In This Issue:

CT Agency Corner

Municipal Roundup

Inside Scoop

This Day in CT History

This Week's News:

Conley named Screening Committee Chair...

CT is no longer the richest state by one key measure...

Governor Lamont Announces Plans To Appoint Andrea Barton Reeves as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services, Dr. Deidre Gifford as Executive Director of the Office of Health Strategy at Start of Second Term

Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he is planning to appoint Andrea Barton Reeves as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) and Dr. Deidre Gifford as executive director of the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) when he begins his second term in office early next year.

Gifford is currently the commissioner of DSS and Barton Reeves is CEO of the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. Gifford will fill the role of OHS executive director that was most recently held by Victoria Veltri, who stepped down from state service in June. Barton Reeves will fill the position at DSS that is being vacated by Gifford in her transition to OHS.

In addition to serving as OHS executive director, Governor Lamont will continue to task Gifford with the added role of serving as senior advisor to the governor for health and human services. In this position – which she first agreed to take on in July 2021 – she is responsible for organizing a multi-agency approach among the state’s nine health and human services agencies in a way that best improves health and healthcare outcomes for the state’s residents, and specifically works to ensure that any areas in which these agencies have overlapping responsibilities are optimally coordinated. She is also responsible for working closely with the Office of Policy and Management on these issues and providing the governor with policy recommendations that address health and healthcare costs, quality, and disparities.

Prior to leading the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority, Barton Reeves served from 2013 to 2020 as president and CEO of Harc Inc, a large nonprofit organization in Hartford that provides services for people with intellectual and related disabilities and families. During her tenure, she transformed Harc’s operating model, created new revenue streams, and enhanced technology systems. She also previously served as director of program operations at Lawyers for Children America, Inc., and worked in the insurance industry at Chubb.

Barton Reeves has also been involved with several community organizations, including serving as president of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, board chair at the Village for Families and Children, and as board member of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance and Leadership Greater Hartford.



She has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Rutgers University and a Juris Doctorate from New York Law School.

To read the full article from the Governor's official press release, click here.

Welcome to Hotel DOC: "Any Time of Year, You Can Find Fraud Here"

It was reported this week by the CT Mirror that a state audit has found certain employees of the Department of Correction (DOC) abused a reimbursement program providing hotel accommodations during the pandemic.

The program, called the Temporary Emergency Lodging Program, was created by the DOC and funded by the Federal government with ARPA funds with the intention of having correctional officers who believed they were exposed to COVID to stay overnight in a hotel to prevent them spreading it to their families. Intentions and purposes of the program seem very well suited for the purpose of the relief funding, however an audit uncovered that some recipients were in fact using the funds from the program for personal use unrelated to COVID-19 exposure.

Internal investigations by state auditors and the DOC reviewed by the CT Mirror allege that corrections employees used the program to book hotel rooms during a wedding, to celebrate New Year’s Eve, and to live full time in the hotels with their families. All of those actions were violations under the rules that were set up for the emergency lodging program, but state auditors found that the state Department of Correction did not have the proper controls in place to ensure state employees didn’t abuse the system in real time. The request forms that the agency created for corrections officers were not always filled out in advance of the hotel stays, the auditors said. And state officials did not set a limit on the number of days a state employee could stay at the hotels, which were located throughout Connecticut.

The CT Mirror also reported examples such as a corrections officer at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic who booked stays at two hotels on the same day. The audit uncovered that he had shared the hotel rooms with his son and his ex-girlfriend and was visited in the hotel by another unnamed woman, which would defeat the purpose of using the room to quarantine. The officer later admitted to the DOC investigators that he ended his lease on an apartment and was using the hotel rooms as his permanent residence, which meant the state was paying for his housing costs.

Another case of fraud came where DOC officials were notified about the use of the program when hotel staff questioned the agency about whether an officer was allowed to have his wife, children and dogs stay with him. The manager at the Hyatt House in Windsor complained to DOC officials that the hotel had spent several hundred dollars in pet cleaning fees over the course of six months in order to clean up after the officer’s pets.

Recreational Marijuana Sales Begin January 10th

This morning, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection announced that the recreational cannabis market will officially launch January 10th, 2023 at 10 a.m., or as local zoning permits. This decision came after the Social Equity Council voted Tuesday, certifying that all existing medical marijuana producers (growers) in the state have met the requirements for an expanded license that allows them to supply both the adult-use cannabis and medical marijuana markets. The law required 250,000 square feet of growing and manufacturing space in the aggregate be approved for adult-use production before retail sales can begin at licensed retailer locations. With all four medical marijuana producers having officially converted their licenses, the threshold has been met.

Sales will be limited to a quarter ounce of cannabis flower, or its equivalent, per transaction when the market opens. The state can revisit these volume restrictions at a later date if needed.

