New report further details Erin Stewart's personal spending on city credit card

Former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart hosted private parties, appeared at events wearing clothing and made gubernatorial campaign videos with items she purchased with a city-issued credit card, according to claims in a new report released by the city Thursday.  

The report also claims she used the city credit card to help pay for a fundraiser at the private Hartford Club during her 2017 mayoral campaign. 

The report details $207,076.07 in total expenses between June 2016 and November 2025, including a combined $93,542.24, four vendors: Amazon, The Hartford Club, Costco and Instacart.

Stewart, who is running for governor and seeking the Republican endorsement this weekend, could not be reached for comment this morning.

The Office of the New Britain Mayor issued the following statement on the investigation:

New Britain hired Crubmie Law Group to conduct the investigation and the city has referred the case to state police.  

“This administration remains committed to restoring integrity, accountability, and public trust in City government,” Mayor Bobby Sanchez, (D-New Britain), said. “We will continue following the facts wherever they lead, and we will not allow.” 

According to the report, Stewart asked for prepared questions from investigators. When they told her that could not be done, she “ignored an additional request for an interview.”  

Stewart has not discussed specifics since NBC Connecticut and others have reported on her spending, detailed in expense reports released under a Freedom of Information Act.  

She told supporters at a rally that she planned to request the documents herself and review them before responding.

Read the full report, which includes photos of the items it says Stewart bought, below:

The report states New Britain first hired Crumbie Law Group in January to review city operations, “with a goal of identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and fiscal sustainability.”

That report says that the review uncovered documents “that raised concerns about the revenue collector’s office.” 

The city has already turned those findings over to the state police after discovering the former tax collector allowed some residents to backdate checks as a way to avoid penalties for late payments.  

“As a result of those findings,” the report states the investigation turned to the city’s purchase card program. The program started in June 2016.  

The report focused on Stewart’s expenses, which investigators said “point not to isolated lapses in judgment, but to a pattern of behavior that violated public trust and the standards expected of an elected official entrusted with taxpayer funds for nearly a decade. The entitlement demonstrated by Ms. Stewart reflected by the evidence in this investigation is incomprehensible for a public official.”  

That includes $19,260 to the Hartford Club, which the report describes as “a private dining room, a member’s lounge, a private steak house, and a grand cigar lounge.” 

While the city paid the costs, the membership was in Stewart’s name, according to the report.  

The report also notes the city paid $163.03 for food, beverage, gratuity and taxes on Sept. 26, 2017.  

A report for Stewart’s re-election campaign, filed with the State Election Enforcement Commission, shows she had a cocktail fundraiser at the Hartford Club that day.  

In total, the city paid $680.03 to the Hartford club that month with no reimbursement from her campaign.  

The report also details $47,582 she spent on Amazon, even though it says “the vast majority of the purchases had no legitimate connection to city business.”  

Investigators also found pictures they said show Stewart purchased personal items.  

Those include pictures Stewart posted on Facebook from a Peppa Pig-themed party for her daughter’s 2nd birthday in 2022.  

The report also details “Stewart’s Maternity Purchases Timeline,” lining up purchases of baby clothes, diapers, party supplies and other items timed with the births and birthdays of her two children.  

The timeline also notes the purchase of maternity clothes, as well as pictures of Stewart wearing some of those items.  

Other items include the purchase of multiple microphones that Stewart can be seen using in videos her gubernatorial campaign has posted this year. City officials said Stewart did not leave the microphones when she left the mayor’s office.  

In a statement on Monday, Stewart defended purchases by saying they were included in the budget and reviewed in audits. That report disputes that. 

The report said the mayor’s office was over budget for office supplies in nine of the 10 years reviewed under Stewart and administrative expenses in eight of 10. In total, they exceeded the budgeted amounts by a combined $71,299.18 over that span.  

Investigators also noted auditors review city accounting processes but don’t typically examine every single expense.  

The did find, thought, a 2019 letter from accounting firm BlumShapiro that called for tighter review that raised concerns about oversight of New Britain’s purchase cards.  

BlumShapiro noted six of the 25 selected purchases included no supporting documentation and recommended more control to prevent fraud.  

Those auditors didn’t identify the employees who made the purchases, but Crumbie Law Group said Stewart was missing documentation for $123,018, or 59.4%, worth of purchases. 

City policy states employees were supposed to have their purchase cards suspended if they did not provide documentation, but investigators found no evidence that ever happened to Stewart.  

Investigators did find at least four examples of reimbursements on Stewart’s behalf:  

• Stewart paid $107.81 in March 2018 to pay for Uber charges; 
• The New Britain Republican Town Committee paid $655.30 in December 2018 for charges at Vistaprint;  
• The Mayor’s Trophy Charitable Fund paid a total of $817.62 in December 2019 for charges on Stewart’s credit card; and 
• Stewart paid the city a total of $348.26 in April 2020 for Amazon purchases.  

Investigators said they did not review those expenses for Thursday’s report and called that “an insignificant fraction of her total P-Card expenditures.” 

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