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State auditors issue clean opinion for Lake Stevensfinancial statements; no material compliance findings
Summary
State auditors told the Lake Stevens City Council their 2024 accountability and financial-statement audits found the city complies in all material respects with state law and city policies and issued an unmodified (clean) opinion; auditors noted the city uses cash-basis reporting and disclosed that choice as required.
The State AuditorsOffice presented the 2024 accountability and financial-statement audits to the Lake Stevens City Council on Tuesday, reporting results the council generally considers favorable.
Courtney Amerson and Miranda Shales of the auditorsoffice said their accountability audit, which examined compliance with state law, contracts, grants and the citys internal policies, found the city——s operations complied in all material respects and that the city provided adequate controls over public resources. Shales said the auditors also are issuing an unmodified (clean) opinion on the citys 2024 financial statements.
Shales explained that the city elected to prepare financial statements on a cash-basis method authorized by the state BARS manual, rather than US GAAP. Under auditing standards, that choice requires disclosure; the auditors will include an explanatory note in the financial-statement report noting the alternative basis of accounting.
The auditors said they identified no material misstatements that management corrected, no uncorrected misstatements, and no evidence that management circumvented internal controls. They also said the audit work completed this year came in about $1,000 under budget because much of the work was performed remotely.
Mayor and council members thanked the audit team and asked clarifying questions about how the auditors review compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act; Shales said the auditors examine meeting minutes for timely availability, documentation standards and completeness of executive-session records where applicable. Council requested that the audit report be posted to the citys official website and social channels once released.
The auditors encouraged the council and staff to subscribe to the auditorsemail list for notification when the report is published and to complete the post-audit survey they will circulate.
