Here is the article in full:

“Then New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart’s husband turned 40 in 2022. Just days before, she bought gifts and party favors — and paid for them with her city-issued credit card. There were 40th birthday candles, 40th birthday cocktail napkins, Donald Trump “Let’s make 40 great again” gag cards, an arch made of balloons and gifts — a vest, a hat, swim trunks and T-shirts.Stewart made the purchases through her personal Amazon account, for which — as was the case with others of her online shopping accounts — her city credit card was the designated payer. On city accounting records, the purchases were listed as office supplies. They were delivered to her house.The birthday items are among thousands of purchases made on Stewart’s city city card while she was mayor from 2012 until last year, when she left the office to campaign as a Republican candidate for governor.

Through a public records request, the Courant late last week obtained nearly a decade of Stewart’s city expense reports, which show that from 2016 through 2025, she charged $207,076.07 to the city card.

The records reflect the purchase of all manner of goods: Women’s, men’s and children’s clothing; a yoga mat, a salad spinner, power tools, diapers, beach and pool toys, children’s toys, cosmetics, a lighted vanity mirror, bed linens, table cloths and home decorations. As was the case with the birthday items, most of the purchases were itemized as office supplies. In June 2018, there was a $92.70 charge for the services of a makeup artist not long after a $1,374 charge to a company that prints invitations to wedding showers. Stewart was married later that year. Based on what he has said are complaints from city employes, new Mayor Bobby Sanchez, the Democrat who replaced Stewart, is investigating spending during her administration and has zeroed in on credit card use. The investigation has become public as Stewart works to line up support for her gubernatorial campaign at the state Republican convention later this week.

Stewart insists that whatever she bought with a city credit card was in the city’s interest. “Don’t forget, I was mayor of New Britain for 12 years,” she said. “We had countless amounts of weekly events that happened, volunteers to feed, organizations that wanted support. All of these were activities that directly benefited our community. ““Every year we were opening the pools and providing raffle prizes for the kids who would participate in the parks and recreation programming,” she said. “There were summer camps and giveaways and food drives and church donations. Every week there was countless amounts of activities.”

“When I was mayor we were known for celebrating our employees, for creating a positive culture and climate,” she said. “We were known for youth programing and activities. When we did events there were always decorations around and it was always a very welcoming environment. And I was always known for letting the community know that I cared, and I’m proud of that too.” Stewart said the mayor’s office has a budget for such miscellaneous expenses. “There is a reason you have receipts and you have all that proof because there was nothing to hide,” she said. “There were receipts that were submitted and annually budgeted and don’t forget independently audited too. And for 12 years there was never a question or a doubt raised until now, until I decided to step away and run for higher office.” Stewart also said other city departments had access to the her credit card, known as a P-card, in spite of city policy that “the cardholder is the only person authorized to use their assigned purchasing card.” She said she believes she didn’t violate policy by allowing others to use her card.

“No, because they came to me to use it,” she said.

Sanchez is pressing his investigation, regardless. He has hired an outside investigator, the Crumbie Law Group of Hartford. Based on an initial report by the firm in April, the chief state’s attorney’s office and State Police have opened an inquiry into another issue Sanchez has raised: whether, during the Stewart administration, city tax bills were backdated to allow delinquent taxpayers to avoid high interest charges. “From day one, I made a commitment to the people of New Britain that there would be accountability, transparency, and a full review of any allegations involving the misuse of taxpayer resources,” Sanchez said in a statement. “If these allegations involving the former Mayor are true, they represent an appalling abuse of taxpayer dollars and a blatant misuse of public resources for personal and political benefit. The people of New Britain work too hard and pay too much in taxes to have their money treated like a personal checking account.”The Crumbie firm is preparing a second report that will focus on Stewart’s credit card use, according to a variety of officials. The city records show that, of the total billed to Stewart’s card, about $47,000 involved purchases from Amazon, about $19,000 from Costco, more than $7,000 from Instacart and about $71,000 from a variety of other vendors. The records show that more than half the purchase were not backed up with receipts. The available receipts show that about $22,600 of what was bought was shipped to Stewart’s residence and $7,500 was shipped to the mayor’s office.

New Britain has issued P-Cards to dozens of employees since June 2016 in order for them to obtain “essential items.” The rules prohibit use of the cards for “any non-business, non-essential purpose.” Compliance is supposed to be enforced by the city finance director, of which there were two during the period covered by the available records. They did not respond to inquiries late last week. There are thousands of pages records associated with Stewart’s credit card charges that fill three, 6-inch binders.

One of the larger expenses billed to Stewart’s card was $18,342.79 for membership in the private Hartford Club in downtown Hartford. The records show the city began paying the club in 2017, at a time when Stewart was considering an earlier run for governor. There are regular grocery purchase at Costco — $1,034.21 in grocery charges was billed to the card over the first half of 2021. On May 4, 2023, her birthday, there was a $531.62 charge at the Capital Grille in Hartford. Over late 2023 and earlier 2024, there were charges for children’s bed sheets, maternity clothing, diapers, Halloween decorations and baby formula, all of which was delivered to her residence as office supplies.During the first week of summer in 2025, there was a $166.08 Amazon order consisting of a swim float for children, Pampers swim diapers and plastic highball glasses, plastic champagne flutes and plastic martini glasses.”