Connecticut Bridges Falling Down? One-Third Are Deficient; State’s Highways Ranked 5th Worst for Cost and Condition

Seven states – including Connecticut – report that more than one-third of their bridges are deficient.  The other six are neighboring Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, as well as  Hawaii, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  Overall, only four states have state highway systems deemed worse than Connecticut, which ranks 46^th in the nation, according to a new nationwide analysis of cost and condition. Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report ranks the performance of state highway systems in 11 categories, including spending per mile, pavement conditions, deficient bridges, traffic congestion, and fatality rates.  At the bottom were New Jersey, Rhode Island, Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut.  Topping the list were North Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, South Carolina and Montana.  New York and Massachusetts were also in the bottom ten, ranked just above Connecticut.

The report indicates that federal law mandates the uniform inspection of all bridges for structural and functional adequacy at least every two years; bridges rated “deficient” are eligible for federal repair dollars. Of the 603,366 highway bridges reported nationwide, 130,623 (about 21.65%) were rated deficient.  In Connecticut, it was 34 percent.  The states with the highest percentage of deficient bridges are all located in the Northeast or along the eastern seaboard.

In the overall rankings, New Jersey ranked last in overall performance and cost-effectiveness due to having the worst urban traffic congestion and spending the most per mile — $2 million per mile of state-controlled highway, more than double what Florida, the next highest state, spent per mile.

The report also considered costs related to state roads and bridges.

In maintenance disbursements, the costs to perform routine upkeep, such as filling in potholes and repaving roads, Connecticut ranked 31^st.  On a per-mile basis, maintenance disbursements averaged about $28,020 per state; there has been an upward trend nationally over the past decade, the report points out.

Connecticut ranked on the far end of the spectrum among the states in administrative disbursements for state-owned roads.  On a per-mile basis, administrative disbursements averaged $10,864 per state, ranging from a low of $1,043 in Kentucky to a high of $99,417 in Connecticut.

The report, released this month, is based on spending and performance data that state highway agencies submitted to the federal government for the year 2015, the most recent year with complete data available.  New Jersey ranked last, 50th, in overall performance and cost-effectiveness due to having the worst urban traffic congestion and spending the most per mile — $2 million per mile of state-controlled highway, more than double what Florida, the next highest state, spent per mile.

Hurricanes v. Whalers: Words and Numbers Tell Different Stories

In the midst of the war of words between unrelenting fans of the former Hartford Whalers (joined by Governor Malloy) and the Raleigh News & Observer, which has aimed a cease and desist order at Hartford, it may be worthwhile to delve into the data. It prove to be a distinction without a difference, however. Gov. Malloy’s February 8 letter to Thomas Dundon, a Dallas businessman and new owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, urged that the team return to the Nutmeg State for a regular season game at Rentschler Field or the XL Center so the team could be “embraced by a grateful fan base.”  Doing so, Malloy pointed out, “would make clear that Hartford is a far more viable long-term home for the team than Raleigh.”

When asked days ago by The Sporting News about the 'Canes future in Raleigh, Dundon said: “As long as I’m involved, this is where we’re going to be. One of the best things about this is the people. They’re just nice people here. They care. There’s no reason to be anywhere else.”

In an editorial, the Raleigh newspaper added that if a game were to be played in Hartford, it would be preseason, not regular season, and only because it would be “a chance to hoover some money out of the pockets of long-suffering Whalers fans desperate to see NHL hockey again…  But that’s not going to happen.”

Last season, the Hurricanes had the league’s lowest attendance, averaging 11,776 per home game.  It was their second consecutive season at the bottom of the league in attendance.  In the 2015-16 season, average attendance was 12,203. Midway through this season, after 27 home games, the Hurricanes are averaging 13,039, 29th out of 31 teams in the league.

In the Whalers’ final season in Hartford, 1996-97, attendance at the Hartford Civic Center had grown to 87 percent of capacity, with an average attendance of 13,680 per game.  Published reports suggest that the average attendance was, in reality, higher than 14,000 per game by 1996-97, but Whalers ownership did not count the skyboxes and coliseum club seating because the revenue streams went to the state, rather than the team.

