Key Points
- Wilton officials acknowledge the town will miss the Jun. 30 deadline for completing its state-required audit.
- The reconciliation of key financial accounts remains unfinished, and officials could not provide a timeline for completion.
- Wilton’s bond advisor said the town’s credit rating should remain strong if the audit is completed before the end of the year.
Why It Matters: The delayed audit raises ongoing questions about the town’s financial reporting process and the costly reconciliation effort, while affecting Wilton’s ability to issue new bonds until the audit is completed.
Wilton will now miss the June 30 deadline for completion of the state-mandated audit as the reconciliation of key financial accounts — including the town’s general fund for Fiscal Year 2025 — remains unfinished.
Despite months of assurances that the outstanding financial work would be completed through the efforts of Finance Department consultant Joseph Centofanti, who was brought on as interim chief financial officer last August, Wilton CFO Dawn Savo is now saying she cannot say for sure when the work will finally be done.
“It’s a work in progress,” Savo told the Board of Finance on Tuesday, Jun. 9, noting that she continues to meet regularly with both Centofanti’s firm, PKF O’Connor Davies, and representatives from CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, the company conducting the audit.
Asked when Centofanti’s reconciliation work might finally be completed, Savo said, “Since I’m not personally doing it I don’t want to speculate on that date.”
According to BOF Chair Tim Birch, CLA principal Leslie Zoll — who is again leading Wilton’s audit — told him that the reconciliation of the town’s general fund remains incomplete, preventing auditors from completing their work.
“I had a conversation with her yesterday … She told me a few things. Number one is that the reconciliation of general funds has not been completed. Until that is completed she cannot conduct her audit in the fashion necessary,” Birch said.
State Unlikely to Penalize Town for Missing Deadline
Regarding the ramifications of missing the Jun. 30 deadline, Birch said Zoll told him that the state is unlikely to take any action against Wilton.
“I’ll use her words: Since Covid, the number of towns that have not made the Jun. 30 deadline has been pretty large,” he told fellow board members.
According to Birch, Zoll said she has 12 municipal clients that will miss the Jun. 30 deadline this year and that some municipalities have yet to complete their 2024 audits.
He said she added an extra bit of assurance, telling him, “The municipal authority that governs this is so backed up.”
Consequently, Zoll told Birch that it was unlikely the state would take any action provided the town remains in communication with the state and continues providing status updates at least every two weeks.
Savo also said she didn’t believe there would be meaningful ramifications from the state for missing the audit.
“So far they’re approved all of our extensions … We are meeting regularly with PKF and CLA,” Savo said.
Questions Continue Over Consultant’s Role and Cost
For months, members of both the BOF and the Board of Selectmen have expressed their strong frustrations and concerns over the lack of public updates and seeming absence of Centofanti, who has declined repeated requests by both boards to attend their meetings and discuss his progress on reconciliation efforts.
Savo and First Selectman Toni Boucher have continued to defend Centofanti, maintaining that because he is now serving as an accounting consultant rather than interim CFO, he is not obligated to respond to the boards’ requests to appear before them or provide them with updates directly.
Board members, however, have disagreed, noting that as a consultant being paid $375 an hour by the town, Centofanti should be more responsive to elected officials.
While all complete invoices were not available from the town, records show that from September 2025 through April 2026, Centofanti has billed the town approximately $215,000, with an additional roughly $12,000 or so billed by members of his team. Some elected officials have estimated that Centofanti’s final charges could exceed $300,000 before his work is complete.
Birch, who has previously voiced disappointment with Centofanti’s failure to respond to his direct communication, recently described the prospect of Wilton missing the state’s audit deadline as an embarrassment for the town.
Bond Advisor Says Credit Rating Should Remain Strong
Although the worst-case scenario of missing the audit deadline as far as the state was concerned appeared to be at most paying a fine and meeting regularly with state officials to provide updates, town officials have also raised concerns about how the failure to meet the deadline might impact the town’s financial standing and its Aaa bond rating from Moody’s in particular.
On Tuesday, the BOF also heard from its bond advisor, Phoenix Advisors Managing Director Barry Bernabe, who answered a series of questions about the potential impact of Wilton failing to meet the audit deadline on the town’s bond rating and ability to borrow.
Bernabe noted that several other Connecticut municipalities, including five that share Wilton’s Aaa rating, have also thus far failed to complete their 2025 audits.
Bernabe was less concerned about the Jun. 30 deadline, but emphasized the importance of having the audit done before the end of December.
“It’s the policy of Moody’s that they give municipalities a year and a half,” Bernabe said.
He noted that the town’s credit position is still currently “very, very strong.”
However, he cautioned that should the town not complete the audit by the end of December, Moody’s would completely withdraw the rating attached to Wilton’s outstanding bonds.
In the meantime, Wilton can continue using the rating issued in June 2025 for bond issuances through the end of this month. After Jun. 30, however, the town will be unable to issue new bonds until the Fiscal Year 2025 audit is completed and a new rating is issued.
“We will not be able to issue new bonds until that audit is released,” Bernabe said.
The bond issuing process, he said, typically takes about two to three months from start to finish.
