And on the roll call, we're gonna use it just a little bit different.

Um, just because we are reporting and to make sure that we have clarity on our recordings.

I'm gonna ask your things over on the room and just say your name and position that way can we do the voice with the voice you recording that's clear if you speaking.

So I'm Dina Infield, I'm chair of the committee, and I'm a citizen member.

Russell Bragg, uh citizen member Lacretia Parkinson's staff auditor.

Amanda Strange, director of internal audit Christie Fisher staff auditor's chief financial officer, Neil Martin board member Christina Gassava City Director.

Thank you all.

Um has provided the um agenda for the meeting and first on the agenda is approval and the minutes from the July 10th meeting.

Those were sent around to if there are any changes to those of those or accept a motion to make those approved.

So moved.

So all in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

Those minutes are considered approved.

So next on the agenda is the draft of the um water and sewer risk assessment by silly and SICE is electronic and is going to use on the call and is going to go over the draft report with us.

Hey Stacy.

Yes, hi there, hi everyone, committee members.

Thanks so much for having me.

Um I am going to share my screen.

I will walk through the PowerPoint report that you should have a copy of.

As I'm going through, if there's any questions, um, you know, it may get answered in subsequent slides, but um if anything's really top of mind, feel free to just jump in um and interrupt.

Okay.

All right.

So we conducted the risk assessment of the water and sewer utility departments.

The scope of this was just within those two departments, and our objective here was to get a comprehensive perspective on risk that could potentially impact the strategic objectives specific to those departments, um, get insights into any opportunities, challenges, um, you know, or concerns as it relates to the various types of risk.

So this you know could encompass strategic risk, financial risk, operational compliance, public perception technology kind of across the board.

Um then lastly, it was to identify and be able to prioritize risk across these departments to propose potential audits to be conducted in the future by internal audit.

Our approach for this, um, we pulled together a survey, one for management and one for employees designated within those departments as well as at the upper management level to you know gain um sort of insights into the different functional areas, um, you know, what any potential issues, concerns, um, existing risks, uh, kind of the critical things that could potentially impact those areas in consideration of you know what the ultimate um purpose, intention, and objectives are for each of those areas.

We also had some subsequent um meetings, both with members of management employees, and spoke with um uh a number of the audit committee members.

We took the information that we gathered both obtained from the survey, interviews, as well as um some you know key background documentation that we gathered to really get an understanding of what are those areas where there are um those more high priority risks.

So the way that we did this is we developed what we call an audit universe, and that's really kind of starting with um within the departments.

So the way that we did this is we developed what we call an audit universe, and that's really kind of starting within the departments, what are the key functional areas within those departments?

And then we have a structured risk rating methodology.

So I'll get into that a little more later, but but that's really what we're using to conduct the risk assessment and to try and you know prioritize those risk that we identify across the board.

We used the information gathered from the survey, you know, pulled themes based on responses.

We leveraged you know things that we've seen kind of just within the industry that are top risk and top of mind and use that to you know incorporate into what we call our risk matrix matrix to be able to prioritize those risks.

So the way that we know assess risks is really based on a methodology that considers the impact and the likelihood of risk that exist.

So the impact is thinking through, you know, what would be the impact, what would be the severity of the consequences if these risk events were to occur, and then the likelihood would consider you know how probable is it that this risk event could happen.

So taking those two components, we come up with an overall risk score.

The survey results within this portion of the report, uh, it's just reporting and showing you a little insight into you know some of the more general survey questions, what those results looked like.

Um I'll go through this a little quickly, but if you have any questions, please let me know.

But this is really, you know, just gonna show you some graphs in terms of what responses were to some of these more general questions that we had.

So as far as the survey responses, like I said, we had a survey that went out to members of management, as well as a survey that went out to other lower levels employees.

So we had received 28 responses to the management survey and 81 staff responses.

So we got about an 85% response rate on the management one and 43% response rate on staff.

Some of the general responses that we got, you'll see here on the left, it's kind of showing, you know, in general we asked, you know, what they see as kind of the top five risk areas for these departments, and um across the board, the staff you can kind of see from one to 10 what those top areas were: reputation, planning, budgeting, economy, leadership, and citizen demands.

Um, and then on the right, that's sort of the management responses where you will see kind of a lot of similar themes across the two.

The second one is um, you know, where have there been areas of significant change?

So change is definitely something to consider when you're assessing risk and thinking about it.

So this is sort of what the responses looked like.

Obviously, having just recently gone through a change in org structure, um, that was the top area that participants noted.

We also ask about policies and procedures, and you know, this is something that gives a little bit of insight into you know ability to have consistent operations to be able to you know stay in compliance, um, you know, it it also shows you know, kind of the strength and implementation of internal controls, things like that.

So we asked about the adequacy policies and procedures in these areas, you know, 50% were saying that yes, we've got policies and procedures that are adequate and up to date, um, and then other responses range from you know they're documented, not updated regularly, or they need improvement.

Um, next is barriers to meeting goals and objectives.

So trying to gauge, you know, what are the things that could potentially impact your department or your functional areas ability to meet your objectives to be able to get done what you need to get done, and some of the things that came in at the top here were financial constraints, staffing constraints, um, limited skills, knowledge, experience, training, um, and efficiencies and process and communication there.

So going on to the next section, risk scores.

So as I mentioned before, we had structured that audit universe across departments and key functions, which gave us kind of 17 key functional areas that we were looking at and considered risk for.

So we considered those risks that are just inherent to these areas, so risk that exist regardless of the current state or internal controls or whatever's going on.

But we also considered, you know, what are any current departmental concerns, weaknesses, or potential threats that exist.

So you'll see here these are the 17 functional areas that we were looking at, and after going through the risk assessment, this is kind of how these fell from a risk perspective.

Those at the top really, you know, the highest risk areas down to the bottom of the lowest risk areas.

So you'll see here the top risk functional area was noted as sewer system maintenance.

And then you can kind of you know see below the orange represents those medium risk areas, yellow is a little bit lower, and again, the green is low.

The way that we came up with the proposed audit.

So based on again, risk themes, based on the high-risk functional areas, based on the specific items that we noted from information gathered, as well as, like I said, kind of external knowledge, you know, industry trends, things like that.

That's really what fed into our list of proposed audits.

So I would say, you know, these are the areas that we're really honing in on as hey, these are kind of the higher risk areas that that would be good for internal audit to focus on.

Um, I do want to note that this list is not intended to be a one-year audit plan.

I know internal audit has developed an internal audit plan that is based on sort of you know they kind of know what their budget and resources and time allocation looks like.

The list that we've provided here is really just hey, you know, over the next couple years, whatever that time period may be, these are the areas that we think based on our risk assessment would be important to look at.

So I've got two slides here covering those audit areas.

There's a total of 11 proposed audits.

Um not necessarily prioritized from high to low, although it is somewhat.

Um there's some timing considerations on these, so not everything, even if internal audit had the ability to do all these in one year, um, that wouldn't necessarily make sense for the current state of where some of these processes are at.

So I'll just go through these fairly quickly.

The way that this is presented is kind of showing you what that risk and process area is on the left, and then the proposed scope, so you know, potential name of the audit, um what the proposed scope would be.

This is just very high level.

Um, the detailed scope would be determined by internal audit once they kind of got into the planning process.

Um, and then we've noted the process owner at the bottom.

And the reason why the process owner is important is because of course we want to make sure that you know, from an internal audit perspective, we're not overburdening any one department.

So if there's multiple audits going on, you know, making sure that we're kind of timing those to be considerate of that.

So the first area here is construction bid process and management audit, um, and and that would be really looking at you know compliance with various aspects of that process.

So from the bidding requirements to the evaluation and the award practices, as well as kind of ongoing contract monitoring.

So you know, from a project management standpoint, how those projects are being managed and how vendors are being you know held accountable and monitored to ensure that things are being done correctly.

And then another piece of that is kind of that evaluation, the pre-construction planning processes.

So thinking about approvals, rights, clearances, everything that needs to be obtained prior to project starts.

This is intended to kind of be more broadly across sewer and water, but obviously with the consent decree, you know, would be good to you know have a focus on the sewer while still touching on the water side.

The next area is utility billing, a utility billing audit.

So really looking kind of across the board, so both the accuracy and consistency of the rate application across customer groups, looking at controls over billing adjustments, including wholesale pricing, and then looking at the meter reading side as well.

So the accuracy of the technology of those processes and incorporated into that on the meter side is also the meter maintenance practices and the quality of the equipment to ensure reliable billing and effective asset management.

Third is the consent decree funding and bond compliance audit, so verifying that sales tax and bond funds are being spent in accordance with consent decree and those voter approved requirements.

This would evaluate oversight mechanisms and reporting controls for compliance with those commitments.

Next is major project cost effectiveness audit.

So this is one that would be considering you know our projects being conducted in a cost effective way.

So looking at adherence to approved scope, how change orders are being managed, what kind of the oversight and governance processes for that, as well as any cost controls for those major construction and repair projects.

Next of water loss analysis audit, so you know, assessing those processes for measuring water input versus build output, you know, trying to understand what's happening there, validating the accuracy of reporting and identifying any potential causes for unaccounted poor water.

Next is a cybersecurity IT OT audit, so IT information technology from the enterprise perspective as well as OT operational technology more on the operation side, so SCADA, those types of utility specific facilitated technologies to really assess the effectiveness of the security measures across IT and OT that's being leveraged by the utility.

So looking at network protection access controls, vulnerability management, in addition to the physical security controls that exist for the critical infrastructure and any disaster recovery and instant response planning and you know preparedness activities, ensuring those align with best practices.

Next governance and reporting audit.

This one would evaluate the effectiveness of the recent reorganization, looking at reporting lines, clarity of roles and responsibilities, adequacy of document procedures and segregation of duties.

This would also include the effectiveness of communication and reporting to the board and committee in this case.

So this is more on the HR side.

So this would evaluate hiring and onboarding processes, retention strategies, succession planning, really ensuring that staffing adequacy and compliance with HR policies is in place, some of the things that maybe analyzes vacancy duration, how long are positions open for any turnover patterns, the competitiveness of salaries and pay and training to determine whether staffing levels support the operational continuity.

