Independent auditor issues clean opinion on Leonardtown's 2025 financial statements

The Leonardtown Town Council heard a brief audit presentation Jan. 12 from the town's independent auditor, who said the firm issued a clean (unmodified) opinion on the fiscal-year 2025 financial statements and identified no fraud or material internal-control weaknesses.

"We did not discover any fraud during our audit," said Chris Lee, engagement partner for SVM company, who presented the results and described the audit's scope and procedures. He told the council the audit covered the entity-wide financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025, and that the firm will complete a federal single audit if the town's federal expenditures exceed the $750,000 threshold.

The auditor summarized headline figures from the statements: the report shows the town recorded about $7.8 million in total revenue against $10.1 million in expenditures, a change of roughly $2.2 million Lee said is driven primarily by depreciation and therefore represents a paper loss rather than an operating cash shortfall. Lee also summarized the audited balance-sheet figures presented in the statements, which list approximately $88.4 million in total assets and about $22.1 million in total liabilities.

Sharon, presenting the treasurer's report, said the town retains a healthy reserve position on a modified-cash basis: the unassigned (spendable) fund balance is about $2.2 million, representing roughly 63% of the current fund balance and about 69.61% of projected FY2026 expenditures, which exceeds the council's 50% benchmark.

Lee emphasized that no audit adjustments or material weaknesses were identified and that management provided full cooperation. He noted the single-audit submission and the state-required uniform financial report are upcoming deliverables.

The council did not take formal action on the audit itself at the meeting but accepted the auditor's presentation and reserved follow-up questions to staff and the auditor if needed.