City auditors give Red Bank an unmodified opinion; staff outline corrective actions for a solid-waste budgeting finding
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Summary
Johnson Murphy and Wright issued an unmodified opinion on Red Bank's 2025 audit while identifying one noncompliance tied to solid-waste budgeting timing; city staff said funds were available and a corrective-action plan and quarterly budget amendments are now in place.
Johnson Murphy and Wright delivered Red Bank's 2025 audit to the City Commission and reported an unmodified opinion while noting a single noncompliance tied to budget timing in the solid-waste fund.
The audit showed general-fund revenues of about $11,676,000 against expenditures of roughly $12,000,004, producing a reported net governmental-fund decrease of $871,045. Auditors highlighted nearly $2 million in capital investments this year, including roughly $450,000 in fire and police equipment and about $480,000 in public-works improvements. The firm also reported roughly $1 million in ARPA spending allocated to facilities and drainage work.
"The opinion we used on this report is an unmodified opinion, which is the best you could get," said Brian Wright, a partner with Johnson Murphy and Wright, summarizing the firm's conclusion that no material internal-control weaknesses were identified.
Auditors recorded one finding related to timing: equipment budgeted in a prior year arrived late and the purchase was recorded in the subsequent fiscal year without a final year-end amendment. City staff said the funds were available and the accounting timing, not a cash shortfall, produced the noncompliance. Staff told commissioners a corrective-action plan is in place and that departments will move to quarterly budget amendments and tighter oversight to prevent similar timing issues.
In related financial reporting, staff said property-tax collections are below last year's pace and that overall revenues were at about 30% of expected annual receipts through December. Expenditure controls were reported at about 47% of the year-to-date budget and officials said initial belt-tightening is under way.
Next steps: commissioners asked for a brief follow-up presentation at a future commission meeting describing the corrective-action plan and implementation timeline; staff said the corrective-action plan lists a target completion date of 06/30/2026 but that quarterly practices will continue beyond that date.
No formal vote was recorded at the work session on the audit report itself; the audit was presented for transparency and discussion.
