Marietta audit: clean opinion and $49 million net‑position gain, ARPA program receives clean single‑audit

City auditors presented an unmodified (clean) opinion on the City of Marietta’s fiscal‑year 2025 financial statements and a clean single‑audit on the city’s ARPA expenditures, city staff reported at the council’s agenda work session.

"Our opinion was an unmodified or clean opinion on the basic financial statements," said Jenny Harris, senior audit manager at Nichols Cauley, who presented the audit findings. Harris told council members auditors discovered no material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and no reportable instances of noncompliance under governmental auditing standards.

Finance staff said the city’s consolidated net position totaled about $481,400,000 at year‑end — roughly $49,000,000 higher than the prior fiscal year. Of that increase, staff attributed about $28.5 million to SPLOST‑related project activity and roughly $20 million to business‑related revenue gains. The general fund’s total fund balance was reported at $43,500,000, with an unassigned balance of $13,600,000 (about two months of operating expenditures by industry guidance).

Harris also reported the single‑audit opinion on the ARPA program was clean; auditors audited ARPA as the major federal program because it represented about 68% of the city’s federal expenditures during the year. She said the audit work follows generally accepted auditing standards and governmental auditing standards and is designed to provide reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the statements are fairly presented.

Council members asked technical questions about notes payable, and Harris pointed council to the note disclosures (long‑term obligations) in the audit report for details on DMDA bonds and related disclosures. City finance staff asked that the annual comprehensive financial report be moved forward to the Wednesday meeting for receipt and filing. The council voted to send the report to the formal agenda.