Thursday, December 21, 2006

Seven Commissioners Out

From the Courant:
Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that she has accepted the resignations of the following six state agency commissioners:

• Commissioner Darlene Dunbar of the Department of Children and Families;
• Commissioner James Abromaitis of the Department of Economic and Community Development;
• Commissioner Susan Cogswell of the Department of Insurance.
• Commissioner (Acting) William Ramirez of the Department of Motor Vehicles;
• Commissioner Patricia Wilson-Coker of the Department of Social Services;
• Jennifer Aniskovich, Executive Director of the Connecticut Commission on Arts and Tourism.

Consumer protection commissioner Edwin Rodriguez announced his resignation yesterday.

Housecleaning. Way, way overdue.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jennifer Aniskoivich did a great job. I saw her testify and she was terrific as was her work in the office. The state of CT will suffer with her no longer there.

Anonymous said...

Aniskovich was a good public face for her department but a disastrous administrator. She also aliented the state's tourism honchos (who pull in a lot of tax money) with her obvious preference for the arts-and-culture aspect of her job.

Anonymous said...

She certainly was the best looking commissioner....

Seriously, I was impressed with her == she had a 'take-charge' attitude, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? Aniskovich was awful!! Doesn't anyone remember the ridiculous logo for the commission and its huge price tag? It's about time Rell got rid of some of these Rowland holdovers. She should have done it when she first took office like Williams said.

Anonymous said...

Rell seems a bit disorganized here. She knew or should have known this past summer that she would win. The timing and theatrics look disjointed. This is not something she made her mind up after the election.

They have worked for her for 18 months. It should have been very apparent to her and Moody who was staying and who was going. I would have been more impressed if she had announced the appointment of the replacements today. Let's see how long it will take for her to announce her choices. Anything beyond the inaugural than she was asleep at the switch.

BTW look for many ex-legislators to get the nod. Ward, Cook and so on....

Anonymous said...

Too bad that Aniskovich had to get the boot. She was extremely qualified and quite frankly one of Rell's best commisionsers. Basically she probaly got the boot because of Bill Aniskovich's history with Rell. That is really unfortunate for the state of CT.

Bill Aniskovich should make a comeback. Maybe a run at governor in 2010 or US Senate. He was the most articulate, hardest working, genuine politician I have ever come across---and I don't always vote Republican! Compared to Meyer, who won't even return a phone call, and just votes strictly across party lines, it isn't even close.

Anonymous said...

Rumor mill has it that Cathy Cook will go to Consumer Protection, Lenny Winkler to Public Health as a Deputy Commissioner, Linda Roberts as Insurance Commissioner and I would guess Bob Ward as DECD.

Anonymous said...

THE COURANT HAS PRINTED A PHOTO THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE OUTGOING COMMISH EDWIN RODRIGUEZ...ONLY PROBLEM IS IT'S NOT RODRIGUEZ! THEY PRINTED A PIC OF A RANDOM ASIAN GUY INSTEAD!

Anonymous said...

it's true, if you were female and attractive, bill would always return your call.

dirtbag

Anonymous said...

The most obvious replacement should have been at the State Police and raises questions of how comfortable Rell is with the "good ole boy" setup recently made so blatant.

Anonymous said...

Ward will be at Insurance, Cook will be at Tourism. Good riddance to these seven - Abro and Rodriguez were absolute disasters.

Anonymous said...

A lot of us wanted to see an Aniskovich-Meyer rematch this past November and never got it. Now that M. Lisa Moody has dispatched Jennifer Aniskovich maybe she can be talked into running against Meyer in '08. That would be a race to watch!

Anonymous said...

It made good political sense to keep the Rowland team in place until Rell got elected on her own. Most of these commishes were at marco Polo!!!!

Anonymous said...

anon 8.42,
please remember to include young in this criterea.

Anonymous said...

Good to see Jodi is getting rid of The John Rowland Deadwood.

Susan Cogswell needs to go back to Torrington Her head was too swelled in her years in Hartford.

Darlene Dunbar out at DCF thats good too She is a Holdover from Rowland/Ragaglia years.

