Auditor: City In Good Shape Financially Has ‘Cleaner Audit’
The city of Summerville is making strides with improving its bookkeeping system, according to Auditor Chrysan Thomas.
Thomas, the city’s CPA tasked with doing its annual audit. This year she found city records were being kept better than the previous year.
“Keep in mind that this is a year that ended in June. There was a lot of stuff going on from the previous year that maybe were corrected right after [the city manager] came in and other personnel changes,” Thomas said.
The city ended its 2017-2018 fiscal year with about $4 million in cash, she said. That includes restricted accounts like reserve funds, drug confiscation funds and other earmarked projects.
“What you really have available starting at the beginning of this fiscal year is $1.8 million for operations,” the CPA said. “It looks like the majority of the things we brought up last year has been corrected or is the process of being corrected. The payables are more current and entered into the system.”
“So overall?” Councilman Earl Parris asked.
“Overall it was a much cleaner audit this year, Thomas said.
“Overall we are much better as far as procedures are concerned. Of course, as far as monies are concerned, we are still running a pretty tight ship. I think there are some things we need to keep our eye on. . .keep expenses down and watch our revenues. . .” Mayor Harry Harvey said.
The audit shows the city was able to reduce its debt about $900,000 last fiscal year. But the city still owes $9.9 million in capital leases, loans and revenue bonds.
The city has a 2005 bond it took out to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant. That bond matures in 2026. They also have another revenue bond for $651,543. It was for gas meters.
Other bonds include:
* $1.4 million GEFA loan with a 4.14 interest rate that matures in 2029.
* $201,000 GEFA loan that matures 2031 with a 3-percent interest rate.
* $2,484,448 GEFA loan that matures 2033 with a 3-percent interest rate.
* $1.32 million GEFA loan that matures 2037 with a .5-percent interest rate.
* The city is still paying for a $300,000 fire truck, $402,000 for natural gas line expansions and $37,000 for a new police car.