State Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly are calling for “transparency and accountability” in light of recently revealed ethics violations committed by a company that provided gifts to members of the Connecticut Port Authority.

The senators issued a letter on Friday to Gov. Ned Lamont and port authority board Chairman David Kooris, calling for not only the names of the port authority employees involved but more information about the investigation.

“This violation of public trust on its own is alarming and that concern is heightened even further given the significant weakening of public trust, lack of transparency and misuse of funds that have emerged from the Connecticut Port Authority in recent years,” Formica and Kelly wrote.

The Office of State Ethics earlier this week announced it had concluded an investigation into gifts handed out by New York-based Seabury PFRA LLC, a company hired as a consultant by the Connecticut Port Authority in 2018.

Seabury, as a result of the investigation, has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for violating the state code of ethics when it provided $3,100 worth of gifts that included food, drinks, hotel accommodations and National Hockey League playoff tickets to two port authority employees, an employee’s wife and an authority board member. The violations occurred in 2017 and 2019.

The Office of State Ethics did not reveal the names of the port authority board member or employees that had accepted the gifts, which included $800 spent on a CPA employee and spouse at a charity event in New York in 2017, an overnight stay at a Greenwich resort and two NHL playoff tickets in 2019 worth $625 each.

“The people of our state deserve complete transparency and accountability if we are to rebuild confidence,” the letter states.

Formica and Kelly, in the letter, pose a host of questions to Lamont and Kooris: When did the Office of State Ethics start investigating? Why wasn’t the legislature notified? Who are the state employees involved in accepting impermissible gifts and what, if any, disciplinary action did port authority employees face?

Formica has been among legislators who helped push for reforms of the quasi-public agency. Last year, he called on the attorney general to start an investigation into the “exorbitant” $700,000 payment by the Connecticut Port Authority to Seabury, which had included a $523,000 “success fee.”

It was revealed that a former port authority board member, Henry Juan, was a Seabury employee and resigned from the port authority board just prior to Seabury beginning work for the port authority in 2018.

At the time the violations occurred, the Connecticut Port Authority was led by former Executive Director Evan Matthews and board Chairman Scott Bates. Both have since resigned.

Formica said on Friday he wants all relevant details related to the investigation “to the extent they can provide these answers by law.” He said he also is looking for details about an investigation by the attorney general’s office into Seabury’s dealings with the port authority.

He said if it is the policy of the Office of State Ethics not to reveal names of state employees that accepted gifts, “they owe us that explanation.”

The Connecticut Port Authority on Tuesday issued a statement calling the ethics violations “an unfortunate reminder of issues that occurred under prior leadership,” but declined to discuss any further details of the notice from the Office of State Ethics. Spokesmen from both the Connecticut Port Authority and Gov. Lamont said they were in the process of reviewing the letter and did not immediately have a comment.

g.smith@theday.com