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Gold Hill manager authorized to reconcile $287,000 in ARPA funds after staff finds incomplete documentation
Summary
City staff reported Gold Hill received about $287,000 in ARPA funds in 2021-22 but can document only about $120,000; council authorized the manager to reallocate expenditures into correct accounts for federal reporting and to proceed with an internal reconciliation and consultant review.
Gold Hill ' The Gold Hill City Council on Dec. 3 authorized the city manager to reconcile and report prior American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expenditures after staff reported gaps in the accounting for funds received in 2021 and 2022.
Staff reported the city received approximately $287,000 in ARPA funds but has identified only about $120,000 in traceable expenditures. The manager said the remaining balance appears to have been used for general city operations and that transactions were not recorded to the grant chart of accounts in the finance software.
"I'm absolutely moving forward with tracking down every penny," the manager said, noting that a financial consultant will perform an internal audit to reconstruct bank reconciliations and expense coding. The manager asked the council for permission to (a) reassign prior expenditures to the ARPA chart of accounts where appropriate, (b) report to the U.S. Treasury what can be documented, and (c) continue the records search and internal reconciliation.
Councilors moved, seconded and conducted a roll call; the motion carried. Staff said the work will include contacting vendors and examining bank and credit-card statements, and that the city may need to confirm whether particular expenditures meet ARPA eligibility rules. The manager also briefed the council on other finance matters, including a possible $27,000 sewer-fund billing discrepancy flagged by USDA and plans to move the city back to Vision finance software to improve automated payroll and expense tracking.
The council directed staff to continue the reconciliation, to report findings as they become available, and to provide a recommended motion or ordinance if retroactive authorization of specific allocations is required for federal reporting.
