Friends of Bridgeport Democrat Wanda Geter-Pataky will gather Thursday at 5 p.m. to protest “bias and injustice” as Geter-Pataky “faces allegations of ballot box tampering.” Organizers decry the media attention paid to a video of Geter-Pataky, an enthusiastic supporter of Bridgeport’s mayor, Joseph Ganim, appearing to make repeated deposits of absentee ballots in a ballot box located outside at the Margaret Morton Government Center.

“The black community believes that her case has received undue media scrutiny when compared to a white woman who engaged in similar alleged misconduct but remained largely untouched be the media’s spotlight.” The media is invited to Thursday’s event.

The spotlight is the result of the proliferation of cameras monitoring the ballot drop-boxes. The video of Geter-Pataky is made for a a social media age. She raised the attention her role received when she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she testified in Ganim rival John Gomes’ court challenge to Ganim’s September primary win by 251 vote.

Published October 18, 2023.

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This week’s guest is Chief Justice Richard Robinson.

Now and then, a story comes along that almost writes itself with primary documents. On Monday, October 16th, MDC Commissioner Andrew Adil sent an extraordinary email message to MDC CEO Scott Jellison. Adil complaining that his son Austin was suddenly terminated from the employment agency the MDC uses for seasonal conservation officers. The email is below and it tells a discouraging tale of entitlement and abuse of authority. It also reveals a misfire. 

Jellison’s reply, sent Tuesday afternoon, does not spare Adil or Austin. It sets forth the years MDC hired Austin. The message also discloses that claims for unemployment benefits by Austin and other temporary seasonal workers applied for and received unemployment benefits after the season ended. The MDC did not oppose their claims. 

As a result of those unemployment claims, the MDC switched to hiring seasonal workers through an employment agency. “MDC’s need for 2023 seasonal/temporary staff has ended,” Jellison writes to the grasping Adil. 

An intervention of this sort by a commissioner for his child (after six years of seasonal employment by MDC) ought to infuriate MDC commissioners, who are copied on Jellison’s carefully written and lethal message. This not how the regional water authority ought to work. Jellison kindly does not include the word grifter but it’s the only descriptive one he left out to rebuke and indict Adil. 

Adil was appointed to his MDC position by Governor Ned Lamont, who should demand his resignation by the time he reaches the end of this post. 

Andrew Adil’s email:

Scott, 

As you know, my son Austin was working with the temp agency that covered Reservoir 1 & 6 along with Barkhamsted.  He was grateful for the position and strived to be the best Conservation Officer they had.  

Late last week he was informed that the agency was no longer needed effective (essentially) immediately.  

Please provide me with a detailed explanation of how this occurred.  

As a Commissioner I’m deeply concerned and if this happened as I’m told it did, truthfully embarrassed to be part of an organization that would do that to a contractor which provided us with such excellent service.  In my son’s case, he never missed a day or work, even when he had woken up just hours before reporting to work suffering from food poisoning!  The people he worked with were very pleased with his work ethic and he is rewarded by being told last Thursday with essentially no notice that they had been terminated?  

I don’t believe that the MDC should not be doing business this way.  We have had an excellent reputation in the community for many many years.  I hope that this is not some indication of business methods to come.  Thank you.  

Sincerely,

Commissioner Adil 

Scott Jellison’s reply-which included the bold italics:

Commissioner,

Thank you for your email below, I apologize for the delayed response.

I am not sure what actions, if any, you are requesting of me as the CEO. You are an MDC Commissioner, and father of a seasonal/temporary summer employee retained by the MDC who was employed in the past through the MDC’s College Intern Program (2017-2020) and more recently through a private temporary employment agency (2022-2023).  I note that your email makes specific references to your son, his work attendance, his work ethic, and his “termination”. It is unclear to me whether your email is an attempt to influence my decisions as the CEO to make business decisions for the MDC, or merely informational. 

For years the MDC has retained college interns and seasonal/temporary staff. As noted, your son has benefited from this initiative. As I have done for many others, and without any guarantee of employment, I tried to guide you and your son with recommendations on which college courses and programs could help him qualify for applying to a permanent MDC position, including identifying minimum qualifications for taking and passing the CT DPH Water Treatment Operator certification test. 

And yet more recently, even though your son was no longer enrolled in college, and therefore not qualified to work under the MDC Intern summer program, at the request of others, MDC rehired your son in 2019 as seasonal/temporary summer staff at the Water Treatment Facility. 

In 2020, again at the request of others, Austin was hired as a seasonal/temporary summer Water Treatment Plant Maintainer thru August.

