billion in public funds.

Section 182 of the bill is a rat’s nest that has nothing to do with the state’s long, circuitous and often secret budget process. Instead, it does what many in the legislature oppose: preempts local zoning. The bill precludes the zoning authority of any town with a population of fewer than 8,000 people from approving a warehouse or distribution center of more than 150,000 square feet “if such (1) facility is located on one or more parcels of land that are less than one hundred fifty acres in total, (2) parcels contain more than five acres of wetlands in total, and (3) parcel or parcels are located not more than two miles from an elementary school.”

Middlebury–with a population of 7,574, according to the 2020 census–has been a local zoning battleground over a distribution center. A Middlebury selectman resigned in April, citing “a conflict between his beliefs in how the town should be developed and the current situation that is unfolding,” according to the Bee News.

Land use has long been a source of enduring contentions throughout Connecticut. Zoning policies for housing has been a major issue during this legislative session. It rarely makes its way into the annual budget bill–particularly with such a specific purpose of stopping one local proposal. The budget provision has nothing to do with state spending.

Whatever the merits and faults of the Middlebury application, it does not belong in the budget bill as a favor to the Middlebury delegation and others. If the legislature is within its authority to reach its heavy hand into a local zoning controversy to stop an application, it may also use that power to compel approval of one or more. And if it does, listen for the Middlebury delegation and many who vote for this to squeal the loudest in their struggle to the death to exclude affordable housing from their lofty precincts.

Published June 5, 2023.

Governor Ned Lamont enjoys praise from the Wall Street Journal for sticking with his income tax cut proposal. The Monday editorial–which has boosted the Greenwich Democrat through most of his tenure–notes Lamont’s “break from the progressive pack” that dominates much legislative business.

The Journal piece points out that Lamont’s plan to reduce the income tax from 5% to 4.5% on households earning between $20,000 and $100,000 a year. The governor mounted a fightback against the gutting of his tax cut by the legislature’s tax committee in secret negotiations with legislative leaders last week.  

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora earns a hat tip for using the Lamont tax proposal as the basis for his caucus’s budget proposal.

The Journal has for decades expressed distress at the decline of vibrant state economies and flight of talent from the New York metropolitan region. It is high praise for the paper’s influential editorial board to note that “Mr. Lamont deserves credit for trying to reverse Connecticut’s tax-and-spend ratchet.”

The legislature concludes its long regular session Wednesday.

Published June 5, 2023.

Attorney General William Tong issued a blistering statement Wednesday, accusing Stone Academy of “misdirection” in the public debate over the for-profit school’s sudden closing by the Office of Higher Education (OHE) in February. Tong claims to have “thoroughly refuted” Stone Academy’s claims to have offered to provide teach outs for more than the more than 800 students who were locked out of classes.

Stone Academy lawyer Perry Rowthorn issued a direct response to Tong on Thursday. Rowthorn wrote,

“We normally do not engage in settlement negotiations in public but are compelled to correct some of the misstatements in the Attorney General’s letter.   While we can agree to disagree on what put Stone in the position of having to close, nobody can honestly dispute that OHE forced Stone to close with just two weeks’ notice and without a teach out plan in place – the primary cause of distress and disruption to students. 

OHE may not have liked Stone’s proposals for teach outs then, and the Attorney General may not like our latest proposal now, but the stark fact is that neither OHE nor anyone else on behalf of the State has come forward with their own teach out plan months into the crisis, an unprecedented abandonment of vulnerable students.  Instead, OHE remains focused on an illegal audit to disenfranchise students of their legitimately earned credits. 

DPH and OHE have not and cannot establish that Stone committed any regulatory violations, and the Attorney General’s extensive investigation has not identified any consumer protection violations – as one would normally expect before publicly demanding that a company put all of its money on the table.   That said, Stone has offered and remains ready and willing to have a real and productive conversation with the Attorney General about how best to assist its students and graduates, and to do so without further time wasted on posturing and unreasonable demands.”  