Next is a procurement audit.

This would dig a little deeper into compliance with bidding requirements, looking at emergency procurement practices, as well as PCART usage, ensuring that you know there is adherence to policies and proper fraud prevention controls.

Collections and AR reconciliation audit.

So this would be to verify that the reconciliation of you know utilities AR to the GL and assess the enforcement procedures in place.

So this would be ensuring revenue recovery is consistent in compliance with policy.

And then lastly, here we've got equipment utilization and cost audit.

This would be to analyze use usage metrics, downtime, maintenance history, replacement timing, things like that, really just to get an idea of whether equipment is being deployed efficiently and costs are aligned with operational demand.

So those were the proposed audits.

So before I talked about, you know, um, we considered impact and likelihood and rating our risk.

So this is just going to kind of show you, okay, based on the different type of risk, how we determined or how we rated those areas from low to critical.

Next is going to show you likelihood criteria, similarly, you know, unlikely to almost certain that fed into our risk rating.

And then lastly, um, this is just illustrating sort of how that impact and likelihood risk score really determines that final risk score, um, which is what we used and what you saw in the prior slide of the functional areas prioritized from highest to lowest risk.

So that is everything I had, so happy to take any questions from the committee.

Thank you, Stacey.

Um, I think we do have a few questions.

Just wanted to say we appreciate all the work you you and your team have been in on it.

I know changing some of the departments and reorganization of the structure as the audit was taking off and kind of in the middle of it, costs of issues, just getting it getting to the right place and getting everything kind of redone with that rework structure.

So we appreciate your work on that.

So I'll turn it over for questions.

Hey, Stacey, this is me, it'll be to see you again.

Um as I'm looking at the the risk areas and the or the proposed audits.

Um, we've got uh sewer system maintenance is like the highest functional area.

Um like is there any way I can tie the same?

Is there any way I can tie some of these proposed audits to that particular functional area?

Yeah, um, so I I don't know that we specifically um I I didn't tie them out in the report.

Um I mean I would say that a number of fees would kind of cross over that.

Um the big things is uh you know the construction audit, right?

So um, like I mentioned that'll kind of go across the board.

Um, but that's a key piece of that, right?

When we're talking about um, you know, projects there.

Um so there's there's various ones, but no, to answer a question that I did not tie them out to a specific functional area because some of these, you know, it crosses um crosses multiple functional areas.

Yeah.

I I guess I just I looked at it as you know, that's you've got a risk score of 16 on there, which is critical, which would mean it's almost certain to happen, and you know, there's the the level of criticality too.

Yeah, I know we could probably go through here and look at some of these that are sewer related, but I do see things like the water loss analysis.

That's that's primarily on the water side.

Um so just wanted to see if there was uh there was a ways.

I mean, I know as we go across the um, you know, some of these things apply across the board.

It just was trying to see if there's maybe anything that we can tell directly to that.

So okay, thank you.

Stacy Rush Bragg, I guess I I I'm kind of following what Neil's I'm kind of following what Neil's asking there.

So if you look at the top three items, you got a 1612-12, okay, and they are basically public work sewer system maintenance, water treatment operations, and customers and uh customer service operations.

So the top two where we kind of have the biggest risk.

If you look at your risk area proposed audits, you see uh construction bid process and management audit, consent decree funding and bond compliance, and then major project cost, those kind of those three seem to add up to the 16.

Now I get the three don't add up to 16, but looking at the audit proposals, those three kind of look like they mostly focus on sewer system maintenance, but it's interesting when you look at your analysis, the sewer projects, consent decree and non-consent decree only ties out to be an eight.

And then and yet that seems to be the the the sewer, the consent decree work and the funding of the consent decree seem to be some of the biggest topics I hear discuss.

So and I see you know, like the consent decree funding down here, but as far as the projects, I guess I'm like Neil, I'm struggling trying to find some semblance of how they tie together.

So and that may be something you can follow up with us on and say these audits kind of you know I'm curious which audits kind of really knock out the top three.

Yeah, and and just one clarification on that.

So, although that one functional area is stated sewer project consent decree and non-consent decree, um, that's not the only functional area that would fall under the consent decree area.

Um that was just kind of a clarification or um you know the scope of the sewer projects in question, but again, the consent decree, but I you know that would go across um a lot of these other areas as well, including that first sewer system maintenance functional area.

Thank you.

Well, I I just want to say I've been uh in my past uh involved in uh several uh risk management risk assessment uh studies, and one of the one of the holes that I always that I frequently saw in those things was that the work was done, it was it was good work, it came up with some things that needed to be addressed, but then it stopped.

And so when I look at this, and it goes all the way to the actual audit process.

I mean, I I I think I look at this as a very positive uh point of view because it takes you from the the what is the biggest risk to what can you audit that would relate to this?

Now they're you know, in any risk assessment, there are management functions that don't relate to auditing, you know, the management processes that you you have to have procedures in place, and uh people have to respond to to certain triggers that that uh cause actions to need to be taken.

But in terms of trying to point this to an audit process, I think this is very good compared to what I've seen in the past.

But we agree with that.

I see some really good opportunities here.

I definitely see that.

So I think as we go into the next phase of the internal audit plan, you're gonna see the the repository for audit plan, the continuation of that.

Okay, very good.

Thank you, Stacey.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Stacy.

Just can I make a statement real quick?

So I guess with the delivery of this, our engagement with vegetability ceases.

That's right.

Okay.

So make sure everybody's on the same page of that.

I'm assuming Amy, I mean, do you need it?

You're here, so do you need anything for me, or or just be in the liaison from the starting point?

Do you need a do we need a formal I committee motion to approve this?

Or I mean should they get it?

Or or also do we need to go as a board and formally close that project or whatever?

Is there anything that and I'll leave Jeff back there as well?

I don't think so.

Okay.

Have we paid them everything?

Almost, yes.

We've been paying the bills as they've come in, and so we're almost at that total amount.

So obviously we'll pay them for the nine and correct.

So if we uh have a chain order that takes uh dollars all, that would be that would be I know we do that every now and then we approve 10 additional thousands.

Okay.

I think there's close to a thousand left in that total amount.

Oh maybe CPAs, we bill, we like to do that.

Okay, very good.

So on the next step of the agenda is the actual proposed 2026 audit plan for internal audit, and I think that is uh in the package will it be numbers?

We we may have done a slight misnumbering, apologize about that.

Um the internal audit plan at the top has B written in it.

You also have a C2, which is not right.

I didn't put that here, yeah.

Okay, so it should be in this section where it talks about the 2026 internal audit plan with the internal audit logo at the top.

The internal audit plan looks like that, and then at the top you have um state two B is the correct one.

B is the first one.

Okay, is it just right back?

Is it just uh if B's the correct one?

Is it just um hours are different or is there different projects?

There was a different description on the back.

Okay, okay, and then also as part of that, I would like you to also get C3, which is uh she's behind the financial leave report.

Sorry about that.

We will audit these before next time we have these.

That's right.

We need it.

I've put a mark through on C C2, not we're not just B and then C3 go up for that.

Sorry about that.

So point B, and I certainly will turn this over to Amanda, but B kind of has the proposed plan, just kind of lay it out.

The descriptions of these are on the back of that page, and then C3 is where she has kind of put together, she and her team have put together kind of these planned audits, but then have a has also assigned some risk scoring to them as to why they would be picked in here and a budgeted hours for the audits to see what we think could get done in 2026.

And I just wanted to I talked to Amanda all yesterday, and I just wanted to commend her for putting this together because I think this is something the audit committee's been asking for for a number of years, and as a direct for the directors, I think this would be very important because on this scoring you can see you know why we're putting something at a higher priority, and if something comes up or changes, whether it's a city priority, resident priority, revenue expenditure, various areas that can be noted, and while we are funding that, or why we think although all of them are important, we have got you know to be considered in the hours.

So I just let Manda kind of go through our process on this, but I just want to decide from a perspective of the audit committee.

I'm very pleased to see this.

Thank you, Dina.

Um asked, I think in my interview was how does the internal audit plan get developed?

And the answer was, well, that would be your job.

Um so I wanted to give some insight so that you see what I was thinking as we do this.

So this was a process that involved watching a lot of audit committee, listening to audit committee meetings from the past, watching board uh meetings to kind of get a general sense of what is important, what is being talked about, and then um talking with management.

So I've had several meetings with management and just you know, general interactions with staff as well, and kind of boiled my thoughts.

My thoughts were very wide up here and tried to boil it down to these four main pillars where we're considering like you said, is it city priority?

How does it impact residents?

Can this have a positive impact to them?

Um could we increase our revenues potentially from it?

Could we decrease our expenses?

And so this is um you could put two people in separate rooms and ask them to do this exercise for each of these audits and come up with completely different answers.

But this is at least a place where we can start a discussion about it and think well, should this be higher or lower?

Would that change our thinking of which items which which audits are we gonna tackle first?

So a lot of these did come from the Baker Tilly risk assessment.

I think that they did a good job in highlighting you know where these problem areas are, but with talking with management, we pretty much already knew where those problem areas were.

But it's nice to have that confirmation from someone who has the experience with these that have worked with other municipalities.

The hours budgeted, that's a guess.

And Levon's nodding over there, it's always a guess.

It's always a guess.

Uh, there are numerous things that could come up.

I mean, we could write our audit procedure, start going down and doing this testing and uncover things that will prevent us from actually doing those audit procedures.

So it is uh we don't know what we don't know until we get there, but this at least gives us an idea of what we could feasibly do in one year.

Um but again, I just want to caution and say there could be things that come up that we're not able to complete it, but my plan, if that were to occur, is to go ahead and report on what we can report on those findings, and then if we can't do certain items, include that in the report as well, and maybe we push you know that into 2027 and beyond to give management time to correct anything that was a barrier, and then perform that audit later on.

And I would just have a general comment on that.

