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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.

December 14, 2021   10:54 am   Comments Off on More Secrets: Lamont Agreement With Harris Includes NDA.

Someone’s Asking Questions With Holiday Poll.

An alert Daily Ructions reader was asked to participate in an online Survey Monkey poll this week, The reader shared three screenshots, posted above, of the questions asked of the random participants. Each question is aimed at learning if the respondent’s opinion of Governor Ned Lamont would be affected by reports of his wife’s investment company’s interests had dealings with state government.

The issue has annoyed—and lately, infuriated—Lamont as he embarks on a bid for a second term. The Greenwich Democrat startled supporters and opponents this month when he declared that Connecticut is a complicated place to do business, causing his wife, Ann Huntress Lamont, to head to Nashville to continue to add to the Lamont family fortune.

The survey asked how likely the respondent is to vote next year, the direction the is headed, opinion, if any, of Lamont, as well as Republicans Bob Stefanowski, Themis Klarides, Heather Somers, and Susan Patricelli Regan.

Posted December 11, 2021.

December 11, 2021   5:06 am   Comments Off on Someone’s Asking Questions With Holiday Poll.

A Sir Les Patterson Christmas.

Australia’s Cultural Attache to a variety of astonished nations.

December 10, 2021   11:57 am   Comments Off on A Sir Les Patterson Christmas.

The Price of Petulance: Knox County Mayor Mocks #NashvilleNed.

He brought it on himself–and us. Governor Ned Lamont made an ill-judged complaint last week that Connecticut is a complicated place to do business, using his wife, venture capitalist Ann Huntress Lamont, was doing business in Nashville at one of the good restaurants Nashville has. The mayor of Knox County, Glenn Jacobs, took note of Lamont’s deriding Connecticut and replied with a mocking tweet.

Jacobs thanked Lamont for the compliment. Tennessee welcomes Connecticut’s investors but not our taxes and regulations, Jacobs wrote. The Tennessee Republican enjoyed a long career in professional wrestling/acting before entering politics in 2018. Expect more of this in the competition between states to woo businesses.

Posted December 7, 2021.

December 7, 2021   2:12 pm   Comments Off on The Price of Petulance: Knox County Mayor Mocks #NashvilleNed.

State Constitution Bars Legislators From Filling Comptroller Vacancy.

Put down your phones. Governor Ned Lamont has had another week of own goals. He will not want to waste time listening to the ambitions of legislators who the Constitution bans from filling the vacancy created by the resignation of State Comptroller Kevin Lembo.

Read Article Third, Section 11. No member of the general assembly shall, during the term for which he is elected, hold or accept any appointive position or office in the judicial or executive department of the state government, or in the courts of the political subdivisions of the state, or in the government of any county. No member of congress, no person holding any office under the authority of the United States and no person holding any office in the judicial or executive department of the state government or in the government of any county shall be a member of the general assembly during his continuance in such office.

State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-Guilford) wants Lamont to select a placeholder, someone who will pledge not to throw her or his full energy into the job with an eye on the 2022 campaign. Scanlon is said, Daily Ructions understand, to have the backing of Senator Chris Murphy. Scanlon, who won a plum job in the hackerama when his Democratic friends appointed him as executive director of Tweed New Haven airport, may want to have a quiet word with Simsbury Democrat Mary Messina Glassman about the limits of Murphy’s patronage.

December 4, 2021   2:51 pm   Comments Off on State Constitution Bars Legislators From Filling Comptroller Vacancy.

Anastasia Diamantis Omitted Construction Company Job From Resume.

Anastasia Diamantis, Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo’s $104,000 year executive assistant, submitted an incomplete resume when she applied for the Division of Criminal Justice job that is a growing embarrassment for Governor Ned Lamont’s administration. Diamantis failed to include her job with a construction company that had a no-bid contract to build a Tolland elementary school. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS), which runs the state’s school construction grant program was deeply involved in the project.

The CT Mirror‘s Mark Pazniokas reports today that Anastasia Diamantis was employed by Construction Advocacy Professionals while it worked on the planning and construction of Birch Grove Primary School in 2019 and 2020. Anastasia Diamantis’s father, Kostantinos Diamantis, was in charge of school construction grants at the time. He reported to DAS Commissioner Josh Geballe.

Colangelo told the Mirror that he was aware of Anastasia Diamantis’s part-time job, though he would not have known about it from her resume. It makes no mention of her construction industry job.

The Birch Grove project raised concerns when Tolland officials waived traditional bidding to replace the elementary school. They had discovered in late 2018 that the building’s foundation was defective due to the presence of pyrrhotite mineral.

“Everyone has been pushing this along,” Tolland Councilman Louis Luba said, according to a 2019 Journal Inquirer story. “The sense of urgency has overridden their obligation of due diligence and we are sacrificing proper practices for the sake of expediency.” In the same story, Fred Carstensen, professor of finance and economics and the director for the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut, called the process “messy.”

The construction contract for the school was awarded to D’Amato Construction Company, Inc., of Bristol. Kostantinos Diamantis represented Bristol while he served in the House of Representatives. D’Amato had a thin history of building schools before it was awarded the Birch Grove contract. The decision to abandon bids raised serious concerns from building trades unions.

Between the discovery of the pyrrhotite in the school foundation at the end of December 2018 and a local bond referendum to approve the construction of a new school on May 7, 2019, there was time to seek proposals in an orderly manner that would have benefited the public and preserved the integrity of the system for awarding construction contracts.

