The brutal political divide in Bloomfield widened this week after S. & P. cut the town’s bond rating just before New Year’s, the first reduction in more than 15 years.
Critics of the current administration unleashed a barrage of criticism at how local government is being run, saying they’d warned that a years-long pattern of late audits reflected mismanagement and would eventually bring financial punishment to the town.
But town officials countered that the new rating AA still falls within S. & P.’s “very strong” investment-grade category, and that taxpayers won’t be harmed.
“No tax impact is expected as a result of this rating action as the town does not have plans to issue new debt instruments in the near future. The town’s financial position remains stable, and budget decisions continue to be guided by long-term planning and fiscal responsibility,” local leaders in a statement on the Truth & Transparency page of the town’s official website.
S. & P. Global announced Tuesday that it had dropped Bloomfield’s bond rating a single notch, from AA+ to AA. It also added the town on its CreditWatch list “with negative implications,” signaling a possible further reduction ahead.
“The lower rating reflects our downward revision of the management assessment due to a history of delayed audit filings,” S. & P. said in its statement. “The CreditWatch placement reflects the lack of timely and sufficient information to maintain the ratings.”
Ratings by independent bond houses are typically used as a measure of a community’s financial condition, and even small changes upward or downward may affect interest rates that taxpayers incur when the town issues bonds.
Before she resigned in August, Mayor Danielle Wong came under heavy political fire for annual financial audits repeatedly falling behind schedule during her tenure. After she was replaced by Anthony Harrington, he has become a target of the same criticism along with Town Manager Alvin Schwapp and Finance Director Darrell Hill.
In angry back-and-forth posts on various Bloomfield-related Facebook pages, critics of the administration and its defenders grew increasingly hostile and sarcastic this week.
Peter Frank, a prolific blogger who recently created the online Bloomfield Community Dispatch, has been posting a long series of articles chronicling what he sees as mismanagement in town operations. On Friday he put up a scathing editorial cartoon showing characters identified as Hill and Schwapp smiling nervously under a banner reading “Town is fine! Nothing to see” as town hall burns behind them.
The Courant invited Schwapp, Harrington and Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie to respond to the cartoon; Communications Director India Rodgers sent an email replying “The town has provided its official position through a formal statement, which reflects the most accurate and complete information regarding this matter.”
For the past two years a bitter rift within the local Democratic Party, which has dominated Bloomfield government for years, has been playing out on social media. In the past year, some out-of-power former officials and their allies have been implying the 2024 audit is so severely late because of incompetence or malfeasance.
Schwapp dismissed that talk with a post on the town’s Facebook page Tuesday evening.
“The rating change is related to the delays in completing the FY2021, FY2022, FY2023, and the pending FY2024 audited financial reports, not fraud, theft, depleted fund balance, elevated expenses, insufficient revenue generation or any other financial instability,” he wrote.
“Over the past several years, turnover in key leadership positions contributed to delays in audited financial reporting. The town has taken this seriously and has already addressed the issues,” he wrote.
In 2024 the town hired a new finance director, deputy finance director, payroll manager and purchasing manager. Bloomfield had also been through several town managers in short succession, and hired Schwapp that same year. He has said the new staff has improved accounting procedures and fiscal controls.
S. & P.’s latest report states “Given the delays in financial reporting, we view the town’s governance risk as elevated … The CreditWatch placement reflects that there is at least a one-in-two likelihood we could withdraw the rating within the next 90 days, depending on the town’s ability to provide us with its fiscal 2024 audit.”
But it also notes that the town is experiencing significant residential growth and grand list expansion, and praises management for conservative revenue projections.