Look who’s accusing others of ‘empire building’ in Connecticut

Did you detect just a bit of irony in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy accusing the three state public utilities regulators of “empire building” for trying to regain their independence from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)?

The accusation comes from the same governor who began his first term by seizing the same independent Public Utilities Regulatory Authority along with the independent Elections and Freedom of Information Commissions and Office of Ethics Enforcement and making them part of his own executive empire, allegedly in the interests of efficiency.

It was early February 2011, just days after his inauguration, that the new governor announced he wanted to reduce 81 state agencies to 57 to make them work more efficiently and save money. The mergers reportedly saved a piddling $10 million out of a $3 billion budget after the damage was done. 

Then, in 2013, as The Day of New London pointed out last Sunday, the governor re-established the quite unnecessary Department of Aging, at a cost of $9 million. Let’s do the math. Seizing independent watchdogs to help save $10 million, then reviving an unnecessary agency at a cost of $9 million, leaving $1 million saved by the reduction of 81 agencies to 58, not 57.

Most of the objections came from the watchdog agencies, themselves, some of them products of the Watergate era that revealed open government was largely a sham and inspired a nationwide movement to make government more responsive to the citizenry.

While these agencies were undergoing an era-ending reconstruction, others, representing politically potent special interests, like the Latino and Puerto Rican, African-American Affairs and Asian Pacific American Affairs Commissions and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women were spared.

Asked why at the time, Malloy aide Roy Occhiogrosso explained they “were creatures of the Legislature … and the governor believes in coequal branches of the government.” He suggested, with a straight face, that the Legislature might consider merging them. Of course, these agencies were also created by the legislative branch, but no matter. The Legislature tampering with these sacred cows runs the gamut from no way to fat chance. 

And now, the utilities watchdogs have staged a mild rebellion. In an end of the year, 19-page memorandum to the governor’s chief of staff Mark Ojakian, PURA chairman Arthur House and the other two commissioners have made some very disturbing charges. They wrote that they have seen “improper and destructive conduct” as well as “an insurmountable conflict of interest” in the three-year merger with the controlling energy and environmental department.

They said DEEP officials have halted regulatory decisions, made them meet with energy companies to negotiate rates and held up requests for new hires in an agency whose staff was cut from 150 to 60. “The fact that DEEP also controls PURA’s budget, hiring, staffing and offices provides not only the public appearance of impropriety, but also a structural conflict,” the regulators wrote.

House, with a long, distinguished record of public service, was respectful, telling reporters the regulators had no objection to staying with the DEEP for administrative purposes and added the commission would abide by any decision the governor made. 

What was the governor’s response to this reasonable request, not to mention its alarming accusations from the agency responsible for regulating the public’s utilities, including the highest-in-the-nation electric rates we pay?

Reminding us of the Malloy we became accustomed to before he became the kindly campaigner of 2014, the governor lashed out at the three regulators.

“I’ve been in government a long time. I’m used to people wanting to have their own empire. I don’t believe that’s necessary,” said the emperor.

Then, as a final grace note, the governor testily added, “And if any of the commissioners find that objectionable, they can always act on it. They could resign.”

And what about of commissioners’ charges that the DEEP had forced them to meet with energy companies to negotiate our rates and other improper and destructive conduct under the DEEP’s wing? Does he intend to put a stop to forcing the commissioners to negotiate with energy companies on rate increases or other conflicts of interests?

The emperor didn’t say.

Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.