Did a replacement Connecticut utility executive director get a new four-year term?

Plain-English summary

In July 1993, Connecticut’s AG concluded that a newly appointed executive director of the Department of Public Utility Control received a fresh four-year term. The governing statute specified a four-year term and appointment by the chairperson with at least two commissioners’ consent. It did not say when the term began or how an early vacancy shortened a successor’s tenure. Under the rule the AG applied, a term with no fixed statutory starting date began when the person was appointed.

The AG contrasted the legislature’s detailed vacancy provision for DPUC commissioners, which expressly addressed completion of an unexpired term in some circumstances. It had provided no comparable rule for the executive director. The director was the agency’s chief administrative officer, while the chair served a one-year term. The AG saw a full appointment term as consistent with that continuity.

DPUC appointing officials at the time

The opinion gave the successor executive director four years from appointment, provided the statutory appointment process was followed.

Executive director nominees at the time

The AG did not limit the vacancy appointee to the departing director’s remaining term under the statute then in force.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1993. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Did the successor finish only the prior director’s term?
A: No. The AG said the new appointment began its own four-year term.

Q: Why was the commissioner vacancy rule different?
A: The legislature wrote a specific unexpired-term procedure for commissioners but did not write one for the executive director.

Q: When did the new director’s term begin?
A: The AG said it began on the date of appointment because the executive-director statute fixed no other start.

Background and statutory framework

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-2(f) set the director’s appointment method and four-year term. The AG read its silence about vacancy timing alongside the separate commissioner vacancy statute and the general rule for public-office terms with no fixed commencement date.

Citations and references

Statute: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-2(f).

Source

• Landing page: https://portal.ct.gov/AG/Opinions
• Opinion page: https://portal.ct.gov/ag/opinions/1993-formal-opinions/honorable-reginald-j-smith-department-of-public-utility-control-1993022-formal-opinion-attorney-gene

Original opinion text

Honorable Reginald J. Smith, Department of Public Utility Control, 1993-022 Formal Opinion, Attorney General of Connecticut

Attorney General's Opinion

Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal

July 27, 1993

Honorable Reginald J. Smith

Chairman

Department of Public Utility Control

One Central Park Plaza

New Britain, CT 06051

Dear Mr. Smith:

This is in reply to a request for advice asking if the person you appoint as an Executive Director of the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC), pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-2(f), to fill a vacancy in that position receives an appointment for four years or rather serves the balance of the prior Executive Director's unexpired term. The answer to your question is that the appointee is entitled to serve for four years from the date of that person's appointment.

According to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-2(f), the Executive Director is appointed by the Chairperson, with the consent of two or more Commissioners, to serve a term of four years. The statutes are silent concerning vacancies created before the expiration of the four-year period. Likewise no statute specifies when the term begins. With no further direction from the General Statutes, one can only conclude that a new term begins at the time of appointment. "'[It] is only when the law does not fix the commencement of the term it begins to run from the date of appointment,' Brown, States Attorney ex rel. Grey v. Quintilian, 121 Conn. 300, 306, 184 A. 382 (1936). The commencement of the term of public office may be fixed by the constitution or statute of a state. Where no time is fixed by law for the commencement of an official term, the general rule is that the term begins to run from the date of appointment...' 63A Am. Jur. 2d, Public Officers and Employees Sec. 160, pp. 786-87.'" Marsala v. Bridgeport, 15 Conn. App. 323, 325-26 (1988). That a new term begins by appointment must have been the legislature's intent, since it did not articulate a vacancy procedure for the Executive Director, even though it established a detailed procedure for filling vacancies of the DPUC commissioners (see Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-3). For example, the legislature explicitly states that a commissioner's vacancy shall be filled for the unexpired term of the existing commissioner when the vacancy is created during a legislative session. If the vacancy occurs when the legislature is not in session then the Governor makes a temporary appointment until the legislature returns. It is obvious, too, that the legislature sought to provide administrative continuity in a position which is referred to as the "chief administrative officer" since the chair only serves for a one-year term. (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-2(b)). The legislative intent here is "clear and unambiguous" and where the statute speaks for itself, there is no occasion to further construe it. State ex rel. Landry v. Personnel Appeals Board, 138 Conn. 445, 447, 86 A.2d 70 (1952); State ex rel. Cooley v. Kegley, 143 Conn. 679, 683, 124 A.2d 898 (1956); Wilson v. West Haven, 142 Conn. 646, 654, 116 A.2d 420 (1955).

Moreover, when the previous Executive Director resigned the office, in effect, the office reverted back to the appointing authority. 67 C.J.S. § 79 at 395; Marvel v. Camden County, 137 N.J.L. 47, 57 A.2d 455 (1948).1 Therefore, the appointing authority is able to invest its appointee with a full four-year term.

Very truly yours,

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Robert S. Golden, Jr.

Assistant Attorney General

RB/RSG/mc

1 When merely the length of the term is fixed, without reference to an unexpired term, or to a vacancy in the term of office, as distinguished from a vacancy in the office itself, it is held in some cases that on the happening of a vacancy, the office reverts to the people or sovereign, and when again vested it is not for the unexpired term, but for the full term. 67 C.J.S. § 79.