With Savo Leaving, Wilton Faces Unfinished Financial Work and Another Audit Deadline

Less than a year after Dawn Savo joined Wilton as its chief financial officer, Hamden, CT’s Legislative Council voted unanimously Monday evening, Nov. 2, to approve her appointment as its permanent finance director. The next day, she formally tendered her resignation notice to Wilton, effective Dec. 3, and the town has since posted the open CFO position.

GOOD Morning Wilton first reported her pursuit of the job after she appeared publicly before Hamden officials on Oct. 28, explaining why she wanted to work for Hamden and citing the filing of Wilton’s long-delayed FY2025 audit the week before as an accomplishment.

“I feel like what I was asked to do there I have achieved,” Savo told Hamden officials.

However, Savo’s pending departure from Wilton raises several questions about who will oversee accounting work that is not yet finished, prepare for the town’s FY2026 audit, due Dec. 31, and manage ongoing Finance Department staffing needs. The transition also comes as the town prepares to begin its months-long FY2028 budget development process.

At the Nov. 2 Board of Selectmen meeting, members pressed for a transition plan, including an interim CFO who could overlap with Savo and board involvement in selecting her replacement. First Selectman Toni Boucher, who initially sought to defer the discussion until a special meeting, ultimately added it to that meeting’s agenda; disagreements remained over the board’s role in the search.

During her most recent appearances at meetings with Wilton elected officials, including the Oct. 27 Audit Remediation & Financial Reporting Subcommittee meeting and earlier Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance meetings, Savo provided updates on the audit and Finance Department work and outlined steps she planned to take after the audit filing. The town’s corrective action plan named Savo as responsible for implementing all measures to address the audit findings and set June 2027 completion dates for those actions.

Savo’s updates came before her candidacy for the Hamden job became public.

Once the news was known, Audit Remediation Subcommittee Chair Kim Healy said Savo’s departure could push back the timetables Savo presented.

“I think Dawn’s estimated dates were based on her remaining as Wilton’s CFO. With her resignation, estimates need to be pushed out,” Healy said.

The employment agreement approved by Hamden’s council provides for an annual salary of $220,000, prorated from Savo’s start date through June 30, 2027. The agreement included in the meeting packet leaves the start date blank, although Savo stated during Hamden’s meeting that she would begin working there at “the beginning of December,” and she referred to Wilton as her “previous employer.”

Unfinished FY2026 Accounting Work

Savo stepped into her Wilton job on Dec. 8, 2025. Even though FY2025 had ended June 30, 2025, the year’s accounts still hadn’t been closed and officials knew the town wouldn’t meet the state Office of Policy and Management’s (OPM) Dec. 31, 2025 deadline to file audited financial statements, nor would the audit be finished in time to make Wilton’s Feb. 28, 2026 filing deadline under its Securities and Exchange Commission municipal bond continuing disclosure agreement.

Savo was also walking into a situation where the Finance Department’s transition to the new MUNIS financial software — targeted to be done by July 1, 2024 — was far from complete. She later told officials that the pooled cash, fixed assets and account reconciliations were identified as major problems. What’s more, the FY2027 budget development process was just on the horizon and scheduled to begin in January 2026.  

Based on statements Savo made at last week’s Audit Remediation Subcommittee meeting (Oct. 27) as well as at BOS and BOF meetings in the last six months, whoever steps into the CFO’s role next will face a similar situation. Even though Wilton’s overdue Fiscal Year 2025 audit was filed Oct. 20, 2026, Savo outlined work that is still needed on FY2026 accounts.

Among the unresolved issues was pooled cash accounting. Savo said accounting consultant Joseph Centofanti had eliminated “the pooled cash account” and “changed the way it was being done” for FY2025. She said she still needed to meet with Centofanti to understand the changes he made, and then consult with the auditors about how the accounting should be structured going forward.

Correcting FY2026 would require “a lot of manual entries,” she said.

Although finance department staff had begun working on the cash reconciliations, Savo said those fixes would be complicated. “If your beginning balances are off, then you have to wait. We have to wait for Joe to, you know, to find out.”

As of Oct. 27, no meeting with Centofanti had yet been scheduled.  

Savo also shared that she did not think the way fixed assets had been set up in the system “was the best way to do it,” and she said she wanted the town’s audit firm, CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) to review the pooled cash and fixed asset account structures in MUNIS. 

“Those shouldn’t be difficult items for their consultant arm,” she said.

Although Savo indicated FY2026 tax reconciliations remained incomplete, she said finance and tax department staff had been trained to reconcile activity between the tax collection system and MUNIS. She said FY2027 tax reconciliations were current while staff worked through the prior year.

FY2026 Audit Schedule Remains Uncertain

At her meeting with Audit Remediation Subcommittee members, Savo outlined the accounting work that needed to be completed before auditors could begin.

“The goal, I would say, is to try to get the [FY2026] trial balance ready by the end of the year,” she said.

Describing the audit process she’d experienced elsewhere, Savo said things typically start earlier. Auditors would usually meet with finance staff in June or July and perform preliminary work during the summer before undertaking the bulk of their fieldwork in the fall, and that’s when they would request a completed trial balance.

Savo said she did not know what schedule Wilton’s auditors CLA had followed in the past but acknowledged they had not yet performed any preliminary FY2026 work.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, the ordinary state filing deadline for the audit is Dec. 31, 2026.

