Laserfiche WebLink
The key pages of the CAFR which the council may wish to review are pages 11-12 and pages 155-156, <br />where two of the auditors' reports are found. In the first report, the auditors have issued an unqualified <br />opinion (also known as a "clean opinion") on the City's basic financial statements, indicating that the <br />City has prepared these statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles <br />(GAAP). GAAP for state and local governments is promulgated by the Governmental Accounting <br />Standards Board (GASB) to ensure consistency in accounting and comparability in financial reporting <br />among state and local governments. A clean opinion is a fundamental financial goal for every <br />government, as it represents the highest level of opinion a government can receive from its independent <br />auditors. A clean opinion is an important indicator of sound financial management and creditworthiness <br />to the citizens, other governmental jurisdictions (state and federal), credit rating agencies, investment <br />bankers, bond holders, and other private sector entities. <br /> <br />In the second report, the auditors address the City’s compliance with applicable provisions of Oregon <br />Revised Statutes including, requirements related to debt, deposit of public funds, preparation and <br />adoption of the budget, accounting records and related internal control structure, etc. In addition, the <br />auditors also report if the City had any significant internal control weaknesses. The auditors noted that <br />the City complied with all laws with one exception - the City exceeded its legal budget (page 47) in <br />three funds. <br /> <br />? <br /> <br />The Urban Renewal Agency (URA) General Fund exceeded its operating budget by $72,443, or <br />24%. When PDD staff finalized the FY07 budget in February, 2006 for the Urban Renewal, they <br />budgeted 53% of operating expenses to Downtown district and 47% to the Riverfront district. <br />During FY07, however, expenditures for Downtown activity consumed approximately 75% of the <br />total staff expenditures with the majority of the staff effort focused on the West Broadway project in <br />the latter part of the year. As a result, the URA General Fund exceeded its approved budget. The <br />money to pay for this over-expenditure came from within the URA Debt Service Fund. <br /> <br />? <br /> <br />The URA Debt Service Fund, which provides funding to the URA General Fund for administrative <br />expenses, exceeded its transfer authority by $72,425, or 6%. This was a result of the over- <br />expenditure in the URA General Fund, as described above. <br /> <br />? <br /> <br />The Professional Services Internal Service Fund (PSF Fund) overspent its transfer authority by <br />$13,947, or 3%. As part of the FY07 budget process, the facilities professional function was moved <br />from the PSF Fund to the Facilities Internal Service Fund (Facilities Fund). Staff under-estimated <br />the transfer of equity from the PSF Fund to the Facilities Fund by this amount. <br /> <br />ORS require that all over-expenditures be brought to the attention of the governing body. Because there <br />is no dollar threshold, it is common for local governments to have occasional over-expenditures. As a <br />benchmark for reference, in the past decade with total annual budgets of between $400-500 million, the <br />City has been cited for four other over-expenditures totaling $11,403. This indicates that over- <br />expenditures occur rarely. <br /> <br />Two additional reports, beginning on page 159, specifically address compliance with Federal laws, <br />regulations, contracts and grants, and indicate that the auditors found no material instances of the City's <br />noncompliance with these requirements, nor were there any findings or questioned costs noted in <br />relation to Federal awards made to the City. <br /> <br /> F:\CMO\2008 Council Agendas\M080114\S0801144D.doc <br /> <br />