After weeks of post-election political squabbling on local social media, Bloomfield is headed toward resolution of perhaps the most divisive issue in town: overdue annual budget audits.
Debate about why the town has fallen behind in annual financial examinations has been dominating already-fiery political conflicts, with critics of local government suggesting cover-ups or incompetence while most of the Town Council contends Bloomfield’s ledgers are fine and the audit process is getting back on track.
Moody’s recently removed its Aa2 rating for Bloomfield citing “insufficient information” about its finances; local officials said that carries no penalty, however, because the town’s bond issues are rated by S&P.
Understaffing in the finance department across several years is to blame for the persistent delays in completing the fiscal 2024 audit, according to the town officials. As of mid-fall, they were hoping to have it completed by the end of this year — and then work on the 2025 audit.
Critics say taxpayers are running out of patience.
“The issue is not politics. It is not drama. It is not about winning an argument,” former Deputy Mayor Rickford Kirton said in a lengthy Facebook post this week calling for all audits to be promptly completed and submitted to the state. “It is about the financial health and stability of Bloomfield.”
Kirton, who lost his recent bid to win election back onto the council, has been vocal in his displeasure with the current council and is pursuing a lawsuit to overturn the 2025-26 budget.
Councilor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown, who won office last month as a challenge candidate, is also raising audit questions. When the council recently discussed its winter timetable for reviewing and approving a 2026-27 budget, she said it’s important to know the correct figures for the past two years.
“I’m a little concerned about what our jump-off point is because of not having an audit,” she told the council in November. “I try to bring the town budget down to the basic level of my house budget: If I’m not quite sure what I have — expenditures or income, all those things — it’s going to be difficult for me to put a budget together.”
“In a normal world you are absolutely correct,” Finance Director Darrell Hill replied. “There is sufficient information with regard to approximate levels of unassigned fund balance.”
Hill said his staff is “diligently working” to complete the fiscal 2024 audit.
“Then there’s the 2025 audit, which won’t be completed before the budget is developed,” Hill told the council. “We will roll right into the 2025 budget in much beter shape than the ’24 budget was when I joined the town, with the expectation that it will be completed before June 30 so we don’t again cross over into being non-compliant.”
Communities that don’t submit audit reports by Jan. 1 covering the previous fiscal year are considered “delinquent,” and if they haven’t fixed that within another six months they’re categorized as “non-complaint.”
Kirton wrote that more delays can’t be accepted.
“Until the 2024 audit is completed and released, no one can honestly say whether our town is financially strong, financially vulnerable, or heading toward financial stress,” he said. “A municipal audit is not paperwork. It is the yearly financial health report of our town.”
Critics of former Mayor Danielle Wong’s administration said throughout the last election campaign that town government should hire consultants or more staff to complete the catch-up work. But they failed in their bid to replace the current council with a challenge slate; DeBeatham-Brown, who accumulated more votes than anyone on the ballot, was the only winner without party endorsement.
Online partisan sniping grew worse after the council jettisoned its tradition of naming the top vote-getter as mayor by choosing Anthony Harrington instead of DeBeatham-Brown, who served as mayor before Wong.
Soon after the election, Kirton publicly complained that newly elected Democratic Councilor Darrell Goodwin had blocked him on his official Facebook page after he questioned Goodwin about voting for Harrington.
“If this were an ordinary citizen, it wouldn’t matter to me. But this is an elected official in his first week in office,” Kirton wrote. “Blocking residents for asking legitimate questions is not the behavior we should expect from anyone chosen to serve this community. He also owes the community an explanation for why he did not support the will of the people.”
“I remain fully committed to serving the people of Bloomfield. For any town-related concerns or comments, my official town-issued email is always available and is the appropriate place for that communication,” Goodwin posted in response. “At the same time, persistent harassment or disruptive behavior on my personal social media accounts is not a requirement of public service. Like any resident, I have the right to set healthy boundaries, and I will continue to do so when necessary.”
That led Republican Councilor Shamar Mahon to disagree.
“It’s unfortunate to see you take the same course of action that our former mayor, Danielle Wong, took when it came to residents that disagreed with her,” Mahon wrote. “Instead of engaging with them and trying to understand their complaints with your service, you dismiss and block. The issues presented to you are a key part of our democracy and hearing them is a part of being an elected official.”