Council Resolution to Close 2025-2026 Budget with a Surplus; Saying it Covers Costs of Potential Stewart Malfeasance and “Poor Budgeting”
A New Britain City Council resolution closes the City budget for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 with what it says is a surplus, under Mayor Bobby Sanchez (D), after covering what the resolution calls “poor budgeting” and potential malfeasance under ex-Mayor Erin Stewart (R).
The resolution says that the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget, “absorbed the impacts of potential financial malfeasance prior to November 12, 2026, including personal charges to the City’s credit card which are subject to an FBI investigation and potentially improper payouts to staff,” expenses including,
$121,978.88 to the former Mayor Erin Stewart,
$34,758.95 to the former Chief of Staff Justin Dorsey,
$10,692.23 to the former Deputy Chief of Staff Brock Weber,
$10,696.14 to the former Director of Communications Rachel Zaniewski,
$4,119.23 to the former Executive Aide to the Mayor Desiree Rivera
In general, the resolution says, “prior year surpluses have been exaggerated by poor budgeting of known revenues, one-time revenues, and multiple years of debt refinancing that reduced current year debt payments at the expense of future years.”
“[T]he City has multiple accounts that exceeded budgeted expenses in prior years and year end results need to be transferred in order to provide funding for these items,” the resolution says, citing, “$512,431.36 for a Freightliner purchase for the Sewer Department that was approved on June 25, 2025 with a resolution indicating funds were available even though they were not without the use of fund balance,” “$288,687.35 to close non-budgetary funds with deficit balances resulting from overspending in prior years with no funding source identified,” “$80,677.11 to fund grant expenditures that were overspent in prior years,” and “$61,188.40 to close prior year projects that overspent their budget and/or project funding.”
The resolution also says that the city had to reclassify expenses, “to the General Fund to correct the longstanding practice of paying for General Fund expenditures out of other funds,” including, “$90,247.29 for the Director of City/School Relations Paul Salina’s salary, usually paid for out of school construction bond funds with interest over the life of the bond even though it is not an eligible school construction expense,” and “$63,133.14 for Finance salaries, usually paid for out of a non-budgetary Pension Fund, the Workers Comp Fund, and the Medical Self Insurance Fund.”
The resolution says that the city ended the budget year with a $96,536.26 surplus, which, “represents a real and accurate accounting of the City’s financial performance for the year,” crediting it to, “Mayor Sanchez’s hiring freeze and $1.6 million in additional tax collections due to increased enforcement actions on delinquent taxpayers, among other positive results under the current administration.”
The resolution reallocates that $96,536.26 surplus to expenses of the Holmes school construction project.
The resolution is on the agenda of tonight’s Council meeting.