I think Jodi needs to appoint some Democrats to these posts rather than rewarding Bob Farr, Linda Roberts, Cathy Cook and Bob Ward Because they all(except Ward)were stupid and ran on a ticket that was doomed from the start and should of stayed in secure jobs.

Anonymous said...

It's more likely that Jodi waited until they all got in their time to get a pension and lifetime health insurance. Although, the need for her to further distance herself form Rowland did come out somewhat during her campaign. It's mostly about image with her anyway.

Anonymous said...

It would be nice to see the Governor do more than simply appoint out of work politicians to these positons. (Although some of the names mentioned are perfectly qualified for certain jobs.)

Why not an accomplished business person with an entrepreneurial background at Economic Development?

Or maybe a consumer advocate at Consumer Protection? (Or heaven forbid, at Insurance.)

Anonymous said...

Abromaitis was horrible. I'm glad to see him go. He really set economic development back in this state 10 years. The State really needs a progressive businessman in the DECD post.

Anonymous said...

anon 11.50:

Huge pricetag for the logo?

Do you remember?

It was $10,000...I guess it depends on your perspective.

Aniskovich got canned because despite winning by a song, fat little lisa and grandma rell are not big enough people to forget that her husband had the temerity to suggest that he wanted to be governor...good grief, what a small world they live in.

Anonymous said...

Actually, there's word on the street that moody wanted Aniskovich out because she actually took the ethics issue seriously. There were apparently several occasions where Aniskovich resisted Moody's requests for favors...something about tv commercials promoting tourism that moody wanted rell featured in (she wasn't) and a couple other similiar rowland-esque style demands. If the Dems were smart, they'd subpoena Aniskovich and ask her some questions about Moody...Now that'd be classic turnaround Ed Meyer gets Jennifer Aniskovich to torpedo Moody on the stand!

Anonymous said...

Ed Meyer-

He made a fool of himself with the hearings earlier in the year. Don't make him have to go through that embarrassment again. The guy looked lost trying ask questions---it was truly pathetic. Either Aniskovich would just make him look silly---they are both bright, energetic individuals who are (were) bright spots for state government.

Anonymous said...

Meyer looked foolish to some I'm sure but to many of us Freedman, Farr and Ward looked pathetic in their defense of the indefensible.

Anonymous said...

Darlene Dunbar was solid. Low key, extremely knowledgeable and a joy to work with. To my knowledge, there has never been a commissioner at DCF who had the on site experience and compassion that Darlene possesses. This is a big mistake by Jody Rell and a loss for the employees and clients of that agency.

Anonymous said...

I do not understand why Darlene was dumped. She was a wonderful commissioner, knowledgable and compassionate.

Anonymous said...

These comments are hysterical. It's clear no one with any clue what's actually happening is bothering to post here. The funniest statement so far is a tie between the assertion that Aniskovich was fired as revenge for her husband's ambition and the statement that spending $10,000 for a logo seems like a lot "depends on your point of view."

The real wonder is that more heads didn't roll. They may yet. But anyone who is still trying to make themselves feel better two months after the election by calling Rell & Moody stupid and fat deserves the ass kicking they got and will keep on getting.

Chumps.

Anonymous said...

As a director Jennifer Aniskovich was over her head. Tax incentives to create jobs via the digital media and motion picture industry became law last July and the regulations to adminster those credits are still being drafted! Potential loss of new business (and jobs) to the state over the past six months is easily 150+ million not to mention some six month old dried egg on Jodi's face. Let's hope the new commissioner (whoever it may be) gets this in gear and moving forward. Connecticut deserves better.

Anonymous said...

You are clueless on this one. She's done a great job getting the credits in play. The regulations are optional under the statute, so they're not necessary to move forward. Besides, cite one instance where regs were ever final in under 9 months - the process requires at least that long. Rhode Island and Massachusetts passed credits almost 2 years ago and neither of them have regs.

Aniskovich made sure that every film that came through from the day the statute was passed got great service. Connecticut has done more film business in 6 months than any other state with credits has done in the first year! The only film people who are not happy with her are the self-centered, sleazy middlemen from Fairfield county who are angry she won't tilt everything in their favor so they can make a buck. She's kept the credits fair and above-board despite political pressure to wheel and deal. That is the right move for Connecticut.