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Record of Proceedings

Municipal Audit Committee Meeting - FY 2023 Audit Review - September 5, 2025

Assembly & Committee MeetingsFriday, September 5, 2025
BodyAnchorage, Alaska
SessionAssembly & Committee Meetings
DateFriday, September 5, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

You're good for you.

0:01

All right.

0:01

Thank you, everybody.

0:02

Welcome.

0:02

Today's September 4th, 2025.

0:05

So the 30 word record, I guess we'll have to 301 record from 1130.

0:09

The 1230, it's 1134.

0:11

This is the municipal audit committee.

0:14

Mr.

0:14

Rabir is on the phone today.

0:16

This is Congress and sure the meeting.

0:19

So we'll start with the productions.

0:22

And we're all the and I'll just say I do need to leave that way through because they haven't done the book today.

0:27

I saw Christopher Carson on the phone.

0:29

Mr.

0:29

River, are you there?

0:31

Yeah, good.

0:33

Thanks.

0:33

Mr.

0:34

Myers.

0:37

Thank you.

0:38

So we have also closing.

0:48

And controller.

0:52

Stephanie Ryan control.

0:55

Is that Joy?

0:56

Hi, Joe Mayer.

0:59

So I've noticed that we're not sure exactly if the header is correct.

1:03

We know that the website is not correct in terms of membership.

1:06

And I'm standing in today for Mr.

1:08

Burr's chair the meeting.

1:10

But Mr.

1:11

Burrison's sort of phone, I'm going to ask you to kick us off.

1:17

Thank you, Mr.

1:18

Chair.

1:20

So our only item of business today is a review of the FY 2023 after the annual contribution financial report.

1:30

As the normal for these meetings, we all have BDO, Ms.

1:34

Mariner, and her team walk us through the detailed presentation that they have.

1:45

And then if the administration wants to provide any responses or additional comment and then questions and answers from the members, the only uh make prior to turning it over to Ms.

2:00

Mariner is just a big kudos to everyone for uh getting us to this plate.

2:08

Uh I know uh we have been in a little bit of uh uh audit health over the last uh couple of years, and I think we see a light at the end of the tunnel.

2:19

So uh big thanks to everyone for all of your work and looking forward to hearing part of the presentation, like uh member probably I can only today for half of the dependent leaf, so I will uh tune in to the rest when the recording comes out.

2:35

Thank you.

2:39

With that, I'll hand it over to I think that's a good question.

2:43

Uh thank you, Mr.

2:44

Congstone.

2:44

And um, I just a quick shout out to um Chair Rivera.

2:48

I call him on the phone every now and then where needed.

2:52

He's been very involved in keeping track of the status as have you over the last um I guess the session of the last six months just show getting us over the finish line.

3:01

So I know that um my calls can sometimes be a little hard to take and difficult conversations, but I think uh as you mentioned, the team has made excellent strides towards getting you where you are now and um having a plan for 2024.

3:17

So to answer your question, 2024 is not ready to audit, uh ready to issue, but we are working on the audit already.

3:24

I just know that the record that was the first one to ask the question that'll be asked about no problem.

3:32

Yeah, and and we'll be um hopefully providing our audit plan.

3:36

We're working for our primary risk assessment for 24 right now.

3:39

So I know most people don't you'll care about 23, but you care about how we're gonna need any for 24, and I think um within the next couple weeks we'll have our audit plan ready for 24 to present to you as a committee so you can review not just the timeline but also the risks that we plan to address on that plot.

3:56

Um so I'm gonna go through the if you're online.

3:59

Can they see the screen on the so I'm on the audit wrap-up, which is the um first document and the attachments to the committee meeting, and uh I'm gonna start in with page seven, which is the overview and status of the audit.

4:19

So the audit is considered complete at this point of the financial statements, and we conduct the audit under two sets of standards, um, what we call generally accepted auditing standards or gas and then government auditing standards, which also is called gas, which is really confusing for you all.

4:36

But there are two levels of audits that we kind of audit standards that we follow.

4:40

You do your accounting in accordance with GAAP accounting principles, generally accepted accounting principals, and then we audit whether or not your statements are in line with um gap using yes.

4:51

Um one thing I'll note here is that you know we didn't issue an unmodified opinion on financial statements that's the third low point.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Audit Committee█████████████████████████████████████████████69%
Financial Reporting████████████19%
Procedural███4%
Personnel Matters███4%
Purchasing Card Compliance███4%
Summary of Proceedings

Municipal Audit Committee Meeting - FY 2023 Audit Review - September 5, 2025

The Municipal Audit Committee met on September 5, 2025, to review the FY 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). BDO, the external auditor, presented the audit results, noting that a clean (unmodified) opinion was issued on August 15, 2025, but the single audit (federal and state) remains in progress and is expected by end of December 2025. The committee discussed material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, and improvements from the prior year.

