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Commerce City earns clean opinion on 2025 financial statements; auditors report no findings
Summary
Plante Moran presented Commerce City's 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and delivered an unmodified (clean) opinion on the city's financial statements and federal single-audit, reporting no audit findings and highlighting a $73.7 million increase in net position.
Plante Moran, the independent audit firm, told the Commerce City Council on June 24 that it issued an unmodified opinion on the city's 2025 financial statements and on the federal single-audit covering federal awards. Lead audit partner Bill Brookie said the firm found no reportable audit findings or compliance issues.
Brookie and audit team member Kateryna Vlecko highlighted a 10-year view of the city's net position and identified the 2025 drivers of improved fiscal position: stronger charges for services, approximately $4 million more in operating grants compared with 2024, and higher sales and use tax revenues. The auditors said net position rose by $73.7 million in 2025 and noted the city reported about $75 million in restricted net position earmarked for grants, capital projects and emergencies.
On federal funding, auditors said the city expended about $11.4 million in federal awards during the year and that they audited the highway planning and construction program as the major program (about $6.4 million). That work also produced an unmodified opinion and no findings, the auditors said.
City staff explained two accounting classification changes reflected in the ACFR: (1) a Special Improvement Districts fund was closed because its obligations were fully satisfied and a small remaining balance (reported as just under $89,000) was transferred to the general fund; and (2) the Solid Waste Management Fund was reclassified from an enterprise fund to a non-major special revenue fund for correct accounting treatment. Staff emphasized the reclassification did not change the fund's purpose or spending plan, only the internal presentation in the ACFR.
Council members praised finance staff and Plante Moran for the clean audit and asked staff to work with Communications to share the awards. Staff noted the city received three Government Finance Officers Association recognitions (ACFR, budget, and a popular annual financial report), which they described as a "triple crown." Council members said publicizing the result could help community trust in the city's fiscal management.
The auditors made a brief presentation and then answered council questions; no formal council action was required. Staff said hard copies of the ACFR will be distributed when printed and will be made available electronically on request.
