Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Cotati receives clean FY2024–25 audit; auditors report no material weaknesses
Summary
Auditor Chavan & Associates issued an unmodified opinion on Cotati’s FY2024–25 financial statements, reporting stable fund and enterprise results, a $5.6 million combined net pension liability, and roughly $350,000 interest earnings for business‑type activities; council received the ACFR and PAFR.
Cotati’s city council received a clean annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, after an auditor from Chavan & Associates presented an unmodified opinion and no material weaknesses.
Neil Tomlinson, the city’s senior accountant, introduced the report and said the city had prepared a shorter, Spanish‑ and English‑language popular annual financial report to accompany the larger audit. Auditor Sheldon Chavan said this was his firm’s first year on the engagement and described a four‑phase audit process that included additional beginning‑balance procedures for first‑year audits.
Chavan summarized the key findings: the auditor issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the consolidated financial statements and did not identify material weaknesses or significant disagreements with management. He reported interest earnings of about $350,000 for the city’s business‑type activities (water and wastewater), a combined net pension liability of about $5,600,000 under GASB 68 accounting, an unrestricted net position of over $3,000,000, and an unassigned general‑fund balance of roughly $4,400,000. The full ACFR totals about 188 pages, Chavan said, and the popular report is intended to be more accessible to residents.
Council members asked routine clarifying questions, including one about typos in the Spanish edition of the popular report, which staff said was a draft. Mayor Ford and other council members also asked about the auditor‑rotation rules in California; Chavan said firms or engagement partners rotate every sixth audit under state rules.
During public comment, a resident identified as Laurie said a clean audit does not capture service levels or spending choices and urged council scrutiny of programmatic detail. The council took no formal action beyond receiving and filing the audit and PAFR.
The council did not vote to accept the audit opinion (the report was presented and received). The staff packet and the full ACFR remain the primary source for detailed figures and accounting notes.
Next steps: staff will correct minor typos in the popular report and the ACFR will be posted per standard practice.
