Verona receives clean audit for 2024; council approves three-year audit contract

The Verona Common Council accepted the city's audited 2024 financial statements and approved a three-year contract renewal with the city's external auditors.

Auditor John Raider told the council the audit team issued an unmodified opinion on Verona's financial statements, describing the result as a "clean opinion" and noting there were no material audit entries this year. Raider said fund balance in the general fund rose about $2 million, driven by revenues coming in above budget and expenditures below budget, and he highlighted that police, planning and parks departments ran under budget.

The audit matters mattered to the council because a clean opinion indicates the city's financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and the report included new accounting-standard items the city implemented this year. The auditor also reviewed utility funds and debt metrics, noting Verona's debt remains well under statutory limits and utility funds are in generally good financial shape.

Council discussion emphasized operational controls and the city's long-term reserve policy. "We issued an unmodified opinion, and that's a clean opinion on your financial statements," Raider said. He singled out city staff for preparing organized records that kept audit costs down.

Following the audit presentation, staff recommended renewing the city's audit contract for 2025—2027 with the incumbent audit firm listed in the meeting material. Council members moved and carried the contract renewal. The meeting record shows the council voted to renew the contract; the transcript does not include a roll-call tally.

The council also moved to accept the 2024 financial statements. The meeting packet and auditor presentation documented the main drivers of the $2 million fund-balance increase: stronger-than-expected investment income, permit revenues above budget, and expenditures coming in under budget by about $781,000.

City officials said the cleaner audit timeline and high-quality accounting records help the city receive timely audit reporting and control audit costs. The auditor recommended continuing to monitor the water utility's margins and the city's debt servicing metrics, as those were the items most sensitive to future rate and growth changes.

Council members did not set additional immediate financial action items in the meeting beyond accepting the statements and approving the contract renewal; follow-up items on utility rates and continued debt management were discussed as monitoring items.