Finance staff used the July 30 meeting to flag three items from the monthly financial packet: (1) several negative remits from state and county payments that staff said appeared unusual and required follow-up; (2) revenue and project spending tied to recent grants (notably erosion-control grant receipts) that require budget amendments; and (3) the audit timeline and potential single-audit threshold.

Negative remits: staff said they found small negative line items on some state and county remittance statements, including local examples of $7, $24 and $19 and a more sizeable $3,000 deduction from liquor excise tax. Staff reported that in at least one instance the state told them the negative amount reflected an offset for an overpayment made in a prior month; staff said they asked the county and state for clearer explanations and requested improved notation on remittance statements so municipalities do not have to chase answers.

Grant revenue and budget amendments: staff noted the erosion-control work at the shoreline had produced grant receipts that exceeded the originally budgeted expenditure lines. Staff said the city had received approximately $1,173,000 in grant funding related to erosion-control work (reported revenue) but had not yet increased the corresponding expenditure budgets, which makes some departmental fund-percent figures appear misleading. Finance staff said they have identified items that require formal budget amendments and that they prefer to make those amendments in a consolidated package after the cost-allocation cleanup is complete.

Audit timeline: staff told the committee they supplied auditors with requested documentation in advance. The auditors plan to request documents in early September, perform fieldwork in mid-September, and hold an exit conference in October. Staff said the city did not exceed the federal single-audit threshold for 2024 (the Uniform Guidance threshold is $750,000 in federal awards), so the audit timeline places Ocean Shores after jurisdictions that do require a single audit.

Ending: staff said they will provide the committee a technical memo on the state remits once they receive the state's full explanation, will prepare the consolidated list of required budget amendments for council consideration (potentially in October or November), and will support the auditors during September fieldwork.