Peter's Place

The Offline Government (Part 1): The Blind Checkbook On January 3rd, they boasted of "Strong Finances." On that same day, internal logs show the Town didn't know how much money was in the bank. By Peter C. Frank The Bloomfield Dispatch  (Read Part 4.5 ) BLOOMFIELD, CT — On January 3, 2025, the political leadership of Bloomfield took a victory lap. In a public post, Town Council leadership boasted of the Town’s "AA+ Bond Rating" and "Strong Finances," explicitly crediting the "Mayor, Town Manager, and CFO Hill" for their stewardship. They told residents that the ship was steady and the course was true. But internal correspondence obtained by The Bloomfield Dispatch reveals a stark contradiction: On the very same day leadership was publicly celebrating fiscal stability, the Finance Department’s own internal logs showed they had ceased reconciling t...

The Audit Scandal & The $21 Million "Ghost" By Peter C. Frank ,   The Bloomfield Dispatch  (Read Part 2.5 ) BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut , December 3, 2025 – In Part 2.5 , we discussed how the tax phase-in is a mathematical trap. But taxes are only half the equation. The other half is how the Town manages the money it already has. And right now, nobody seems to know exactly where that money stands. As of today, the Town of Bloomfield is effectively operating blind. The Fiscal Year 2024 Audit , which covers the period ending June 30, 2024, is effectively 11 months overdue (it was due December 31, 2024). Without this audit, the Town Council cannot accurately budget, the bond rating agencies cannot accurately assess the town's risk, and taxpayers cannot know if their money is safe. Why is the audit late? (Again?) While the Administration remains silent (despite repeated attempts to obtain comment), a review of the previous year’s audit reports (FY2023) uncov...