Attendance increased for four consecutive years before management moved the team from Hartford. (To 10,407 in 1993-94, 11,835 in 1994-95, 11,983 in 1995-96 and 13,680 in 1996-97.)  During the team’s tenure in Hartford, average attendance exceeded 14,000 twice – in 1987-88 and 1986-87, when the team ranked 13th in the league in attendance in both seasons.

During the 15 years prior to the past two seasons at the bottom, Carolina has been among the league’s bottom-third in  average attendance eight times, and the bottom-half every season but one.

The Sporting News has reported that Dundon purchased a 61 percent stake in the franchise last month, with Peter Karmanos, who relocated the Whalers to North Carolina in 1997, retaining a 39 percent minority stake. Dundon reportedly has an option to purchase the remainder in three years. He is a New York native, and lived in New Jersey and Houston before Dallas.

The arena's lease in Raleigh expires in 2024.  The team's current playoff drought is the longest of any team in the NHL - nearly a decade.

In the interview, Dundon pointed out “We have a really passionate, loyal season ticket base. The number is just smaller than you’d like it to be, but you have one. Every year that’ll grow. So the only challenge is just the amount of people that you have to touch. It’s inevitable that we’re going to touch them all and we’re going to get them.”

PERSPECTIVE- Nonprofits: Focus on your impact, not your effort!

by Lou Golden Many years ago, I attended a marketing seminar and learned a simple, yet powerful, concept that helped guide me as I led a nonprofit organization.

The instructor, discussing the differences between features and benefits, pointed out that while hardware stores think they are selling drills, customers are actually buying holes. Marketers, he advised us, waste their time advertising features when they should be touting the benefits.

In the nonprofit world, that idea translates into: Focus on the outcomes you create rather than how you create them. Results matter more than process.

Consider this: Many nonprofits stress the size of their organization, the dedication of their staff, the creation of a new strategic plan or the amount of money they raise each year – rather than the impact they have in the community.

Some nonprofits even have crafted mission statements that focus on what they do rather than the what they achieve. I have seen plenty of mission statements that read like this: “Our agency is dedicated to providing services that aim to improve lives and remove barriers in our community.” A better mission statement would be:

“Our agency improves lives and removes barriers in our community.”

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that donors don’t fund nonprofit organizations. They fund outcomes. The nonprofit is simply a vehicle that connects a donor, who has a certain intention, to an outcome that fulfills that intention.

A donor, for example, may want to ensure that people in our community do not go hungry. Rather than trying to figure out how to get meals to hungry people on their own, the donor gives money to a local food pantry that has programs to feed the hungry. In that way, the food pantry connects the donor to the outcome he or she is seeking.

Simon Simek, an author and social scientist made famous by five books and one of the most popular-ever TED Talks, puts the same idea a different way. He urges leaders to “start with the why” -- in other words, first understand the reason your organization exists. Once you’ve done that, you can move on to easier-to-ascertain topics like what you do and how you do it.

Shouldn’t that be the natural order of any communication? Doesn’t your most powerful message have to do with your impact rather than your efforts? Won’t all of your audiences – your donors, your volunteers, your board and your staff – be most moved by a discussion of your higher purpose rather than your capabilities?

It’s easy, as a nonprofit leader, to lose sight of this. It’s hard to see your organization as “a vehicle” that simply produces outcomes that the community needs and that donors want to fund. But once you start seeing your organization in this way, it’s easy to put “the why” first and to imbue all that you do with it. So, for example:

• The stories you tell as you seek to build donations, gain volunteers, fi nd board members and build your brand should always focus on the difference in the community you actually are making.
• Your board needs to be, first and foremost, mission-focused. Before you fi ll them in on what you expect them to do (whether it be the size of a personal donation or a requirement to attend all meetings), make sure they are passionate about your organization’s ultimate purpose. Otherwise, they will never be the zealots you need them to be.
• Do not bog down the speaking portion of your special events with lots of information about what you do and how you do it. Streamline galas, receptions, and golf banquets by focusing only on your impact.

Your guests will be both delighted and motivated.

