Connecticut’s state government is under scrutiny again. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) quietly hired a controversial former Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) insider to a powerful executive role just before Christmas.
This move has triggered new questions about transparency, regulatory integrity, and record-keeping practices in Hartford. The implications reach from Bridgeport and New Haven to Norwich, Danbury, and beyond.
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Controversial PURA Aide Lands at DAS in Low-Profile Holiday Hire
The Department of Administrative Services confirmed it hired Theresa Govert, former chief of staff at PURA. They made a quiet announcement on the agency’s LinkedIn page.
The timing — just ahead of the Christmas holiday — raised eyebrows in places like Hartford and Stamford. Some critics see it as an attempt to bury a politically sensitive personnel move when many residents and lawmakers were distracted.
The announcement highlighted Govert’s experience in policy and regulatory work. It notably omitted her central role in a year’s worth of controversies that rocked PURA, the state’s utility watchdog that directly affects consumers from Waterbury to New London.
LinkedIn Post Leaves Out the Scandals
The DAS post sounded like a standard professional welcome. But it didn’t mention that Govert had become a key figure in several scandals involving internal communications, deleted messages, and questions over fairness to Connecticut’s gas utilities.
People who rely on PURA’s oversight of electric and gas rates now wonder if problematic practices are being rewarded instead of fixed.
The Op-Ed Firestorm and PURA’s Internal Communications
One of the most contentious episodes tied to Govert involves a December 2024 newspaper op-ed. It appeared under the names of two state legislators and sharply criticized Connecticut’s utilities.
The piece quickly caught attention in policy circles from West Hartford to Milford. It didn’t take long before people started asking who actually wrote it.
Allegations surfaced that PURA officials helped orchestrate or shape the op-ed. That raised ethical red flags about a regulatory agency using lawmakers as a public mouthpiece.
Texts, Denials, and Vanishing Messages
Former PURA chair Marissa Gillett texted one of the legislators, saying she was waiting for Govert and others to review a draft before it went out. Later, officials insisted the text didn’t refer to that controversial op-ed, but many legal and political observers across Connecticut remained skeptical.
During related litigation, Gillett revealed that her text messages had been automatically deleted. Govert, testifying under oath, said she deleted work-related texts and couldn’t recall key events, blaming the side effects of medication.
Those statements, along with missing messages, fueled suspicion about whether critical public records were deliberately erased.
The Email That Didn’t Exist—Until It Did
Separate from the op-ed flap, Govert was also linked to a restrictive internal policy at PURA. In December 2023, she wrote an email that curtailed PURA commissioners’ access to agency staff — a big shift in how the agency operated and shared information internally.
That email would later directly contradict testimony from Gillett to lawmakers. Gillett had insisted no such restrictive policy ever existed.
Policy Denials Undermined by Recovered Document
PURA lawyers denied the existence of the email in various public and legal forums. But the document eventually surfaced and got published, confirming that Govert had circulated a directive limiting commissioner access to staff.
This discovery undermined earlier official claims. It also exposed what many see as a culture of obfuscation at an agency that regulates utilities for every household and business from Norwalk to New Britain.
State Admits Gas Companies Were Treated Unfairly
The state later acknowledged that gas companies had been treated unfairly in PURA proceedings. For utility ratepayers in cities like Stamford, Bridgeport, and smaller towns across eastern Connecticut, that admission raised serious questions about whether regulatory decisions were really based on evidence.
From PURA to DAS: A Troubling Pattern of Oversight Issues?
At DAS, Govert is joining Commissioner Michelle Gilman, who has her own share of critics. Gilman narrowed the scope of a $250,000 audit into a separate state scandal involving convicted former official Konstantinos Diamantis.
That episode left watchdogs in Hartford and good-government advocates statewide wary about the rigor of internal investigations. Now, Govert will sit on DAS’s executive team, overseeing policy, strategic planning, and regulatory processes at an agency that manages state records and emails.
That’s the very infrastructure that underpins transparency and accountability in Connecticut government. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s hard not to wonder if this is really a new chapter or just more of the same.
Critics Warn of “Fox Guarding the Henhouse”
To critics across Connecticut, this appointment feels like a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse. A former official with ties to deleted texts and vanishing emails at PURA now helps oversee record-keeping and process integrity for state government.
Will lawmakers at the Capitol, editorial boards from New Haven to Waterbury, and voters across the state push for deeper scrutiny of DAS’s hiring and oversight? That may decide whether this controversy fades away or sparks a real shift in how Connecticut handles public records and high-level accountability.
Here is the source article for this story: Kevin Rennie: In a bewildering time of machinations, the CT public faces new heavy burden
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