Setting a calm and positive tone for the Board of Selectmen at its first meeting of 2026 on Monday night (Jan. 5), the town’s new chief financial officer brought a message of hope and opportunity for the new year.
CFO Dawn Savo, who has only been on the job for a few weeks, shared that things are quickly coming together and that better times lay ahead. After a chaotic 2025 earmarked by chaos in Wilton’s Finance Department, it was a message that was well received by the selectmen.
Savo said that while the interim CFO Joseph Centofanti continues to log hours, particularly focused on cleaning up the accounting of Fiscal Year 2025, she has juggled overseeing Fiscal Year 2026, setting up various meetings, and simply getting the lay of the land.
Savo has had conversations with CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, the finance firm that handles the town’s annual audit, and reported that things appear to somehow be proceeding on schedule.
“They’re going to start next week,” Savo said. “They’re going to do it remotely.”
She said the standard disclosure forms and paperwork have been sent to her.
“I’ll have a better sense next week when they start digging in on where we are with that for sure, and what’s needed,” she said. “Again, a lot of this is dependent on Joe finishing up where we are with Fiscal Year 25.”
Savo said she has also begun meeting with department heads in order to get them moving on their individual budgets for Fiscal Year 2027.
“We put together templates for all the departments to submit their budget on,” she said.
Savo said that Centofanti had previously called for a stop on all encumbrances for FY 2026 but that they were resuming again. She said that while all the expenses are up to date for FY ’26, the revenues received are not, citing issues with the OpenGov computer system, which is used by what she described as Wilton’s main three revenue collectors — the tax collector, the building department, and the town clerk.
She said there were currently about three months of revenue charted, but that they have had to repeatedly go back and manually input material that was not properly recorded previously.
“That will be clean going forward but we have to manually go back and finish entering … Once those get cleaned up then it’s going to be smooth going,” she said, noting the systems will operate better than ever.
Savo said she is planning to meet with Wilton’s bond counsel next month, stating there could be bonds to be reconfigured.
She also noted a chance to potentially put some town funds to better use with a short-term investment fund. “Wilton is not taking full advantage of the opportunities to earn,” she said, noting such a move could bring in potentially an additional $800,000 to $1 million if money were to be moved from regular bank accounts.
“Right now there’s a multitude of bank accounts and Joe and I believe they should be consolidated,” Savo said, adding they believe the effort will help streamline things in operations.
Savo said she has also scheduled a meeting with the Board of Education regarding potential changes in common workflow.
Lowering Anxiety at Town Hall
First Selectman Toni Boucher expressed a clear sense of happiness and relief with the state of affairs, noting she feels more confident and positive about how things are going under Savo’s lead.
“It’s an opportunity for rebuilding and maybe changing,” she said.
She told an anecdote about the Town’s new controller Tracy Haberman telling her that since Savo’s arrival her anxiety level “has gone from here…” — as Boucher held her hand above her head — “to here,” she said, lower her hand to table level and adding that her own outlook matched Haberman’s.
Selectman Rich McCarty also expressed a positive view.
“It sounds like good news,” he told Savo, “and it sounds like you hit the ground running.”
Savo advised the BOS to keep an open mind about things going forward, noting there would be positive changes, which she indicated would be executed with transparency.
“This might be a blessing, if you want to call it that, in disguise,” she said of the problems she’s inherited. “Good things are gonna come out of this,” including more efficient use of technology to streamline operations in the Finance Department.
Savo also commended the people with whom she’ll be working.
“It’s a great staff, I just want to say that,” Savo said. “They’re new, the ones in finance, but they’re awesome. I’m going to enjoy working with them.”
Police Department HQ Progress
In other news, the BOS heard another update on the progress of the police headquarters. Department of Public Works Director Frank Smeriglio said that though there are still a couple of items that need to be completed, including getting proper lighting on and around the elevator in order for it to pass a state inspection, there is still a likelihood that the police force will be able to occupy the building by early February.