Savo told the Audit Remediation Subcommittee members she anticipated CLA would be able to start its FY2026 audit work in January 2027 but the firm’s availability remained uncertain and no dates had been finalized.

“We’re pretty late with even discussing that,” she said.

Financial Reports and Budget Forecasts

Savo presented projected FY2026 actual-to-budget results to the Board of Selectmen on Aug. 17. The report showed 20 BOS cost centers over budget and projected approximately $200,000 in savings after reserve fund transfers.

The Aug. 17 BOS meeting was the last time the selectmen received an update on FY2026. The Board of Finance has not received any FY2026 results.

For the current fiscal year, FY2027, Savo presented a financial report covering activity through September at the Oct. 19 BOS meeting. It projected an overall year-end surplus of approximately $1.99 million, reflecting higher-than-budgeted revenue and reserves expected to remain unused.

That forecast included BOS operating expenses exceeding budget by approximately $159,308 after vacancy savings and debt service exceeding budget by $80,000. Both projected overages were included in the overall surplus forecast.

Bond Issuance and Unresolved ARPA Funding

The town was unable to issue any bonds during FY2026 due to the delay in the completion of the FY2025 audited financial statements. With that now behind the town, Wilton would be looking to prepare for its next possible bond issuance, amidst any transition to a new or interim CFO.

But even before the next bond issuance opportunity, Wilton now has to resolve questions about federal funding assigned to the Guy Whitten Field project — including a potential $500,000 funding gap.

At the Oct. 13 Board of Finance meeting, Savo said auditors had identified a problem with the town’s use of American Rescue Plan Act funding for Guy Whitten Field: the necessary contractual commitment had not been made by the federal obligation deadline.

Savo suggested that funding previously assigned to the field project might instead be applied to eligible Police Department Headquarters expenses, with another source needed to cover the field project’s costs.

At the Oct. 27 Audit Remediation Subcommittee meeting, Savo again said she was investigating older FEMA reimbursements as a potential replacement funding source for Guy Whitten Field.

GOOD Morning Wilton sought comment from both Savo and the town’s bond advisor Barry Bernabe about how Savo’s departure from Wilton would affect the timing of the town’s next bond issuance and whether a transition in finance department leadership could delay the town’s anticipated schedule. Neither has responded by press time.

Staffing and Budget Preparation

Savo told the Audit Remediation Subcommittee that the Finance Department had “some staffing issues.”

She said one staff member was expected to be on leave beginning around the end of January, overlapping with both the anticipated audit period and FY2028 budget preparation.

Meanwhile, a Finance Department position vacant since late 2023 was only recently reclassified from an accounting role to a purchasing position. Savo said the job had been posted but then withdrawn while changes to the position were negotiated with the union. It has not yet been reposted.

Savo said the town had interviewed a promising candidate for an upgraded payroll accountant position, who would possibly replace a retiring bookkeeper/payroll clerk that would be working part time through the end of December to assist with the transition and training.

The staffing questions coincide with preparations for the FY2028 budget. Based on past years’ schedules, the department would hope to deliver BOS budget books to the selectmen at the end of January.

Savo was also responsible for overseeing the Human Resources Department. Following the retirement in February 2026 of former Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker, First Selectman Toni Boucher reorganized the town’s organization chart so that the HR department reported to Savo rather than the first selectman’s office. 

At last week’s Audit Remediation Subcommittee meeting, Savo said one vacancy in the HR department continued, but officials had decided to upgrade the position from a staff position to an assistant director position.   

The town has recently posted a job description for the open CFO position that does not include supervision of the Human Resources Department. That responsibility is assigned to incoming Town Administrator James Blanchfield under his employment agreement, which takes effect Nov. 9. The agreement specifically includes supervision of the Human Resources, Labor Relations and Administrative Services Department among his duties.

Revaluation and Other Responsibilities

Wilton’s next property revaluation is effective Oct. 1, 2027, adding another undertaking to the transition questions.

While Savo supervised Wilton’s Manager of Assessment and Tax Collection, the town’s recently posted job description for the open CFO position does not include supervision of that department.

The revaluation process requires months of work and assistance from outside contractors. For the town’s previous revaluation, effective Oct. 1, 2023, the contract with Vision Appraisal Services was approved in January of that year. The timetable for contracting with a vendor for the Oct. 1, 2027 revaluation remains unclear.

At the Oct. 19 BOS meeting, Selectman Matt Raimondi asked Boucher to put a revaluation status report on an upcoming meeting agenda. Boucher responded that it was “premature” to discuss the revaluation. Savo was at the meeting and did not comment on Raimondi’s suggestion.

GOOD Morning Wilton has reached out to both Savo and Assessor Hollie Rapp for details on the responsibilities of a CFO in preparing for Wilton’s revaluation and how any transition would impact the revaluation timetable. Neither has responded by press time.

Who Will Oversee the Remaining Work?

Healy told GMW that another leadership transition would require time.

“It will take time to contract with an interim CFO and then a permanent CFO. Last year it was four months between when Dawn Norton left and Dawn Savo started in the position. And almost 15 months between when Dawn Norton left and the FY2025 audit was filed. I don’t expect it will take that long this time.”

“When Dawn leaves there will be seven months until the June 30, 2027 OPM and Moody’s drop-dead deadlines,” Healy said. “I believe that date should be achievable as I expect the BOS now understands the importance of five day-per week in-person, properly supervised interim CFO that regularly engages with the elected boards.”