A long-time attorney for Hartford’s Pension Commission claims she and another attorney hired by the Commission were improperly terminated by the city’s corporation counsel as “political retaliation” for Hartford Treasurer Carmen Sierra questioning the residency status of former pension commissioner and state treasurer Shawn Wooden in a January 2026 letter to the commission.
“Corporation Counsel Jonathan Harding has written to inform me that he has fired me from providing further services. He sent a similar letter to Attorney Beccaro, in effect erasing your ongoing legal team,” wrote attorney Lisa Silvestri, who worked for the city for 20 years, serving the Pension Commission for fourteen years. “He did this without consulting the Pension Commission or Treasurer Sierra. It is transparently obvious that this is political retaliation against Treasurer Sierra for having questioned whether Commissioner Wooden’s move to Farmington would have automatically terminated his tenure on the commission, as the Charter provides, and for informing the City Council that this was a problem.”
Hartford’s Pension Commission, which is meant to provide oversight of pension investments and management, experienced a breakdown recently when it lost two of its three members – Joshua Gottfried was removed from the commission by Sierra and Shawn Wooden stepped down shortly thereafter, citing ethical and fiduciary concerns over Sierra’s handling of the city’s $1.2 billion Municipal Employee Retirement Fund (MERF).
Pension Commission meeting minutes show disagreement between Sierra and the commissioners over who would serve as counsel to the commission, along with various other points of contention, including Wooden’s residency status.
But Silvestri also points to “political interference” into the Pension Commission by the mayor’s office in trying to use money from the Other Post Employment Benefits trust to fix a Hartford Board of Education budget deficit.
According to a November 6, 2025, letter from Sierra to Hartford Corporation Counsel Jon Harding, former state treasurer Shawn Wooden was a resident of Hartford when he was initially appointed to the Pension Commission by Mayor Arunan Arulampalam in April 2024. But while vetting Wooden, Sierra and attorneys Steven Mednick and Silvestri “discovered parenthetically and to our surprise that Mr. Wooden, unbeknownst to any of us, had moved from Hartford to Farmington, and registered there as an elector.”
“It has been my long-standing understanding that the City Charter prescribes an elector or residency requirement for membership on the Commission, a belief which was shared by the lawyers who advise the Treasurer and Pension Commission,” Sierra wrote. “My critical concern is the need to address any potential legal impact of conducting meetings while there are any issues pertaining to residency. I want to ensure that any actions the Pension Commission takes involving the management and oversight of literally over one billion dollars for pension funds are done transparently, legally, and correctly.”
Property records show Wooden, who did not seek re-election for State Treasurer in 2022 and now works for the investment firm Apollo Global Management, purchased a $2 million home in Farmington in August 2025.
Sierra wrote that Wooden is a “personal friend” and his possible termination “would be a blow to the Commission and me,” asked that any Commission business be put on hold until a legal opinion is given regarding Wooden’s ability to serve. Sierra also mentions long-time Commissioner Gene Goldman, who “was when initially appointed and has continuously remained, a resident of Wethersfield,” and wrote that the potential loss of Goldman would “negatively impact the Commission.”
A month later, Harding came back with an answer indicating that although the city charter requires residency in the city of Hartford to serve on boards or commissions, under the special act that created the Pension Commission, there is no mention of a residency requirement. Harding writes that when there appears to be a conflict between a general ordinance and a more specific ordinance, “the provisions of one statute that specifically focuses on a particular problem will always, in the absence of express contrary legislative intent, be held to prevail.”
“Given all of the above, the Pension Commission is not subject to the electorship requirement of boards and commissions,” Harding wrote in the December 11, 2025, letter to Sierra. “Given the history of the Pension Commission, as noted above at length, there is no reason to believe that the work of the Pension Commission would be invalidated by the history of non-electors serving on the Commission. I would recommend that you allow the work of the Pension Commission to resume.”
Silvestri claims that it was shortly after Harding released his opinion that she and fellow Pension Commission Counsel Bill Beccaro were fired by Harding, by canceling prior approval of Silvestri’s retainer agreement. Silvestri warns that this expansion of power could enable Harding to essentially cancel any contract the Pension Commission enters, including contracts by investment managers and advisors.
“If you accept Mr. Harding’s new stratagem, these decisions may be out of your hands and made by others with no fiduciary obligation,” Silvestri wrote.
Silvestri claims Harding flip-flopped on the question of Wooden’s residency issue, wrote a decision “to neutralize the Charter,” and that “the cloud over Mr. Wooden’s continued participation is a weak point that can be exploited in any legal dispute with the Commission.”
