Auditor: North Bay Village 2023 financial statements receive unmodified opinion; two findings noted

Enrique Yerena, the audit partner for the FY2023 ACFR, told the Finance Advisory Board that his firm issued an unmodified opinion on North Bay Village’s financial statements for the year ended Sept. 30, 2023. “In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the village as of 09/30/2023,” Yerena said, summarizing the independent auditors’ report.

Yerena walked the board through the ACFR structure — introductory material, management’s discussion and analysis, the government-wide and fund financial statements, and a statistical section — and highlighted two findings listed in the compliance section and detailed on page 94 of the report. He said the findings are accompanied by corrective action plans that describe criteria, cause, effect and planned steps to remediate the issues. When asked whether auditors had identified any conditions that would require immediate escalation, Yerena replied, “No,” and explained the firm’s financial condition assessment process and the role of management letters for communicating opportunities for improvement.

Board members pressed for clarity about the net pension liability and the township’s unassigned fund balance. Yerena described the net pension liability as a long-term obligation representing the difference between projected pension benefits and the assets accumulated to fund them, and he emphasized that those amounts are driven largely by actuarial assumptions and investment returns. Staff later described a transfer of engagement responsibilities to CBIZ; village staff said they have started the vendor onboarding and will provide requested documents to help CBIZ complete outstanding audits and requested extensions where necessary.