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City manager: late audits nearly complete; fund‑balance policy, reserves and electric-sale funds reviewed
Summary
City Manager Monte told the council the late fiscal-year audits for 2022–23 and 2023–24 are near completion and that the city’s adopted fund-balance policy earmarked proceeds from the 2018 electric utility sale to pension, OPEB, capital reserves and storm/emergency funds.
City Manager Monte updated the Vero Beach City Council on Oct. 7 about overdue audits and the city’s fund-balance policy for proceeds of the municipal electric utility sale.
Monte said the fiscal 2022–23 audit was completed and submitted May 7 and that the fiscal 2023–24 audit had a statutory submission deadline established by the joint legislative auditing committee as Nov. 17; staff said they expected to submit the 2023–24 audit by the end of the week or early the next. Monte said the auditor had “a few more things to do” and that a full audit report — including findings and the management letter — would be delivered for submittal to JLAC.
On fund balance and the proceeds from the 2018 sale of the electric utility, Monte recapped the city’s adopted policy: a 2016 resolution created a written fund-balance policy and a May 2018 revision allowed use of a portion of the sale proceeds to make annual pension payments for a frozen general‑fund pension. The policy later specified set‑asides: $14.4 million for the general‑fund pension liability, $9.45 million for other post‑employment benefits (OPEB), an emergency storm reserve that had been raised from $2 million to $3–5 million, and a $21 million capital reserve. Monte said the city has spent $3 million of the capital reserve to date (about $1 million at the Jimmy Graves Complex and $2 million provided as a marina loan for the project under construction).
City staff said they will propose updates to the fund-balance amounts and issue quarterly financial reports after the end of the first fiscal quarter (quarterly reporting to the finance commission, council and public will begin after that period).
Why it matters: Timely audited financials are essential to municipal finance and to executing the longer-term bond plan for the water project. The city’s decisions about how to use proceeds from the electric sale affect pension funding, capital projects and the city’s fiscal resiliency.
Speakers: Monte (city manager) and finance department staff were sources for the update; councilmembers praised staff for completing overdue work in a challenging period for the finance team.
