McGee’s experience in state government and the nonprofit sector should be effective, the council said, given the organization’s main goal of distributing community reinvestment funds generated by cannabis license fees to nonprofits in areas disproportionately impacted by the “war on drugs.”

“My career in public service, as a legislator and chair of both (the) Housing Committee and Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, has always been driven by a deep commitment to advocating for marginalized communities, and this opportunity aligns perfectly with my life’s mission,” McGee said. “My recent role as the deputy commissioner of housing has further fueled my dedication to ensuring everyone has a fair chance to succeed.”

In CT, a controversy over cannabis cash and social equity. See questions raised.

Gov. Ned Lamont asked the office of Comptroller Sean Scanlon to audit the council’s management earlier this summer after questions were raised about how the Social Equity Council was distributing millions of dollars in tax revenues.

“We created the Social Equity Council to oversee the transfer of the cannabis market from one that for many decades was unregulated, operated dangerously and caused severe injustices and disparities to one that provides stronger public health and safety oversight while righting some of the wrongs caused by the so-called war on drugs,” Lamont said.

“Brandon, particularly through his service in the legislature and his role as deputy commissioner at the Connecticut Department of Housing, has spent much of his adult life serving as an advocate for those who have been historically disempowered and marginalized, and he has the exact experience and dedication needed to guide the council in carrying out the mission we envisioned when we enacted this law.”

The controversy

In June, the council’s chair, Andréa Comer, received a complaint that Ginne-Rae Clay, the previous executive director of the SEC, had suggested that a cannabis license applicant make a donation to a church in Waterbury she attended. The church was one of many businesses and organizations selected for an SEC grant.

Clay denied the claims, and the accusations divided the council.

The accusations brought up larger questions about who chose the recipients, how much each beneficiary was awarded and the guidance surrounding the grants.

Dividing the state into six regions and providing approximately $1 million to each, the council outsourced the process for choosing recipients to six nonprofits with grant-making experience: The Prosperity Foundation of New Haven, the Hispanic Federation of Hartford, the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the United Way of Coastal & Western CT (Bridgeport), the United Way of Coastal & Western CT (Stamford) and NEST Waterbury.

It appeared that no one had a clear answer on the grant distribution process.

“Several stakeholders, including social equity applicants and legislators, have voiced concerns regarding the financial management and decision-making processes of the programs and initiatives under the purview of the SEC,” Lamont wrote at the time.

Others in government held concerns about the management of the SEC and the decision-making process for grant recipients, including members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, a group McGee had been a part of.

“My members looked at the list, it’s like, ‘Hey, there are some agencies that are missing from this list that are on the ground doing the work,’” Sen. Patricia Billie Miller D-Stamford, the chair of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, previously told The Connecticut Mirror. “I started to raise my antenna and just realized that there had to be some more oversight.”

Eventually, Clay resigned in an emailed letter to the council.

“Regrettably, my final days in this role have been marred by unsubstantiated allegations, threats, and publicly leaked false narratives, all of which have unjustly called my character and integrity into question,” she wrote in the resignation letter. “I have informed the SEC staff of my decision and expressed my deep gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with such a dedicated and resilient team.”

“Regrettably, my final days in this role have been marred by unsubstantiated allegations, threats, and publicly leaked false narratives, all of which have unjustly called my character and integrity into question,” she wrote in the resignation letter. “I have informed the SEC staff of my decision and expressed my deep gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with such a dedicated and resilient team.”

Once the hiring panel recommended the SEC appoint McGee, the Council “overwhelmingly” voted in favor of the selection.

Along with Lamont, others including Comer were supportive of the decision, citing his “decades of experience” and his “passion for empowering marginalized communities.”

Under McGee’s leadership, the SEC will be tasked with streamlining and solidifying its process for who receives grants, as well as fairly distributing the current $34 million in the Social Equity and Innovation Account, where 60% of cannabis taxes are deposited.

McGee’s tenure will begin on Aug. 30.

Kaitlyn Pohly is a general reporting intern for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.

Veronica-May Clark originally filed the case in 2019, and the American Civil Liberties Union offered her representation in 2021. Clark, who has been in custody since 2007, alleges that after a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — a medical diagnosis for someone who experiences distress that can occur when their true gender does not match with their outward appearance and/or the sex they were assigned at birth — her treatment from the Department of Correction was inconsistent.

“At the end of the day, she just wants health care,” Elana Bildner, Clark’s attorney with the CT ACLU, told The Connecticut Mirror. “She wants the health care to be consistent, to be adequate, to be appropriate [and] to be able to rely on the fact that she will get this health care that she needs for the long term.”

As a result of the DOC’s continued delay of her requests, she says, her symptoms worsened, and she experienced serious self-harm and hospitalization.

Unheard requests for care

In July 2009, Clark was sentenced to an effective life sentence, 75 years, in Connecticut prison for beating his estranged wife’s boyfriend to death with a pipe.

According to Bildner, Clark “had lived publicly as a woman” on and off throughout her life but had never tried to access transitional care. When sentenced, Clark chose to present as a cisgender man for her safety in prison.

Seven years later, in April 2016, Clark requested treatment, including hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery, and stated that she believed she had gender dysphoria. A month later, a DOC health care provider diagnosed Clark with gender dysphoria, but she was not provided any gender-affirming treatment, according to the lawsuit.

Clark turned to self-harm in an effort to treat herself. According to the memorandum and witness testimony, Clark attempted to castrate herself in her cell.

Following the incident, a DOC psychologist assessed Clark and affirmed that she had gender dysphoria and was undergoing a “high level of psychological distress.” Clark again filed a request for treatment consistent with the diagnosis.

According to Bildner, the DOC had an “informal policy” that “if you didn’t come into prison having received transitional care, you could not get it in prison.”

“She was fighting against something that she couldn’t see,” Bildner said. “The DOC said ‘Yes, you do (have gender dysphoria), and then refused her any transitional care on the basis of this unwritten policy.”

In the months after her hospitalization, Clark continued to request hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery. She described her situation as “simply intolerable” and DOC’s treatment of her as “cruel and unusual.”

