Diamantis Out at OPM After Nepotism Disclosure.

Konstantinos Diamantis is out at the Office of Policy and Management. The former Democratic state legislator quit after being suspended by Governor Ned Lamont over an unspecified personnel matter.

Diamantis’ abrupt exit comes four weeks after his daughter’s hiring was disclosed in my Hartford Courant column.

The departure of the influential second-in-command at the state budget office is an abrupt change. Secretary Melissa McCaw brought Diamantis into her office in 2019 despite fierce objections from inside Governor Ned Lamont’s office. McCaw won that power struggle but her victory ended today.

McCaw’s regard for Diamantis was evident in the lavish praise she showered on him in an e-mail to OPM employees announcing his appointment. Diamantis had been overseeing school construction grants at the Department of Administrative Services. He brought the school construction grant portfolio with him, though statutory authority for the shift would come later.

McCaw ceded considerable authority to Diamantis, causing widespread dismay at OPM, other state agencies, the legislature. Nowhere was Diamantis’s influence more starkly evident than at the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney. In June of last year, Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo hired Diamantis’ daughter to fill a $99,000 a year , newly created executive assistant position in his office. Anastasia Diamantis’s experience did not make her an obvious recipient of that state bauble. Colangelo interviewed only Ms. Diamantis for the position. State law required the position to be approved by both OPM and DAS.

The hiring of Anastasia Diamantis will require the Criminal Justice Commission to ask Colangelo to explain his role in a decision with corrosive effects on confidence in his office and the fair administration of justice.