Ken Dixon's Blog-O-Rama

Friday May 30, 2008

Blog-o-rama wants to scroll back 24 hours or so to the rally outside the Capitol for the healthcare-pooling bill that has as good a chance for being vetoed by Gov. Jodi Rell as Big Brown has to win the Belmont next weekend.
Indeed, since Rell now has 14 days to approve it or issue a veto, the race is now on to see which occurs first: Big Brown hits the finish or the pooling bill gets deep sixed by the business-friendly Republican governor.
Anyway, so lawmakers, union types, cities and towns and non-profits were well represented among the 110 or so participants pushing for the governor’s approval, even though she was in Kentucky with the Council of State Governments.
House Majority Leader Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, led the proceedings and got everyone to chant “Good plan, costs less” as many as seven times for themselves and the eventual CTN audience.
Donovan then introduced Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, who tried to make a joke in homage of that classic 1975 ad campaign for Miller Lite beer that according to Wikipedia, quoting “Advertising Age,” was the 8th most-popular campaign ever.
“Less filling, tastes good,” Looney said into the microphone. Wrong. It was “Tastes great, less filling.”

Thursday May 28, 2008

And Blog-o-rama is back from the monk parakeet-permanent-injunction cookoff in New Haven Superior Court. It ultimately left a bad aftertaste, not so much because of the verdict to dismiss the Friends of Animals’ lawsuit against United Illuminating.
Judge Trial Refereee Anthony DeMayo abruptly favored UI’s motion to dismiss and a full case was not allowed to go forward yesterday. So UI officials, for the time being at least, will not be taking the witness stand to explain their rationale for the controversial capture-and-kill program that eradicated about 185 birds in 2005.
Now, FOA will appeal DeMayo’s decision, claiming he incorrectly banned evidence from previously sworn depositions from UI officials.
Anyway, the Blogster has some notes left over in homage to Jonathan Freiman, UI’s hired gun from Wiggin & Dana. Freiman’s definitely the kind of lawyer you’d ask if you wanted some recipes for parrot friccasee, which as you Food Channel viewers and readers of Webster’s Dictionary know is cut up meat stewed in stock and served in a white sauce.
Freiman provided some highlights of the aborted trial as he attempted to discredit Dwight Smith, the SCSU prof who’s an expert on the pesky birds that make those twi-and-stick nests in trees and, unfortunately, UI utility poles. UI claims that dozens of power outages and fires have been caused by the parrot nests.
Freiman tried to portray Smith, a PH.D. as an absent-minded-professor type. Smith, used to the give-and-take of a college classroom, engaged Freiman.
Freiman to Smith on comparing the birds to various type of rodents:
“You can pick the rat, Dr. Smith.”
Freiman on shutting up Smith:
“There’s no pending question Dr. Smith.”
Freiman on overall ecological problems:
“The world can always be a better place, Dr. Smith.”
Freiman to Danielle Omasta, the FOA attorney:
“Follow the rules of evidence, counselor.”

May 23, 2008

It’s Friday of Memorial Day weekend, so we know that this afternoon, the wheels of state government are grinding to a halt. Even Gov. Jodi Rell’s vacationing, out of state, with family for the weekend.
Indeed, Blog-o-Rama has no reason to believe that ANYONE is working in state government this afternoon, aside from a few administrative workers picking up phones to show there’s some kind of bang for your taxpayer buck.
And yet, emerging from the depths of the Capitol a few moments ago came an employee of the State Auditors, with a 25-page report on the Judicial Branch. These reports should be read like a tabloid newspaper: from the back to the front.
And there it is on page 20.
“Our report found the Department was not performing annual evaluations of its employees and segregates any disciplinary actions or agreements from employee personnel files,” the auditors found.
Well, why WOULD you want to keep disciplinary reports in personnel files? Sounds like a good place to work.
The report also showed “an overall lack of supervisory approval of employees taking compensatory time.”
As so often has been the case in the past, while judges know what’s good for us, they know even BETTER what’s good for themselves.
Melissa Farley, executive director of external affairs for the branch, said the branch’s position is that it “separates personnel information into various files to avoid the inadvertent breach of confidential medical, labor relations or other information. Nevertheless, all such files are maintained in the same unit.”
On the comp time criticism, Farley said “The Branch’s policy is to approve compensatory time in advance. That policy does not require written pre-approval for a compensatory time although in many instances written pre-approval does occur. The supervisor’s signature indicating approval of the bi-weekly attendance sheet serves as documentation that prescribed approvals have taken place and provides assurance that compensatory time is properly utilized.”
Blog-o-rama hates to have its sarcasm undercut by facts. Let’s go back to Page 6 of the audit.
“During our review, we found that the Judicial Branch maintains informal files, separate from the employee’s personnel files, which are not readily available unless specifically requested,” the auditors wrote. “These informal files may contain information regarding investigations of employees or a letter of reprimand…The omission of agreements or disciplinary action from personnel files makes the files less reliable as complete documentation of an employee’s performance and work history.”
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Tuesday May 20, 2008

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is a familiar presence on state roads. In the morning, his dark blue Crown Victoria occasionally passes Blog-o-rama’s lichen-covered Civic as it putts its way north along the parkway. It’s semi-flattering – and near flattening – when Blumenthal streams by, reading the Connecticut Post in the passenger seat.
Now, after an AP story last week that detailed his 7,000-miles-per-month driving habit, the AG seems ready to bite the bullet, downsize his ride and maybe even go hybrid, for you, the people who buy the gas for the jalopy.
The Blogster told you that to tell you this:A new 45-page audit of the state Department of Administrative Services indicates that of the thousands of mileage reports required of state employees each month, about 20 percent are NOT filed.
The state auditors found that during any given month, there are 725 reports not filed.
“The Department should take the necessary steps to ensure receipt of mileage reports in order to effectively monitor State vehicle usage,” the audit report said. “These steps may include the recall of vehicles and/or the suspension of agency motor pool privileges if State agencies fail to submit their mileage reports.”
Oh, by the way, the auditors’ report finds that the DAS has failed to meet state law requiring cars and light-duty trucks to meet a 40-miles-per-gallon threshold.
So maybe the best thing for the DAS to do would be to sell Blumenthal’s Crown Vic, for scrap.