Furthermore, nine medical marijuana dispensaries have been approved by the SEC to sell retail marijuana. They include:

• Affinity, New Haven
• Bluepoint Wellness of Connecticut, Branford
• Still River Wellness, Torrington
• Fine Fettle Dispensary, Newington
• Fine Fettle Dispensary, Stamford
• Fine Fettle Dispensary, Willimantic
• The Botanist, Danbury
• The Botanist, Montville
• Willow Brook Wellness, Meriden

Furthermore, on January 1, the state will automatically erase thousands of misdemeanor cannabis-related offenses from offenders' criminal records. A more serious offender can also petition the Superior court for erasure of a conviction if:

• The conviction was for possession of less than or equal to four ounces of a cannabis-type substance before Jan 1, 2000 and/or between Oct. 1, 2015, and June 30, 2021.
• The conviction was for possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia before July 1, 2021.
• The conviction was for "manufacturing, selling, possessing with intent to sell, or giving or administering to another person a cannabis-type substance and the amount involved was under four ounces or six plants grown inside a person’s home for personal use" before July 1, 2021. 

A Fiscal Miracle Just in Time for the Holidays

The end of the year brings a very busy time for all those closing out their books before the New Year. A fresh start mixes in with reflection time and a re-assessment on how we got to this point. For families everywhere, this means taking a look at spending over the last year to see how well we stuck to our respective budgets. That is no different than those across the street under the golden dome. Legislators convened on Monday with various members of the Office of Policy and Management to have a larger discussion about fiscal accountability and report out some important financial numbers. This year was particularly interesting because the discussion was wrapped in optimism and positivity as we head into the new year and a new legislative session. Turn on the holiday music, grab the wrapping paper, and let’s dive into some numbers!

In past years, the state may have looked pessimistic in its outlook for the financial future. As the Connecticut Mirror pointed out this week, “Connecticut’s government finances have been taking on debt faster than tax revenues…” in the past. But things are different now. Connecticut has a projected surplus of $1b in this fiscal year '23 with long-term revenue growth looking strong into the future. One major reason why we are here? We stopped kicking the can down the road. The reduction of long term liabilities of the state led our state coffers to grow. Overall, a reduction of $7.1 billion compared to last year’s report on liabilities with major progress on healthcare and pensions drives the sleigh.

Connecticut is slated to finish about $2.7 billion in the black. Can you guess the only year that was better than that? Last year, as CT finished with a $4.3 billion cushion. Our general fund revenue is growing, and projected to grow further, proving that like the ghosts of Christmas past, maybe our financial burdens are behind us.

There is a still a lot to unpack and decipher in the report around the projections (for instance, the report does not include some fixed costs like obligated wages). CT also is looking at long term obligations around our pension system. But, there is a lot to be thankful for heading into 2023. If you aren’t already excited by this summary, check out some of the slides from the presentation. It paints a good picture of where we are as a state on the financial side, and more importantly, where we are heading. 

December 9th: Rocker Jim Morrison Arrested in New Haven

On this night in 1967, The Doors, a psychedelic rock band, were scheduled to headline a show at the New Haven Arena. What should have been an ordinary night of music and revelry turned into something more memorable for everyone who attended, thanks to the antics of Doors’ lead singer and frontman Jim Morrison.

While the opening acts played onstage, Morrison decided to pass the time by making out with an enthusiastic fan in a backstage shower stall. A New Haven police officer, who had been hired to provide security backstage but failed to recognize Morrison as the Doors’ lead singer, spotted the couple and told them to stop and move along. According to the Doors’ keyboardist, Morrison told the cop to “eat it,” and after the officer brandished a can of Mace and gave the singer one more chance to comply, Morrison emphatically repeated his earlier reply, earning a face full of pepper spray for his defiance.

When the Doors took the stage later that night, Morrison, still visibly angry about the earlier pepper spray altercation, launched into a profanity-laced rant in the middle of the song “Back Door Man.” Morrison, whom eyewitnesses later described as appearing “very intoxicated,” reportedly yelled “the whole [expletive] world hates me!” and then, spotting some police officers in the back of the concert hall, started hurling insults at them from the stage. He began describing his earlier run-in with the police to the crowd, calling the officer who harassed him “a little blue man in a little blue hat” and “a little blue pig.” Nearby officers promptly walked onto the stage and proceeded to arrest Morrison in the midst of his tirade, earning him the dubious distinction of being the first rock musician to be arrested while performing onstage.

The incident caused the crowd inside the New Haven Arena to grow unruly and spill onto the street outside, although initial descriptions of the scene as a “riot” were overblown, since no violence or injuries were reported. New Haven police took Morrison to the downtown station, where they snapped a now-famous mugshot of the singer just after midnight and charged him with indecency, obscenity, and inciting a riot. After posting bail with a large amount of cash he happened to have on him, and later paying a fine, Morrison was sent on his way. It wouldn’t be the last time the rebellious frontman was arrested, but it was certainly one of his more memorable run-ins with the law. Two years later, the Doors included the line “Blood on the streets in the town of New Haven” in their song “Peace Frog,” which some believe is a reference to Morrison’s infamous 1967 arrest. A memorable evening which certainly lit Jim Morrison’s fire — today in Connecticut history.

To view the full story on the CT Historian's website, click here.