Last piece of advice: As a leader, experience the outcomes first hand – and do it often. Carve out time on your schedule to see your programs in action, talk to the people you help, watch your program staff at work. It will inspire you – and ground you in the reality of your purpose.

_______________________________

Lou Golden is a consultant focusing on leadership, strategy and communication for nonprofit organizations. He was president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Southwestern New England from 2002 to 2016. Previous to that, he was a journalist, a newspaper company executive and a marketing professional.

SeeClickFix is Only CT Business to Reach GovTech 100

New Haven-based SeeClickFix is the only Connecticut business to make the 2018 GovTech 100, an annual compendium of 100 companies focused on, making a difference in, and selling to state and local government agencies across the United States. SeeClickFix was launched ten years ago this month, according to co-founder Ben Berkowitz: “It began as a ‘nights and weekends’ project between friends with a goal of fixing some small problems locally and a big problem globally. SeeClickFix has become something much bigger than I could have ever imagined.”

Described as “a service to make communities stronger,” the key benchmarks the company points to include: a full time job for 33 employees, a platform that has helped facilitate the resolution of 4 million issues, a space for aspirations in tens of thousands of communities, and the official digital channel for service request resolution for hundreds of governments and tens of millions of their residents.

The annual list, compiled and published by Government Technology,  highlights leaders in the government technology sector – a marketplace that the publication says has ”brought bigger deals, more investment, new companies and many fresh new innovations that moved the needle in the public sector.”

Overall, 32 of the 100 companies are based in California, seven are based in New York, and six are headquartered in Massachusetts.  Rhode Island placed one company, Providence-based software company Utilidata.  There were no other companies based in New England.

“State and local governments have become more willing to try implementing new systems using agile methodologies that fit better with the modern tech world,” the publication pointed out. “They are striking up pilot projects and demonstration agreements that let them try out new ideas before taking the kind of big-dollar risks that government is not amenable to taking.”

“It is no secret that SeeClickFix was built from a place of distrust in the existing bureaucratic process that existed in 2007 for handling citizen concerns,” Berkowitz noted. “The three hundred governments and the thousands of officials that leverage SeeClickFix daily to engage in transparent and responsive communication has more than reversed our distrust.”

SeeClickFix is proving effective in small towns as well as big cities.  The town of Wilton in Southern Connecticut went live with SeeClickFix this past fall and used it at a Winter Carnival and Ice Festival in town this week.

The SeeClickFix blog highlighted the town, explaining that “They are a model town — they have done everything right! They have sustainable marketing, well-crafted goals and benchmarks, a responsive set of municipal departments, a champion in town leadership, and the flexibility necessary to add in request categories when citizens underscore a need.”

SeeClickFix co-founders include Miles Lasater, Kam Lasater, Jeff Blasius.  The company holds an annual User Summit every fall in New Haven, drawing local government customers from throughout the country to share best practices.

https://youtu.be/NYKo5koU_jI

Million Dollar Homes? CT Ranks 6th in USA

There has been discussion during Connecticut’s ongoing state budget shortfall about the disproportionate impact of the state’s wealthiest residents, and how overall state revenues are affected when some of those residents decide to relocate to lower-tax states. Now, national data analyzing million dollar homes is underscoring Connecticut’s standing as being among the states where the ultra-wealthy have roots.

An analysis by Overflow Data and Visual Capitalist ranks Connecticut in the top ten among states with the highest percentage of homes worth more than one million dollars.  Connecticut ranks sixth, with 4.5 percent of homes surpassing that threshold.

Ahead of Connecticut are only Washington, D.C. (17.3%), California (13.6%), Hawaii (13.5%), New York (7%), and Massachusetts (5.2%).

Connecticut’s standing may slip in the coming years.  In a review of cities where million dollar listings have “skyrocketed,” increasing over the past three years, the leaders were Denver, Santa Rosa (CA), Boulder, Truckee (CA), Fredericksburg (TX), Heber (UT) and Boston.

The share of homes valued at more than $1 million has surged more than fourfold since 2002, according to recent data compiled  from real estate site Trulia, which analyzed the luxury real estate market in the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, and reported by CBS News.  Across those regions, about 4.3 percent of homes are now worth at least $1 million, compared with about 1 percent in 2002, said Trulia senior economist Cheryl Young told the network.

