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Trustee Roy Farmer: audit clean but government accounting masks cash constraints
Summary
Trustee Roy Farmer presented the district audit, explained differences between GASB and corporate accounting, showed how accruals can make available cash look larger than it is, and urged stronger financial management and transparency.
Trustee Roy Farmer walked the audience through the district audit and the complexity of government accounting standards, saying the report is publicly available and that auditors provided a clean opinion while noting the limits of routine audits. "We got a clean audit from our auditors," he said, but he added that government standards and accruals can make an organization "look like it has a ton of money" when cash is not yet available.
Farmer demonstrated how to trace a "transferred out" line item to a bus-depreciation reimbursement and urged the district to focus on financial management rather than only historical accounting. He also said the district currently holds roughly a three-month cash reserve and has no line of credit, which creates risk; he recommended continuing tighter financial oversight if the levy passes.
