Amarillo council files draft annual financial report after CLA finds no material issues
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Summary
The Amarillo City Council voted to file a draft Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) prepared by CliftonLarsonAllen, after CLA said it expects to issue an unmodified (clean) opinion on the final statements; council asked staff to reconcile quarterly investment holdings, CIP work-product and bond-reserve figures before final adoption.
Scott Kerschnak of CliftonLarsonAllen presented a draft Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the period 10/01/2024–09/30/2025 and offered to answer council questions. He described the document as a draft "subject to changes" and said CLA expects to render an unmodified opinion on the final financial statements once staff reconciliations are complete.
Mayor Stanley told council the draft was recently distributed and that several council members had not reviewed a hard copy. He asked CLA to help reconcile apparent differences between the quarterly investment holdings report and the ACFR so council can identify restricted versus unrestricted cash. "If you look back at that report, it roughly held 585,000,000 in it," the mayor said, asking staff to provide an itemized end-of-year holdings report for 09/30/2025.
Katrina (finance staff) said auditors asked that some accrued interest be reclassified at market, which increased investments by about $2,000,000 in the ACFR. CLA confirmed that note 3 (deposits and investments) and related tables will be useful for reconciling the holdings to the ACFR and offered to work with Katrina to produce a reconciliation.
CLA also highlighted note 7 (capital assets) and explained that construction-in-progress balances reflect expenditures incurred to date rather than remaining budgets to complete projects. The firm pointed council to a separate CIP table with project authorizations and outside funding (page 100 of the draft) and offered to provide supporting commitment detail on request.
On long-term obligations, CLA directed council to note 13 and the debt-schedule summary as the primary places to review the city's total long-term debt. CLA also noted statistical tables at the end of the document are unaudited and reminded council the single audit for federal and state grant programs is a separate report still in process.
Katrina cautioned that the single audit will likely include three process findings, which she said are nonmonetary and will be reported in the single-audit document when issued.
The council moved to file the draft ACFR in the city secretary's office. A council member moved to file the document; the motion received a second, council voted by voice and the motion passed. "All in favor, please say aye," the mayor said; council responded "Aye." The meeting adjourned following the vote.
Next steps: staff and CLA will work on the requested reconciliations (investment holdings to ACFR, CIP work-product validation) and the single audit report will be presented separately when completed.
