For Lamont, emergency response a defining moment
Long before the first U.S. case of COVID-19 coronavirus, before schools shut down and events stopped, Gov. Ned Lamont read about what was happening in China. Then, Italy.
There was no sign yet the virus would make it to Connecticut, but he worried about decisions he’d have to make when it did. Then it came to California, then Washington, then New York.
And on the first Friday afternoon in March, the call finally came. A confirmed case of the virus, not in a Connecticut resident, but someone
who worked in two hospitals here. His first decision — no delay in telling the whole state. He would lead the announcement immediately, at the location where the patient had worked.
“I was standing there in Danbury, a week ago tonight, when you’re standing there and all of the sudden it’s real,” Lamont said Friday, after a press conference at Americares Headquarters in Stamford where he received an update on the organization’s response to the outbreak. “You’ve been reading about it, you’ve been thinking about it, you’ve been preparing people for it. We’ve been talking about it for weeks.”
He slowed for a moment. “But when you’re standing there and you’re looking people in the eye and you see their nerves, then it’s real.”
There comes a time in all public officials’ tenures, when they’re called upon to respond to an unexpected crisis, one no amount of planning could prepare them for. These are the times that define their legacy.
Their response — whether it’s to a natural disaster, a war, a public health crisis or a school shooting — is what people remember, for better or worse.
For Lamont, that moment is now. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage through the country and more cases are confirmed daily in Connecticut, Lamont has worked hard to be ahead of the curve.
At first some thought he was too aggressive, but now, as other states struggle to catch up, it seems Lamont was right to take such a proactive approach to managing the crisis.
He was one of the first governors in the country to take executive action to limit large gatherings to 250 people, a decision he made a day before Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker would make the same call despite having confirmed nearly 100 cases in the state. Connecticut at the time, had confirmed just six cases.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Lamont, who broke briefly from the serious, focused tone of the recent weeks, to reflect on the work that’s been done already. It wasn’t long ago that the oftenjovial governor who rarely wears ties and has garnered a reputation for his dad-esque dance moves showed his angriest side for the first time, when he called off his year-long quest for tolls.
Now, with the gravity of a crisis on his shoulders, Lamont is mostly serious these days. He wore a tie almost every day last week, and has mostly dropped his characteristic, cheerful, “Hey everybody!” opening line from his public appearances.
“Democracy can be a little dysfunctional when times are good,” he said. “When times are tough, people are really stepping up on both sides of the aisle. I’ve got to do something on childcare, do something for people who are self-quarantined that can’t afford to stay home from work. Make sure our restaurants survive. We have to give them a bridge to prosperity on the other side of this.”
One time for every governor
For many in his position, like his predecessor Dannel P. Malloy, there have been several crises to respond to and the experience builds on itself. Malloy recalled his time as mayor of Stamford, on September 11, 2001, and the lasting emotional and economic impact on the community he led.
“Each situation requires a different level of empathy and leadership and communication skills and that’s what the public is looking for,” Malloy said. “I think that this, economically, will be more like 9/11 than other temporary setbacks. The reality is that any mayor or governor or president is going to be called on to lead in those situations. The public will turn to leadership in those situations more than it generally would.”
Malloy’s biggest crisis came on December 14, 2012, when a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 first graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. That day changed Malloy’s life forever, as it did so many others. Though he’d responded to dozens of crises before that, from 9/11 to massive storms that shut down the state, that was the moment in Malloy’s tenure as a public servant that affected him the most both personally and professionally.
Lamont spoke to fellow governors in afflicted states and medical professionals here, and decided early on that he’d err on the side of caution in all his declarations and orders.
That meant changing his mind as new information came to light and declaring an official State of Emergency a day after he’d said it wasn’t on the table, and before most other states would do the same. It meant waiving the 180 day school year, cutting off visitation to nursing homes, and it meant, for a few days, that Lamont seemed, to some, overly willing to shut activities down.
His emergency declaration prompted a first-ofits-kind meeting of legislative leaders, who agreed to support the declaration, which extends to at least Sept. 9.
The gravity of those choices isn’t lost on him.
“Closing down a school is the right thing to do, our superintendents are making the right decision, but I’m a governor, where the rubber meets the road. So I’ve also got to figure out, what does that mean to a single parent? What does that mean to that nurse who is raising her hand saying, ‘I want to do more at Stamford Hospital yet my kid is going to be home from school.’ How can I address that in a way that works?”
Consumed by coronavirus
Lamont’s response thus far has generally met with praise and support from other public officials. Most say it’s too early to to know if every decision has been the right one, or whether this crisis will truly define Lamont’s governorship.
“I think there were certain people questioning whether he was going overboard,” said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven. “And I think he had the right attitude. He’d rather be aggressive and find that it was overly aggressive than be caught unaware or unguarded, and I agree with that.”
With the legislative session on hold at least until March 30, it’s clear this crisis will at least be the defining moment of his first two years.
Lamont hasn’t made a public appearance unrelated to the coronavirus response since that night at Danbury Hospital. For the governor and his team, including nearly every state agency head, the days and nights are now about emergency preparedness. Everything from new daycare licenses, to the widespread economic hit, is on the table.
At every public appearance, including daily televised briefings held at the state’s emergency response center deep inside the state armory in Hartford, Lamont defers to experts when he knows their expertise is beyond his own.
His newly-promoted chief of staff, Paul Mounds, has spent the first two weeks of his tenure as Lamont’s righthand man responding to the crisis, instead of focusing on legislative priorities as is typical of someone in the position.
Mounds said every day of the past two weeks has started with a briefing on the status of coronavirus in the state, and often a plan developed in those early morning conversations has changed by the end of the day.
“You can plan for a lot of things,” Mounds said. “But there are things you just can’t plan for and when they happen, you just do it. We’re in this mindset of making sure any decision that is made is guided by public safety first and foremost ... He’s very much taken control of this situation. There’s not a decision that has been made that hasn’t been thoroughly vetted by him.”