Ceres City Councilman James Casey’s suggestion to have audits of the city’s finances for Fiscal Year 2022-23 to be completed by the end of the calendar year will be considered at a future date.
At the June 12 meeting Casey acknowledged that “it may be hard to do the first time but I think it’s something we should shoot for.”
“I’m not personally criticizing our Finance Department – I think she does a great job – but we need to, especially in the future when we don’t have this $11 million ARPA money we really need to be looking at our budget and our finances a lot closer than we have been,” said Casey.
He also suggested the council review the budget quarterly “a little more in detail than we had last time so that we know where we are and where our (financial) future is.”
City Manager Doug Dunford told the council that the city often appears to run into the red because of the cash flow and revenue receipts and “not see the light of day until the end of June and so when we do these presentations, you’re going to be seeing a lot of red ink because we’re running into the negative all the way for the first seven to eight months at a minimum.”
Finance Director Leticia Dias said quarterly budget reviews could be accomplished since she has a full staff but noted “as the city manager stated it would not look good for a while.”
Vice Mayor Bret Silveira said he could support the quarterly reviews as long as they are just a few pages and not involved.
Casey also asked the council to consider changing audit firms every three years, noting the city has used the same auditor for quite some time.
“Sometimes – I’m not suggesting any wrongdoings happening but sometimes we’re too friendly, they’re too friendly with us and they don’t dig into what they should be doing to really check the numbers outs.”
All members but Mayor Javier Lopez wanted Casey’s suggestion of changing audit times to be discussed at a future meeting.
The council did not warm up to the idea changing auditing firms after Dias reported that every six years the managing partner of the auditors has to change and since the city is reviewing requests for proposals for other auditors for the 2022-23 fiscal year budget.
On Monday the council received a report on the audit of the 2021-22 fiscal year budget which received an “unqualified opinion” from JJACPA, Inc. of Dublin. It is considered the highest and best opinion that an auditing firm can give.