The five metropolitan areas with the largest share of homes worth $1 million in 2017, according to CBS News, are: San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Fairfield County, CT, and Long Island, New York.

The network reported that rising real estate values, tight inventory and a lack of new construction are contributing to the surge in million-dollar homes. Another factor may be at play: rising income inequality, which has benefited the bank accounts of America's richest families, the network report noted.

As Demographics Change, Connecticut Extends Borders, Colleges Seek More Diverse Student Population

When it comes to college tuition, Connecticut’s borders are expanding and colleges across the state are focused on potential students that likely wouldn’t have on the radar screen only a few years ago.  The impetus is a declining population of college-age students, expected to intensify over the next decade particularly in the Northeast, and declining financial support from state governments.  The results are dramatic efforts to further diversify the student populations - in geography, income, ethnicity and other factors, including offering the lower in-state tuition to out-of-state students. In the case of Connecticut, the state Board of Regents, which oversees four universities and 12 state colleges, has proposed merging the colleges into one statewide college with 12 campuses in a controversial plan that has drawn doubts and substantive questions from students, faculty, and legislators in Connecticut, and the region’s accrediting board, the New England Board of Higher Education, which is considering the plan.  It would be the largest merger of colleges in New England’s history, and the resulting college would be among the largest in the nation.

The number of high school graduates in Connecticut is expected to drop 14 percent from 2012-13 to 2025-26, according to reports citing U.S. Department of Education statistics, driven by the nation’s second-largest proportional decline in public school students over the next 10 years. CT Mirror reported this week that “The major organization that accredits colleges has said many questions need to be answered before the new college system is awarded accreditation, which is essential to make students eligible for federal financial aid and to guarantee the college’s degrees have educational value.”

Fall student headcount at the 12 colleges has dropped from a peak of 58,253 in 2012 to 50,548 in 2016, the lowest level in a decade.  The four state universities (Central, Eastern, Southern and Western) have seen enrollment decline from 36,629 in 2010 to 33,187 in 2016, the lowest level in this century.

Even in advance of the merger plan, the Board of Regents has been extending lower tuition offers in every direction, reaching out to students in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and even New Jersey, making offers that the Regents hope will be tough to refuse.

Eight of Connecticut’s public colleges and universities extended in-state tuition to residents of neighboring states this academic year, primarily in response to declining enrollment and seeking to boost income.  The initiative expanded a pilot program by previously implemented at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, just south of the Massachusetts border.  Asnuntuck saw a 34 percent increase in students from the Bay State since the program began in June 2016.

Norwalk, Housatonic and the Danbury campus of Naugatuck Valley community colleges extended in-state tuition to New York residents, and t hree Rivers Community College in Norwich does the same for Rhode Island residents.  Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted offers in-state tuition to Massachusetts residents, and Quinebaug Valley Community College in Killingly offers in-state tuition to Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents.

At Norwalk Community College, for example, the in-state tuition program reduces the cost for full-time tuition from $12,828 to $4,276 for the 2017-18 academic year, a savings of $8,552 for New York residents, the Norwalk Hour reported.

In addition, students from New York and New Jersey considering Western Connecticut State University will be able to pay in-state tuition — less than half the current rate for out-of-staters – beginning in the fall.  After receiving Board of Regents approval, the university announced a two-year pilot program to combat declining enrollment. Under the new pricing, students from the two states will pay $10,017 a year instead of the $22,878 out-of-state rate, the Danbury News-Times reported.  The program extends a smaller across-the-border recruitment effort that offered seven Hudson Valley counties in-state rates last fall, which led to an increase in students residing in those counties from 74 in the fall of 2016 to 243 in 2017.

The Boston Globe reported this month that the nation’s high school population “is becoming increasingly diverse and increasingly unable to afford high tuition prices. Additionally, experts predict a major drop in the number of high school graduates overall after the year 2025 — especially in New England — because people have had fewer babies since the 2008 economic recession. As a result, local colleges will have to work harder to bring students to campus and offer them significantly more financial assistance. And some of them, experts predict, will find this a daunting new calculus, leading to more college mergers and even closures.”

