New Britain Mayor Bobby Sanchez said Wednesday he has directed the city’s corporation counsel to sue his predecessor, Erin Stewart, over more than $100,000 in legal costs incurred documenting how she improperly boosted her income over 12 years running city hall.
The action comes after Stewart missed the first of three deadlines the city set in a letter demanding $241,560 from its former mayor to recover the legal costs, along with tuition reimbursements and severance payments — all elements of a scandal that derailed her campaign for governor in May.
“I have directed Corporation Counsel to immediately pursue every available legal remedy to recover the full amount owed to the City and to protect the interests of New Britain’s taxpayers,” Sanchez said in a statement.
Stewart did not respond to a request for comment.
On June 4, the city’s corporation counsel, William C. Rivera, outlined what Sanchez says is only the initial demand for restitution from Stewart, whose actions are also the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
Rivera had demanded reimbursement of the legal costs no later than July 1, as well as $121,979 for severance payments by Aug. 1, and $31,561 for the tuition reimbursements by Sept. 1. Rivera says the severance and tuition payments were unauthorized.
“Our administration has been clear from the beginning: Taxpayers should not be forced to bear the financial consequences of the actions of former public officials,” Sanchez said. “We remain committed to making the City whole and will take all appropriate legal action necessary to recover these funds.”
The city has yet to make a demand for repayment of what is expected to be a significant portion of the $207,076 in purchases Stewart made on a city credit card during her final decade as mayor. Those records still are being assessed, and Stewart has promised repayment for personal costs.
“Accountability does not end with acknowledging wrongdoing — it requires following through on the responsibility to make the taxpayers whole,” Sanchez said. “This administration will continue to insist on accountability, transparency and responsible stewardship of public dollars.”
Acting on behalf of Sanchez, the Democrat who succeeded Stewart in November, Rivera also notified Stewart last month that a pension calculated for her in violation of the city charter will not be honored.
Stewart was the front runner for the Republican endorsement for governor when she quit the race on May 14, a day before the opening of the GOP’s two-day nominating convention.
It was the same day the Crumbie Law Group, which had been hired by the Sanchez administration to investigate suspected financial improprieties, issued a report describing Stewart’s use of a city credit card as the “repeated and deliberate circumvention of the city’s purchase order system to benefit herself, members of her family, and her political campaigns.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
