By Mark Pazniokas

Back from an orientation seminar for new governors, Gov.-elect Ned Lamont today outlined an approach to finding “the best and brightest” for his new administration, hinting that some top appointees would be executives from outside politics who are willing to accept a pay cut to work for Connecticut.

Two senior human-resource executives, Kevin Myatt of Yale New Haven Hospital and John Denson of the global executive recruiter, Korn Ferry, were introduced as the co-chairs of a talent search committee that Lamont says is intent on broadening the typical pool of potential appointees.

“We’re seeking those people out. Our friends here have a pretty good Rolodex. We’ve got a pretty good Rolodex of people as well,” Lamont said, predicting that some out of people who have reached out would be surprising. “They are ready to step up.”

Lamont is not expected to announce his first appointments until next week, putting him roughly on the same pace set eight years ago by Dannel P. Malloy, the first Democrat elected governor in 24 years. By this point, Malloy already had named a chief of staff and budget director, but he was four days away from identifying a 22-person transition team. Lamont named his 19-person team last week.

By Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

Ned Lamont’s biggest challenge as governor is likely to be devising and then selling fellow Democrats in the General Assembly on the “structural changes” he says are necessary to break Connecticut’s cycle of chronic budget deficits.

Connecticut’s swelling budget reserves are a temptation for lawmakers weary of the austere budgets that have cut municipal aid, social services and education in recent years. But the governor-elect says tapping the reserves would be a temporary fix, delaying the hard choices necessary to permanently stabilize the state’s finances.

“There’s a tendency to want to spend [the reserves] and defer the tough choices we know we have to make,” Lamont said in an interview with CT Mirror. “But you know how volatile our income taxes can be. If the bottom falls out … we ought to be ready.”

Tension over the extent to which the state should use the growing budget reserves, commonly known as the “rainy day fund,” already is evident, posing an early test for Lamont, who has yet to outline what he means by “structural changes,” a phrase he frequently employed during the campaign.