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Christmas Tours At The Governor's Mansion In Hartford In Gov. Jodi Rell's Final Year; Will Be Leaving On January 5

December 1, 2010, 2:34 am
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Gov. M. Jodi Rell will be holding her final round of Christmas tours this year as she serves her last full month in the governor's mansion.

The open house at the historic, six-acre estate at 990 Prospect Avenue in Hartford's West End will be held on three consecutive days - on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Sunday from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

"This house truly belongs to the public," Rell said in a statement. "This free open house gives families from across the state the opportunity to see the Governor's Residence decorated for the holidays. I urge everyone to take a few minutes to stop in and say hello."

Candy canes will be handed out by Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus on both Friday and Sunday.

In traditional fashion, there will be live entertainment during the three-day period. That will include the U.S. Coast Guard Choral Group from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday, among others.

On Saturday, the performers will include the Naval Submarine Base Men's Ensemble, the Studio E flute duet from Moodus, and the Valley Shore Chorus from Middletown.

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Sen. Dodd Makes Farewell Speech - Can 2012 Senate Election Be Far Away? McMahon Could Be Running Again

December 1, 2010, 4:54 am
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With Sen. Chris Dodd delivering his valedictory address in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, can the 2012 U.S. Senate race be far off?

Many political insiders believe that Republican Linda McMahon will run for Senate again - partly because she was recently running television, radio, and newspaper advertisements that wished voters a Happy Thanksgiving.

"I didn't win the election, but to everyone whose hand I shook, who touched my heart, and who challenged my thinking throughout the campaign, I wanted to say, thank you," McMahon said in her commercial.

It was the first time in recent memory that any Connecticut political candidate spent money on TV commercials after losing on election day.

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Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz Stepping Down From Virtual Lifetime Appointment To Lead Troubled Agency

December 1, 2010, 7:33 am
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Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz shocked many insiders by deciding to give up a virtual lifetime appointment on the bench in order to become the commissioner of a very troubled agency.

Running the Department of Children and Families has often been called the toughest job in state government - a thankless task that has chewed up many commissioners through the years at an agency that oversees the care of abused and neglected children.

When asked why she was doing it, Katz responded, "You mean, have I seen my psychiatrist this morning?''

The Courant's Jon Lender has the details at http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-katz-nominated-dcf-chief-1201-20101130,0,7035130.story?page=2

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Judge Robert Chatigny's Nomination To Second Circuit Court Of Appeals Is In Jeopardy; Postponed Yet Again

December 1, 2010, 12:53 pm
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Former Top UConn Administrator Pays $4,000 Ethics Fine

December 1, 2010, 1:32 pm
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A former $190,000-a-year administrator at the University of Connecticut has paid a $4,000 fine to settle allegations that he used his state office budget to book rooms for himself 23 times at the Nathan Hale Inn on UConn's Storrs campus, the Office of State Ethics said this week.

The ethics agency claimed that Jeffrey Reynolds, who briefly served as UConn's interim vice president for administration and operations, stayed at the inn, or made reservations to stay there, at least 23 times - and each time "charged his stay to the budget ... over which he had administrative control," according to a written settlement that Reynolds signed along with ethics enforcement officer Thomas K. Jones.

Reynolds, of Wallingford, also used that budget for "extraneous expenses, including meals, alcoholic beverages, parking and entertainment," the signed agreement said.

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Rell Office Staffer Gets New Job Outside State Payroll

December 1, 2010, 1:58 pm
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Adam Jeamel, director of public affairs for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, will leave Rell's lame-duck administration this week, Kevin Rennie reports in his Daily Ructions blog.

Says Rennie: "Jeamel will be joining the Eastern Connecticut Health Network as Director of Public Relations and Public Affairs.  ECHN includes Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville Hospital. He's been working in the governor's inner suite of offices, so dealing with the trauma and psychiatric facilities at ECHN will provide Jeamel reminders of the screaming and scheming that became the hallmarks of daily life in Rell's office."

Read Rennie's blog item by clicking here.

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Incoming Legislators Hear About Ethics, Mom And Jefferson

December 1, 2010, 3:35 pm
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"If you're going to have a hard time explaining to your mother what you're about to do, you don't want to do it."

With those words, state ethics Executive Director Carol Carson closed an hour-long ethics-training session in Hartford on Wednesday for more than two dozen people newly elected to the General Assembly on Nov. 2.

The session in the Legislative Office Building was the first ever for incoming legislative freshmen under a 2008 law requiring the Office of State Ethics to "establish and administer a program of mandatory training" about state ethics laws -- including the requirement that lawmakers annually make a formal statement of their financial interests and avoid having conflicts of interest and using their offices for private gain.

