In an ironic twist this week, one town official raised questions about the process behind launching the new joint Board of Finance/Board of Selectmen Process Review Committee, forcing a redo of sorts for the BOF.
The Process Review Committee is the first step in an effort to review internal processes and financial operations at Town Hall.
In an email sent to other town officials last Friday, July 11, Second Selectman Josh Cole expressed his concerns about a disconnect between what the BOS approved for the new committee, versus what the BOF had approved. The Board of Finance responded with a Special Meeting early Wednesday morning, July 16, to clarify its participation in the committee.
“The two committee scopes do not match as the BOF discussed a much larger scope, expanded authority for the members, and a longer-term joint committee than the BOS,” Cole wrote to BOF Chair Matt Raimondi and the BOS.
“Therefore, it appears that there wasn’t proper formation of a single committee,” he wrote. “In my view, there needs to be some corrective measure taken.”
Cole explained that at the BOS meeting on July 7, the selectmen approved a short-term, joint BOS-BOF “limited committee” solely focused on the creation of an RFP (Request for Proposal) to hire an outside consultant to do that review.
However, according to Cole when details were presented about the committee to the BOF on July 8, Raimondi described it as having a much broader scope.
“[Raimondi] noted the scope ‘would be further refined,’ but included the following tasks: ‘review the findings of the audit and … other issues … draft out an RFP/scope of work … collect the proposal from the different parties, review them (and) serve as an interlocutor between the boards and the consultant … and synthesize results to the boards,” Cole wrote.
In response, Raimondi called for the Special Meeting to clarify its approval, with the BOF unanimously (4-0) voting to approve the more confined version of the committee as it was outlined by Boucher and approved by the BOS.
“We will come up with a recommendation for the RFP and the scope,” Raimondi said. “We will recommend a consultant to the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance, and then, at that point, the work of the committee ceases.”
Once the consultant has begun their work, he said, they will report to the BOF, and at which point the BOS will no longer be involved.
Finance Board member Sandy Arkell — who would be named the chairperson of the new PRC when it met for the first time later Wednesday evening — said she believed it would be a four- to six-week process to complete the review once the consultant is selected.
“Sloppy Governance”
During the morning’s special meeting, Arkell shared some thoughts about what the scope of the eventual review would be. She differentiated between a “limited review” of Town Hall operations, versus an “investigation,” which she indicated wasn’t an accurate descriptor.
A range of issues have come to light over the past six months, most of which are tied to the Finance Department in some way, including a material weakness in FY 2024 reporting that was flagged by an independent audit.
“What we’re really trying to identify is really a root cause … typically what I have found when you have a material weakness in the financial statements, it is not typically isolated to matters of accounting. It is, it is typically indicative of something that could be happening upstream or within the operations,” she said.
She referred to another issue that was uncovered in January 2025 when a second round of tax credits for senior citizens was disbursed without properly being brought to the Board of Selectmen for approval. While the action wasn’t wrong or fraudulent, Arkell said, the lack of review was problematic.
“The limited review would walk through certain processes that we may want to tackle, … it will be a consultant who understands municipal government operations. They’d be able to bring the best practice-type of observations to the table and then give us those recommendations for improvement, … to make sure everything’s executing the way you intended it to be,” she said.
BOF member Tim Birch said that it wasn’t uncommon to find similar issues with approval processes in private enterprise, but saw it in a different light for municipal government.
“This one’s slightly different in my view because it’s governance at a board level and, to be blunt, it’s sloppy governance and that is an area of concern,” Birch said. “Sloppy governance at a board level should be an area of concern for us and is something we should be fixing.”
Both Birch and Arkell noted the irony of the BOF’s ability to allocate funds for a consultant on this financial matter, but as a board was still beholden to the BOS to get a signed contract for the hiring. They thought that that might be one of the process practices that could be rethought — although it would require opening the Town Charter to do so.
“That could potentially be something that comes out in a review… Maybe it’s normal, but it seems odd to me that we’re charged with a fiduciary responsibility of some sort over financial statements, but then we’re not able to execute without the Board of Selectmen actually engaging the contract. So we have no contract authority,” Arkell said.
Fears of Pushback Assuaged
The financiers also considered whether they’d have resistance getting buy-in from any Board of Selectmen members or the first selectman, especially if the process review might conclude with any criticism of the BOS itself and/or Town Hall leadership.
Both boards faced public disapproval about their initial efforts in establishing the committee, both from residents and in a GOOD Morning Wilton editorial. Most acute were assertions about conflict of interest for having Boucher on the PRC, and whether that could interfere with the review.
Arkell put a positive spin on having Boucher involved in creating the RFP and identifying a consultant.
“The fact that Toni was supportive and wanted to be part of it is demonstrating her buy-in, to be open and transparent and be part of that process to select a consultant. So I’m optimistic that it somehow wouldn’t get railroaded,” Arkell said.
In public comment that followed the short meeting, two members of the BOS shared their thoughts.
“I want to say that the entire board is really interested in getting things right,” Selectman Ross Tartell said. “I know there’s a lot of controversies out in the public.”
He said that, in his opinion, the BOS would be providing total support to the initiative, and indicated that they would be encouraging Boucher to follow through with recommendations that might come through the consultant.
“The Board of Selectmen is very clear that we needed to engage in a continuous improvement process,” Tartell said.
Selectwoman Kim Healy also weighed in to clarify for any BOF member worried she might not support the direction the PRC and review was taking.
Healy, who was instrumental in shining light on process issues in Town Hall, was left off the PRC by Boucher, much to Healy’s consternation.
“I was one of the first people to suggest that we do this work … I am really looking forward to watching this committee move forward,” she said. “I think it’s extremely important work,” Healy said.
“We obviously want the best for this town … I have all faith in the committee that they will do their very best,” she added.
Both Raimondi and Arkell praised Healy for her work.
“You were the first to raise this issue … and I think you for your collaboration in bringing this forward,” Arkell said.
I remain very concerned that our First Selectman continues on the Process Review Committee and will be sitting in review of some of her own administration’s actions. While she has been characterized as being “supportive” of the work of the PRC, that is a surprisingly low bar of qualification to serve on the committee, and one that does not override what looks to me to be a clear conflict of interest. I can see no downside to our gentle First Selectman stepping aside, allowing the work of the PSC to proceed and be supportive of its conclusions when the work is completed.