In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
From Inside The Golden Dome
This Day in CT History
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In a blink of an eye – session begins!
With baited breath we all await for Feb 9th and the opening of the 2022 Session. Public access to the building will be limited, and those members that want to be in the chamber are welcome, or they can return to their legislative offices in the LOB to listen to the governor’s annual address. While the pomp and circumstance will be missing for the most part, we just might see some drama pop up at least once –or twice!
The Governor plans to address the joint session of the legislature and outline initiatives that mark his last year of his first term. How fast that went!! He'll be highlighting his accomplishments as well as his second year of a two year budget initiative. We’ve seen half of his budget calculations already, as this week he announced several tax cuts for the middle income working family residents while staying silent on any possible fee, license or other revenue increases.
Election politics say that he won’t be the one to propose raising fees, taxes or other sorts of taxpayer/resident fees/revenue, not with 6 months until the next statewide election in CT. And let’s not forget that the newly focused Blue Dog Caucus can hold firm and work across the aisle to cause chaos and mayhem if someone gets a tax-raising initiative out onto the House floor. In the senate – well no crystal ball there! I just can’t imagine any scenario where resident taxes are approved in the House.
What will be an interesting, possible bit of drama will be the governor’s announcement of initiatives to keep the CT economy growing despite the challenging economic times with thousands of open and/or vacant jobs all across the state and in every sector. The word of the session, I think, is going to be "workforce development". If not, CT has a whole lot of trouble as the baby boomers are set to call it a day and soon leave their day jobs as well. Everyone’s scratching their heads trying to figure out where have all the workers gone? Underground? Retired to a warmer climate? Just plain given up on the 9-5 scene? Who knows?
We also don’t know what exactly the legislature will do regarding the extension of the governor’s soon to expire emergency orders. The governor has hinted he might drop the mask mandate for schools and that he’d also let several of his emergency directives expire. The legislature has said they are reviewing a dozen or so executive orders that the governor indicated might be useful, but as everyone knows, CT is the only state to still be in a state of emergency and have their seat of government half closed to the public. Go figure!
According to history, emergency powers to issue executive orders goes way back to 1836 despite not one court addressing the allowable scope and/or authority of the order. In other states, courts have opined on these topics and made it clear that these orders cannot usurp the exclusive authority for the legislature to set new policy; they cannot radically change public policy outside of statutes; and they cannot allow a governor to create a board or commission by executive order. It’s interesting that in CT, Governor Roland did create a council on law enforcement, a blue ribbon commission on school choice and the Office of Faith Based Initiatives. No requests for judicial review for these initiatives were ever made.
Finally it’s intriguing that some executive orders outline their “maker” – like Governor Thomas Meskill’s Executive Order in 1973. Meskill's Executive Order outlined several conditions for contractors and subcontractors wanting to do business in CT. Then Governor Bill O’Neill issued an executive order to establish career development, quality of state government and a process within a state agency to coordinate and collaborate on the workforce in CT. Governor John Rowland still has two executive orders in place – one setting up the Governor’s residence conservancy which manages and overlooks the Executive Chamber of the Governor as well as the residence located on Prospect Ave.; and a big one which many have forgotten about – his executive order #32 setting up a climate change coordinating team at OPM to look at renewable energy and implementation of shared savings. Governor Rell’s executive orders still in place relate to her order to establish a special counsel for ethics compliance in state agencies, as well as her clean contracting provision.
So Wednesday will be busy and filled with lots of moving parts. And then it’s a sprint to the finish line of May 4th so put on your sneakers, stretch your legs and hydrate. The race is about to begin!
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List of Legislators not Seeking Re-Election
We would like to give a huge thanks to the following legislators that will not be seeking re-election this year for all they have done for Connecticut, and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
- Rep. Whitt Betts
- Rep. Bill Buckbee
- Rep. Tony D'Amelio
- Rep. David Wilson
- Sen. Will Haskell
- Rep. Brandon McGee
- Sen. Kevin Witkos
- Sen. Dan Champagne
- Sen. Paul Formica
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Agency Legislative Proposals: What to Expect When It's Sent to You
Sullivan & LeShane has been told that, by Monday, state agencies will be making their legislative priorities public before the start of session on Wednesday.
There’s been a lot of anticipation for these proposals given the short calendar session and ability to try to negotiate with a state agency before official language is filed by the legislature. Our office monitors these proposals for our clients and will send an individual notification if there’s a proposal that could impact your organization.
If you’re one of the clients who receives a proposal from us, you’re probably wondering what that means so here is a quick Q&A on legislative proposals:
Q: What are state agency legislative proposals?
A: Legislative proposals from a state agency are essentially a “wish list” of policy ideas they hope the legislature will take-up on their behalf. Included in each proposal is a title, proposal summary, proposal background, reason for the request, past legislative versions of this proposal and any fiscal impact it may have on the state budget (both positive and negative).
