Connecticut Port Authority employee fined for ethics violation
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Oct. 25—Connecticut Port Authority employee Andrew Lavigne was fined $750 and suspended for two days without pay for violating state ethics rules when he accepted hockey tickets from a company doing business with the quasi-public agency.
The $750 fine is the settlement reached with the Office of State Ethics, which investigated and determined Seabury Maritime had violated the state code of ethics for public officials in 2017 and 2019 when it provided gifts, meals and overnight accommodations to port authority employees and two board members.
The two-day suspension for Lavigne, who is the CPA's current manager of business development and was for a time its ethics compliance officer, was an internal personnel matter.
Seabury, which was hired as a consultant by the port authority and paid more than $700,000 for its work, earlier this year agreed to a $10,000 settlement with the state for providing gifts to Lavigne, former CPA Executive Director Evan Matthews and former board members Donald Frost and Henry Juan III. Juan, who was a Seabury employee, is no longer a board member. Frost, who said he believed a 2017 dinner paid for by Seabury was not related to CPA business, was replaced in August after his name was made public.
The Connecticut Port Authority in August revealed that Lavigne and Matthews each received a ticket to a May 9, 2019 National Hockey League playoff game in Boston, valued at about $675, along with food and beverages. Seabury, while already under contract with the port authority in 2019, was also seeking to be hired by the CPA for grant writing services at the time.
Lavigne had reimbursed Seabury the cost of the tickets and reported it in August of 2019, prior to the ethics probe. The reimbursement, however, did not come within 30 days as required by state ethics laws.
"State employees and public officials are prohibited from accepting impermissible gifts," Office of State Ethics Executive Director Peter Lewandowski said in a statement on Monday. "Any gifts that do not meet applicable gift exceptions under the Ethics Code should be either immediately refused or returned, or the donor promptly reimbursed at fair market value within 30 days."
The Office of State Ethics said Lavigne cooperated with its investigation and became a CPA employee after Seabury was hired. Lavigne also told investigators he had not received training related to the Code of Ethics for Public Officials when he was hired.
Connecticut Port Authority Interim Executive Director Ulysses Hammond issued a statement to The Day on Monday.
"As made clear by today's Office of State Ethics' announcement, Andrew Lavigne has been held responsible and accountable," Hammond said. "Hopefully, with this chapter behind him, he, and we, can be even more laser focused on providing the invaluable professional service the citizens of the great state of Connecticut expect and deserve."