At Trinity College in Hartford, the Globe reported, “Angel Perez, the vice president for enrollment and student success, met with his staff to formulate a plan for how they will recruit amid the expected demographic shifts.  “This is the biggest challenge higher education has right now,” Perez told the Globe. When Perez sends out his recruiters each year, he urges all of them to seek out low-income, first-generation students, even though it can be more time-consuming and expensive, the Globe reported. The paper noted that they “meet students not only during the day at high schools but increasingly at after-school programs that help such students successfully make it to college.”

The Globe also noted that in a report released in December, Moody’s Investors Service “changed its outlook for the higher education industry from stable to negative because of the expected slowing of tuition revenue growth.”

Among the Wealthy, CT’s Gender Pay Gap is 4th Widest in the U.S.

In Connecticut, among the top 2 percent of wage earners, men earn an average of $658,000 while women earn an average of $214,000, a gap of $444,000.  That’s 67 percent less earned by women in the top 2 percent.  It is the fourth largest wage gap in the nation, comparing people earning in the top 2 percent in all 50 states. The data, compiled by the website howmuch.net, used information from the United States Joint Economic Committee.  The analysis indicates that the pay gap is “enormous everywhere you look. There isn’t a single place in the country where it doesn’t exist. The best state for pay equality is Alaska, but even there, women make 25% less than men.”

The largest pay gap between wealthy men and women is in Wyoming, at 71 percent, followed by Nebraska (68.7%), Oklahoma (68%), Connecticut (67.4%) and New York (67.3%).

The website indicates that for people earning an average income, the gender pay gap is typically around 20 percent. “For the ultra-rich, however, women make 60-71.76% less than men in a whopping 37 different states.”

In 1963, only 44 percent of prime working-age women (ages 25 to 54) were in the labor force. Around that time, women held fewer than one in three jobs. Today, about 75 percent of prime working-age women are in the labor force and women hold almost half (49 percent) of all jobs, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Connecticut’s average for men in the top 2 percent of wage earners - $658,000 – was the highest in the country, just ahead of Washington, DC ($637,000), New York ($613,000) and New Jersey ($555,000). Massachusetts was next, at $551,000.

For women in the top 2 percent, Washington, D.C. topped the list at $280,000, followed next by Connecticut at $214,000, and New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and California at $200,000.

The website analysis concludes that the pay gap “gets worse the richer you are."

PERSPECTIVE: Intellectual Freedom and Net Neutrality

by Andrew Boyles Petersen By the time this comes to press, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will have voted on the future of the free and open internet we rely upon.   Current FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal, Restoring Internet Freedom, seeks to eliminate the 2015 FCC protections for net neutrality. The existing regulations on net neutrality were passed in 2015 to establish clear rules prohibiting internet service providers (ISPs) from throttling, prioritizing, or blocking online content. As the fight for net neutrality continues around the country, it’s important for us as librarians to understand what net neutrality is, as well as the potential implications for our profession.

On a basic level, net neutrality is the expectation your ISP will treat all websites and content you access equally, allowing you to access any websites you desire. This principle has guided the formation, growth, and use of the internet, aligning with libraries’ service goals by providing patrons with equal access to information. Overturning net neutrality could directly go against this core tenant of our profession, resulting in access to different websites being prioritized or impeded based off of the beliefs or profit-model of the ISP.

As with many profit-based programs, consumers will likely be burdened with the consequences of these changes, with marginalized communities bearing the worst of this affront. Pairing with the push to end net neutrality, a November 16 FCC vote seeks to scale back the Lifeline program—a program designed to provide discounted phone and internet services to low-income households. Throttling back the Lifeline program alongside rescinding net neutrality will target many of our most vulnerable populations, both re-pressing possible avenues for their free speech and constraining marginalized communities to public telecommunications offerings, including our library services. This will likely lead to an increased demand for library services, particularly internet access. Responding to this demand, however, might be more and more difficult.

Without net neutrality in place, the payment plan for ISP customers, including libraries, could increase dramatically. As ISPs are presently prevented from blocking or slowing online content, customers are currently charged based on their service provider and desired download/upload speeds. Under the new plan, ISPs could slow or block web content, charging content companies and end-users to reach specific websites or receive priority access to content.

