CT’s Has Nation’s Third Lowest Rate of People Killed by Police; National Data Reveals Glaring Disparities Among States, Cities

Between January 2013 and April 2016, the rate of individuals killed by police in Connecticut was the third lowest in the nation, according to the website mappingpoliceviolence.org  The website indicates that during that period, there were 20 people killed by police in the state, for a rate of 5.60, based on the state’s population.  The only states with lower rates were New York, at 5.26, and Rhode Island, at 3.80.  The highest rates were in New Mexico (31.5), D.C. (28.25), Oklahoma (24.52), Arizona (23.31), Nevada (21.85) and Wyoming (21.29).

Key findings highlighted on the website include:

• 28 percent of U.S. police killings between Jan 2013 - Apr 2016 were committed by police departments of the 100 largest U.S. cities.
• Black people were 39 percent of people killed by these 100 police departments despite being only 21 percent of the population in their jurisdictions.
• In only 3 of the 100 largest city police departments was there no one killed between January 2013 and April 2016 (Buffalo, Irvine, and Plano), according to the website.
• The majority (51%) of unarmed people killed by the 100 largest city police departments were Black. These police departments killed unarmed Black people at a rate 4 times higher than unarmed White people, the data indicated.
• Rates of violent crime in cities did not make it any more or less likely for police departments to kill people. For example, Buffalo and Newark police departments had low rates of police violence despite high crime rates while Spokane and Bakersfield had relatively low crime rates and high rates of police violence, the website points out.

The site is designed to “help hold state policy-makers accountable for police violence,” and highlight “how police violence disproportionately impacts black people in many states.”  It offers a number of mapping tools to allow users to review and contrast data, and also offers a database of gathered information.

Looking at the rate at which Blacks were killed by police during the period January 2013 – April 2016, Connecticut was among the lowest, at 8.3, which reflects three deaths.  In New Hampshire, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Idaho and South Dakota, largely reflecting the population in those states, there were no deaths of African Americans, according to the data.

In 2015, among the 100 largest police departments, there were 14 police departments in which 100 percent of the individuals killed were Black (St Louis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Raleigh, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia and Charlotte) and five departments in which all of those killed were White.  Connecticut’s largest cities were not included in the list.

The research indicated that “while some have blamed violent crime for being responsible for police violence in some communities, data shows that high levels of violent crime in cities did not appear to make it any more or less likely for police departments to kill people.”

The report defines a “police killing” as “a case where a person dies as a result of being chased, beaten, arrested, restrained, shot, pepper sprayed, tasered, or otherwise harmed by police officers, whether on-duty or off-duty, intentional or accidental.”

The website Mapping Police Violence is a “research collaborative collecting comprehensive data on police killings nationwide to quantify the impact of police violence in communities,” as described by the website.  The research team indicates that “the data represented on this site is the most comprehensive accounting of people killed by police since 2013.”

PERSPECTIVE: Face Your Fears – and the Editorial Board

by Paul Steinmetz Even those of us who love our jobs dread some tasks that we can’t avoid. For many politicians, it’s the interview with the local newspaper’s editorial board. I imagine a lot of candidates will relive the scene many times: You sit across a conference room table from a handful of people, some of whom you have grown to loathe, and others you may not know. The editorial board is usually made up of the editorial page editor, the editor, maybe the publisher, and a reporter or two.

If you are an incumbent, the editorial page editor likely has written something biting and cruel about you in the past several months. You only talk to the editor when you call to complain about the editorial page editor. You may see the reporter frequently; he or she has repeatedly told you that the reporters have nothing to do with the editorials, and don’t know their content until they’re published. You aren’t positive that’s the truth. Nevertheless, you have convinced yourself this is a duty you must take on. If the newspaper endorses you, it might persuade some voters in your favor.

As the editor of a daily community paper, I sat on the editorial board for many election cycles. Unbeknownst to those running for office, I never prepared as well as I promised myself I would. And often they were stilted interviews because in the interest of fairness, we asked each candidate running for the same office the exact same questions, when it would have been much more interesting to get them talking on a personal level.

For example, one year a third-party candidate ran for mayor. He also hosted a local cable talk show and a couple of years earlier, in a rant against the newspaper and me, he had urged viewers to dump their household garbage at the foot of my driveway. No one did, and I decided finally not to torture him.

And torture is what it seemed to be for most of the politicians who came to see us. The most experienced wore a weary air or were angry and combative. John Rowland, when he was Connecticut’s governor, hated our editorials and our editorial page editor and he usually complained throughout the interview. (We usually endorsed him.)