Silvestri also claims further “political interference” by Harding and Wooden in 2024 when the Hartford Board of Education was facing a budget deficit.
Mayor Arunan Arulampalam in May 2024 indicated the public schools budget deficit would be bridged, in part, through a $5 million transfer from the OPEB Trust Fund to the BOE, and Silvestri claims Harding appeared before the Pension Commission and joined Wooden in urging “the Commissioners to approve a 5 million dollar withdrawal of OPEB funds to address a supposed need announced publicly by the Mayor to avert the supposed layoff of hundreds of teachers.”
Although the mayor made public statements saying there would be a withdrawal from the OPEB Trust Fund, nowhere in the Pension Commission meeting minutes does it show Harding or Wooden discussing the matter, and it appears the BOE wasn’t on board with the plan either.
According to comments made by HPS Director of Communication Jesse Sugarman to CT Public, the school system was “unaware of such plans,” and that “we would essentially be using our own money to fund our general budget, and the city would not be providing anything in addition to the $1 million for crossing guards.”
OPEB meeting minutes show no discussion of an OPEB transfer to BOE by Harding or anyone else until July 2024, when the BOE sent a formal request to withdraw $1.4 million from the OPEB Trust to cover net retiree OPEB expenses.
“As discussed in the May meeting, it remains our intent to be conservative with the use of the BOE OPEB Trust,” Deputy Superintendent for Hartford Public Schools Paul Foster wrote. “That said, as we approach the close of FY2024, we are facing a deficit caused by an increase in tuition of more than $10 million since FY2023 (including a 17.1% increase in special education tuition) and fringe expenses running $3.3 million over budget. By covering our net retiree OPEB costs with the OPEB Trust we will preserve more of the non-lapsing fund to support the budget in FY2025.”
According to meeting minutes from September 2024, the BOE’s request was approved by the Pension Commission and was then reduced to $1.3 million due to changes in costs.
While it was initially reported that Hartford BOE’s budget deficit that year could result in the layoff of 162 teachers, the BOE reduced that number to 30 through “retirements, resignations, filled vacancies, and existing empty positions,” according to CT Public.
“The pattern of interference here is clear: the Corporation Counsel, who is in the Mayor’s line of command, has acted to weaken the Treasurer and the Commission by substituting himself for the existing legal team, by papering over a Charter problem, by positioning himself to take control of the Commission’s contracts, and by attempting to manipulate the OPEB fund,” Silvestri wrote. “All of this has the potential to change the management of the City’s retirement programs into a political mechanism no longer under the legitimate control of an independent Pension Commission.”
Harding did not not respond to request for comment, but Sierra wrote in a statement to Inside Investigator that the Treasurer’s Office “must remain independent and cannot become a politicized entity used as the city’s power brokers see fit.”
“The independence guaranteed and protected by my leadership has brought residents unprecedented growth of the pension fund,” Sierra wrote. “Our pension fund security and returns have never been stronger.”
During the January 30, 2026, Pension Commission meeting, commissioners appeared to butt heads with Sierra over which attorneys would serve the Commission and help establish “governance program that addresses fiduciary responsibilities and ethical standards.”
The Pension Commission indicated it “no longer wanted to continue Attorney Steve Mednick’s contract regarding the pension commission’s governance project,” that the Commission was “no longer comfortable with Attorney Mednick,” and wanted to use Jonathan Harding’s Corporation Counsel Office for legal support.
Sierra argued Mednick was under retainer and questioned why the Commission was no longer comfortable with his services after having voted to extend his contract the previous year.
During discussion over hiring General Counsel for the City of Hartford Treasurer’s Office, “Sierra noted that due to previous history with the Corporation Counsel’s office, the decision was made to hire and internal General Counsel to best serve the Pension Commission,” according to meeting minutes.
The Pension Commission then went on to extend the contract for Bill Beccaro, who was reportedly fired by Corporation Counsel per Silvestri’s letter, another sixty days, and postpone posting of the General Counsel position for sixty days.
It appears the issue of hiring an internal General Counsel was not broached again before the Pension Commission broke down in May, and Beccaro remains on contract as the only attorney for the Pension Commission at this time aside from corporation counsel.
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Steve Mednick is Connecticut’s leading municipal charter attorney and his ethical record and his quiet, ceaseless service to the cause and preservation of self-government has few equals. Firing Steve Mednick is not a great look. But this is excellent journalism. Thanks!