That there is a difference between financial audits and internal audit procedure and function audits in the in the ability to estimate hours, for example, when you do a financial audit, audit firms have done all of the areas of an audit for many organizations many times, and so they know depending on the particular characteristics they recognize the organizations how they estimate hours within a pretty narrow range.

However, when you're doing an audit that's never been done before, and a lot of these have been on the list somewhere in the past, as we saw in the materials, but they've never been done.

When you're doing that, uh then it's much harder to come up with the hours, and also one of the things you you have to be very aware of on the internal audit side is that the last uh open question that you don't pursue could be the one that really overturns the whole result.

That's happened to me a few times where the last question that you track down completely change the answer for the audit.

Uh so I I would definitely recognize this an estimate, um, but uh you know you have to you have to have a number to start with, and uh you know this is this is as good a way of do to do it as any.

So and you you did bring up thing that certain items have been on these audit plans in the past.

Uh sorry, sorry about that.

So um there is a colorful piece of paper that's got a lot of tiny writing on it.

Apologize for that, but there's a lot of information we were trying to get on here, and more just to give a visual representation of what has happened in internal audit over the last 10 years on the left hand side, these are planned audits, and so if there is a white cell there for those planned audits, that means that they were never completed, and on the right hand side, these are audits that have been completed, and so if those are white on the right hand side, that means they were not planned, but they were completed.

So something came up that year, we decided not to do the planned audits, and we did these instead.

So this is a visual representation of how closely internal audits stuck to the audit plan.

And the the page after that, there is a chart that also talks about or shows you the audits that were performed, what department were they in, and in the bottom for the uncompleted audits, what departments were those in.

So it utilities has had a lot of attention over the years.

And then you get into the all departments citywide audits, and then from there, police is pretty high on that list, and then they get smaller from that point.

So when this where we're looking at the budgeted hours and these proposed audits, I made sure to put all of the Baker Tilly items on here, a few that have come up in meetings, uh audit committee meetings or board meetings, and then these uncompleted audits from the from 2024 and 2023 made sure to include those because they had the most likely relevance still.

Some of those older ones, maybe we didn't do them because something changed and we just didn't need to do them.

So they seemed less relevant.

On the C3, um it's a little bit hard to see on the copy that the shaded blue, which would be um top nine, nine, nine top nine, would be proposed on the audit plan for 26.

And so on the bottom, this is the question I had for me, but on the bottom, she has budgeted on the hours of how many she thinks these audits would take.

The available hours estimated at 1500 for the three of them, which that's you know, the full-time equivalent down to what's actual working hours opposed for vacation and meetings and other charging the time if I go back to the um CPA analogy, um, and then so that would be about 4500 4500 hours available for audits, these would be about 3400 for the planned audits, which is about 75% of their time, leaving about 25% for things that come up that are not on the list, which would include investigations, anything that comes over the hotline, um, anything that gets brought up, or also we want to focus on helping more and not doing formal audits, but if a department head needs some additional information, some analysis that we can do, have time to do consulting projects for them to help help them out wherever it's appropriate.

So we're basically saying that if everything went according to plan, yes, you and they we hit these hours on the nose, we could get all those top nine done, yes, plus 1,100 hours over for those 1100 hours would be left over for whatever you just said.

Yes, exactly.

And so then on your on your C3 chart again, those, so every one of the things over time, and and not a director, but I'm sat in on the meetings, they're always trying to get updates on that.

So you would technically be able to insert a column in here.

You got the budgeted hours, and then you'd have the actual hours to date that you worked on either any of those projects or then if you got other projects you're working on, you could show those hours.

So every quarter they would have a transparency into either you're working on the project at 670 hours or three of you, or one of you's had to peel off to do some other project you now listed, you track those hours so that we can get done.

And then the last part is as you do that, you know it's it's important.

And LeBron kind of touched on it is is that from my perspective, it's just as important.

I mean, the hours are important as far as the budget, but because Le Mon said asking that last question, but an audit done correct, an audit done thorough that points out both positives that they're doing correct and weaknesses that we can cur that we can change or positives that we can share with other divisions and weaknesses we need to fix across the board, is just as important in the complete audit to asking that last question, like you said, it might change everything versus just saying I only got 670 hours to do this, and that's what we're going to put on it.

Like you said, that might change everything, versus just saying I only got 670 hours to do this, and that's what we're going to put on it.

So a thorough complete audit is is more important than hitting the hours in my opinion.

Now that's just mine, but you know, if you don't get them all done, but every one you did brings a tremendous amount of value, that's better than doing them all, and only bringing 75% of the value.

Yes.

We haven't done it yet, but we do have a software that internal audit has that can help us do that, and that is one of the goals is after the meeting tonight.

We agree these are the ones we want to do.

We'll start plotting those out on the calendar of due dates for certain milestones that we need to hit in that audit process.

Okay, very good.

And that was something that we talked about a little bit too of just the priority prioritization of some of these.

I think you know, getting that software and kind of putting that through, starting maybe with some of the ones that are bigger to get just those those real timely ones, the bigger hours started, but at least having the plan, then she and the team can start putting that together.

Is that new software?

Is that existing software that you guys have?

It's it's software that we had, it was a bit underutilized.

We're gonna try and utilize it much more.

Okay, is it something that you've used in the past?

It's it's not anything that I have personally used, it's aimed more at internal audit.

There is an analytics piece of it that I have used before.

Okay, okay.

Again, just from the from you guys that are the director's standpoint.

I just felt like this was a good tool because it also lets us see like this is something really important, but we don't have the hours internally to do it, it lets you see do we need to hire this out?

Do we need to reprioritize?

Do we need to you know at some point add another person?

What does that mean?

But I think this is a starting point as far as a tool to be gauging that information.

Are y'all um like if we you know if we approve this tonight?

I don't know if it has to do the board or whatever, but if we approve this tonight, are y'all and let's say we decide utility building on it, audit.

Are y'all ready to go?

Or do you kind of have is there's some ramp up time?

There is built into these hours are uh I've got maybe five buckets that I did to kind of help build these hours, and that is some research, there's a planning phase, there's the actual doing the test work, there's consulting with management, and then there's the reporting function of it.

So those are several different um buck of time.

I would say that so we would have some of that initial research.

Okay, yes.

How about did the um the flog cameras audit?

How did how did y'all have that on there?

It was on an audit plan for 2024, 2024's audit plan, and it did not the police department didn't have it fully implemented at that time, and so I've have talked with Chief Baker, and he's ready for the audit at this point.

Okay.

I had to have asked after we implemented so that was my request to Tracy.

Okay.

I I didn't remember that, but maybe that that rings about it's a lot of hours.

I I was really hoping we could audit our procurement practices, but maybe we'll get to that eventually.

My plan is if I did go through this budget exercise for the remaining items on this list, and it's about it's a little over 2,000 hours, maybe 2100 hours.

So even if we were to continue on this list and not add anything, we would have a half a year's worth of 2027 audits plus anything that we weren't able to do in this plan.

So I think it's conceivable that this this is our building block for our 2027 audit plan.

Okay, I think it looks good.

Thank you.

Um we're ready to make a motion to approve this so we can get it at least started.

So we can so we need a motion to approve the 2026 internal audit plan that's presented.

So I'll make a motion that we accept the 2026 internal audit plan is presented for uh passing on to the board directors.

I'll second that.

Is there any additional comments before we make a motion before we vote?

No, no, I'm good.

All right, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed and I do think that goes to the board then, right?

For formal approval.

Yes, it does.

Can we have that on our next meeting?

It is on the so next week is uh study session, it's it will be on the next one.

Thank you.

Well, I buried my agenda with my notes on it somewhere in this car to speak.

Okay, thank you.

So the next item that's on the agenda is the audit charters, both the um audit advisory committee charter and the internal audit charter.

We've had in a package the um clean version and then a red line version with the changes.

Um I have gone through and read those in detail, and I mean then I talked about them as well.

Um the audit advisory committee, I'm just gonna give you my comments on that.

Um the audit advisory committee charter as a as change.

I only really had one comment, and that was on the um page two for the internal audit section.

I would like a bullet point added to where we have the second floor requirement review and submit the audit plan for approval by the board.

I would like to add some of this as we were so we receive updates throughout the year on the status of the annual audit plan.

I think it's great that we have it, but I would like um just that we have a formal where are we on this at least quarterly with our audit committee meetings.

Yeah, okay.

So that was the only really change or addition I had to the audit um advisory committee chart.

What was that?

What was that last part of that statement you made about the timing of the could you read that we'll read the whole thing?

Yeah, receive updates throughout the year on the status of the audit.

Okay.

Okay.

I don't think anybody else had comments, questions, and wanna throw them in detail.

The only thing the only thing I saw in reading through all of this is remember the section titled meetings.

And the committee will meet, will be the key word.

Meet up to five times annually, the four quarter reviews, and then we have the internal, then we have the audit when uh uh the external audit comes in at the end of the year that we do, and then you have in there the options for the others.

So it it's the language of what's written that you know, if we if we put that in here, and we say we will do this four times a year, then then there are folks out there that will hold us accountable to do this four times a year.

We kind of have done that the last couple years, even though that's in here.

So I get there's a whole lot of things.

So is that is that truly what we believe we can execute and should execute?

Because once we pass this and put it in writing, then that is what we're going to be held to.

Anyone got any thoughts on that?

Well, uh the one thing I will say is that up to five times meaning no more than five times.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which I kind of like it the other way.

At least we're gonna at least meet X number of times.

But there could be a situation where we need to.

Well, if we go back to the 2008 where we, you know, we didn't get the audit until the middle of 2020.

We met sometimes we met every other month to talk about the status and trying to get 2018 audited, and we met a lot more than five times.

Or more oh, I see what I see what you're saying, or more frequently a circumstances.

Maybe I don't see the bar.

If those sentences are in kind of conflict with each other, but I was just it maybe it may be the way you said it uh director Martin is that the committee can meet up to five times annually versus the committee will meet up to five times.

Okay, maybe we should put intends to meet.

I don't know.

I I feel like we should kind of hold ourselves accountable to be here and go through this.

