A detailed deposition in a contentious lawsuit supports allegations of long-running controversies and infighting within the state’s public utility board in recent years.
The deposition of longtime commissioner Michael A. Caron says that he and fellow commissioner John W. Betkoski were excluded from various decisions after Marissa Gillett was appointed in 2019 as the new chairwoman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, known as PURA. Gillett resigned in October after numerous controversies and lawsuits between the state’s electric and gas utilities and PURA.
Both Caron and Betkoski were former state legislators before their appointment to the formerly low-key utility board that later vaulted into the public eye with front-page headlines over controversies.
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The deposition is part of a continuing civil lawsuit by Eversource Energy against PURA and Gillett over rates and other issues. Under oath, Caron publicly confirmed the infighting at PURA in recent years.
When asked by an Eversource attorney if Betkoski and he both “stopped getting assigned as presiding officer or lead commissioner” on utility cases, Caron replied, “Correct.”
Caron testified that he and Betkoski had previously sat in on interviews for hiring new staff members at the management level, but that stopped when Gillett became chairwoman.
“Taren O’Connor was the last personnel interview we sat in on,” said Caron, referring to the agency’s chief spokeswoman and director of legislation, regulations and communications who was hired in January 2020.
O’Connor did not respond to emails seeking comment on Caron’s deposition and has said that PURA does not comment on personnel matters.
In the deposition, Caron said that the PURA commissioner’s suite had become locked, compared to “open access before Commissioner Gillett.”
Caron, who still had a swipe card as a key to gain access to his own office, was asked why the locking system was implemented.
“Chair Gillett told me at one point that she was a control freak,” Caron answered. “So I feel it was a way to control things. All her actions were based on how she could control things, in my opinion.”
After 10 years as a state legislator and 13 years at PURA, Caron said he was flabbergasted at the extent that he was frozen out as he was invited to fewer meetings and received little help from fellow employees.
“I felt like the frog in the water. All of a sudden, what the hell?” Caron testified. “Essentially, I was my own staff.”
When Caron and Betkoski saw that their workload was reduced and that they were not being appointed as the lead commissioners on cases, they approached Gillett for an explanation.
“We asked the chair why aren’t we getting dockets?” Caron said. “And her answer was that she wanted to use what she called the Maryland model. She hales from the state of Maryland and felt that a single point of contact would be more efficient.”
Caron said that he knew ahead of time that Gillett was using auto-delete on her text messages because she had told him, along with Betkoski. The auto-delete later became a source of controversy when text messages went missing from Gillett’s phone.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) at the Joseph H. Harper, Jr. Building at 10 Franklin Square in New Britain in March 2025. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Telling governor’s office
Caron said that he spoke with Matthew Brokman, Lamont’s chief of staff, to say that he and Betkoski were being frozen out “and not being full partners in the authority leadership.”
He believes the discussion with Brokman took place during the legislative session in 2023, and he added that he then met later with Brokman and Lamont about the issue.
“I recall the governor saying, when I mentioned that I don’t have access to staff, he replied, to the effect, ‘Well, you’re commissioner,’ ” Caron said. “You can go to staff any time you want. Which is my understanding.”
But Caron said that was not the case at PURA under the leadership of Gillett.
Lamont’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Veteran’s Day, which is a state holiday.
Eversource’s attorney, Thomas J. Murphy, then asked, “Was it insulting, sir, as a commissioner of the agency to be precluded from access to the people who at least nominally work for you?”
“Yes,” Caron responded.
During Gillett’s tenure, which ended on Oct. 10, various employees clashed with her as the chairwoman.
“If she found you disagreed with her in some way, she found a way to begin to isolate people,” Caron said.
Some unfavored employees were given “special projects,” which Caron defined as “at least busy work for no apparent reason and could be viewed as being punitive.” The projects, he said, would result in “giving people a reason to not want to stay.”
PURA did not respond to requests for comment on Caron’s deposition.
Threat of lawsuit
In a related matter, the general counsel of PURA is threatening a defamation lawsuit over the long-running controversies at the agency that have continued even after the departure of the board’s chairwoman.
Attorney Scott Muska was the subject of a critical email that was written by an in-house agency attorney, Jeffrey R. Gaudiosi, regarding the extended controversies over freedom of information requests concerning the internal workings of PURA.
Gaudiosi, who serves as the agency’s executive secretary and power procurement manager, sent the email to two commissioners and said that he could no longer work with Muska, who serves as general counsel and Gaudiosi’s supervisor. Instead, he wants to report directly to the commissioners, as he did before GIllett became the chairwoman, the email obtained by the Courant says.
“As seen in numerous docket filings and newspaper reports, Scott has engaged in behavior that is not up to the … standards of a state agency,” Gaudiosi alleged in the email obtained by The Courant. “He has withheld documents that are clearly responsive to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. … I have spent thirteen and a half years as a PURA employee and feel that continuing to report to Scott could show to the outside that I condone his actions, which could not be further from the truth.”
In response, Muska is threatening to sue Gaudiosi and two commissioners who received the email.
“You are hereby notified to cease and desist any all further unlawful defamation, both slander and libel,” Muska wrote in an email dated Oct. 30. “In addition, you are directed to preserve all relevant evidence, including emails and text messages, in anticipation of future litigation.”
Muska added, “I hereby demand that you provide a written retraction of all defamatory statements within 10 days to reduce the reputational damage to me. Failure to comply with this cease-and-desist request and to issue a written retraction will cause further reputational harm.”
The original email from Gaudiosi concerning Muska was reported in October by Hartford Courant columnist Kevin F. Rennie on his political blog, Daily Ructions.
Aside from being an attorney for the agency, Gaudiosi serves as the agency’s FOI liaison and handles all public records requests.
To resolve the issue, Gaudiosi asked that either he or Muska should no longer handle FOIA requests.
Muska and PURA have not responded to recent requests for comment. PURA and Lamont’s office have both said that they do not comment on personnel matters.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com
