Town slams ‘conspiratorial’ allegations in motion to dismiss ex-CFO’s claims
The town’s March 17 filing marked its most robust response yet to former CFO Anthony Ansaldi’s complaints.
Town lawyers are hitting back at former Chief Financial Officer Anthony Ansaldi for “outlandish and conspiratorial complaints” in a Superior Court lawsuit.
Ansaldi is standing his ground and maintains he found Acton breaking the law during his 20-month stint managing its books.
The former CFO outlined charges in a December complaint. The town’s March 17 filing marked its most robust response yet.
Acton lawyers want a judge to dismiss three of four counts under Ansaldi’s complaint. His attorney says these questions should go to trial and asserts the town is trying to ignore the facts of the case.
Ansaldi allegations
Ansaldi claims he “inherited a dysfunctional finance department” with problems dating back to Town Manager Kerry Lafleur’s time as CFO.
He says he found incorrect Social Security payments dating back decades and asserts he raised concerns about a “failed” financial software conversion, among other red flags.
He says officials fired him for speaking up.
The December lawsuit covers four counts. The town isn’t moving to dismiss Ansaldi’s claim of whistleblower retaliation, but says he doesn’t have enough evidence to prove that officials broke state civil rights law.
Lawyers say there’s no evidence that Lafleur “came anywhere close” to the legal standard of “extreme and outrageous behavior” for a claim of intentionally causing emotional distress.
Lawyers attacked Ansaldi’s fourth count on legal grounds, saying his whistleblower assertion precludes him from doubling up on a charge that Lafleur interfered with his “business relationship” with the town.
Lafleur privately told Select Board members that Ansaldi’s ouster was a “management and organizational fit issue,” according to newly released emails.
Ansaldi’s attorney, Tim Burke, said this is not “merely” a case of “workplace disagreement.”
Town attorneys requested a hearing to discuss the motion to dismiss. Online court records showed no hearing scheduled as of press time.
‘In over his head’
The Ansaldi saga has played out alongside a long-delayed 2024 fiscal year audit. Outside accountants found “material weaknesses” with town practices.
Such findings started emerging around the same time as the Ansaldi complaint. Acton’s Financial Audit Advisory Committee recently reviewed a tranche of emails showing town officials trying to manage the fallout.
“This is further evidence that the former CFO was in over his head,” Lafleur wrote in one December 11 message about the audit.
Officials later redacted the message, citing a “personnel/privacy” exemption.
The audit “reinforces the need for changes in financial management,” she wrote in a Select Board briefing a few weeks later, but it doesn’t “validate” Ansaldi’s narrative.
After privately criticizing Ansaldi, Lafleur struck a different tone in January, publicly telling the Select Board, “I am accountable for the overall administration of the organization.”
Officials have detailed new measures to repair accounting guardrails.
Ansaldi’s attorney, Tim Burke, called it “unfortunate” that Lafleur “continues to point the finger” at Ansaldi for practices that happened long before he arrived in town.
Lafleur is “largely responsible for creating the issues that Mr. Ansaldi had to deal with,” Burke told The Bridge, adding that Ansaldi would have resolved them “had it not been for her acts of retaliation.”
