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City auditors report clean FY25 opinion, highlight federal grant testing and fund‑balance changes
Summary
External auditors told the Essex Junction City Council the city received a clean, unmodified opinion for fiscal year 2025, noted federal‑grant testing tied to a Department of Transportation project, and detailed a drop in general fund balance driven by a $2.8 million Lincoln Street renovation.
Auditors presented the city's fiscal 2025 financial statements and said they found no material issues.
"It was a clean, unmodified opinion for the 06/30/2025 financials this year," said Bill Kaiser, partner at Cattell, Brandigan & Sergeant, who led the audit presentation. He explained the Department of Transportation grant was the major federal program tested and noted the single‑audit threshold recently rose from $750,000 to $1,000,000.
Kaiser described the city as a low‑risk auditee this year, which limited testing to a 20% sampling of certain grant funds. He told councilors the city had over $16 million in cash balances at June 30, 2025, and that the general fund balance declined to $3,138,000 from roughly $5,000,000 the prior year. Auditors said the primary driver of that decline was a $2.8 million assignment last year for the Lincoln Street renovation.
Jess (finance staff) added that many of the audit adjustments staff received were related to fixed assets and to a new GASB rule about compensated absences; she said the administration and auditors had worked through the entries and were aligned. Councilors praised staff for a clean report and asked for examples of immaterial adjustments, which Kaiser described as timing reclassifications such as checks that should be posted to accounts payable.
The presentation concluded with auditors noting minimal proposed adjustments and no deviations in internal controls that would require modification.