We're holding the internal audit you know department accountable for their work, but I agree, you know, it could be where we're doing we're not intentionally not doing what we say we're gonna do.

So um, yeah, I'm good with having a minimum number.

So always remember that.

So we'll change that to say the committee intends to meet a minimum of five times annually.

Okay, then I do think we do have that wording or more frequently than what you said.

But I think one point we were meeting every other week as we went through that.

So okay, so those those two changes um would be what I what would be proposed on that, and um let's go ahead and talk about the internal audit charter as well, and then we can have a motion to do both of them at the same time.

So on the internal audit charter, again, I read through that, and really the only change or question I had was you know, one of the things for internal audit is that they are independent, and uh we have a section on independence, and then we talk about the ethics and professionalism, but uh from a policy from practicality standpoint, the internal audit department is filling out the complicated interest forms annually, just like all the other city employees do.

But I feel like we should have something in our independence saying that the these are being done at least annually or more frequently as needed because you can have you know circumcircumstances change, and so I mean, any uh CPA is filling one out at least annually to make sure that you don't have a conflict, and I just feel like that we ought to say something here about the independent sign on the concrete form.

So um, and I think that was the only thing I okay.

I have one comment on uh the um the uh internal audit charter under authority on the second page.

We have a sentence added internal audit shall use discretion to review the records.

I thought should that be a sure?

Do we mean to say assume or do we mean to say sure?

Well, I'm not certain.

Okay, but I you know I just you know you you can never be a hundred percent, but uh to the extent that audit has control of them, the the the goal would certainly be to sure confidentiality.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can we're yep.

It's it's uh and under authority the first vote the sentence of nine on green, the the censors added.

The word assume is there and second line.

We had not insure might be and insure might be a better word as that that's good for insure might be a better word.

I think that's a good change.

With an E.

So if there are no other comments or changes, um with the we accept a motion that please be uh approved and taken to the board with the changes, um the minor changes that we've discussed in the meeting today on the move and just just one I just want to those red line versions.

I think are important for the board to be able to see those changes, so make sure that those redline versions are included.

Thank you.

Second, okay.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate again all the work on those.

Okay.

Um so then we go to the round table, open questions uh questions, and so I know there are a couple of things that we have on the agenda.

Um start that, but we want to do there.

I will I will let you go ahead and start it.

Um the only thing that I had intended to bring up was um just that you know in 2026, we are willing to do a full risk assessment um to help develop our audit plan forward.

Um, and we're gonna use that software to help us do that.

How does that fit into the time that you've already budgeted in?

It's in that thousand hours, okay.

Yeah, so really your time is booked for 26 across the board.

Well, there's more than eight hours in a day.

That's true.

That's true.

I agree with it.

But the and I think that's that's good because the intention would be next November.

We're having these discussions in November about what we're planning for 27, and then we have that the ability to look at that same matrix and make some decisions from there.

So and our charter does say that our audit plan should be based on a risk assessment.

So it will be an annual process.

It will get easier once we do it the first time.

It will be updating things as they come up.

Thank you.

So the um the topics that we've got on the round table is um we have David from Forbus, our partner on audit here, and I was gonna kind of have him come up and turn overhand, Andy.

Um I did want to ask just you know, now that we are in the past the end of 25, we will be getting ready for the external audit for 25.

And so just to mention that that process will be going, and then I know there's been some discussion about some audit procedures or work on the Paran Island project, and so he's gonna discuss that.

Andy, Amanda, any comments before we get let David go?

Oh well, thank you all for for letting me be here.

Uh is my push it for towards the side for it.

Sorry, I'm seeing all right.

So yet I'll just explain to you all see so yesterday I had I was on a call with Amanda and Andy.

Um, we were discussing the water park audit, and and they informed me that the board had requested a financial statement audit on the water park.

So I had a lot of questions because you can't just issue an engagement letter.

They said initially they wanted it by next Tuesday, and so I I I posed a lot of questions uh for them just just to clarify what our contract, what we would be doing, you know, what I'm gonna be auditing.

Um, I I requested an official kind of ownership structure.

Um, I know the county and the city own both, but just you know how the investments from both entities roll up into the water park, you know, the sharing uh of the revenue and and the expenses.

So I had that question.

Um also who you know who was gonna be responsible for the audit because one of the things that we have to do as an auditor, we have to make sure that our clients have people on staff that that can take responsibility for the financial state.

So that was one of my questions.

Was it gonna be Andy?

Was it gonna be the management company?

Who was gonna be responsible for that?

And then who was gonna who was I gonna report to?

Was it gonna be the city council, the core court, um you know who who was my engagement letter going to be to, who is the audit report gonna be to?

And then you know it's a little inity, but it there is some complicated factors involved in it.

You know, I they they said a full gap audit, and and that that you know, in a government environment, that's that's a lot, you know.

So I wanted to know whether or not we were going to account for all the investments the city has made into the water park and the county is made, if that was gonna be present on you know the balance sheet, the financial statements, how that was gonna work.

So I had a lot of questions.

I I could keep going here, but um, you know, the condition of the financial records, and so they said well, you they're they're having a meeting tomorrow night, and I said, Well, I don't have anything but a football game to watch, so I'm happy to come and and and just be here to talk that through with you all uh to make sure that we're providing you with what you want and need.

So that's kind of um we had our call yesterday morning, and I told Andy I needed him to go do a lot of things for for us or for me yesterday, and Amanda the same, and so I think they did a lot of work today.

That's kind of where I'm at on it.

Um, I think we've got you know, in discussing with with Andy and Amanda, you know, about three different options that we could do to get this thing to but I wanted to make sure that you all don't spend a lot of money hiring me or whoever, and you just get a little document that says we've got 200,000 in cash, and you know, blah blah blah.

I don't I just wanted to make sure that you know it was gonna be a wise investment on your part.

So that's kind of why that's where we're at on the water park.

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in here as a non-director former though, former director who does pretty much understand kind of your point of your position.

And I think what the board really is interested in, you know, the issue is they're not what was the original cost of this in 2015 when it constructed.

I mean, if you were going to do a full scope gap audit, that's when you have to go back to the beginning and verify the cost of every asset.

That's not really feasible, and it really doesn't accomplish anything.

That money's long gone.

What you really need is a hard look at the cash receipts and disbursements.

Where does the money come from?

What are the controls over that money, the procedures they follow?

We know, for example, that they don't understand sales taxes and they don't program their their machines.

Yeah, well, for a long time.

One time for a long time, and it created a big problem.

And where is the where does the money go?

And what to me, so it's kind of a cash receipts and disbursement thing, very much a specified procedures type thing.

But and and you know, there needs to be some work between the board and and the auditor about what those specified procedures are exactly, what is the board interested in uh in terms of understanding you know the things you want to make sure you understand, and then perhaps a some kind of of a future reporting process because I will tell you as a former board member and as a citizen, I was absolutely shocked that that the number I've heard is 385,000.

That there was a 300.

I mean, uh Facebook is source of this really reliable source, a $385,000 loss at Parrot Island in 2025, and you just say, how in the world is that possible?

And not a word ever was said uh that I'm aware of in any meeting or any discussion.

And no money was in the budget to provide that now.

I think they had carryover money that they used, and they've got a $75,000 reserve fund, but I I it it isn't appropriate that the board didn't hear something about that, and and management management wasn't aware of both the county and the and the city long before the number became public information.

Well, and I think that the the 2024 there was there was a surplus, yeah.

So you can take that 350 plus couple hundred thousand, and you got a half a million dollar swing.

Well, and and you and typically I think if you go back a few years, it it's always made a hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollar profit.

Right.

Uh you know, I think I think there's a lot of people, you know, there's a lot going on in Parrot Island and the board at this present time.

Um I think a lot of people have a lot of citizen auditors have started to dig in, and I'm just questioning how how money is spent, how money comes in, um, and you know, what I think they want to have that comfort level that you know we and if we have this sales tax issue that was problematic, they want to have a comfort level that their tax dollars are being spent properly from year to year, and we're not we're you know, with that 350,000 loss.

Well, what what how did we get there?

I mean, what what happened?

Um, and so I think they just want to, they and we um among other things we're probably talking about is just have a comfort level that there is there is the financials are solid, we're not money's not coming in from Fort Smith and then going to a park somewhere in Texas or somewhere else, it was all state locally, and yeah, and they're not overspending or overbilling or you know, doing those things.

Sure.

Um, a couple before the holidays, Amanda and I had a call, and um we talked about it kind of sounded like to me that you needed an agreed-upon procedure engagement, and and so what an agreed-upon procedure engagement is the city will say, here's what I need to accomplish, and they will write up a bunch of procedures that they want an external auditor to do, and you have pretty a pretty good wide freedom to put on there what you want to do, which we don't have when we're doing a gap audit.

When we're doing a gap audit, we have specific standards that we follow, and anything above and beyond that's kind of out of scope of the audit.

So she drafted up a lot of procedures, and that's kind of the lap.

That's what those procedures can be sent to you as a board member, and you can say, Well, I don't like this, I really want you to add to this or do this, do this.

And then once you agree to those procedures, I say, okay, well, here's what it's going to cost me to do it, and then we draft up an engagement layer, and I go do the procedures, and then I draft the report and come back and present you with the findings.

That's how agreed upon procedures work.

Whereas an audit, depending on how you want to structure, you know, whether it's a gap audit or just a departmental audit, you basically get a financial statement, and then you know we're required to communicate if we see any internal control issues or anything like that.

But when you have an agreed upon procedure, you can say, okay, I want you to approve cash for the last five years.

I want you to roll all the main reconciliations.

I want you to sample all the checks the whole year and make sure they had appropriate, you know, whatever on you you have a lot of freedom in what you want to accomplish.

And you can have variances like anything, you know, from a variance year to year that was an increase of a thousand dollars or whatever the per the scope we put on it, you could have that as a procedure.

Well, you're gonna have to look at at a period of time, maybe two at least two years, but maybe three years to get a feel for what really totally went off the rails in 25, and and maybe the last three years would be a good would be a good measuring period because you're coming out of the pandemic in 23, you got revenue back to more normal point, 24, same thing, 25 should have been good.

