Political Capitol

Brian Lockhart covers the Connecticut General Assembly in Hartford

Archive for May, 2011

Sen. Roraback pledges to shave head over union deal

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There’s been some skepticism over a section of the governor’s concessions deal with state unions that estimates $180 million in savings from what critics mock as a “suggestion box.”

Specifically Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy is counting on the 45,000 members of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) to over the next two years help identify and implement “savings ideas” totalling $90 million annually.

Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, a ranking Republican on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, told me this afternoon at the capitol he is so certain that proposal is unrealistic that he will part with his full head of hair if it comes to pass.

“I’ll shave my head,” Roraback said. “My wife will kill me.”

And, Roraback added, “I hope (Malloy) will shave his if he doesn’t” get the $180 million.

Roraback may want to start preparing his wife for his new look, just in case.

At a briefing on the concessions package earlier in the day, Mark Ojakian, the deputy state budget czar who lead the negotiations, told reporters state employees have so far come forward with ideas totalling around $800 million in savings. The administration reached out for suggestions soon after Malloy took office in January.

“I spent a couple weeks … eight hours a day with folks and hearing all their suggestions for how to save money,” Ojakian said.

And, frankly, I can’t think of a better motivator for Democratic union members than the idea of a Republican shaving his head over something they accomplished.

In fact, let me suggest if Roraback truly wants organized labor to save $180 million in 2012 and 2013, he should instead promise to shave “SEBAC” into his hair.

Guess Guv Malloy ain’t opening Emergency Ops Center for world’s end

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For an administration that’s been talking a lot during the fiscal crisis about “shared sacrifice” and offering doomsday budgets, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s office is pretty uninformed about the prospect that tomorrow the world may end.

That’s right. It’s, according to a movement inspired by an evangelical Christian preacher, Judgement Day. The Rapture. Or what members of the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition refer to as The Permanent Layoff.

Some say the signs are everywhere. I can confirm there are signs – billboards – up in Bridgeport encouraging folks to get their affairs in order.

Malloy’s first weeks as governor were marked by major snowfalls, and the new governor at the time didn’t miss an opportunity to let the press and public know he was on top of the situation inside the state’s Emergency Operations Center.

So last night I e-mailed his adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, and asked whether the administration plans to open the Emergency Ops Center tomorrow for Doomsday.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Occhiogrosso responded. And yes, he was serious. This morning, at a press briefing on Malloy’s recent concessions deal with SEBAC, Occhiogrosso told me he’s been too busy to pay attention to world ending prophecies. He joked that he stopped worrying when others did not come to pass.

So let’s hope he’s right and tomorrow the Almighty pulls a Shelton High School Headmaster Beth Smith, waives our punishment, and we’re all allowed to continue to enjoy the prom of life.

Malloy doing a little arm twisting for paid sick leave

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Last Friday during a reporter’s roundtable on John Dankosky’s “Where We Live” radio program the Connecticut Mirror’s Mark Pazniokas asked a caller who supports the controversial paid sick leave bill if it was time for the governor to begin lobbying legislators for votes.

Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy has been a vocal supporter of paid sick leave, despite opposition from some businesses and business organizations.

Roy Occhiogrosso, Malloy’s advisor, said his boss today had some conversations with Democratic members of the state Senate, where the legislation faces a very close vote.

“The governor thinks it’s good public policy and wanted to let them know that personally,” Occhiogrosso said.

For the details of the bill, click here.

Malloy taps new Information Technology Czar

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His name is Mark Raymond of Glastonbury.

And, as we reported back in March, he’s got a tough job ahead of him.

Here’s the full press release with details about Raymond’s background.

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GOV. MALLOY APPOINTS MARK RAYMOND AS STATE’S NEW CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that Mark Raymond will be the state’s new Chief Information Officer. On June 2, he will take over operations at the Department of Information Technology (DOIT). He will then oversee DOIT’s consolidation into the Department of Administrative Services and retain all operational responsibilities for Connecticut’s state technology infrastructure following consolidation.

Raymond has over two decades of technology and business experience consulting in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts that includes working in the areas of finance, payroll, human resources, budgeting, procurement, human services, revenue, and transportation. As a consultant, he has worked with federal agencies including the US Treasury, Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the US Department of Transportation.

Most recently, he was the project director for client New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he was responsible for the roll-out of the most comprehensive multi-function shared services implementation in the U.S. public sector. Raymond also consulted for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, where he was responsible for the transition to a system to make billing and recovery of federal dollars more efficient. As the project manager for American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Raymond managed the development and deployment of a multi-state data warehouse that provided analytic tools for the comparison of DOT data across the country.

“I have the highest regard for Mark’s decades of experience in this field, and believe he will be a tremendous asset as we work to update and reconfigure the state’s information technology systems,” said Governor Malloy. “To say Connecticut is behind the technology curve is to greatly understate the severity of the state’s technology problem. These inefficiencies cost Connecticut taxpayers money and, in some cases, the inability to merge systems and allow agencies to share information is downright frustrating, and even dangerous. Mark has a solid background that will help the state find innovative ways to bring our systems up-to-date and ensure we are operating efficiently and in a cost-effective manner.”

“I am honored to join Governor Malloy and his administration and am looking forward to getting started,” said Raymond. “I recognize the importance of the state being able to do more with less, reduce expenses, and avoid costly processes. We need to better leverage technology to bring greater efficiency to state operations and more self service options to our citizens. This is particularly important given our current fiscal deficit. I am ready to address the challenges facing the state’s IT sector.”

