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Stonecrest council reviews August financials, discusses audits and budget coding errors
Summary
City finance director presented the August 2025 monthly report and updates on audits, AP automation and budget coding; councilors pressed staff on a recurring class-53 misclassification and timing for outstanding audits tied to capital grant releases.
Finance Director Gaines told the Stonecrest City Council at its Oct. 13 work session that the city collected $724,936.68 in August 2025, bringing year-to-date general-fund collections to $7,516,751.72 and total year-to-date revenue across funds to $16,323,827.
Gaines said revenue by class for August included about $630,734 in taxes and smaller amounts in permits and charges for services. She reported year-to-date expenses of $9,137,511 and noted that other funds include $648,190 in hotel-motel receipts, $7,671,134.33 in SPLOST-style funds (listed as SPLAS in the report), and $483,750 in URA collections. On operations she said, “We are in the final stages of our AP automation implementation,” and that several solicitations will be presented to council on Oct. 27.
The council focused on two recurring concerns: coding anomalies in the mayor-and-council supply and district-initiative lines (the “class 53” issue), and the pace of completing multi-year financial audits that are holding up grant disbursements. Council members asked staff to correct small account miscoding — for example district reimbursements showing zeros or expenses posted to the wrong supply or initiative lines — and to provide clearer monthly packet documentation. Gaines said the district-initiative lines recently added for FY26 would appear as zeros until that budget year begins and confirmed staff will reclassify lines as needed.
On audits and grant funding, council members and staff discussed outstanding audit years and the effect on LM(A/I)C fund releases. City Manager Scruggs and Gaines said the city has received contingent award letters and will submit completed audit reports to the state so the grants can be released. Scruggs said staff expect to finish the 2022 audit in calendar 2025 and begin 2023 before year-end; 2023 was targeted for completion in first quarter 2026 and 2024 thereafter. Scruggs emphasized system and staffing changes to speed work while maintaining accuracy.
Council members pressed for a concrete timeline and asked staff to return with corrected coding, a clear description of which funds will roll forward, and an explanation of how unspent appropriations revert. Gaines said general-fund unspent amounts would revert to reserves while other fund balances would be rolled forward and remain available for FY26 projects.
Minor operational questions included timing for design and solicitation for sidewalks and parking-lot resurfacing; Gaines and the city manager said specific solicitations would be posted and brought to council for approval before year-end.
The session closed finance discussion with council directions for staff to provide corrected monthly reports, itemized backup for district lines, and an updated schedule for outstanding audits and related grant releases.
