CT Blue

Never let it be said that I don’t give credit where credit is due, though I suppose sometimes I don’t. But I want to do so today, to Commissioner of Consumer Protection William Rubenstein. 
 
I happen to represent a tenant’s association at a mobile home park. The tenants have found themselves in a dispute with the park owner. There’s no need here to go into the details. The DCP regulates mobile home parks. Being unable to get anywhere with the park owner’s lawyer, and hoping to avoid litigation, I contacted the department to see if it could be of assistance. 
 
I’ve been doing consumer work, in greater or lesser concentration, for more years than I care to admit, but I’ll do so anyway:35. Good lord, can I really be that old? Anyway, I have had many occasions to contact DCP, usually without much of a response. In this particular case I was asking only whether the department would entertain a complaint. 
 
I was more than surprised to get an email from one of the lawyers at DCP inviting my clients and me to meet with the Commissioner to discuss our problem. We met with him today, and he proposed what I believe was a practical solution to the problem. He may or may not get co-operation from the park owner, but that’s not the point. There was nothing about this issue that was qualitatively different than the types of problems I’ve written to DCP about on the past. In fact, my clients had contacted DCP about this issue when the last governor was in office, (what was her name?) without much response. The fact that the Commissioner took the time to meet with us and offer to deal with the issue was extraordinary. I have never had anywhere near that kind of response to any complaint I’ve made in the past. Of course, we’ve had Republicans protecting us consumers for the past 16 years (20 if you count Weicker) so we’ve grown used to a certain measure of benign neglect. 
 
And lest anyone think he did it because he was dealing with a world famous blogger-well, I didn’t use my nom de plume, so that doesn’t explain it.