Newly elected Colchester First Selectman Bernard Dennler placed the town’s finance director, Mary Williamson, on paid administrative leave after she reported on alleged inappropriate payments for hotel stays by the town clerk that resulted in a Colchester Board of Selectmen meeting that can only be described as chaotic in the town of 15,500 residents.
“The Town has learned of allegations regarding your conduct involving purchases made which circumvented the normal budgeting and Purchase Order process,” Dennler wrote in the December 28, 2023, letter informing Williamson that she would be placed on paid administrative leave. “Additionally, a number of allegations have arisen concerning deficiencies in the Finance Department, which falls under your management. The Town treats matters of this nature very seriously.”
The administrative leave letter also came just one day after the town reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the Municipal Employees Union Independent (MEUI) Local 506 that established the position of finance director was not part of the union. That meant she could be disciplined or terminated without concern over the union filing a grievance.
The position had, in the past, been included in the union when the town employed a chief financial officer who had oversight of both the town and Board of Education finance directors. Since the CFO position had been dissolved in 2022, the union said the position of finance director now constituted a department head and was no longer eligible for union membership but Williamson’s inclusion in the union had become a point of contention.
Williamson was hired by the town in 2022 as an accountant and then made finance director in February of 2023 with a unanimous vote by the board of selectmen following the departure of the previous finance director. Williamson’s job offer listed the position as non-union. Although there was consideration of an agreement to make the finance director a union member, it was never voted on by the board of selectmen.
As of June 2023, however, the union was arguing that Williamson was the union. The position was included in the town’s labor contract — signed before the CFO position was eliminated — and she was listed by name as one of their members. Williamson had been paying union dues, which, according to the 2024 MOU, “were deducted as if the parties had agreed to include the Finance Director in the Union, which agreement had not been reached by or memorialized between the parties.”
Colchester Assessor and union steward John Chaponis wrote in an email that the union would take the fight all the way to the Connecticut Supreme Court if the finance director position were removed from the union.
“If the town is going to contest the new Finance Director being a part of my MEIU unit that clearly already includes the position of Finance Director we have no alternative but to fight it all the way to the supreme court if necessary and ask for all our expenses and attorney’s fees to be paid for by the town,” Chaponis wrote. “Anything less would be to sit idle and watch union busting.”
According to a November 2023 review by Shipman and Goodwin for the town, the Superior Court determined the position of finance director was not part of the collective bargaining unit, but the town had entered a memorandum of understanding with the union to include the position and the union was likely to have a “persuasive argument” to keep the position within their bargaining unit if the town tried to remove it. In general, there was a lot of confusion surrounding the union-eligibility of Williamson.
Confusion or not, the new MOU stated that the finance director was not a union position since there was no longer a town CFO. Williamson was placed on leave the very next day and informed she would be expected to cooperate with an administrative investigation.
The move came following former Republican First Selectman Andreas Bisbikos’ investigation into Colchester Town Clerk Gayle Furman, a Democrat, for her use of Preservation of Historical Documents funds to pay for hotel stays around Connecticut to attend conferences for the Town Clerks Association, something Williamson uncovered in the course of a town audit. Williamson also found that Furman allegedly used grant money from the State of Connecticut for absentee ballot processing to purchase a small refrigerator and used the town’s tax-exempt status to decrease the cost of a hotel room paid for with her own money.
These were not huge sums of money, and Furman had argued the expenses were allowable. The hotel stays were measured in hundreds but had occurred over a number of years, according to the report, and sometimes for hotels that were only a short drive from Colchester. Bisbikos pushed Furman to resign.
“The Town Clerk has openly disclosed in a public meeting and through documents the use of both the Historic Preservation Fund and the MERS account for various excluded items, with lodging being the most egregious. Through our internal investigations it has been identified that the scope of the impact was much greater than originally expected,” Bisbikos wrote in a September 1, 2023, email to the board of selectmen. “I have offered the Town Clerk the opportunity to resign. She interrupted my statement, used various curse words, stated she would never resign, and stormed out of the room slamming the door.”
