Auditors give St. Paul Park a clean opinion; reserves and grant funding help cover major projects

The City of St. Paul Park received an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for its 2025 financial statements, the city learned July 20. Jill Schultz, a partner with Cohn Resnick (formerly Smith Schafer), told the council that auditors found no legal compliance exceptions and no new material weaknesses.

"We issued what's called an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion," Schultz said, adding that the audit included the state-required legal-compliance review. The auditors noted property-tax cash collections rose roughly 7% in 2025 and local government aid (LGA) for the city was just shy of $800,000, which Schultz described as a meaningful revenue source for St. Paul Park.

The audit showed the city’s unassigned general fund balance at about $1,600,000 at year-end — roughly 45% of expenditures, within the state-auditor guidance range of 35%–50%. Schultz said that healthy reserves allowed the city to fund major capital work without issuing additional debt: MnDOT and other intergovernmental grants largely financed the 3rd Street reconstruction project and produced a noticeable revenue spike for 2025.

Schultz also reviewed department-level spending: general government costs were about $843,000 in 2025, public safety costs approached $2,000,000, and parks and recreation spending rose to roughly $373,000. On water and sewer funds, she told the council that depreciation drives reported operating losses in some years, but after removing non-cash depreciation the water fund showed positive operating results.

The city carried about $3,900,000 in debt at year-end; based on current schedules the auditors said the city is on track to be debt-free by 2035 if no new debt is issued. Council members pressed the auditors on internal-control topics. Council member Swenson asked whether the management letter included significant deficiencies or segregation-of-duties issues. "That is something we look at," Schultz replied, saying many small cities face segregation-of-duties challenges and the firm would continue to monitor and advise the city in next-year reports.

The audit presentation closed with a discussion of capital planning for large items such as fire trucks, which can cost about $1,000,000 and have multi-year lead times, reinforcing the auditors’ point that long-range capital planning and reserve management are important.

The council had no further action on the audit at the meeting; the presentation concluded with a brief question-and-answer session.