Key Points
- CFO Dawn Savo urged the BOS and BOF to approve transfers covering more than $300,000 in FY25 budget overages despite unresolved questions.
- First Selectwoman Toni Boucher suggested inaccurate information from department heads may have contributed to the Finance Department’s problems and announced a joint BOS-BOF meeting.
- A June legal memo released in response to GMW’s questions shows Town Hall sought legal guidance on fund transfers weeks before either board was presented with the FY25 reconciliation.
Why It Matters: The story examines not only how Wilton plans to resolve FY25 budget overages, but also when Town officials became aware of potential issues and what questions about financial oversight and reporting remain unanswered.
At two town board meetings during the last week, Wilton’s Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo urged the Boards of Selectmen and Finance to approve account transfers to cover more than $300,000 in Fiscal Year 2025 budget overages despite unanswered questions about how the overspending occurred, warning that further investigation could delay the town’s already overdue audit.
At last Tuesday’s (July 14) BOF meeting, Savo suggested that members should “rubber stamp” a transfer of Charter Reserve funds to cover the $310,804 total overage in the FY25 BOS operating budget.
She made a similar statement during discussion at the Monday, July 20, BOS meeting, telling the selectmen, “I think at some point the boards need to just kind of accept that Fiscal Year ’25 is over,” Savo said. “It’s been over a year and we need to just get the audit done and kind of clear up some of the loose ends and move forward.”
At that same Monday meeting, First Selectman Toni Boucher stated for the first time that former CFO Dawn Norton may not be the only person responsible for the Finance Department’s past problems, suggesting individual department heads may not have provided accurate information.
“What is not being said is that a lot of the information received in 2025 by the prior CFO wasn’t always accurate,” she said. “That we did not receive necessarily the accurate information that we would have liked and would have expected to have, and so that’s why some of this is difficult to explain.”
Boucher did say that there would be time set aside for members of both boards to look more closely at why many departments were over their individual budgets in FY25 and how and why exactly the funds to cover those overages were somehow approved without notifying the BOS or the BOF.
Monday night, she announced that a joint meeting of both boards will be scheduled soon, possibly in August.
How the Overages Came to Light
Revelations about the overages only came to light two weeks ago after Savo presented first to the BOS (July 6) and then to the BOF (July 14) a preliminary document with the FY25 budget reconciliations.
Savo preempted detailed questions about the document, telling both boards that it was not finalized and that she couldn’t really provide answers because she didn’t prepare it.
The document was prepared by Joseph Centofanti, a consultant from PKF O’Connor Davies, who was contracted in August 2025 as Wilton’s interim CFO until Savo was hired in December. At that time, Town Hall asked him to focus on untangling the FY25 budget figures in preparation for that year’s audit.
Despite Boucher and Savo’s assurances about Centofanti’s performance, many town officials have expressed frustration with his high hourly wage of $375, his slow rate in producing evidence of his progress, and his continued denial of board member requests to meet in person.
Now, getting their first* look at the status of FY25 finances during the July 6 BOS meeting, BOS members remarked on how the reconciliation document showed the BOS FY’25 operating budget had finished the year under budget by $662,148.
However, at the July 14 BOF meeting, the document came under sharper scrutiny by members who contended the reconciliation improperly included the Town’s Charter Authority reserve of $1,275,371 in that calculation. Removing that reserve appears to change what had been presented as a budget surplus into operating budget overages totaling $310,804.
As for Savo’s suggestion that they “rubber stamp” that Charter Reserves transfer, some BOF members pushed back and said they were anxious to receive accurate information on why some money may have been moved and some spending potentially approved without what they said was proper authority.
In an emailed comment, BOF Chair Tim Burch gave GOOD Morning Wilton more insight to his board’s reaction. “We are concerned about the expense overruns,” he said. “We are also concerned because our interpretation of the state statute is that increased appropriations to a department require BOF consent. That did not occur nor were we informed of the overruns.”
Pressure to Approve Transfers Despite Questions
Savo reiterated to the selectmen at the July 20 meeting that the Charter Reserves transfer is definitely necessary and needs both BOS and BOF support.
