Even the noble State Contracting Standards Board can become the home of a rat’s nest. Raised Bill 473, An Act Concerning the State Contracting Standards Board, creates an unusual exception for the Board’s executive director. It allows the Governor to appoint as executive director a retired executor director. There may soon be someone who fits the description.

David L. Guay, the board’s current executive director, is expected to retire soon. This legislation would make Guay eligible to continue in or return to his position as executive director if Governor Lamont chose to appoint him.

Disappointing that the board, which does consistently excellent work, would engage in a bid for an exemption from rules. But here it is:

Sec. 4. Subsections (f) to (h), inclusive, of section 4e-2 of the general

213  statutes are repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof

214  (Effective July 1, 2022):

215  (f) The Governor shall appoint an executive director of the board who

216  shall serve as an ex-officio, nonvoting member of the board. The

217  executive director shall be appointed in accordance with the provisions

218  of section 4-7 and may be removed from office for reasonable cause, in

219  accordance with chapter 67. The board may recommend that the

220  Governor appoint as executive director a person who has retired from

221  state service after serving as the executive director of the board. 

Published March 25, 2022.

Attorney General William Tong began his re-election campaign with a two-minute online ad. Tong maintains the oddly grim mood that pervaded his 2018 ads. Even surrounded by his children in their school uniforms getting ready for the school run, the Stamford maintains a sullen tone, telling viewers “every day is a struggle.”

Tong’s pessimism suggests not much progress has been made in Connecticut the past four years.

There is no joy in Tong’s Connecticut. Expect Governor Ned Lamont, also a Fairfield County Democrat, to sound more cheerful when he begins his first advertising blitz this spring.

Meanwhile, Republicans, who have not elected an attorney general in more than 60 years, have a candidate. Jessica Kordas, a Norwalk lawyer, has entered the race. Kordas, a criminal defense attorney, has recently become involved in local politics.

Published March 25, 2022.

Democratic congressional hopeful Muad Hrezi has caught the attention of the Federal Election Commission. In a March 13th letter, the FEC asked for an explanation of two salary payments made to Hrezi by his campaign.

Hrezi’s paid himself $1,500 on October 5th and another $1,500 on November 3rd. The payments violate the FEC’s rules against “personal use of campaign funds by the candidate.” Hrezi’s campaign finance report noted that the two payments were “Salary (to be paid back to committee).”

The $3,000 could be seen as a loan to the candidate but that would also be a violation of federal campaign finance laws. Hrezi’s error was in not waiting longer. Remarkably, a candidate may draw a salary from his or her own campaign committee after the last day to qualify for a primary. In Connecticut this year, that’s June 7th this year.

Hrezi hopes to force an August primary against 12-term incumbent John Larson. Democratic town committees are in the process of selecting delegates to the May nominating convention. Hrezi will need the support of 15% of the convention delegates or the signatures of 2% of the registered Democrats in the First District.

At moments like this the relationship between a campaign treasurer and a candidate can become adversarial. “The committee must,” according to the FEC letter, “seek reimbursement for the full amount of the personal use violation(s) from the candidate and notify the Commission of such a reimbursement.”

Muad for Congress has until April 18th to respond to the FEC letter.

Published March 22, 2022.

Ed Sullivan celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with Pat Rooney, Maureen O’Hara (who knew how to put over Danny Boy) and the great Rosemary Clooney.

And have a bit of Derry Girls. Sister Michael is a marvel–Protestants and Catholics can agree.

Published March 17, 2022, don’t you know.

State Senator Bob Duff spent the Friday of the Ritter Big East Break in his hometown of Norwalk. The Democrat, a source reports, has a notorious local reputation for ignoring red lights.

On Friday at noon, a local driver who has witnessed Duff flouting the law in the past, saw the Senate majority leader at it again. All the ingredients were there at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and Main Street: red light, traffic, white Subaru with legislative license plate, and the privileged driver.

A driver nearby thought if the past is any predictor of future performance, Duff was about to do it again. The driver aimed his phone and recorded Duff ignoring the traffic signal and turning left. What were the chances? Close to a sure thing.

Your instincts are right, Daily Ructions readers. The dog in the backseat seems more alert to the surroundings than the driver does.

Posted March 12, 2022.

The CT Mirror’s Dave Altimari adds a clearer lens to the growing school construction scandal. The people of Bristol complained that their community was not served by a proper highway. No more. The Bristol-Tolland express served some well-connected traffic.

Altimari’s revelation leaves in tatters Governor Ned Lamont’s churlish claim that we must be careful about calling this a scandal. Nevertheless, some dare not call it a scandal if it might affect this November’s state election.

The no-bid contract to replace Tolland’s Brich Grove Primary School was very, very good to Bristol’s D’Amato Construction Company. It had never built a school until it mysteriously snagged the $46 million Tolland project in 2019. We learned last month from Dr. Walter Willett, Tolland’s superintendent, that Kostantinos Diamantis, the head of the state’s school construction grants program, bullied Tolland into using D’Amato and Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP).