The investigation was presented during a September 6, 2023, special meeting of the board of selectmen. The meeting was contentious, to say the least, with Democrat selectwoman Rosemary Coyle accusing Bisbikos of conducting an unauthorized investigation and politicking, and making a motion to move discussion of the report until December.
“You had no such power to investigate as there was no motion of the board of selectmen. This is your second illegal investigation,” Coyle said. “We the selectwomen of the board of selectmen are done with your political theater and chaos at our meetings so you can create political ads on Facebook for your re-election when there are so many important issues facing our town that we are not addressing.”
Selectman Jason LaChappelle argued Coyle was trying to push off the investigation until after the election to bury it. It was basically a political squaring-off between elected officials on the Colchester Board of Selectmen, with each side accusing the other of trying to play politics and leveling insults.
Bisbikos said he would not allow “the seeds of corruption,” to grow in Colchester and moved forward with presenting the evidence anyway. “There might be a motion tonight, but I’m presenting the evidence anyway,” Bisbikos said, inviting the dissenting selectmen to leave. “It’s quite clear why they want to act on this after December: to cover it up.”
Furman stood to speak after Bisbikos presented his evidence and said that she was not there to defend herself because it was an illegal investigation and said she didn’t put the hotel stays in her regular budget “because I did not want to burden the taxpayers with that kind of, paying for hotels for a conference.”
“This is an illegal investigation that our first selectman did. He’s not allowed to do that,” Furman said. “Only the attorney general can investigate a town clerk. That’s fine. He can investigate. I’m fine with that.”
A congenial Patricia Spruance, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, also spoke at the end of the meeting and indicated the funds Furman used for hotel stays were from a one-dollar fee allocated to the town clerk for administrative costs. According to Spruance, that money can be used for hotel stays to attend mandatory town clerk conferences – an assertion disputed in the investigation report.
Bisbikos did alert the Office of the Attorney General, which has the power to investigate town clerks and remove them if necessary. Reached via email, the Attorney General’s Office indicated they did receive a claim of town clerk wrongdoing out of Colchester in September and that their inquiry into the matter is ongoing.
Just two months later, the November 2023 municipal election saw challenger Dennler defeat Bisbikos by a wide margin, and Furman was re-elected as town clerk. According to voting records, Republicans in Colchester were trounced, including LaChappelle, who was listed as a Libertarian.
The defeat of Bisbikos was not entirely unexpected, according to sources. His tenure was marred by a vote of no confidence by the Colchester Republican Town Committee; he pulled a public-school library book from circulation, drawing backlash; and his interactions with fellow town officials and the public were, at times, confrontational. There is currently a lawsuit against Bisbikos and the town for terminating his executive assistant, Marli Rudko.
But the political change left Williamson adrift in a small-town political storm with a lot of town officials angry over how the town clerk matter had been handled. Dennler had campaigned alongside Furman and made getting the town’s finances under control part of his platform. Williamson quickly found herself on administrative leave, and there is currently an acting finance director listed for Colchester
During her short time as finance director, Williamson also butt heads with the town’s elected tax collector Michele Wyatt, another Democrat running for re-election in 2023, over deposits and a change of banks by the town, which was picked up by the Rivereast News Bulletin in April of 2023. Wyatt blasted Williamson, according to the report, stating, “We need a finance director who is going to handle the job correctly.”
A second incident in September of 2023 in which Wyatt accused Williamson of “illegally” depositing property tax checks made out to the Town of Colchester was recorded by Williamson. During the meeting between Wyatt and Williamson, Wyatt threatened to go to the media, and subsequently sent an email to a Colchester resident saying, “This administration – and I’ll be quite clear – our current first selectman and his finance director think they can do whatever they wish.”
“The finance director took your check and cashed it,” Wyatt wrote to the town resident. “My advice to you is to get an attorney and have him handle it. I will also tell you – 18 account (sic) in one day have been affected by their actions.”
