Peter's Place

The Offline Government (Part 2): The Digital Blackout By Peter C. Frank   |   The Bloomfield Dispatch (See also: Breaking News: The Town Manager's Legal Troubles ) The “Shadow Ledger” In Part 5.1 , we analyzed the collapse of cash reconciliation—the Town’s inability to balance its own checkbook for 15 months. But the Finance Director’s letter to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) reveals a deeper, more systemic failure. It wasn't just that they stopped checking the math; it’s that they stopped using the calculator entirely. Reasons #6 through #10 of the "13 Reasons" paint a picture of a Digital Blackout —a period where the Town of Bloomfield effectively ceased to operate as a modern digital government and reverted to an "Offline" state, running a $100 million corporation on what effectively amounts to loose paper and unverified spreadsheets. But before we analyze the specific failures, we must addr...

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...

  A Case Study in Contradictions When "Transparency" Means "Opacity." The Facts Behind the Mayor's Fact Check. By Peter C. Frank The Bloomfield Dispatch  (Read Part 4 ) 🗄️ Key Documents Reviewed This report is based on the following primary source documents obtained via FOIA and public record: OPM Warning Letter (July 18, 2025): Identifying "Tier I" eligibility. Finance Status Report (Aug 4, 2025): Admission of 15-month "offline" tracking. S&P Global Correspondence: Clarifying OPEB liability reduction. Town Council Minutes (Aug '24 - Dec '25): Documenting meeting cancellations. Download Mayor's Speech Transcript (PDF) » BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut, December 12, 2025 — On Monday night, December 8th, Mayor Anthony Harrington delivered a 15-minute address to the Town Council and the viewing public. He labeled recent reporting on t...