One gentleman running for a seat as a state representative had no political experience and seemed terrified. He stammered, started to answer one way and then changed direction, and practically squeaked by the end of the session. I don’t recall any particularly tough questions; he had built it up in his mind that we were going to rip him apart, or ask him something he didn’t know. Admittedly, the editorial page editor was a little scary. She always did her homework and knew the issues. Her editorials routinely skewered politicians.

For the most part, journalists understand that they must see many sides of an issue, and their personal feelings are not to enter the equation. I know that sounds naïve to those outside the newsroom, but in my experience it was true. And the politicians who did best understood what we were trying to do and what, for the most part, they could expect.

After I left the paper a friend of mine who was running for re-election asked me to help him prepare for his upcoming editorial board interview. I suggested some of the issues the editors might bring up and some of the positions he had taken in the past couple of years that he would be criticized for. Then I pointed out he was not going to get the endorsement. He was a Republican and fairly conservative. The editor was unabashedly liberal. My friend’s opponent was a minority – and gay. “He’s their dream candidate,” I said. “They can’t pass this up.”

He laughed, sat back and acknowledged I was right. Later he said it was the most fun he had ever had at an editorial board interview.

When you admit that some parts of the job just aren’t as fun as others – but they still must be tackled – it is easier to address them with courage and even a sense of humor.

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Paul Steinmetz is director of Public Affairs & Community Relations at Western Connecticut State University. As the founder of Writing Associates, he consults on writing and media issues for businesses and individuals.

PERSPECTIVE commentaries by contributing writers appear each Sunday on Connecticut by the Numbers.

LAST WEEK: Successful Succession Planning for Nonprofits

Editorial Cartoon by Bob Englehart

Most CT Residents Concerned About Loss of Jobs, Access, Care in Aetna-Humana Merger, Poll Shows; Missouri Decision Points to Adverse Impact

The State of Missouri raised a red flag today, waving it directly into the headwind that is the pending merger between health care giants Aetna and Humana.  Missouri’s action came just as a public poll was released in Connecticut by consumer advocates opposing the merger which indicated a general lack of public awareness about the merger plan and substantial concern about potential job losses and adverse health care affordability and choices here if the merger goes forward. The Missouri Insurance Department issued an order banning Aetna and Humana from selling certain types of insurance in the state if the companies’ planned $37 billion merger comes to fruition. The order states that Aetna and Humana should “cease and desist from doing business” throughout Missouri with respect to individual and small group insurance and the group Medicare Advantage market if Aetna’s acquisition of Humana is completed.

In Connecticut, the Connecticut Campaign for Consumer Choice coalition released results of a recent poll which found that most Connecticut voters “didn’t know that the five major national health insurance companies – UnitedHealth, Anthem, Cigna, Aetna, and Humana - are attempting to merge down to three companies from five. The new research found that only 27 percent of respondents were aware of the plans.

After they were given more information about the consequences of the mergers among the five national health insurance providers (Aetna-Humana and CIGNA-Anthem), 71 percent of Connecticut voters were opposed to State Insurance Commissioner Katherine Wade approving the mergers in Connecticut.

Nine in ten state voters (91 percent) think that it’s either very or somewhat important that Commissioner Wade “considers the impact of these mergers on the affordability of insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and their potential to limit health care choices, in her decision making process.” And those surveyed were overwhelmingly concerned that the proposed mergers will lead to job losses in Connecticut.

The Connecticut survey, conducted earlier this month by Public Policy Polling, found that 89 percent of Connecticut voters are either very or somewhat concerned that the proposed mergers will lead to job losses in Connecticut. Additionally, 89 percent of those polled believe it’s either very or somewhat important that the impact of these mergers on job losses in Connecticut be considered by state regulators.

Missouri is the first state regulator to release findings against the proposed deal, announced last year, published reports indicated. The deal is being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as state regulators and antitrust authorities, who are also reviewing competitor Anthem’s plan to buy Cigna Corp. Aetna has filed for regulatory approval in the 20 states where Humana is domiciled and of those, 15 have approved the deal thus far, including Connecticut.  Because of Humana's limited footprint in Connecticut, the review was more form than substance.  The Cigna-Anthem merger, however, is to receive a much fuller review, according to state insurance officials, as Cigna is a state-domiciled company.

Regarding Aetna-Humana, the Missouri Insurance Department “found that in its current, unmodified, form – as to a few specified lines of insurance – that the proposed acquisition would violate the competitive standard set forth in Missouri law, meaning that as to those lines the acquisition would substantially lessen competition in this state.”

