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Pleasanton council accepts audited financial statements after staff highlights clean audit and one-time development revenues
Summary
The Pleasanton City Council unanimously accepted the city's FY2025 audited financial statements, which included a clean (unmodified) opinion; staff told council the year-end surplus largely reflected one-time development revenues and noted pension and other accrual accounting changes that increased reported liabilities.
The Pleasanton City Council on Jan. 20 unanimously accepted the city's audited financial statements and related reports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025.
Finance Director Susan Hsieh told the council the independent auditors issued an unmodified (clean) opinion. She said consolidated assets and deferred outflows topped $1,000,000,000, up about $15,000,000 from the prior year, with capital assets reported at more than $680,000,000 and cash and investments of roughly $340,000,000. Consolidated liabilities and deferred inflows were reported at about $340 million, an increase of roughly $11,000,000, driven in part by implementation of a new accounting standard for compensated absences.
Why it matters: the document is an audited, historically grounded account of the city's finances. Hsieh said a portion of the improved year-end position came from large development projects that generated one-time impact-fee revenues late in the fiscal year; those funds are restricted to impact-fee uses and cannot be moved into general operations. Hsieh also reported the city's net pension and retired medical unfunded liability at over $180,000,000 when counting pension trust assets (about $240,000,000 without the trust assets).
Council members pressed staff for clarification about the difference between accounting (accrual) adjustments and cash impacts. Hsieh explained the new GASB-related accrual increased the reported compensated-absence liability by about $7,400,000 but said the cash outlay in FY2025 tied to that change was about $1,000,000. Several council members emphasized that the reported surplus does not eliminate structural budget pressures and noted that a portion of the positive result reflects timing of development revenues.
Councilmember Eicher moved and Councilmember Testa seconded a motion to accept the audited financial statements, the annual comprehensive financial report and related audit reports. The council voted by roll call and the motion passed unanimously.
Next steps and context: staff said midyear budget work and an updated financial forecast are scheduled for February, and a pension strategy presentation is planned for March. Hsieh also pointed to a $56,300,000 balance in the city's Section 115 trust as a resource the council has been considering for pension pre-funding. The council and staff said they will continue to monitor liability assumptions, investment returns and the timing of development revenues as they plan for future budgets.
Quote: "We had a clean audit this past year," Hsieh said during the presentation. "Recording the minimum liability meets the accounting standard requirement."
The council accepted the reports and moved on to the next agenda item.
