New Britain is demanding $241,560 from its former mayor, Erin Stewart, to recover tuition reimbursements, severance payments and the legal costs related to investigating how the city says she improperly boosted her income over 12 years running city hall.

The demand outlined in a letter dated June 4 from William C. Rivera, the city’s corporation counsel, is the first of the city’s efforts to collect restitution: Stewart also can expect a demand for repayment of a significant portion of $207,076 in purchases Stewart made on a city credit card during her final decade as mayor.

Acting on behalf of Mayor Bobby Sanchez, who succeeded Stewart in November, Rivera also notified Stewart and the city’s former tax collector, Cheryl Blogoslawski, in separate communications that pensions calculated for both of them in violation of the city charter will not be honored.

The notices to Stewart and Blogoslawski come after an investigation by the Crumbie Law Group, a law firm hired by Sanchez, that derailed Stewart’s run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination on the eve of the GOP convention last month and exposed her to potential criminal prosecution.

Stewart ended her campaign on May 14, same day the Crumbie Law Group described her personal use of a city credit card as the “repeated and deliberate circumvention of the city’s purchase order system to benefit herself, members of her family, and her political campaigns.”

Crumbie concluded that the “great majority” of the $207,076 in purchases Stewart made during nearly a decade were unrelated to the city business, and the letter to Stewart from Rivera suggests a further demand for repayment will come once it completes its reviews.

“The city has not completed a full audit and/or accounting of city funds that you may have misappropriated, and therefore, if additional improper payments are identified through continued review, audit or reconciliation, the city expressly reserves the right to supplement this demand and seek recovery of any additional amounts,” Rivera said.

Stewart, 39, a Republican whose electoral success in a racially diverse Democratic city made her the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, has made no public comments since quitting the race with a contrite statement promising to make restitution for any improper credit card purchase.

Neither Stewart nor Blogoslawski responded to requests for comment Tuesday.

Another Crumbie report released on June 4 alleged that Stewart had pressured city officials last summer to approve improper separation payouts of more than $200,000 for unused vacation, holiday, sick and personal days she claimed to have accrued by never taking a day off during the entirety of her 12 years in office.

Claiming she feared dismissal, the city’s human resources director approved a revised payout of $150,949: a lump sum $93,008 for 89 unused vacation days and 126 holidays paid on July 16 and $57,941 in 20 deferred payments for accrued personal and sick days.

The city calculated Stewart was owed only $14,275 for unused vacation. Generally, the limit is time earned in one year, though the H.R. director may authorize the carryover of another 15 days. The city has no policy permitting payment for unused holiday, sick and personal days claimed by Stewart.

Stewart collected $121,979 of the $150,949 in separation payments before Sanchez, a Democrat who won the open race to succeed her in November, suspended the deferred payments Feb. 4. Ten of the 20 had been paid.

The city is demanding Stewart repay the city for $107,704 in the severance payments — the difference between the $121,979 she was paid and the $14,275 the city calculated she rightly was owed.

It also is demanding she repay $31,561 in tuition reimbursements she collected while studying for a master’s in public administration at the University of New Haven. The city has no tuition reimbursement benefit other than the one Stewart claimed.

The legal bills from Crumbie so far total $102,294, and Rivera said the city will seek reimbursement for further legal bills and other costs as they come in.

“There Attorneys’ Fees were incurred to protect New Britain’s taxpayers and to address issues arising from your improper conduct,” Rivera wrote.

He demands payment for the legal fees no later than July 1, for the separation funds by August 1 and the tuition by September 1.

Citing a memorandum of understanding signed by Stewart on June 24, 2024, Blogoslawski asked to start collecting a pension after Sanchez fired her in April, on the same day he released a report by Crumbie detailing her backdating tax payments for herself and others to avoid interest penalties.

The MOU promised Blogoslawski a deferred partial pension after serving 16 years as the elected tax collector — a post eliminated by a charter revision in 2023. 

Blogoslawski remained as a hired city employee with similar duties until Sanchez fired her.

In a letter dated June 5, Rivera informed Blogoslawski that the MOU was “invalid and unenforceable.”

“The mayor does not have authority to alter, waive, or amend Charter provisions by memorandum, agreement, or administrative action. Pension eligibility is governed by the City Charter, and he City is not authorized to provide benefits inconsistent with the Charter’s requirements,” Rivera wrote.

The city charter offers a pension equal to 50% of final pay to elected officials after 20 years in office. Stewart promised Blogoslawski a pension equal to 40% of the $79,666 she made as tax collector, saying it was a hedge against Blogoslawski suing over the charter change.

As she left office last year, Stewart filed paperwork asserting a similar partial pension for herself to be paid at age 55. There is no such partial pension payment under the charter or in city ordinances, and Stewart previously had been advised by a city attorney the charter offered no elected official a pension shy of 20 years in office.

Rivera told Stewart that “this letter serves as formal notice the pension you secured for yourself is hereby revoked.”