Gov. Ned Lamont knew of and approved of a $250,000 no-bid contract that was awarded to a company owned by former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Lamont said during a Monday press conference.
The contract, which was first reported by The Connecticut Mirror last week, will pay Cardona’s business up to $250,000 to consult for the state’s new Career Pathways Commission, which Cardona was also appointed to lead as chairman.
That deal has drawn criticism from Connecticut Republicans who have cast it as a political patronage job for Cardona, who served as Lamont’s education commissioner from 2019 to 2021 and as President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary from 2021 to 2025.
During a press conference on Monday, Lamont was pushed by reporters to explain how the contract with Cardona Solutions LLC came to be and whether the contract was contingent on Cardona serving as chairman for the new workforce commission.
Lamont, a Democrat who is seeking reelection for a third term, said the decision to make Cardona the chairman of the new commission went “hand-in-hand” with the plan to award Cardona’s company the government contract.
“Look, I was very aware that Miguel Cardona was going to be chairman. I really wanted him to be chairman. I thought he was best person for it. Then I think the workforce team worked out what they did with Cardona partners,” Lamont said, misidentifying the LLC named Cardona Solutions.
Lamont said his administration chose to have the $250,000 contract reviewed by the Office of State Ethics in case news reporters or other people were to raise questions about the arrangement.
Sen. Ryan Fazio, who is seeking to unseat Lamont in November and become the state’s first Republican governor in more than a decade, issued a statement on Monday calling the contract an “insider deal.”
“Connecticut families are paying higher taxes and bills than ever thanks to Gov. Lamont’s unaffordable policies, while his politically connected friends continue to get rewarded,” Fazio said.
Speaking to reporters, Lamont argued it was “appropriate” for the state to award the contract to Cardona’s company, even though state officials did not provide other companies with an opportunity to submit a bid for that work.
Kelli-Marie Vallieres, the leader of the state Office of Workforce Strategy, told CT Mirror last week that her team did not have time to solicit bids from other consulting companies because the governor had instructed the new career pathway commission to produce a workforce development plan by the end of this year.
Lamont said the state entered the contract with Cardona because of the amount of work that plan would take to produce. And he suggested that it was Cardona, himself, who suggested his company be hired to assist the state.
“I do think that Miguel said, ‘I’d like to come on and do this. It’s going to require a heck of a lot of other research, administrative work. I think our Cardona partners would be the best place to go.'” Lamont said.
“And we tended to agree,” Lamont added. “Make it seamless. Make it consolidated.”
