Leaders in government have a fiduciary duty they owe to the public. Part of that duty is to place the public’s interests before their own. Another part of that duty is to be accountable for their actions, to be transparent in what they do and to follow the law and the rules that have been agreed on.

For the second time in the last legislative session, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Joseph Aresimowicz, breached his fiduciary duty to the public. The first breach we have already chronicled, namely in refusing to bring to a vote the renomination of Superior Court Judge Jane Emons. The second occurred as the horn was about to sound ending the legislative session. Just 15 minutes before the session ended, an otherwise dormant and lackluster bill passed without debate, discussion or public scrutiny. The problem tacked on to that bill, which ironically purported to be about the public’s access to governmental information, is a provision that assured that UConn football coach Randy Edsall’s son’s job as the team’s tight ends coach would not only be renewed, but protected from scrutiny by the state’s ethics agency.