The Missouri Insurance Department stressed that the decision “is not a final order. The statute provides that Aetna and Humana may submit a plan to remedy the anticompetitive effect of the merger as to those specified lines.”  If that step is taken, the department “would evaluate the plan and may modify or vacate” the order issued today banning the merged company from certain lines of insurance in the state.

"The Missouri order does not impede the Department of Justice approval process," Aetna said in a statement. "We're disappointed, but expect to have a constructive dialogue with the state to address their concerns."

In addition to the public poll, Connecticut Campaign for Consumer Choice – a coalition that includes the Universal Health Care Foundation, Connecticut Citizen Action Group and Connecticut State Medical Society -  released a letter to Commissioner Wade signed by 17 state legislators calling for multiple public hearings on the merger, intervenor status for interested consumer advocates, and a study that would “analyze the potential impact on cost, access, and the Connecticut economy, including jobs” and warning that if the merger is approved, “the resulting mega-insurer will cover 64 percent of covered lives in Connecticut, with an even greater concentration in some regions of our state.”

The Missouri decision comes following a public hearing held on May 16.  In testimony provided as part of the public record, Consumers Council of Missouri expressed “profound concern,” warning that the merger would result in a “significant reduction in competition (that) will most certainly result in increased cost to consumers,” adding that “the results will be catastrophic and we will have no power to undo it.”

The Missouri Hospital Association, in offering a detailed 21-page analysis, indicated that “Consolidation will affect the ability of hospitals and other health care providers to bargain competitively for contracts containing appropriate fees for medical services. In turn, such providers are less able to invest in the resources to maintain and improve the quality of care. An anticompetitive suppression of healthcare payments will suppress innovation, to the detriment of consumers.”

State Residents Pessimistic About State Economy, Upbeat About Personal Finances, Survey Finds

The state’s budget crisis, and months of fiscal wrangling at the State Capitol, appears to have taken a toll on the economic outlook of Connecticut residents.  Despite growing optimism about their personal financial situation, state residents are increasingly pessimistic about the state’s finances and employment prospects, and are preparing to do some personal belt-tightening as a result. In the latest InformCT Consumer Confidence Survey, for the first quarter of 2016, the percentage who believe that the Connecticut economy is improving has dropped 10 points from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter this year, from just over one-third (34%) of state residents to just  under one-quarter (24%).

A year ago, when asked about current business conditions in Connecticut versus six months prior, 29 percent said conditions were better and only 22 percent said they were worse.  That break-down has now flipped, with 22 percent stating “better” and 29 percent saying business conditions are worse.

A majority of respondents (56%) said they intend to make some (41%), or significant (15%), cuts to their personal budget, as a result of budget cuts at the state level.  Only four in ten say that state cuts will have no effect “on me personally.”  Asked what the state should do to best remedy the budget shortfall, six in ten (59%) urged the state to reduce spending while four in ten (43%) suggested raising taxes on the top 1% of income households.

The quarterly survey is released by InformCT, a public-private partnership that provides independent, non-partisan research, analysis, and public outreach to help create fact-based dialogue and action in Connecticut.  Administered by researchers from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. (CERC) and Smith & Company, the analysis is based on the responses of residents across Connecticut and addresses key economic issues, providing a glimpse of the public’s views.

Regarding the employment picture, state residents increasingly believe that although there are jobs available, but 6 in 10 believe there are “not enough.”  And 42 percent are concerned that either their job, or their spouse’s job, is in jeopardy - up from 33 percent in the previous quarter, and the highest level the quarterly survey has seen in the past year.

When it comes to their own finances, state residents are markedly more upbeat.  One-third (32%) say they are better off than 6 months ago (up from 24% in the previous quarterly survey) and 44 percent believe they will be better off six months from now than they are today, a jump of 10 points from last quarter.  More than 8 in 10 residents (83%) say that from a personal financial standpoint, they will be much better off, somewhat better off, or about the same, six months from now.

State residents continue to be persistent in their view that Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family, with 48 percent expressing that view, and only 29 percent disagreeing – a number that hasn’t budged much during the past year.  Yet, the percentage of respondents who say they are likely to move out of the state in the next five years has increased to its highest level in five quarters, to 43 percent, after hovering between 32 percent and 39 percent with that view in the four quarterly surveys of 2015.

Perhaps driven by economic necessity, the public’s view of regionalism – long an anathema in Connecticut – indicates receptivity.  Four in ten now believe that services such as public safety, public health, libraries, education and animal control “could effectively be delivered regionally.”  And 52 percent believe that the best way to grow the economy is to invest in local schools, transportation choices and walkable areas, versus 48 percent who view recruiting companies to the area as the best way to grow the economy.

