Diamantis seeking to regain state job
No decision issued after contested hearing for embattled official
Kosta Diamantis, an embattled former state legislator who was fired last year by Gov. Ned Lamont when he served as deputy state budget director, tried to get his job back Monday during a contested hearing.
State officials held the hearing into a grievance Diamantis filed last year after he resigned from a classified position as a state employee and then abruptly sought to withdraw his resignation only three hours later. That request was blocked — leading to the hearing almost one year later.
No decision was issued Monday because one of the board members was absent and needs to read the full transcript before voting on the issue. Three of the five board members are needed to hold a vote.
Diamantis essentially held two jobs at the same time — the budget job from which he was fired and a civil-service job at the state Department of Administrative Services where he originally oversaw the state’s school construction projects.
Diamantis made headlines last year after chief state’s attorney Richard Colangelo hired Diamantis’ daughter for a state job paying $99,000 per year as an executive assistant at the same time that Colangelo had been seeking pay raises for fellow prosecutors and himself. Diamantis himself was earning nearly $200,000 per year when he was fired eight days after the state received a subpoena from a federal grand jury as the FBI was investigating how contracts were awarded in the school construction program overseen by Diamantis.
The long-running clash has gone almost completely silent in recent months as the FBI continued the investigation behind the scenes
into the school construction program.
Diamantis, who was fired in October 2021, filed the 24-page grievance in November. The case was later referred in January to the State Employees’ Review Board of the Department of Administrative Services, which held the hearing Monday. The hearing was on the state’s motion to dismiss the appeal, and the arguments centered on whether the board had jurisdiction over the issue.
Diamantis attended the Zoom meeting that lasted more than one hour, but did not speak to the board.
Adam Garelick, an attorney with the state’s Office of Labor Relations, said Diamantis has no right to reinstatement and called for his complaint to be dismissed. He is currently collecting a pension after 30 years of state service, including as a Democratic legislator.
“A state employee does not have a right to reinstatement after he has tendered his resignation,’’ Garelick told the board. “Mr. Diamantis has collected a pension check of more than $5,800 per month . ... They do not have a right to rescind.’’
Garelick said Diamantis should not be reinstated because “he resigned while disciplinary action was pending’’ and he did not provide the required minimum of two weeks’ notice.
When he was placed on administrative leave from the classified position, Diamantis submitted a letter of resignation, effective immediately, on October 28, 2021. He later attempted to rescind his resignation about three hours later, but that was not granted. DAS Commissioner Josh Geballe, a close Lamont ally, rejected that request, but Diamantis wanted then-state budget director Melissa Mccaw to consider the reinstatement request, Garelick said.
“He’s asking for the ERB to find an unfettered right to reinstatement,’’ Garelick told the board. “Mr. Diamantis did not resign in good standing . ... Mr. Diamantis chose to resign after he was told that there was a pending investigation into the hiring of his daughter . ... It’s clear there was disciplinary action that was pending at that point.’’
Garelick said the state denies Diamantis’s allegations that he included in the detailed grievance that Mccaw had been mistreated, undermined, and disrespected by her supervisors, but he added that those are irrelevant to the issue of reinstatement.
“He says the state is attempting to strongarm him and silence him,’’ Garelick said. “Nobody is trying to silence Mr. Diamantis.’’
Diamantis position
Zachary E. Reiland, an attorney representing Diamantis, sought to have the board hear the full details surrounding his client. Others, though, said the issue should be narrowly focused only on whether Diamantis holds the right to be reinstated.
Diamantis charges that Geballe had been “fostering a hostile work environment’’ at the Department of Administrative Services and “exceeded his authority’’ by denying the reinstatement request by Diamantis.
“Melissa Mccaw should have been the person acting’’ on the request, Reiland said. “The stated reasons for denying reinstatement can’t be completely arbitrary and malicious, which they were in this case.’’
“Mr. Diamantis is claiming that he was constructively fired from his position,’’ Reiland said. “A situation was created in which his working conditions were so confrontational, so unbearable ... so unbelievable to him. It occurred at a time when he was at his ailing mother’s bedside . ... The trap was set, and they got what they wanted, which was for him to retire and for them to be able to shut him out by claiming he no longer has recompense . ... They shouldn’t be allowed to do that.’’
He added, “The governor’s office ... initiated a baseless investigation against Mr. Diamantis. ... An investigation that, up to this point, there has been no indication of any wrongdoing by Mr. Diamantis. An investigation about a quid pro quo agreement with the state’s attorney’s office for raises, and these raises, they still have not gotten until this day . ... The governor’s office needs to be accountable to Mr. Diamantis, to the public.’’
“He was demonized in the press. He was flat-out lied about and turned into the face of dirty government,’’ Reiland said. “He became the subject of a federal investigation headed by a U.S. attorney who just so happens to be married to governor’s chief counsel.’’
Garelick objected, saying any references to the governor’s office are irrelevant to the hearing because they are not named in the matter. Board member Victor Schoen of Avon, a labor lawyer who was chairing the hearing, said he agreed with the state’s lawyer but allowed the attorney to proceed.
“Mr. Diamantis is claiming constructive termination or constructive discharge,’’ Reiland said. “An employer has deliberately made conditions so bad that they’ve forced an employee to resign, and that’s what’s happened here . ... He was right to assume that he was probably hours away from being dismissed from his classified position . ... He’s at his 90-year-old mother’s hospital bedside, and she’s about to go into an operation. He’s called into the office, and he’s hit with this.’’
Reiland said the state moved with stunning speed in accepting the resignation by Diamantis.
“Was this the fastest processing of a retirement in state history?’’ Reiland asked. “The moment that he found out he would not be able to address the investigation,’’ he sought to rescind his resignation.
Garelick responded said that only current employees — not former employees — can file complaints to the board.
“That’s not how it works,’’ Garelick said. “He loses rights to appeal all of the claims that he’s making here.’’
Garelick stated that it is “inherently contradictory’’ that Diamantis was complaining about a hostile work environment but then wanted to get his job back and return to work.
“Mr. Diamantis was not forced into retiring,’’ Garelick said. “The complaint, the grievance and appeal should be dismissed . ... He clearly acknowledged that he resigned.’’
Lamont’s office declined to comment, deferring to the comments of Garelick for the state Office of Labor Relations. Lamont’s election campaign declined to comment.
Schoen brought the meeting to a close after more than an hour. He said a decision would be made “in due time,’’ but not until after the transcripts are reviewed by a third member of the board who was not present Monday.