Tercyak Voting Questioned as Possible Conflict
By David Huck | Correspondent at October 23, 2023 | 6:30 pm | Print
Rep. Peter Tercyak, the Democrat who has represented the 26th House District since 2003, may have showed favoritism on several occasions when he supported bills that benefited the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services - a department overseen by his live-in girlfriend, according to a review of records by the New Britain City Journal.
According to a section of the state’s statutes, a public official who takes action on something that could have financial impacts on the employee or their spouse or other family member could be defined as a potential conflict of interest.
Tercyak denies the accusations, saying it’s a political smear. Other Democratic officials say the claim is baseless, as the commissioner received no personal financial gain from any of bills that Tercyak voted on. Her salary stayed the same regardless of how the legislator voted, one Democratic source pointed out. Moreover, the state has issued ethics opinions saying such relationships are acceptable, the source said.
According to documents reviewed by the New Britain City Journal, Tercyak voted in favor on several occasions in support of measures that directly impacted the department headed by his significant other - Patricia Rehmer or were bills that Rehmer showed public support for.
The issue came to light as Tercyak’s opponent, Republican Peter Ceglarz says he reviewed the legislator’s voting record. In an interview, Ceglarz said he saw “favoritism” towards health and mental health bills.
“I haven’t seen anything positive,” Ceglarz said. “He’s voted to raise taxes and he’s always been in favor of health and mental health, but I don’t see anything that favors our City.”
Rehmer has served as commissioner of the department since 2009. In 2004, she worked in the department as deputy commissioner.
Tercyak acknowledged the relationship in an emailed statement.
“That my girlfriend is the Commissioner of DMHAS, and lives with me in New Britain, isn’t a secret, (although I’m not sure this is the way I would have announced it to the world.) That the Republicans, and their willing tools, would choose to smear two committed public servants with one false accusation, sadly isn’t a surprise either,” Tercyak said.
Some of the committees that Tercyak sits on include the Public Health committee, the subcommittee on Health and Hospitals, and the subcommittee on Human Services.
During an April 2014 House vote on a bill that made it illegal for a minor to buy or posses in public an e-cigerette and made other revisions to the DMHAS, Tercyak supported the legislation that was sponsored by his girlfriend’s department.
On another occasion that month, Tercyak also voted in favor of legislation that was supported by Rehmer. Under the bill, persons with “mental disabilities” were added to state statute as another protected class to ward off being denied access to housing, jobs, and treatment, according to testimony that Rehmer provided to the Judiciary Committee on March 5, 2014.
Also that month, Tercyak co-sponsored a bill giving immunity to someone who in good faith provides an antagonist opioid to someone experiencing a drug overdose. It was legislation that Rehmer also supported.
During the legislative session, Tercyak again voted in favor of legislation that was supported by DMHAS and Rehmer. The bill required that the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families provide mental health services to each youth age 16 and over in the department’s care and to receive services from DMHAS.
To “continually” advocate for spending state money for a certain department while not taking himself out of the “equation” seems “to me a little shiesty,” Ceglarz said.
Does Ceglarz believe there are grounds for punishment or a possible ethics violation? “He should have recused himself from all of them,” Ceglarz said of the votes. “He’s not telling the whole truth of behind the scenes. It’s favoritism.”
Tercyak contends the relationship does not poise any ethics violations.
“Neither I nor Commissioner Rehmer, or Pat as I like to call her, had any personal financial stake in any of the legislation I voted on, and the Ethics Commission has specifically said this type of relationship would not result in an ethics violation,” Tercyak said.
