Connecticut

Connecticut’s management processes are just now emerging from a decade of neglect. The state’s senior managers admit it. “My criticism of the Rowland administration,” says Deputy Treasurer Howard Rifkin, “is that the governor didn’t care a lot about government. We’ve just sort of been wandering around without any sense of purpose.”

Right now, of course, former Governor John Rowland has more important things on his mind than management. He resigned last summer amid charges of corruption in state contracting, pleaded guilty in December and faces prison time. But his successor, Governor Jodi Rell, has decided that in view of the Rowland scandals, state management deserves serious attention. Shortly after taking office, she established a task force to review all contracting issues and procedures. Many of Rowland’s difficulties stemmed from a process that allowed an overabundance of fast-track deals done with a minimum of oversight, often in the absence of competitive bidding.

In 2003, for example, the executive branch moved forward with plans to build a state science museum. Everybody likes science museums. The legislature approved the concept of a $150 million attraction without even knowing it was going to be a science museum. Then, the state bonding commission had a one-hour briefing, and approved the specifics for the bulk of the spending. “The plans for this had never been run by anybody,” says one high-ranking official.

Money C Long-Term Outlook Budget Process Structural Balance Contracting/Purchasing Financial Controls/Reporting People B Strategic Workforce Planning Hiring Retaining Employees Training and Development Managing Employee Performance Infrastructure C+ Capital Planning Project Monitoring Maintenance Internal Coordination Intergovernmental Coordination Information C- Strategic Direction Budgeting for Performance Managing for Performance Program Evaluation Electronic Government • Population (rank): 3,405,565 (29) • Average per capita income (rank):    $43,173 (1) • Total state spending (rank):    $20,117,270,000 (20) • Spending per capita (rank):    $5,816 (5) • Governor: M. Jodi Rell (R) • Took office: 07/2004 • Senate: 36 members: 24 D, 12 R • Term Limits: None • House: 151 members: 99 D, 52 R • Term Limits: None

That is more or less the way important decisions have been made in Connecticut for quite a while. Not that there haven’t been passionate advocates of reform. The notion of using centralized performance information to help manage agencies and write budgets has been floating around since the administration of Governor Lowell Weicker in the early 1990s. But they all proved futile during the Rowland years. “Not much is happening [on performance measurement],” says John Mengacci, of the Office of Policy and Management. “I wouldn’t even say not much. Nothing is happening at a statewide level.”

Some agencies make a valiant effort to measure their performance, but there is little systematic effort to report this data to the legislature or the public. “The information is given to us in a manner that’s not coherent,” says state Representative Diana Urban, a leader among legislative reformers. “You can’t get a picture of what’s going on.”

Connecticut’s governmental leaders traditionally have been reluctant to predict how decisions of today will play out in the future. Budget writers have avoided consideration of the long-term consequences of underfunding pension accounts and relieving cash shortfalls with single-shot revenue gimmicks. “We do five-year economic forecasting,” says Robert Gennuario, a longtime legislator and now secretary of the Office of Policy and Management. “But it’s very rarely looked at or utilized in planning our budgets.”

The state’s unusual way of keeping its books has made it somewhat easier to hide from the truth. Connecticut accounts for many of its revenue streams as quickly as possible, while taking the opposite approach with its expenses. The result is that when you convert the state’s books to a more conservative approach, you can find many millions of dollars in artificially buoyed funds.

There are a few bright spots in Connecticut government. Most of them center on personnel policy. Hiring and retaining of employees is generally done competently. A new technology system to support human resources will finally permit the state to begin gathering the data it needs to do workforce planning. And intelligent use of the Internet has helped dramatically in the state’s workforce recruiting efforts.

Connecticut also has done a decent job with infrastructure maintenance, which is not a claim many other states can make. In 1983, a section of the Mianus River Bridge collapsed on Interstate 95, killing three people and critically injuring three more. “Mianus was a wakeup call,” says Department of Transportation chief engineer Arthur Gruhn. “We put a lot of bonded money into infrastructure from 1983 to 2000. Now we have a system in a good state of repair and want to maintain it in a good state of repair before we do any projects that increase capacity.”

For additional data and analysis, go to: http://results.gpponline.org/connecticut

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