January 7, 2022
In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
CT Agency Corner
Municipal Roundup
From Inside The Golden Dome
This Day in CT History
New Year's Resolutions

Did you know that the ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be.

So in modern days New Year’s resolutions have changed a bit – mostly people worldwide make New Year's resolutions every year in an attempt to improve their lives. Common resolutions are to exercise more, eat healthier, save money, lose weight and reduce stress.

Now that 2022 has arrived, and the opening of session is only 30 days away, I started to think about my new year’s resolution. As I was struggling to come up with my own, I began to wonder what legislators were thinking about for theirs. I reached out to a diverse group - asking what their New Year resolution was. Was it personal, family oriented or just a challenge they’ve been wanting to take? Different folks, different takes for sure.

Several folks replied that they haven’t done any formal resolutions since everything moves so fast these days and is so unpredictable it was impossible. Others made personal commitments to themselves - to be intentional in my work as legislator and focus on solutions not politics, the best person (father/wife/daughter/son/public official they could be. Another said, I stay away from New Year resolutions, it works better if I focus on one word. Last year it was grace, and this year it’s peace—.

Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz made a personal resolution to …continue to walk 5 miles a day with my husband David even in post pandemic world… and given her hectic public schedule, this is admirable!  

Still a couple of others simply said TBD (To Be Decided)! 

But two especially were insightful but different… So I thought I’d share them as offered. 

As I enter 2022 as a new grandmother, the world of an empty nester, my perspectives continues to evolve. I am a mother of 4 adult children, grandmother, wife, business owner and in my part-time Deputy Speaker of the CT General Assembly.

As the everyday needs increase, our healthcare system is strained, all of our nonprofits need assistance, our employers need employees, our students need daily education and the vulnerable population needs us more than ever, this is from where my resolutions begin.

Developing clearer policy on nursing homes will continue to be extremely important and pressing. With the continual pressures on staff, we must put money into job retention, and staffing increases. As we age, we should not lose our dignity or be treated differently because of where we live.

With employment needs comes education and ensuring we have appropriate course work at our higher education institutions in the state as well as the tools necessary for safe learning in our secondary schools is important. All of this, it starts with early childhood education and safe places to place our youngest residents so their parents can go to work. The time is now to invest in those who start building the foundation for our children. An investment early on changes the amount and types of investments we will need to make in the future.

Businesses need to feel like a partner in our state's future with a focus on small businesses, especially those women owned/minority owned businesses. Government is not in the business of creating jobs but in the business of creating the opportunity for job creation.

I have vowed to prioritize those areas. Not only fighting at the legislature but increase my time volunteering while providing education to my district and beyond so that residents know where the needs are greatest, where the resources are located and how to get involved. Work/ life balance will be my final focus. For me this becomes overly complicated when I refuse to quit until the results are perfect, which is not a terrible quality, but having patience during the process is where I need improvement.

-  Deputy Speaker Michele Cook (Torrington)

And then along a different path –

I bought a pair of roller blades after not using them for 20 years so I could diversify my exercise routine. So far I’m having a lot of fun and there’s only been a couple of times when I couldn’t stop! Despite the weird looks and the dogs barking at me as I roll along my way, my resolution is to blade more and get a game or two of roller hockey in too! (This time without stitches!)

– Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (Norwalk) 

I'm not sure if any of these resolution would cause folks to fall out of grace with the legislative “gods” or even their constituents but they certainly demonstrate the diversity and uniqueness of our part time legislators. There is something empowering about making resolutions on the first day of the New Year, something about having clean, unblemished days ahead that promote a “can do” feeling of optimism. 
So in the spirit of setting my New Year resolution, I think mine will be - do good every day. Now how can that tick off the Babylonian “gods”? Happy, healthy, successful 2022 to all. 
Legislative Leadership Predicts Zoom Is Here to Stay


This week Legislative Leadership announced that State Capitol Police had approximately ten officers test positive for COVID-19 which led to a shut down of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) until next Monday and additional "remote days" during the year. 

Given the fact that the LOB is now closed completely to the public two days a week with hearings still capable of happening remotely under the state of emergency, will we ever have lawmakers fully return to a completely in-person environment? 

Our office has heard the Legislative Leadership will be evaluating the infection and hospitalization rates week-by-week once the session begins to potentially bring people back to in-person settings. The majority of public hearings should be done by mid-March so realistically committees looking to vote on final action could return in-person if Omicron moves through as quickly as expected.

If this week has revealed anything, it's Speaker Ritter's comments this week on Zoom being a part of the legislative process indefinitely. When asked about his thoughts on how the legislature will return in 2022, he said, "Zoom was widely popular so I think Zoom will be part of the fabric of testifying to the legislature forever, I don’t think it will ever go away.” 

