Independent auditors give Fall River a clean opinion on 2024 financial statements; city general fund posts $8.6M increase

An independent audit of the City of Fall River’s 2024 financial statements concluded with an unmodified (clean) opinion and several key takeaways for the council, the city’s interim finance director and the auditors told the committee.

Terenzio Vopicelli, a certified public accountant with Roselli Clark and Associates, summarized the firm’s financial‑statement audit for the year ended June 30, 2024. “The city’s 2024 financial statements were issued on January thirtieth of 2025 with an unmodified or clean audit opinion,” Vopicelli said. He told councilors auditors encountered no significant difficulties or disagreements with management during the audit.

Key points in the presentation: • General fund: The audited statements showed an increase in fund balance of about $8.6 million in fiscal 2024 (compared with a $19 million increase in the prior year). The city’s unassigned general fund balance exceeded 9% of expenditures in 2024, up from 8% in 2023 and 5% in 2022. • Revenues and expenditures: On a statutory budget basis, general fund revenues exceeded budget by roughly $7.3 million and expenditures were about $10.5 million under budget in fiscal 2024. • ARPA and capital funds: The city spent roughly $23 million in ARPA funds in 2024 and entered fiscal 2025 with approximately $41 million of unspent ARPA proceeds as of June 30, 2024; the capital projects fund had light spending in 2024. • Liabilities: Long‑term personnel-related obligations remain large: net OPEB and pension liabilities together account for roughly 80% of the city’s long‑term liabilities. Total long‑term liabilities for governmental activities approached $892 million at June 30, 2024, though that figure represented a decrease of about $100 million from the prior year. • Debt: The city reported about $342 million in long‑term debt at June 30, 2024, of which approximately $163 million is general obligation debt in the general fund; Moody’s assigned an A3 rating to the city.

Councilors questioned particulars such as the school lunch fund surplus and the sources of free cash. Vopicelli said much of the revenue outperformance reflected higher interest earnings during a period of elevated market rates and that some of the free‑cash growth reflects federal inflows including ARPA and ESSER funds.

Ending: The auditors said the audit engagement covered only financial‑statement fairness and was not a forensic review; they supplied the required communications letter and encouraged councilors to review the management discussion and note disclosures for details.