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Town Council meeting Oct. 20 2025
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The audit of Enfield's $5.6 million school budget shortfall will not be released before Tuesday's election, despite a last-minute attempt Friday to schedule a special Town Council meeting.
Mayor Ken Nelson proposed a Monday night meeting, on election eve, during which the council could review the draft audit in executive session and then vote to release it to the public.
Democrats claim the meeting was never meant to happen. Nelson said he was doing his best to accommodate their request.
The issue that triggered the audit surfaced in 2024, when the Board of Education faced a $5.6 million budget shortfall. Council Republicans, then in the majority, covered it out of the town's reserves and ordered an audit. Because it happened under a Democratic Board of Education majority, it remains a political issue.
At the Oct. 20 Town Council meeting, town officials said the draft audit was ready, but wouldn't be released immediately. The plan outlined by Nelson at this meeting was to have the audit presented to the new council after the election.
Councilmember John Santanella, the Democratic minority leader, said he contacted Town Manager Matthew Coppler on Monday and asked if the report could be shared with council leadership. To ensure it wasn't leaked electronically, he suggested allowing leadership to read paper copies in Town Hall, but that couldn't happen because of a legal opinion.
The town manager was following legal advice that the Council must vote to release the report, Santanella said. That put Coppler "in a very difficult position."
Santanella said he was not obligated to contact Nelson directly: "We are all co-equal members of the council. There's this sense that we all work for the mayor. We don't."
The dispute came to a head on Friday.
The Friday Proposal
Friday, Nelson emailed council members proposing a special meeting on Monday night. He needed at least six members to confirm attendance to establish a quorum.
According to Nelson, only Democratic councilmember Cynthia Mangini confirmed directly with him. Republican members either had scheduling conflicts, responded too late, or felt the new council should handle the matter. Without a quorum, there was no meeting.
Nelson said Democrats had been pressuring the town manager to release the report, but under the legal opinion, only the Town Council can authorize its release since the Council ordered it. He said the town attorney recommended reviewing it in executive session first because it "could contain town employee issues or BOE (Board of Education) members."
Democratic Councilmember Bob Cressotti, who was the mayor when the Democrats had the majority, disputed Nelson's account. He said Democrats requested the meeting Wednesday - after the Board of Education meeting Tuesday - giving leadership ample time to schedule it properly.
"If he was so concerned (Nelson) about getting this thing released, it could have been released probably at least at the beginning of the week."
Nelson's view is that "I personally feel anything in that report could only hurt the Democrats as they oversaw the BOE, Town and Manager."
The Statements
Editor's note: Nelson responded Friday night to this reporter's email about efforts to organize a council meeting on the audit. Nelson's response to specific points are in angle brackets ><. Any stylistic clarifications are in [brackets].
The interview with Cressotti was done Saturday by phone. Excerpts of that interview follow Nelson's email.
Nelson Statement
Below is the mayor’s full emailed statement, published as requested.
>You proposed a Monday night meeting requiring a quorum of six<
I spoke with the Town manager who told me Councilman Santanella and [Councilmember Gina] Cekala are demanding the release of the report. The Council and BOE haven't seen the report yet. The audit company would not release the final report until they did their presentation with the Council. The Town Council ordered the report and must approve the release.
Not knowing what is in the report, it could contain town employee issues or BOE members. With that in mind, the legal opinion was it should be reviewed with the council in executive session first if there are employee related matters involved in the report.
I tried to meet Councilman Santanella's request. Additionally, if he had called me directly two days ago, perhaps we would have had more time. To date he has [not] called me regarding this. I asked the Town Manager to see if he could get the auditors in for a meeting and Matt [Town Manager Mathew Coppler] was able to finally confirm with them at 1 p.m. At which time I asked the council for a special meeting. We must post a special meeting notice to meet state laws.
>The four Democratic council members agreed to attend<
The only Democratic member to confirm with me was Councilmember [Cynthia] Mangini.
>The other Republican council members declined, preventing a quorum<
Three Republican members responded too late as they were working, two already had prior commitments, one said no as they felt this should be addressed by the new Council as they will have to make any changes recommended. And I was available.
>In your email, you stated you personally felt "the next council should be the ones to address this" and that you were "not the one pushing to release the documents"<
I personally feel anything in that report could only hurt the Democrats as they oversaw the BOE, Town and Manager.
Republicans had nothing to do with it as the Democrats controlled both the Council & BOE
We (the Republicans) agreed to run a clean campaign and not knowing what is in the report could potentially hurt the Democrat's more than the $5.6M they were short.
As Mayor, I do not have the authority, nor does leadership, to order the Town manager to release it. It would take a vote of six [council members].
As of tonight, not one Democrat council member has reached out to me personally to discuss the release of the report, schedule a meeting or ask for it to be released. They have been demanding the Town manager release it. Per legal opinion he can't as he didn't order it, the Council did.
Being this close to the election, I can only assume they are reaching. Without seeing the report what else could it be?
Cressotti Interview Excerpts
Editor's note: Because the interview was done by phone, comments were edited for clarity. It follows:
I totally just disagree with him [Nelson] once again. If he thinks that Republicans are running a clean campaign, then people should take a look at some of their videos that have gone out.
If the town manager had this report last week, then there should have been plans made to set up a special meeting, and we could have had this done this week.
We did everything correctly. Because if we request something, we do it through the minority leader [Councilmember John Santanella], and that's what we did.
The meeting arrangement was done through the town manager's office. I did receive a phone call from our secretary asking if I could be available on Monday night, in which I replied, yes.
It's not in the public's best interest to keep the information from them. There's no executive privilege or confidentiality to prevent any of us from reading this.
You tell me, if there's anything major that's going to be coming out on this? I don't think so, because if there was this thing, it would have been out a long time ago. For him to say politically, this could hurt the Democrats. Well, you know what, I don't buy that.
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