PERSPECTIVE: Successful Succession Planning for Nonprofits

by Tom Wood The retirement party, it’s a familiar sight; we’ve all been to our fair share. Once you get past the cake, balloons, and bittersweet nostalgia you have to face the fact that you just lost a valued member of your management team. This is when many nonprofit organizations begin to address their succession planning. Even if it is only unspoken, there is a general consciousness that a retirement is coming, but when it comes to resignations there is usually a lack of any advanced noticed.

The effects of sudden turnover resonate strongest for nonprofit entities. For one, employees are driven by the mission and therefore tend to stay for a long time making them unwritten resources. In addition, everyone wears more than one hat so multiple aspects of the organization are affected. A few unplanned departures can have a great impact on multiple facets of the organization resulting in lost institutional knowledge. It also takes more time to replace a position as the skill set for many nonprofit organizations is program specific, which limits the pool of potential candidates.

So when is the best time to start thinking about succession planning? Like everything else in life, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. As cliché as it sounds, the key is to address succession planning before it ever becomes an issue. A process should be developed to identify and monitor management positions that are at risk. From there, you can take three simple steps to mitigate succession related issues: 1) update your procedures manual annually, 2) cross train staff, and 3) develop from within.

Every nonprofit has a handful of individuals who have been around forever. They are the ones who know everything. The first step to proper succession planning is to document what they do. It sounds simple, but how often does your organization update its employee handbook or procedures manual? Make sure that the manual is reviewed by the person actually performing the duties. Having a current procedures manual will make sure that institutional knowledge isn’t lost.

Once your procedures are up to date, start cross training your staff. Not only will it be helpful in the event of unforeseen turnover, but it is an important internal control. Cross training is a temporary solution, but it can buy you time to find the perfect candidate.

Nonprofits have mission specific programs which can make it difficult to find qualified replacements for program leaders. Often times, very specific job requirements including years of experience and advanced degrees limit the candidate pool. Now, you could hire an expensive headhunter who might come up with a handful of so-so replacements, but there is another option, albeit more long-term: hire from within. Identify potential leaders within your organization and then create a long term development plan. Unlike outside recruits, internal hires already understand the organization, fit in with the culture, and are passionate about the mission.

Senior management isn’t the only group that can benefit from succession planning. A healthy nonprofit is usually the result of an involved board of directors; a strong board takes time to develop and needs to be maintained. Typically, most nonprofit boards have a nominating or governance committee which are charged with finding and vetting future directors. Term limits and classes will keep the board fresh and prevent all the responsibility falling on a few individuals.

So the next time your nonprofit has a retirement party, enjoy a piece of cake and don’t worry because you’ll be ready.

____________________________________

Tom Wood is an audit manager with Whittlesey & Hadley, P.C.  He specializes in audits of nonprofit organizations.  Whittlesey & Hadley, P.C. is a leading, regional provider of accounting, financial, business and technology consulting services, headquartered in Hartford, with offices in Hamden, CT and Holyoke, MA.  

PERSPECTIVE commentaries by contributing writers appear each Sunday on Connecticut by the Numbers.

 LAST WEEK: Driven by Discovery

Editorial Cartoon by Bob Englehart

Colorado’s Governor Recalls Time at Wesleyan

The first time someone told Governor of Colorado and Wesleyan alumnus John Hickenlooper ’74 that he should run for public office, he nearly laughed them out of the room. “I said, ‘Why the hell would I ever do that,’” Hickenlooper said. “[Even growing up,] I never ran for student council or class president, and I didn’t really hang out with the people that did. This kind of caught me by surprise.”

If there ever was a perfect example of the triumph of a broad liberal arts education, Hickenlooper’s serendipitous path to the Governor’s mansion is it. The English major, turned geologist, turned brewpub owner ran for Mayor of Denver in 2003 as something of a joke.

“In 2001, some smart people who did work in politics—and they were my customers so I knew them—suggested I run for mayor,” Hickenlooper said. “They said, in a funny way, you’re perfect for who ought to be in politics. You’re a small-business person, someone in the service industry who understands restaurants, and somebody who understands science. So kind of as a joke, we decided to run. We didn’t do opposition research and I’ve never done a negative ad. Our focus was really on putting up a positive vision for Denver. And we did a few very funny TV ads that are still up on YouTube. And no one could believe it as we were running, because in 2003, we beat these lifetime politicians who had been in office since 1987 two to one.”

Hickenlooper may not have taken the most direct route to a career in politics, but growing up, he always had the sense that he wanted to leave a public legacy. Despite his initial disinterest in the political sphere, public service is actually in his blood: his great-grandfather Andrew Hickenlooper was a renowned Civil War general and both a Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio.