Later, in September 2017, Clark saw an endocrinologist at University of Connecticut Health. Her physician prescribed her a low “starter dose” of spironolactone and estradiol: two drugs used for hormone therapy. The physician requested a follow-up in three months with Clark to track her progress and increase her dosage to a therapeutic level.

Clark did not see the doctor again until August 2019.

The case

The inconsistent care, despite her requests, led Clark to sue the DOC for violating her Eighth Amendment right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and her Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law in April 2019, according to the complaint.

The Connecticut ACLU joined her team in 2021.

Bildner said the lawsuit occurred in two phases. The first, which was presided over by now-retired Justice Vanessa Bryant, was meant to “convince the court that if prisons have to provide health care, gender-affirming care is health care. Therefore, prisons have to provide gender-affirming care.”

On Sept. 15, 2023, the U.S. District Court issued summary judgment in favor of Clark. The court concluded that DOC employees were “deliberately indifferent to Ms. Clark’s serious medical needs.”

After that first decision, the case moved into its second “trial phase,” according to Bildner. This second phase took place throughout July 2024.

“(In) the trial phase, the DOC was trying to convince the judge (to) ‘forget about what had happened in the past,’ because they were now on top of it and no judicial intervention was required.”

The DOC presented evidence that since the September 2023 ruling, they were making an increased effort to give Clark the treatment she requested.

Justice Victor Bolden, however, was unconvinced and ultimately ordered an injunction on July 26 to ensure Clark’s constitutional rights were continuously upheld.

“Although DOC has made progress in providing gender-affirming medical treatment to Ms. Clark in recent months, such efforts have not yet cured the ongoing Eighth Amendment violation,” Bolden wrote. “And, the Court has determined that an injunction is necessary to ensure that Ms. Clark receives appropriate medical care for her gender dysphoria and does not suffer additional irreparable harm.”

The injunction requires continuous status reports on Clark’s care to both her lawyers and the court.

The Department of Corrections Public Information Office said it was still reviewing the decision and was unable to comment.

“With that said, the DOC strives to provide quality healthcare to all those under our supervision,” DOC Public Information Officer Andrius Banevicius said.

A precedent-setting case

The favorable injunction stretches beyond securing gender-affirming health care for just Clark, Bildner said.

The case was the first of its kind in the Second Circuit, which includes Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

“I really do think it answers the question of the prison system’s responsibility to gender-diverse people to provide health care for them that is multifaceted and that is individualized,” Bildner said.

Often, prisoners have to secure this health care through litigation, according to Bildner. Prisons that do provide gender-affirming care can often still be “inconsistent or inadequate” like Clark’s, she said.

The hope for the ACLU legal team is that the Connecticut DOC moves forward with this acknowledgment and no further prisoners turn to legal action in an effort to receive this type of care.

“She’s relieved and grateful,” Bildner said about Clark following Justice Bolden’s ruling. “This healthcare for her is life-saving. Getting a hormone injection, she said in court, feels absolutely life-saving to her. And knowing that she can progress in a transition is really all she’s ever wanted.”

Kaitlyn Pohly is a general reporting intern for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.

From 2012 to 2022, the alcohol-related death rate in Connecticut has nearly tripled from 4.5 to 12 per 100,000 people, a 166.67% increase, the highest percentage increase recorded among all U.S. states, according to a study conducted by Lantana Recovery.

“It’s totally different than it was 10 years ago,” Carolan said. “It’s more accepted. It’s easy to say ‘my kids only drink’ as opposed to ‘my kids only do heroin a couple times a week.’ You go to tailgating parties, high school sports games, and the parents have their Yeti [cups] filled with alcohol. The younger generation then sees that, [they] drink a lot more than we did.”

While Carolan’s business used to primarily help parents whose children were dealing with heroin or prescription drug addictions, most parents coming through her doors now, she says, have children dealing with alcoholism.

Before COVID-19, Dr. J. Craig Allen treated mostly opioid-addicted patients at Hartford HealthCare’s Ridge Recovery Center where he serves as vice president of addiction services. Now, the “vast majority” of patients are coming in for alcohol-abuse, just like at Carolan’s center.

“Everyone’s aware that alcohol can lead to problems, yet the the association of alcohol is different,” Allen said. “[It’s in] almost every level of our society. [In] celebration or even mourning, you drink alcohol. It’s woven into July 4 celebrations. Sports stadiums are named after companies that make alcoholic beverages. Advertisements, TV and radio and social media glamorize the use of alcohol.”

Besides the cultural influence alcohol has, both also pointed to binge drinking as one of the main influencing factors for the rise.

Binge drinking, typically defined as consuming a large amount of alcohol — five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women — within about two hours, has become increasingly prevalent in the state.

Nearly 21% of adults in the state engage in this form of consumption, according to Preston Rideout, a nightclub and bar consultant and the CEO of Rideout Hospitality and founder of The Dram Shop Experts.

“This dangerous behavior significantly increases the risk of alcohol poisoning and other alcohol-related health complications,” Rideout said. “Without appropriate knowledge, individuals may not fully grasp the potential consequences of their drinking habits.”

Those they leave behind

The increase in alcohol-related deaths means a rise in loved ones left behind, marred from the impacts the disease has on family members. For many who have lost a loved one to alcoholism, an insidious generational cycle begins.

“[Alcoholism deaths are] really hard on families,” Michael Brunk, chief marketing officer at Paramount Wellness Retreat, said. His brother passed away from the disease a year ago. While Paramount helps treat addiction to a variety of abused substances, patients struggling with alcoholism are the most common, he says.

“So much of it is environmental. It’s hard to change if you are coming home to that same thing every day.”

“A lot of people feel a lot of shame, and I think it’s hard for a lot of people to process a death like this, because there are a bunch of different ways that someone who’s under the influence could die,” Lily Geiger told The Connecticut Mirror. She lost her father to alcoholism when she was 20.

“They could get in a car accident, or they could fall down a flight of stairs. Their liver could fail them. So there’s so many things that you kind of just are constantly fearing when you’re dealing with someone in recovery or non-recovery.”

After her father’s death, Geiger started the non-alcoholic beverage brand Figlia during the pandemic.

She wanted to create a safer beverage option, one that fostered “honest and inclusive conversations around alcohol consumption.” Once the brand took off, she noticed other people coming forward and sharing their stories too.