A teach out is an emergency program established to allow students to complete the classes they were taking when their school closed. OHE’s failure to work with Stone Academy to provide a teach out is unprecedented.

The state Senate adopted an amendment Wednesday that proponents appeared to believe would assist recent Stone graduates. It does not. According to the Department of Public Health (DPH), Stone Academy students who graduated after November 1, 2021, and passed the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) are being asked to take a refresher course and agree to limit the use of their license.

A DPH publication on the Stone graduates states, “[Y]ou cannot perform the work of an LPN until you successfully complete the refresher course.” The course includes eight hours of classroom work and 40 hours of clinical experience. The offer of a refresher course comes with a threat to seize the license of students who have passed the national licensing test but do not take the course:

“…Given the concern that the Stone Academy program may have failed to provide you with the learning and training experiences required to become licensed as a practical nurse, DPH may open an investigation into your preparation and may take disciplinary action against your license if the investigation reveals that you did not receive the preparation required by state law and regulation. Such disciplinary action could result in the loss of your license and would be reported to the National Practitioner Databank.“

The national licensure exam is the standard that schools teach to. Stone Academy students who have passed the exam are now being targeted and threatened by the state’s regulator–DPH. The proposal adopted by the Senate is not what was described when members spoke about it in a brief discussion. The $800 payments for the refresher course is part of the ransoming of the licenses of the mostly women of color who graduated from Stone Academy after November 1, 2021, and passed the national licensing exam.

On Friday morning, the Appropriations Committee will consider the proposal and ought to ask about the terms of the agreement licensees are required to sign in order to receive the money to take the course. DPH has so far had 43 licensees sign up for the course since April.

Published June 2, 2023.

“Every day is a struggle,” Attorney General William Tong declared last year, even if Connecticut families are strong. The Stamford Democrat took a day from the endless battle to enjoy a private flight to attend Friday’s White House celebration of the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team’s championship season.

Generous UConn donor and former state Senator Toni Boucher shared photos of the trip on her Facebook page.

State Representative Holly Cheeseman is the ranking Republican on the legislature’s finance committee. She’s sitting behind Tong. Cheeseman began the week voting to punish minority communities by supporting the installation of red light cameras in Connecticut cities and towns.

Behind Cheeseman is state Senator Mae Flexer. The district she represents includes UConn.

With budget negotiations continuing, UConn will have improved its chances for more dough from the taxpayers to cover its athletic department’s deficit by inviting legislator’s on today’s exclusive away event. Human service non-profit organizations operate at 2007 funding levels. They turned out 1,000 people at a Capitol rally on Wednesday. If only they had thought to provide budget negotiators with a couple of free plane rides.

Published May 26, 2023.

Arunan Arulampalam has released his first video ad and it provides a reminder that the Hartford Democrat running for mayor is having some trouble finding his lane. The production values in the one minute, 51 seconds advertisement are what you would expect from a well-financed campaign, though the interpreted bits of Arulampalam sitting while addressing the camera land like a series of stop signs on a short road.

The ad is lifted by a Arulampalam’s optimism but would have been sustained with some specifics. A candidate running as an outsider might have highlighted the outrageous failures of the MDC in Hartford’s North End neighborhood. The visuals would be striking, the testimonies moving. If a candidate is not running to fix that 19th century problem tormenting residents in the 21st century, he must be seeking the approval of the political establishment.

Arulampalam’s passion is education, so the former lobbyist must be saving some of those ideas for the next ad.

There’s no shame in using some voiceover talent for contrast.

Arulampalam faces state Senator John Fanfara, former state senator and retired judge Eric Coleman, and Councilman Nick Lebron in the contest for the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement in July. Treachery will be in session that night. The candidates are expected to compete in a September primary that will determines who becomes the next mayor.

Published May 26, 2023.