However, Governor Hickenlooper learned little about his family heritage growing up. His father died from cancer when he was eight, and he felt the absence acutely.

“Especially for men and boys, if your father dies you have to figure out [how] to raise yourself,” Hickenlooper said. “You know, showing yourself how to comb your hair, or what kinds of pants look good. Because you learn that stuff when you are very young.”

For a long time, Hickenlooper had little idea what he wanted to do with his life, but he believes there was something deeply existential about his lack of direction toward one set path. According to him, he internalized the family tragedy as motivation. He wanted to make enough noise in his life to leave a legacy that one day would be impossible to ignore.

“When I was a kid, I was skinny, had acne, and wore really thick, ugly black plastic glasses,” Hickenlooper said. “So I always sort of felt like I had to prove myself. After my dad died, there was this sense that you want your voice to be heard out in the cosmos. Kind of in a weird way, you want your father way, way out there to be able to hear your voice.”

With his father absent, Hickenlooper taught himself many adolescent rites of passage. Yet, he discovered Wesleyan through family ties. He attended his half-brother’s graduation from the University in 1968, and reminisces fondly about how cool he thought it was that The Grateful Dead played a show on Foss Hill amidst widespread campus unrest in 1969. Beyond this trivia, Hickenlooper loved Wesleyan’s approach to diversity and its open-minded curriculum.

In going about his academic experience, Hickenlooper forged as eclectic a path as he could. Although he majored in English, Hickenlooper was dyslexic and felt that he could never keep up in classes where there was heavy reading. Thus, he took a course load that included piano, “how to design and fabricate stained glass windows,” dance, and electronic music.

“I took all different things I thought would help me,” Hickenlooper said. “I thought I wanted to be in some sort of creative role in life. But it turned out everything I taught, I was never very good at. But it’s nice, because I can still play the piano, guitar, and banjo to this day.”

It was only just before his undergraduate education came to a close that Hickenlooper finally found his niche. After sitting in on a lecture in one of his friends Earth & Environmental Science classes, he realized that he loved the subject more than anything he had ever studied.

Subsequently, Hickenlooper was accepted into Wesleyan’s Master’s program in geology for students with a non-science background. He then took chemistry and math classes for two years and over the summer at Harvard University. He did field work in the Beartooth Mountains of southern Montana, where he observed the most beautiful landscape he’d ever seen. After graduation, he drove a beat-up Volkswagen fastback from his brother’s house in Berkeley to do more fieldwork in Costa Rica.

If Hickenlooper’s post-college years seem like a narrative straight out of “On the Road,” their surrealistic nature has never escaped him, especially when he settled down in Denver to become a professional geologist in 1981. After working for the oil company Buckhorn Petroleum for five years, Hickenlooper realized that he was a pretty big extrovert, and a nine-to-five desk job was never going to do it for his more adventurous tendencies. Before he could make a career switch, the price of oil collapsed and most of his company was laid off, including Hickenlooper himself. Even though he was out of work for almost two and a half years, Hickenlooper faced this latest setback the same way he had dealt with adversity all his life: reinvention.

“It’s funny, when I first got laid off, I was lucky,” Hickenlooper said. “Our company had found a lot of oil and we had some anti-takeover provisions in our compensation, so I ended up getting a year of severance. You know, I was looking through my old letters and I was never moping around, I was kind of excited. This didn’t work out, now I have to find something else, and what am I going to try next.”

After trying to find another job as a geologist and even toying with becoming a writer, the next chapter in Hickenlooper’s life was spurred by a visit to a California brewpub, a trip made with the same brother who had inspired his interest in Wesleyan. Enamored by the self-sufficiency of the restaurant-brewery fusion, Hickenlooper began to talk incessantly about the superiority of the establishment’s beer.

Eventually his friends started to tell him to open a brewpub of his own. Despite no experience with running a restaurant, that is precisely what he decided to do. After going to the library to figure out how to write a business plan, Hickenlooper dove headfirst into his new life as a small-business owner and opened the WynKoop Brewing Company in 1988.

Initially, getting the business off the ground was grueling. Hickenlooper worked between 60 and 70 hours per week and paid himself a salary of less than $26,000. But soon, things started to pick up, and Hickenlooper and his co-owners began to open brewpubs all over the Midwest. It was the opening of Coors Field two blocks away in 1995 that caused the WynKoop to explode in popularity.

“All of a sudden, we became rich,”Hickenlooper said.

While Hickenlooper could have franchised his pub or enjoyed the revenue stability that Coors Field had provided, he was still restlessly searching for his place in life. He began to become deeply engaged with the Denver community, joining non-profit boards such as the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts and the Denver Art Museum. He got involved with the battle over the naming rights for the Broncos’ new stadium, and soon he become a well-known figure in the city.

