Paying More for Less in Bloomfield: Part 2 - Administrative Expansion Amidst Public Service Reductions
By Peter C. Frank | Editor-in-Chief, the Bloomfield Community Dispatch
April 12, 2026
(Catch up on the series: Read Part 1 - The Reality of Bloomfield's Next Budget)
BLOOMFIELD — The Bloomfield Municipal Pool costs $261,480 to operate for a summer—providing swimming lessons for 700 residents, 30 summer jobs for young adults, and a cooling center during heat emergencies. Two administrative assistants in the Town Manager's office cost more than that: over $320,000 annually. In Town Manager Alvin D. Schwapp Jr.'s proposed FY2027 budget, the pool gets mothballed. The administrative assistants get a raise.
When a municipality eliminates essential public services, the standard assumption is that fiscal necessity leaves no other choice. An objective analysis of the FY2027 proposal tells a different story.
In Part 1, we documented how the town's excess fund balance could serve as a transitional bridge to restore refuse collection. In Part 2, we examine a second, complementary solution: benchmarking administrative compensation to restore recreation and aquatic programs without any additional draw on reserves.
During his presentation to the Town Council, Town Manager Schwapp confirmed that the Council never issued specific directives to execute these cuts to public services—stating instead that he acted on an "implied task." The admission is significant: it establishes that the elimination of the pool, the school-year recreation program, and the crisis fund were not mandates from Bloomfield's elected officials. They were administrative choices, made unilaterally by the Town Manager. The Town Council has full authority to reverse them.
It represents a deliberate structural choice to expand the executive bureaucracy while reducing the services most directly utilized by residents—including youth programming, aquatic facilities, and emergency financial assistance.
Public Reductions vs. Administrative Expansion
The proposed budget systematically dismantles community services to limit the property tax rate increase to 6.81%:
The Bloomfield Municipal Pool: A 325,000-gallon legacy community asset that recently underwent significant taxpayer-funded repairs will be effectively mothballed. Its operating budget is reduced by 95.5%, leaving the facility empty and eliminating 30 summer jobs for young adults and swimming lessons for 700 participants. What this means for you: Residents will no longer be able to utilize the pool as a cooling center during the hot summer days.
Parks & Recreation: The department faces a 41.39% ($579,348) reduction, resulting in the total elimination of the school-year recreation division and the loss of 6,290 programming hours. What this means for you: No more after-school programs to keep youth off the streets and out of trouble.
The Crisis Fund: The fund has been cut from $30,000 to $14,075—a reduction of nearly $16,000, leaving less than $14,100 for the entire fiscal year to cover emergency heating and eviction crises across a town of 21,000 residents. What this means for you: Emergency funds available to residents for winter heating assistance and eviction prevention have been cut by more than half.
In stark contrast, Total Town Administration's spending is set to increase by 9.4% (roughly $637,000).
Human Resources: Expanding by 16.6% to support just four full-time positions.
Operations & Communications: Expanding by 13.8%, with the addition of a part-time employee, causing a spike of 40.1%.
The Town Manager's Office: Expanding by 6.3%.
The Finance Department: The overall Finance budget is increasing by 6.2%, with Finance Administration specifically receiving an 11.4% increase—a budget expansion occurring despite the department completing the fiscal year 2024 audit 21 months late with two material weaknesses, an auditing term indicating severe deficiencies and vulnerabilities in the town's internal financial controls.
Inside the Finance Department's Failures
This 11.4% increase for Finance Administration occurs despite the department failing to meet statutory audit deadlines for four consecutive years (FY2021 through FY2024). Since the Finance Department is now predicting that the FY2025 audit will be completed in August 2026, that puts it two months delinquent, meaning the town will have submitted its audits delinquent for two years in a row. Internal correspondence with the State Office of Policy and Management (OPM) reveals that during this period, the Finance Department bypassed the official accounting system (MUNIS) for about 50% of the town's financial activity, relying instead on offline spreadsheets and failing to reconcile the five primary bank accounts for 15 months.
Similarly, the Town Manager's Office and the Operations & Communications division are receiving substantial increases despite leadership turnover and delayed audits causing the Town to lose one of its credit ratings and its sole remaining General Obligation debt rating to degrade from 'AA+' to 'AA'—a permanent downgrade that will increase future borrowing costs for taxpayers.
The Payroll Disproportion & Regional Realities
The true scale of this resource imbalance is visible in the town's payroll data when compared against our regional peers.
