2 Inquiries Focus On Contract Between UConn Professor

And Rell For Efficiency Study

By JON LENDER and

CHRISTOPHER KEATING

October 9, 2009

Official investigations have
begun — on two fronts — into
University of Connecticut
Professor Kenneth Dautrich’s
$220,000, taxpayer-funded
contract with Gov. M. Jodi
Rell’s administration to do a
government-efficiency study that
produced controversial political
research and advice for how Rell
should tailor her stances to please

voters.

In interviews Friday, officials

confirmed two investigations:

• A joint investigation by the
bipartisan auditors of public
accounts and state Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal
into whether, as Auditor Kevin
Johnston put it, “state tax dollars
have been used for other than
strictly state purposes.”

• An inquiry by UConn’s Office
of Audit Compliance and Ethics,
which university spokesman
Michael Kirk said is “examining
the research associated with
this project to determine if it
may have violated any aspect

of UConn’s code of ethics.”

That code includes at least one
prohibition against political
activity on the job.

In her first comments to reporters on the controversy, the Republican governor said Friday that none

of the study money was used for

political purposes.

“Zero of that was political,” Rell

said during an appearance at a

firehouse in Torrington. Rell said,

“I’m very proud of the work that Ken Dautrich and the University of Connecticut did.”

One key official reviewing

the material will be Rachel

Rubin, now UConn’s director
of compliance, who served as
Rell’s ethics counsel starting in
2004, when Rell took office.
Rell appointed Rubin to that
new position while proclaiming
ethics and good government as
her watchwords. Rubin left the
governor’s office for UConn after
about a year and a half.

The two new investigations

appear to guarantee that the

Dautrich study will continue as
both a legal and political issue for
weeks, if not months.

One question is whether
Dautrich’s contract with the
budget office has any provisions
that allow for the public opinion

sampling that he did in a 2008

“focus group.”

Rell’s office and Dautrich both
denied any politics were involved
in the study Thursday when the
issue arose in a story by The Day

of New London.

However, The Courant has

obtained copies of May 6 e-mails between Dautrich and Rell’s chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, that have a distinctly political ring to them. Here is the exchange:

• Dautrich, on his personal e- mail account, at 5:28 p.m.: “A few things I’ve gathered over the past day or two: OFA [the

legislative Office of Fiscal
Analysis] has done an analysis
that says there are substantial cost
savings by combining the back
office functions of the SS [social
service] agencies. Dems love the
idea — and for good reason. You
might want to come out with it
first (risking, of course, that the
Dems may then be against it).
With the help of a few people, I
think I can put a plan together on
this pretty quickly ...”

• Moody, in reply, on her state
account, at 7:02 p.m.: “I think
you should pursue — give Bob
G. [state budget director Robert

Genuario] a call on this — he

can give you some folks to help.

This is a focus of the Democrats,

and, as you say, I would rather we

frame it than they frame it.”