Saturday, October 8, 2011

Esty Death Watch III

The Courant's Jon Lender keeps hammering away.

Now we learn that executives from Northeast Utilities have given a total of $2,000 to the congressional campaign of Esty's wife, Elizabeth. If you ever wondered how the $205,000 in consulting fees he collected from a company that falls under his agency's regulation might benefit the DEEP commissioner and taint his work as a regulator, now you know.

Esty and his flaks have insisted all along that there was nothing illegal about his failure to disclose his NU connection and the $7,500 in speaking fees he collected from United Illuminating. And he is probably right. I see no indication that he has actually violated state ethics laws.

But the evidence mounts on a weekly basis that Esty has a glaring blind spot on the matter of disclosure and a tin ear for what is proper and what is not.

The aforementioned drip, drip, drip of impropriety continues. How many more revelations will there be before Lender has exhausted the list of companies whose largess has benefitted the Estys? Can Esty survive or will Gov. Malloy quietly tell him to find other work — an order Esty would have no trouble filling, given the impressive size of his Rolodex.

I'd say one more hand grenade and he's out.

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