Mayette Bailey, Finance Manager presented the Audit Committee with the results of fiscal year 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and Associated External Audit. Ms. Bailey reported that the city ended fiscal year 2025 with a strong financial position, including a government-wide net position of $1.558 billion and a $181 million increase driven largely by growth in capital assets and added the governmental funds saw a combined funds balance increased to $470.6 million, and the general fund’s balance rose by $49 million to $296.7 million. She further reported that Heinfeld, Meech & Co., P.C. conducted the city’s annual audit and issued an unmodified (“clean”) opinion reporting no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the city's financial statements for fiscal year 2025.

Jill Shaw, External Certified Public Accountant Auditor of Heinfeld, Meech & Co., P.C. informed the committee that the audit was completed on time, with reports due March 31 submitted well ahead of deadlines and in time for ACFR filing with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), an award-granting entity for high-quality ACFRs. She noted that accounting records required no adjustments and had no findings, which is a strong indicator of a successful audit.

Ms. Bailey further highlighted the city’s continued improvement in its ACFR and noted that the city earned the GFOA Certificate of Excellence for fiscal year 2024. She added that, compared to the 2023 ACFR, fiscal year 2024 included only two immaterial findings versus nine in that prior year, reflecting positive progress.

Chair Brannon Hampton, asked whether any low-level trends were identified between previous years and the current year. Ms. Bailey confirmed there were none.

Billy Vickers, Internal Audit Manager presented the Audit Committee with an update on the Payroll and Timekeeping Assessment. Mr. Vickers reported that the standardized payroll timeline and processing, as well as the comprehensive payroll training program and related process improvement and compliance tracking updates, were all completed. He noted the recommendation to enhance payroll data accuracy through validation is currently delayed and will be finalized once the compliance dashboard is complete. In response to Councilwoman Vicki Gillis’, Mr. Vickers confirmed the delay is tied to the dashboard, with anticipated completion by January. He added that Human Resources and Finance are continuing to work with Information Technology on data extraction and testing, and that staff will be adding additional data and metrics to the dashboard as needed and will be evaluating recommendations related to the various timekeeping systems, with the goal of enabling direct data entry rather than imports.