One of Raymond’s first responsibilities will be to establish a joint labor/management committee to review the delivery of technology services and to make recommendations on ways to provide those services in a more efficient and effective manner while reducing the costs associated with hardware and software procurement, licensing and consultants.

“We know that front line IT staff and managers have many good ideas on how to improve our state’s technology system and we are anxious for Mark to begin the process of soliciting their participation in making the major changes necessary in how we deliver technology services statewide,” said Governor Malloy.

Raymond is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and lives in Glastonbury with his wife and children.

Should state save $$$ by dumping its 1-800 lines?

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The Department of Motor Vehicles wants to, and it maintains one of the most-used of state government’s 350 toll free numbers. Here’s our report.

No love lost between Cafero and backers of Internet dating bill

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Thanks to a mini-filibuster by House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk and his caucus, Democratic leaders just temporarily past i.e. punted into limbo legislation intended to make online dating safer.

Bills are passed temporarily when the debate drags on and threatens to hold up other legislative business in either the House or Senate.

Cafero questioned the need for the bill, which would require Internet dating sites to essentially warn visitors of the risks involved in meeting strangers.

Why, he asked, is the General Assembly considering passing a law to reinforce lessons he learned as a kindergartener in his hometown of Norwalk?

“Every year we’d have Sgt. Sheehan come. And he would give us the lesson, ‘Beware of Strangers’,” Cafero recalled. “Some of this stuff is sort of common sense … Some would argue does it really need to be legislated?”

Cafero also noted similar warnings are not required of other business solicitations. He said he recently on behalf of another party was shopping for an electronic stair lift and arranged a meeting with a salesperson – a stranger.

“And yet we don’t require the same kind of warnings,” Cafero said.

In April the issue of Internet dating garnered national headlines when a California woman sued Match.com after allegedly being sexually assaulted by someone she met through the dating service.

UPDATE: The legislation was revived and ultimately passed, 94 to 47, a bit later. Cafero maintained his opposition. The bill heads to the Senate.

Malloy administration hoping to better explain SEBAC deal to media

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Members of the press have been invited to attend a two-hour briefing Friday morning at Rentschler Field on Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s recent concessions deal with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition.

It’s being billed as similiar to the pre-budget briefings the state Office of Policy and Management typically conduct every year on the morning of the governor’s budget address to the General Assembly.

OPM Secretary Ben Barnes and Deputy Secretary Mark Ojakian will be running the show on Friday.

It’s an interesting development. The administration has not done the best job this week selling the agreement, even though Malloy claims it will save $1.6 billion over two years and $21.5 billion over the next 20.

The SEBAC deal was first announced last Friday, but Malloy and union negotiators said they wanted first to share details with the 45,000 rank-and-file employees who are being asked to ratify the pact.

I’ve heard from a few state workers who were frustrated over the weekend with the lack of communication from their unions and said rumors about the contents of the agreement caused many colleagues to immediately decide to oppose the deal.

Reporters thought SEBAC planned to provide more information Monday, but union leaders decided late that afternoon to wait until Tuesday to post a summary of the agreement online. But by Monday evening that summary was being circulated among capitol insiders and reporters and published by various media outlets, our Hearst newspapers included.

At 9:15 a.m. Tuesday the Malloy administration announced Ojakian would speak to the press at the capitol at 10 a.m., but even that exchange was limited to broad brush issues. The administration subsequently sent out a spreadsheet of the deal’s highlights and estimated cost savings.

I asked Malloy advisor Roy Occhiogrosso a few minutes ago if he wishes this two hour Rentschler briefing had been organized sooner. Yes, he said, but the unions wanted to first approach their members with the details and the administration gave its word that could happen.

“We knew there was going to be a lot of misinformation out there and things would be written that were incorrect,” Occhiogrosso said. “Some of you guys are confused, and rightfully so. It’s a complex agreement.”

“Do I wish we had done it sooner? Not at the expense of having this ratified,” Occhiogrosso said.

Private sector union boss says members would “jump through hoops” for SEBAC deal

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State Rep. Zeke Zalaski, D-Southington is not the guy you go to for critical comments about organized labor.

Zalaski’s co-chairman of the legislature’s labor committee. He’s also president of United Auto Workers Local 712, the union representing his co-workers at Associated Spring in Bristol, where Zalaski has worked for over three decades. And a few weeks back he was helping to lead an effort to lower the impact of Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s tax proposals on the middle class by jacking up income taxes on the wealthy.

I spoke briefly today to Zalaski about the terms of the concessions agreement struck Friday between the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition and Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy. The full details were leaked to news outlets, including ours, last night, and formally released by SEBAC this morning.

And Zalaski’s observations help put the package in perspective.

The deal has come under fire from Republicans who believe the Malloy administration went far too easy on organized labor. But it’s too easy for some to dismiss their comments as partisan.

Zalaski was not critical of the arrangement. But if anything his views indicate union leaders negotiated a far more generous package than even their private sector brothers and sisters have outside the halls of state government.

“I think it’s a good deal. My members would jump through hoops to get that agreement,” Zalaski said.

Referring to one component of the package – a two year pay freeze followed by 3 percent raises in years three, four and five – Zalaski said, “I haven’t gotten a raise in five years. Nine percent in five years is pretty good.”

I asked Zalaski, given those statements, how he believes the deal will play in the private sector.

“What may upset people is not the raises … It’s not having the ability to lay off,” Zalaski said, referring to the four year job security guarantee offered by Malloy. “It’s harder for somebody in the private sector to understand how they could guarantee no layoffs.”