December 22, 2010

(HARTFORD, CT) - Governor-Elect Dan Malloy announced today that he has selected former New Britain Mayor and current State Senator Donald J.

DeFronzo to lead the Department of Administrative Services. Senator DeFronzo will complete his current term as a state senator, but will resign his member-elect status and will not be sworn in to a new term in the State Senate.

"Don DeFronzo is well-respected on both sides of the aisle, he's enormously talented, and importantly, he has the right temperament to take the helm at DAS. Don will examine the challenges of how government services are delivered throughout the Executive Branch and I'm looking to him to take a leadership role in designing a more efficient system," said Governor-Elect Malloy. "I appreciated his counsel and advice throughout my campaign and I'm grateful that he's chosen to continue with me in this next chapter. There have been a lot of rumors as to where Senator DeFronzo might end up in my Administration, but there's no where I'd rather him be - and nowhere I have more confidence in his abilities - than at the Department of Administrative Services."

"There's no doubt that we'll face a great number of challenges at DAS as we seek to downsize state government in a smart, strategic way, cut state spending and restructure state government to provide services at substantially lower cost to taxpayers," said Senator DeFronzo. "But I'm eager to get down to business and I'm honored that Governor-Elect Malloy has seen fit to ask me to join his Administration."

Currently, Senator DeFronzo is serving his fourth term in the State Senate, representing New Britain, Berlin and Farmington. In addition to his public service in the State Senate, Senator DeFronzo was Mayor of the city of New Britain for four years, from 1989 to 1993, where he served as Chief Executive Officer of a municipal corporation with over 800 employees and a $130 million dollar budget. For more than 10 years, Senator DeFronzo worked at the Office of Policy and Management, supervising the planning, application and expenditure of federal human service block grant funds flowing into Connecticut. Following his work at OPM, Senator DeFronzo was the Executive Director of the Human Resources Agency of New Britain, a major community action agency employing 240 employees with an annual budget of $14 million. Senator DeFronzo also served as the National Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Goodwin College in East Hartford.

Senator DeFronzo was born and raised in New Britain where he lives with his wife, Diana, with whom he has two children, David and Karen.

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