Perry hears FY 2012 audit

Perry City council members heard a review of the city’s

fiscal year 2012 audit during their work session Monday.

“I’m very pleased,” said Mayor Jimmy Faircloth after the

meeting. “I consider it a clean audit.”

Mark Hardison with Clifton, Lipford, Hardison and Parker,

LLC, presented a graph of the general fund balance for the past eight fiscal

years, with 2010 being the lowest balance.

“The positive news is that you’ve had an increase since

2010,” stated Hardison.

Fiscal year 2011 had a general fund balance of $2,233,684

and fiscal year 2012 had a general fund balance of $2,918,159.

Hardison told the council that most of the city’s revenues

come from property taxes, which are considered 47.8 percent of the total

$12,577,796 in general fund revenues. He said the total expenditures from the

general fund amounted to $12,678,972, with 36 percent being public safety and 36

percent being the general government expenditures.

When reviewing the solid waste fund’s non-operating interest

earnings that totaled $152, Faircloth asked a question about the amount.

“We don’t get a lot from the bank these days,” said

Hardison. “It’s hurting a lot of governments right now.”

 

Although the audit was considered clean, there were three

findings. One concerned the recording of revenue and receivables. Hardison

said, “The city did not properly record certain revenue transactions.”

“We believe that is because of turnover,” he explained. Faircloth said the finding “has been corrected and a

procedure is in place” to make sure it does not happen again.

The second finding involved “capital assets acquired through

the SPLOST fund were erroneously recorded in the Governmental Activities

capital assets instead of the Business Type Activities capital assets,” stated

the presentation.

“The city accounted for it, but the city had it in the wrong

bucket, so to say,” explained Hardison.

The third concerned money still owed on a bond that was used

for operating expenses of the water and sewer fund. Hardison stated that

$211,145 is still owed.

Once the presentation was complete, Faircloth asked Hardison

what the target amount the city should have in unrestricted funds, meaning

money that has not been assigned for a specific purpose.

Hardison said the city has about two months worth of the

operating budget in the unrestricted fund, which he said was “not excessive.”

He considered six months worth as excessive.

“Most governments don’t have a strong fund balance like Perry

does,” said Hardison.

Faircloth said, “We are seeing some savings at this time

because we are running so lean.”

“I don’t want people thinking we have an excess,” Faircloth

explained. “We still have a long way to go.”

After the meeting, Faircloth said the clean audit was “a

testament to how hard the city employees worked.”

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