It's hard to argue with that opinion considering how many members of the public preferred having flexibility to not have to leave work and sit in a cramped room for their 3 minutes to sell a topic. That said, it's my opinion that the biggest connection missing in Zoom hearings is being able to talk to a legislator candidly after he or she hears your testimony and see if they agree with what you had to say. It's certainly the thing we miss the most by not being in person and certainly hope it's a consideration when leaders begin making decisions on the 2022 session in the next few weeks. 
Happy New Year from all of us here at S&L. In this week’s look at what’s happening with CT’s towns and cities, we’ll focus on New Haven, where Mayor Elicker recently held his state of the city and second term inaugural address and outlined his 2022 agenda. The Mayor spoke about the community response in New Haven to the pandemic and thanked the many people who lent a hand in the response. His focuses for 2022 will be the underlying challenges with housing affordability, gun violence, tax equity and youth engagement. Part of that will be to look at the role absentee landlords play in housing costs. He will also propose making significant investments in career and vocational training for New Haven’s young people. The Mayor also touched on climate change, as a community that has several miles of waterfront. 
Connecticut Asks Nursing Homes to take COVID-Positive Admissions from Hospitals

In the latest guidance from the Department of Public Health (DPH), the department waived the requirement for any patient being transferred from a hospital to a long-term care facility to have a negative COVID test performed in the hospital within 48 hours of their transfer. “Hospitalized patients should be discharged from acute care whenever clinically indicated, regardless of COVID-19 status,” Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani wrote in the two-page memo. Long-term care providers argue that the guidance puts immense pressures on nursing homes that are already facing severe staffing issues and limited testing capacity. In her memo, commissioner Juthani argues that post-acute care providers should now have quarantine policies in place based on COVID-19 vaccination status. Post-acute care providers include inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies.

The Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities CEO Matthew Barrett stated that nursing homes should still be able to decide whether to accept COVID-1positive people from hospitals. According to the Governor's office, if a COVID-positive individual is discharged from the hospital and is denied re-entry into their nursing home, the hospital would be responsible for finding another place that would accept them. Currently, 80% of Connecticut nursing homes are reporting COVID-19 cases. As of December 28th, there were 181 positive cases among nursing home residents in Connecticut, compared to 70 the week before. In the same period of time, infections among staff rose to 680, up from 180. This may be due to the low booster rate among nursing home staff, which is at 31%, compared to an 82% booster rate among residents.

To review the new guidance, click here.
January 7th: The Explorer Who Became Governor for Just One Day

It would be an understatement to say that Hiram Bingham III, Connecticut’s famous archaeologist, explorer, professor, pilot, politician, and best-selling author who likely was the inspiration for the fictional adventurer Indiana Jones, accomplished much in his lifetime. It remains an irony, however, that one of Bingham’s most well-known accomplishments was also one of the most fleeting: In 1925, Hiram Bingham III was both sworn in as Governor of Connecticut and resigned his post — all within the span of 24 hours.

Born in Honolulu to a Connecticut couple who were Protestant missionaries to Hawaii, young Hiram traveled to Massachusetts for private schooling as a teenager and proceeded to acquire degrees from Yale, UC Berkeley, and Harvard, developing an interest in both American politics and Latin American history, the latter of which was a relatively new academic field of study. Bingham became a lecturer in the subject at Yale University, and embarked on several archeological expeditions in South America in the early 1900s, the most famous of which led to his “discovery” of the ancient Incan fortification of Machu Picchu, with the help of local guides.

Bingham’s discovery of Machu Picchu, and the bestselling book Lost City of the Incas that followed, made him a minor celebrity; his experiences as a pilot in the Army Air Force fighting overseas during World War I made him a hero. In the 1920s, Bingham turned his full attention toward politics, and successfully ran for Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1922. Two years later, he was encouraged to run for governor by the Republican Party, and handily won the election in November 1924. However, earlier that year, one of Connecticut’s two U.S. senators, Frank Brandegee, committed suicide, sparking an unexpected special election to fill his vacant senate seat. The state Republican Party also nominated Bingham for that office, and Bingham — whom no one would ever accuse of being short on ambition — accepted and won.

Unable to serve in two separate offices concurrently, Bingham chose to be sworn in as Governor for a single day and then resign, thereby allowing his Lieutenant Governor to assume the office without the need for another special election while he himself served as a U.S. senator. On January 7, 1925, Hiram Bingham III was formally sworn in as Governor of Connecticut in Hartford amid a patriotic parade and later attended the extravagant Inaugural Ball hosted by the Governors Foot Guard. The next morning, he tendered his resignation and was sworn in as a United States Senator by a senate clerk in Hartford before promptly leaving for Washington D.C., thereby ending what was the shortest gubernatorial tenure in Connecticut history. Bingham’s term as Governor was certainly one for the record books in terms of length, but to the indefatigable academic, explorer, and politician, it was just one more stop on his way to bigger and better things. Two new governors inaugurated in the span of 24 hours, today in Connecticut history.

The original article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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