Savo Apologizes for Not Informing BOF About Moody’s Review

Explaining her choice to leave elected officials out of the loop, Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo apologized to the Board of Finance on Tuesday, Oct. 13, for not informing them about significant issues related to the town’s bond rating, including communication she received from Moody’s placing the Town under review.

Because of the lengthy delay in completing the state-mandated financial audit for Fiscal Year 2025, Moody’s placed Wilton’s ratings under review on June 30 because it lacked sufficient current information. The ratings agency issued a press release at the time including the Town on what was essentially a warning list of municipalities that were potentially jeopardizing their bond rating — in Wilton’s case, Moody’s could withdraw the ratings if the information was not provided.

After receiving additional information, including an unfinished draft of the FY2025 financial report posted to EMMA, the municipal bond disclosure system, Moody’s affirmed Wilton’s Aaa ratings Sept. 25.

But the FY2025 audit, originally due Dec. 31, 2025, remained incomplete as of Tuesday, Oct. 13, and it still has not been submitted.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, the BOF heard from town bond advisor Barry Bernabe that the final audit must be completed and filed on EMMA by Dec. 1, 2026, to meet Moody’s requirements. He warned of possible further negative implications if that deadline is missed.

The overdue audit comes amid persistent financial reporting and oversight failures under First Selectman Toni Boucher’s administration, including department budget overages, delayed reports to elected boards and the failure to disclose Moody’s review. The Sept. 25 affirmation preserved Wilton’s Aaa ratings, but did not resolve those underlying problems.

When warnings were communicated to Savo about Wilton being under review, she identified only Boucher and Second Selectman Ross Tartell as the elected officials she informed about the matter.

At the Oct. 5 Board of Selectmen meeting, Boucher said she learned about the matter after returning from vacation in July. Savo said she contacted Tartell in Boucher’s absence. Other selectmen said they learned of the review through GOOD Morning Wilton’s reporting in September.

BOF member Kim Healy posed the question directly to Savo in writing prior to Tuesday’s meeting, specifically asking why Savo had chosen to tell Tartell but not BOF Chair Tim Birch about the communications received from Moody’s.

“First, I’d like to say I do report to the first selectman,” Savo said.

Savo acknowledged that her handling of the issue could have been better.

“In hindsight, that decision could have been better, could have been more transparent and I’m sorry,” she said.

“Based on the circumstances at the time, I really felt that, you know, there was no action needed from the board,” she continued. “But I do see that it would have been better to let the board know, so I apologize for that.”

“I know there’s nothing I can do about it now,” Savo continued. “I’ve never been in this situation before with an audit this late.”

Savo said she had felt confident that, working alongside accounting consultant Joseph Centofanti and auditor Leslie Zoll, she could get the audit draft to Moody’s. She said that, according to her contract, her number one priority is to complete the audit and maintain the town’s Aaa rating.

“Now, did I do it in the most transparent way with the boards? Obviously not,” she said. “So I understand that, and I apologize.”

Earlier in the meeting, the BOF spent considerable time questioning Bernabe about his communications with Moody’s and the information provided to town officials.

Bernabe, who works with Phoenix Advisors, discussed his and Savo’s communications with Moody’s. He was asked several times by different BOF members about what communication he and Savo had had with the company before Moody’s Sept. 25 ratings affirmation.

He described several exchanges with the agency while repeatedly emphasizing the positive outcome that the town had been removed from the watch list.

“From my perspective, it’s very, very positive news for the town,” he said.

Pressed on the question, especially on his communication with elected boards, Bernabe said his firm typically communicates with Town Hall officials rather than directly with the BOF.

“In my experience, working with like 30 or 35 other municipal clients, we typically don’t communicate directly to the Board of Finance unless we’re requested to do so,” Bernabe said. “We typically communicate directly with the chief financial officer, the finance director, and the first selectperson.”

“We don’t really think it’s appropriate to go around them to any other body within the town,” he said. “So that’s really up to the town itself, how that communication is disseminated.”

Bernabe outlined that Moody’s had reached out in June to find out the status of the overdue audit. “And we said that the audit is close to being completed,” he recounted, adding that his understanding was that basic financial statements were available.

Bernabe said he spoke with an analyst who indicated that he thought the information would meet the agency’s requirements, but the decision rested with a separate committee.

He recounted that Moody’s said it was compiling a list of municipalities that have not completed their audits and said they would be reaching out again requesting a draft of Wilton’s incomplete audit report.

Moody’s subsequently requested more comprehensive information, including draft notes to the financial statements, after finding an earlier submission insufficient, he said.

Bernabe said that the conversations he had with representatives of Moody’s were somewhat vague about exactly what preliminary audit information would satisfy the agency’s requirements.

Bernabe confirmed that earlier financial information had been submitted directly to Moody’s, rather than posted on EMMA. The more comprehensive draft was posted Sept. 1.

“So that process took basically from the end of June until the end of September,” Bernabe said, “for them to make the decision that the draft audit was sufficient.”

Bernabe confirmed that there were “a number of different dates” in which he communicated with Moody’s, asking them when they would make the determination that the draft provided to them was adequate.

“The person at Moody’s that I was talking to on behalf of the town was not the person who makes the actual decision,” he said. “They have a separate committee that does that. But based on the feedback that person was providing, he implied that the draft audit that was provided to him, he thought it was sufficient enough to meet their guidelines.”

Bernabe again emphasized that Moody’s removal of the town from the watch list was very positive news, stating that his understanding, even prior to June 30, was that the audit was close to complete and that most of the information had been accounted for.

Healy, however, described the concern that several elected officials expressed about being left uninformed throughout this process.

“Other people feel like for 85 days we were under review and in the dark about it. And as you can imagine, we then have concerns. What else are we not knowledgeable about at this point?” she asked.

Healy also noted the repeated assurances made by Boucher and Savo that the audit was near completion, dating back to February. 

“As of July we had no trial balance, so I’m not sure how anything got submitted,” Healy said.

Asked when the earlier financial information had been sent privately to Moody’s, Bernabe said he did not have the date in front of him, but indicated it was before June 30. Birch asked him to get back to the board with the timing.

“We need to put policies in place and we need to figure out what happened with this situation so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Healy said.

Bernabe also said he would recommend waiting until the audit is complete before issuing new bonds, so investors would have access to the final report rather than just the draft.

During her audit update earlier in the meeting, Savo said she was researching some additional materials requested by the auditor, but didn’t have a definite answer as to when the audit would be completed.

“I think I’ll have a better idea by the end of the week,” Savo said.