Aldermen still seeking audit answers

Aldermen still seeking audit answers

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The city of Philadelphia’s debt increased nearly $1 million in Fiscal  2017, according to the last annual audit made available as officials were to have discussed cost-cutting measures Tuesday evening in the wake of a recently exposed backlog of audits. 

Cities are supposed to conduct yearly financial audits but one had not been presented in half a decade it was revealed in September when a Democrat reporter asked for the latest audit.

In light of the backlog of audits, aldermen had questions about the city’s finances they hoped to get answered during the board’s Tuesday night meeting.

“The auditor will be there,” said Ward 1 Alderman Justin Clearman anticipating the attendance of the Pearl accounting firm of Windham and Lacy that the city hired earlier this month to catch the city up on audits. “The city clerk should be there.”

In the last meeting, City Clerk Nikki Walton was absent because of a family illness and Clearman made a motion to freeze non-essential spending until all of the audits are caught up. No action was taken on the motion, and Clearman said he planned to make the motion again Tuesday night.

“Nothing has changed as far as I’m concerned,” Clearman said. “I still have my list of things I want to ask about. There should be a lot of things covered. I’m one vote. Right now, I don’t think we need to do any building projects. Anything that is non-emergency related or non-staff related, that’s non-essential. There may be other things but someone will have to convince me (before he votes for it).”

Aldermen have spent the past two weeks studying the city’s monthly expenses. They were to meet with department heads to prepare a list of what was non-essential to running the city.

Below are some of the findings from the audit ending Fiscal 2017 which is the most recent city audit just made available done by Rhea, Shaw, Griffin and Stuart, LLP.

The city’s expenditures are divided into two divisions:

• Governmental activities such as public safety, streets and sanitation. This is primarily funded by sources other than property taxes; and,

• Business activities, which are supported by user fees.

According to the audit, on Sept. 30, 2017, when the fiscal year ended, the city’s combined governmental funds stood at $6,139,012, which was $12,128 less than the amount reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2016.

The General Fund was amended during Fiscal Year 2017. The amended General Fund budget was $7,558,307 while expenditures totaled $6,395,233.

The city’s investment in capital assets for its governmental and business-type activities at the end of FY 2017 totaled $32,689,866 (net of depreciation.) This investment in capital assets includes land, buildings, equipment, improvements, infrastructure and construction in progress. The total decrease in the city’s investment in the FY 2017 year was $1,829,265 which represents a $1,252,224 decrease in governmental activities and $577,041 in business-type activities.

During FY 2017, the city’s total debt increased $952,843. A total of $944,035 was repaid on bonds and notes.

At the end of FY 2017, the city had a total bond debt, notes payable and compensated absences of $6,565,732. Of that amount, $1,600,000 represents bonds paid by sewer and water revenues, $2.525,000 for tax increment financing bonds, which will be repaid out of sales and property taxes, and $2,310,820 of notes payable. The accrued compensated absences for governmental activities totaled $129,912.






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