What a school construction roll D’Amato was on in 2019. The company also won a Bristol school construction bid for the Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School Project (though it was not the lowest bidder). One member of Bristol’s building committee was Stephan Masotti of Masotti Electric. He cast some helpful votes for D’Amato Construction as a member of the committee.

Several months later, according to Altimari, Masotti Electric received a $2.4 million contract from D’Amato on the Tolland project. What are the odds? “He’s a Bristol guy, and his company has done work for us for more than 30 years,” Tony D’Amato told Altimari. “There’s absolutely no correlation between the two projects. We use his company all of the time.” That declaration is unlikely to be helpful to either D’Amato or Masotti.

D’Amato and Marotto, of course, are from Bristol. Diamantis represented Bristol in the state House of Representatives. Antonietta Roy, owner of CAP, began her business in Bristol. They are, among other things, a vivid reminder of the corrosive nature of no-bid contracts.

The federal criminal investigation continues as potential witnesses submit to interviews by assistant U.S. attorneys, FBI agents, and IRS investigators. D’Amato and Diamantis have denied any wrongdoing.

Published March 9, 2022.

Hostility to competitive bidding in the Lamont administration was documented in a December Department of Administrative Services (DAS) internal memorandum.

DAS project manager Lisa Humble wrote a detailed memo about a nine-minute December 8, 2021 telephone conversation with Mike Sanders, a member of the Hazardous Materials Expertise staff at DAS. Humble was relaying a request from Keith Epstein, Vice President of Infrastructure, Planning & Real Estate at the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU). Epstein was seeking three bids for the Haz-Mat demolition and remediation work at Norwalk Community College.

Sanders was not interested in providing more thanone bid—-from DAS favorite Asbestos Abatement and Insulation Services (AAIS). Sanders, according to Humble’s memorandum, said there was no need to obtain more bids. No company would offer a better deal than AAIS.

AAIS, according to the CT Mirror’s Dave Altimari, received 70% of the state’s hazardous waste and asbestos abatement contracts from 2017. AAIS appeared on a 2016 list of companies that could be used for no-bid emergency contracts. Abuse of the list grew as it was regularly used for contacts that did not involve emergencies. No-bid contracts raised no alarms in the Lamont administration, which has been hostile to tradition notions of transparency.

Sanders died under “suspicious circumstances” of a drug overdose in Old Saybrook, according to police. nine days after his conversation with Humble.

Humble’s memorandum suggests that the failure to of DAS to engage in traditional competitive bidding had begun to engage the attention of DAS employees. A memo to a file, however, is unlikely to attract much notice. It does raise the question of why Josh Geballe, the DAS commissioner who resigned this month, seemed unaware of an alleged contract steering scheme in his department for the three years he was in charge.

Posted March 8, 2022.

The state legislature’s finance and education committees will hold a rare joint meeting to learn more about the school construction financing scandal dogging the Lamont administration. The committees will hear from Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Commissioner Michelle Gilman and Noel Petra, Deputy Commissioner of Real Estate and Construction Services.

If Gilman’s Tuesday confirmation hearing is an indication of the answers she will offer Monday, legislators will have to persist in seeking substantive responses to their questions. Word salads have become the dish of choice for Governor Ned Lamont and his officials when facing questions about the alleged contract steering scheme.

Here are some questions legislators may want to ask:

According to a review by the CT Mirror, two contractors, AAIS and Bestech, “got all but 15 of the 284 purchase orders issued by the state for hazardous waste disposal and demolition from fiscal year 2017 through 2022.” Why did no one at DAS notice that one of those companies, AAIS, was getting more than 70% of those contracts? If they did notice, why did no one say something? You can see the Causes, Effects, Consequences, and Solutions of Illegal Dumping here

Commissioner Gilman offered considerable praise for former budget secretary Melissa McCaw when Lamont announced her resignation on February 25th. Is she satisfied with McCaw’s oversight of the school construction grants program?

After months of questions, no one from DAS or the governor’s office has explained one fundamental decision: How and why was D’Amato Construction, which had never built a school, chosen from the start as the contractor for the $46 million Birch Grove School in Tolland? Will you please tell us?

Tolland’s superintendent, Dr. Walter Willett, said Kostantinos Diamantis, – former head of the school construction grant program, told him there would be problems with the Birch Grove School project if the town did not hire D’Amato and Construction Advocacy Professions (CAP). Why do you think Tolland officials felt they had no one in authority to turn to rescue them from those alleged threats?

How can you be certain that the same people at DAS who appeared to have noticed nothing about this growing scandal are capable of initiating and overseeing changes in it?

Mr. Petra is a vocal opponent of oversight, as shown by his harsh criticism of the State Properties Review Board that has saved taxpayers millions. Do you share his hostility to independent oversight?

