Moorcroft budget highlights

Moorcroft’s 2019/2020 audit is complete and was reviewed by Deidre Budahl from Casey Peterson Ltd and the town council last Monday night. There were no unexpected issues, according to Mayor Dick Claar: “It went well, I thought.”

Landfill

Budahl discussed the problem of possible future closure costs of the municipal landfill, saying that the town will be $41,250 short on funding when this potential closure is embarked upon in 2026, though the governing body set aside $25,000 last fiscal year. Claar later remarked that this annual concern will be addressed with more surety when the decision about a district has been established in the next few months.

At this time, the post closure cost is estimated, according to Budahl, at $1.66 million.

Processes and procedures

There are two issues regarding non-compliance warnings that consistently plague the town’s audits. These problems arise simply because of the number of staff available to conduct business and are common to rural government entities.

The first is deficiencies in internal control. The town employs two clerks and cross-trains police clerk Jesse Connally to assist when needed, meaning Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider provides all financial information to independent auditors with no in house review or oversight. Schneider does the bank reconciliation most of the journal entries with no oversight of these process, explained Budahl.

Bills and checks are reviewed by council, but there is no review of receipts. “Those might be some of the additional oversight that might be revised,” Budahl said.

Schneider advised the council of plans she is considering to facilitate future compliance.

Segregation of duties is the other chronic issue that Budahl reported. Schneider has been implementing efforts to segregate responsibilities as much as possible, Budahl recognized, though she noted that, “This is something kind of hard to mitigate when you have such a small office.”

Not keeping to budget

Street and Alleys was $144,000 over budget last fiscal year, this is in part due to snow removal; the police department was out $21,000 because of the payout to retired Police Chief Doug Lundborg; and the Moorcroft town Center (MTC) was $51,000 in the hole.

Enterprising accounts

“Revenues were up pretty much across the board,” said Budahl - Water, $11,000; Sanitation, $240,000; and sewer, $25,000.

Expenses in these same accounts show water with an increase of $30,000; sanitation, $127,000; and sewer by about $17,000.

Other revenues

Auditors found revenues from sales tax to have increased by about $25,000, other taxes were up by $20,000, intergovernmental receipts were up $17,000 and charges for services were up $38,000 (including MTC).

Finally, While Budahl did not have on hand the total cost of this year’s audit, she assured the governing body that it will be less than $20,000.

This report covers only an overview of the over-40 page audit, those interested in a closer look can access a copy of the document at town hall.