Republican Erin Stewart wrote to New Britain officials requesting a partial pension she calculated at 35% of her salary, a benefit that does not exist in the city’s charter, according to the CT Mirror.
The city’s charter entitles elected officials to a pension only after 20 years of service. Stewart served 14 years, the Mirror reported.
Stewart also signed a memorandum of understanding promising the same kind of nonexistent partial pension to former tax collector Cheryl Blogoslawski, the CT Mirror reported.
With eleven days left in her final term, Republican Erin Stewart wrote to the city’s human resources director on October 31, 2025, requesting a “deferred partial retirement pension,” according to the CT Mirror. There was one problem: the benefit she was requesting did not exist.
The Charter Was Clear
Under the city charter, only elected officials who complete 20 years of service are entitled to a pension, set at half their salary. Nothing in the charter addresses officials who fall short of that threshold, according to the CT Mirror. Stewart served 14, two on the school board and 12 as mayor, the CT Mirror reported.
That did not stop her from attempting to secure a made-up benefit courtesy of taxpayers. Stewart calculated that her 14 years of service entitled her to 35% of her $112,475 mayoral salary, according to the CT Mirror. The response came quickly. Three days later, a city benefits administrator had processed the request, calculating a gross annual pension benefit of $39,366, payable beginning May 4, 2042, the CT Mirror reported.
When asked why she sought a benefit that had no legal basis in the city charter, Stewart told the CT Mirror: “Why wouldn’t I?”
She Had Already Done It for Someone Else
Stewart’s pension request was not her first foray into inventing benefits that did not exist. In June 2024, she signed an agreement with tax collector Cheryl Blogoslawski promising a partial pension worth 40% of Blogoslawski’s $79,666 salary, after 16 years of service, according to the CT Mirror. Blogoslawski’s elected position had been eliminated by a charter revision in 2023, the CT Mirror reported.
Once Blogoslawski was fired by Democratic Mayor Bobby Sanchez in April 2026, she filed a request to begin collecting the pension. The Sanchez administration signaled it did not intend to honor the agreement, according to the CT Mirror.
Both the Blogoslawski MOU and Stewart’s own pension request were referred to independent investigators, the CT Mirror reported.
“I have been clear from day one: there cannot be one set of rules for the well-connected and another for everyone else,” Sanchez said, according to the CT Mirror.
In early June, New Britain demanded $241,560 from Stewart to cover improper severance payments, unauthorized tuition reimbursements, and legal costs from the Crumbie investigation, and revoked a pension she had improperly claimed for herself upon leaving office, according to the CT Mirror.
By Kevin Coughlin
