Documents Subpoenaed From UConn-Rell Study

At least one subpoena has been issued — and others "almost certainly will be" — for scores of documents in an investigation of whether a University of Connecticut professor's $223,000, taxpayer-funded study on government efficiency was misused to provide political advice to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says. The legal maneuver is intended to guarantee production of all relevant documents — e-mails, memos and other records — by the Rell administration and UConn in the month-old probe conducted jointly by him and the bipartisan state auditors of public accounts.

"We have already issued demand letters" to recipients including Rell's office and UConn, Blumenthal said in an interview Saturday. "They are the equivalent of subpoenas in the substance of documents and information that we are seeking," he said, and "can easily be converted to a subpoena" if anyone balks.

So far, no one is refusing cooperation, he said. But one subpoena already has been served on a recipient whom he would not name. In addition, he said, other subpoenas are already prepared — and "almost certainly will be issued" on people for either documents or sworn testimony in the next few weeks.

"We do have a game plan," he said.

The Democratic state attorney general's probe with the auditors is one of three formal inquiries now pending into the study that UConn professor and polling expert Kenneth Dautrich has been conducting since mid-2008 under a $223,000 contract between UConn and Rell's budget office, which is known as the Office of Policy and Management.

In the other two: UConn is investigating whether Dautrich violated any ethics rules, at least one of which bans political activity on the job; and the State Elections Enforcement Commission is looking into a complaint that Rell and her exploratory 2010 campaign committee violated state laws in connection with the study.

The study is scheduled to run through Aug.

30, 2010, but the Republican governor says it has been put "on hold" since mid-October with roughly half of the $223,000 already spent. That suspension came after newspaper revelations that Dautrich had conducted a "focus group" as part of the study in December 2008 that elicited nine citizens' comments on the leadership qualities of Rell and Blumenthal. At the time, he was viewed by some as a potential Democratic opponent in 2010, but he since has ruled that out.

Many of the documents now being demanded have been released to reporters through recent freedom of information requests — including e-mails showing that in 2008 and 2009, Dautrich continually e-mailed Rell's chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, with advice about political polling and strategies for how the Republican governor could outmaneuver legislative Democrats. Dautrich even helped Rell's 2010 exploratory campaign committee prepare questions for a $6,000 private political poll last spring, e-mails show, and he set her up with a New Jersey polling firm that he has used in his own past research.

Such political communications flowed freely between Dautrich and Rell's aides before and during the study. Rell and Dautrich contend, however, that such interactions were not part of the study, which has produced a thick draft of a report and, they say, already has saved the state money.

The documents that investigators will examine deal not only with the conduct of the study, but also the ways in which Rell's office has tried to control political damage since it came under public criticism in early October.

For example, governor's office e-mails contain "daily issues briefings" to arm Rell with answers to questions that she might be asked at public appearances on various issues. The governor first answered reporters' questions about the Dautrich revelations in person on Oct. 9, when she appeared at the Torrington Fire Department for an unrelated event — and the briefing prepared for that day included what are called "talking points" for her on the subject.

Here are a few:

>> "Let me be clear: We worked very hard to ensure that the work Ken Dautrich did and the questions he asked were policy-based."

>> " We went out of our way to avoid the possibility that his work could be perceived as somehow related to election politics."

>> " And his work was invaluable — he helped us to find ways to save taxpayers money."

>> " The University of Connecticut was paid for the work — not Ken directly."

Rell covered several of those points during that Oct. 9 appearance — and continued to do so in later encounters with reporters. Finally, more than a week ago, she said that she would no longer answer questions about apparent contradictions between her administration's version of events and what has been surfacing in e-mails obtained by reporters. Rell says she first wants the investigations to sort things out.

There is much for them to sort out, because the documents are full of complicated and sometimes contradictory information.

For example, while Rell had stressed in recent weeks that UConn, not Dautrich, was paid for the study, she also acknowledged that the study had paid "a portion of his salary."

And that was different from what Rell's budget chief, Robert Genuario, said in an Oct.

14, 2008, e-mail to another state official when the study was about 4 months old: "Ken is not being paid any amounts in excess of his normal salary to complete this assignment."

Here are some new details on that issue, provided by UConn in answer to Courant questions. UConn spokesman Michael Kirk said Dautrich got $13,462 this year for "work on the OPM project over the summer that was in addition to his regular nine-month UConn salary" of $121,162.

A professor can be paid up to three months' extra "summer salary" at his regular monthly rate — $13,462 in Dautrich's case — if he has a project to justify it. His study for Rell justified one month's pay of $13,462 for Dautrich, from May 23 to June 22, while an unrelated project paid him $26,925 for two months from June 23 to Aug. 22.

Dautrich also stands to make a potential $40,000 next summer from UConn by virtue of the Rell study, Kirk said, if the study is revived from its "on-hold" status and he works on it for all three summer months.

It would not have been possible for him to be paid anything extra for the study in 2010 under the original plan, because OPM's agreement with UConn called for a $123,406 study lasting from June of 2008 through late summer of 2009. But within a month, an additional $100,000 and another year were added. There wasn't much written explanation for the change, which apparently had been discussed in person or on the phone: "It turns out that the Governor and Ken had discussions about expanding the scope and timeline to the project. Unbeknownst to Ken, the Governor authorized $100K more," a UConn employee wrote to a part-time student worker in an e-mail June 20, 2008.

One last bit of news on the Dautrich study: UConn said at first that its inquiry would include participation by Rachel Rubin, who now is UConn's director of compliance after initially serving as Rell's ethics counsel. But now, Kirk said last week, "because of her past work in the governor's office, Rachel is not taking part is this case in order to avoid the appearance of bias. Michael Walker, the head of our office of audit, compliance and ethics, is handling it."

>> Jon Lender is a reporter on The Courant's investigative desk, with a focus on government and politics. Contact him at jlender@courant.com, 860-241-6524, or c/o The Hartford Courant, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115.