Bloomfield’s Legal Expenses: Yes, Let’s Talk (Real) Numbers

Note from Bloomfield Speaks: Here is a post from Kenneth McClary’s Facebook page about Bloomfield’s legal expenses. Bloomfield Speaks has transcribed screenshots of the post for ease of reading.  Mr. McClary formerly served on the Town Council as the Council’s Finance Subcommittee Chair. The Town’s fiscal year (FY) is from July 1 to June 30 of the next calendar year.  So FY 2026 is from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.

Bloomfield’s Legal Expenses: Yes, Let’s Talk (Real) Numbers

Let’s clear up some deliberate misinformation about Bloomfield’s legal costs.

Bloomfield’s recent legal expenses aren’t the result of mismanagement – they’re the result of legal actions filed against the Town. Those lawsuits and FOIA filings, led by Rickford Kirton and others, have required the Town to retain outside counsel and respond to hundreds of document requests, all at taxpayer expense. The same people criticizing those expenses are the ones creating them.

At its organizational meeting on November 10, 2025, the newly elected Council, in accordance with the Town Charter, reappointed Mayor Tony Harrington, Deputy Mayor Cindi Lloyd, Town Treasurer Ola Aina, Clerk of the Council Latonia Tabb, and Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie of the Crumbie Law Group.

During that meeting, Councilor Shamar Mahon – who is currently under investigation by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for being a Hartford resident – questioned Attorney Crumbie’s billing and transparency. These claims he has raised repeatedly, despite the information being publicly available to anyone.

Bloomfield’s Open Government Portal

All legal expenditures are clearly listed in the Town’s Open Government portal under the Finance Department.

What the Data Actually Shows (FY 2022 – FY 2026)

• Labor Attorney Ryan has always been billed separately from the Town Attorney.
• Before FY 2024, most of Bloomfield’s legal work was outsourced under the prior Town Attorney. With Attorney Crumbie’s broader legal operation, much of that work was brought back in-house, saving on outside consultant fees. Unlike the former town attorney, who essentially was a one-person operation, the current town attorney has a full-service law firm and dedicates 3-4 attorneys to handling Bloomfield work at reduced rates.
• FY2025, legal costs were about $50,000 (25%) higher than in previous years, due to:
  • Fixing mistakes from the prior town attorney,
  • A flood of nuisance FOIA requests filed by Rickford Kirton, James McGovern, and others,
  • New assignments including charter revision, eminent domain review, and town center development,
  • And reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenditures by the Town Attorney, such as for appraisals completed by outside consultants. 
• FY 2026 spending is only slightly higher, mostly because of a one-time payment to Wiggin & Dana – outside counsel hired to defend the Town against the referendum lawsuit filed by Rickford Kirton and others.

Here’s Where Mr. Kirton Gets it Wrong

In his recent Facebook post, “Let’s Talk Numbers for Scond (sic)…,” former Councilor Rickford Kirton cherry-picks the current fiscal year’s data without any historical context and misinterprets the totals.

For example, his calculation includes school district legal costs billed through Crumbie Law Group. Those belong under the Board of Education, not the Town Attorney’s budget. When those are removed, the Town’s YTD spending is roughly in line with prior years under the previous town attorney – not trending toward the inflated $1.2 million he projects.

That projection is, to put it mildly, unrealistic.

What is new this year, as mentioned above, is the Wiggin & Dana expense – which represents the Town’s cost to defend against the lawsuit filed by Mr. Kirton himself over the budget referendum he helped engineer. That single legal action accounts for nearly one-quarter of this year’s legal expenditure to date.

The Bottom Line

Mr. Kirton’s outrage over Bloomfield’s legal expenses ignores one simple truth:
Much of the increase stems directly from legal actions and filings initiated by Mr. Kirton, Lucy Hurston, and Former Mayor Syd Schulman (Niagara, yea that guy) and their allies.

The data is public. The trend lines are clear. And Bloomfield’s legal spending remains consistent with similar-sized municipalities once those one-time, self-inflicted costs are removed.

Accountability does start with numbers—so let’s make sure we’re reading them honestly.