Discussion Items

  • Audit Status and Opinion: BDO confirmed the audit of the financial statements is complete under GAAS and GAGAS, resulting in an unmodified opinion. The single audit is ongoing, covering five federal and two state major programs.
  • Significant Risks and Adjustments: Areas of higher risk included manual journal entries, grant revenue (especially FEMA), and SAP entries. Corrected misstatements involved restricted cash, grant revenue, intergovernmental charges, and capital assets. Uncorrected misstatements were small and will not carry forward to FY 2024.
  • Material Weaknesses (5 items):
    • Closure of books and records: Delays in reconciliations due to staffing shortages.
    • Precision of review: Review procedures failed to catch errors in trial balances, capital assets, and grant revenues.
    • Journal entry review: Some journal entries were posted without approval or sufficient documentation (since corrected in SAP).
    • Grant reconciliations: Adjustments of ~$50M for the Port, $2M for disposal, and $5M for other funds (timing/reporting issues, not lost funds).
    • Capital assets: Incomplete supporting schedules.
  • Significant Deficiencies (3 items):
    • Purchasing: Multiple issues from internal audit reports (annual supply contracts, sole source, P-Cards).
    • Monitoring restricted cash: Improved but still a concern at the Port of Alaska.
    • Fund classifications: Improved from prior year but design issues remain.
  • Improvements from FY 2022: Leases (GASB 87) and internal communication were resolved; restricted cash monitoring improved except at Port. Adoption of GASB 96 (subscription-based IT arrangements) went smoothly with no adjustments.
  • Administration Comments: The controller noted that the department is now fully staffed after seven vacancies, and progress is being made on closing schedules and automation. The FY 2023 ACFR was delivered in August, faster than the 550 days for FY 2022. The FY 2024 audit is targeted for completion by early 2026, with a statutory extension available.

Key Outcomes

  • The committee received the FY 2023 audit report and acknowledged the clean opinion.
  • No formal vote was recorded; the meeting concluded with thanks to the team.
  • The administration will continue working on the single audit and preparations for FY 2024, with a goal of returning to a timely audit cycle.

Meeting Transcript

You're good for you. All right. Thank you, everybody. Welcome. Today's September 4th, 2025. So the 30 word record, I guess we'll have to 301 record from 1130. The 1230, it's 1134. This is the municipal audit committee. Mr. Rabir is on the phone today. This is Congress and sure the meeting. So we'll start with the productions. And we're all the and I'll just say I do need to leave that way through because they haven't done the book today. I saw Christopher Carson on the phone. Mr. River, are you there? Yeah, good. Thanks. Mr. Myers. Thank you. So we have also closing. And controller. Stephanie Ryan control. Is that Joy? Hi, Joe Mayer. So I've noticed that we're not sure exactly if the header is correct. We know that the website is not correct in terms of membership. And I'm standing in today for Mr. Burr's chair the meeting. But Mr. Burrison's sort of phone, I'm going to ask you to kick us off. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So our only item of business today is a review of the FY 2023 after the annual contribution financial report. As the normal for these meetings, we all have BDO, Ms. Mariner, and her team walk us through the detailed presentation that they have. And then if the administration wants to provide any responses or additional comment and then questions and answers from the members, the only uh make prior to turning it over to Ms. Mariner is just a big kudos to everyone for uh getting us to this plate. Uh I know uh we have been in a little bit of uh uh audit health over the last uh couple of years, and I think we see a light at the end of the tunnel. So uh big thanks to everyone for all of your work and looking forward to hearing part of the presentation, like uh member probably I can only today for half of the dependent leaf, so I will uh tune in to the rest when the recording comes out. Thank you. With that, I'll hand it over to I think that's a good question. Uh thank you, Mr. Congstone. And um, I just a quick shout out to um Chair Rivera. I call him on the phone every now and then where needed. He's been very involved in keeping track of the status as have you over the last um I guess the session of the last six months just show getting us over the finish line. So I know that um my calls can sometimes be a little hard to take and difficult conversations, but I think uh as you mentioned, the team has made excellent strides towards getting you where you are now and um having a plan for 2024. So to answer your question, 2024 is not ready to audit, uh ready to issue, but we are working on the audit already.

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