Connecticut Post
Scrutiny of governor’s use of funds continues
By Ken Dixon
STAFF WRITER
Updated: 10/13/2009
HARTFORD -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell
apparently was on solid legal ground
when she ignored normal competitive
bidding procedures in awarding a
$223,406 contract to a University of
Connecticut professor, a state auditor
said Tuesday.
But Rell, who made ethics the
hallmark of her administration
following the resignation of her
predecessor on corruption charges,
also finds herself the target of
a complaint filed by a former
lawmaker that her actions are
“serious and significant violations
of Connecticut’s campaign finance
laws.”
The twin developments come as
the furor continues over last week’s
disclosure that Rell or her staff
may have used for partisan political
purposes some of the findings of
the contract awarded by her office
for a 30-month study of government
efficiency. Rell has denounced
criticism of the contract as “politics
at its worst.”
While Rell did not use normal
bidding procedures for the contract,
she apparently didn’t have to,
according to a state auditor who has
embarked on a joint investigation of
the contract with Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal.
Even though the state Department
of Administrative Services requires
extensive bidding processes
on projects worth $50,000 or
more, Rell’s Office of Policy and
Management was able to give the
project to the university because state
law allows for interagency contracts
without competitive bidding.
“This was actually a memorandum
of understanding between OPM
and UConn,” said Robert G. Jaekle,
of Stratford, one of the two state
auditors, noting that bids may be
waived in cases of contracts between
agencies.
“There is no bidding between
agencies that I can think of,” Jaekle
said in a Tuesday interview. “There
are MOUs between state agencies
that don’t go through the normal
bidding. I hate to call it ‘left pocket,
right pocket’ but it’s true. As this
review with the attorney general’s
office gets going, it’ll get nailed
down.”
Rell’s Capitol office on Tuesday,
citing the investigation into the
contract with Kenneth Dautrich,
a public-policy professor at the
University of Connecticut, declined
comment on the process that led to
awarding the contract for the study
of government efficiency that is
now about half over and has spent
$100,000.
Speaker of the House Christopher G.
Donovan, D-Meriden, said Tuesday
the UConn study Dautrich was
working on -- and which Rell said
has already saved the state millions
of dollars -- appears to have been
for use by her office “and in some
ways for her personal use.” Donovan
said the discretionary funds for
legislative leaders are for local public
works projects or to help fund local
nonprofit agencies throughout the
state that often depend on the extra
help from the Legislature.
“The money’s not supposed to be
spent on yourself, not that there
are any rules,” Donovan said. “It’s
supposed to be spent on projects that
would come up across the state.”
Donovan’s immediate predecessor,
James A. Amann, of Milford, the
former speaker of the House who
iscampaigning for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomination, recalled
Tuesday that in 2005 leaders cut
their contingency accounts from $3
million a year to $2 million a year as
a way to close a gap in negotiations
between Republicans and Democrats.
The money, he said, was used to
support a variety of programs within
the leaders’ districts or within the
districts of caucus members.
Rell came under fire last week amid
reports that Dautrich may have
contributed political advice to the
governor and M. Lisa Moody, the
governor’s chief of staff. Rell has
asked her exploratory-campaign
treasurer to request an opinion from
the State Elections Enforcement
Commission on whether Dautrich’s
advice and about $2,000 spent on
a focus group, might amount to an
unpaid, in-kind contribution that
might violate state regulations.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Pelto, a
former Democratic lawmaker who
is a political consultant, on Tuesday
filed a formal complaint on charges
of “what appear to be serious and
significant violations of Connecticut’s
campaign finance laws” by Rell and
her exploratory committee.
Pelto, citing findings that first
appeared in The Day newspaper of
New London, asked the SEEC to
look into Rell’s failure to report in-
kind contributions and campaign
spending; accepting potentially illegal
in-kind contributions; and accepting
services from state employees on
state time.
“As is evident, these violations are
extremely serious in nature and
require immediate investigation
and action by the State Elections
Enforcement Commission,” Pelto
wrote.
Rep. Christopher L. Caruso, D-
Bridgeport, former chairman
of the legislative Government
Administration & Elections
Committee, on Tuesday called for
Moody to resign or for Rell to fire
her. Caruso recalled an incident
early in Rell’s tenure as governor,
in which Moody was suspended
without pay after she solicited top
state commissioners for campaign
contributions during a business
meeting in the Capitol.
“During our investigation we found
there were problems with the
governor’s campaign fundraising,”
Caruso said in a phone interview.
“We found the center of the
problem was Lisa Moody and we
recommended changes and the
Legislature was not inclined to pass
it.” Caruso said the current issue,
in which state funds may have
been used to help Rell’s exploratory
committee, is “unacceptable” and
Rell should fire Moody.
“She’s in the middle of a
situation,” Caruso said. “Here she’s
communicating with the University
of Connecticut professor and the
professor is using public money for
campaign purposes. Sooner or later
she has to realize her chief of staff is
out of control.”
Moody did not return a call for
comment Tuesday.
Rell’s budget office, responding to a
request under the state Freedom of
Information act, on Tuesday released
a record of a discretionary account
agreed upon by Democrats and
Republicans during the bipartisan
budget negotiations in 2007 that was
used to fund the UConn contract.
Unlike the two top Democratic
leaders, who each had $2 million
a year or a total of $4 million over
the biennium, Rell shared her fund
with Senate Minority Leader John
McKinney, R-Fairfield, and House
Minority Leader Lawrence F.
Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk. Also unlike
Democrats, Rell last year turned over
the Republicans’ second-year total to
the General Fund to help deal with
the state’s growing, recession-driven
deficit.
In addition to the $223,406 for
UConn, Rell provided relatively small
grants around the state and in her
district, including $50,000 for the
Mark Twain House and Museum in
Hartford, and $25,000 for the library
in her hometown of Brookfield. The
state Commission on Culture and
Tourism got the biggest grant of the
year: $250,000.
Rell took office in July 2004,
following the resignation of John
G. Rowland, for whom she was
lieutenant governor for nine-and-a-
half years. Rowland left in the face
of an impeachment inquiry and in
December 2004 pleaded guilty to
federal felony charges that landed
him in a federal prison for 10
months.
Around the time Rowland pleaded
guilty, Rell issued her third executive
order, in which she stressed that “the
state government contracting process
and procedures must be open, honest,
fair and accessible at all times.”
In that order, she required all state
agencies under the executive branch
and all higher-education entities to
“post all bids, requests for proposals
and all resulting contracts and
agreements” on a state Web page for
public scrutiny.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell turned back her
$2 million budget contingency
account to help balance the one-year
budget that ended June 30. But in
the previous year she used about
$1.9 million for a variety of local
projects. She shared the account with
House Minority Leader Lawrence
F. Cafero, R-Norwalk, and Senate
Minority Leader John McKinney,
R-Fairfield. In addition to $223,406
for a UConn professor to study
government efficiencies, the account
gave: $50,000 to the Mark Twain
House and Museum in Hartford.
$50,000 for the Governor’s Teen
Driving Awareness program. $25,000
to the Friends of the Arts in Rell’s
hometown of Brookfield. $25,000
to the Brookfield Library. $250,000
to the Commission on Culture
& Tourism $50,000 to Special
Olympics. $25,000 to Operation Fuel.