City auditor gives Chattahoochee Hills an unmodified FY25 opinion, cites segregation-of-duties weakness

Ryan Jones, a partner at Malden & Jenkins, told the Chattahoochee Hills City Council the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the city's fiscal 2025 financial statements, the highest assurance an independent auditor can provide.

Jones said city assets grew by about $2.8 million in fiscal 2025 while liabilities rose to roughly $2.1 million largely because of new lease-reporting rules. He reported the city's net position increased from about $10.5 million to $12.8 million and that about $6.4 million was unrestricted as of June 30, 2025 — funds management can use at its discretion. "I'm happy to say that our opinions for the fiscal 25 financial statements are unmodified," Jones said.

The auditor also described a repeat material weakness tied to limited segregation of duties: "Currently, 1 individual is responsible for both deposits of checks, cash and cash paid to the city and is also responsible for reconciling the city's bank accounts," Jones said, recommending better separation of deposit and reconciliation tasks.

Jones identified a compliance finding related to the hotel/motel fund: the audit showed a fund balance of about $29,000 that exceeded the firm's materiality threshold and state spending rules for those taxes. He recommended monthly transfers to clarify how those revenues are spent and suggested the city adopt more formal capital-asset tracking software before growth makes manual tracking error-prone.

Council members thanked city staff and the finance director for the audit work. The presentation was followed by department reports and routine council business.