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Skokie audit: independent auditors issue clean opinion, flag IT security awareness
Summary
Lauterbach and Amen presented Skokie's fiscal year audit and issued an unmodified (clean) opinion while noting IT security as an area for board awareness; trustees asked questions about fund balance and a $6 million TIF-related restatement.
Jen Martinson, a partner at Lauterbach and Amen, told the Skokie Village Board on Dec. 15 that auditors issued an unmodified—commonly called a "clean"—audit opinion on the village's financial statements for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2025. "Weissued an unmodified or clean audit opinion on the financial statements," Martinson said, adding that the firm had only two new management-letter comments this year.
The audit presentation highlighted the Management's Discussion and Analysis section as a concise summary of the report and identified the statistical section as useful for 10-year trend data. Martinson advised trustees to review a management-letter item about IT security; she described it as an awareness recommendation rather than a formal finding. "There was no recommendation, or concern from our audit procedures. Really just an awareness for the board that it's a hot topic in the industry right now and to be, certainly aware of IT risks," she said.
Trustees used the auditor's remarks to press for clarity about fund balances and accounting changes. Trustee Schechter noted the board's combined fund balance and asked if the village held an appropriate surplus. Auditor commentary and staff response equated the village's roughly $34.9 million combined fund balance to about six months of operating expenditures, while the village's written general-fund policy remains 25 percent (about three months). Finance staff and the manager said the policy predates recent economic conditions and may warrant review during the budgeting process.
Finance staff also explained an audit restatement of about $6 million tied to downtown TIF note debt. The restatement corrected prior reporting that had treated TIF note payments as expenditures in a governmental fund rather than reporting the notes as debt in government-wide statements. "We corrected it this year, both for '25 and '24, so that you could have an accurate picture of the total debt," a finance official said.
The presentation concluded with auditors answering trustee questions and staff thanking the finance team for coordinating the audit. Trustees expressed appreciation for the clean opinion and directed staff to consider updating policy language and to review IT security recommendations.
