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Hartford City Treasurer Carmen I. Sierra outside on her office patio at Constitution Plaza in Hartford, Connecticut on May 13th, 2025. Credit: Ayannah Brown / Connecticut Public

Former Hartford Treasurer Carmen Sierra, who resigned her elected office earlier this week, was escorted off city property by police on Wednesday after she returned to the treasurer’s office unannounced.

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam confirmed that Sierra, who served as city treasurer for nearly four years, accessed her former office without approval from city officials.

Sierra abruptly retired from her position overseeing Hartford’s $1 billion pension fund at the beginning of this week, citing the need to take care of her ailing father.

Prior to her retirement announcement, however, Sierra became the target of several former members of the city’s pension commission, who raised concerns about the way she was managing her staff and the pension fund that Hartford city employees and retirees rely on.

Sierra returned a phone call from the Connecticut Mirror on Wednesday and said she would be issuing a written statement.

The mayor’s office said they did not have an immediate explanation for why Sierra returned to the treasurer’s office.

“Earlier this morning, our office received reports of former City Treasurer Carmen Sierra accessing the treasurer’s office without explanation two days following her resignation,” Arulampalam said in a statement. “In response, the Hartford Police Department assisted to ensure city property remained secure.”

“While not all facts are clear yet, it is unacceptable for any former elected official to access secure city facilities after vacating their position,” Arulampalam added.

A phone call to the Hartford treasurer’s office went unanswered on Wednesday afternoon. The Connecticut Mirror was unable to confirm whether the Hartford officers who responded to the treasurer’s office detailed the incident in a police report.

Andrew joined CT Mirror as an investigative reporter in July 2021. Since that time, he's written stories about a state lawmaker who stole $1.2 million in pandemic relief funds, the state Treasurer's failure to return millions of dollars in unclaimed money to Connecticut citizens and an absentee ballot scandal that resulted in a judge tossing out the results of Bridgeport's 2023 Democratic mayoral primary. Prior to moving to Connecticut, Andrew was a reporter at local newspapers in North Dakota, West Virginia and South Carolina. His work focuses primarily on uncovering government corruption but over the course of his career, he has also written stories about the environment, the country's ongoing opioid epidemic and state and local governments. Do you have a story tip? Reach Andrew at 843-592-9958

Ginny, winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, is a member of CT Mirror’s investigative team and previously served as the outlet's housing and children’s issues reporter. Ginny grew up in Arkansas and graduated from the University of Arkansas’ Lemke School of Journalism in 2017. She began her career at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where she covered housing, homelessness, juvenile justice, and investigations. Along the way Ginny was awarded a 2019 Data Fellowship through the Annenberg Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California. She moved to Connecticut in 2021 and covered housing for Hearst CT.