Hickenlooper soon realized that his favorite part of the day was the time he spent in the non-profit community. The intersection between business, arts, and public relations work suited both Hickenlooper’s multifaceted interests and his extroverted personality. Becoming some sort of a public servant could fulfill the higher calling he had sought since the death of his father. While he laughs that he initially ran for mayor as a joke, considering this decision, you get the sense that deep down, his political move was serious and deliberate from the beginning.

In 2005, Hickenlooper was named one of Time Magazine’s top five big-city mayors, and after getting re-elected as mayor in 2007 with 97 percent of the vote, there was talk of him filling Ken Salazar’s vacated Senate seat. While that didn’t pan out, Hickenlooper got the call in 2010 from incumbent Governor Bill Ritter, asking him to run for the soon-to-be open governorship. Hickenlooper easily defeated challenger Tom Tancredo and became the first Denver mayor to be elected Governor of Colorado in over 130 years.

For a public servant who has thoroughly disproven the conventions of how to carve out a career in politics, he has been a remarkably shrewd and effective leader. Despite running a nonpartisan campaign focused on balancing Colorado’s deficit, Hickenlooper has acted on the front lines of implementing socially liberal policies. He took on the NRA to institute stricter gun control regulations. He questioned the practice of capital punishment. He’s championed criminal justice reform after originally embracing harsher policing policies as mayor.

Most famously, he’s spearheaded Colorado’s marijuana legalization efforts. However, in this case, he did not always agree with the pace of reform. While supporting the decriminalization of marijuana and its use for medicinal purposes, he has publicly expressed opposition to Amendment 64, which was passed in 2012 and legalized possession of up to one ounce of the drug. Has his mind changed in the following years?

“I was against it, because you don’t want to be in conflict with federal law,” Hickenlooper said. “You don’t want to be the first to create an entire regulatory framework. But, now that it’s been going for a few years, we have anecdotal reports that I think are reliable, that we have fewer drug dealers than we had before.”

Hickenlooper also wanted to dispel the notion that legalization is merely driven by a financial calculus.

“Some people said we wanted to do it just to get the tax money,” Hickenlooper said. “That’s stupid. Why would you risk the health of your kids and your citizens? If this is really bad for people, getting tax revenues is a pretty bad excuse. But if you end up sending less people to jail, and you end up with less drug dealers trying to sell drugs of all kinds to kids or anybody, that is reasonable. We’ve taken the tax revenues and we’ve helped fund programs for drug rehabilitation and kids that get derailed from a constructive life. We’ve dedicated a lot of money to try and get them back in a good life.”

If politics forces everyone to eventually take sides, Hickenlooper likes to at least preserve his nonpartisan, centrist appeal in tone. What has allowed him to push deeply progressive policies in a politically divided state has been pairing his utilitarian philosophy with the desire to keep his finger on the pulse of the communities he serves.

“I think mostly just by listening,” Hickenlooper said. “You know states and cities are made up of all different kinds of people, so you really have to listen hard to understand what is the rhythm behind all that noise out there. There’s a melody and a rhythm in there somewhere, and what is it that will make the greatest number of people happy and give the greatest value to the community.”

Staying true to his business and non-profit experience, he has also streamlined government in Colorado and filled his cabinet with many people who possess management skills. While he certainly doesn’t speak about the relationship between business and government in the way that Donald Trump does, he does agree that government benefits from employing individuals with diverse backgrounds, especially those with organizational management and leadership experience.

“We’re taking all this [management] training that people receive from getting MBAs, and we’re giving it very narrowly to just business,” Hickenlooper said. “If you look at it, government is about 30 percent of our economy. And non-profits are another 30 percent. And yet all the training in management and leadership goes into business.”

Hickenlooper operates in a tranquil space, and his desire to forge a consensus on major issues seems sincere. What, then, does he think of an election season that has been the complete opposite? Specifically, what would he do if Donald Trump becomes president? One has to wonder if another extended trip to Costa Rica is in his future.

“No, I’d have two more years of being a sitting governor, so I couldn’t leave and do that to my adopted state,” Hickenlooper said. “But I do think that he might be reinventing himself again. So, I’m not going prejudge him. I will say that he scares the living daylights out of me. Some of the things he says are just so provocative and difficult. If he somehow manages to get elected, which I’m going to work hard to make sure doesn’t happen, he’s the President of the United States. And I respect the system our country has created.”

