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Council accepts clean audit but auditors flag repeated billing-system control issues
Summary
Auditors delivered an unmodified (clean) opinion on the City of Alpine's fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023, but noted a repeated finding related to the utility billing system and made management recommendations; council formally accepted the audit.
The Alpine City Council on June 17 accepted the fiscal-year 2023 financial audit after a presentation by auditors from Gibson, Ruddock & Patterson, LLP.
The audit firm gave the city an unmodified opinion — commonly called a “clean” opinion — on the financial statements for the year ending Sept. 30, 2023, meaning the statements were presented fairly in all material respects, auditor Marlene Schickler said during a council presentation.
The nut graf: While the overall audit was clean, auditors reported a repeat finding on the city’s utility billing system reconciliation and included a management letter with recommendations for internal controls and process improvements.
In her presentation, Schickler summarized revenue and expenditure trends across funds and said the city’s general fund balance and unassigned fund balance increased as of Sept. 30, 2023. She listed program-specific changes — for example, decreased public-works spending in 2023 after street projects completed in 2022 — and explained the basis for the clean opinion.
Schickler also described a repeat audit finding about discrepancies between reports produced by the billing system and the general ledger. She told council the finding had appeared in the prior year and recommended strengthened reconciliations and improved documentation. In addition to that finding, auditors provided a separate letter of recommendations covering procurement, journal entries, accounts payable/receipts, inventory valuation for the water department, payroll review, and vendor-list maintenance.
Council members asked clarifying questions about whether committed funds shown in the audit had been spent; Schickler replied the committed amounts shown on Sept. 30, 2023, had not been expended as of that date. City staff said work to finalize later-year trial balances was ongoing and that they expected to complete conversion entries to the full-accrual exhibits that auditors presented.
The council voted unanimously to accept the audit.
Ending: The auditors encouraged the city to follow the management recommendations and pursue the planned utility-billing software implementation, which council and staff said is scheduled to launch in October and should address several billing and reporting issues noted by auditors.