Legislation authorizing the Connecticut Green Bank to create and administer the Public Schools Solar Power Systems and Energy Efficiency Financing Fund advanced through the Senate Wednesday. The Office of Fiscal Analysis concluded in a fiscal note that the new program will have a significant impact on state finances. The legislation includes a $425 million bond authorization to finance energy efficiency projects.

The Green Bank was created to finance projects the private sector declined. The private sector has not been ignoring financing energy efficiency projects. The Green Bank is showing the traditional inclinations of government bureaucrats the world over: grasp, grow and intrude.

The bill provides an opportunity to address the woeful oversight of the state’s school construction grant program. The General Assembly’s loose rules for amending legislation ought to be engaged to force some sunshine on the Department of Administrative Services’s (DAS) expensive dodging of proper oversight.

After much secrecy and many delays, DAS revealed its audit of the school construction program last year. DAS’s terms of the Office of School Construction Grants & Review audit conducted by Marcum, LLP, precluded the auditors from speaking to municipalities and contractors who dealt with the program that has spent billions on financing the renovation and construction of public schools. It was a farcical exercise intended to shroud in secrecy the scandals that came to light during Governor Ned Lamont’s first term. It was, like the trial in “Bananas”, “It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham!” 

The Green Bank bill creates, in legislative parlance, a vehicle to right some wrongs. The legislation ought to be amended in the House to withhold all funds until an independent audit of the school construction grant program is conducted by a firm chosen by the legislature’s State Auditors of Public Accounts.

The audit of the DAS hazardous materials program was worse. The CT Mirror reported last month that “that more than a year’s worth of documentation was unavailable to auditors.” The DAS and Office of Policy and Management’s version of Rosemary Wood’s 18 1/2 minute gap on a White House tape recording. While federal criminal investigators may still be looking into the two programs, the legislature ought not shrug at these woulds inflicted on public confidence. Legislators should hand the hazardous material investigation to the state auditors and fund an investigation that is independent and is given a wide brief.

A collective crossing of fingers to conceal mismanagement is a betrayal of the public’s trust at a time when confidence in our institutions remains under constant attack. This is a moment to redress mistakes in school construction and related programs before authorizing hundreds of millions for a new program with no proper oversight and no urgent purpose.

Published May 25, 2023.

State Comptroller Sean Scanlon travels to New Britain. today Scanlon “will convene a roundtable to discuss mental health challenges and access to resources throughout Connecticut. The panel will also cover a broad range of topics, from child and adolescent mental health to addiction and recovery.”

Many roundtables are gabfests that recite what participants already know–with a few helpings of tut-tutting added at regular intervals. Today’s could be different if participants address one potential solution to the shortage of mental health and addiction beds in Connecticut: convert UConn Health to a mental health and addiction facility.

UConn Health continues to be a burden for the state, as Scanlon knows. Making a success of the hospital continues to confound UConn’s leadership. The search for a healthcare conglomerate to take the hospital off the state’s hands has failed. The pension costs and work rules will always be significant impediments.

Massachusetts provides a way forward. The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital opened in 2012 and provides 320 beds for 260 adults and 60 adolescents. The UConn facility in Farmington, which is new enough to require modest alterations, could serve an essential public purpose.

Published May 24, 2023.

Michael Cicchetti, former undersecretary at the Office of Policy and Management (OPM), has joined the Senate Republicans as their lead lawyer. He takes the position vacated by Jason Welch for a seat on the Superior Court. Welch was a member of the Senate Republican caucus from 2011 to 2015.

At OPM, Cicchetti served as  Chairman of the Waterbury Financial Planning and Assistance Board, helping to lead the restoration of that city’s parlous finances. Cicchetti arrives at Senate Republican Office after nearly eight years leading the Connecticut government affairs office of Frontier Communications.

Another top staff member of the caucus, Brian Cafferelli, resigned to become Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection in the Lamont administration.

Published May 23, 2023.