There’s even a chance that Hickenlooper himself may play a direct role in the election to come. A longtime supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Hickenlooper is one of the superdelegates that has already pledged support to her campaign. And while he has dispelled rumors of being a potential pick for the Vice Presidency, they persist anyway. Since Hickenlooper occupies a space between the establishment and outsider status, what does he say to students who are disillusioned by the DNC’s cozy relationship to Clinton, or their frustrations with the lack of viable alternatives?

“What I tell young people all the time is, ‘get your friends to vote,’” Hickenlooper said. “Don’t complain because the more experienced people in the party are supporting Hillary. Go out and get more people to vote.”

His take on the activism of today is similarly nuanced, if not a little nostalgic for the great battles for equality of the past.

“I say to kids, ‘I was you once,’” Hickenlooper said. “I marched on Washington to oppose the Vietnam War. I went to the first Earth Day in 1969. But, I also understood that there were people who were older and they thought they had answers, and maybe they were right and maybe they were wrong. But we had a system whereby everybody had a voice, and that is the amazing thing about America.”

If there’s anything that sticks out about Hickenlooper’s political philosophy, it’s his respect, and even admiration, for a democratic process that once seemed completely foreign to him. Then again, he didn’t expect to become a brewpub owner or a geologist either. Perhaps he’s still got a few more tricks up his sleeve.

This article was written by Aaron Stagoff-Belfort and first appeared, in a lengthier version, in the Wesleyan Argus.  Abridged and published with permission.

Hartford Foundation Growth Responds to Community Needs

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the community foundation for 29 communities in Greater Hartford, awarded more than $33 million in grants to the region’s nonprofit agencies and educational institutions in 2015, according to the organization’s newly released annual report. The Foundation’s 2015 grantmaking was based on the recognition that "a vibrant and strong Greater Hartford region requires that all residents, especially those with the greatest need, have equitable opportunities to achieve and flourish," the report stated.  In order to make this possible, the Foundation provided support to nonprofit and public entities that "work to ensure everyone has access to the resources and services they need to thrive."

The Foundation invested 30 percent of its grants in education from birth through high school, and new and renewed college scholarship, according to the report. Grants for family and social services received 20 percent; health – 11 percent; arts and culture – 11 percent; community and economic development – 19 percent, general – 5 percent and summer programs – 4 percent.

“Thanks to the support of our generous donors, the Hartford Foundation, working with our many community partners, is leading and participating in collaborative approaches to harness resources and increase community impact,” said Linda J. Kelly, president of the Hartford Foundation.

The Foundation received gifts totaling $17.5 million and established 29 new funds, including a new giving circle, the “Black Giving Circle Fund,” to address issues facing Greater Hartford’s Black community.

“Our newly adopted strategic plan, with its focus on equity and opportunity, prioritizes learning from birth through college, vibrant communities and family economic security,” Kelly said. “We look forward to amplifying our efforts to address community needs to meet the broad-based and changing issues in our region, and create pathways to opportunity for all residents.”

The annual report highlights the wide variety of work the Foundation has supported throughout Greater Hartford, including:

Alliance District Grants (Bloomfield, East Hartford, Windsor): More than $1.5 million was awarded to three Greater Hartford school districts to establish or deepen each district’s partnerships with family and community, to improve student outcomes and promote equitable educational opportunity throughout the region.

• Bloomfield was awarded a grant to significantly expand Bloomfield Public Schools’ family and community partnerships supporting an extended school day and increasing yearlong support of student learning.
• East Hartford Public Schools received a grant to develop a new Teaching and Learning Center and other strategies that will enable it to support children’s learning, development, and success through increased family, school, and community partnerships.
• Windsor Public Schools received a grant to establish a new Office of Family and Community Partnership to develop families, school staff, and community partners’ knowledge, skills, and other capacities to engage in productive partnerships focused on student success.

The Hartford Foundation has approved $3.95 million over three years in grants and technical assistance to support the Career Pathways Initiative, a collaborative, crosscutting approach to providing residents with education and workforce training that places them on a trajectory to ascend a career ladder in industries that have job openings. The initiative targets low-literate and low-skilled residents of the Capitol Region, including single parents, at-risk youth, immigrants, homeless heads of household, former offenders, and others who need a broad range of coordinated services to be successful. The initiative enhances or expands existing programs and pilots new approaches.

Journey Home was awarded a three-year, $199,197 grant to support the region’s Coordinated Access Network, a collaboration of services providers whose goal is to establish a coordinated region wide placement and referral system for homeless individuals and families.

