County auditor issues clean opinion; cites two repeat material weaknesses
Summary
External auditor presented an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for St. Croix County and the health care campus. The auditor flagged two repeat material weaknesses — audit adjustments and limited segregation of duties in small departments — and recommended oversight and compensating controls. No federal or state compliance findings were reported for tested programs.
An external auditor told the county board the 2025 audit resulted in an unmodified (clean) opinion for county financial statements and for the health care campus, while noting two repeat material weaknesses that warrant board attention.
The auditor, identified in the meeting as Mr. Sherwood, said: "We issue what's known as an unmodified or a clean audit opinion," and added that the county's financial statements can be relied upon for decision-making and for potential lenders/regulators. He described two recurring issues: the need to propose material audit adjustments during closing (adjustments that had to be made for the auditor to issue a clean opinion) and limited segregation of duties in smaller departments where the same person may receive cash, deposit and reconcile. Mr. Sherwood characterized these as common for entities the county's size but urged continuing compensating controls and committee oversight.
Mr. Sherwood also reported positive results from compliance testing: no federal single-audit compliance findings on tested programs and no state compliance issues on the sampled state programs. He highlighted the county's reserve position (roughly 49.6% of expenditures) and recommended consideration of using excess reserves for debt service or capital pre-funding.
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