City auditors issue unmodified FY2024 opinion; staff unveils shorter community financial report

Laramie City Council auditors issued an unmodified opinion on the city’s audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024 and reported no significant control deficiencies, the audit partner told the council on Feb. 11.

Abby Hagerman of Klinger Hagerman, an audit partner, said the firm completed the city audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards and was able to provide “reasonable but not absolute assurance” that the financial statements were free of material misstatement. "We were able to issue an unmodified opinion," Hagerman told the council.

The auditor also included an emphasis-of-matter paragraph related to accounting changes and restatements tied to the city’s recent enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation; Hagerman said staff corrected identified errors during the implementation and that the emphasis paragraph calls attention to those adjustments rather than reflecting an adverse finding.

Why it matters: An unmodified opinion is the highest standard auditors give on financial statements and signals they found no material misstatement in FY2024 reporting. The emphasis paragraph alerts readers to an accounting presentation change stemming from the ERP rollout and accompanying restatement.

Staff perspective and the new Community Financial Report

Director of Administrative Services (Director Wade) told council members that city management is responsible for preparing financial statements and internal controls, and that the finance team’s work during the ERP implementation helped avoid audit findings. Wade introduced a new, shorter Community Financial Report (also called a popular annual financial report) designed to make audited GAAP results more accessible to residents; the staff-produced summary uses audited GAAP amounts but is not itself audited.

Wade summarized key FY2024 financial results that staff highlighted in the Community Financial Report: total government‑wide revenue grew by about $7.9 million (4 percent) from the prior year; $6.6 million of that growth was from collections of unrestricted sales and use taxes driven largely by a one-time energy development uptick in Albany County, while $2.9 million of the increase was specific-purpose tax receipts tied to that activity. By contrast, property and auto tax revenue contributed about $400,000 of the increase.

On the expense side, governmental activities showed a net decline in reported expenses of about $9.5 million; Wade said a $12.7 million decrease in pension and OPEB expense was the largest single factor driving that change. Personnel costs rose roughly $1.4 million, reflecting compensation adjustments and lower attrition compared with prior pandemic years.

Wade also noted two items of reader interest in the Community Financial Report: a $2.5 million direct distribution increase tied to state legislative appropriations that is not expected to be ongoing, and roughly $1 million in higher investment income resulting from the city’s revised cash-management approach.

Single-audit and federal funds

Hagerman said the city is subject to a single audit because it expended more than the federal threshold for federal awards. The auditors reviewed federal program compliance and issued an unmodified single-audit opinion for the programs tested. Hagerman also highlighted testing of roughly $4 million in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (ARPA) spent on capital projects during FY2024; she said the auditors found no compliance issues with material requirements for the federal funds tested.

Other audit matters

Hagerman and Wade told the council there were no disagreements with management during the audit and no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses identified in internal-control testing. Management’s representations to auditors were dated Dec. 19, 2024, the partner said, which is the date the audit work was substantially complete.

What’s next

Staff said they will continue to refine the Community Financial Report for public consumption and to offer fall briefing sessions that explain planning for the FY2025 audit. Wade encouraged council members and the public to review the management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) and the notes to the financial statements in the full Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for more technical detail.

Council reaction and public access

Councilors asked clarifying questions about terminology and the new report’s frequency; Wade said the Community Financial Report will be updated annually and that staff will seek council and public feedback to improve accessibility. The full ACFR and the new Community Financial Report are available from the city’s finance pages and will be submitted for consideration to the Government Finance Officers Association certificate program.