Wright County audit issues clean opinion; auditors flag ARPA documentation gap

The Wright County Board of Commissioners received its 2025 external audit and approved the audited financial statements following a presentation at the July 21 meeting. Kristen Houle, signing director for CLA, told the board the firm issued an unmodified opinion and found no material weaknesses in internal controls.

"We did issue an unmodified opinion, which is a clean opinion," Kristen Houle said during the presentation. Houle told commissioners there were no material audit adjustments and no significant internal-control deficiencies except a single documentation item related to ARPA testing: the auditors found the suspension-and-debarment check had been performed but the date was not documented in the file. "Nobody was suspended or debarred, but the date just wasn't noted," she said, adding that auditors had worked with finance to ensure the documentation is completed.

Houle reviewed five-year financial trends showing revenues exceeded expenditures this year, with revenues increasing by $16,600,000 and expenditures decreasing about $300,000. She said the revenue increase was driven in part by an approximate $7,000,000 increase in the tax levy, about $3,500,000 more in prisoner-reimbursement contract revenue, and roughly $2,500,000 increases each in investment earnings and intergovernmental receipts. The auditors also noted a net pension asset for county corrections under current PERA assumptions.

After the presentation the board moved to "approve the summary financial statement and vendor list in accordance with the audit," and the motion passed unanimously. The auditors also warned staff that upcoming Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) changes (GASB 103 and GASB 104) will require a more robust MD&A and an additional original-to-final budget variance column in the financial reports for 2026.