Council reviews budget figures as 2024 audit remains incomplete, flags interfund transfers from sewer fund

Clarks Summit Borough Council reviewed year-to-date budget figures and discussed adjustments that auditors must confirm before finalizing the 2024 audit.

Council members said the borough’s auditors are finishing work after a staffing delay; the auditors’ review will determine whether interfund transfers and wage/benefit allocations are correctly classified. Staff described roughly $190,000 in transfers tied to payroll and benefits that currently sit in the financials as transfers from the sewer fund — including wage transfers and benefits allocations for certain public works and sewer-billing personnel. Specific percentages cited in the discussion included a 25% allocation of some DPW wages to the sewer fund, a 33% allocation for sewer-billing work, and an instance where 65% of benefits for a staff member were being paid from the sewer account; staff said auditors will confirm those classifications.

Councilors said earlier discrepancies between Excel and QuickBooks versions had been resolved and that an apparent $45,000 difference is included in the QuickBooks version. They also discussed that some municipalities that historically contributed to workers’ compensation costs have not been billed since February 2019 and that the borough will pursue catching up on those billings.

Members considered meeting as a finance committee prior to the next council meeting for a line-by-line review and discussed starting preliminary work on next year’s budget in September with a goal to finalize in November and adopt by December. No formal vote was recorded during the discussion.