In another surprising chapter in Wilton’s ongoing Financial Department struggles, the Board of Finance was obviously disappointed and seemingly confused to hear the new chief financial officer arguing on behalf of a Fiscal Year 2027 budget that hasn’t even been approved by the Board of Selectmen.
Appearing to feel the pressure from some inquisitive and clearly fed up BOF members, CFO Dawn Savo attended Tuesday night’s (Feb. 10) BOF meeting and strived to defend the state of affairs in Town Hall, even telling the BOF directly that it wasn’t possible to meet the budget guidance they’d given the Board of Selectmen. Her information, meanwhile, contained a slew of unknown or incorrect numbers, incomplete information, and ultimately is tied to Town Hall expenditures related to the interim CFO that have seen little oversight without approval over details.
Ironically, BOF members sought to quell Savo’s discomfort and apparent need to defend herself, acknowledging that she had just two months ago arrived in a situation that was untenable. What made the picture more confusing, however, was that First Selectman Toni Boucher didn’t attend the meeting in which the BOF wondered why they were seeing such a preliminary budget that had not received BOS sanctioning.
“A Lot of Issues”
The Board of Finance members received copies of the budget on Friday, Feb. 6. It was dated Feb. 1, 2026, and titled “First Selectman’s Budget Proposal,” without indicating that it was a draft or preliminary version. Tuesday evening’s meeting agenda listed “Board of Selectmen Initial Budget Proposal” as a discussion item in advance of the meeting.
“While I appreciate all the work that was necessary to put together the booklet, a lot of issues surround what I have reviewed,” BOF Chair Tim Birch began.
“What was proposed comes out at an 8.14% increase, which obviously is more than two times what the guidance level was,” he said, explaining that debt service was not supposed to be part of the equation. The BOF gave the BOS a guidance for a 3.6% budget increase over FY 2026.
In their first budget proposal last year, Boucher and Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker were called to task for calculating the numbers in a way that differed from the Town’s accepted method of budget preparation — combining operating expenses with a debt service reduction — so that the selectmen’s budget appeared to reflect only a 3% increase, rather than the 10.4% increase that the operating budget actually represented.
Now, Boucher along with new CFO Savo, has prepared a budget doing the same thing this year, couching the total in an equation using the debt service so that it appears to be an increase of only 2.9%.
“To get down to the guidance level, the expense side would have to be reduced by somewhere in the range of $1.6-1.7 million,” Birch said. “That’s a lot. It’s gonna take an incredible amount of work on both your part and the Board of Selectmen to get it to a place where we’re at guidance and, from my perspective I don’t see any way, without sharpening our pencils, that we’re gonna get to a budget that we’re going to be able to approve.”
Savo Defends the BOS Budget
Savo stood her ground on what the budget represented.
“There really is not room in that budget, unless you can find it, to take out $1.5 million,” Savo said. “Nothing was increased except the contractual items, the medical — you’re under a state plan that is going up 12-15% — and your big ticket items are your debt, your salaries, and your benefits. There’s really no other large amounts.”
Savo set out to school BOF members on how the BOS budget was a much smaller piece of the budget pie than the Board of Education budget, which Superintendent Kevin Smith presented earlier in the meeting with a proposed 3.6% increase staying exactly on BOF budget guidance.
“You do things your way here, so I’m not familiar with that,” Savo said, “but we’re looking at the whole budget, right, which includes the Town, the Board of Ed, the debt and the capital, and on the other side the revenues, which includes the tax from the Grand List and all the other revenues. And then we’re looking at the mill rate calculation. Typically, we don’t want that to increase at all dramatically, right, so because of the split between the Board of Ed and the Town, the Town is a much smaller part of the budget, so — and the Board of Ed is larger and they also had other funding sources coming in.
“As [Smith] presented, I said, ‘How did you get to the 3.6 [percent]?’ Well, they brought in their special education versus outsourcing it, and those are not options that the Town has and obviously our percent — the Town’s percent — is going to be, because it’s a smaller budget — a $50,000 change really moves the needle. A $100,000 change really does move the needle, more so than it would on the Board of Ed side, but in terms of the whole, that’s the whole budget and I would think the mill rate is, y’know what you want to focus.”
BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante responded that it wasn’t what the BOF had asked for.
