Selectwoman Kim Healy told the Board of Finance on Tuesday night, July 8, she was surprised its members were not expressing any concern about the potential conflicts possibly being built into a new internal review committee charged with overseeing an investigation into financial practices at Town Hall.
In response to a “material weakness” in Wilton’s Finance Department that was highlighted by an independent audit at the beginning of this year, as well as other issues tied to finance-related protocols, a deeper independent investigation is being sought.
The push to dig deeper was initiated by Healy, a Republican, who worked collaboratively with BOF member Sandra Arkell, a Democrat, to produce some initial recommendations. First Selectman Toni Boucher suggested creating a joint Board of Selectmen and BOF committee at the BOS meeting on Monday night, July 7. The purpose would primarily be to outline the scope of work that an independent consultant would undertake in reviewing and making recommendations to the town on its methods and practices, though the committee could potentially expand the scope of its mission.
On Monday night, Boucher recommended herself to serve on the committee, and suggested the other participant be Selectman Ross Tartell.
“There was an article today in [GOOD Morning Wilton] about our quite-heated conversation last night about the makeup of this committee,” Healy told the BOF at the end of its Tuesday meeting, speaking during public comment, though she and other BOS members were in attendance at the invitation of the BOF.
Healy stated that she was “very disappointed” that BOF members had not discussed the article or its contents.
“Sandy (Arkell) and I have been working on doing an independent review through the Board of Finance,” Healy said. “I was going to be consulting, I presumed. We have already talked about the scope of what that could be. I am a CPA [certified public accountant], former auditor, and was surprised to not be on the committee.”
Despite expressing initial concerns about even the appearance of a conflict of interest by including Boucher on the committee, Selectman Josh Cole chose to stand behind the first selectman’s recommendation, with outgoing Selectman Bas Nabulsi also supporting the recommendation in a 4-1 vote.
Cole first commented that Boucher’s direct involvement with the committee was tantamount to “a personal review of yourself … When you have a performance review, you don’t participate,” he said. However, Boucher later convinced him that the role of the committee would primarily be administrative in putting an independent contractor in place to examine Town Hall finance practices.
Healy, however, maintained that Boucher’s involvement represented a conflict of interest and could, ultimately, quell the housecleaning process.
“I was not chosen and so am not going to make any more comments about that,” Healy told the BOF. “But I was, I guess, surprised, that no one on the Board of Finance questioned the makeup of the Board of Selectmen appointees and potential conflicts of interest.”
Healy went on to say that the BOS had received an email from former BOF member Chris Stroup expressing his concerns about it.
“I’m not sure if that will change anything, but I wanted to make sure that everyone had all the information possible,” she said.
Healy explained to the BOF that her concerns were captured several months ago when it came to light that Town Hall had issued a second senior tax credit to qualified residents without seeking the required approval of the BOS.
“That led me to take this issue up and I prepared a report with others,” she said, including Arkell.
BOF Chair Matt Raimondi was at Monday night’s BOS meeting, and afterward he told GOOD Morning Wilton that “as a rule” his board won’t comment on committee appointments made by other boards.
“We look forward to working with the members who have been appointed to address any operational or financial issues identified in the audit and to support continued progress on behalf of the town,” he said.
Healy provided a report about tax collector/assessor segregation of duties, along with a policy statement, to Boucher to be made public for Monday’s BOS meeting, but Boucher claimed she did not receive them in time to post them.
While the report acknowledges that Wilton isn’t the only town where roles are combined, including Hollie Rapp‘s position of manager of both assessing and tax collection, its goes on to suggest that certain practices should be in place in order to “mitigate risk.”
A primary part of the “material weakness” found in the last audit had to do with a shortage of personnel in the Finance Department, which had as many as three of its five positions empty at points earlier this year.
Speaking to the BOF on Tuesday, CFO Dawn Norton said that the department is still not fully staffed, with one position still vacant and two new hires in a slow process of getting up to full speed in relation to their duties.
“It’s a slow growth process, which still puts a lot of burden on the departments, as if we didn’t have a full person in there … and that’s just gonna take time,” Norton said.
Norton also attributed some of the problems to the department transitioning to a new accounting system during the past year.
Asked about the scope of what the new committee may be looking at, Arkell said that while it may initially look like a limited review, it could possibly blossom into something bigger.
“I’ve seen it in the past … I think we should just be open minded,” she said.
“I would not think of this as audit,” Arkell said. “It’s more of a review (and) opportunities for better practices.”
Boucher sought to downplay the audit findings, stating it had been happening under the previous administration since 2020, citing older audit reports she looked through.
“Just for the public’s knowledge, this is not unusual,” Boucher said. “It’s commonplace at times.”
Arkell interrupted her, “I would dispute that, Toni. Material weakness is very serious. There are sometimes significant deficiencies and I do not recall us having a material weakness back in 2020.”
“It is not commonplace,” Raimondi agreed. “It is certainly not a good thing.”
“I think the view that we’re trying to take is that a lot of the things are recurring, which is problematic, and that’s why we need to address it,” he said, calling it a holistic appraisal that would look at operations across departments.
While Arkell advised moving quickly with getting the subcommittee working, to hopefully avoid another material weakness in the current year’s audit of FY 2025, Norton told her the auditors have already started their work.
“That does present a risk, that we could have a significant deficiency or material weakness again this year, just because they’re already in the field,” Arkell warned.
I personally respect Toni Boucher immensely for all she has done personally and professionally. She and Bud have been some of the greatest asset that Wilton has been lucky enough to have . However being cognizant of all the many issues that Toni deals with in Her capacity as First Select Woman , I would respectfully suggest She rescinds Her position on the internal review committee and continue to provide leadership that is beyond reproach . Sincerely Robert Lenihan