Weber County audit gets clean opinion; auditors and staff describe one-time restatement tied to 2013 special assessment
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Summary
Squire & Company issued an unmodified opinion on Weber County’s 2024 financial statements but noted a restatement related to a 2013 special assessment and identified one internal-control deficiency tied to that restatement. Auditors also flagged several county fee mischarges that departments have corrected.
Weber County commissioners on Thursday heard that Squire & Company issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the county’s 2024 financial statements but required a restatement and documented one internal-control deficiency tied to an earlier special-assessment accounting error.
The audit firm’s Kyle Green told the commission, “we've issued a what's called an, unqualified opinion,” and reviewed the financial report and related compliance work. The audit firm said the restatement reflected two matters: implementation of a new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) standard and an accounting correction for a special assessment bond originally issued in 2013.
The restatement stemmed from how the county had historically recorded a $6,000 charge collected from developers per building permit. Scott Park, speaking to commissioners, explained that the $6,000 amounts are returned to the developer under the bond terms, so the county should have recorded the amounts as a liability (a “deposit due to developer”) rather than as a reserve to pay debt. Park said the misclassification produced an unrecorded liability that the county has since corrected and used to restate beginning fund balances.
Why this matters: the auditors said the misrecording was caught, corrected and does not change the firm’s clean opinion. Green described the internal-control issue as a one-time item: “This is a onetime we fixed it and and should be done type of an issue.” County staff told commissioners the restatement is not material to overall perception of county finances — Park noted the liability is about $1.5 million in the context of a large county entity — and that the county has adjusted its reporting.
Auditors also reported on state-compliance testing and identified three instances during fee testing where departments charged fees that exceeded approved formulas. County staff said they traced the fee-mischarge in building inspections to a technician using the wrong pricing tab; after a full review staff found 11 permits with overcharged fees and refunded those customers.
Auditors told commissioners that federal-program compliance testing — including housing voucher cluster and Coronavirus-era grants — resulted in clean opinions.
Commissioners and staff said they prefer the new audit firm’s thorough approach. Commissioner Sharon Bolos thanked the auditors; Park said he appreciated the firm’s work catching the older bond accounting issue.
Ending: commissioners accepted the presentation with no additional requests for action. Staff will continue to review department fee-setting controls and coordinate with the auditor on any follow-up reporting.