We had more rain, but but uh uh otherwise it should have been comparable, not what happened.

So, what did you call that audit?

It's an agreed upon engagement.

Yes, so to me that sounds like it can be this narrow, it could be yeah, you can tell me to go um go out there and see if somebody's there, and I can go do that write, it's not an audit report, it's an agreed upon procedures report uh and say, yeah, he was there.

So I mean it's it's the biggest limitation to an agreed-upon procedures is that they can't make a judgment on something.

So in an audit, you're using auditor judgment, but in the procedures, it really needs to be very black and white on those agreed-upon procedures.

So, like he's saying, make a sample of these expenditures and make sure they're in line with the policies.

Well, because at the end, you're gonna say this is what we did, and this is what we found.

Yes, I stopped.

Yeah, uh now you know, we initially have to agree to procedures.

Um, I've done a thousand different agreed upon procedures, and there's been times when I've gone in and said, This is I I kind of saw something here, and I come back to management, and I said, you know, we we need to we need to do an addendum to these procedures.

Um I I recommend that you add these five more, you know, it's gonna be five thousand cheaper, two that you know, or whatever, and then you say, Yeah, I think that's a great idea, we want you to to do this.

Then there is a little bit of that in there, we can't do that.

Um, as your external auditor, I can go in there and say, you know, try to nail them.

I mean, you know, kind of follow follow what the procedures we come up with.

Yeah, that's a good starting point.

But I think there is also the judgment from the fact that if you're doing something and it's we probably didn't specify the right procedure as you get get there, you know, like we said to do this, but as you find out what's really happening with the process, we probably need to tweak that, but that gives them the ability to come back and say, I don't think we need to do this, and I think we should admit it and do this instead.

Yeah, and Amanda has our she's drafted up initial procedures.

Um I don't know if you all if she's presented that to you.

I have not presented that.

I do have copies if you guys want to look at these.

Well, one of the things that makes this viable is this is not a gigantic multi-million dollar thing.

It's in in the hundreds of thousands, probably.

And uh so necessarily the money they spend, it's gonna be mostly salaries and payroll taxes and things like that.

Um and the variances are gonna be pretty easy to figure out.

It's probably some kind of maintenance thing that's well that doesn't hand properly.

That's exactly right.

I mean, that's what I'm trying to understand.

I'm kind of confused now by what the board really wants to get to because if if you're looking to say why three years ago or the last four or five years you made 150,000 or 400,000 and you put that on you just lay your ledger out in five years and say revenues went down, expenses went up, here's where the expenses increased.

Are you trying to find process issues that they didn't account for the money correctly or they didn't account for the spent expenditures correctly?

You're trying to so I'm I'm just confused as you is I listen to the direction is are you trying to give them guidance in the audit to go understand why the revenue why the profitability changed to the negative over time?

Are you trying to understand the procedures behind the processes of how they do their bank reconciliations and that?

I I heard that you're trying to understand why why it showed up at minus 350,000 dollars or whatever the number was versus where it was before, and we hadn't heard about that and what was the change.

That's a financial analysis, trying to look at where the numbers came from.

If you're trying to understand the procedures as to why you weren't notified or why they didn't catch it or why they didn't do whatever, that's a procedural audit in my mind, and maybe I'm missing something in between the two.

That's I was kind of following you early on, and then I gotta admit I got lost as I was listening to what you were you were talking about.

Because the initial thing was we lost a lot of money, we didn't know about it.

How did we lose money?

That's a that's a different style of analysis to me.

That's where I was at than it is if you're trying to understand the procedural analysis is to did they not do the bank reconciliations, did they have say maybe uh a cash-related issue that they didn't count for something correctly, and all of a sudden they did the reconciliation and they were $350,000 off.

That's that's I guess I need I need some help on the clarification of that because I am a tad confused.

Well, let me just say, you know, the cities as outsourced this to such a degree, um, and I'm speaking from my time as a director that there is no attention paid to it.

None we never get we never got a report in the in the almost six years I was a director before the pandemic, we met a couple of times to talk about uh, or maybe once to talk about should we increase prices, and they would present some kind of an income statement.

Two times jointly.

Yeah, and so uh, but I don't think I was at the first one, but but then we stopped meeting obviously with the pandemic, but the the depth of the financial information was always very thin.

The people that were providing it were not financial people.

I'm not sure they understood what they were giving us.

There is some value in understanding that what they're giving us actually can be tied back to something, and it's not mixed in with as someone said in the beginning, another water park somewhere else.

You know, are we clean on to do the do the numbers that go through the turnstile if they have turnstiles match up people match up with the dollars, the trends when they go up, do they go up in some kind of rational way?

Um and do they you know do they have a process to look and see if they don't what are they now captured?

And if they use credit cards, people I'm sure pay with credit cards.

I can tell you the whole credit card world is very messed up thing in terms of when you get the money and and where it you know where it goes and how you try to get some things like that.

It's not like real money, it's imaginary money until you until it hits your bank account.

But there are a lot of things like that.

But I think they're you know, again, yeah, I'm gonna just meet as a citizen.

There would be some value to knowing that we can trust those people to produce accurate numbers because for the future of that part for all of the citizens, including the five to fifteen years olds who get the most value out of it.

It's not the people that complain, the auditors who have no auditing expertise who are now auditing it from afar.

Citizen auditors, yeah, who have no education in that field.

Uh those are the ones that not are not they're not getting any benefit from it.

It's those family groups and and the young people that get benefit from it.

And they they won't have anybody in the room arguing on their behalf about whether this thing's worthwhile or not.

But so to me, spending some money to understand as much as you can about it now, a one-time deal would be something, and to establish then reporting processes that make sure that in the future you guys know what's going on.

You know, and there's some giant maintenance thing that nobody that maybe they didn't do their job last year or the year before in you know, oil in putting oil in some mechanism that was supposed to pump or something, and so they ruined the pump.

That ought to be their responsibility, not the cities.

So it's kind of operational as well as pure financial, just to understand what they do and you know how part of what I was concerned about is some of the um maintenance issues have arisen from not being winterized properly.

Um but I mean they're talking about losing money, they literally lost money.

They misplaced that $8,000 check.

That was a concern to me.

Um can you explain that that $8,000 check?

Yes, so um local schools run it out the water park per day in May for their end of school PTA celebration.

That was in May.

In September, I got a call from the past PTA president.

She said, I'm trying to turn everything over to the new PTA president.

This check never got cash, and I can't get a hold of anyone at the water park.

I don't know what to do.

Um so I called administration to see if they could handle it.

Uh when I spoke to the woman again, this was in September when I spoke to the woman again.

She said that uh they had literally just misplaced the check or lost it.

They never noticed it until she brought it to their attention, and um she had to go write them another check.

And she said it took several attempts to get together with them to do that.

So that was of concern to me.

I know that the city and the county, we each put you know, I think $37,000 in to make the $75,000 uh for their operating cash.

I don't know where that has gone.

Maybe Jeff can answer that, I'm not sure.

But in this the this money that they've overspent on maintenance and things, I don't know that that's accounted for.

Um I'm just looking at their uh financial statements they said as their uh I was in the concession business for a long time.

Those numbers don't add up to me.

They're spending 300,000 to bring in 400,000, they're spending 300,000, it should be more like 1.2 million.

I mean, that stuff has a huge markup.

So that those were all questions I had that I would I would like answered, but I think certainly there I I don't know that they have any processes and procedures.

I'm not sure.

I mean, think think about what what you guys do for the city.

And I don't know, I don't want to deviate off of what she said, but I just want to kind of talk this through.

So think about what you do for the city every every year.

You're you're looking at well, you're you're looking at the finances, making sure that that um I mean I might need some help in terms of the description what you guys are doing.

What is that some like that that allows people to go and see you know what our receipts were, what we spent money on, what's our fund balances, all those kinds of things.

Is it is it matching up?

Is it is it solid?

Meaning, do we have somebody that's professional that says this is good?

And me as a taxpayer can say, okay, I I might not like a 4.2 million dollar water slide, but I can trust that the financials are right.

That that's kind of sorry.

When they've been profitable in years past, where has that money gone?

I don't know.

Do you know?

Um I don't know if I can I don't know.

I don't know.

My assumption is, well, my assumption is they go back into the general fund.

I don't know, and you know I don't think that when you read through the agreements that were initially set up, that agreement with the management company, it goes into a fund for future use.

So like um to furniture fixture, those kind of things.

So there's a and that should be budgeted.

So like we we spent some money, um, I think it was last year on replacing some um galvanized pipes, cast iron pipes and like that.

Yes, um we uh that money came out of our general fund, it didn't come out of their fund.

I think is that correct?

We put money towards the definitely.

Well, Jeff, you got something I I've got I've got to be somewhere shortly, so I said these are gonna be my going off recollection here maybe uh the the pipe repair project.

Um you know, and you as the as the park operates and it has maybe a net surplus at the end of the year in terms of operating operating surplus, those dollars then would be they wouldn't go back to the city and county, they would city and county agreed that they should put those into a capital fund or a savings for opening the the following year doing the you know the the painting and and repairs and such that they need to do you know throughout the year, especially you know, in any particular year.

Um that money did accumulate uh for to about three.

If I'm um I'm not gonna get the numbers exactly right, but to about 380,000 or something like that.

Um, and then the beginning of 2024, we identified this problem with the pipes that had the the cast iron fittings and such uh that needed to be repaired, and that project was done.

That project costs about 760 ish thousand dollars, and so about half of that was that 380,000 that was in the capital fund then was used for that, and then the remaining of the remaining piece of that.

Well, I think that actually to us it was 189,000.

So between the the city and the county both paid 189,000 to make up the difference from whatever was in the capital fund to make that repair, and so that depleted all of the capital fund all together, and so uh some of those dollars that they would they would have in that capital fund uh throughout the the turn of the year between the time the park closed and then you know had had it still had staff, you know, had the the general manager and maintenance and a few staff that worked throughout the year until the park opened again.

