Huntington auditor issues clean opinion for FY2025 audit; prior-year budget deficiency noted as corrected

Doug, the city’s independent auditor, told the Huntington City Council that the FY2025 financial statements received an unqualified — or "clean" — opinion, and that Huntington complied in all material respects with state and federal audit requirements for the year ended June 30, 2025.

"That's that's an unqualified or a clean opinion," Doug said while presenting the independent auditor's report and directing council members to the Management Discussion & Analysis and fund statements for details.

Doug walked the council through key figures. He reported general fund revenues of about $1,000,002.16 and total general fund expenditures of about $1,000,001.12, producing a positive change in fund balance. He said restricted Class C road funds totaled roughly $433,000; assigned balances included $1,009.10 for the youth council and $8,008.76 for heritage days, with an unassigned fund balance of about $154,000. Doug noted the city remains within its policy limit (35% of total revenue) for assigned plus unassigned fund balance.

The auditor described transfers during the year — transfers in of $98,006.68 and transfers out of $54,006.68 — and told the council that funds were moved from the perpetual care fund into the capital projects fund. He reported a perpetual care fund deficit of $42,005.40 for the year, a capital projects fund increase of nearly $21,000, and an MBA increase of $4,007.23.

Enterprise funds also showed positive results, Doug said: the utility fund posted net operating income of $31,002.90 with interest income of nearly $23,000 and a net position increase of $54,001.94. The secondary water system reported revenue near $61,003, expenses of about $30,001.74 and net income around $31,001.29, with interest of roughly $28,000.

On compliance testing, Doug said auditors tested eight state compliance items and found no reportable deficiencies: "in our opinion, Huntington City complied in all material respects with the state compliance requirements referred to above for the year ended 06/30/2025." He said federal auditing standards testing likewise disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters required to be reported under government auditing standards.

Doug told the council the audit report still identifies a 2024 budget deficiency for historical reporting purposes, but that the issue has been corrected for 2025 and will be removed in the next audit report. He explained why standard audit language warns that material weaknesses "may exist" — auditors do not test every transaction — and described a past case where a full-transaction review uncovered that an individual had taken funds over multiple years; auditors later found the issue after additional testing.

Council members thanked the auditor for the work and confirmed receipt of the electronic audit copy. A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and carried by voice vote.

The council did not take any immediate policy action during the session; auditors invited council members to contact their office with any follow-up questions about the report.