More Secrets: Lamont Agreement With Harris Includes NDA.

Why so secret? Governor Ned Lamont’s administration entered into a settlement agreement with former Department of Public Health (DPH) spokesman Av Harris–and it includes a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Harris was sidelined during the height of the pandemic last year and fired early this year. Harris claimed in a lawsuit against the Lamont administration that he was fired in “retaliation for his questioning the legality of a Dec. 29 order by a DPH superior that he contact city officials he knew in Bridgeport, where he’d worked, to obtain police information about a sports bar that DPH planned to cite for a COVID-related violation,” Jon Lender reported in March.

Harris, a former reporter, became a bitter critic of Lamont, mocking the Greenwich Democrat with tales of life in the administration in media appearances. Harris’s knowledge threatened to become a more serious problem for Lamont during his re-election campaign.

The settlement reached this month allows Harris to vest in the state’s pension system.

Harris had claimed he was protected by the state’s whistleblower protections for employees. The details of a firing of a public employee in retaliation for an act that embarrasses or angers officials is of interest to the public.

Published December 14, 2021.