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Brookfield auditors give village —unmodified opinion—, flag budget and recordkeeping issues
Summary
Auditors reported an unmodified opinion on Brookfield's 2024 financial statements and issued a management letter with five items: five funds over budget, three funds with deficit balances, the general fund below the 25% policy after a $1.6 million capital transfer, gaps in capital-asset records, and a cash-allocation best-practice recommendation.
The Village of Brookfield's Committee of the Whole reviewed the village's 2024 annual audit on Sept. 8, where auditors reported an unmodified opinion on the year's financial statements and outlined several management-letter recommendations for the board to address.
—We gave the village an unmodified opinion again this year,— said Matt Baron, a partner with the audit team, calling it —the highest opinion we provide.— He told trustees the audit work included entrance conferences, internal-control walkthroughs of payroll and utility billing, testing of trial balances back to source documents, and report writing.
Baron summarized five management-letter items for officials. Auditors said five funds ended the year over budget (largely small variances), three funds finished with deficit fund balances, and the general fund —ended up this year just slipping just underneath— the village's 25% fund-balance policy. Finance Director Doug Cooper told the board the shortfall was driven in part by a $1.6 million transfer to capital projects during the year and said staff will address those deficits in the next budget process.
The management letter also recommended improving the village's historical capital-asset records so fixed assets can be accurately tracked and reported, and advised continuing regular reviews of bank-account allocations as a cash-management best practice.
Baron told the board the report will be submitted for a certificate of achievement review by a professional finance organization; he also noted two upcoming accounting pronouncements and said the audit team would assist the village in implementing any required changes.
Trustees asked how corrective actions would be tracked. Baron said auditors will note any repeated, unaddressed comments in future reports; Cooper said he would prioritize implementing the management-letter item the finance department had not yet completed and would work with the board during the budget cycle to resolve deficit funds while balancing capital priorities.
President Garvey opened the meeting to public comment; no members of the public spoke. At 7:17 p.m., a motion to adjourn was moved and seconded and the chair declared the committee adjourned.
The report and the full management letter were available to trustees in the board packet for further review; trustees were invited to follow up with the finance director for clarifications.