“I think that once people heard my story, they were a lot more comfortable telling theirs,” she said.

Besides selling the non-alcoholic aperitivo at restaurants and in grocery stores, Figlia also fosters a community for those who have lost a loved one to alcoholism through an online chat forum.

The hardest part, Geiger says, is getting people to come forward, especially when many support groups out there, she says, can make “you feel like you’ve done something wrong.”

“The person who has the disease is clearly going through a really hard time, but then it kind of becomes all about them, and the people around that love [them], well you’re just totally getting bodied by this situation,” Geiger said. “And you say ‘Well I can’t talk about it [with] my friends, because I don’t want that person to feel judged, but I’m suffering because this is really hard.’”

Carolan’s business specifically helps those whose children are dealing with the disease. Many parents, she said, have a hard time striking the balance between supporting their child in recovery while ensuring they don’t relapse. Many are “painfully” hard on themselves.

“We as parents fear if we don’t help them, they’ll go back into relapse mode.”

‘Profound’ impacts on the state

Excessive alcohol use cost Connecticut’s taxpayers an estimated $3.029 billion in 2010, adjusted to $4.089 billion in 2022 dollars: $2.75 per drink, according to Rideout.

“The impact on productivity, traffic collisions and the criminal justice system is profound,” Lantana Recovery’s Executive Director Lindsay Richerson said.

According to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, nearly 40% of all fatal crashes in the state involved a person with a BAC level above the legal limit in 2021, the last year of verifiable data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The state also had the highest rate of fatal crashes with BAC levels above 0.15% at 30%.

Since then, there have been over 8,000 DUI-related crashes, including over 200 fatal crashes, according to AAA Connecticut.

Rideout pointed to the pandemic as not only a cause for increased alcoholism rates but increased DUI rates.

“Unfortunately, this increase in alcohol consumption [during COVID] also coincided with a decrease in law enforcement presence on the roads due to pandemic-related restrictions,” he said.

“As a result, drivers may have felt emboldened to drink and drive, knowing that the chances of getting caught were lower.”

He also pointed to the alcohol industry’s marketing and affordability.

“When alcohol is both affordable and heavily advertised, it creates an environment where impaired driving becomes more prevalent, leading to fatal outcomes on the road.”

Carolan agreed, citing that parents coming through her doors often don’t even realize their children are drinking given the beverage’s packaging: “it looks like lemonade [or] like berry punch.”

It’s all the more appealing for kids then, as well.

Allen pointed to the alcohol industry’s marketing towards women and the “one glass of wine” before bed phenomenon for mothers.

“I think that marketing campaigns — really sophisticated, well developed marketing campaigns — have aggressively focused on increasing the number of women purchasing alcohol, and you can see in the statistics that the number of women needing emergency help, the number of women developing alcohol use disorders, the number of women dying from alcohol-related causes has increased significantly as as they start to drink at levels that equal men.”

He first noticed the shift following the pandemic’s lockdowns; “Disproportionately, women tended to drink more than men during COVID.”

What can be done?

Influencing factors like the pandemic and alcoholic beverage marketing don’t discriminate over state lines. Yet the rate of increase over the past decade for Connecticut far exceeds any other state.

Rather than pointing to one specific influencing factor, a confluence of societal norms, policies and infrastructure seems to hold the answer.

Carolan pointed to the state’s socioeconomic gap as a potential factor; many families have working parents who aren’t home to closely monitor their children. Others have the ability to give their children free rein, socially and financially.

“I think it may be a combination of being in the part of the country that is fast paced and high stress,” Allen added. “Connecticut is a very expensive state to live in, so there’s those pressures.”

Connecticut’s geographic proximity to two of the nation’s major cities, New York and Boston, also could be a factor, says Allen. Besides commuting on the state’s highways, the dense populations of both urban centers can lead to more frequent social gatherings, nightlife, and potentially higher alcohol consumption rates.

These were also all states dramatically hit by COVID.

Treatment facilities, or the lack thereof, also contributes, according to Brunk.

Connecticut currently has approximately 2.62 treatment facilities per 100,000 people for alcohol abuse disorder, ranking 23rd in the nation for alcohol treatment facilities per capita, according to Lantana.

“The disease left untreated is a death sentence,” Brunk said, urging the state to invest more in facilities like Paramount Wellness.

He pointed to the closure of Retreat Behavioral Health as a cause for concern, noting that many people seeking help will now either have to go out of state for treatment or not receive treatment at all.

Without state transitional living opportunities and more sober environments, relapse rates will remain high. A possible option, Brunk said, is governmental incentives for businesses to have “sober friendly environments.”

This past legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly introduced S.B. 424 which would have lowered the legal driving blood alcohol level to .05% from .08%.

The bill was ultimately tabled, but researchers and advocates at Lantana Recovery “strongly support” its reintroduction and eventual signing into law.

Allen added that he thinks more must be invested into public service advertisements and education campaigns.

Brunk concluded that “ultimately, we just need more help at the state level.”

Now 27 months since the Connecticut State Department of Education began investigating the Killingly Board of Education’s “reluctance” to address student mental health and well-being, Cicchetti and other parents who filed a 10-4b complaint and the Board have reached an agreement that will provide expanded full-time mental health services at Killingly High School and Killingly Intermediate School.

Attorney Andrew Feinstein, representing concerned Killingly residents and parents; attorney Patrick Noonan, representing the Killingly Board of Education; and Mike McKeon, the attorney representing the Connecticut State Department of Education, signed a resolution agreement “that is designed to create far more robust emotional, behavioral and mental health services to Killingly students,” McKeon said to the Board of Education impartial hearing panel on Friday.

“This obviously is an achievement for not only the students of Killingly but the staff and parents,” Cicchetti told The Connecticut Mirror. “The collective effort is really what brought us here in advocating for these services, and we’re happy that we finally got here. We’re a little disheartened by how long it took, but that’s in the past.”

“This is a significant victory for the students of Killingly,” said Gov. Ned Lamont in a statement. “Today’s resolution is a testament to the unwavering commitment of the Connecticut State Department of Education and the State Board of Education in prioritizing the social, behavioral, and mental health of our students.”

