Wagner-Katz Texts Demean Walker and Fasano.
Former Office of Policy and Management (OPM) official Natalie Wagner and Joette Katz, the former commissioner of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) carried on an intense, opinionated text message exchange in 2017 and 2018 that came to the attention of Lamont administration officials early this year. The two expressed demeaning opinions of state Representative Toni Walker (D-New Haven) and state Senator Len Fasano (R-North Haven) over the legislators’ opposition to a controversial and expensive proposal to end the Juan F. consent agreement that has kept a federal monitor in place at DCF for decades.
Wagner and Katz speculated on a sexual relationship between the two legislators in their malicious messages. After Katz reviewed Walker and Fasano at a hearing, she texted Wagner, “Just watched Len and tony (sic) from yesterday. Why don’t they just get a room” Wagner replied, “Maybe they have”.
Two weeks later, Wagner texted Katz, “Len was channeling DTrump (sic) with his excessive alternative facts. And I think Toni’s remarks were some kind of code about where they should meet up for an afternoon delight.” The sexual innuendo between a man and a woman working together on an issue is the sort of anti-feminist trope that women have had to overcome for decades. Some would be surprised to see it coming from Wagner and Katz. Others would not.
The messages between Katz and Wagner came to light when lawyers for a litigant with a matter against DCF sought Katz’s texts. Some became available only after the former high court justice turned in her phone at the end of her controversial tenure at DCF as the Malloy administration came to a conclusion. Katz’s message is shaded in the exchange above.
Wagner left the Malloy administration in 2018 to join the Hartford law firm Shipman & Goodwin. She left private practice to become the number two person at OPM early this year. Wagner’s leaving that post was announced in a terse email in early February–after the discovery of the text messages.