Posted on May 19, 2020
HARTFORD – The disbanded Dalio education partnership and the abandoned reopen Connecticut committee both failed due to lack of transparency and public trust, House Republican Leader Themis Klarides said today.
Klarides released a statement following the announcement from Gov. Lamont that both initiatives would be abruptly scrapped:
“The Dalio partnership and the reopen Connecticut panel were both established without any public scrutiny or oversight and operated without any transparency. Ultimately, they both suffered from an erosion of public trust.
“In neither case was this about politics – it was about public trust. Unfortunately, Gov. Lamont had little interest in inviting public scrutiny in setting up either of these bodies that were obviously tasked with entirely different missions. We applauded the efforts of the Dalios and their commitment to helping underprivileged students. But the way the partnership was conceived was flawed from the outset and, as elected public officials, we felt an obligation to correct those flaws by shining a light on how it functioned.
“Everyone knows that sunlight is the best disinfectant.
“Similarly, the private citizens who volunteered hundreds of hours of their time to plan the reopening of our economy and our public and private services are to be commended. We tried to be supportive of Gov. Lamont from the outset of this crisis but he had little interest for inviting the legislature to the table. No lawmakers were named to 50-member Reopen Connecticut committee.”
Klarides then said the legislature should come back into special session to form a bipartisan committee to come up with strategies and guideline for the continued reopening of Connecticut as the state works through the phases of revitalizing its economy.