Litchfield Board of Selectmen: Police Coverage, R20 Finances

9/16/2025
Present:  Denise Raap, Dan Morosani, Jeff Zullo, John Bongiorno. Absent: Jodiann Tenney 

Resident Andrew Bottenhofer recounted a pair of car thefts over 24 hours at his home recently and requested that the town consider more police coverage.

“Two troopers for an area the size of our town seems lacking,” Bottenhofer said. Raap indicated that the town actually had budgeted for a third trooper, but the state hasn’t been able to find one for them.

“There's just not enough police officers graduating,” Raap said. “We still have it in our budget. In hopes. But, you know, we are gonna have a serious conversation about perhaps adding back in the constable program.” Raap acknowledged that a constable program could help with staffing shortages, but also noted “the town has more responsibility with a constable.”

Morosani said, “We have a lot more ability to recruit quality people as constables… We need more coverage. I think that the analogy is kind of like when you walk in the woods and you run into a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, you have to be faster than your friend. Similarly, I think that we’re kind of the slow friend among different communities. … I think Litchfield is, unfortunately, seen as an easier target.”

There will be further evaluation, which could include the hiring of a consultant, to see what the best path forward is.

The Region 20 update led to continued criticism of the handling of finances. The previous meeting saw much discussion on the flawed auditing processes and the discrepancies between audits, and it remained a source of frustration. “I think all of us on this board,” Zullo said, “when he came and presented the results of his audits earlier this year, we all shared the incredulity of his casualness with the misses on these budgets. I mean, hundreds and hundreds – $800,000 on Litchfield.

“And it was like, ‘Well, things happen, and all other areas of the state are going through the same thing and special ed.’ And it's like, no, these things never happened here. For 25 years, I've been associated with Finance and the Board of Selectmen, and we have never missed a budget.”