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Auditor delivers clean opinion; no material weaknesses found in Freeport's FY25 audit
Summary
An external auditor told the City of Freeport council the FY25 financial statements received an unmodified opinion and a required federal single audit for wastewater-plant grants found no material instances of noncompliance or material weaknesses.
Joel Bradley, the auditor who presented the report, told the City of Freeport council on June 14 that "our reading on the city's financial statements for fiscal year 25 was unmodified." He said the city exceeded the $1,000,000 threshold for federal award expenditures in FY25, which triggered a federal single audit focused on grant compliance for wastewater treatment-plant upgrades.
Bradley said auditors found "no material instances of noncompliance with any of those federal compliance requirements and no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the city's internal controls over compliance." He recommended the city implement GASB Statement No. 101 on compensated absences in FY25; Bradley said management already calculated the liability in a way consistent with the new standard and that implementation produced no impact on beginning fund balance or previously reported net position.
The auditor highlighted several year-to-year variances: tax revenues rose by about $1,100,000, largely from a roughly 21% increase in property tax collections; Bradley characterized the assessed-value change as approximately $275,000,000 from the prior levy. Intergovernmental revenues increased about $1,000,000, driven by several small sources and a one-time grant for the Marquis Way Connector Road project from FDOT. Capital outlay spending rose by about $3,600,000, led by roughly $2,900,000 for a community center project and about $1,200,000 for land behind City Hall called the Lucky Star property.
On the enterprise side, Bradley said capital grant contributions rose substantially in the water and sewer funds; he attributed much of the increase to nonrecurring passthrough funding from the county to offset wastewater treatment-plant construction costs. He also said the city placed about $33,000,000 of construction and process assets into service during the year, which began to increase depreciation expense in FY25.
Mayor and council members thanked the auditor and city finance staff for their work. The report will be available for review, and the council did not take further action at the meeting.