The Nonprofit Support Program continues to be a critical source of capacity building and knowledge sharing among our region’s nonprofit organizations.  In 2015, 218 nonprofits were awarded 96 grants totaling $1.74 million. These grants included support for technical assistance, strategic technology, human resources, board leadership development, executive transition, financial management and evaluation capacity.

Metro Hartford Progress Points, a partnership between the Hartford Foundation and eight other regional entities, launched the second edition of the Progress Points Report which focused on access to better schools, better jobs and stronger neighborhoods.

Since its founding in 1925, the Foundation has awarded approximately $654 million in grants.

Women’s Wellness is Common Thread for 2016 Hall of Fame Inductees

The remarkable women being honored at this year’s Induction Ceremony & Celebration for the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame come from three different generations and varying backgrounds, and have made tremendous contributions to advance awareness of health and wellness issues facing women and whose work inspires others to advocacy and action. Jane Pauley, one of broadcasting’s most respected journalists and longtime advocate for children’s health, education and mental health; Rebecca Lobo, award-winning athlete, Olympic Gold Medalist and successful television analyst, author and motivational speaker; and Dr. Joyce Yerwood, first African American woman physician in Fairfield County, founder of the Yerwood Center and pioneer in drug treatment programs; will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on November 2.

The theme for this year’s event will be “Women's Wellness: Awareness, Advocacy & Action.”

“Wellness is critical to women’s opportunities to achieve and succeed across all fields, and we don’t have to look far to see the health and wellness challenges women face daily,” says Katherine Wiltshire, executive director of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.

“From athletics and advocacy to providing direct healthcare services, our 2016 Inductees have worked in diverse fields to promote women’s wellness,” continues Wiltshire. “We are thrilled to honor these incredible women and share their stories in an effort to inspire even more women and girls to take informed action when it comes to their own wellbeing.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, for example, that more than 60 percent of U.S. women do not get adequate exercise; data from the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that more than 20 percent of U.S. women struggle with mental illness; Kaiser Family Foundation research shows that one fifth of women cannot afford to see a doctor.

To be considered for induction to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of fame, a nominee must:

• be a Connecticut native and/or Connecticut resident
• be the first woman, historic or living, to achieve recognition in her field of endeavor; or have a lifetime of achievement in that field
• have made a significant statewide contribution to arts, athletics, business, government, philanthropy, humanities, science, education, etc.

Pauley was the co-host of TODAY on NBC from 1976 to 1989, anchored Dateline NBC for more than a decade and in 2004 became the host of her own daytime program, The Jane Pauley Show. Pauley is the recipient of numerous Emmy and other awards, including the prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Gracie Allen Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio & Television. Since 2014, Pauley has been contributing to CBS Sunday Morning and has guest-hosted CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News.

Both on and off the court, Rebecca Lobo personifies success. As the 1995 consensus National Player of the Year, she led the University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball team to its first National Championship. In 1996, she won a gold medal as the youngest member of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team, before embarking on a successful seven-year WNBA career. In 2001, Ms. Lobo and her mother, RuthAnn, founded “The RuthAnn and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship in Allied Health” at the University of Connecticut to encourage diversity in the health professions. Rebecca was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and today works as a television analyst, author, and motivational speaker.

“Her most visible contribution to the city,” the Stamford Advocate reported at Dr. Joyce Yerwood’s death at age 78 in 1987, “was her role in founding the community center that would bear her name.”  According to published reports, the story of the Yerwood Center started with a child's statement. While talking to a group of children shortly before starting her practice, one of them said to her, "You're a colored doctor. I never knew that a colored woman could be a doctor."

Born in Texas, Yerwood graduated from Meharry Medical College in Tennesse and then moved to Stamford with her husband, Dr. Joseph L. Carwin, a community leader for whom Carwin Park is named, the Stamford Advocate reported.  Today, the Yerwood Center hosts the Boys & Girls Club, which had a grand opening just a few months ago.

Last year’s inductees to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame were Carolyn Miles, President and CEO of Save the Children, Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, and Margaret Bourke-White, the first female photographer for LIFE magazine and first female American war photojournalist.

The mission of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (CWHF) is to honor publicly the achievements of Connecticut women, preserve their stories, educate the public and inspire the continued achievements of women and girls.

Founded in 1994 in Hartford, CWHF is a provider of innovative educational programs and tools that inspire women and girls to believe in their unlimited potential. With more than 100 inductees, CWHF “leverages these powerful stories and make history relevant through programs for educators, multi-media presentations and traveling exhibits offered free-of-charge.”

The 23rd Annual Induction Ceremony & Celebration will be Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 6:00-9:00 P.M. at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The CWHF website, www.cwhf.org, is a “Virtual Hall” where visitors can explore all that CWHF has to offer.