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Raytown auditors give city a clean opinion and outline ARPA spend-down, reserves
Summary
Auditors told the Raytown Board of Aldermen on May 20 that the city received a clean opinion on its 2024 financial statements, noted roughly $4.5 million in ARPA funds remain to be spent and praised the city's strong reserve position.
Raytown Mayor Michael McDonough and the Board of Aldermen received a clean audit of the city's 2024 financial statements and a compliance report for ARPA spending during their May 20 meeting.
Mike Roshek of Trout, Beaman and Company told the board, “It is a clean opinion,” and walked members through key figures from the audit, including an estimated $4,500,000 in remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the city needs to spend and the city's consolidated cash balances. Roshek said the city did not take on new debt in 2024 and instead paid down existing obligations.
The auditors highlighted the city's reserve position. Roshek said his comparison of several peer municipalities put Raytown at roughly 90% when measuring fund balance against one year of expenditures — a stronger reserve level than several peers. He also explained the city's tax increment financing (TIF) debt is repaid from pledged economic-activity and sales taxes rather than being recorded as an asset.
The audit also listed pension obligations: Roshek summarized a combined net pension liability on the order of $10,000,000 composed of roughly $2.8 million and $7.7 million portions reported for different pension plans. He reviewed the composition of revenues — including property tax, franchise, and sales-tax components — and noted that general-fund revenues and expenditures tracked close to budget, with a net addition to fund balance of about $1,200,000 for the year.
Board members asked questions about ARPA deadlines and internal controls. An alderman asked whether the city had committed ARPA projects in time; Roshek said the city met the commitment deadline and is now in a “spend-down” phase with projects slated for completion by December 2026. The auditors also reported a management-letter item that police vault reconciliations had lapsed; city staff responded and adopted a policy to reconcile regularly.
The audit team left supplemental reports and the management letter with the board; no significant disagreements with management were recorded in the auditors' communications with those charged with governance. The board accepted the audit presentation and thanked the auditors and finance staff.
