Office of Consumer Counsel
Steve Mitnick is the Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly and the president of Lines Up, Inc.
They’re literally in the same building, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel.
If we were going to spend a day visiting PURA, and if there was time, why not drop in on the OCC. And that’s what we did. Consumer Counsel and NASUCA President Elin Swanson Katz welcomed us, and we had the opportunity to chat with her, then a roundtable of her attorneys, then a roundtable of her analysts, and then her broadband policy coordinator.
Joe Rosenthal, Lauren Henault Bidra and Andrew Minikowski of the first of these roundtables talked about how the attorneys work together on utility matters and policy. Richard Sobolewski, Dave Thompson, Tyra Anne Peluso and John Viglione of the second roundtable talked about how the analysts work together. Finally, Connecticut’s leading expert on broadband policy talked about the state’s vision, accomplishments, challenges and steps ahead in providing access to every citizen state-wide. Read on to listen in on these conversations and roundtables.
Interviews with the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel:
- Elin Swanson Katz, Connecticut Consumer Counsel
- Principal Attorney Joseph Rosenthal
- Staff Attorneys Lauren Henault Bidra and Andrew Minikowski
- Financial Analysis Supervisor Richard Sobolewski
- Utilities Examiners Dave Thompson and Tyra Anne Peluso
- Economist John Viglione
- Broadband Policy Coordinator William Vallee
Lead image: The Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel, headed by Elin Swanson Katz, is literally in the same building in New Britain as the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, including Vice Chair Jack Betkoski. Both Katz and Betkoski shown here at a conference.
