During its regular meeting last week at Sandy Springs City Hall, the City Council reviewed a comprehensive annual financial report prepared by Vinings-based city auditors Mauldin and Jenkins for fiscal 2009, which ended June 30.
Engagement partner Adam Fraley presented the 64-page annual report and an 18-page supplement, noting the city increased its net assets from $162 million to $183 million.
Of that amount, Fraley said $48.4 million is available for operations and $134.6 million is in capital assets like streets, traffic signals, park acreage, police cars and fire stations.
However, a seven-digit increase in the value of those assets, disclosed in the supplement, led District 1 City Councilman John Paulson to ask its cause.
“There’s an adjustment of $34 million. That’s a pretty big number,” he said. “It looks like it has to do with stormwater.”
The fiscal 2009 capital assets are reported to be worth $125 million as of June 30, 2008, but the fiscal 2008 annual report — which was prepared by city staff and won a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada — valued them at $91 million.
Fraley said the 2009 correction was due to annual reports from 2006 through 2008 undervaluing stormwater infrastructure like drains, pipes and detention ponds, which are currently being inventoried.
“It’s so we have the best picture of what the city’s financials look like,” he said. “When the city was incorporated [in 2005], the city was required to record all of its infrastructure as assets. We’re getting into the weirdness of government reporting, but $34 million of stormwater assets did not get put on at that time.”
To avoid similar errors, Fraley recommended changing accounting software from Microsoft Excel to Harward Technology Enterprises’ HTE program, which Finance Director Amy Davis said is under way.
“We will populate that in the next few months,” she said.
Other suggestions for the city included better tracking of financial information like municipal court bond payments, state and federal grants, employee vacation time and paper records. Mayor Eva Galambos encouraged Ms. Davis to refine the procedures and controls, which Ms. Davis said was already in progress.
“[We] have to publish a corrected action plan, so I’ll make sure you get a copy of that,” she said.
Annual reports are available on the city Web site on the finance department page.
Information: visit www.sandyspringsga.org.