Erie wins clean 2024 audit; one ARPA compliance issue and material weakness flagged

Erie received an unmodified ("clean") audit opinion on its 2024 financial statements, according to the town's external auditor, but the firm issued a modified opinion limited to one federal program and identified a material weakness in year‑end processes.

Allison (CLA auditor) told the Town Council on Oct. 14 that auditors issued the best possible opinion on the townfinancial statements but modified the compliance opinion for one federal award — the ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) — because procurement suspension/debarment checks for two of four sampled vendors could not be verified in the federal SAM.gov system. The auditor said that limitation produced the modification but that other programs and compliance areas received clean results.

The audit also identified a material weakness labeled 2024001 related to internal controls over financial reporting. Auditor materials and the director of finance, Sarah Hancock, said the weakness reflected several year‑end audit adjustments and reconciliations needed to properly state balances across funds, including correct classification and accruals for developer deposits and grant activity.

"We received a clean opinion on the financial statements," the auditor said, "but we had a finding on procurement suspension/debarment for one ARPA project and a material weakness requiring year‑end adjustments." Hancock told council staff have implemented a more detailed year‑end checklist and an added level of review to address the finding.

Hancock and Deputy Director Anne Penny described other corrective steps: procurement language revisions, a SAM.gov check in the purchasing process for federal grants, contract templates for federal work and plans to bring FAA‑related federal reporting back in‑house under a revised scope of work. The airport improvement program had a separate reporting timing issue; Hancock said the town rectified the missed FAA submission and is working to ensure timely filings going forward.

Council members congratulated finance staff on the overall outcome. During questions, staff confirmed the single audit threshold used was the federal standard (about $750,000 of federal funding that triggers a single audit) and said no FAA sanctions had been imposed after the late airport report. Staff also said a large $4.6 million classification adjustment that showed up in the audit was a presentation/classification matter rather than a substantive loss.

The presentation concluded with auditors noting several IT best‑practice recommendations from their IT review; auditors said those items were recommendations rather than findings. Hancock said contact information and the full annual comprehensive financial report are available to council and the public for more detail.

The council did not take formal action on the audit presentation beyond accepting the report and thanking staff.