Why is DAS auditing records of projects only from 2018 when federal investigators have subpoenaed state records from January 1, 2022?

On NBC Connecticut’s Face the Facts this weekend, Commissioner Gilman told reporter Mike Hydeck that the governor raised concerns about moving the school construction grant program to OPM. How and to whom did he raise those concerns? Was it a mistake for Governor Lamont to allow the program to move to OPM with Mr. Diamantis?

How many people at DAS typically work on a school construction project?

Were DAS employees afraid to cross Mr. Diamantis?

What happens to portable classrooms when a town is done using them?

Have any DAS employees been interviewed by federal criminal investigators? Have any received a subpoena to appear before the grand jury empaneled to investigate corruption in the Lamont administration? 

What will you do if any DAS employee refuses to cooperate with federal criminal investigators?

How long did it take for DAS to provide investigators information sought in the federal subpoena? How long will it take DAS to provide that information to anyone seeking it under the Freedom of Information Act? 

How long does it take DAS to respond to a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act? What have you done so far to improve DAS’s response to FOI requests?

Daily Ructions readers looking for smart daily summary of events in tyranny’s assault on freedom will want to subscribe to the BBC’s Ukrainecast. You can use this link or download it on the podcast app of your choice.

Ukrainecast helps sort through what we want to believe and what we ought to know as the Ukrainians continue to hold high the torch of freedom in the face of brute force. They are fighting for us.

Published March 4, 2022.

Michelle Gilman, the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and the state’s former deputy chief operating officer, is scheduled for a confirmation hearing Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. on her nomination to lead DAS. It is an unprecedented time of scandal at the agency as a federal criminal investigation examining the state’s school construction grants program continues.

The hearing before Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee will provide legislators an opportunity to ask what Gilman knows about the investigation and what she will do to repair the agency’s deteriorating reputation.

Here are questions members might consider asking:

Former budget secretary Melissa McCaw complained of her treatment by members of Governor Lamont’s staff. Were you aware of that treatment? Did you say something when you saw something? If so, what and to whom?

Were you aware of the way other people were treated by Governor Lamont’s top advisers? Did you say something when you saw something?

In January 2019, Tolland officials learned D’Amato Construction of Bristol was going to be the contractor on the $46 million Birch Grove Primary School construction project. How did that happen? Who in addition to Kostantinos Diamantis was involved in that decision?

Was it a mistake for Josh Geballe to serve as both commissioner of DAS and the state’s chief operating officer at the same time?

You served as deputy chief operating officer in Governor Lamont’s office. Did Mr. Geballe fail to supervise adequately the school construction program before he agreed to transfer it to the Office of Policy and Management? 

The agreement to transfer school construction to OPM along with Mr. Diamantis highlighted efficiencies and synergies that would benefit the program. What were those?

Was Governor Lamont mistaken to allow the transfer of school construction program from DAS to OPM in 2019? Should the legislature have enacted a change in the law before the transfer occurred? 

Have any DAS employees been interviewed by federal criminal investigators? Have any received a subpoena to appear before the grand jury empaneled to investigate corruption in the Lamont administration? 

What will you do if any DAS employee refuses to cooperate with federal criminal investigators?

How long did it take for DAS to provide investigators information sought in the federal subpoena? How long will it take DAS to provide that information to anyone seeking it under the Freedom of Information Act? 

How long does it take DAS to respond to a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act? What have you done so far to improve DAS’s response to FOI requests?

What is the cost in public trust of DAS’s slow response to requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act? 

On January 19, 2019, two members of the DAS staff met with Tolland officials six days after outgoing Commissioner Currey authorized the waiving of competitive bidding in the construction of the Birch Grove Primary School. Two principals of D’Amato Construction also attended that meeting. Who invited them? Why were Tolland officials told D’Amato was their construction company? 

If the federal criminal investigation determines that public money was paid to contractors as part of an illegal contact steering scheme, what will you do to recover those funds?

In August of 2010, then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a report saying that Ms. Bysiewicz’s office maintained an “inappropriate” database with 36,000 names in it containing personal information about citizens, including their race and religion. The report said there was a “reasonable perception”that the database, funded by the taxpayers, was developed “for political campaign purposes.”

You were then-Secretary of the State’s chief of staff during the period covered by the attorney general’s report. What was your role in developing, maintaining, and utilizing this database?

The attorney general’s report in 2010 named you as one of three employees who had a computer password that was used in 2007 to improperly upload 6,700 names from Ms. Bysiewicz’s 2006 re-election campaign database into her state office database.  Did you upload the names? What knowledge do you have about how those names were uploaded into the database?

Do you believe that the taxpayer funded database in the Secretary of the State’s Office was proper? 

As DAS commissioner, what would you do if you found out that such a database was being maintained in the Department of Administrative Services?

Do you have any regrets about your handling of that political database in the Secretary of the State’s office?

Posted February 28, 2022.