Pay hikes at budget agency create stir
Chief arranged raises of up to 10% for her 13 staff managers
State budget chief Melissa McCaw quietly made special arrangements to take care of 13 nonunion management employees in her office by giving them raises between 5% and 10% last December, while their counterparts at other executive branch agencies didn’t receive pay hikes and haven’t for years.
The raises for McCaw’s people have bred resentment, now that word of them has spread among numerous managers of similar status at other agencies. Such managers are part of the state’s merit system, but rank too highly to be eligible for representation by a state employee union that could negotiate bigger raises for them.
Monika Nugent, the president of an association of nonunionized managers, told Government Watch this past week she disagrees with McCaw giving preferential treatment to her 13 staffers.
McCaw — who is the secretary of the governor’s budget agency, known as the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) — arranged for her staffers’ job descriptions to be revised upward to higher classifications that pay more.
Nugent said that her association, called the Managerial and Exempt (M+E) Employees United, “was aware of the job description change made for a group of managerial employees within the budget division of [OPM] that provided these salary raises. Secretary McCaw mentioned during an Appropriations Budget Committee hearing [on Feb. 11] that she needed to ‘retain competent, quality staff.’”
But, Nugent added, “We would expect to see that all state agencies retain the most competent and quality managers. Equitable treatment of all managers would not only make that more likely, it should be the expected norm for state government.”
“I know the public doesn’t have
In April 2020, the agency received 436 ticks. By late this April, 746 ticks had been submitted, mostly deer ticks, Molaei said Tuesday.
The heaviest infestation in the state in recent years was in 2017, when the Agricultural Experiment Station received about 6,000 ticks after an exceptionally warm winter. The average has been about 3,000 each year, but this year likely will be above average, Molaei said.
Ticks found in Connecticut include:
Asian long-horned tick: Molaei has been tracking populations of this species in Fairfield County since August 2020. Its native range includes Japan, Korea, China, New Zealand and Australia, where it has transmitted diseases to both humans and livestock. In the U.S., the bloodsucker is expected to become a major livestock parasite and also is capable of transmitting disease agents to people.
Gulf Coast tick: Until early fall 2020, the known northern limit of this tick’s range was Delaware, Molaei said. But the species was found in Fairfield County in September after people submitted ticks for testing, he said.
Subsequent collections showed 30% were infected with an agent that causes a disease called rickettsiosis, similar to, but less serious than Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Lone star tick: For several decades, only about .3% of ticks submitted to the Agricultural Experiment Station were of this species (named for the light splotch on its back) and those likely were brought in by people and animals from other regions. In recent years, however, that figure has increased to more than 3%.
An established population was found in 2018 on Manressa Island on the Norwalk shore and in 2019, the tick was found for the first time in New Haven County. A Yale University graduate student working for the state has been tasked with determining conditions that have helped this species expand its range.
Diseases that the lone star tick can give humans include ehrlichiosis, Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI), spotted fever rickettsiosis, tularemia and Heartland Burban viruses. It is also associated with red meat allergy in some people, according to experts.
“This year, we are seeing this tick in many areas (in New Haven and Fairfield counties) where it had not been reported in the past,” Molaei said.
The deer, or blacklegged tick, is notorious for transmitting Lyme disease. Adult ticks may be out searching for hosts any time winter temperatures are above freezing. All life stages bite humans but nymphs and adult females are most commonly found on people.
Named for the Connecticut shoreline town of Lyme where it was first reported, the disease continues to be the most prevalent tickborne malady in the state and nation. In 2017, there were 2,022 probable and confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Connecticut.
State and federal authorities are discussing using pesticides to control the spread of ticks in the state, particularly the recent arrivals, Molaei said.
The usual precautions against ticks include wearing light-colored clothing and using repellent when walking in woods or fields. Also, people should check themselves and loved ones for ticks. Removing a tick within two or three hours after it latches on prevents transmission of most diseases.