Killingly’s initial reluctance to act

In March 2022, Killingly’s majority-Republican Board of Education denied a grant-funded mental health center at the high school in a 6-3 vote. A month later, Killingly residents claimed the board had violated the “educational interests” of the state due to their failure to provide mental health support to students and filed the official complaint.

A school survey found that 14.7% of student respondents reported that they had seriously considered suicide. The Board’s chair at the time, Norm Ferron, said he thought it was “not that big” of a number, according to the original complaint to the state.

Only days later, the state agreed to investigate the residents’ claim, which was unusual.

In October 2022, the state issued an investigative report on the district’s “repeated failure and refusal to implement reasonable interventions to address its students’ clear mental health, social-emotional and behavioral needs.”

The debate on mental health provisions at the school became entrenched in politics: those opposed to the mental health center, including Ferron, raised complaints about the services potentially giving advice to students on “controversial topics” such as cancel culture, abortion and gender identity.

“​​Basically, what is a stranger to the parents can be advising their child on any issue,” Ferron said at the time. “They might be giving them counseling directly opposed to the views of the parents.”

The disagreement divided the town.

“The premise of why they voted it down in the beginning, ‘parental rights’ [for] gender identity counseling, abortions, [saying] ‘they’re going to advise on political parties,’ it was just conspiracy theories” another parent, Christine Rosati Randall, told the CT Mirror at Friday morning’s settlement hearing.

Over a year after the complaint was filed, the Killingly Board of Education flipped to Democratic control (5-4) in the November 2023 election, days before the hearing was set to begin.

The new Board then voted to approve a memorandum of understanding for a mental health provider to come into the Killingly schools, a reversal of the previous vote. Still, a hearing took place, moderated by impartial Department of Education officials, in October 2023, to examine the previous Board’s actions.

Representatives of the Connecticut State Department of Education listen to final remarks from attorneys in Hartford, Friday, July 19.

After more hearings, many hotly contested and tense, it seemed in April that mental health counseling would be coming to Killingly schools during the next school year.

“It would appear that the students of Killingly are finally getting what they needed for so long … and we would very much like this to be resolved before the beginning of the school year,” McKeon said at the April hearing.

The ultimate resolution

Now, three months later, the parties have reached an agreement and the matter was officially closed Friday.

Under the resolution, the Killingly Board of Education has agreed to provide expanded, full-time mental health services at Killingly High School and Killingly Intermediate School, and part-time services at Killingly Memorial School, with Community Health Resources, Inc.

CHR has agreed to communicate appropriately with families when necessary and publicize “its offerings to parents and students so that any student in need can secure mental health services,” Feinstein said.

“Today, the parties appear before this panel united,” McKeon said. “[I wish] to acknowledge and thank the concerned residents, parents of Killingly students … They’ve shown courage, they’ve shown resilience. They’ve certainly shown patience, and they’ve shown an unshakeable devotion to the well-being of Killingly children.”

The three attorneys representing the parents, the Killingly Board and CSDE each signed the physical agreement in front of the panel and audience members.

“Today’s welcome victory for the students of Killingly is due to the clear, persistent, and effective advocacy by the State Department of Education and, specifically, by its dedicated Commissioner,” Feinstein said. “The State Board of Education, in concert with the Department, has been steadfast in holding that the social, behavioral and mental health of students is a critical part of the educational mission of the state of Connecticut. The 10-4b complaint being resolved today made it clear that school districts need to devote staff, resources and attention to the emotional needs of students.”

Following the formal adjournment of the case, state board Vice Chair Erin Benham, who sat on the panel, cheerfully congratulated both Cicchetti and Rosati Randall, saying she’d love to come visit the town soon.

“In the meantime, it will be nice to not have to see you for a while,” she joked.

But by 7 a.m., the account was empty, wiped out by an unknown thief.

The theft of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as SNAP benefits or food stamps, jumped from $132,455 in the 2023 fiscal year to $2,584,662 in FY 2024, according to state Department of Social Services data — a 1,800% increase. The number of thefts reported grew from 177 in January to 2,855 in June.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that criminals believe it is appropriate to steal benefits from our constituents,” DSS Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said at a recent press conference. “SNAP benefits are essential for our families to live with the dignity they deserve. These benefits are critical to their lives.”

Skimming machines, leaked PIN codes and national criminal database

Criminals commonly obtain EBT card information — the card number and the owner’s PIN code — through skimming devices placed on top of the point of sale device, Connecticut DSS Deputy Director of Communications Christine Stuart told The Connecticut Mirror.

Because the cards have no microchips, which are used to protect most common credit and debit cards, the card’s information gets transmitted to the criminals and entered into a larger national web of stolen EBT card information.

Other times, victims receive phishing text messages and emails saying their card has been locked or needs to be reauthorized. After victims put in their card information, the data goes directly to the criminals.

Once the card is reloaded at the beginning of the next month, the benefits are vulnerable to theft.

“The [recipients] wait for their benefits to be reloaded at the beginning of the month, and before these unsuspecting people wake up in the morning, their benefits are gone … It shows that this person has made purchases in a totally different state,” Stuart said.

The information obtained through the skimming device and phishing scams can be embedded into fraudulent cards or used to make online purchases.

Thefts decreasing?

Although the number of theft reports was increasing in June, data from the first few days of July suggests that the problem might be waning.

The majority of reports are received within the first few days of the month, and the number dropped to 460 for the first week of July.

The DSS says the decrease is indicative of the effectiveness of its education and awareness campaign, which includes informational videos on how to change PIN codes and best practices for purchasing food with an EBT card.

Changing the card’s PIN after each purchase is now recommended.

In June, recipients made 24,626 changes to their PIN codes, compared to about 16,400 in April and nearly 17,000 in May, Stuart said.

The CT Mirror contacted a number of people on a Facebook group called “Connecticut Benefits.” Many of the users posted complaints about benefit theft.

Once Helly realized her family’s benefits for the month had been stolen, she said, she immediately called to have the card canceled. The Connecticut DSS told her that a refund for the stolen benefits would be issued in 30 to 60 days.

A new card arrived six days later, and her benefits were reinstated by the seventh day.

