Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday that he has been rejected by potential nominees for vacancies on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, whose chair is resigning after months of conflict and a threatened impeachment effort.
“We’re working as hard as we can to get those five nominees there, and we’ve interviewed an awful lot of people,” Lamont said. “To be blunt, I’ve been turned down more than a few times, too.”
There are currently two open seats at PURA, with a third soon to be created by the departure of the authority’s chair, Marissa Gillett, on Oct. 10.
Lamont has long expressed a desire to fill those vacancies with applicants that share a similar background to Gillett — an attorney and engineer who previously worked as a staffer to utility regulators in Maryland — as opposed to more political appointees.
Opinion: Don’t let utilities bully Connecticut’s energy regulators
The two remaining members of PURA, Vice Chair David Arconti and Commissioner Michael Caron, both served several terms in the state legislature before being appointed as regulators. (Caron, the board’s only Republican, is serving out a term that formally expired in 2022, potentially creating a fourth opening if Lamont chooses not to reappoint him.)
“I can get five generalists on there pretty quickly, if that’s good enough for you,” Lamont said Tuesday. “I’d also like a couple of people who really can match wits with Eversource and [United Illuminating], who will hit the ground running, because we have some big dockets in front of us.”
Asked what reasons he had been given for the lack of interest in the job, Lamont pointed to “negative publicity, lawsuits,” and threats of impeachment swirling around the agency in recent months. In her resignation letter to the governor earlier this month, Gillett said the “emotional toll” on her and her family from those controversies had influenced her decision to step down.
“I did not make this decision lightly, but there is only so much that one individual can reasonably endure, or ask of their family, while doing their best to serve our state,” she wrote.
Another factor that Lamont said was hampering his recruitment efforts is the pay scale at PURA. Salaries for commissioners range from $151,950 to $207,198, making it difficult to compete for candidates from the private sector, he said.
“I’ve got lots of retired people would love to sit on this board, and we’ll have some of those on there, which is often our norm,” he said. “But I also need some folks who really can match wits” with the utilities, he said.
“Maybe it’s somebody who’s had a pretty good career, lot of experience, wants to give back for five years,” he added. “Maybe it’s somebody who’s really smart who started their career and thinks this is really a chance to build up their resume and make a difference for us in the meantime.”
The governor did not share the names of any of the candidates who he said had turned him down. Asked about their backgrounds, he said said they were people “who know a lot about regulation” and had “sense” about business and finance.
Lamont will have to make at least one appointment to PURA before Oct. 10 in order to guarantee the authority a quorum of three members to issue final decisions in pending cases, his office has said. Appointees are able to serve in an interim capacity until they are confirmed by the lawmakers during the next legislative session.
One person who is widely viewed as being under consideration by Lamont is former state Rep. Holly Cheeseman. In February, Lamont announced plans to appoint Cheeseman, a Republican, to one of the two vacancies at PURA as part of a deal to secure Gillett’s then-pending confirmation to a second four-year term.
That plan fell apart, however, due to complications involving the other planned appointee, state Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford. Fonfara faced criticism over his business dealings before PURA as well as legal prohibition against joining an executive-branch agency before his Senate term expires in 2027.
Cheeseman said this week she has not spoken recently to the governor about the position.
John Moritz and Mark Pazniokas are reporters for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).