The Town Manager’s office, consisting of nine employees, requires $3.97 million in total compensation (which includes salary plus health insurance, pension contributions, and other municipal benefits, alongside town-provided vehicles for both the town manager and deputy town manager)—that's almost $4,000,000. Let us repeat that: The nine employees in the Town Manager's office require nearly $4 million in total annual compensation. By comparison, the entire Social & Youth Services department—which employs 103 people providing direct crisis intervention, foster care support, and youth diversion—costs $4.19 million. Nine individuals in executive administration cost the taxpayers nearly as much as 103 frontline social workers and support staff.
Further analysis reveals the Town Manager's office currently employs an administrative assistant with a base salary exceeding $110,000, with a request for a second such employee of equal salary. When factoring in the fully loaded costs of municipal benefits, pensions, and OPEB obligations, the estimated cost to the taxpayer is between $320,000 and $350,000 for these two positions.
A comprehensive salary comparison reveals a clear trend of specialized administrative bloat. The data below was sourced via a rigorous cross-examination of publicly available municipal payroll records and adopted budget documents from Bloomfield's primary regional peer group, prioritizing Windsor and Newington, followed by Wethersfield, Berlin, Vernon, Avon/Farmington, and Simsbury:
| Position / Benefit | Bloomfield | Windsor | Regional Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town Manager Salary | $187,000 | $198,424 | $113k - $200k+ |
| Vehicle Benefit | Assigned Town Car | Allowance | $500 - $750/mo |
| Executive Admin Asst | $110,000+ (Top Tier) / $59,506 (Avg) | $52,635 (Avg) | $45k - $75k |
| Administrative Analyst | $82,888 | N/A | $60k - $85k |
Furthermore, while the Town Manager’s $187,000 salary is generally aligned with regional executives, the executive perks are not. Most towns in the Hartford region have transitioned away from providing a physical "town car" (an assigned municipal vehicle). Towns like Windsor and Glastonbury instead utilize a standard monthly vehicle allowance (e.g., $500/month), shifting liability, maintenance, and insurance off the taxpayers' books.
This structural choice lies at the heart of the FY2027 paradox. The fully loaded cost of maintaining two executive administrative assistants ($320,000+) exceeds the operating cost of keeping the Bloomfield Municipal Pool open ($261,480). It is more than double the cost of the entire school-year recreation program ($142,858).
The Structural Solution: Administrative Benchmarking
Because non-union administrative positions are at-will, they are not protected by union contracts—meaning the Town Council can reduce or restructure them without triggering the seniority rules that would otherwise require laying off frontline workers first. The Town Council possesses the authority to reverse these priorities unilaterally.
To restore the defunded services without raising the mill rate further, the Council can execute immediate administrative benchmarking:
Consolidation & Right-Sizing: Standard municipal practice allows a multi-principal executive office to share a single administrative assistant. Consolidating to one position, and eliminating outdated perks like an assigned municipal town car in favor of a standard monthly allowance, instantly generates well over $175,000 in recurring savings—enough capital to fully restore the school-year recreation program or fund a shortened municipal pool season outright.
Benchmarking: The Council must aggressively benchmark all non-union administrative salaries against our exact peer group: prioritizing Windsor and Newington, followed by Wethersfield, Berlin, Vernon, Avon/Farmington, and Simsbury. Adopting a policy capping compensation at the 75th percentile of these comparable municipalities (meaning Bloomfield would pay no more than what 75% of peer towns pay for the same roles) will prevent future administrative compensation drift while preserving capital for frontline services.
Performance-Based Executive Accountability: Municipal executive compensation is currently treated as a fixed guarantee, regardless of administrative failure. The Council should institute performance-based executive contracts moving forward. Executive raises, bonuses, and allowances must be legally tied to objective municipal metrics—specifically the timely submission of the annual audit and the maintenance of the town's credit rating. If an audit is submitted delinquent or the town's credit is downgraded, executive compensation increases are automatically frozen. Furthermore, by transitioning from incremental budgeting to Priority-Based Budgeting (PBB), the Council can mandate that core community services (like the pool and crisis fund) are fully funded before any capital is allocated to executive expansion.
The administration has presented the elimination of public services as a mathematical necessity. The municipal payroll data confirms it is an administrative choice—one that the Town Council has the exact budgetary authority to correct.
Check back soon for the next part in our continuing series: Part 3: The Broken Ledger: Audits, Plugs, and the S&P Downgrade, where we investigate the 21-month delayed FY2024 audit, the 16-year accounting variance, and the verifiable reality behind Bloomfield's credit rating.
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