Auditor gives Eagle Pass a clean opinion for FY 2024; residents raise concerns about accounting items

An independent auditing firm delivered a clean opinion on the City of Eagle Pass's fiscal‑year 2024 financial statements but included an emphasis of matter on prior‑period adjustments and issued a management letter calling for timelier reconciliations. The council voted to accept the audit after an executive‑session consultation with the city attorney; the final vote recorded multiple affirmative votes, one recorded no vote and one abstention.

At a public presentation, the auditor summarized key results: no new accounting pronouncements affected the city, no uncorrected misstatements remained, and there were no disagreements with management. The auditor said prior‑period adjustments appear on Page 68 of the report, including a governmental‑fund adjustment of approximately $160,000 and business‑type fund adjustments totaling about $1.3 million. The auditor attributed most of the business‑type adjustment to a new landfill valuation based on engineering work that increased the recorded value by roughly $950,000.

The audit report also disclosed consolidated figures for the city on a government‑wide basis: total assets of about $152.6 million (including roughly $11.3 million in cash and $27.7 million in capital‑project restricted cash), capital assets net of depreciation of about $101.4 million, deferred outflows of about $6.2 million, and total liabilities of about $90.9 million (including long‑term debt of about $68.8 million). The auditor reported a change in net position for the year of negative approximately $3.0 million, noting that the figure includes non‑cash depreciation of about $5.5 million.

Public commenter Ricardo Calderon, identifying himself as a taxpayer, asked council not to approve the audit at that meeting, saying he believed the audit did not fully account for roughly $8.5 million he described as lumped into a $20 million category and that the audit did not adequately detail a $2.3 million loss tied to a music festival. Calderon recommended council decline approval and requested a more detailed review.

In response, the auditor said the adjustments and reconciliations had been completed prior to issuance of the report and described year‑end and prior‑period closing entries (adjustments 1 through 15 included in the audit working papers). The auditor commended finance staff for timely cooperation despite a short turnaround and said prior year findings had been corrected.

Following a council motion, the item was referred to executive session for consultation with the city attorney under Texas Government Code Section 551.071. When the council returned to open session, a motion to approve the audit carried; the meeting record reflects affirmative votes with one councilmember voting against and one abstention. The council directed staff to proceed in accordance with the audit and to continue improving the timeliness of reconciliations.

Provenance: The auditor presented the governance communication and financial audit summary in the public meeting; public comment on the audit and subsequent council actions are recorded in the meeting transcript.