To our surprise, in September 2020, some of those individuals, including Austin, applied for and received unemployment benefits after only working 3-4 months for the MDC. While we did not contest the application for benefits, we addressed this situation prospectively by moving away from directly retaining part-time staff to working through a temporary employment agency. Contrary to your assumptions in your email, we continue to use a temp agency, which brings the added benefit of flexibility to add or reduce staffing levels, on a real-time basis, as necessary to meet the needs of the MDC.  Austin was, and I assume continues to be, employed by that same agency.

MDC’s need for 2023 seasonal/temporary staff has ended. This was an administrative business decision supported by the program’s administrator and based upon the resource needs of the MDC.

As to notice regarding your son’s “termination”,  as well as others which you haven’t raised the same concerns, because the needs of the MDC’s resources may change on a weekly, perhaps daily basis, there is no specific requirements of prior notice to the temp agency when we decide to increase or reduce temporary staff. In fact, one of the benefits of using a temp agency is the fact that they have staff readily available to meet our needs, and in turn, can reassign its personnel to other clients as necessary. 

For your information, MDC has been very consistent in reducing staff “termination” starting in September right after labor day.  This year 6 staff were secured through the temp agency and in September, 2 staff were relieved of duty, not Austin. As you indicated your son, as well as 2 other temp agency staff, were relieved of their duty last Friday, Oct 13, 2023. The remaining individual will also be relieved at the appropriate time in November.

I trust this addresses your concerns.

Thank you

Scott W. Jellison, P.E.

Jellison’s email does more than address Adil’s concerns. It raises far more serious ones for commission members, leaders of member towns and Governor Lamont.

Jellison leaves one question without an answer: Who are these “others”?

Published October 18, 2023.

For something completely different, read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is Chief Justice Richard Robinson.

The Wall Street Journal’s Alyssia Finley includes a rant from a Connecticut union leader at a New Haven anti-Israel rally in a column analyzing the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) disappointing response to the October 7th slaughter and kidnapping of Israelis by Hamas terrorists.

Finley writes:

“Our bosses, our government want us to think [Hamas] are enemies of working class people, but they are not,” Kooper Caraway, executive director of the SEIU Connecticut State Council, exclaimed at an anti-Israel rally in New Haven, Conn. “Our enemies are the CEOs,” and “our comrades are in Gaza,” he added before denouncing capitalism, “colonialism” and “occupation.”

The Wall Street Journal is widely read, particularly by capitalists. Caraway’s characterization of Hamas will add to their impression of Connecticut as a place hostile to business. Worse, absent universal denouncements, Caraway’s declaration portrays Connecticut as home to influential actors who have abandoned decency.

Published October 16, 2023.

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For something completely different, read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is Chief Justice Richard Robinson.

Shhhhh, Attorney General William Tong did not want you to read about this. His Firewall PAC solicited contributors by phone, no emails allowed.

Tong is on maneuvers. He held a similar leave-no-fingreprints fundraising event in Fairfield on September 27th at the Brooklawn Country Club, where “modest bathing suits are required in the pool/pool area” and “all baseball caps must be worn in the proper forward position.” An odd–or maybe not–venue for Tong to hold an event. Here is its philosophy of membership: “Brooklawn is a private club that seeks new members through personal connections with current members. Potential members must be sponsored and endorsed by current Brooklawn members known to them.” [Emphasis included on the club’s website, Thurston.] Requiring member references is a traditional manner of thwarting racial diversity in private clubs.

Tong has made much of seeking a role civil rights actions. Holding a fundraiser at private country club suggests his commitment to civil rights may have limitations.

One contributor of note was Arthur Linares, former Republican state senator. Linares is now owner of Connecticut Social Equity, LLC, an entity doing business in the highly regulated cannabis industry. Linares made a maximum $1,000.00 contribution. Linares is also raising money for Republican Chris Christie’s faltering presidential campaign.

Tong’s PAC raised $70,000 in the third quarter of this year. Its haul included few small donors.

Tonight’s event will be at Carbone’s Kitchen in Bloomfield, where one need not provide references to dine. This event also featured invitations by phone only. Ticket sales are said to be brisk.

The competition between Tong and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz to extract commitments from activist Democrats for 2026 is said to have caught the attention of the state’s leading Democrat–and he is not pleased.

Published October 11, 2023.

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Read and subscribe to this week’s edition of my Substack newsletter, Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is Bob Brown, the much-awarded ABC NEWS 20/20 reporter.

Former state senator and 2018 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor Joe Markley has dealt a blow to mindless political tribalism in Southington. Markley released a riveting and reasoned 10 minute YouTube video in which he calmly, thoroughly explains the abandonment of all standards of appropriate conduct in the leadership of the Southington party leadership.

