Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is asking state utility regulators to investigate whether Connecticut Water Co. plans to cut jobs a little more than a month after a 12.7 percent rate increase for the company was approved, The New Haven Register reports.
Blumenthal said Thursday he has confirmed that jobs may be eliminated at the company and asked the state Department of Public Utility Control to look into the layoffs. He didn’t say how many Connecticut Water employees could be laid off.
“Shuffling employees out the door after a rate increase, which we opposed, would belie the company’s promises used to justify its rate increases,” Blumenthal said. “I urge the DPUC to investigate whether these Connecticut Water Co. layoffs break the company’s promise to increase staff, not diminish it. Ratepayers always deserve assurances that service quality will be sustained, but even more so after a recent 13 percent rate increase.”
Word of possible layoffs comes after the DPUC approved a rate increase July 14. Although the DPUC reduced the company’s original request for a 30 percent increase to 12.7 percent, regulators included a provision in the approval to allow the company to increase the number of ratepayer-funded workers from 226 to 233.
Dan Meaney, a spokesman for Connecticut Water, of Clinton, would not directly address Blumenthal’s claims of pending layoffs. “The company will not comment on specific personnel matters, but can assure its customers that any decisions regarding its personnel and operations are made in a manner that honors its commitment to provide customers with quality water and service, and maintain public health and safety in the communities it serves,” Meaney said.
But according to an anonymous e-mail sent to the DPUC by a Connecticut Water employee earlier this week, the company is planning layoffs and other cutbacks because it didn’t get the 30 percent rate increase it had originally sought from the DPUC.
The company has 86,000 customers in more than 55 municipalities. The coverage area includes the Shoreline and the Nauatuck Valley.