Along with higher monthly bills from their ISPs, consumers and libraries could also see increased costs from content companies once these companies begin paying ISPs for preferential treatment. Trickle-down from these increased costs would likely result in increased product and subscription charges for the average consumer. With state governments making cuts to library budgets and ISPs raising monthly rates, addressing an increased demand for library internet services may be challenging, or for some libraries, impossible.

On a national level, the American Library Association (ALA) has consistently supported maintaining net neutrality, resisting both the current and 2015 moves to repeal. Following the decision there will likely be legal challenges to the order in the federal court of appeals, as well as possible legislative action.

Throughout, the ALA has committed to “work with other supporters of strong net neutrality protections to ensure policymakers know how important a free and open internet is to libraries and the communities we serve” (Satterwhite, 2017). Similarly in our state, the Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee (CLA IFC) is here to support you in this struggle, as well as in challenges to materials, library services, and patron privacy. Coinciding with the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, the CLA IFC seeks “to recommend such steps as may be necessary to safeguard the rights of library users, libraries, and librarians…” For that reason, we will be providing regular updates on these issues via this column in CLA Today.

In our digital age, we must together as a profession continually focus on protecting patrons’ rights online, seeking to support our patron’s right to free speech online and the confidentiality of their digital identities, just as we long have with their physical selves.  Although the FCC vote on net neutrality has now passed, there is still time to speak up on this issue.  Read through the ALA’s advocacy information on net neutrality, and follow the ALA Washington Office’s District Dispatch blog as this continues to unfold. If this debate transitions to Congress, call your senators and express your support for net neutrality. As we move toward a new year, we can together support our libraries and communities by speaking out against affronts to intellectual freedom and by working together to protect the rights of our patrons.

___________________________

Andrew Boyles Petersen is Instruction and Outreach Librarian at The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor and a member of the Connecticut Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee. This article first appeared in the latest issue of CLA Today, the newsletter of the Connecticut Library Association.    The publication will be providing updates on these issues in future issues.

Insurance Department Recovers Almost $7 Million in 2017, Nearly Even with Previous Year; Industry Fines Increase

The Connecticut Insurance Department recovered nearly $7 million for policyholders and taxpayers in 2017, helping individuals, families and employers with their claims and complaints.  That’s slightly less than the $7.5 million recovered in 2016, but higher than the $6 million that was recovered for policy holders in 2015.  About $2 million in fines were issued against carriers, an increase from $1.6 million and $1.7 million during each of the previous two years. “Consumers have every right to expect that the promises made to them by their insurance companies will be kept and the Department is here to help them every step of the way. Protecting consumers is our mission and the Department makes certain that carriers adhere to all insurance laws and regulations are followed,” Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade said. “We assist thousands of consumers every year who have brought their questions and concerns to us.”

The Department’s Consumer Affairs Unit (CAU) fielded 5,800 complaints and inquiries in 2017 and helped policyholders recoup nearly $4.8 million from January 1 to December 31, 2017. Also in 2017, the Department’s Market Conduct Division levied approximately $2 million in fines against carriers and returned that money to the state’s General Fund. The fines resulted from a variety of violations and settlements ranging from untimely claim payments to improper licensing.

The majority of the funds recovered for policyholders stemmed from complaints over health, accident, homeowners and life and annuities policies. The following is the breakdown of funds recovered in 2017:

• Accident, Health - $2.9 million
• Auto - $584,200
• General Liability - $101,000
• Homeowners and Commercial Property - $344,600
• Life, Annuities - $739,000
• Miscellaneous - $89,000

A year ago, in 2016, the Department’s recoveries were somewhat higher than in 2017 - recovering $7.5 million for policyholders and taxpayers.  The Department’s Consumer Affairs Unit (CAU) fielded more than 5,800 complaints and inquiries during the year.