So some of those would be those those dollars would be used to carry that operating, and when they didn't have that at all because we'd spent it all on the uh pipe repair, uh then that's when their cash cash amount went down below the $75,000 threshold that they did then needed the city and the county to uh because the the management agreement specifies that we would we'd keep a $75,000 balance in that operating account, and so that's when we put that you put the $37.5 in there, and we intended to get that back when they opened up and had revenues again.

Well, they never cut the revenues for the 2025 operating season never caught up enough that they were able to get replenish those revenues back to us, and so and I and I think another part of the problem was, and this is you know one of the things that I would want to have looked at is that, and I haven't you know just have understood this within the last few weeks, is that the 2024 operating season, while it showed that there was a net operating uh profit surplus to that profit surplus to that operating year.

I understand that there were several invoices that were carried over and not paid until 2025.

And so those ended up being a part of the big chunk of money that was owed at the end of 2025 when actually part of that was really attributed to the 2024 operating season.

And so I think there's a mixture of some of those things, and you know, and you know, Levon's right.

You know, the the the first the first few years, probably the first four or five years that the park operated, we would have the a meeting a joint meeting in October with the Quorum Court, and there would be a review of the cursory or not, review of the operating season that it just ended.

There would be a look forward to uh the operating budget for the following year and any price adjustments or thing, you know, things like that that might be done at the park, but the but the two entities would meet and sort of and agree at that meeting that yes, okay, move move forward with the next year.

And um when COVID happened, we didn't do that, and we haven't done it since.

And so the the I think really some of our problems with the with this, I mean, not you know, with the park operating itself and with our co-ownership with the county.

I think some of that is fostered by the fact that we didn't keep having those meetings, and I don't know why we didn't, but you know, in terms of each year as we would get as the budget still would be proposed by the park, there would be proposed in the administrator and the county judge would be you know review the the proposed operating budget for the following year and then authorize it to move forward.

So those are just some of the things I know off the top of my head.

So I don't know if they're good as some things, but does that kind of narrow down or clarify anything possible?

Well, I think it's I think it still goes back to the fact.

Do you want a financial statement?

Okay, or do you want to go a little further?

Let me upload both.

Okay.

Well, that's obviously dollar size.

And a concern I have with a financial statement audit at the beginning is that you know, we don't know, like you were talking about what happens at the city and what you know, how we know what numbers are and different things like that.

We know what our processes are.

Now it's whether or not we follow them, or we get an all the approvals that we should, is all this happening.

We we know and they have a risk base when you do an audit, you kind of get in and get your risk assessment.

I mean, what if we get to the point that they start this audit and we we don't know what we're getting into because we don't know what all the policies and procedures are.

So I think you're kind of starting off on a negative because you've got to build all that, and we may still get to the point that they're doing the audit, and we don't have records, or we don't have enough information that we couldn't even get a clean opinion on the audit if we went if we finished it.

So if the concerns and everything that that you know you've talked about tonight, and I've seen it on Facebook as well.

If those are the critical concerns right now, I would probably let's start with agreed upon procedures, get those kind of things knocked out and figure out what's going on and then move forward down the road with a financial statement audit or whatever we decide is necessary.

Um the timing also concerns me just with a financial statement audit.

I mean, you can do them, but you have to have the documentation and the procedures and things like that.

We don't know maybe something that we know we have that, but there's a time frame of how far do we go back, what all do we get, and that's going to take time.

Whereas with the agreed upon procedures, I mean, we can say this is what we want you to do.

We go out there and do it, and you know, we said we were gonna do 10 test 10 items, and we couldn't get support for seven of them, then that's what the you know we're done.

We know we have an issue there.

So I just I think we could get we could take a lot of time and get a lot of cost involved, and I'm not sure we'd give you on the start what we're hoping to accomplish.

And I'm happy y'all can't.

Andy spoke, I don't know I'm not speaking for you, but he did speak with the management company today.

And that's right.

Yes.

I mean, I just um I would reach out to the director of their financial services.

Um I guess he's in Pennsylvania, their office is there, but just asked him about you know how because you know we're talking about doing a financial statement audit, and I was like, well, this guy's you've got properties around the country, some of these probably are being audited on a normal basis.

How does that work?

So I just I just called and asked him about how those typically go and who's responsible for what, and um you know, I think there's a few of them, but you know, basically is it was like well, the accounting system is web-based, cloud-based accounting system, the records are online basically.

Uh your auditors can have user access to the financial records and support for whatever you know at this at the water park, and um so basically, I mean, he was pretty confident that the records were good, and that every that the they had everything to support everything in the financial statement, so you felt pretty comfortable by us hiring an auditor to do an audit.

But but like a good example, um a financial statement audit.

I'm not if I were to do that, I'm not gonna go say, hey, ARM is that yeah, give me daily term style turns and daily deposits for every day that you were open throughout the year.

I'm not gonna do that on a financial statement audit.

Okay.

So that's an example.

If that's something you were interested in, hey, I don't I don't think the revenues are right, I don't think they're accounting for everything.

I could go and say I need some sort of report because you you're required to see how many people come through that you hear, right?

And tell me how many here, and then I want to see the deposit every day.

And I want you to, I want you to prepare me a spreadsheet that shows this and this.

That's not something that we typically do on a financial statement audit.

Okay, you know, there's there's a hundred more examples of things like that that you can do when you do an agreed upon procedure that's not part of a typical audit.

I just know that identifying these items, what what do we call it again?

Agreed agreed upon.

She's already started it.

You already started okay.

Uh because I was I was gonna say getting the seven of us to come to agreement on X number of items for an agreement, uh what I keep I can't do.

Agreed upon procedure.

Just call it AEP.

A B on an AEP is darn near possible.

know that identifying these items what what do we call it again agreed agreed upon she's already started it you already started okay uh because I was I was gonna say getting the seven of us to come to agreement on X number of items for an agreement uh what I keep I can't agreed upon procedure on an AEP is darn near possible now you've already started it I've you know obviously we want to look at that and would I guess the board would have to agree to it right so it's you started it was the intention to start it and then turn it over or was the intention to complete it those procedures technically management writes the procedures and then your external auditor performs those procedures okay because they're not giving assurance uh that the financial statements are correct they're just doing the exact procedures that we ask them to do and these procedures that I wrote up are kind of based on whenever a company buys another company and they want to audit cash transactions and so most of these in the water park are cash transactions that's what they're focused on right now so when we talk about turnstiles or these other things I haven't necessarily incorporated those into the procedures.

So in my mind what is coming up is the discussion on the city taking over the full thing involving the county of their responsibility to me that's something I think we would want to see some sort of audit before we entered into an agreement like that the agreed upon procedure report that that sounds like something I would be interested in I don't know that we have to vote on this because the service agreement allows correct Jeff the service agreement allows for an audit so I don't know that's something that has to go before the board to be voted on it.

I think what I'm thinking about is just do we agree with what Amanda has put together for the agreed upon audit UAP like if she says if one of our items is I want to make sure that the that the the heating mechanism heats my burger to 150 degrees that's important I don't necessarily care about that right now like it's important to me but there's other things that are that I would consider important so do we as a seven and I'm just I'm asking do we as the seven of us have to say yes we agree and allocate the dollars or like is we're allocate dollars for it or or kind of what's the what's the procedure for us to I mean Amanda could have something completely different that is not in line with what we in my mind we would trust her expertise and maybe review review it before it it goes yeah so typically how I do it like the interested party it sounds like you two are interested so I would probably and I'm not trying to do Amanda's job but I ultimately have to sign off these procedures what I would want to do is is is set up a call with you and and you and say okay Mr.

Martin tell me what's important to you here and then I would lay those out and come up with procedures and then I'd say give me a week and I'd schedule another call or send you an email say here's what I propose that we can do here's what I can do you know and here here's here's how we intend to do it.

So that that that's typically how you get buy in from those charts with government right I like so just because of the environment that we are in with the open meetings and such yeah that's I mean that back and forth is good I think also we have an we have you know particular advantage at this point where we have Amanda in her background she knows what those things look like but she's also learning a lot of the context of what the board is interested in and so I think between Amanda and myself and Andy we can come up with a good set of whatever those procedures are but I do think then it it's to Amanda's benefit and mine is Andy's as well to have the board as a group review and say yeah we're good with that let's see what that happened let's see what that uh what that brings us with that uncovered and and at that point when we show it to the board we'll have you know input as to what the estimated cost is for maybe doing some of these things and so we can do all of that at once.

So like bringing it to us in a study session yeah I mean at least yes okay and those procedures when we talk about a contract with for this those procedures will be listed in that contract that you would approve as the board so we would need to approve the the the contract the engagement I think also the period that you're gonna cover some of these procedures is it are you going two years back is it three years is it one year that's some things too and it can be different for the each procedure because it may be that we want the cash piece of it you know reconciled for three years and it may be that the maintenance top things of we just want to look at these for the last year so you can also have the flexibility of picking what period you want to look at.

I'll come and present and and yes.

I just have to be careful not to like make management decisions.

Umanda doesn't have to be careful on that, right?

So I mean I I would be careful, but I understand what you mean.

Yes.

I mean, and and there are things that just because it doesn't show up in the report doesn't mean that we don't have discussions about it.

Yeah.

And and she can want me to.

I just think it would be nice.

So can we talk about 2025 and they said we lost this many days to rain.

If that were my business, if it were private business, I would say I lost this many days to rain, I'm gonna stay open this many more days, or I'm gonna start opening nights, or I'm gonna find some way to recoup this lots.

So you know, there could be some sort of recommendation associated with that.

That that's what I'm looking for.

So what what you just said is we could we could we could hire it out, yeah, for this.

Or we could have the internal audit team do it.

Now that impacts what we just voted on, but we could do it in-house and and and go that route.

There is some benefit in public opinion if an outside party does it rather than an internal party.

It's also some things if we ex if we send it external to the pen and do an initial one, that then that's not to say some of those procedures aren't on our 27 audit plan that they're going to do and moving forward, what's important that you look at.

