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Town audit: strong reserves and bond rating, auditors flag receivables reconciliation and stale authorizations
Summary
Finance staff reported strong reserve balances (~$41M) and healthy pension/OPEB funding, but auditors identified one remaining material weakness around reconciling receivables and flagged about $5M in stale or unclosed capital/account authorizations. The Select Board asked for tighter reconciliation targets and a plan to close or reauthorize old accounts.
Cameron McKennett, the Select Board liaison to the Financial Audit Advisory Committee, summarized FY25 audit results and what the town needs to fix next. The auditors praised the town’s overall position — reserve balances total roughly $41 million, OPEB funding is about 75% and pensions about 92% — but the audit still identified one material weakness related to reconciling receivables. "We have reserve balances of almost $41,000,000," Cameron said as part of the summary.
Jennifer (finance staff) described actions underway: reducing audit lag (from 18 months to 12 months, with a goal of 6–8 months), closing stale purchase orders and capital accounts, and tightening cash and receivable reconciliations (targeting a 45‑day reconciliation goal). She also noted approximately $5 million in authorizations that appear to be stale or tied to long‑closed projects and described a plan to review and either close, reauthorize, or reallocate those funds. The board asked for concrete timelines, metrics and for the FAAC to return with a plan to address the receivables and encumbrances before year‑end.