Wyatt’s email to the town resident, and an email to the board of selectmen, didn’t sit well with LaChappelle, who fired off an email back to Wyatt, informing her of the voice recording and calling her accusations against Williamson “blatantly absurd.”
“This constant bullying of the finance department for political ends is wearing my patience thin,” LaChappelle wrote. “The town’s Finance Director deposited a check made out to the town into the correct town account. I don’t know in what world you think that’s illegal.”
Williamson had reached out to the President of CEUI/MEUI Carl Chisem to file grievances against the town after she was placed on administrative leave. Williamson argues that a job offer letter does not negate inclusion in the union, that she was not privy to the MOU discussions, and that the board of selectmen does not have the authority to determine who is in the union.
“There is nothing in the collective bargaining agreement between the town and union, or the bylaws of the union that describe a process where an employee needs authorization from the Board of Selectmen or an MOA to join the union,” Williamson wrote. “If the town felt I shouldn’t be in the administrator’s union then in June of 2023 they should have filed a complaint with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations.”
Chisem wrote back that because she was considered a department head, she was no longer represented. The dues Williamson had paid the union were returned.
Williamson has thus far refused to cooperate with the administrative investigation under threat of termination, arguing that she should have representation from the union. She has since filed complaints with the Board of Labor Relations against both the town and the union and has retained an attorney to represent her in the matter.
“I think it was one hundred percent political payback for a lot of reasons,” said former selectman Jason LaChapelle of Williamson’s administrative leave in an interview. “I think it was a huge mistake.”
Reached for comment, Dennler said he could not on personnel issues and directed Inside Investigator to the Attorney General’s office, indicating they were looking into the town clerk matter.
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The reporting on this topic is incomplete and is more a platform for disgraced former officials to justify their neglect of Colchester’s finances.
Missing are key facts about months of fuzzy and incomplete numbers from the finance department, $80,000 of consultants to “fix” financial problems, a massively delayed audit, a mess of a bank change, and other chaos and drama around town finances like unexplained transfers. Recently, hundreds of pages of budget corrections were released.
Of course people responsible for this mess want to make it seem like it’s all politics at play. In reality former officials spent time hunting for minor issues while ignoring and mismanaging Colchester’s finances.
The comment from Mr. Farrell should be taken with a grain of salt. He is on the local democratic town committee coming out to protect his “team” (Bernie Dennler, Rosemary Coyle).
If I recall correctly, Ms. Williamson and Mr. Bisbikos helped secure the town’s AAA bond rating and came under budget last fiscal year by nearly 10%. Mr. Dennler has admitted to spending 81% of the current budget with nearly a third of the fiscal year remaining. Rumor has it that he has spent nearly $200K in legal fees alone.
Mr. Bisbikos might not have been everyone’s flavor, but he accomplished more in two years than any other first selectman in recent memory. He held people accountable, which was new to the good old boys’ network in Colchester. At least no one ever accused him of being corrupt. Will the same be said for Mr. Dennler?
I’ve lived in Colchester for 43 yrs. I have not seen such blatant acts by the Democratic Party. Starting with Mary Bylone who was FS 3 yes ago. First and still a major contention in town is the new 11.5 Million dollars Senior Center. Backdoor politics abounded in this build. From the building committee to the Democratic selectpersons. Retaliation for speaking publically is a given. Finances in Colchester have been in question since Mary. Why would Ms Williamson be put on leave for speaking up over financial concerns? Why would she be replaced?! Mr Dennler is one of Mary’s puppets as are most democrats still doing her biding. Mary has a suspicious background herself. There is little to NO money in our general fund. Our bond rating has seriously dropped. People worked 18/20 years on committees to get this town set in taxes, and spending. Two years under Mary and it’s blown to hell! Her minions continue her work. I’m sick of all their nonsense. Right now it’s everyone for themselves. If you want as good a story you should investigate the new Senior center from start til now!! 11.5 Million and we had black mold growing on the already separating plywood!! Taxes taxes and more taxes with just plans to spend spend spend.