The Connecticut Port Authority on Tuesday replaced its ethics compliance officer, Andrew Lavigne, the employee found to have illegally accepted gifts from a company doing business with the authority.

The board voted unanimously to reappoint finance director Veronica Calvert to his post.

Board Chairman David Kooris, at Tuesday’s port authority meeting, did not link the shift in duties to the recent revelations about ethics violations among board employees and members. Lavigne’s assignment was always meant to be temporary, Kooris said.

“We always had the intent…when the finance director position was refilled, they would be the ethics compliance officer again,” Kooris said at Tuesday’s Port Authority meeting.

Lavigne serves as the manager of business development and special projects but was named ethics compliance officer, and also liaison to the Office of State Ethics, when Calvert resigned as finance director in 2021. At the time, Kooris said Lavigne was the only full-time employee aside from the executive director.

Lavigne had stayed at the position during a search for a new finance director. Calvert was rehired several months ago and will continue in the role “to coordinate and monitor the development and implementation of and compliance with ethics policies and training programs for the authority…,” Kooris said.

The new appointment comes a month after the Office of State Ethics revealed that Seabury Marine, a company hired to perform work for the port authority, had agreed to pay a fine of $10,000 for providing $3,000 worth of food and gifts to Connecticut Port Authority employees and board members in 2017 and 2019.

Lavigne, along with former executive director Evan Matthews, were named as the employees who had accepted $625 NHL playoff hockey tickets, along with food and beverages in 2019. Lavigne had later reported the acceptance of the gifts and reimbursed Seabury for the costs. The reimbursement, however, did not come within 30 days as required by state ethics laws.

Port Authority board member Donald Frost, who has been on the board since 2016, was replaced on the board last week when it was revealed, as first reported by WSHU, that he was the board member who had also accepted a meal from Seabury, along with Matthews, Matthew’s wife and former port authority board member Henry Juan III and his spouse at a dinner in 2017.

House Speaker Matt Ritter replaced Frost with Lawrence McHugh, president of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees. Frost’s term expired in 2020 but a board member is entitled to remain on the board until a new member is appointed.

Port Authority Board member David Pohorylo, at Tuesday’s meeting, defended Frost.

“I don’t think everyone realizes this but Don has worked within the commercial maritime industry for 60 years. He’s considered an expert in many areas of the industry,” Pohorylo said.

Frost, the former president of the Connecticut Maritime Association, is a graduate of the State University of New York Maritime College and remains an active alumnus with the school.

“Ironically, that brings us to where we are now and what happened,” Pohorylo said.

Frost was involved in a project to obtain funding to create a maritime chair at his former alma mater and working with another college alum from Seabury.

“Frost was invited to the dinner by this person and had no reason to believe it was for anything other than to discuss their project,” Pohorylo said.

It had become a social dinner, however, and nothing was discussed about the CPA or the maritime chair while Frost was there, Pohorylo said.

Frost, in a phone interview on Tuesday, confirmed the details of the dinner and said he remembers being surprised when former CPA director Evan Matthews showed up. He said he would not have attended if he had thought it would be considered a gift to him as a CPA board member.

Frost said he accepted the invitation because he thought the dinner was to discuss funding a position at the State University of New York Maritime College.

Both Pohorylo and Kooris said they would miss Frost’s experience and knowledge.

“I don’t think this is a loss for Don but this is certainly is a loss for the CPA, our maritime industry here in Connecticut and the people of the state in general,“ Pohorylo said. “It’s truly a shame we lost this great asset while others who did accept gifts have suffered no consequences.”

There remains five open seats on the port authority’s 13-member board, one to be selected by the House Majority Leader, one by the Senate Majority Leader and three to be named by the governor. There are also sight ex-officio members.

G.smith@theday.com