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Council accepts 2024 comprehensive financial report; auditors give unmodified opinion
Summary
External auditors gave the city an unmodified (clean) opinion on the 2024 comprehensive financial report; council unanimously accepted the report. Auditors highlighted a restatement related to Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority receivables and implementation of a GASB compensated‑absence standard.
The Lafayette City Council on Aug. 5 unanimously accepted the city’s 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report after auditors presented a clean (unmodified) opinion and described a small number of reporting notes.
Janine Hathcock, audit partner with I. Bailey (the city’s audit firm), told council: "It is a clean, unmodified opinion, best you can get." The opinion covers governmental activities, business‑type activities, major funds and component units.
Hathcock said the auditors issued two emphasis paragraphs that did not affect the unmodified opinion. One noted a correction of an error relating to Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority (LURA) restatements tied to notes receivable; the other noted the city’s implementation of a Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) standard on compensated absences.
Hathcock said the LURA correction involved previously unrecorded note/receivable amounts totaling roughly $740,000 identified by city finance and recorded as part of the audit. The auditors classified this as a material weakness in internal control for reporting, not a finding that changed the overall audit opinion. The single‑audit portion of the report included an unmodified opinion for federal programs tested and no findings of noncompliance.
City staff and auditors also told council that capital assets rose by about $22.8 million in 2024, driven by street improvements and continued construction of the water reclamation facility. Total net position increased by about $20 million to approximately $482 million, driven in part by timing of property tax receivable recognition and other items.
Councilor Samson moved to accept the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. The motion passed unanimously. The roll call showed Mayor Mongeau and all seven councilors present voting in favor of acceptance.
