Ex-state spokesman settles wrongful termination lawsuit
A former spokesman for Connecticut’s Department of Public Health who accused the state of firing him in retaliation for making whistleblower complaints has settled his wrongful termination suit against his former employers, court records show.
Av Harris, who served for a time as the chief liaison between reporters and the public health agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, was terminated from his job in January after raising legal questions about a fine the department planned to levy against a Bridgeport bar for violating pandemic safety protocols, according to his lawsuit.
While a judge dismissed the lawsuit in October, Harris agreed to drop any chance of appeal as part of a settlement negotiated between his attorneys and the state the following month, according to records released by the Attorney General’s office through a public records request.
The state admitted to no wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement, but agreed to pay Harris $44,674 in back pay and delay the effective date of his termination so that Harris could reach 10 years of service with the state and vest his retiree health benefits.
The settlement also prohibits Harris from seeking employment with the state during the next five years, and both sides agreed not to discuss the underlying facts of the case publicly.
“I am happy to have this matter resolved so I can turn the page and move on,” Harris said in a statement posted on Facebook last week, in which he also thanked his attorneys.
“I am grateful to the Department of Public Health and Governor Lamont’s administration for working with us to find a fair and just resolution to this case,” Harris said. “I also thank Governor Lamont and his team for giving me the great opportunity to serve the residents of Connecticut in my role at the Department of Public Health. It was truly an honor to serve alongside some of the most dedicated, hard working, conscientious public servants I have ever met. They are absolute heroes in Connecticut who save lives every day.”
A spokesman for both the Department of Public Health did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Max Reiss, a spokesman for the governor, declined to comment.
Harris’ alleged in his lawsuit that his dispute with the state began in December 2020, when his supervisors leaned on his experience working with the city of Bridgeport in order to get “buy in” from several police officers for a fine the department planned to levy against Mango’z Sports Bar on the city’s east side.
The bar had recently been the site of a fatal shooting, and officials with the Department of Public Health planned to argue that the bar’s owners had also violated COVID-19 safety protocols by allowing more than 25 people to gather inside and not enforcing the state’s mask mandate, Harris alleged in the lawsuit.
Harris said he expressed reservations to his bosses about gathering statements from police officers to support the agency’s action because he believed that doing so would interfere with the police investigation into the shooting, according to his complaint.
Eventually, Harris said he took his concerns to Gov. Ned Lamont’s office by reaching out to members of the governor’s staff. Lamont’s deputy legal counsel, Doug Dalena, texted Harris in late December that the governor’s office would directly handle the matter, according to Harris’ complaint.
After that, Harris alleged that he was “admonished” by thenCommissioner of Public Health Dr. Deidre Gifford and her chief of staff, Lita Orefice, several days before being informed of his termination on Dec. 31, according to court records.
That same day, the department announced a $10,000 fine against Mango’z. That announcement was paired with statements from Lamont and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, which Harris’ complaint described as “more successful than the approach DPH originally contemplated,” involving city police officers.
A little over a week before he was informed of his termination, the governor’s office announced that it would spend $250,000 in federal relief money on a three-month contract with an outside communications firm to handle media relations and communications related to the pandemic, relegating Harris to a role covering non-COVID communications.
In October, Superior Court Judge Stuart Rosen dismissed Harris’ lawsuit after finding that Harris did not allege that the state went through with any illegal actions related to the fine and that the lawsuit was thus barred by sovereign immunity.