Lamont Wants To Train Workers For Existing Jobs

By Scott Benjamin

As the national economy has recovered from the 2008 financial collapse, the national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.1 percent and the stock market has surged, Connecticut has carried the stigma of being the only state in New England that hasn’t recovered all the jobs lost during the Great Recession.

It already had the negative distinction – as Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Stamford) noted at countless campaign stops eight years ago – of being the only state other than Michigan that had fewer jobs than in 1989.

But Democratic gubernatorial contender Ned Lamont of Greenwich, who rose to fame in 2006 during what was the most storied U.S. Senate primary in Connecticut history, says in addition to creating more jobs, he wants the state’s technical high schools and community colleges to be able to train workers for jobs in the existing labor force where some companies can’t find qualified applicants.

It is a familiar refrain. About a decade ago, then-Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele (R-Stamford), who placed second in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary, said Electric Boat had difficulty finding oceanic engineers and Blue Sky Studios in Greenwich had trouble locating certain animation technicians.

Lamont says there are positions available at defense contractors Electric Boat in Groton, the Lockheed Martin operation at Igor Sikorsky in Stratford and also at Travelers Insurance in Hartford that remain vacant.

He said in a phone interview that the community college curriculums should be better-aligned with the state work force.

University of Connecticut (UConn) economist Fred Carstensen told CTNewsJunkie last year that UConn should establish an aerospace engineering center to create workers to address the increase in defense manufacturing over the coming years in the Nutmeg State.

Regarding the building trades, Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn, a Democrat, asked last year, “When was the last time you heard a young person say that they wanted to be a plumber? There are good-paying jobs available that remain vacant.”

Dunn and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, have both said that the state's job market has changed in recent years as more companies want people specifically trained in skills related to their functions instead of hiring the intelligent college graduate with a degree in the Arts & Sciences and then putting them in their company training program.

Vin Nolan, a former Republican candidate for mayor of Danbury and the former Economic Development director for New Milford, said some years ago that colleges are typically slow to respond to changes in the job market partly because of faculty tenure and the inability to swiftly shift resources.

At some of the state four-year campuses there are as many as six collective bargaining units.

“A degree from a technical high school or a community college in advanced manufacturing will get you an initial higher-paying job than if you had a degree in Sociology from Yale,” declared Lamont, who has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a master’s degree from Yale and is now teaching part-time at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

The community colleges may be about to undergo sweeping administrative changes.

Board of Regents President Mark Ojakian, who formerly served at Malloy’s chief of staff, wants to implement a plan to save $28 million by moving many of the administrative functions at the 12 community college campuses to the central office in Hartford to address budget shortfalls.

CT Mirror has reported that Barbara Brittingham, the president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges has called it the “largest consolidation of community colleges in New England’s history.”

The plan has drawn the ire of faculty leaders, who contend the changes will hurt students and question whether the savings will materialize.

“I think we need to be careful about taking that step,” said Lamont. “There is a power to having local control. I don’t want to unnecessarily centralize functions and upset the applecart.”

“We have to be cognizant of the fact that nearby in New York state and Rhode Island they have options for free tuition for community colleges,” he added. “We definitely can’t keep increasing tuition.”

However, it has been about 18 years since Connecticut had a tuition freeze at its public colleges, when it had budget surpluses and a sizeable sum in its rainy day fund, and 48 years since it had free tuition.

To create more jobs, Lamont said the state will need to repair its crumbling transportation infrastructure.

He said he supports implementing electronic tolls, which has been proposed by the governor and Democrats in the General Assembly.

However, Lamont said he would rather focus on expediting approval from the federal government to reinstitute the tolls, which reportedly could take up to six years, instead of increasing the gasoline tax in the interim to refurbish the highways. For safety reasons, Connecticut eliminated tolls in the mid-1980s.

“I want to do everything to expedite the implementation of tolls,” Lamont declared.

He said he is comfortable with the 30-year, $100 billion package that was developed three years ago by an ad-hoc committee chaired by former state Rep. Cameron Staples (D-New Haven).

Lamont said despite resistance from some municipalities as a result of environmental concerns, he wants to establish high-speed rail from Hartford to New Haven to Stamford to New York City.

University of California-Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti, author of the 2012 book “The New Economy of Jobs,” wrote in The New York Times last year the bullet train proposed by California Gov. Jerry Brown would make it possible for people in Fresno and Stockton to access high-wage jobs in Silicon Valley.