I I think you can learn, you know, initially, you know, no one really knows how it's gonna go because we don't know.

I mean, I we don't know, you know, we we we we need cooperation, right?

And so oftentimes, you know, once you make this initial investment, it can be worked into the audit plan, like every other year we're gonna do this, or every three years we're gonna do this.

Hey, this is cool, David, but I don't really like I mean that didn't really help me any scratch that went and replaced it with this one, this would be more beneficial.

So I mean, I I do think there is there is some return on your uh uh investment by making the initial and then going forward Amanda would have the report you know next weeks or whatever.

So just just to that investing uh question.

I know we we don't we don't know anything, we don't know anything.

I know what we what the agreement is with Forbus for our financial audit.

I know this is different.

What I mean and you guys do big stuff, you know, and probably don't do a lot of uh small stuff, whatever you do.

Yeah, um what would we kind of if we set up this is a this is your floor, and this is a reasonable roundabout.

I think the unique thing about it is it if I come back and say, okay, well that's a lot, that's gonna cost you 30,000.

Okay, and you could say, well, we could get this, we can take this one out of this one out of this one out and say, well, okay, well, it's gonna cost 20,000.

So the uh at 30,000 would would I guess I'm trying to figure out like we want a hundred thousand or we going 20, 30,000.

Well, I like I mean that's the good thing about it is on agreed upon procedures, you can go from a hundred to so I I we were working on on this over the holidays with a with Amanda, and we were kind of processing it out by procedure that she initially requested and yesterday we kind of stopped because she said y'all learn an audit.

So we didn't we didn't, or was it yesterday or the day before?

I one of the days we we kind of quit quit working on it.

Okay.

Where were you when you before you stopped?

I we haven't we haven't totaled everything together.

We were doing it by line item.

I mean, are you wanting to spend what do you what do you I'm not wanting to spend under that 30?

I don't think I want to spend out of it.

I'm thinking it's a small water part too.

Yeah, 2030 grand though.

So realize that when you do an agreed upon procedure, it really doesn't matter on the size of I mean it matters the activity and what you all want, right?

So do you want me to do you want to go look at every day they were open and look at the turnstiles, like I said?

Well, I mean, you know, that's real easy to do if if we can get them to do it.

If they if you've got it if they send me 200 reports and we have to compile it all, it's a lot different story, you know, that would be a hundred dollars for that versus versus five thousand.

Right.

No, I mean I I get it, there's a lot of variables.

I'm I and and I mean I want to be I want to be respectful of the city's money, right?

But oftentimes when you're doing things like this, it's in the best interest of your management company to participate if you're not going to be able to do that.

And I believe they have agreed to participate, is that correct?

In terms of prov yeah, in terms of providing the information, yes.

Um the way that I read the agreement is that the cost for this, these procedures would go into the water parks fund, so into that operating account that the water park uses.

Oh, can it's considered an operating expense of the park.

So it would that's $75,000.

So essentially we're sharing this cost with the county.

Yes.

I mean, I I don't want to spend more money than we have to, certainly.

I I want to spend enough that we're thorough that I feel confident with what's going on there that the public can feel confident.

Um I don't know what that looks like.

Okay.

Well, I I will go back to work.

Um and I'm not trying to.

Do you want to share with them like email them what you've been thoughts?

Give you a hard copy and I'll also email it out.

And then and then you can provide your thoughts to Amanda, and then she can rework it and then I'll work with her on processing it out.

I mean, we're gonna do the best.

You know, um we're not gonna take advantage.

I mean, we're we're we'll do the best we can on pricing it out.

Well, and it would it would be beneficial if there's somebody that could kind of speak to this.

I know we're at the audit committee, but somebody outside of the board maybe could say a couple words because I know the audit's gonna come up Tuesday.

That somebody, maybe Amanda, I don't know if this one who wants to be your first item for the public, but maybe we somebody says we're what we're kind of doing, and it's not Christina higher director good saying it just just to have folks know you know things are moving along.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, I mean I always worry about erosion of public trust, and this is an item.

This is an issue that there's a large amount of distrust around uh I don't want to change that.

I want to change the conversation, let people know that we you know we understand their concerns, we have those concerns and that we're looking into it.

Is Parrot Island not obligated to participate in any of the cost of this since it's it's their business that we're questioning on the operations, the management like Amanda said, I mean the management agreement says that we we can request an audit, we can do an audit, and the cost of the audit is an expense of the park.

Okay, but yeah, but if you're taking RM.

It's not a cost of ARM and specifically.

That's what I meant.

It's the cost of the park.

Yeah, but is is I mean the ARM has no dog and hunt.

Correct.

Not necessarily, but they but they are obligated, I think, by the by that language to participate in terms of providing the information that's needed to involve.

Right.

But if you put the if we charge them the if let's just say it's $30,000 and understand that's not a quote, but if it costs $30,000, we put it in and then we fall short of the operating budget, we both the county and city have to put $75,000 or $30,000 in to get back to zero.

It is correct.

Correct.

On these that I've done in the past, and Amanda sacked in in her early days actually has worked with me on stuff like this before, but um we've gone in and looked and and performed these on certain concessionaires, and we might have found we found some money and they went back and said like a check.

So, you know, if if there's improper spending that doesn't align in the agreement, you know, that's when you would get your attorney to say here, you know.

That's fine, it's just gonna want to make sure I have stack questions.

Yeah, I mean that that's typically how it works is you know, if it's a scathing, if I if I have findings all throughout there and they've missed misspent, then you would have that report to go talk to your attorney and say, I need you to go recoup this money.

But but to the other side of that, if they've done everything properly and correctly, you know, we just needed to prove it to ourselves, and then we did why why why would they think everything they're supposed to do?

It can work both ways.

I think one of the you know, just when you talk about spending the money prudently, I think getting more what doing the agreed upon procedures is gonna be a better use of the funds to make to get what you're wanting than a financial statement audit would be because the end result of the financial statement audit is getting a set of materially correct financial statements, and not that that's not important, but it like David said it's not going to be going into the detail, which is where we really think a lot of the issues are potential issues are occurring.

But within the agreed upon procedures on it, we can some of those agreed upon procedures can be specific to the finances and how it works.

Okay, you can insert audit procedures in the agreed upon procedures, it's just you won't get an audit opinion.

You're being an agreed upon procedures of the yeah, like if we felt like the eight thousand dollar check that you mentioned, if that's a recurring issue, I mean, what's the or you know what's the procedure for deposits?

How do they lose a check, or how do they not know that they closed the water park to a school and never deposited the check to pay for it?

I mean, that's some of the things in the agreed upon procedures what are the procedures on that and are they wrong.

You have a lot more freedom when you're doing agreed upon procedures.

You just you just have to thoughtfully think them through initially because it's harder to go back, you know.

I said it can't it can be done, you know, if if we just leave something off, but it it's it's it's best to just thoughtfully go, you know, have good set of procedures and and uh Amanda has experience with that and I do, so I can work with her on that and get y'all's input and making sure you get what you want.

Well, I think Director Cassandra said public trust.

That's that's the key.

How do we how do we how do we get public trust in that park and how they operate that that is that should be the main driver of what we're foreseeing?

Yeah, I mean I want to be able to trust that so just to recap the next step.

What's the what's the next step on the state?

I like I I well I think what I heard was sh uh Amanda is putting together the procedures that procedures goes to the board for we agree in in a in a either a study session or when we are ready to move forward with four of us doing this agreed upon procedures on it.

That we have this these are agreed upon wrong procedures.

Here's uh the estimated cost before us, here's the uh auditor that's gonna be out, whatever, whatever those formal things are, and then we say, okay, yeah, this looks good.

We were in agreement with all this, put it to us uh uh a vote the next following week if if we if we do this session first, and then once it's uh once there's four votes, we we live on.

And I would say I would like some feedback from all the members of the committee in the board to say, is there anything you think we should add?

Because it's it would be easier to get all of those added up front that we can put on there and then take them off to David's point.

So getting your input before we send them back over to David, I think would be important.

Okay, so that's something you can you will eat on those.

Okay, yes.

You'll call with that.

Maybe we put a deadline on responses because I'd like to move on this with some expedience.

Yes, thank you.

Okay, and you know, if if you feel like it's important that someone be there when that's presented to the board, Amanda, if she wants to do it, I'm happy to go with her if you need to.

So I think it's important.

I I think that again the public trust needs to know that this is not just something that's ancillary to the actual concerns that people have about the if you can join.

I think that would be very helpful.

Yeah.

So we would have to the study session, so we would have to call them up in order for them to come speak.

So stage program.

Okay.

Okay.

So do you know that's this Tuesday.

Are you able to check the calendar?

Check the county.

And maybe you've been doing that.

Where's this?

Where is this on the agenda?

Well there's its plan to be on the top.

There isn't a specific discussion item set for discussion of the audit topic.

Paradox, there's three different items on her, let's go to the last item.

Oh, jeez.

I think this item would fit in when we're talking about uh you know taking over control, full control of the park.

I think that's where this is relevant.

Yeah, I think we also because there's nine things on the agenda.

I was trying to figure out where does it fit.

Well, and I'll say that I mean there's a number of things on the agenda, but I think some of those discussions will go fairly quickly.

I just don't want to, I don't want to people there's gonna be a lot of people here.

I don't want to wait them out an hour and a half later without talking about uh I I can be here Tuesday, but let me clarify.

So on Tuesday though, or do you think you will have the procedures and a quote?

What's your cheese?

I'm I'm I think that's my opinion that we're communicating that to the to the rest of the board in the city.

This is this is what we're doing.

We don't have it yet, but this is what we're after consultation with external auditors, internal the internal audit committee, we've decided that it AUP EUP, whatever it is, um is the way to go.

Amanda's got these things in conjunction with the internal audit committee and the board reviewing them.

And then when that's done, it'll come to the board and we'll we'll talk about it.

For another study session, yeah, yeah.

Is that does that are y'all I uh I mean I'll talk any time.

You guys you guys say no, that's a stupid idea.

If you if you want.

I think that's the way to go.

