Robbinsville – It was mostly good news Tuesday afternoon for the Town of Robbinsville, as the municipality heard its audit report for the 2020-21 fiscal year in a specially-called meeting.
The report was given by Certified Public Accountant Nancy K. Lux of the Waynesville-based Ray, Bumgarner, Kingshill and Associates firm. Lux took the board through the audit, saying that for the most part, the town’s finances and bookkeeping looked good.
The audit shown was still a draft version, due to a backlog with the N.C. Local Government Commission. The town’s audit is required to be approved by the commission.
“I am waiting on their (local government commission) approval of your report,” Lux said. “I have loaded it, actually twice to their old portal and new portal, and all that kind of stuff as we just await their blessing on it.”
However, Lux said she did not expect the commission to ask for too many changes to the audit once it did come back. She said the auditing process went smoothly and that Robbinsville Town Clerk Sonya Webster did a good job keeping the municipality’s books.
“It’s just a pleasure to come into an engagement, an audit client, and just have everything ready and the books are clean,” Lux said.
This year’s general fund included approximately 11 budget amendments prior to approval. According to the draft audit, the total net position came in at $13,819,454.
“Sonya’s doing her job to make sure that spending of any kind has been approved before the check is written,” Lux said. “That’s the state statute and a lot of municipalities don’t do that. They may have one budget amendment all year long when they get to the year and say ‘Oh my gosh, we’re way overspent.’”
She also discussed some improvements in the water and sewer fund.
“The sewer fund is kind of holding its own,” Lux said. “It’s close to it, kind of in the past, I don’t think they were worried about it, but that’s why thy want this broken out, so that can assess. You’ve got sewer charges of almost $360,000.”
She said that even though there was debt in the water and sewer fund, there was still good news.
“Your addition to cash was still a positive number,” Lux said. “That’s a good thing to see.
“You change in net position was negative $324,000, but the majority of that is depreciation. This is in my schedule to look at, and the water and sewer combined is covering the spending, so that’s a good thing. The sewer on its own … I don’t know if that’s something to look at and increase sewer rates at some point.”
She said that the audit had found a discrepancy on an employee’s timecard, with the board informally agreeing on how much the town employee was being paid.
However, Lux suggested that the board vote on the pay in open session to formally address the situation.
The audit also suggested that the town conduct a water and sewer maintenance inventory, accounting for all of its spare parts kept on hand. It was also suggested that the town create an official system for keeping track of the parts and their value.
“We don’t hide anything,” said Robbinsville Mayor Steve Hooper. “Once you start hiding things, you get in trouble. Our budget is open for anybody who comes in.”