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Audit committee reviews quarterly finances, warns of audit deadline and sales-tax shortfall
Summary
City staff presented quarter-one financials showing low early-year revenue recognition and department variances; members raised concern that a state population reallocation may have cost North Ogden about $150,000 in sales-tax revenue and flagged the Dec. 31 audit submission deadline as a risk to sales-tax distributions.
Peter, the city’s finance presenter, told the North Ogden audit committee on Dec. 18 that the city’s general fund had recognized about 16% of expected revenues for the fiscal year while expenditures were running closer to 20%.
"Our general fund is where 16% of our revenues have been accrued, and we're about 20 of our expenditures," Peter said, explaining that revenues are lumpy because property taxes arrive later in the fiscal year and will raise the percentage in the next quarter. He added that a recent timing difference yielded roughly $100,000 more in actual receipts than anticipated compared with the prior year.
The committee heard three-year comparisons showing that interest income is below budget and that timing of capital projects and asset sales explains year-to-year variance in enterprise funds. Peter said the finance team has not yet recorded monthly depreciation for some enterprise funds and plans to correct that practice to give a clearer operating picture.
Committee members also discussed contract and program costs that may raise resident fees. One member warned the city’s solid-waste contract with its hauler was due for renewal and said the contractor proposed a 10% increase in the first renewal year and 4% in the second year if extended. "You'll see the cost of garbage collection to the residents go up too," the member said.
A separate, recurring concern centered on state sales-tax allocations. A committee member told colleagues that the legislature had changed the population estimation method — relying on a Ken C. Gardner Institute adjustment rather than the raw census counts — and that North Ogden believes that change reduced its sales-tax share by about $150,000.
"We believe their miscalculations have cost us a $150,000 in lost sales tax," the committee member said, adding that local officials have asked state Senator John Johnson to raise the matter with the oversight committee for review.
On the FY2025 financial audit, Peter said the external auditors had recently started field work. "They just started working on it 2 weeks ago," he said, and the city expects auditors to present the FY2025 report in February. Committee members noted the city's December 31 deadline to submit the audit to the state and warned that missing that deadline could trigger state action affecting sales-tax collections.
The committee scheduled a midyear budget-adjustment process for the next month and will hold a public hearing to consider transfers and reprioritizations based on these first-quarter results.
The audit committee voted earlier in the meeting to approve the Sept. 18, 2025 meeting minutes and recommended a slate of appointments to the full council (see separate article on appointments).