I think that we present.

I'll let you guys present the the information that we are moving forward, it will give the public some trust that this is going beyond the board that we actually are looking into it and just move forward.

And we can mention that if anyone is interested, they can listen to the audit committee meeting discussion online because it is the audio will be available.

Okay.

You you mentioned time what what is your expectations on that?

I mean, where the second thing on my agenda was talk about the big audit.

Well, Christina mentioned it.

There's there's a couple things.

One full takeover by the city with the water farm that's on discussion.

Okay, so it's not been determined yet.

That's not been determined, and um is there something else?

On Tuesday?

No, I mean just in general.

Oh no, or uh being the the continuation of the continuation of the agreement with all it's we still have the the agreement expired, but it's continuing.

We've got it through we did a temporary through March, yeah, through March.

Also, we've got the discussion on the bids for putting the slides out.

Right.

So I think there's a lot of uh if if the board were to choose to take it over, I feel like we need to be solid on the finances.

We need to with the the finances need to be set, or we need to we need to feel comfortable with this off this audit, and um we need to feel comfortable with our okay.

Um so what I'm saying is I kind of feel like unless four four people vote to take both from the county and extend ARM.

Um in my opinion, this audit would need to be done before those decisions are made.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's my opinion.

What do you got?

If I if I might chime in, um the the I the item on uh taking over anyway.

Talking about the relationship with the county, that's that's on the agenda.

The second item, uh, which was you know tabled to this this particular meeting, but the extension of the agreement with ARM, I think is a is a moot point at this point.

I think that original extent that original agreement has expired.

And so we have entered into the temporary agreement to make sure the park is covered and supervised until such time as we have a a new agreement in place.

But that new agreement is going to be a new agreement with either with I mean, and we put out the RFP, we've got five proposals in from uh management companies that want to have an opportunity to potentially manage this project.

Now ARM is one of those.

But you know, from those five companies, we'll go through the process for the selection of uh uh professional services for that and make recommendations to come back with a committee recommendation to the board and the quorum court, presumably, if we're still partners with them in this to engage with whatever firm we suggest.

And that that will take some time.

I mean, it's not I mean if we only had one submittal and then you know, it's whoever, and then that would be a little quicker.

But given that we need to go through the process of evaluating the proposals, evaluating the qualifications, you know, potentially do you know in interview type of presentations with them uh for the management of this, that's gonna take a little bit of time, and so there is some time here.

But but to both points.

I mean, to the fact that whether we're changing the ownership structure and we're gonna own it, you know, operate it on our own, or just the mere fact that we are ch potentially changing or at least entering into a completely new agreement, that that in itself, you know, either one of those things justifies sort of uh an audit or review of processes.

So I I think we can we don't have to make either one of those decisions today, I would say, but we we need something so we can make those decisions.

That makes sense.

Okay, so we have like 90 days get this schedule to get it done.

We've got a full schedule, you know, I mean, would it be fuller?

Would 90 days give us uh enough time to evaluate um the four other companies?

Well, yeah, I mean it's gonna we're gonna move uh quickly on that because I mean even our our temporary extension goes to the end of March, but even if once once you get into April, it's time to start putting the part together for the season, right?

So we need to we need this quickly.

Wouldn't it wouldn't is 92 so I mean I'm starting getting into tax time?

Well yeah, yeah, but we're we're we're there, okay.

Um so I I all this you know Ron said earlier, you know, first year you know, kind of know.

I mean I quoted it on here, I was gonna bring it up, but this is our first year, and so we really don't know, you know.

I I don't know, it's gonna be depending on on them providing us.

Um we'll get to work on it right away.

Um once we we'll have to kind of make you know look at a man is make sure they follow the standards and then we'll get right on it, and then we can get a get a list out to them, set you know what we'll once we start getting the information in from them, we can we can turn it out really quickly.

Does the management agreement have any kind of time frame like if we ask for an audit and they provide they provide the information?

Does it say like they have so many days to require or anything like that?

I don't think so.

I don't think that it does.

It doesn't really speak to that.

It talks about how long they're supposed to maintain documents, which is five years, but I think that's the only thing from a time perspective.

I I wouldn't think that they would want to participate.

Especially if they have a proposal out.

I mean, if if we think about it next week's study session, we have we we won't have anything that we're formally looking at.

I don't know if we'll have it by by I doubt we would have it by next Tuesday.

So you're looking at least two more weeks after that before we see anything, then you're looking at another week after that before we actually vote.

So you're into February 3rd.

February 3rd.

Yeah, February 3rd is the soonest we could have an engagement going.

Right, right.

That's that's as soon as we can vote on it for an engagement.

So if we went 90 days from there, you'd be right in about April, I guess, right?

Yeah, that's assuming that the rest of the board is a for just taking over four.

Right, right, right.

I mean that can tell us in the meeting.

That can throw everything out of white, yeah.

If four members of the board said we're gonna take it.

Which is very possible.

Yeah, but but I I would think even that decision doesn't necessarily have to impact this.

I mean, because we could still go.

That's true.

That's true.

Yeah, that's true.

Well, we could if we kind of know, even if we're not approved the procedures, we can go ahead and ask the company or whoever for the stuff we think we're gonna want.

It might not be everything, it may not be file, but we can go ahead and ask for that when we get the procedures and ask for that.

It doesn't have to necessarily come back.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be cost beneficial or beneficial to you to have a to do it while you're doing the field working in April.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh we're already here and yeah, I mean, we we can do it while we're out here in April.

Um we're gonna we're planning on being here the whole month of April.

So as long as they is they they participate and give us what we need.

I mean, you know, if if Andy doesn't give me what I need, I can come and talk to y'all about it.

I mean, well, if I don't have there's not a lot of leverage there, I think I guess to your point, the leverage, I guess.

We got a little bit.

I think if they uh if they don't give you what you need, that that helps us in some decision making elsewhere.

So so if if you did it while you're here, and that's in April, so you would really be starting your work in April.

You start getting the the day that you say I want you to do this, uh we we would start planning and we would come up with a list of items that we need from them and we send it off to them.

It might be worth a conversation.

How long do you think it will once you all have the the procedures finalized or drafted, you know, call them and say, hey, we're gonna do an AEP on this.

Here's what we're gonna need, this, this, and this, how fast can you turn that around?

You know, because I mean it it's all dependent on them.

Okay.

Okay, and then when you get it back, you you yeah, well then it then it's dependent on me once I get it back, but you know, we can turn that stuff around fairly quickly.

And we'll have a list of those documents needed in the procedures and very number one, obtain this, this, this, this, this.

So they'll that will be apparent in the procedures what information needs to be gathered from the management company.

Okay.

Okay.

So Amanda's gonna email around the tentative procedures that she's come up with.

She and I will be present at the meeting.

She's saying I'm the study session to discuss, then we will revise the procedures based on input.

Based on input, bring it back to the next study session in two weeks.

And then that's approved, it would go to the board their February 3rd meeting, and then engage for this at that point with the intent of getting the procedures done while they're here during our April field work.

Yes, yes, we're we're um we're the week of March 30th is when we plan our and I guess with the after we kind of get the initial procedures together, those would come to you so that you could give us a tender proposal or the approval by the board on the have that for that next study session, then it would be on the board on the third.

Yeah, if everything worked out, I I could present it along with the audit.

That works that worked for everyone.

Yeah, when that's usually before J-June, early June.

Okay.

Cool.

All right.

And then some things that any more questions, discussion on the water park.

Okay.

You want to talk about the external audit.

Oh, sure, sure.

So um it is 2026.

So we are uh starting um to we've already kind of started planning our our external audit.

Um the scope is gonna be similar to what it was last year.

We're gonna do an act for again um uh a federal grant compliance, and that'll be based upon the the CEFA schedule that that Andy provides me very soon.

Um the timing again, we're gonna start on week of 3.30 is kind of our initial planning week, and then we'll roll right in the field work.

Plan on being here all of April primarily, um, pretty much every uh every day in April, unless we just get done early.

Um as far as drafts are concerned, um we will present a draft to you all um meeting.

Um that that is gonna be a little bit dependent on Andy and his team.

So I don't know, Andy, when when I mean I it would be, you know, the the way I'm hoping it works this year is when we're out here working on field work, you know, Andy's pretty close to having a draft of the act first, so we can kind of do it along uh with the audit.

So hopefully in in April he's able to kind of put work on the act or put the final touches on the act, but will that give you enough time to get everything closed and April late April, something like that.

That's what I was thinking.

Um May, early May.

And then we'll come back to you all whenever you want to schedule it.

You know, I don't know if you want to wait on Andy to schedule your mid to early June audit committee meeting, um, but that's when we will present the results, and then after you approve that, we'll issue the final before June 30th uh to meet all of your external requirements and the GFOA um certification.

Um that's about all I have so far.

I mean we're just in the initial process of getting started on it right now.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any questions on the external audit at this point?

I guess if anything uh things just if there's any input that you all want to provide me, um you can provide my and we typically issue a pre-audit letter um and and I didn't have time to get that put together because she asked me to be here yesterday.

So or I volunteered to be here yesterday.

So um I can provide my contact if you have any anything that you want to talk to me about, you can call or email.

Okay.

You can send that out, right?

Yes, okay.

We do appreciate you being here.

Good.

Um from the timing standpoint, I just this really I mean we just talked about our meetings and the meeting quarterly.

Um this really is the last quarter's meeting because it got pushed waiting on the the risk assessment.

So I would like to try to meet like in March or early April for that date on where we stand with the internal audit plan, kind of an up a update on where we are with the audit and the the agreed upon procedures if that moves forward.

So looking at somewhere around the end of March, does that work for everyone?

Okay for the next meeting.

So if you wanted to make it the first week of April, I could come and if you wanted me to come and I can give you an update how the first week went.

Okay, we make none of that and we'll get back over that.

Yeah, okay.

And then we'll have a second quarter meeting and then the audit uh committee or the audit draft, whenever that's right.

So anybody else have anything before we adjourn?

Okay, no.

Can I get a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

All in favor.

Uh thank you.