The Connecticut Senate Friday night unanimously passed legislation to bolster the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB) but removed language from the bill that would have given the board oversight of the state’s quasi-public agencies to reduce the fiscal note on the bill – something board member Sal Luciano warned was a “poison pill” in the legislation.
Similar legislation has been approved by the Senate in the past but stalled in the House of Representatives. The governor’s office, which has repeatedly sought to rein in the SCSB over the past few years, reportedly has problems with SB 391, and with only two days left during the legislative session, the state’s contracting watchdog may see its recommendations stalled again.
The bill essentially protects the SCSB from funding reductions by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) and Gov. Ned Lamont, similar to other watchdog agencies like the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC). It also requires agencies to inform bidders of their rights to contest an award, expands the SCSB’s ability to disqualify a bidder from receiving contracts for fraudulent or criminal conduct, and stricter guidelines around privatizing services performed by state employees.
Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, brought the amended proposal to the Senate floor, saying the bill was building upon bipartisan work to bolster the SCSB over the past few years.
“This proposal before us this evening has passed the Senate in a bipartisan and I believe unanimous fashion several times and the same proposals are before us again,” Flexer said. “It protects the funding of the Contracting Standards Board moving forward, and it ensure that entities and people who are bidding on state contracts know their full rights.”
“This proposal is something we’ve discussed every year for the last several years,” Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, said in support of the bill. “It’s been kind of frustrating because we’ve tried to work together to expand this type of practice and give the board as much authority as we can even over quasi-public agencies and that’s where we tend to run into a roadblock.”
But the most contentious part of the bill – expanding the SCSB’s authority to include quasi-public agencies like the Connecticut Green Bank, Lottery, and Airport Authority was stripped from the bill after the original legislation indicated the SCSB would require more staff at a cost of more than $800,000. The provision was opposed by OPM and the quasi-public agencies.
According to the bill analysis, “The amendment eliminates the previous requirement that the SCSB to provide oversight to quasi-public agencies reducing the additional staff required and the cost of the amendment.”
According to emails obtained by Inside Investigator, that part of the legislation was not brought before SCSB board members before being submitted for consideration by the General Assembly. Board member Sal Luciano indicated in an email to SCSB Executive Director Greg Daniels that the fiscal note would be a “poison pill” during a short session that saw Connecticut’s budget bumping up against the state’s fiscal guardrails.
“Requesting additional staff was not a recommendation of the board,” Luciano wrote in an April 12 email. “Nor did you communicate that you required extra staff to the board members. Requesting staff adds a fiscal note that very likely will act as a poison pill for the board’s legislative requests.”
The SCSB board has been bumping heads with Daniels, who has unilaterally canceled their meetings because Lamont has yet to name a chairman of the board, and Daniels, a Lamont appointee, is not allowing for the board to appoint an interim chairman, a move that contradicts past practice as recently as September of 2023.
The board was also delayed in getting their legislative proposals to the proper constitutional officers, according to SCSB meeting minutes. While the board had voted to send its legislative priorities to the General Assembly in October of 2023, by December it had still not been done.
Years of back and forth between the SCSB, the Lamont administration, OPM, and the Legislature saw the SCSB finally get full funding in 2022 and a staff, as well as being granted oversight over one quasi-public agency – the Connecticut Port Authority – which has had multiple ethical issues related to contracting as it redevelops the State Pier into an offshore wind power hub.
But with little more than a day left in the legislative session and the governor’s office still not pleased with the legislation, the SCSB could be facing another year seeing their recommendations lost to the session and subject to OPM’s budget discretions.
“At some point, though, there is going to have to be some changes that gets the Contracting Standards Board to have some authority over the quasis,” Sampson said.
The scheduled regular meeting of the SCSB for May 10 was canceled by Daniels and replaced with a special meeting to provide Freedom of Information training to board members. Because it’s a special meeting the board cannot vote to change the agenda and appoint an interim chairperson.
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