Q: Why are these shared in advance of the legislative session?
A: Having these proposals available streamlines the Office of Policy Management (Governor’s budget office) review process for what they should support on behalf of state agencies and assists legislators with better understanding the budget implications tied to these proposals.
Q: Does a particular legislative proposal mean the issue is strongly likely to pass? Can they be changed before being filed as an actual bill?
A: The short answers are maybe and yes (if you act quickly). Given the virtual nature of the legislative session, getting ahead of things in a timely way and working with state agencies is more important than ever. If legislative proposals that are shared impact your business or service, we strongly recommend being engaged early!
Q: What should I expect if S&L sends me a legislative proposal that affects me?
A: We’ll be able to walk through the recommended next steps once these proposals are released and if there’s a proposal specifically tied to your area of interest we will be pulling together a virtual meeting with that state agency.
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Masks in Schools
One of the hot button issues within school districts in CT throughout the pandemic has been masks in schools. Regardless of which side of the issue people are on, it’s a discussion point at almost every Board of Education meeting. This week Governor Lamont, as COVID cases decline, hinted that the state may be revisiting the mask mandate on schools. Like the mask mandate that was lifted throughout the state several months ago, he will likely allow local Boards of Education to have control over their own decisions in this debate. Lamont’s remarks come about two weeks before his emergency powers are set to expire, along with all the executive orders issued during the pandemic. However, the ability for the state’s education department to require masks in schools was among a list of 11 executive orders he asked the legislature to keep in place once his powers expire.
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Yet Another Investigation
I know what you're thinking, with ongoing investigations of Sen. Dennis Bradley and former Sen. Michael DiMassa for various fraud related charges, things couldn't get any worse. Right? Wrong! A report dropped this week from Day Pitney, a law firm hired by Governor Lamont to investigate former Deputy OPM Secretary Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis, as well as Chief State's Attorney Rich Colangelo. The investigation was spurred by an October 1st article where journalist Kevin Rennie questioned the hiring of Diamantis' daughter, Anastasia, to the Chief State's Attorney's office. Rennie argued that Anastasia did not have the qualifications for the position, and that something seemed off about the nature in which her interview and onboarding process was conducted. The Day Pitney investigation revealed in its 40+ page report many inconsistencies between the testimonies made by Diamantis and Colangelo, and the testimonies of other staff in their departments. No conclusion has been made to the investigation yet, as the Office of State Ethics and the Criminal Justice Commission must first review the report. Governor Lamont expressed outrage at the Chief State's Attorney after the report was released, stating that if he could fire Colangelo, he would. To view the report in its entirety, click here.
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February 4, 1864: In the Midst of Civil War, the Colt Arms Factory Is Destroyed By Surprise
Just after 8 a.m. on the morning of February 4, 1864, as the Civil War was nearing the end of the third year of the nation’s most violent and divisive conflict, the loud, sharp, incessant tones of a steam whistle pierced the air in Hartford, alerting city residents to danger. As men and women rushed toward the source of the noise in the city’s south end, they were shocked to find the massive East Armory building of the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company completely engulfed in flames.
Factory employees first spotted smoke coming from an upper floor about an hour after they reported for work at 7 a.m. They leapt into action, grabbing a nearby fire hose and dragging it up several floors to reach the source of the flames. But when they opened the valves, no water came out, which led some — both then and later — to suspect the fire was the work of an arsonist, perhaps even a Confederate sympathizer, upset with the weapons Colt was providing to the Union Army.
The Hartford Courant reported the odds were heavily stacked against the men who tried to put out the flames, since “the floors of the building were yellow pine, and had become thoroughly saturated with oil which had dripped from the machinery.” Even the well-stocked fire engines that rapidly arrived on-scene were powerless to stop the fire’s advance.
Around 9 a.m., as the fire was starting to burn itself out, the iconic onion dome and gold colt statuette that sat atop the East Armory building fell to the ground with a dramatic, fiery crash, a coda to the catastrophe.
At the end of the day, though firefighters had been able to prevent the conflagration from spreading to nearby factory buildings, the East Armory and nearby front office buildings were declared a total loss, with damages estimated at two million (in 1864 dollars). Nine hundred men found themselves out of work. Their plight would be a temporary one, however, thanks to the foresight of Elizabeth Jarvis Colt. Although Samuel Colt had never insured his factory buildings during his lifetime, after his death in 1862, his widow, Elizabeth, had immediately taken out an insurance policy for the company — a policy that allowed her to rebuild the East Armory in three years. During that time, the company utilized the other, undamaged buildings on its sprawling Hartford campus to continue manufacturing firearms. One of Hartford’s most famous companies burned to ashes and pledged to resurrect itself, today in Connecticut history.
The original article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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Sullivan & LeShane, Inc.
www.ctlobby.com | (860) 560-0000
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