Yesterday, I recapped part of the CHRO program on the new Public Act 11-237 which revises the procedures for processing and investigating complaints.

Next up was CHRO Principal Attorney Charles Krich.  (Careful blog readers may note that he comments on the blog from time to time.)

First off, Charlie gets kudos from me just for giving this blog a shout-out at the program.  He cited to one of the posts last month where I trumpeted that it was a “whole new world” for the CHRO on October 1st.

But substantively, Charlie had a frenetic powerpoint presentation that summarized where the CHRO has been and why the changes in the procedures were needed.

While he, like CHRO Executive Director Robert Brothers, Jr. before him, said that part of the problem was decreased staffing levels (69 employees, down from 108 nearly 20 years ago), he acknowledged that the problems with the agency were far deeper than that.  He also acknowledged that, even back in the late 1980s, the CHRO was under fire — as a result of a series of articles from the Hartford Courant (Hartford Courant articles from 1984-1992 are not online).

Despite the criticism that the agency has faced, he also pointed out that the agency has been successful in some areas. For example, he noted that the settlement record at the agency is higher than similar state agencies.  He also noted that the funding that the agency receives from the federal government is also less than others — meaning the agency is doing its job with less resources.

Some of the slides won’t make sense without Charlie’s talk, but he was kind enough to allow me to share them.  You can view them below.