Additionally, Lamont, whose digital television installation company had contracts at 250 college campuses and hospitals, said he believes Connecticut’s entertainment sector, which has grown considerably over the last 25 years, can continue to expand.

ESPN in Bristol has long been the leader in cable television revenue and during Malloy’s administration NBC Sports has expanded its operations in Stamford, which also is home to YES and WWE.

“We’ve got an advantage, because we’re a lot less expensive here than Brooklyn or Manhattan,” Lamont said.

He said he’d like to see “the system play out” regarding the development of MGM’s proposal casino in Bridgeport, which could disrupt the operations at Mohegan Sun in Montville and Foxwoods in Ledyard, which both have been in business since the 1990s under a pact in which they contribute 25 percent of the slot revenue proceeds to the state. The Native American tribes that run those operations are about to open a satellite facility in East Windsor.

“I’m open to East Windsor and I’m open to considering the possibility of a casino in Bridgeport,” said Lamont.

On a related topic, Lamont said he believes that the Fairfield County Gold Coast could attract companies in the growing financial technology field.

About a decade ago, Stamford ranked fourth in the world in financial services and roughly a third of the office space in Greenwich was occupied by hedge fund companies.

“However, I don’t think we can rely as much on reaping huge sums of revenue as we have in the past, because business doesn’t flow to lower Fairfield County the way it once did,” said Lamont, whose wife, Annie, has had a long career in financial services.

“Connecticut has to diversify its economy,” he said.

Lamont said one dimension to accomplishing that is to attract more Amazon facilities. There already is a distribution center in Windsor Locks and a collection center in Wallingford with a large distribution center currently under construction in North Haven.

“We’re centrally located, and I think we’re going to see more activity from Amazon,” he said. “Like it or not, it is where the market is going.”

The Washington Post recently reported that the massive online retailer, which is about to select a site for a second world headquarters, is having an impact on sales at such brick-and-mortar outlets as Costco and BJs Wholesale.

Lamont’s 2006 U.S. Senate primary campaign – in which he defeated incumbent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Stamford - could be viewed as a forerunner for digital voter outreach and the Bernie Sanders progressive movement.

Lamont, whose resume at the time only included stints on the Greenwich Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance and an unsuccessful bid for the state Senate, amassed a brigade of online blogger support among progressives who were incensed over Lieberman’s support for the war in Iraq.

“Does anyone remember the last time progressives in Connecticut were all genuinely excited about the same candidate?” CTNewsJunkie columnist Susan Bigelow wrote last month.

Two years ago, Sanders, the socialist U.S. senator from Vermont attracted large crowds at his Connecticut campaign appearances before he narrowly lost the state’s presidential primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and there are still cars in the state bearing his campaign bumper stickers.

Former Bill Clinton White House Political Director Doug Sosnik, a Connecticut native, wrote recently in the Washington Post that the progressives have won the tug-of-war with the centrist Democrats. A generation ago, Lieberman had been at the forefront of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.

The Internet rolodex that Lamont’s bloggers assembled during what Bigelow calls a “quixotic summer” seems primitive in an age when the president communicates regularly through Twitter.

"It is absolutely amazing how much technology has changed over the last decade," said Lamont. "Our 2006 campaign was the beginning of the digital revolution."

Lamont lost to Lieberman, who ran as a third-party candidate, in the November election by 10 points and then after leading throughout the race in the polling, he fell to Malloy in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Malloy announced last April that he would not seek a third term.

Lamont is competing in a Democratic field that includes Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, former Democratic state Vice Chairman Dita Bhargava of Greenwich, former West Hartford Mayor Jonathan Harris, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz of Middletown, former business executive Guy Smith of Greenwich, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, business executive Jacey Wyatt of Branford, education consultant Mark Stewart Greenstein of West Hartford and former state Veterans’ Affairs Commissioner Sean Connolly of Hebron.

The state convention will be held in May and the nomination will probably be determined in an August primary.

Lamont is considered to be likable, has experience in high-profile state races, name recognition and a sizable bank account.

However, his detractors insist that he can’t close the deal.

One Democratic observer, who requested anonymity so he could speak candidly, said, “It reminds me of the situation with Al Gore after he lost the 2000 presidential election. The late Jack Germond, the political columnist for The Baltimore Sun, wrote that you feel for Gore because he would have won the election if they had counted the votes correctly in Florida, if Bill Clinton hadn’t been impeached or if Ralph Nader hadn’t run. But he’ll never be the Democratic nominee again because he lost an election that should have been a boat ride. Lamont has been in front before, but he hasn’t been able to maintain his lead.”