“The process was quicker than I expected since they told me up to 60 days. I was nervous.”

While the process for Helly’s new card was fairly straightforward, other residents say the process has taken longer.

Shiree Yopp from Meriden said she had her SNAP benefits stolen on June 6. Over a month later, she said she has not received a reimbursement and has not had any communication with the DSS since her initial report filing, where they told her the investigation would take 30 to 40 days.

Another Bridgeport resident, Leslie Rosado, told the CT Mirror she had her cash assistance benefits stolen a store. The criminals’ purchase was made across state lines in Brooklyn, N.Y., at a drugstore.

“I had my physical card [so] it made no sense,” she said. “I did everything I can to try and get it back. They stole it at 5:16 p.m., and I checked out at 5:36, so literally minutes before … I filed a police report but then got a denial letter.”

Because the 2024 Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, which extended the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 — commonly known as the Farm Bill — only covers reimbursing SNAP benefits, she was out of luck.

Matthew Dillon, an attorney at Connecticut Legal Services, told the CT Mirror that the law needed to “catch up with the changes in technology.” While his office has not come across many people whose food stamps have been stolen, given the online reimbursement process, they see far more people in a situation similar to Rosado’s.

Dillon is also concerned that the pilot program for stolen SNAP benefits replacements is set to expire on Sept. 30. If Congress does not vote to reauthorize the Farm Bill, stolen SNAP benefits will also no longer be reimbursed for states that originally opted into the pilot program.

The bipartisan 2018 bill was originally supposed to be reauthorized for another five years last September, but after Congress could not meet the deadline, a one-year extension was passed instead and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 16, 2023.

On top of the extension, Biden signed the bipartisan 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which included SNAP skimming reimbursements.

The House and Senate each have their own versions of the bill, but the chambers will need to work out those differences and pass a compromise bill.

So far, the House Agriculture Committee has passed the GOP version of the Farm Bill in May. SNAP reimbursements were not included in this version, and House Democrats did not support the legislation.

In the Senate, Democrats have introduced the Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is a cosponsor on the legislation that would “permanently extend” reimbursement provisions.

Blumenthal has also called for the Farm Bill to be reauthorized.

“These families need reimbursement, but the program for reimbursing them expires on Sept. 30 of this year,” Blumenthal said at a June 28 press conference. “That’s why we need to extend it and eliminate the cap on reimbursements, so that they can be fully compensated for the scamming that takes place.”

He also emphasized the need for a federal investigation into the inner workings of the scheme and potential for technological improvements to the program.

An easy first step, many say, is to incorporate chips onto the EBT cards, so their information is more highly protected. This, Stuart says, is “cost prohibitive.”

“The federal government needs to be making an investment in prevention,” Blumenthal said.

Stuart said the DSS office is looking into other ways of better protecting the cards, such as locking the cards after purchases. These are cheaper methods of protecting the cards’ information.

“We definitely have a bunch of deficit coming up. There’s no money whatsoever,” Stuart said. “We’re, like, counting pennies … so it depends on the cost and how much lawmakers value this program and how much they want to see it succeed … It also relies on Congress and the Farm Bill … All of this money is tied up in the Farm Bill, and so whatever the politics of the Farm Bill are might dictate the future of this. ”

Kaitlyn Pohly is CT Mirror’s General Reporting Intern. A member of Yale’s Class of 2026, she majors in History on the “Politics, Law, and Government” track.

As of July 1, the program will cover children up to the age of 15 who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for Medicaid because of their immigration status. Previously, the program covered children up to the age of 12. Kids enrolled in the program keep coverage through age 19.

“We gather today to celebrate a lot of hard work by many key players who led the charge and who continue to work to further expand coverage. We are not going to stop until all Connecticut residents have access to affordable health care,” Suzanne Lagarde, the chief executive officer of Fair Haven Community Health Care, told the crowd.

Nancy Aucapina and her 13-year-old daughter are both immigrants and patients at Fair Haven. Aucapina’s daughter, Brittany, receives coverage through the state program.

“If my daughter, for some reason, had to go to the emergency room, I have the security that she will be able to receive medical care,” Aucapina said to the crowd in Spanish. “I know that she will be in good hands.”

However, she said she’s worried about the future of Brittany’s coverage.

“When she turns 19, she will not be able to have insurance. I wish that the law eventually will change so everyone else can be covered.”

Others at the press conference agreed, urging legislators to continue expanding the HUSKY-like coverage to include children up to the age of 18 and beyond.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, committed to expanding the program next legislative session.

“We have been struggling incrementally to make progress and this latest step is one to celebrate,” said Looney. “Next year we will renew the struggle. We will try to move it up to 18 or beyond. It will be an important battle for us.”

Expansion of the program has occurred in phases, which often frustrated supporters. The legislature originally passed a law extending coverage to children 8 and under in 2021, and then expanded the program to include children 12 and under in 2022. That coverage began on Jan 1, 2023.

Gov. Ned Lamont said the state should continue to expand coverage, but that it needed to be accompanied by “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Many in the crowd had questions about the feasibility of the program’s implementation and its affordability. Lamont directed budgetary concerns to the legislators.

“You’ve got legislators here, and they’re going to step forward,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘these are our priorities. I want to spend more here, less there,’ whatever it might be. That’s why you have an election.”

Covering children 12 and under cost the state $13 million in the calendar year 2023, according to Peter Hadler, the deputy commissioner at the state Department of Social Services.

The fiscal year 2024 budget includes a total of $38 million for the program to insure children 15 and under. A 2022 RAND report estimated expanding coverage to undocumented immigrants of all ages who qualify would cost the state between $83 million and $121 million: 3% of Connecticut’s total Medicaid budget.

Lagarde noted that coverage reduces “downstream” costs such as eventual hospitalization costs and overcrowded emergency rooms for the state’s health care system.

HUSKY 4 Immigrants Coalition Manager Luis Luna told the crowd that approximately 60% of undocumented immigrants in the United States don’t have access to health care. One of them is Juan Gavidia, a Venezuelan immigrant who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 11 months ago.

Because Gavidia does not have insurance or a primary doctor, he has had trouble receiving the health care he needs for his diagnosis. Many of his appointments have been suspended.

