Oak Ridge receives clean audit; two performance indicators of concern flagged
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Summary
Auditor Chad Cook presented a clean (unmodified) audit opinion for fiscal year 2024–25 but said the Local Government Commission flagged two financial performance indicators of concern: material audit adjustments and a roughly $79,000 budgetary violation in the Heritage Farm Capital Project Fund.
Chad Cook, the lead auditor from Mazars, told the Oak Ridge Town Council on Jan. 8 that the town’s financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025, received a clean (unmodified) audit opinion. Cook said the audit found no disagreements with management and noted no unusual accounting policies.
The presentation also flagged two financial performance indicators of concern, Cook said. One reflected material audit adjustments recorded during the audit. The other related to a budgetary violation in the Phase 1 Heritage Farm Capital Project Fund, where expenditures exceeded the budget by about $79,000. “The project has been fully budgeted,” Cook said, “but expenditures were recorded in the wrong fund, which produced the variance.” He added the town has reflected the required adjustments in the financial statements.
Cook reviewed fiscal highlights, noting cash and investments across all funds increased by about $280,000 but that the general fund cash decreased by roughly $600,000 year over year. General fund available fund balance was reported at about $2,018,000, an approximate 8% decline. Ad valorem property taxes remained the largest revenue source, about $1,270,000 for the year, and property valuations rose by about $71 million from the prior fiscal year.
Cook reminded the council that the financial statements had been submitted to the North Carolina Local Government Commission (LGC) and remain subject to the commission’s review and approval. “We have issued a clean opinion, but those statements will be reviewed by the LGC,” he said.
Council members asked no substantive follow-up questions during the presentation. Finance Officer Sam Anders later presented the monthly financial update and the council approved the financial report by voice vote.
What’s next: the audit report and the LGC’s review will remain part of the record. Council members and staff said they will track the classification and budgetary presentation issues identified by the auditor.