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Governor-Elect Dannel Malloy On The UConn Health Center; Seeking $100 Million In Federal Money To Upgrade Center

December 2, 2010, 2:06 am
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Politico: U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, The Democratic Caucus Chairman, Seeking Resignations From Entire Staff

December 2, 2010, 3:48 am
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Sen. Don DeFronzo Questions New Britain To Hartford Busway; Long-Delayed Project Would Touch 4 Towns

December 2, 2010, 10:04 am
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State Sen. Don DeFronzo is questioning the wisdom of the New Britain busway.

The 9.6-mile busway would start in downtown New Britain, cut through Newington, stop in the Elmwood section of West Hartford and eventually reach Hartford's Union Station in an 11-stop trip.

But DeFronzo and others say the proposal is highly expensive.

 

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Malloy At Meeting For New Governors In Washington, D.C.

December 2, 2010, 10:59 am
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Governor-elect Dannel Malloy is in Washington, D.C., attending meetings for new governors at the famed Blair House - across the street from the White House.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden delivered remarks to the governors at lunch.

The following is part of the pool report from the event by Laura Meckler of The Wall Street Journal. POTUS is the acronym used for the President.

"POTUS gave welcoming, bipartisan remarks to newly elected governors assembled for lunch at Blair House, including a pitch for renewed unemployment benefits.

"Your pooler was in place at Blair House and unable to simultaneously be on Pennsylvania Avenue to witness his walk across the street. But according to the very reliable Darlene Superville of the AP, the president walked across the street with VPOTUS and Valerie Jarrett a few minutes after 1 p.m. and offered a wave but no words to the supplementary street-crossing pool.''

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Shake-Up At Senate Republicans With 7 Staff Layoffs; Deputy OPM Secretary Mike Cicchetti In The Running?

December 2, 2010, 12:44 pm
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The Senate Republicans have shaken up their staff, laying off seven employees in the biggest reorganization in years.

The seven GOP staffers who were laid off include the staff budget specialist, two veteran press aides, a researcher, and other aides. Some will continue working until a few days before Christmas.

Some Capitol insiders believe that the new budget guru for the Senate GOP will be Michael J. Cicchetti, the deputy secretary of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget office.

Cicchetti told Capitol Watch on Thursday that he has heard those rumors, too, but said he is not sure where he will be working next. The top officials at the Office of Policy and Management are expected to be replaced when Democrat Dannel Malloy takes over the governor's office on January 5.

"Like any organization, we're constantly evaluating ourselves and evaluating whether we're achieving our goals and objectives,'' Senate Republican leader John McKinney told Capitol Watch. "We'll have some new hires. I don't know the total yet.''

McKinney declined to mention any names and said he was not sure whether seven new employees will be hired to replace those who are being laid off. He said, however, that the caucus expects to have some money left over in a difficult budget year, and they will be returning money to the state treasury.

McKinney declined to comment on whether David Cappiello, a former Senate Republican budget chief who worked this year for the unsuccessful campaign of Linda McMahon for the U.S. Senate, will be returning to his former position.

"It hasn't been my practice to comment on personnel matters,'' McKinney said. "There are always rumors around the building and very rarely are they true.''

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Malloy On State Budget: "It's A Mess, It's Ugly''

December 2, 2010, 3:07 pm
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Governor-elect Dannel Malloy traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to meet with other new governors, the state's Congressional delegation, and administration officials, as well as hearing speeches by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Kim Geiger, from the Tribune Company's Washington bureau, filed the following dispatch:

Governor-elect Dannel P. Malloy was among about two dozen newly elected governors who met with President Barack Obama on Thursday for a discussion that Malloy described as "fruitful."

"It was a very helpful meeting," Malloy said at a press conference after the meeting. "The president was very frank, very open."

Also during his trip, Malloy attended a Wednesday luncheon with the Democratic Governors Association and met with the state's Congressional delegation, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Malloy described Obama's tone at the meeting - which included governors-elect from both political parties - as "cordial."

Healthcare, transportation infrastructure and education were among the topics of discussion, the governors said.

"He's got a great grasp of these issues and the intricacies of these issues," Malloy said of Obama. "You don't get a short answer, but you get a very thorough answer."

One key topic was implementation of the healthcare law - an issue of particular importance to governors, whose states will be responsible for establishing insurance exchanges by 2014.

"Clearly, there is a desire to allow this to be done each state by state," Malloy said. "Where it's possible, I think the greatest latitude will be granted."

