Jefferson County gets clean audit; finance leaders outline priority-based budgeting and reserve study

Jefferson County auditors issued a clean, unmodified opinion on the county’s financial statements for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2024, and county finance officials outlined steps to strengthen budgeting and reserves ahead of a difficult 2026 budget cycle.

The county’s audit firm, Sikich, told the county board the firm is issuing a clean opinion after completing planning, preliminary field work and final testing of invoices, payroll and grant compliance. The auditor also said Jefferson County implemented Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 101 on compensated absences for the 12/31/2024 financial statements.

County Finance Director Mark de Vries described the county’s priority-based budgeting (PBB) effort, now in its third iteration, and said staff will shift greater attention to revenue enhancements and operational efficiencies identified in a 300-page return-on-investment report from ResourceX. De Vries said the county is also contracting with the Government Finance Officers Association for a reserve study to set a defensible baseline for fund balance policy, noting the county has hovered between two and three months of expenditures in reserves.

"This clean, unmodified opinion is the highest level of assurance that we can provide as auditors," Sikich said in its presentation. "The financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles."

De Vries said priority-based budgeting assigns costs to county programs and scores them against the county strategic plan; the current phase will emphasize revenue opportunities as well as continuing evaluation of program expenses. He also briefed the board on periodic software upgrades: the county’s Munis financial system requires routine upgrades and the county will also replace an older version of Executime for time and attendance.

On reserves, De Vries said the reserve study will aggregate risks, probabilities and exposure to propose a defensible reserve target to supplement the county’s existing policy goal (two months required, three months target). "There have been some concerns about the levels of reserves that we have been maintaining," he said.

The audit presentation also reported no internal control deficiencies, no adjusting journal entries and no material noncompliance in federal and state grant testing to date.

Board members did not take action on the audit itself during the meeting; the auditor and finance director answered questions and acknowledged staff work that supported the audit process. The finance office said it will continue to distribute the ResourceX findings to departments and pursue implementable revenue and efficiency recommendations.

The county’s next steps include proceeding with the reserve study, continuing PBV follow-up with departments, and planning software upgrades ahead of 2026 budget preparations.