Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong is seeking to fulfill his campaign promise to aggressively pursue civil-rights violations by introducing a bill to the Joint Committee on Judiciary that would expand his office’s powers to take action in civil-rights cases. Not only was the bill, HB 7222, written at the AG’s ...
An employee of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities used excessive paid administrative leave and the state’s Voluntary Schedule Reduction Program to reach exactly 10 years of state service before quitting, making him or her eligible for a state retirement medical benefits.
The resignation of Department of Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin Sullivan has left Marilee Corr Clark, DRS’s Tax Legal Director, “terrified.”
The Connecticut state agency that handles claims of employment and housing discrimination received almost as many complaints in 2016 as its counterpart in Massachusetts. Massachusetts has nearly double Connecticut's population but only 15 percent more discrimination claims raising questions as to whether Connecticut is simply more litigious or if the policies at the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities are encouraging more claims.
In its administrative report to the governor, the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which is tasked with investigating claims of discrimination in employment and housing, claimed that it had “the best production rate" of any similar agency by securing $10,250,000 in discrimination settlements from employers and property owners during FY16. But some employers and property owners liken the CHRO's practices to “extortion” and claim they are forced to settle with claimants to avoid a longer and more costly fight.
A public hearing about the practices of the Commission of Human Rights and Opportunity before the General Assembly's investigation committee was packed with visibly angry Connecticut property owners wearing neon green stickers that read “Fair Housing Lacks Due Process.” Bob De Cosmo, manager of Tenant Tracks, a Waterbury based tenant screening company, says Connecticut rental property owners have a legitimate grievance and a right to fair treatment by the CHRO. “We’re trying to get some fairness back into this process in housing,” De Cosmo said. “When you’re accused of violating any of the fair housing laws, you’re up against a stiff challenge to clear your name and get out."