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Menands board accepts 2024 audit after auditors report $276,000 general-fund shortfall
Summary
BST auditors reported about 25 audit adjustments, healthy water/sewer funds but an operating deficit in the general fund of roughly $276,000 and an unassigned spendable balance near $183,000; the board voted to accept the audit and to pursue reconciliations and follow-up.
Brendan Kennedy, a partner at BST & Co. CPAs, told the Menands Village Board on Dec. 1 that BST needed about “25 adjusting entries” to bring the village’s 5/31/2024 records into audit-ready form and that the village’s general fund ran an operating deficit for the year. Kennedy said operations produced a shortfall of about $276,000 and that the village’s unassigned (spendable) general-fund balance was roughly $183,000.
Kennedy said the water and sewer funds were financially strong and had accumulated significant fund balances, but the general fund “is what’s hurting it at the end of 2024.” He told board members the audit found instances where cash collected for water and sewer charges remained in the general fund rather than being remitted to the enterprise funds; that practice created interfund liabilities the village must address.
Board members pressed Kennedy for detail about the audit adjustments and the mechanics of the interfund balances. Kennedy said the adjustments were audit proposals that the village posted after management review and described the process as typical for a first-year audit engagement. He recommended monthly bank reconciliations and rolling the corrected 2024 balances forward into the 2025 accounting records so the 2025 audit would proceed more smoothly.
After discussion, a board member moved and the board voted to accept the audit as presented by BST. The village clerk confirmed the audit materials would be posted on the village website; board members requested a printed listing of the audit adjusting entries and follow-up support to implement the reconciliations and internal-control improvements Kennedy recommended.
The board directed staff to work with BST and internal staff to complete reconciliations and to monitor the general fund in coming months; no new tax or appropriation decisions were made at the meeting.
