Where is the Oversight, Management of All State Supported Agencies?
The disturbing and scandalous developments at some of the state’s most visible quasi-public agencies, overseen by boards of directors and professionals that manage the day-to-day operations, has gained some notoriety in recent weeks and months. Most notably in the scandal- plagued Lottery Corporation, and the Connecticut Port Authority, CPA.
At the Lottery, senior personnel have been fired or suspended for mismanagement and questionable decisions that at one point drew the attention of the FBI. Members of the CPA Board of Directors have been forced to resign amid allegations of nepotism and questionable allocations of money for favored associates and a family member of the former chairman.
Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers were right to step forward and demand a public hearing by the legislative Transportation Committee to get to the bottom of the allegations involving the Port Authority. That hearing took place Aug. 20. While some questions were answered, many more remain. The fallout will continue.
Quasi-public agencies operate largely out of public view and are populated by boards of directors that enjoy great latitude in carrying out their missions. More potential bad news on the horizon: This spring the Democrat-controlled legislature established another quasi-public agency, the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority, and endowed it with the extraordinary power to levy more payroll taxes on every non-union worker in Connecticut in order to pay people not to go to work.
But serious missteps have come to light in actual state agencies that the governor and lawmakers have direct authority over. In April, the auditors released a scathing report concerning the Department of Labor where instances of verbal abuse and threatened workplace violence took place. The auditors said the department dragged its feet in dealing with the matter: It took 148 days from the time the complaint was lodged to when disciplinary action was carried out.
In addition, the auditors found that taxpayer money was squandered, human resource investigations were mishandled, and petty cash misused. In all there were 27 instances cited by the auditors.
The former labor commissioner was given a new post to run the Department of Revenue Services, and his deputy commissioner at Labor at the time was elevated to the top spot in that agency.
The legislature thought so much of the role the auditors play that it enacted a law requiring the requisite subcommittees with oversight of the various departments to conduct a public hearing on the auditors’ findings within 180 days of the report being issued. It has been more than four months and counting with respect to the labor department report with no sign of any hearing on the horizon.
Surely both these individuals would have valuable insight into what went on inside their agency and what they did about the issues raised by the auditors if the Labor Committee was to comply with state law and conduct a public hearing.
Shockingly, earlier this month it was revealed that a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection longtime employee was suspended following allegations that he made threats to co-workers and after a search of his home produced an assault-style rifle. He remains in jail unable to post a $100,000 bond. No public disclosure was made about the suspension or arrest for weeks afterward, and even then it was only revealed through a media report. Perhaps there were perfectly valid reasons not to provide any notice to the public by the DEEP.
But greater transparency in all of our state-supported entities – whether quasi-public or fully under state control – is a better antiseptic to cure what is ailing them because, in the end, taxpayers always get stuck with the bill.