“Your job is to get the guidance for the Board of Selectmen budget, as far as we’re concerned,” he said, explaining that in Wilton’s it was the BOF’s role to focus on the end game of keeping the mill rate at what taxpayers have said is reasonable and preferred, and budget guidance is based on those BOF calculations.
BOF member Prasad Iyer said they had made a pledge this year not to increase taxes beyond the inflation rate of about 3%.
“The challenge here would be that we have to come somewhere close to that number, otherwise we’re not doing our jobs properly,” Iyer said. “But to get to that … one of the concerns at this point is we still haven’t finished the ’26 actuals … How solid is this to kind of really start deliberating around.”
“Serious Concerns”
BOF members also took issue with the ongoing disarray of Wilton’s financial record keeping and the slow pace at which the efforts to address the department’s problems are going.
“I have serious concerns about even reviewing the Fiscal ’27 [budget] since we don’t even know [FY] ’25,” BOF member Kim Healy said. “We don’t have a good handle on [FY] ’26. There’s a lot of errors in the ’26 report … There’s some funny, funny numbers.”
“You had promised at the last meeting you would bring us a forecast for the end of the year,” she told Savo, also noting there had been a plan for her to prepare a memo listing differences and variances in the current year’s accounts, as well as line-item adjustments that are running at a deficit.
Earlier in the meeting Healy also noted lines in the budget report that have no budget but list expenses recorded, specifically focusing on the limited details around costs the town has incurred paying an interim CFO with a seemingly open ended checkbook but little oversight.
“I just want to make sure that the Board of Selectmen is aware that when it’s over budget, they have to bring an appropriation to the Board of Finance in order to have it approved if a department is over budget,” Birch said. “I just want to make sure that people are aware of that because I don’t think that’s occurred in the past,” he said.
BOF Chair tim birch
“There is no accommodation for approvals for items that do not have a budget item,” she said, describing the plan to pay for the unbudgeted-for interim CFO costs with the money being saved on former CFO Dawn Norton’s unencumbered salary.
“It’s $170,000 or whatever it is at this point with no budget,” Healy said. “So really, every invoice, I’m not sure how they’re getting approved, but each invoice needs to be approved in advance by the Board of Selectmen.
Birch said he has asked for a budget multiple times from PKF O’Connor Davies, the consulting firm for which Interim CFO Joseph Centofanti works, but said one has not been provided.
“There needs to be an analysis,” Healy said, noting that the BOS would likely have to go to charter reserve funds if the budget gets exceeded — and as the Finance Department appears to be far over budget.
Birch, in turn, pointed out the potential severity of the situation.
“There are some departments — P&Z, I think DPW as well — that are over budget currently,” he said. “I just want to make sure that the Board of Selectmen is aware that when it’s over budget, they have to bring an appropriation to the Board of Finance in order to have it approved if a department is over budget.”
“It’s statutory,” Birch said, and that depending on the size of the over-budget, it may have to go to a Town Meeting.
“I just want to make sure that people are aware of that because I don’t think that’s occurred in the past,” he said.
Against the backdrop of budget overruns in the current fiscal year and the need to find close to $1.7 million to cut, Healy questioned whether it made sense to add a new position, specifically the Capital Planning, Facilities and Real Estate Manager role that Boucher unexpectedly introduced at the Feb. 2 BOS meeting for hiring this year, in place of the town administrator role. “So that could be eliminated, right? We don’t even have the person yet,” Healy said, adding, “Just because we terminate one doesn’t mean we have to hire another.”
Savo did not specifically defend the DPW role during that exchange, but stressed more broadly that most of the town’s cost increases are driven by contractual salaries, benefits and medical expenses, and that cuts of any large magnitude would require broader policy decisions by the Board of Selectmen rather than administrative trimming alone.
“Level of Distrust”
Savo sought to defend her work and department, especially after trying to pick up the pieces left in the wake of Norton’s sudden departure that left the department in turmoil.
“I understand there is a level of distrust maybe with the Finance Department and I’m trying to be here — My staff is working very hard to address a lot of things that were not done previously,” Savo said.
“Every day we find something [and] we are diligently working on those items and I am here to tell you that we are making progress, though it may not seem it to you,” she said, calling some of the past practices “insane.”
Healy and others emphasized that there was no distrust, just concern based on numerous information gaps.
“We don’t distrust the Finance Department,” Birch said. “Let me make that clear. We know you’re working hard.”
