Flagler Beach auditors give city a clean opinion; commissioners press for timelier year-end reporting

James Moore & Company presented the City of Flagler Beach’s fiscal-year 2024 audit and gave an unmodified (clean) opinion on the city’s financial statements.

Bridal McKittrick, director with James Moore and Company, told commissioners the city received a clean audit opinion and that federal single‑audit testing raised no issues. McKittrick noted 1 technical comment about an opening-balance adjusting entry that staff has corrected and that a prior finding related to preparation of financial statements had been remediated.

The auditors highlighted several financial metrics in the presentation: total general-fund balances remained roughly consistent year-over-year (about $9.5 million in fund balance across funds); the assigned/unassigned fund-balance percentage used as a liquidity benchmark was about 60%, well above the Government Finance Officers Association’s recommended minimum of roughly 17%; and the city invested roughly $4.5 million in infrastructure from enterprise funds during fiscal 2024.

Commissioners used the audit presentation to press staff for a more timely quarter‑4 recap. Several commissioners said they have long requested a timely end‑of‑year report to understand which budgeted projects were completed and which were not, and to avoid rebudgeting projects without clear documentation. Commissioner Cooley and others asked staff to prepare a more current quarter‑4 snapshot (unaudited) and to build a capital-project status report showing which capital purchases are ordered, in purchase order status, pending, or completed. The city manager and finance staff agreed to provide a quarter‑3 report and an unaudited quarter‑4 summary and to publish capital-project status materials online.

The commission voted to accept the audit by voice vote (motion passed 5–0).