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Finance committee accepts city's clean 2025 audit; one control finding noted
Summary
The Finance Personnel Committee accepted the City of De Pere's 2025 management letter and financial statements after an auditor presentation that reported an unmodified opinion and one internal-control observation related to the preparation of financial statements.
The De Pere Finance Personnel Committee voted to accept and place on file the City's 2025 management letter and financial statements after an auditor's presentation on July 14.
Elizabeth McMasters, the audit engagement lead from CLA, told the committee the firm issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the 2025 financial statements and found no corrected or uncorrected misstatements. She said auditors identified one internal-control observation related to preparation of the financial statements, a common finding when municipalities rely on an outside preparer rather than maintaining that work in-house. "We issued an unmodified opinion, which is the highest mark the city can get," McMasters said.
McMasters and city staff highlighted several fiscal items that contributed to the improved fund position. The city saw stronger-than-budgeted interest earnings and higher ambulance-revenue collections; staff also reported receiving approximately $171,000 in GEMT (Medicaid supplemental) payments covering 2023 and 2024. The presentation noted the city's policy target for unassigned fund balance is 25 percent of general-fund expenditures (that policy was presented as roughly $6 million), and the auditors encouraged continued conservative planning given inflation and project-cost volatility.
During questions, committee members pressed on reserve targets, utility cash flows and forthcoming regulatory items. McMasters recommended monitoring multi-year capital plans before using reserves for recurring operations. The committee voted on a motion to accept the management letter and financial statements; the motion carried on a voice vote with no opposition.
The committee did not adopt additional audit-related actions beyond placing the documents on file. The audit presentation also previewed several GASB reporting changes that staff will review as they prepare next year's financial statements.
Next steps: the accepted documents will be filed with city records, and staff said they will continue to monitor the items raised in the management letter as part of ongoing budget and CIP planning.