“My health has deteriorated significantly because of anxiety and stress and not being able to treat [my cancer,]” he told the crowd in Spanish. “I ask legislators to continue this initiative… and I am convinced that this action will transform my life.”

During this year’s legislative session, both Republicans and Democrats expressed concerns about the program’s expansion.

“I would like to see us take care of our current obligations before we add to any more of our obligations,” said Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, who is on the Human Services committee.

A “HUSKY for all” chant concluded the conference, as many of the advocates celebrated, snapping pictures with their posters.

Kaitlyn Pohly is CT Mirror’s General Reporting Intern. A member of Yale’s Class of 2026, she majors in History on the “Politics, Law, and Government” track

Gov. Ned Lamont initially announced the working group on June 6 after endorsing state election reforms during his 2022 campaign. The group will focus on developing a legislative proposal to allow ranked-choice voting in caucuses, conventions, primaries, and certain municipal elections for political parties and municipalities.

“Ranked-choice voting is gaining in popularity across the country, but its pros and cons really haven’t been explored in Connecticut,” Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said. “My hope is that this working group will collect the information necessary to make specific recommendations and hopefully improve voter turnout in Connecticut.”

In 2023, Connecticut legislators introduced a bill that would have given municipalities the option of using ranked-choice voting in municipal elections for single-winner offices. It also would have given political parties the option of using ranked-choice voting in presidential preference primaries.

That bipartisan bill, Senate Bill 389, received a public hearing in the Government Administration and Elections Committee. The committee did not take a vote to advance the bill before its deadline.

Osten, the co-chair of the committee, was present at the Tuesday afternoon working session, alongside Sen. Tony Hwang of Fairfield, her Republican counterpart. Both were co-sponsors of Bill 389.

The session consisted of presentations from three experts in ranked-choice voting: FairVote co-founder Rob Richie, Utah County Clerk Josh Daniels, and Director of Public Policy at the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center Ryan Kirby.

How does ranked choice voting work?

Connecticut operates its elections through a traditional plurality system: whoever receives the most votes wins. This applies to elections for state legislators, state executives and U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

In a two-candidate election, this would require one individual to receive over 50% of the vote. But many elections in the state have more than two candidates on the ballot.

In an election with three candidates, for example, the winner would need to receive more than a third of the vote, meaning the winner might have not been voted for by two-thirds of the electorate.

In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Lamont received 49.4% of the vote and his challenger, Republican Bob Stefanowski, received 46.2% of the vote. About 4.4% of voters cast a ballot for another candidate.

If the state had used ranked-choice voting, the 4.4% of voters who opted for another candidate would have had their votes reallocated to their second choice, perhaps moving the needle more decisively toward Lamont or swinging in the opposite direction towards Stefanowski.

What could ranked choice voting mean for Connecticut?

Besides the physical change in ballots, where voters would rank the candidates in the order they want to see them elected rather than just casting a vote for one candidate, there are other subtle changes that could come Connecticut’s way.

An overwhelming majority of elections in Connecticut are decided by active unaffiliated voters. The option to be a voter’s second choice could broaden campaigns, causing candidates to not only reach across the aisle but dig deep into communities of unaffiliated in order to gain support, even if that support comes in the form of an “option two” vote.

“One thing we find is that ranked choice voting does reward candidates who can get out in the community,” Richie told the working group. “Knock[ing] on doors and earning second and third choices seems to come from building trust.”

Richie additionally brought up the necessity for ranked-choice voting when early voting is possible.

Connecticut began to allow early voting in 2024, and this year approximately 18,000 Connecticut residents chose to cast their ballots early.

Richie showed a graphic to the group that highlighted that in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary election, more than 3 million ballots were essentially “wasted,” having been cast for a candidate who later dropped out of the race.

“When you vote early, you don’t know someone’s going to drop out,” Richie said. “Early voting creates access, but it also creates that challenge.”

In a plural electoral system, these ballots are thrown out. In a ranked-choice electoral system, those ballots would be cast for their highest-ranked candidate still in the race.

Members of the working group raised questions about the delay in results with ranked-choice voting, financial viability and accessibility.

Hwang brought up a delay in results during the 2021 New York City mayoral Democratic primary, which used ranked-choice voting. With absentee ballots and affidavit votes in the mix, it took two weeks for the winner to be officially declared.

“One of the sensitivities is [that] lag in time undermines the trust in this process and increases frustration,” Hwang said.

Rep. Hilda Santiago, D-Meriden, questioned the accessibility and inclusivity of ranked-choice voting.

“I am reading that Latinos are more confused when they have more choices to make,” Santiago said, referencing a study conducted on the impact of voter confusion in ranked-choice voting. “This may create a bias in the system that privileges the preferences of white voters over those of Hispanics.”

Other studies find no correlation between race and ethnicity and voter confusion. Richie’s presentation also highlighted that under a ranked-choice system, more minority and female candidates were elected.

The details of accessibility in ranked-choice voting are to be discussed at a future meeting more thoroughly, according to Osten.

The working group will continue to meet throughout the summer to create a bipartisan implementation plan. The next meeting will take place on July 19.

Three others facing similar charges — Bridgeport city councilman Alfredo Castillo and campaign workers Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmonds — were also arraigned in Superior Court in Bridgeport on Monday.

Geter-Pataky quietly left out a side door of the courthouse without commenting after a brief appearance. As a condition of her release, she was ordered not to have any contact with a witness in her case.

Castillo, Edmonds and Heredia also appeared before Judge William Holden. The cases were transferred to the judicial district court on Main Street, where more serious cases are heard. They are all set to appear July 10. All were ordered by the judge to not contact the witnesses against them.

While Geter-Pataky and her attorney John R. Gulash left without commenting Bridgeport attorney Samantha Kretzmer who represented Castillo held a press conference and said her client is “looking forward to a trial” and called his arrest a “political ploy.”

“He adamantly denies all of these allegations and he is looking forward to the truth coming out before a jury,” Kretzmer said.

Heredia’s attorney Ken Krayeske said his client was a “patsy” and questioned why his client with an 8th grade education was arrested and Mayor Joseph Ganim was not.

