Finance Committee recommends council accept Atherton's FY24-25 audited financial statements

The Atherton Finance Committee voted to recommend that the City Council accept the Town's FY24-25 audited financial statements after a presentation from Mason Associates partner Grace Zhang. Zhang told the committee Mason Associates had issued a clean (modified) opinion and reported "no material weakness or significant deficiency type of findings for fiscal year 2025."

Zhang described a memorandum on internal control that accompanies the audit and identified a single discussion item: improving the timeliness of treasury reports (reports should be submitted within 45 days after each quarter-end). Committee members asked for the detailed breakout of fund-balance categories; Zhang and staff directed members to the footnotes in the audited statements that show committed, assigned and unassigned balances and confirmed the town is following its 15% emergency-reserve policy.

Staff summarized key numbers from the staff report: roughly $26.3 million in revenues and $23.2 million in expenses for the fiscal period reported, transfers of $4.45 million to the capital improvement fund, and a reported general fund fund balance of approximately $12.1 million. Staff also noted an $800,000 transfer in from the employee benefit fund that reduced the net general-fund contribution to the $3 million discretionary CalPERS payment recorded earlier in the meeting.

After questions and brief discussion, a committee member moved and the committee voted in favor of recommending acceptance of the audited financial statements to the City Council; the transcript records the vote in voice with no detailed roll-call tally. Staff said the committee's recommendation would be forwarded to the council for final acceptance.