OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Fort Smith Audit Advisory Committee Meeting - April 9, 2026

Meeting Portal — Monday, April 13, 2026
BodyFort Smith, Arkansas
SessionMeeting Portal
DateMonday, April 13, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:32:53

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Okay.

0:00

All right.

0:01

It's 6 o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order.

0:05

And as a reminder, we are going to be using the mics because it's recorded, so please make sure those are on.

0:13

And then we're going to go around the room and introduce ourselves, and that helps the reporting layers kind of know who is talking.

0:19

So I'm Dina Anfield and the chair of the committee.

0:23

Rough Bragg member at large.

0:25

Oops.

0:25

Rough Bragg member at large.

0:31

Amanda Strange, Director of Internal Audit.

0:34

Christy Fisher, Staff Auditor.

0:43

Katie Flores, Senior Manager with Forest Lazars.

0:50

Neil Martin as a member from the board of directors.

0:58

Audrey could also board records.

1:01

The law warned citizen at large.

1:06

Thank you all.

1:08

So I think everybody has the agenda packet.

1:10

So our first item on the agenda will be to approve the minutes from our January 8th meeting.

1:16

If those went out in the packet, if everybody has a chance to read those, and if there are any changes or if I can get a motion to accept those.

1:25

So I can all in favor say aye.

1:31

I opposed.

1:34

Thank you.

1:40

And just turn it over to David and Katie and let y'all kind of give us an update on where we stand with the financial statement audit and an update on the three fund procedures for paranormal, you'll go from there.

1:52

Alright.

1:53

Well, thank you thank you very much for allowing us to be here tonight.

2:01

We started it this week.

2:03

So we we were on site at the city starting Monday.

2:07

We plan on being here about three weeks or whatever it'll take.

2:12

I will tell you we have got just just hammered with with PVCs and trial balances and everything else.

2:21

So Andy and team have done their part to get us going.

2:26

But you know, it takes about a week for us to kind of get our arms around everything, get it everything uploaded in our system.

2:32

So that's what we're in the process of doing right now.

2:36

Um we're gonna have another two people here next.

2:39

We're gonna have a total of three or four people at a time here going forward starting next week.

2:45

Um so again, about three weeks.

2:48

I will tell you we we have analyzed the CEPA, that is your federal grants schedule.

2:54

Um that's one thing we do really early in planning to determine which audit pro which federal program we're gonna have to audit since you you all do receive federal awards.

3:04

Um this year our through our risk assessment we identified the federal transit cluster uh that we're gonna have to audit this year.

3:11

So in the process of developing PVC list for that, so you know how it works is we do we we get an initial upload of documents and data, and then we do our our planning, our risk assessment on that, and kind of formulate our audit plan uh select samples.

3:30

So we haven't provided the city with with a numerous samples or anything yet, so that'll be upcoming uh next week for them to pull.

3:37

So I don't have any doubt that they're not gonna be able to turn those around really quick for us.

3:42

Um as a as part of our our our procedure, we will interview key members of management, um, including uh Sinfield is the audit committee chair just to determine if there's any items that what's going on, let us just get their feel for what's going on at the city, if there's anything that they feel is is riskier for us to look at.

4:03

Um so we're in the process of getting those scheduled uh right now.

4:08

Um you know, any audit um we are required by the standards to identify certain risks.

4:13

I mean, there's those risks associated with any audit.

4:16

Uh the vast majority of our audits have management over controls.

4:21

Um that's still a risk for us in pretty much any audit.

4:24

What that means is can management manipulate controls in order to do something they're not supposed to be doing, so that's always a risk that we have we we we develop audit procedures to to combat that.

4:38

Another one is in proper revenue recognition.

4:41

So for a city, you can imagine all the revenue sources that the city gets everywhere from property taxes to fees charge to water to everything.

4:51

So we have to make sure that all that revenue is recorded in the appropriate period and there's a proper cutoff.

5:00

So sometimes, you know, in the heat of the battle, um, you know, finance apartments will you know may not get revenue in the appropriate period.

5:09

I'm not saying that goes on here at the city of Fort Smith, but that's always a risk for us uh when when we're doing our risk assessment, okay, proper revenue recognition because there is complexities around revenue recognition in the current uh audit standards and accounting standards, so it's always a risk for us.

5:26

The other one, since you get uh federal dollars, federal awards is non-compliance with laws and regulations around federal wards, so that we look at that through our single audit um through various matters to test that appropriately.

5:42

So that's that's our initial risk overall for the overall audit engagement.

5:48

Um, we'll narrow those down as we go along, but that's our initial risk.

5:52

Um, our goal is to issue the audit uh in order for you to meet the GFOA uh timeline, which is June 30.

6:00

We want to get that done earlier this year.

6:03

So I haven't talked to Andy or Amanda or whomever about scheduling this meeting or exactly when we want to schedule it.

6:13

I know every year it seems like we we talk about you know, are we going to present here and then issue, or are we going to present and then go present it to the board and issue so we can work that out with with Andy and team later or or now or whatever y'all want to do.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Fiscal Sustainability███████████████████████████████31%
Procedural█████████████████████████████29%
Audit and Oversight██████████████████████████26%
Pending Litigation█████5%
Personnel Matters████4%
Financial Oversight████4%
Technology and Innovation█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Fort Smith Audit Advisory Committee Regular Meeting – April 9, 2026

The Audit Advisory Committee (AAC) met at 6:00 pm on April 9, 2026, in Blue Lion Room 2 at 101 N 2nd St, Fort Smith, AR. Chair Deana Infield called the meeting to order with all members present except Raynee Pogue. The meeting adjourned at 7:33 pm. Key items included updates on the 2025 city financial statement audit, the Parrot Island Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP) engagement, and a comprehensive internal audit department update.