“I make no comment at this point about my client’s guilt or innocence or anything like that,” Krayeske said. “What I’m concerned about is there’s electoral fraud that appears to have happened, and instead of going after the person who benefited most from the electoral fraud, the state is going after one of the lowest level people who worked on the campaign.”

The Chief State’s Attorney’s office charged all four defendants with unlawfully possessing another person’s absentee ballot, along with a variety of other election-related charges stemming from the 2019 primary between Ganim and his Democratic challenger, Marilyn Moore.

Castillo, Heredia and Geter-Pataky all supported Ganim in the 2019 primary for mayor. Edmonds worked for the Moore campaign.

All four turned themselves in at a state police barracks earlier this month, and all of them were released on written promises to appear in court Monday.

The charges against the political operatives come more than four years after the primary between Ganim and Moore ended in a lawsuit and widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud.

It took the State Elections Enforcement Commission three years to investigate the complaints about that primary and to refer the case to the Chief State’s Attorney for potential criminal charges. It then took the office another year to substantiate that investigation and to file the charges in state court.

Prison, fines and increased scrutiny: CT officials weigh stopping election fraud

Bridgeport’s 2023 Democratic primary for mayor also led to widespread accusations of ballot tampering after Geter-Pataky and several other people were captured on surveillance footage depositing stacks of absentee ballots into drop boxes in the city.

That evidence prompted a state Superior Court Judge to overturn the results of that primary, which Ganim won on the strength of absentee votes.

Geter-Pataky was called as a witness at that civil trial and refused to answer questions about her actions during the 2023 primary. She pleaded the Fifth Amendment against incriminating herself 71 times at the civil trial.

Gulash also represented her at the civil trial. He has refused to comment on any of the allegations against Geter-Pataky and did so again Monday.

Video surveillance footage allegedly shows Geter-Pataky and former city councilwoman Eneida Martinez delivering documents to ballot drop boxes that were used in the lead-up to the Sept. 12 election.

Martinez, who was reelected to the city council as Castillo was in 2023, was not part of the 2019 investigation by state officials. She also appeared at the civil trial last October and refused to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment as well.

Affidavits obtained by The Connecticut Mirror accuse the four political operatives of a variety of crimes.

Some of the charges are related to the political operatives not maintaining paperwork about which voters they distributed absentee ballot applications to or failing to sign the applications they helped people to fill out.

The more serious charges, however, stem from allegations that all four assisted voters in filling out their actual ballots or that they illegally took possession of those ballots once they were completed.

In Connecticut, the only people who can legally deliver an absentee ballot on behalf of another voter are direct family members, police officers, local election officials or someone who is directly caring for someone who receives an absentee ballot because they are ill or physically disabled. The voter has to appoint those people as their designee.

Castillo’s case centers around a complaint that was filed by Kadeem Graham, who lived in Castillo’s city council district. Graham told SEEC investigators that Castillo assisted him in requesting an absentee ballot in the summer of 2019 and that when the absentee ballot arrived, Castillo came to his house and took it.

Graham told investigators that he never had the opportunity to fill out the ballot.

When interviewed by investigators, Castillo initially denied knowing Graham and he claimed he never provided Graham with an application for an absentee ballot.

When investigators produced a copy of Graham’s application for an absentee ballot, Castillo admitted it was indeed his handwriting that filled out portions of that form. But Castillo, who has served in the Bridgeport city council since 2013, continued to deny that he handled Graham’s actual ballot.

“Not me. I didn’t take no absentee ballot. I don’t do that,” Castillo told investigators, according to the affidavit. “I don’t touch none of that stuff … He didn’t give me no ballot.”

The allegations against Geter-Pataky, who was recently reelected as the vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, are similar in nature.

The affidavit filed in her case revolves around an absentee ballot submitted by April Keitt, who had known Geter-Pataky for 10 years.

Keitt told investigators that Geter-Pataky came to her house and assisted her in filling out an application to vote absentee and that when the ballot eventually arrived, Geter-Pataky returned to pick up the completed ballot.

Geter-Pataky admitted that she helped Keitt to fill out an application for a ballot. But she repeatedly denied taking Keitt’s ballot.

When the arrests were announced earlier this month, Moore said she was glad to finally see criminal charges filed over the 2019 mayoral primary, which she lost by 270 votes.

She added she was deeply disappointed by the allegations against one of her former campaign staffers.

“For me, it doesn’t matter who did it,” Moore said. “If you did it, it’s wrong. I don’t care whose campaign you are in or who you are helping. Wrong is wrong. And I would hope that they are all treated equally.”

“If I had known that, I would have nipped it in the bud right away,” Moore said. “I believe in right and wrong, strongly. I would not have tolerated it if I had known.”

Moore blamed the continued problems with absentee voting in Bridgeport on the culture in the city and the cutthroat nature of local political campaigns.

“It is a culture, and it is what people have grown up with in Bridgeport,” Moore said.

 Dave Altimari is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror and Kaitlyn Pohly is CT Mirror’s General Reporting Intern. 

Guay, who was appointed to the board in September 2023, will succeed the board’s current chair, JoAnn Ryan, whose term expires at the end of the month.

“I’ve seen [the system] on the inside for the last year, and what I saw was a group of really committed people,” Guay told the CT Mirror this week. “You don’t always see that from the outside, but people are very committed in the system, [which has] been through a lot of change … Part of what we need to do is to continue to build the culture and move forward [and] execute on all the commitments and changes that have been made.”

Before joining the board, Guay interacted regularly with the state’s higher education system. Through his career in workforce development at Stanley Black & Decker, he began to work with the Business Higher Education Forum in 2018. The output of his work is the Tech Talent Accelerator, a program to align business with higher education. He included the CSCUs in the program in 2019.

He also helped to facilitate the start of the Office of Workforce Strategy and became a member of the workforce council. The council has worked to get the state’s employment numbers back up to pre-pandemic levels; 1.87 million people were employed in 2019, about 50,000 more than are employed today.

“The state will be optimized when CSCU is optimized,” Guay said. “When CSCU is performing at a high level, the state will actually perform at a high level, because people will go into [higher education] and get really good paying jobs and go into the economy. Workforce development is the biggest engine for economic and community development.”