In 2015, there were more consumer inquires and complaints, which resulted, however, in a lower total of money recovered with the department’s assistance.  The department recovered approximately $6 million for policyholders and taxpayers in 2015, when the majority of the funds recovered for policyholders stemmed from complaints over health, accident, homeowners and life and annuities policies. That year, the Department’s Consumer Affairs Unit (CAU) fielded more than 6,100 complaints and inquiries.

Officials explained that the Department calculates its consumer recoveries based on what the policyholder received as a result of the Department’s intervention. The inquiries and complaints also help the Department identify industry trends that may adversely affect consumers and trigger investigation by the Market Conduct division, they added.

The Insurance Department also highlighted three matters that were dealt with during 2017 which resulted in recoveries for policy owners.

• When an individual who had health coverage through his employer complained about being overcharged for a visit to the emergency room, intervention by the Department’s Consumer Affairs Unit resulted in corrective action not only for that individual but for nearly 200 people whose employers used that same health insurance company for their health plans. The Department required the carrier to review similar claims for that plan, resulting in $47,000 in total recoveries for those affected individuals. As a result, the Department’s Market Conduct Division is investigating to determine if this was an isolated incident or is a systemic issue with the carrier.
• The Department intervened when a family was denied a $100,000 death benefit because the life insurance company said the deceased had pre-existing health issues that disqualified the payment. The Department determined the company issued the policy without first looking into the individual’s health history despite having the opportunity to do so and therefore was obligated to make good on the claim. The family received the full death benefit plus interest.
• The Department helped expedite a damage claim for a widow who was trying to get her husband’s gravestone replaced when it was one of several damaged by a car that crashed in a cemetery. The auto insurance company for the driver had the claim for three months but once the Department got involved, the carrier settled it within 10 days and paid nearly $30,000 to repair the cemetery damage.

Complaint data also help determine topics for consumer education and serve as tools to help the Department monitor the industry, officials noted. The Market Conduct enforcement actions are posted on the Department’s website at www.ct.gov/cid.

New Haven Chamber Names New Leader; MetroHartford Alliance Next?

One down, one to go.  While the MetroHartford Alliance’s search for a new leader continues, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce has announced their choice to succeed Anthony Rescigno, who led the organization for nearly two decades. The Chamber’s Board of Directors named Garrett F. Sheehan as President of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce.  Sheehan has experience working with local companies, building partnerships throughout communities and the state, and understanding regional growth and competitiveness, serving most recently as a Community Relations & Economic Development Specialist at Eversource. He will begin work in his new position on March 1, 2018.

“I am honored and humbled to have been selected for this role,” said Sheehan. “The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce is a pillar of our community and has an excellent track record of providing services for our membership and leadership on key issues affecting the New Haven region. I am excited to begin working with the staff, board, members, and volunteers of this amazing organization to help write the next chapter for the Chamber.”

At Eversource, he provided leadership on strategic initiatives including enhancements to the Company’s economic development program, and was actively engaged in Eversource’s commitment to volunteerism and community giving.  He also served as the primary point of contact between the utility and chief elected officials in 23 municipalities in Connecticut.

Prior to his position with Eversource, Sheehan served as an economic developer at The United Illuminating Company, where he was responsible for regional business growth and expansion and strategic partnerships with state organizations, chief elected officials, and business leaders.

Sheehan grew up in Middlefield, and after attending Syracuse University, moved to Mississippi to take a job as a television news reporter. After five years in journalism, Garrett transitioned to a career in economic development. In addition to his work in economic and community development, Sheehan served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Bethany J. Alvord of the Connecticut Appellate Court, conducting legal research and drafting legal opinions.

During his career, he also served in the Connecticut Army National Guard as an infantry officer in the New Haven-based First Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment.  In 2010, Sheehan completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan, serving as a platoon leader and executive officer.

The MetroHartford Alliance has hired New York economic-development consultancy Camoin Associates to assist with the search for its next CEO. Travelers Cos. Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Bessette, who chairs the Alliance's board, told the Hartford Business Journal recently that the nonprofit seeks to have a successor in place by early 2018.  Oz Greibel, who led the Alliance for the past 16 years (one less than Rescigno led New Haven’s Chamber) resigned late last year and subsequently launched an independent candidacy for Governor.

Established in 1794, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce is the nation’s third oldest business organization.