Diamantis kept control of the school construction grants program when his friend Melissa McCaw, Lamont’s budget director, appointed him as her deputy in 2019. Lamont’s inexplicable consent to the move will likely cause him considerable embarrassment in the year ahead.

Kostantinos Diamantis was suspended from his influential position at OPM after this column revealing his daughter’s job with Colangelo appeared in the Hartford Courant. Diamantis retired and delivered an ugly assessment of Lamont’s top advisers.

December 3, 2021   6:52 pm   Comments Off on Anastasia Diamantis Omitted Construction Company Job From Resume.

Kevin Lembo Expected to Announce Resignation Today.

Three term State Comptroller Kevin Lembo is expected to announce his resignation today, Daily Ructions has learned. The Guilford Democrat had not disclosed if he would seek a fourth term in 2022. That announcement was expected this month.

Lembo won his party’s endorsement at its 2010 convention and won a convincing victory in that summer’s Democratic primary. He was the state’s healthcare advocate at the time.

Lembo’s relationship with Dannel P. Malloy’s administration could be frosty during the Stamford Democrats two terms. Lembo has been frustrated at Governor Ned Lamont’s reluctance to support Lembo’s plans to have the state compete with private health insurance companies.

Posted Friday, December 3, 2021.

December 3, 2021   10:44 am   Comments Off on Kevin Lembo Expected to Announce Resignation Today.

Mistrial. Judge Stops Trial After Jurors Complain Luxenberg Viewed Them Online.

A stunning morning in a Hartford courtroom. Judge Stuart Rosen declared a mistrial in Geoffrey Luxenberg v. Michael Farina. The case, filed in 2019, is a dispute over the payments Luxenberg claims Farina owed him from the operation of Vinci Group, a well-known Democratic campaign consulting firm.

The trial was expected to reach the jury this afternoon for deliberations. The schedule was upended Thursday morning when jurors notified Judge Rosen of an issue. At least one juror discovered that Luxenberg had viewed his or her LinkdIn profile while the trial was going on.

Judge Rosen, whose background in private practice is in civil litigation, is known to have a calm disposition. Daily Ructions understands that he was visibly dismayed at Luxenberg’s actions. Jurors are a no-go zone in Connecticut and every other jurisdiction that honors the rule of law.

Posted Thursday, December 2, 2021.

December 2, 2021   3:36 pm   Comments Off on Mistrial. Judge Stops Trial After Jurors Complain Luxenberg Viewed Them Online.

A Rare Request from State Government: Don’t Spend That Money!

Uh-oh, legislative employees. That overpayment is not yours to spend.

December 1, 2021   6:17 pm   Comments Off on A Rare Request from State Government: Don’t Spend That Money!

UPDATE: Sampson Says He Did Not Sign Letter to America Seeking 50 State Audit of 2020 Election. Nevertheless, Praises Organizer of Letter.

UPDATE: Senator Rob Sampson writes in a Wednesday afternoon statement that he was in touch with Looney Letter to America organizer Wendy Rogers but did not give his permission to include his name.

Here is Sampson’s statement, including praise of Rogers:

“It’s come to my attention that it is being reported that I have added my name to Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers Letter calling for a 50-state audit of the 2020 election.

“I have not signed this letter. In late October, I had my legislative assistant contact Senator Rogers in response to inquiries from several constituents suggesting I should sign on.  We followed up by email to Senator Rogers asking her to provide us with a copy of the letter, her justification for requiring an audit of all 50 states, and any evidence she had collected in support of that effort.  

“She responded by letting me know that nearly 200 other legislators had signed the letter and to reply by email if I wished to be added. There were no answers to my questions and no evidence provided so I chose not to.  

“My duty and responsibility is to my constituents right here in our state.  Anyone following election law and process in our state knows that I am loudest and most committed voice fighting for election integrity in Connecticut. I serve as the ranking Republican member of the Government Administration and Elections committee and year after year, I have proposed legislation for audits, for photo identification, for signature verification, and for improving our election system so that the results are something every person regardless of their political party can and will trust. 

“It is true that our state has significant election integrity issues, particularly with mail-in voting – which I have detailed in hours of senate debate, but they are different from the issues in Arizona and around the country.  I appreciate Senator Rogers’ efforts to draw attention to election integrity.  However, find it improper to call for the decertification of any election without first providing proof.”

Original Post: It is a roll call of the anti-democratic furies. State Senator Rob Sampson (R-Southington) joined 285 deluded Republican state legislators to call for a “forensic audit” of each state’s 2020 election results. Their goal: restore the loathsome demagogue Donald Trump to the presidency.

The letter bases the call on the strange audit of Arizona’s 2020 results. Arizona voters awarded their electoral votes to Joseph Biden, an election night Fox News call that threw Trump and his enablers into a right royal state. The Arizona audit found that Biden’s vote had been slightly undercounted.

Sampson is the only Connecticut legislator to sign the letter to everyone in general and no one in particular. One more shriek of a cult at war with modernity and democracy.

The screed was organized by Arizona state legislator Wendy Rogers.

Published November 24, 2021.

November 24, 2021   11:46 am   Comments Off on UPDATE: Sampson Says He Did Not Sign Letter to America Seeking 50 State Audit of 2020 Election. Nevertheless, Praises Organizer of Letter.