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...

Part 2: The True Cost of Mismanagement By Peter C. Frank , The Bloomfield Dispatch  (Read Part 1 ) BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut, November 24, 2025 - In Part 1 , I discussed the silence of our elected officials in the face of administrative turmoil. In Part 2 , I am breaking that silence to look at the raw numbers. 🚨 BREAKING UPDATE: S&P Confirms "Weaker Management" & Cannot Explain $21M Data Gap [UPDATED 11:40 AM November 25, 2025] - In a response to questions from this reporter, S&P Global Ratings—the agency that assigns Bloomfield's AA+ credit rating—has acknowledged that the town's "management profile... is weaker relative to most higher-rated peers" and confirmed their analysis relies on unaudited financial data. The $21 Million "Phantom" Reduction: Crucially, when pressed to explain a $21.4 million discrepancy between the...

A Documented Pattern of Deliberate Obfuscation Uncovers An Intentional Path to Failure by Peter C. Frank, The Bloomfield Dispatch BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut, November 10, 2025 –  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) ...

Voters going to the polls for tomorrow's elections should be aware of a story of great importance regarding potential corruption and unethical practices in the Registrar of Voters office that city officials such as Mayor Bronin and the council would rather be kept quiet. Vanessa Garay-Jackson (fmr) Deputy Republican Registrar of Voters City of Hartford, CT Early last month, the Deputy Republican Registrar of Voters, Vanessa Garay-Jackson, was terminated from her position by the Republican Registrar of Voters, Sheila N. Hall, for no discernable reason other than what appears to be retribution for Garay-Jackson's successful bid against Hall to become the Republican Registrar of Voters. Upon reviewing documents I obtained regarding the termination, Garay-Jackson was initially dismissed from her position by Hall without notice on Friday, September 25, 2020 "effective the close of business today." No reason was provided in the termination notice, signed by Hall. A subseque...