As he takes on his new role connecting the state’s workforce and its students, Guay is focused on communication and transparency.

Guay said that despite some pushback against the merger of the state’s community colleges, he’s a fan of the consolidation.

“I’m a big believer in collaboration, and I think we had some redundancies before. We also had some competition.”

Guay said he hopes to enable statewide growth and streamline communication and budgeting. This year, the board’s management of the university system’s budget came under fire after it voted to raise tuition for the 2024-25 school year by 5%.

The tuition hike came amid the board’s scramble to manage more students on less money, as pandemic relief funds and additional state funding expired, causing a $140 million shortfall. The increase, coupled with faculty buyouts and layoffs, led some faculty senates to cast a vote of no confidence in the Board of Regents.

“This year, there have been 43 presidents [with] votes of no confidence,” Guay said. “We don’t have a monopoly on these challenges, these problems or these opportunities.”

Guay said he hopes to reestablish confidence in the board. He plans to meet with faculty and students, getting them “more engaged in the discussion.”

“We all have a stake in this moment, and I think we have to get to know each other to figure out how to work well together. We’re all on the same lifeboat here.”

Enrollment numbers across the CSCU system have dropped significantly. Between 2010 and 2020, there was a 33% decline.

Coupled with the new tuition increases, things could get worse. Guay, however, remains optimistic and unconcerned, citing a decline in college-age students as the reason for the state’s decline in enrollment numbers.

“What you’re seeing is a demographic trend where enrollment is going down after the financial crisis of 2007 [and] 2008. There [were] less births in the country in those two years, and we’re coming up to where all those kids would have been 18.”

The national college-age population declined by 7% between 2010 and 2020, but that population in Connecticut increased by 2.3%.

Things are looking slightly up for this next school year. The system’s four-year universities each saw an increase in applications, according to Samantha Norton, CSCU’s director of communications.

At Southern Connecticut State University, undergraduate applications increased 16% from 2023. At Central, they increased 7.2%, at Western they increased 8.2%, and at Eastern they increased by 20%.

To meet the demands of the student population, the Board is attempting to introduce new course programming and offerings following personnel cuts, including programs in artificial intelligence, social work, sports management and homeland security.

Guay is also hoping to restore the board’s relationship with the faculty unions, who have expressed outrage with how state funds for the system are managed, by ensuring more transparency between administrators, faculty and the board.

“I don’t like when people are protesting,” he said. “I’d rather come in and sit down and have a coffee and understand what people are trying to do and agree on what we can agree on, and disagree on some other things, and figure out a way to move forward. We’re kind of all in this together.”

Lamont and Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto of DOT hosted a groundbreaking marking the second phase of a three-phase plan for traffic mitigation and safety measures on the I-91, I-691 and Route 15 interchange in Meriden.

“Here in Meriden, we call ourselves ‘the crossroads of Connecticut,’ centrally located,” Mayor Kevin Scarpati said at a Tuesday morning press conference just off the on-ramp onto Route 15. “But what good is it to be the crossroads of Connecticut if those roads are congested on a daily basis?”

The first two phases cost $135 million in state funding and $200 million in federal funds from President Biden’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The program in its entirety will cost over $500 million, 80% of which will be covered federally, Eucalitto said.

“Everyone hates driving through here.” CT’s three-part plan for transportation through Meriden.
The interchange is one of the “worst bottlenecks” in the state, Eucallito said.

PHOTO: Phase two to begin at CT highway interchange

The interchange, which mostly features one-lane, short ramps on and off the highway, was completed in the 1960s in an era of lower traffic volumes.

Now, the “mess of spaghetti,” as Eucalitto described it, is just not cutting it for Connecticut drivers: fender-benders and traffic delays are all too common.

The project, which features multi-lane ramps, added auxiliary lanes and sound barrier walls, aims to alleviate backed-up roads and bridges, which cost the state more than $6 billion annually and $2,300 per driver in operating costs.

Project labor agreements, which include terms and conditions for the work’s quality and safety, are another important facet of the project, said Andrew Inorio, the business manager of the local Laborers Union.

“This is not about a job here today but careers for the next generation of construction workers here in Connecticut,” Inorio said. “These men and women will build the roads and bridges that we will all someday drive on… without their dedication to their crafts, jobs like these don’t get built to the highest standard of quality.”

The project was originally proposed over a decade ago, according to Eucallito and Scarpati. However, it was “shelved due to a lack of funding.”

Biden’s bill was passed in November 2021. Lamont and the DOT’s project began in October 2023, almost two full years later. During that time, state Special Transportation Fund dollars came pouring in from fuel, sales and mileage taxes. But not all of the money was spent, causing frustration among construction advocates.

“I have companies coming to me saying ‘I need work to keep my people busy’,” president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association Don Shubert told The Connecticut Mirror. “They got Connecticut workers, working in New York, working in Massachusetts, working in Rhode Island. They should be here, working in Connecticut.”

Three years after passage of the federal infrastructure law, federal transportation funding has grown over 40%, but state bonding for matching funds that are needed to use the funding have not grown commensurately.

Connecticut ranked 50th among the states in spending funds from the Biden infrastructure program in its first two years, Shubert said.

He also said the industry was unhappy with the state’s use of $500 million, slightly more than half the reserve in the Special Transportation Fund, to pay down bonding debt.

Eucalitto said the state is aggressively seeking and using federal funds — and the result is evident in highway projects around the state.

“We’ve never left any federal funds on the table. We’ve spent every federal dollar we get. And I think if you drive around, people are getting frustrated about how much construction we have going on,” Eucalitto said.

Those projects include reconstruction of the Gold Star bridge carrying I-95 over the Thames River. The rebuilding of the I-84/Route 8 mixmaster in Waterbury will finish this year.

“So folks from Waterbury will be happy about that,” Eucalitto said. “But … every corner of the state has projects, major projects underway.”

Editor’s note: The original headline on this post contained a typo in the date.

Kaitlyn Pohly is CT Mirror’s General Reporting Intern. A member of Yale’s Class of 2026, she majors in History on the “Politics, Law, and Government” track. CT Mirror staff writer Mark Pazniokas contributed to this report.