Bloomfield's Crisis of Transparency:

A Documented Pattern of Deliberate Obfuscation Uncovers
An Intentional Path to Failure

In July 2025, Bloomfield's Town Manager, Alvin D. Schwapp, Jr. was fined $1,500 by the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC). The reason? "Deliberate Delays" on a public records request that had remained unfulfilled for over a year. And there are other formal, contested cases like Docket #FIC 2024-0425 also on record.

This isn't just incompetence. It is a state-sanctioned judgment. It is a smoking gun proving what many residents have long suspected: Bloomfield's local government operates under a culture of systemic, intentional obfuscation.

That culture of opacity is on full display right now. For five days, Bloomfield residents clicking the official "Election Results" banner on the town website (which, incidentally, is neither accessible nor mobile-friendly) have not been taken to a certified results page. Instead, they are routed directly to an "Alert Center" post titled "Unofficial Election Results."

This is not transparency. This is a systemic failure. These incidents are deliberate choices to provide the bare minimum in the most inaccessible way. And they are not two isolated incidents. They are part of a larger, documented pattern. Bloomfield is a town that:

• Normalizes Delinquency: Has publicly admitted in a Finance Committee meeting that it is already planning to be four months late on the FY 2025 financial audit (due Dec 31).

• Fails its Financial Duties: Is still listed by the state's Office of Policy and Management as "delinquent" on its mandatory financial audits for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023. As a result of missing the extended deadline, credit risk assessment firm Moody's withdrew the town's credit rating.

• Fakes Police Accountability: Provides a web form for citizens to file complaints against the police department, but then provides zero public data on the number, status, type of complaint, or resolution of those complaints, making true accountability impossible.

• Is a "Black Hole" for Data: Has a documented 2024 history of a 0% compliance rate on 12 public FOIA requests, as confirmed by FOIC quarterly reports.

• Passes Reckless Budgets Fueled by Unsustainable Gimmicks: The town's budgets are not just high—they are structurally unsound, revealing a clear pattern of accelerating fiscal dependency. For example:

• The FY2026 adopted budget, for example, was "balanced" by draining $3.75 million from the town's "rainy day" fund—an 87.5% increase in using one-time funds from the previous year's $2.0 million draw. This gimmick was used to fund massive, recurring administrative cost increases, including a 78% spike in the Finance/Administration budget alone. 
• The town's FY2025 adopted budget similarly demonstrated reckless spending, featuring a 6-7% year-over-year expenditure increase, including a staggering 7+% increase in debt service. This high-spending, contradictory budget (see p. 7 regarding capital projects) is touted as "excellent fiscal management"—a claim that is logically unsupportable.

• These observed behaviors are not considered "excellent fiscal management" by the gold accounting standard of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). In fact, they violate four core tenets of GAAP: chronic audit delinquency, increased reliance on fund balance, administrative bloat, and high debt service and expenditure increases. They are a deliberate, direct path to fiscal insolvency.

Tonight, the Town Council, led by the incumbent majority, is expected to re-elect its current leadership. This move is a direct message to residents: their concerns don't matter. The town essentially is telling its residents who have been raising concerns about this documented, deliberate obfuscation that it will continue to fall on deaf ears.

Nowhere could this be clearer than the response given by incumbent mayor Anthony Harrington when asked to comment:

I'm really not comfortable responding right now. I can say that I am excited about [tonight] and look forward to serving the great people of Bloomfield for another two years. We have a great team and believe we have the capacity to address any and all challenges facing our community in a positive and professional manner.

Suzette DeBeatham-Brown

However, Bloomfield's residents are not alone. A new coalition of leaders is ready to fight. Newly-elected Councilmember and former Mayor, Suzette DeBeatham-Brown, received the most number of votes in last week's election, according to the town's unofficial vote tally. She stated her intent to challenge this status quo:

It breaks my heart to see the people of this beautiful town I love so much become so bitterly divided, which is why I decided to step back into the spotlight and run again. I hope the council will hear the voters and allow this change to take place smoothly. But let me be clear: we are prepared for a two-year fight to bring accountability and transparency back to this government. The residents of Bloomfield have given us a mandate, and we will not back down.

Re-elected Councilmember Shamar Mahan has already identified a potential source of the problem:

I’ve said this before and I will continue saying it: the current council majority has only a singular focus and priority: themselves and their donors, who are the development interests in the town. They don’t care about the residents, the people who actually live here. They only care about the fancy developers who will change the nature and beauty that our residents love about what puts the Bloom in Bloomfield.

Newly-elected Councilmember Darrell Goodwin did not respond to a request to discuss these matters.

This fight is not about a broken website link. It is a fight against a documented, sanctioned, and deliberate culture of secrecy. Because what does it really matter if the town is late on submitting their audited financial statements?

Think of it this way: Imagine you called up all of your credit card companies and the bank that holds your mortgage (or your landlord, if you rent). You said the following: "I know I'm 1.5 years late but I'll get that to you next month. Oh, and in the future, I'm gonna pay you four or five months late going forward." Or imagine telling your boss that from now on, your work will consistently be four to five months late. What do you think would happen?

And to top it off, when asked for a reason as to why you're late, why you're doing what you're doing, you shrug your shoulders and walk away.

That's essentially what the town is doing, when it comes right down to it. And that's why there are laws that say our governments have to operate openly and with transparency. Because the people we elect--and the people they hire to run it in their absence--need to be held accountable. And the only way we can do that is if we know what they're doing.

We, the people, are the bosses in government, and yet we've forgotten that. The way we hold people accountable in government is either by keeping them in office, or voting them out. If they're not doing a good job, then we need to start exercising our right to vote them out. It's high time we wake up and smell the coffee, because we're all in a sinking ship. And it needs to be set righted before it runs aground.

The research is clear. Bloomfield is on a path to destruction. How quickly it will get there--or whether it can be saved--depends on what the council does at its first meeting tonight. Will they heed the voices of the growing minority who are waking up and realizing that good governance is not what is taking place in their town right now? That good governance is open, honest, and  transparent governance.

One can only hope that the incumbent majority will respect the clear mandate for change. Otherwise, it’s going to be an all-out brawl for the next two years, with the potential for Bloomfield to run aground.