He said, however, this was the second year in a very troubling budget process. “To say it hasn’t gone smoothly would be the understatement of the year,” Birch said. “Last year was the same way. We had a presentation in February … and it was wholly inaccurate.”
“We’re grasping at ways of satisfying the taxpayers, because we know what they want, with imperfect information, and that’s frustrating for everyone,” he said. “It’s frustrating for us and I’m sure it’s frustrating for you too, but it’s the hand we’re being dealt at this moment and we have statutory guidelines … and we still have timelines we need to satisfy.”
Other information shared by Savo was not favorable, including news that Centofanti is now saying that reconciling Fiscal Year 2025 would not be completed before the end of March, which will considerably delay the annual audit.
“That’s disappointing,” Birch said. “That timeline seems to have moved fairly considerably over the last couple of months. End of January, end of February, now it’s end of March. I guess my confidence level is not all that high.”
Healy noted that the Town has still never been provided with a list of the items that Centofanti is supposedly working on.
“We’ve been asking for it,” she said. “It’s very, very frustrating … Where’s the proof that it’s going to be ready for March? Where’s the proof that anybody’s been working on it for the last six weeks?”
Savo said that Centofanti has other clients and has been very busy.
Healy broached the idea of reaching out to Wilton’s former CFO, Anne Kelly-Lenz, to see if she would consider coming in to help. Savo said that she had been approached by Boucher but had declined to get involved. [Editor’s note: GMW has reached out to Kelly-Lenz to confirm that account.]
Birch said that at this point he is going to ask the BOS to take a closer look at the budget and make some decisions before the BOF will review it again.
Where was Boucher?
Overshadowing the meeting was the absence of First Selectman Toni Boucher, especially considering Savo is less than three months into her tenure with Wilton. At this point in the budget process, the budget is considered to be the first selectman’s budget until it is approved and adopted by the BOS.
Second Selectman Ross Tartell was in attendance in the public seats of the meeting room, but declined to speak when offered the opportunity during public comment at the end of the meeting. There were no other BOS members in person at the meeting.
GOOD Morning Wilton emailed Boucher, who said she did not attend because of “an important private matter,” and the reason was “not public.”
When Boucher questioned why GMW was asking about her absence, it was explained that with the BOS budget discussion on the agenda (and considering Savo’s short tenure), it might have been expected that the first selectman would be there to discuss it, just as BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca had been earlier in the evening for the BOF discussion on Superintendent Kevin Smith’s proposed BOE budget.
Boucher wrote back, “It was my understanding that the discussion would only be on budget timelines and questions with regard to the finance consultant but not details of a the budget or proposed cuts etc. as this would happen once the BOS signs off on their budget review/ changes. It is then given to the BOF with a new budget book that is created.”
Birch told GMW after the meeting that the BOS budget discussion had been long-planned and not a late addition to his agenda. He said he heard from Boucher Tuesday afternoon that she would not be in attendance.
“We received the budget books on Friday. Not sure why anyone would think we are not going to review them and ask questions as we have done in prior years,” he said.
The budget books supplied by Boucher contained a document dated Feb. 1, 2026, and were not labeled as incomplete or preliminary. The document is the same one “First Selectman’s Proposed Budget” that was reviewed by the BOS at its meeting on Feb. 2, and is still posted on the Town website.
Boucher said she was not expecting the budget to be dissected or examined in detail at this point. She also said the wasn’t fair to Savo.
“When I learned of the details of last night’s BOF meeting I was surprised that the BOS budget was under discussion as the BOS has yet to first deliberate on it and it will surely make changes before it comes before the BOF. It put our new CFO in a difficult position as cuts were already being brought up to her by the BOF members. This may be premature as this was a preliminary budget ment for the BOS to adjust,” Boucher wrote.
Birch responded that while he couldn’t speak to what Savo felt during the meeting, the BOF does have its concerns.
“I am sure it is uncomfortable to have the BOF state that the proposed budget is $1.6 million above guidance. However, that is where we are,” he said, adding that he expects the BOS to do that adjusting Boucher mentioned.
“What we asked is that the BOS go back and review this proposed budget and come back with what they believe that can do to bring it in line with guidance,” Birch said.
The BOF also added an additional meeting to its schedule on Monday, Mar. 9 to devote discussion entirely to the BOS budget.