Minutes 12-12-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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9 James Bense, Mauldin and Jenkins, presented a PowerPoint summary of the draft audit results. He said the County worked seamlessly with his firm. He referred to page 7, and the General Fund Balance. He said the graph shows the five-year trend of the fund balance, and compares it to the annual expenditures of the general fund. He said the County policy seeks to have the unassigned fund balance at 16%, and at the end of 2017 the balance was 16.8%. Chair Dorosin said the Board had discussion about lowering the fund balance, and asked if this ever happened. Bonnie Hammersley said the balance went to 16% for 2017-18. She said the policy was still 17% in 2016-17, which is the period of this audit. James Bense referred to page 8, and the tax revenues on a per capita basis. He said the trend of revenues is fairly consistent over the past 5 years. James Bense said page 10 gives a very high level view of the general fund, and how it operated during the year. He said revenues came in about 1% over the anticipated amount, and the final appropriation was to use approximately $14 million of the fund balance, but the County only used $1.7 million of that. James Bense referred to the enterprise funds. He said both solid waste and sewer had negative cash flow from operations. He said all three funds still rely on transfers from the general fund to cover operating and debt service costs. James Bense referred to page 12, and the findings of the audit. He said there were only 3 findings, in comparison to 7 the year before, and credited Management with this improvement. He said the three findings pertained to: Expenditure and Expense Recognition; Receivables Reconciliation; and Enterprise Program Integrity Control System. James Bense referred to page 14, and highlighted the expanded areas, which the audit covered this year. He said this provided a greater review of those departments that take in larger amounts of money. He said all results have been reviewed in detail with Management. Commissioner McKee said he appreciated this additional oversight, and thinks it is extremely important to clearly document all cash flow in the County. James Bense said the next few slides review the upcoming accounting standards. He said the decisions made by the BOCC drive how Management will implement these standards. Chair Dorosin referred to page 9, and clarified that the graph shows that the tax rate has stayed fairly flat from 2013-2017, and that there has been an increase in revenue. James Bense said that is correct. Commissioner Burroughs referred to slide 10, and asked Management for clarification. Bonnie Hammersley said this audit is for 2016-2017. She said a few years ago the County’s revenues were about 105-106%, and the revenues are being projected much closer than they were previously. She said the County has been consistently at around 95% on expenditures. She said staff is looking more closely at the projection for 2017-2018, and narrowing the margins. She said staff will have a clearer sense of the projections at the BOCC retreat in January 2018. Commissioner Jacobs asked if the number of entities, under the County’s umbrella, who conduct their own audit is known. James Bense said the ABC Board is the only one that his firm does not audit. Commissioner Jacobs asked if a report could be prepared about the ABC Board’s audit, and whether it follows best practices. He also asked if the auditor for the ABC Board could periodically be rotated. Bonnie Hammersley said staff would prepare this. 5. Public Hearings NONE