Wilton Selectmen Question Interim CFO Billing as Finance Budget Gap Looms Large

The costs for the interim chief financial officer were called into question on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at the Board of Selectmen meeting, but both the new CFO Dawn Savo and First Selectman Toni Boucher discouraged looking too closely at this time.

Selectman Matt Raimondi, who recently served as chair of the Board of Finance, raised questions about the hours being billed by Interim CFO Joseph Centofanti — in particular the billing at his customary rate for particular work that typically would be performed by a junior-level professional at a much lower hourly rate.

Over the past four months, Centofanti’s firm PKF O’Connor Davies has billed Wilton for a total of $146,349.75 for temporary services, most of which has gone to Centofanti, who bills at $375 per hour. 

While the first invoice for September 2025 offered no breakdown, the subsequent three invoices for October, November and December show Centofanti billed for 146 hours of “CFO Services” for a total of $54,750.

In that three-month period Centofanti also billed for 163.25 hours for “General Ledger Reconciliation Services” at $375 per hour for a total of $61,218.75.

“Theoretically, in a perfect world, you would have a staff accountant doing this at 100 bucks an hour,” Raimondi pointed out.

Along with his receipt of an unspecified portion of the September invoice, Centofanti also billed for 9.25 hours for “Audit Prep” for an additional $3,468.75.

Centofanti was brought in after the former CFO Dawn Norton resigned amidst controversy after it was discovered that she was working virtually from Wyoming and holding another full-time job there simultaneously for several months — supposedly without Boucher’s knowledge. The sloppy and poorly-led transition from one finance software program to another last year — coupled with multiple vacancies in Wilton’s Finance Department — also played a big part in multiple accounting mistakes made during the Board of Selectmen’s FY 2026 budget process and other areas as well.

Tuesday night, Raimondi acknowledged the original emergency need to engage Centofanti to help repair Wilton’s floundering Finance Department — even commending Boucher for her work in engaging his firm. He emphasized, however, that going forward it was prudent to at least ask Centofanti or his firm to consider adjusting some of its rates.

“For the record, I was not questioning how the funds were spent,” he said. “We absolutely needed that … I’m actually speaking about going forward.”

“I wonder — and I defer this to both of you guys since you’re running the show — if perhaps in terms of negotiations with him, like say, ‘Hey, the work that you’re doing we don’t need a CFO for. We want you, but maybe’ — and I know he’s discounting us already — ‘but a further discounted rate’.”

“Maybe there’s something where that could just make the budget a bit easier for us …,” he continued. “Realistically we should be paying $125 for that, not $375.”.

Selectman Rich McCarty shared his agreement with Raimondi.

“You don’t want to bill for partner rate time when he’s doing associate’s work,” McCarty said.

“I think we all agree on the depth of the challenges that we were facing and the importance of having found Joe to do this and his firm to do this,” he said. “I understand there’s a staffing problem, but there should be some consideration for the billing.”

Defending Centofanti’s billing, Boucher emphasized the emergency nature of having to bring him in at the beginning of September 2025. She also reminded the BOS of the challenge it was to find him, with freelance finance professionals in short supply, especially now as budget season approaches.

“We worked hard and in a very difficult time, and in a time when we needed help immediately. So I think that the funds are well spent, and making sure, again, that we do it right,” Boucher said.

Changing course now, she said, would present challenges, and bringing in anyone new to do the reconciliation work instead of Centofanti would require him teaching them what to do, implying it would be very time consuming.

“Your point is very well taken and certainly requires a conversation there, but if in fact they don’t have the staffing to do it, and they’re now knee-deep in audits for all of the other clients as well…,”

Savo also supported the status quo and letting Centofanti proceed with doing the work. She reiterated that there were state- and nationwide shortages of government finance auditors and the limited staffing PKF O’Connor may have encountered.

“I understand the concern about the cost, but I don’t think handing it off or trying to find somebody else to take that on, I think it’s going to cause more of a problem … I don’t want to dismiss the cost, but the intention is: Let’s get this done as quickly as possible. Let’s give them what they need to get this done,” Savo said.

Raimondi also asked about potential cost overages in the Finance Department’s FY2026 budget, but Savo was unable to provide budget-to-actual figures. Initial assumptions treated the cost of Centofanti’s services as essentially a swap for Norton’s salary as CFO; however, at this point there appears to be no clear accounting of the actual cost differential or whether sufficient funding remains to cover any gap.

According to town budget data, Norton’s salary was budgeted at $241,000 (wages and benefits) for the current fiscal year, or approximately $20,100 per month. That budget also assumed $110,000 in funding from the Board of Education for a shared CFO position; however, the sharing arrangement ended after the budget was adopted, leaving the Finance Department with a $110,000 shortfall the town must absorb.

For the first four months of Centofanti’s tenure as interim CFO, he has billed an average of $36,587.50 per month.

“It just creates the question that there’s going to be excess cost there, and therefore it would imply that we’re going to exceed the budget at some point,” Raimondi said, suggesting that they may want to set a budget for Centofanti going forward.

What About Process?

Separate issues have also prompted concern about Town Hall operations over the past year, however, including unauthorized tax credits, unauthorized contract approvals, and funding allocations that were not properly approved. 

Under Raimondi’s leadership, the BOF requested the formation of a Process Review Committee to identify an outside agency to look at operations in Town Hall, starting with the Finance Department and potentially expanding upward to review what former Process Review Committee Chair Sandy Arkell suggested was “sloppy governance at the board level.”

Norton’s departure, however, put the committee on hold. Since then, Boucher has repeatedly suggested that Centofanti’s presence and his work trying to mend financial procedures might make a closer examination of Town Hall by an independent party unnecessary.

Tuesday evening, the question of process in Town Hall operations was again broached, this time by new Selectman David Tatkow. Boucher again suggested that, as she believed Centofanti said he was tracking process fixes as he goes, there may be less need to bring an outside, independent opinion.

“I think he did say he was keeping track of the changes that were being made,” Boucher said, also once again suggesting that PKF O’Connor Davies could be the firm to handle that.

“Maybe they could be that company, since they’ve already done so much internal work, they would have a better understanding of what needs to be done from that process.

Previously, the town used the company that became PKF O’Connor Davies to handle its annual audit but dissatisfaction with the firm led the town to change vendors.

Selectman Ross Tartell also suggested that Town Hall operations might not require an independent eye.

“If he’s paying attention and people are paying attention and documenting the processes in a way that is properly re-engineering them, then there may be no need for a Process Review Committee,” Tartell said. “On the other hand, it may still be.”

“I think Dawn will provide guidance on that,” he said.

McCarty noted that, either way, the BOS should collectively process Centofanti’s time with the town.

“In the end I think we need to have a review with Joe and his engagement — what he’s found … so we can determine any action,” he said.