Markley brings his customary calm married to a precise statement of facts to delivering a devastating indictment of local party leaders. One need not live in Southington to find the video instructive.

This is how it is done.

Published October 10, 2023.

Superior Court Judge Willam Clark has issued a pre-trial order. Evidence shall begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 12th. The order requires the plaintiff to provide a list of exhibits and witnesses for the first three days of trial by October 10th.

Governor Ned Lamont will appoint Ronnell Higgins, former Chief of Police at Yale University as the state’s new Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). Higgins became associate vice president of public safety and community engagement at Yale last year.

The announcement Wednesday that Higgins will replace Commissioner James Rovella has been carefully timed to draw a line under more revelations about conduct in the ranks of the State Police.

Colonel Stavros Mellekas is also expected to be replaced.

The State Police has been a nettlesome problem for Lamont. Republican Bob Stefanowski had only one line in his 2018 rematch with Lamont that irked the Greenwich Democrat. It was troopers’ vote of no-confidence in Lamont. That sealed Rovella’s fate. An ongoing scandal over motor vehicle tickets continues to cause dismay within the administration. More unhappy surprises are expected to follow–and you won’t need your GPS to track them.

Published October 4, 2023.

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Video of candidates and John Gomes supporters placing ballots in two Bridgeport absentee boxes provide a sample of the bewildering amount of evidence Superior Court Judge William Clark is likely to see in the litigation over the result of the September 12th Democratic primary for mayor.

The results are being challenged by Gomes, who claims incumbent Joseph Ganim’s 251-vote win was obtained through fraudulent absentee ballots. Members of Team Gomes are seen in a video compilation depositing ballots in two of the city’s four absentee ballot boxes.

Thousands of hours of video have been provided to the Gomes legal team. Thousands of absentee ballot applications, envelopes and ballots have also been turned over to the parties. Bridgeport police officials have objected to some disclosures ordered by Judge Clark. They claim they would interfere with an ongoing investigation.

Published October 3, 2023.

Read and subscribe to my new Substack newsletter, Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s edition features Army veteran and Afghan Digital Dunkirk leader Alex Plitsas.

Avangrid, which aspires to become “the leading sustainable energy company in the United States,” has terminated its agreement to build wind power turbines in Long Island Sound. The announcement came from the Connecticut-based company Monday evening.

The company, with $41 billion in assets and operations in 24 states, wrote:

“One year ago, Avangrid was the first offshore wind developer in the United States to make public the unprecedented economic headwinds facing the industry including record inflation, supply chain disruptions, and sharp interest rate hikes, the aggregate impact of which rendered the Park City Wind project unfinanceable under its existing contracts.

“Since that time, Avangrid has been transparent and collaborative, working diligently with state and federal officials and stakeholders to find solutions to the economic challenges facing Park City Wind as we continued to advance the permitting and development of the project. After exploring all potential solutions to the financial challenges facing the project, and engaging in good-faith and productive discussions with Connecticut state officials regarding these challenges, it is clear the best path forward for Park City Wind is in the termination of the Power Purchase Agreements and a rebid of the project.

“Pursuant to the contracts, Avangrid and the Connecticut Electric Distribution Companies have agreed to terminate the PPAs which will allow all parties an opportunity to pursue an expedient path forward.”

The CT Mirror provided a primer on the Park City project and the state of wind power development generally last spring. Read it here.

Published October 3, 2023.

For something completely different, read my Substack newsletter, Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. This week’s guest is Army veteran and Digital Dunkirk refugee leader Alex Plitsas.

Middletown’s distinctive brand of politics is in full view Monday evening. Some members of the Common Council continue to complain that Chief of Police Erik Costa has not met the city charter’s requirement that he live in Middletown—as Costa’s one year extension to meet the requirement expires this week.

Costa has rented an apartment, establishing his residency. The mewling continues among some council members. Their arguments require translation into Middletown-speak. the Common Council groans under the influence of retired members of the clubby local constabulary. Costa is an outside hire. That sets off alarms among the many Middletown insiders who like the chief to come from the ranks of the insider caucus.

Apartment dwellers are residents too. They enjoy all the rights invested in those who live in single family homes.

Former state budget director Melissa McCaw rented an apartment in Hartford when she was that city’s finance director and was required to be a city resident. Her husband and children did not move to Hartford with her. Middletown has not been home to an official as powerful as McCaw for years. She left the Lamont administration in early 2022 for a fresh start in East Hartford.

Before council members contort the plain meaning of in pursuit of their petty agenda they might ask each other, ”Are our spouses residents of Middletown?”

Published October 2, 2023.