Plante Moran issues unmodified opinion on Monroe City's 2024 audited financial statements

Monroe City's external auditors, Plante Moran, told the City Council they issued an unmodified opinion on the city's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024, and identified no material adjustments that needed to be posted.

"We have issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements," Ramzi Abdallah, a principal with Plante Moran, told the council during the work session presentation. He said the auditors found the financial statements "free of material misstatement" and suitable for reliance.

Auditors also reported a clean federal single audit. Under federal rules, entities that expend more than $750,000 in federal awards are required to undergo a single-audit; Plante Moran said it identified no compliance exceptions or questioned costs for the city.

Alyssa Fleury of Plante Moran reviewed highlights from the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the smaller slide packet distributed to council. She said property tax remains the primary source of general-fund revenue (about 65 percent), and state and federal sources account for roughly 20 percent of the fund's revenue. Fleury noted the city has a separate fund holding approximately $744,000 of unspent ARPA proceeds and that the city spent about $420,000 of ARPA funds in 2024 on police and fire wages and capital projects.

The auditors presented expenditure trends and said public safety accounted for roughly half of the general fund's spending when OPEB-related debt service was allocated by function. Fleury reported the pension plan was about 79 percent funded and the OPEB plan about 63 percent funded; she also reported the city paid more than $190,000 in pension contributions, roughly $194,000 above required contributions.

Plante Moran summarized one management-letter item listing two recurring, nonmaterial presentation differences: the city currently presents a building-authority fund as an enterprise fund (auditors believe it should be governmental) and the city records certain Michigan Department of Transportation project contributions on a gross basis rather than net (approximately $214,000). Auditors described both items as not material to the financial statements.

Mayor Clark and staff thanked the audit team and reminded council members that staff and auditors remain available for follow-up questions as members review the full ACFR and the eight-page AU‑C 260 management letter.

The council received the presentation and had no formal action recorded at the meeting.