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Wayne County Zoological Authority approves millage, audit contracts, FY2026 budget and officers
Summary
At its meeting the authority approved the 2025 millage resolution and tax rate request, accepted the 2024 audit, authorized a two‑year auditing contract (2025–26), elected officers and approved the FY2026 budget; all votes passed by voice vote with no recorded roll‑call tallies in the transcript.
The Wayne County Zoological Authority voted on a set of procedural and fiscal items including the annual millage resolution, acceptance of the audit report, engagement of auditors for 2025 and 2026, election of officers and approval of the FY2026 budget.
Millage and tax rate request: The authority approved a resolution and a tax rate request form for the annual levy. Scott Vanemergel, the county assessment equalization director, told the authority the proposed millage is 0.09824, a slight reduction from last year’s 0.0988 to reflect taxable value growth and to conform with the Hadley/Headley amendment requirements. The chair and secretary were asked to execute the tax rate form after the vote. The motion carried on a voice vote; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the transcript.
Audit acceptance and audit contract: Yonko Senkoff, senior audit manager at Allen C. Young and Associates, presented the audit report and said the auditors would issue an unmodified (clean) opinion and that property tax collections—about $4,900,000 for the year—were largely passed through to the Detroit Zoo. The authority voted to accept the audit report. Separately, the commission approved a contract with Allen C. Young and Associates to perform audits for calendar years 2025 and 2026; discussion noted industry practice on rotation and that the zoo authority is not bound to the county charter’s auditor rotation rule.
Election of officers: The authority conducted elections for chair, vice chair and secretary. The transcript records motions and a voice vote; the motion carried and the chair congratulated those elected. The meeting record does not include a roll‑call list of votes in the transcript.
FY2026 budget: The authority approved a proposed fiscal year 2026 budget showing audit fees as the only planned expense (the presentation noted $8,000 for each audit year) and no operating revenues other than the pass‑through tax receipts. The budget was approved by voice vote.
Other procedural items: The minutes of the December 10, 2024 meeting were moved, supported and approved by voice vote earlier in the meeting. The record shows routine “all in favor” voice votes and statements such as “Ayes have it,” but no recorded named vote tallies were provided in the transcript for any item.
Ending: All listed motions passed by voice vote during the meeting; members and presenters closed the meeting after public comment was taken (no public commenters were present in person or on Zoom).
