Connecticut
Public Afiairs
Network

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Capitol Place
21 Oak Street • Suite 605
Hartford, CT 06106
Tel. (860) 246-1553
Fax (860) 246-1547

November 2, 2017
James Tracy
Executive Director
Office of Legislative Management
Suite 5100, Legislative Office Building
Hartford, CT 06106
Re: Suspension of CT-N Operations
Dear Jim:
After careful consideration and much deliberation, our organization cannot escape the
conclusion that the recent actions to eliminate CPAN's editorial discretion combined with the
drastic reduction in funding has transformed CT-N into a project no longer consistent with our
organization's fiduciary obligations in either the financial or mission sense. Therefore, I am
left with no alternative but to exercise CPAN's option to terminate the per diem agreement to
continue temporary operation of CT-N effective at 5:00p.m. on Friday, November 3, 2017~
Regrettably, I will be consulting with the Department of Labor's Rapid Response Team in the
next few days to ensure the proper accommodation of my staff, many of whom have been with
me since 1999, given the imminent elimination of their positions.
Following our meeting yesterday when our counteroffer was formally rejected, I spent some
time reviewing this corporation's founding documents from 1997: not out of nostalgia, but to
compare the latest deterioration in our contractual situation with the original purpose behind the
organization. CPAN was created with a nonpartisan, educational mission to run CT-N as a threebranches network, at arm's length from the government. It was a mission and purpose once
supported by the Leadership ofthe General Assembly. Even the state statute goverp.jng CT-N's
revenue intercept refers broadly to coverage of "state government deliberations and public policy
events." The thinking has clearly changed.
For some time now, we have contended with encroachments on our editorial independence,
despite our best efforts to be responsive to concerns while continually working to improve the
CT-N service and over-delivering on every contract we have ever signed. Over the past few
months, we had been attempting to negotiate a new contract, despite the objectionable changes
to our operating parameters, because I believed we were bargaining in good faith and our
commitment to our mission, our partnership with OLM and CT-N itself was worth the sacrifice.
The 15% planned reduction in our operating budget was an eventuality we prepared for and were
ready to accommodate. This sudden 65% reduction is simply unworkable, particularly following

 our financial losses connected to the temporary closing of the Old State House last year and
the "temporary" management agreement there that has us even now operating the building at a
deficit.
Perhaps more importantly, the scope at which we would be obliged to operate CT-N would cease
to provide any meaningful level of transparency: even less so, if the few coverage decisions we
would have the opportunity to make were controlled by the CGA to the extent that recent events
convince us they would be. At best, CT-N would provide the fa9ade of transparency, cloaked
-at least temporarily- in the credibility and reputation that CPAN has spent 18 years building.
We will not abet that course of action by the CGA by participating in it.
My team and I have always found your staff to be honest collaborators and I fully appreciate
the lack of options that OLM has been given in this situation. I'm sure you know that as the
creator of CT-N this is not a decision I would take lightly, but I must take some consolation in
concluding CPAN's association with the project with our editorial integrity intact. I wish you
and your staff the best of luck in the months ahead.