With budget season behind it, the Board of Finance is taking a closer look at this year’s budget process, the material weakness within the town’s Finance Department reported by an independent auditor, and also exploring how improvements might be implemented going forward.
At their regular meeting on Tuesday night, May 13, Wilton’s financiers gingerly acknowledged several issues that challenged the process this year, including what Town CFO Dawn Norton referred to as “the learning curve” faced by First Selectman Toni Boucher, who came to the job with a different skill set than the finance and accounting background held by her predecessor (and a former CPA) Lynne Vanderslice.
“I think Lynne had control over a lot of information,” BOF Vice Chair Stewart Koenigsberg said.
“Then we had [Town Administrator] Matt [Knickerbocker] come in, we had Toni come in, and I think some of that centralization, that repository of information, sort of escaped us, number one, and I think the process changed a bit,” he said.
Norton agreed, pointing out that “this was only Boucher’s second budget.”
“You are correct,” she said, “in that there is a little bit of a different calibration between Lynne’s ability, skills and knowledge of the budget process.”
“When we were all working with Lynne, things were a lot easier,” Norton said. “Now there’s a different type of guidance process.”
“I would just say that this is Toni Boucher’s only second budget, so I think she has a little bit of a learning curve that we should be respectful of,” she said. “Matt as well, working with a new boss at this point.”
She said this was also the first year using a new software for the budget, which ate up additional time during preparations, causing some delays.
Norton sought to distance herself and the Finance Department from decisions made during this budget process.
“When it comes to the budget, the Finance Department, all it does is gather the detail, crunch the numbers, put ’em in a report. We don’t make any of the decisions,” she said.
“The only thing we do is we make decisions and we support our needs in the Finance Department itself, but those decisions are made more at Toni’s level or at Matt’s level, so the timing of it, the setting of the meetings, the schedules — it is a collaborative effort amongst all department heads,” she said.
“But please know that we’re not the decision makers when it comes to the direction of the budget or decisions made with the budget numbers themselves,” Norton said.
Koenigsberg pointed out that, per previous discussions, it would be important to get the Finance Department fully staffed.
“It’s challenging for a short-staffed organization … to really achieve the level of preparation for all the parties that you serve,” he said. “I think, obviously, one objective is to get your organization fully staffed and that will help you and us.”
Koenigsberg also said more analysis of budget numbers was needed beforehand, prior to BOF involvement, so he suggested Norton’s department may need to bring in temporary resources to help meet the need.
Earlier this year, an independent auditor blamed staff shortages on the Finance Department’s lack of preparation prior to her visit, with some sets of numbers not completely crunched.
BOF members discussed how greater communication throughout the town would be instrumental in augmenting improvements. Toward that end, BOF Chair Matt Raimondi broached the idea of conducting its next survey in cooperation with the other three major boards — potentially a survey conducted before the next budget season gets underway.
“I think that makes a lot of sense,” BOF member Tim Birch said. “I think there are a lot of opinions rolling around on the Planning and Zoning [Commission] side, which are then an impact to our Grand List.”
He and others acknowledged that, while the P&Z has unique restrictions relating to public interactions, it could still be a valuable possibility.
Raimondi said he would broach the idea with both Boucher and Board of Education Chair Ruth DeLuca at their next monthly luncheon and hear their thoughts, prior to approaching P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti.
Review of Town Hall Operations
BOF member Sandra Arkell suggested that it would be of value to have Boucher, Norton and possibly Knickerbocker attend a future BOF meeting, in order to give them “the opportunity to really come back to this board to fully report specifically on the material weakness … so that Dawn has the opportunity to kind of really talk about her own assessment of what’s contributing to this.”
Raimondi said they would add it to the agenda for July and offer the BOS members an opportunity to be on hand as well.
Arkell reported that the Board of Selectmen has been “proactively working” on an in-house review of Town Hall processes, per discussions Arkell has had with Selectwoman Kim Healy.
“Kim Healy has been taking a big leadership role,” she said, “not necessarily on the material weakness. Her review is more focused, I think, more on things like process, governance, areas for more improvement.”
“I have had some conversations with Kim in terms of where does she stand with that review,” Arkell said. “There’s a little bit of that that’s being done internally, but she is considering, potentially, getting an outside legal firm.”
“I wanted to ensure that we were doing this collaboratively, just to make it more efficient, to make sure we weren’t stepping on each other’s toes,” Arkell added.
GOOD Morning Wilton reached out to Healy for corroboration and more detail. She emailed the following response:
“I wouldn’t say big leadership role but I am having an outside review done that will provide process recommendations for certain areas in town hall where we’ve had recent issues. I should be able to present it to the [BOS] soon as I just got the first draft,” Healy wrote.
She confirmed that she is funding the effort herself.
As for something related to more of a review of financial processes, Healy — referencing her own experience as a CPA — said she is collaborating with Arkell on how to help the BOF make that happen.
“Separately, Sandy contacted me about her concerns around the material weakness as we share similar professional backgrounds. Based on the fact I was already working on the internal control report, we agreed that I would do the search to find a CPA firm that could provide further guidance, not a legal firm. I have not been successful to date. When I am, the scope of work and cost will need to be approved by the BOF,” Healy wrote.