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National Unemployment Rate At 9.8 Percent In November; Some Say Numbers Fail To Count Christmas Retail Jobs

December 3, 2010, 7:26 am
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The latest numbers show that the national unemployment rate was 9.8 percent in November.

That was an increase from the previous rate of 9.6 percent, and some are questioning the official statistics that show that retail jobs actually declined. Retail employment usually peaks at the Christmas season as stores need more workers to help in the aisles and at the check-out counters with the larger volume of shoppers.

Rising unemployment is also a bad sign for the state budget deficit, which is projected at $3.4 billion for the fiscal year that starts in July 2011.

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Dr. William Petit To Be Interviewed By Oprah Winfrey

December 4, 2010, 3:55 am
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Stan Simpson Show Focuses On Sen. Chris Dodd's Farewell Speech and Dan Malloy's Choice Of Joette Katz at DCF

December 4, 2010, 6:12 pm
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The Stan Simpson Show on Sunday morning focuses on U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd's farewell speech on the Senate floor and Governor-elect Dan Malloy's selection of Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz as the next commissioner at the state Department of Children and Families.

The 30-minute program airs at 10 a.m. on Fox CT and will then be replayed on the weekly Sunday night loop on the CT-N public affairs network.

Clips are at www.ctnow.com/stan

 

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Will Millions Of Rell Administration E-Mails Be Destroyed?

December 4, 2010, 8:53 pm
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As many as 161 million state government e-mail messages, dating back five years, are stored on backup computer tapes at the state Department of Information Technology in East Hartford -- a situation of some immediacy now, as Gov. M. Jodi Rell and her top appointees get ready to leave office in January.

Officials have talked in recent weeks about which e-mails can be destroyed, and which must be retained, by appointees on their way out the door before Democratic Gov.-elect Dan Malloy takes office Jan. 5. Meanwhile, a proposed "e-mail retention policy" obtained by The Courant, for which Rell's chief information officer received approval from State Librarian Kendall Wiggin last April 15, says the huge e-mail resource "will be erased, deleted, or otherwise destroyed" after 60 days.

Read the whole story in Sunday's Government Watch column by clicking here.
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Governor Malloy Will Sign Executive Order That Would Prevent Erasure of E-Mails From The Rell Adminstration

December 6, 2010, 7:05 am
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Governor-elect Dan Malloy said Monday he will sign an executive order that will prevent the erasure of millions of e-mails that have been sent during the Rell administration.

Malloy made his comments in response to a Government Watch column in article in Sunday's Hartford Courant by staff writer Jon Lender that said that officials in the administration of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell have talked about which of 161 million e-mails can be destroyed. State policies are still being formulated on how to deal with the e-mails, and there is no state law that would prevent their erasure.

"I'm somewhat blown away, honestly, that there is not a law currently on the books that would prevent that which was discussed. I think you're talking about Mr. Lender's story over the weekend,'' Malloy said Monday at the state Capitol.

"That kind of surprises me,'' Malloy continued. "My word to anybody who works for state government in a Malloy - Wyman administration is that which you do at work, using the facilities of work, is a matter which ultimately can, and most likely will, be discovered - so you should act accordingly. That's my position, and I was to a great extent surprised at the conclusion of that story that that's not how state government works. It certainly is how local government works.''

When asked if he would support a change in the law regarding e-mails, Malloy said, "Let's put it this way. I certainly wouldn't oppose a law that changed all of that. I imagine that this issue will be confronted by myself no later than January 5 when I can begin signing executive orders.''

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Photos Of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd In Washington, D.C.

December 6, 2010, 8:48 am
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Hartford Courant photographer John Woike recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to shoot photographs of U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd as he made his farewell speech on the Senate floor.

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Gov. Rell To Hold Open House Wednesday To Mark Closure of 6 1/2 Years As Governor; Started With Open House

December 6, 2010, 12:35 pm
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Finishing her term in the same way that she started it, Gov. M. Jodi Rell will hold an open house Wednesday to greet the general public at the state Capitol.

Rell is inviting visitors to the Capitol from 12 noon to 2 p.m. so that she can speak with citizens in her final month in office.

"What I will miss most of all, without question, are the good people of Connecticut,'' Rell said in a statement. "They have shared with me their joys and their tears, their hopes and dreams. It has been a humbling experience to be their governor and doing the right thing for our families is what inspired me throughout my time here.''

She continued, "I began my administration in July 2004 with an open house, and it was an opportunity to say 'hello' to hundreds. I look forward to closing out my tenure with one final chance to visit with our citizens and offer my heartfelt farewell and thanks.''

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