Audit reports clean bill of health for city of St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- City leaders received promising news on the strength of its financial position and reporting practices based on results from a recently released audit.

St. Joseph received a "clean" audit for fiscal year 2024, meaning the city's financial statements were fairly presented and reporting practices showed no material deficiencies or misstatements. Most importantly, the city was in compliance with all finance-related laws and regulations.

"The audit was incredibly strong. There were no notes of significant deficiency," City Manager Mike Schumacher said. "You don't want any big flashing red lights or problems in it. And that's what we got."

Auditors with Hood & Associates CPAs specifically reviewed the city's basic financial statements, police and pension fund and compliance over expenditures of federal awards/grants during the six-month long audit process.

The city's balance sheet shows it's in a strong position to meet its short-term financial responsibilities within the next 12 months. Assets totaled $141.5 million against $27.5 million in liabilities, leaving the city's fund balance at $113 million.

"Government expenses this year were about $97 million, total business expenses were just over $45 million. The total revenue for the city combined was approximately $170 million," said Mark Stair, senior audit manager with Hood & Associates CPAs, during the work session. "That leads to a change in net position of $68 million. So that's an increase, which is the direction you want to be going."

Assistant City Manager Dawn Lanning said the city has significantly improved its long term budgeting in recent years to develop a stronger financial picture moving forward, while at the same time boosting coordination between departments to improve policies and procedures for accurate budgeting.

All in all, the city reported total assets of $739 million against liabilities of $369 million, creating a strong net position around $390 million when factoring in deferred expenses. 

“That not only tells our team but our community that we're being a good steward of the money. That ensures that we have that financial stability that we need," Lanning said. "Something we're really focusing on is looking at our capital assets and long term planning for maintenance and replacement for those things."

The audit did offer some recommendations for the city, including boosting the number of employees that are cross-trained to ensure certain operations and tasks can be covered when needed, a process the city has already made strides in.

"That's our goal is to make sure that that growth is also communicated out through all the departments and throughout the entire city, because it takes all of us, one team, to be able to accomplish that mission.