BOF Chair Says Wilton CFO Took On Final FY25 Work After Consultant “Didn’t Produce Anything”

Sept. 10, 2026 at 4:10 p.m. — Correction and clarification: An earlier version of this article quoted BOF Chair Tim Birch as saying consultant Joseph Centofanti “didn’t produce it.” Birch’s exact words were “didn’t produce anything.” His remark came after he said CFO Dawn Savo had taken on final FY25 work, despite BOF members’ prior understanding that Centofanti was responsible for FY25 while Savo focused on FY26. Birch did not specify what particular work Centofanti failed to produce. The article also has been updated to clarify that Birch described his explanation of how the continuing FY25 work may have affected FY26 reporting as “conjecture.”

Board of Finance Chair Tim Birch said Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo took on final work involving Wilton’s fiscal year 2025 finances after consultant Joseph Centofanti “didn’t produce anything.”

Birch’s comments were made during a discussion at the BOF’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 8 reviewing progress on the overdue FY25 annual audit as well as whether work had begun on FY26 financials.

BOF members had understood that Savo was concentrating on FY26 while Centofanti handled the remaining FY25 work.

Board member Kari Roberts said Savo and First Selectman Toni Boucher had made it clear “that ’25 is all” Centofanti and that Savo was “doing nothing but ’26.”

“Well, our new CFO ended up doing the end of ’25 as well,” Birch responded.

“Because we stopped paying him?” Roberts asked.

“Because he didn’t produce anything,” Birch said.

At nearly the same moment Birch made that statement, BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante said, “He didn’t do a good job.”

Roberts then asked whether the Town could recover some of the money paid to Centofanti. Birch responded that the matter was not within the BOF’s purview.

Neither Birch nor Escalante specified what work Centofanti had failed to produce or perform adequately. The exchange also did not establish how much FY25 work Savo assumed or when the responsibilities shifted.

The exchange occurred as BOF members discussed whether work had begun on FY26 and why they had still not received detailed FY26 budget-to-actual figures. Several repeated earlier frustrations about poor communication and delays from Town Hall as they sought information concerning three fiscal years at once: the still-unfinished FY25 audit, financial results from FY26 and preliminary FY27 figures generating questions about tax collection, revenue and more.

FY26 Information Still Outstanding

“At some point we really do need to drill down on what happened this year, right?” BOF member Kim Healy said. “Why are back taxes falling behind? What’s going on in those departments? What needs to change?”

A frustrated Birch reiterated that the BOF does not control Town Hall operations.

“I’ve been asking for the ’26 budget-to-actuals for two months,” Birch said.

“We have to actually get ’26 actual budget, have ’26 closed off so we can begin the process of taking a look at that,” he said. “We don’t have that. We’ve asked for it. We don’t have it. I’ll continue to ask for it every week like I do until we get it.”

Later in the discussion, Birch suggested that the Town’s Finance Department staff may have gone “all hands on” FY25 while doing enough work on FY26 to “keep the ship afloat.” However, he called that explanation “conjecture on my part” and said he was “trying to read a little bit between the lines.”

Questions About Centofanti’s Work and Compensation

For much of 2026, both Savo and First Selectman Toni Boucher have said that Centofanti was working hard on reconciling the numbers for FY25. 

Months ago, both Birch and members of the Board of Selectmen began asking for Centofanti, who bills the town at $375 per hour, to appear at their respective meetings so elected officials could learn the status of his work and ask questions about its progress.

Instead, Boucher and Savo maintained that Centofanti needed to remain focused on the reconciliation and was not required to attend BOF or BOS meetings. After Savo was hired, his role changed from interim CFO to consultant, though he continued working at the same hourly rate.

Several elected officials also raised questions during the spring as to why Centofanti should remain engaged at that $375-an-hour rate, suggesting that the reconciliation work could now be completed by a lower-paid consultant, but both Boucher and Savo said he was already immersed in the work and that it would be best to just let him finish.

Boucher and Savo said repeatedly during the spring and early summer that Centofanti was nearing completion of the work and expected to finish within a few weeks.

Birch said he understood that the town had stopped paying Centofanti during the summer, consistent with Savo’s statement at a June BOS meeting that payments were being withheld. Healy questioned whether payments had actually stopped and said PKF had been paid in July. She estimated that the Town’s total payments for Centofanti’s services may have reached approximately $270,000.

Following Birch’s statement, Roberts asked whether the Town should seek reimbursement from Centofanti’s consulting company, PKF O’Connor Davies.

“That’s not our purview,” Birch said, indicating it would be up to Boucher and the BOS to pursue the matter.

FY25 Audit Delayed Again

The BOF also learned that the expected completion of the Town’s state-mandated FY25 audit has once again been pushed back, this time to Sept. 30. 

The FY25 audit was originally due Dec. 31, 2025. The state subsequently granted the Town an extension through June 30, 2026, but that deadline also passed without the audit being completed. Earlier projections indicated it could be finished as early as February. Town Hall officials have repeatedly postponed the projected completion date because the Town’s FY25 financial records had not been fully reconciled.

Healy pointed out that because the Town-side budget for FY25 is still officially open, the delay is also impacting the Board of Education‘s budgeting, as its final FY25 numbers have had to be adjusted based on the ongoing reconciliation.

“They can’t close ’25 because the audit’s not done,” Healy said. “So they’re still getting little adjustments here and there. They were telling me Joe was making changes up until recently to their ’25 numbers, which affect their ’26 numbers.”

In their defense, however, Birch concurred with Healy that Finance Department staff were handcuffed at the beginning of the process this year.

“They didn’t have staffing and they didn’t have anybody to answer a question, and the controller was a nightmare,” Birch said, referring to former Controller Tony DeFelice.

Healy, however, commended DeFelice as having prepared good budgets when she served on the BOS.

DeFelice left Wilton a short time after former CFO Dawn Norton resigned in the fall of 2025, leaving the Town without the two leading officials in its Finance Department.

More Unanswered Questions

Along with the update on the outstanding financial information, Birch said he had finally arranged a meeting for Friday, Sept. 18, with Town attorney Ira Bloom and another lawyer from Berchem Moses, Wilton’s longtime town counsel.

Birch had been unhappy with a recent recommendation made by town counsel advising the BOS that it didn’t need to get BOF approval for budget transfers between departments. Birch maintains that the attorneys’ recommendation is wrong, and he had asked to meet with town counsel weeks ago but hadn’t received a response until recently.

“He has refused to date to send me his analysis,” Birch said, “so I’m not quite sure how that meeting is going to go.”

The BOF has raised questions and disagreed with some of the guidance provided by town counsel over approximately the past 18 months, at one point exploring the possibility of engaging its own counsel on matters.

At the last BOS meeting, in response to revelations of very high legal expenses logged by the town, Selectman Matt Raimondi, the former chair of the BOF, suggested that Town officials research the costs of other law firms in the region for comparison.