Monday May 19, 2008

Blog-o-Rama still remembers the first time the windshield was taken out on the drive to work. It was a couple days after an early winter snowstorm.
The sun was out and the Lexus SUV with the Greenwich dealer frame on the back was passing on the left as the parkway was turning into I-91. The sheet of ice flew up off the top of the luxury vehicle, cartwheeled a couple times and the Blogster ducked, watching it hit the windshield at 60 mph. There’s STILL glass in the car, two years later. It didn’t entirely take out the windshield, but it made for a white-knuckled final 20 minutes in the daily drive to work.
Scroll ahead a couple years later, when House Minority Leader Larry Cafero this year asked the legislative Transportation Committee to finally approve a bill to penalize vehicle owners who are too lazy to scrape the snow from the tops of their vehicles.
Well, during the “legislative process,” as they call it, the penalties pumped up so high that the bill conveniently collapsed from its own weight. Gov. Jodi Rell’s proposal was to fine drivers whose ice sheets cause damage. Another bill would have fined truck drivers thousands of dollars for letting snow accumulate.
That was the surviving bill, which was enough to put the fear of big fines in the mind of Mike Riley, the state trucking-industry lobbyist. He tried to assuage lawmakers by saying the home office in Washington is commissioning a study.
Anyway, the bill was subverted and commandeered in the waning days of the Legislature. But the title “An Act Concerning the Penalty for the Failure to Remove Snow and Ice From Vehicles” remained.
It came up for debate and final action in the House. Cafero, who’s seen it all before, had a little fun.
“Does this have absolutely anything to do with the removal of snow and ice from a motor vehicle?” Cafero asked Rep. Tony Guerrera, D-Rocky Hill, co-chairmasn of the Transportation Committee.
“Absolutely nothing,” Guerrera replied of the legislation, a 63-section piece of esoterica about the DMV.
“Someday we’re actually going to have a bill that actually has to do with the removal of snow and ice,” Cafero concluded.
Well, that was pretty optimistic.
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Tuesday May 13

And tomorrow’s the first-year anniversary of the state Supreme Court case challenging the civil-union law as separate and unequal.
Speaking of unequal, how much does Blog-o-rama LOVE the $170,000 pricetag on that recent gala welcome for new UConn President Mike Hogan? What a joke of vanity.
Wouldn’t it have made infinitely more sense to, say, give $10,000 scholarships to 170 students instead?
The school is officially a laughing stock on Blog-o-rama.
Between kowtowing to Notre Dame over a stupid-football venue (Rutgers told the over-rated Irish to pound sand rather than change the site of home games to a larger stadium) and celebrating Hogan for the price that two DOT plow operators make in annual pay, the UConn administration looks very deserving of the dozens of arrests during its annual spring weekend last month.
The UConn football team and basketball teams of both persuasions were also over-rated at the time of their elimination from the recent NCAA tourneys.
Meanwhile, the women’s polo team last month won their fourth consecutive national championship, finihsing the season 18-0.
Maybe this year’s team didn’t have it as bad as last year’s, when equine herpes forced their ponies from competition and they used unfamiliar mounts.
It was good that Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, got the team invited to the Capitol a few days after the annual “UConn Day” spectacle and ensuing parade of losing athletes. They can be role models for the athletic department and administration.

May 7, 2008

And we’re about 13 hours from the end of the session.
Finally, after 13 weeks during which a three-figure surplus turned into a double figure (in million$) deficit, we’ll say goodbye to the rank and file of the General Assembly.
It’s too bad the session ends in ignominy.
But the Democratic majority didn’t feel like letting the lowly GOP minorities get free campaign face time on CTN to offer their “alternative” budget.
It was in the wee hours this morning that the Senate passed House Majority Leader Chris Donovan’s plan to expand the state employee health-care plan, which seems an odds-on bet for Gov. Jodi Rell to please her buddies at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and state health insurers by vetoing it with a vengeance.
One does wonder, however, if the insurance industry is opposed to the bill, why isn’t it doing something to provide affordable insurance for small businesses, who along with municipal governments and non-profits, would be allowed to join the state plan?
Blog-o-rama is counting down the hours before the chariots of Lexus, Saab and Suburban Assault Vehicles in the Capitol parking lot turn back into pumpkins, But fear not, they’ll be back soon for some kind of special session or another.

Tuesday May 6, 2008

It’s 11 a.m. We’re down to the last two days of (in)action in this year’s legislative session.
House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, who had more “vehicles” than a used-car lot upon which to attach a budget amendment, briefly brought out his 110-page package late last night, only to be thwarted parliamentarily.
“I told the speaker we only wanted about an hour,” Cafero said a little while ago. Seems like a small amount of time during a session where hours and hours have been wasted in meaningless floor debate or just standing around waiting. House Democrats seem content to NOT let this happen, because in an election year, they see no point in letting Republicans advertise themselves on CTN.
A similar amendment sits on various Senate bills, including Donovan’s own bill that would open the state health-insurance plan to municipalities, non-profits and small business.