“The Board of Selectmen budget for Fiscal Year ’25 did go over the appropriated amount, so the Charter Reserve is going to be needed and it’s more than the Board of Selectmen portion that’s available for you to vote on,” she said. “So I’m going to need both boards to vote to move the Charter Reserve.”
Savo told the selectmen that the BOF did ask for more information on why there were overages, but indicated that she might not be able to provide answers, nor might others at Town Hall at this time.
“I’m trying to find out from the [BOF] chair exactly what kind of information he’s looking for,” Savo said. “Because again, I was not here during the entire Fiscal Year ’25 to really fully understand what all the overages would be, and I really don’t want to delay the audit further by having to … stop working on the audit and having to look into asking and finding out and digging deep into everybody’s budget to figure out why they were over.”
Savo said that the firm handling Wilton’s audit, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, is working on it and that progress shows it can potentially be completed by the end of August. She said that because Centofanti has been the sole individual overseeing the FY25 reconciliation, he will need to respond to any questions that come up from the auditors because she is not privy to the information.
Selectman David Tatkow asked whether practices within the Finance Department or Town Hall were being changed or amended, or if it was even clear what processes broke down to get the town to this situation.
Boucher didn’t give a specific answer, but noted that during the past year the town has onboarded a new CFO, a new controller and most recently a new senior accountant, all of whom needed time to get up to speed.
Selectman Matt Raimondi said that part of the problem was that the BOF did not receive monthly reports from the CFO — something Savo is now charged with doing.
Savo restated that things would be made worse if the Charter Reserve transfers weren’t approved, but said she was confident that both boards would do so.
“Even if it means getting the information maybe at a later point in time or something like that,” she said. “I’m just kind of putting that out there.”
While she didn’t name Norton, Boucher seemed to refer to her when she remarked that “three months of being on leave” had been part of the problem.
Norton had taken an extended leave of absence during FY25 for personal reasons and, apparently with the knowledge of Boucher and former Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker, was working virtually from Wyoming for the last few months of her employment in Wilton.
Both, however, denied knowing that Norton had taken a second job there as CFO for a small municipality while simultaneously continuing in Wilton. Just days after the matter was brought to light through an article in GOOD Morning Wilton, Norton resigned.
June Memo Raises New Timeline Questions
GOOD Morning Wilton reached out to Boucher on Sunday evening, July 19, for comment on the budget overages, the Board of Finance’s reaction and who authorized approval of the expenditures that drove certain departments over budget.
Boucher responded to GOOD Morning Wilton on Tuesday afternoon, July 21, but she did not directly address who approved the spending that resulted in the FY25 budget overages or why neither the BOS nor BOF had been informed before July. In a follow-up email, she said she could not comment on preliminary financial information because the FY2025 audit is still underway, but that should would be able to discuss what the Town has learned after the audit is completed.
Instead, she forwarded a June 4 memorandum prepared by Town Attorneys Berchem Moses that analyzes when transfers of Town funds require Board of Finance approval, and which she said the Town “follows for advice on transfers.” The memo was requested by Boucher and Savo at least one month before the preliminary FY25 reconciliation was first presented to either the BOS or BOF.
The memorandum concludes that transfers between Town departments generally do not require BOF approval because neither the Town Charter nor Town Code specifically addresses them, relying in part on what it describes as the Town’s past practices.
It also cites Charter Section C-16(C), which allows the Board of Selectmen to authorize certain excess expenditures — up to one-quarter of 1.0% of the Town’s annual budget — without BOF approval, provided the BOF and Town Treasurer are notified in writing within 14 days.
The memorandum, however, does not address the central questions raised by board members over the past two weeks: whether the Board of Selectmen knew departments were exceeding their appropriations when the spending occurred, who authorized the expenditures, or why neither the BOS nor the BOF was notified before the FY25 reconciliation was presented to members in July — a full month later.
*Editor’s note: BOS members were emailed the preliminary reconciliation document on July 2. They had their first discussion in public meeting about it as a board on July 6. It was the first time the public was hearing anything about the contents of the document.
