Rock Springs council accepts FY2025 audit final draft; auditor reports "clean" opinion

The Rock Springs City Council voted unanimously on Nov. 18 to accept the city's fiscal year 2025 audit final draft from McGee, Hearn and Pies, LLC.

An auditor presenting the report told council members the firm intends to issue an "unmodified or clean audit opinion." The presenter highlighted several key figures: an accounting impairment loss of just over $3,000,000 related to an abandoned building the city will sell, an increase in overall city equity of about $12,900,000, a decline in net pension liability to just under $12,000,000, and approximately $2.9 million in federal funds expended during the year.

"We will be issuing an unmodified or clean audit opinion," the auditor said during the presentation. The auditor explained the only reason the report is a "final draft" is that the federal Office of Management and Budget had not yet released a final compliance supplement; the firm performed audit work against the draft compliance supplement and said no compliance exceptions were found.

The auditor also described changes required by a new Governmental Accounting Standards Board statement on compensated absences and noted the city's large investment holdings concentrated in a particular class of investments (the "Y class"), which represented 45% of the city's cash and investments.

Mayor Max Mickelson thanked the audit team and city staff for their work, and councilors asked no substantive follow-up questions before voting to accept the draft. Council then directed staff to complete statutory advertising and formal closing steps once the final compliance supplement is available.

The council accepted the audit draft as presented; a final report will be issued once federal guidance is finalized.