Ousted state DPH spokesman claims retaliation in suit
Av Harris, the former spokesman for the Department of Public Health, filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing his termination in January violated employee protections after he voiced legal concerns about the agency’s plan to fine a Bridgeport sports bar $10,000 for suspected COVID-19 violations.
The lawsuit, filed in Hartford Superior Court, seeks Harris’s reinstatement or unspecified damages, along with lost wages and lawyer feeds.
“State agencies, including the DPH, must not penalize its employees who blow the whistle. Otherwise, they harm the public by dissuading public servants from speaking up against public corruption and illegal activity,” Harris’s attorney, Irene Bassock, said Tuesday. “When our public servants can’t act as our safeguards against these abuses, then we all suffer. We hope that the DPH comes to the table early before they waste any taxpayer money mounting a defense against a clearcut case of retaliation against my client.”
The lawsuit was not unexpected after Bassock
argued in a letter in January that the former spokesman had been wrongfully terminated from his position.
The suit alleges Harris reported suspected violations of state laws, and therefore his firing by DPH violates the state’s employment law that protects such actions.
DPH, the governor’s office and the Attorney General’s office all declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
Harris, a Massachusetts
resident, was contacted on Dec. 29 by the head of the agency’s Health Care Quality and Safety branch, who said DPH planned to issue its first $10,000 fine against Mango’Z Sports Bar in Bridgeport, according to the complaint.
The fine centered around a shooting at the bar earlier that month that left two people dead and two others wounded, according to the filing.
DPH alleged a crowd of more than 25 people had gathered inside the bar at the time of the Dec. 20 shooting, and that the establishment had stayed open past the 10 p.m. curfew, violating an order from Gov. Ned Lamont that allowed for a fine up to $10,000 per violation of COVID-19 restrictions.
The head of the DPH division told Harris the agency’s investigators would need a statement from “one or two Bridgeport police officers who were on scene responding to the shooting,” according to the complaint.
DPH officials turned to Harris for help because he previously worked as a legislative aide for Mayor Joe Ganim and his strong connections in the city could get “buy-in” from the Bridgeport Police Department to give the statements in the enforcement action, the complaint said.
But Harris quickly raised concern about unlawfully interfering with a criminal investigation into the shooting, the accuracy of the legal entity receiving the fine, and whether DPH had the legal authority to issue the fine under Lamont’s executive order, his lawyer argued.
The complaint claims Harris attempted to raise his concerns about the order to legal counsel within DPH. When he was unable to reach them, Harris’ lawyer wrote that Harris reached out to Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff and Doug Dalena, deputy legal counsel for the office of the governor.
Dalena told Harris he would escalate those concerns to Bob Clark, the general counsel for the governor’s office, the complaint said.
The state did eventually fine Mango’z Sports Bar over the incident, issuing a press release that quoted both state and Bridgeport officials.
The suit claims that outcome “was more successful than the original approach that DPH leadership had contemplated,” but that Harris’ escalation of his concerns “cost him his job.”
The complaint said that “less than three hours after this firestorm began,” Harris was called to a video conference meeting with Acting DPH Commissioner Deidre Gifford and her chief of staff, Lita Orefice
The suit contends both Gifford and Orefice admonished him for reaching out to Lamont’s chief of staff and seeking legal counsel, rather than reaching out to Orefice as his supervisor.
“This makes it hard for us to trust you with sensitive information because we don’t know who you are calling,” Gifford told Harris during that meeting, according to the complaint.
On Dec. 22, the state contracted an outside consulting firm to handle COVID-19-related media relations in a $250,000 deal, Hearst Connecticut Media reported at the time. The announcement from the state said Harris would continue as a spokesman for the agency handling matters not related to the virus.
“Yet just over one week later, on December 31, 2020, and less than 48 hours after the events of Dec. 29,” the complaint said, Harris was summoned to another meeting with Gifford and Orefice where they terminated his employment effective Jan. 14.
Harris’ termination date was “less than five months from his 10-year anniversary date and retiree health care benefit milestone as a state employee,” the complaint said.
No court dates have been scheduled in the lawsuit, according to online records. The state has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.