Consent Calendar

  • Approval of Meeting Minutes from 1/8/2026 – Director Neal Martin made a motion, seconded by Russell Bragg. The minutes were approved unopposed.

External Audit Updates

  • 2025 City Financial Statement Audit (Forvis Mazars) – Forvis Mazars began fieldwork on Monday 4/6/2026 and expects a 3-week process. The team will have 3–4 individuals on-site starting the week of 4/13/2026. The federal program selected for audit this year is the Transit cluster based on the risk assessment of the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). Initial risks identified include management override of controls, improper revenue recognition, and non-compliance with federal award regulations. The goal is to issue the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) on or before June 30, 2026, to meet the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) deadline. The draft audit will be presented first to the AAC, then to the Board of Directors (likely at a special meeting around June 23, 2026), before filing.
  • Parrot Island AUP Update (Forvis Mazars) – Fitz Balbinot is assigned full-time to this engagement. An electronic portal has been set up for data exchange, and roughly 70–80% of initial requested data has been provided. Weekly Tuesday morning calls have been established with Parrot Island management, Forvis Mazars, and Amanda Strange (Director of Internal Audit). The goal is to present the AUP results concurrently with the ACFR. No scope limitations have been placed on this engagement. The AAC discussed potential conflicts of interest; Forvis Mazars confirmed their independence and that extensive quality control reviews have been conducted. Any decision to expand procedures (e.g., to include additional bank accounts) will be communicated to the AAC for approval.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No public comments or testimony were recorded.

Discussion Items

  • Fraud Awareness Training and Conflict of Interest Forms – Amanda Strange reported that the Internal Audit team held 70 meetings with city employees. Of 1,041 employee forms, 947 were collected during those meetings. Less than 40 forms remain outstanding. The team plans to improve the efficiency of this process next year.
  • Certifications & Training – Amanda Strange earned her Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) designation (having passed the single exam required, as she is already a CPA). Staff auditor Christi Fisher has passed two of the three CIA exams. All staff are working toward their 40-hour CPE requirements; about 7.5 hours of training so far focused on fraud topics.
  • Internal Audit Methodology – The team has developed detailed checklists for planning (page 2 of handout), fieldwork and reporting (page 4), and report drafting and review (pages 7–9). These are designed to ensure consistency, root-cause analysis, and alignment with IIA Standards. Reports will include an executive summary, risk-rated findings (grouped by common root cause), management’s corrective action plans with target dates, and follow-up tracking. The AAC discussed the importance of management cooperation and the board’s role in ensuring that findings are addressed. The committee endorsed the proposed report format.
  • Maturity Level of Internal Audit – Amanda Strange presented a five-level maturity model. The department is currently at Level 2 (developing/repeatable processes). The goal is to reach Level 3 in 12–18 months and potentially Level 4 in 3–5 years. Achieving Level 4 will require investment in data analytics, technology, and cultural integration.
  • Audit Plan Progress – The 2026 Audit Plan includes 9 audits: 3 in planning phase, 2 in execution, and 4 not yet started. The plan is tracked in Teammate Plus software, with scheduled start/end dates and actuals to be compared at year-end.
  • Investigations and Fraud Hotline – There have been 0 contacts to the fraud hotline since the last meeting.
  • Consulting – Two small consulting projects were completed, one resulting in a formal memo.
  • Special Projects – Parrot Island AUP remains the primary special project; weekly calls continue.
  • Roundtable / Recommendations – The AAC discussed asking that the same financial reports the Board receives for city-contributed entities (Parrot Island, Convention Center, Fort Smith Animal Haven) also be provided to Internal Audit for consistency and oversight. Chair Infield suggested the next quarterly AAC meeting be scheduled for July 2026, after the June audit timeline.

Key Outcomes

  • Approved meeting minutes from January 8, 2026.
  • Directed Forvis Mazars to continue the ACFR audit and Parrot Island AUP with a target presentation in June 2026.
  • Endorsed the internal audit report format and methodology templates presented by Amanda Strange.
  • Planned future roundtable discussion on whether financial reports for city-contributed entities should be sent to Internal Audit.
  • Scheduled the next AAC regular meeting for July 2026 (date to be determined).
  • Adjourned at 7:33 pm.

Meeting Transcript

Okay. All right. It's 6 o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. And as a reminder, we are going to be using the mics because it's recorded, so please make sure those are on. And then we're going to go around the room and introduce ourselves, and that helps the reporting layers kind of know who is talking. So I'm Dina Anfield and the chair of the committee. Rough Bragg member at large. Oops. Rough Bragg member at large. Amanda Strange, Director of Internal Audit. Christy Fisher, Staff Auditor. Katie Flores, Senior Manager with Forest Lazars. Neil Martin as a member from the board of directors. Audrey could also board records. The law warned citizen at large. Thank you all. So I think everybody has the agenda packet. So our first item on the agenda will be to approve the minutes from our January 8th meeting. If those went out in the packet, if everybody has a chance to read those, and if there are any changes or if I can get a motion to accept those. So I can all in favor say aye. I opposed. Thank you. And just turn it over to David and Katie and let y'all kind of give us an update on where we stand with the financial statement audit and an update on the three fund procedures for paranormal, you'll go from there. Alright. Well, thank you thank you very much for allowing us to be here tonight. We started it this week. So we we were on site at the city starting Monday. We plan on being here about three weeks or whatever it'll take. I will tell you we have got just just hammered with with PVCs and trial balances and everything else. So Andy and team have done their part to get us going. But you know, it takes about a week for us to kind of get our arms around everything, get it everything uploaded in our system. So that's what we're in the process of doing right now. Um we're gonna have another two people here next. We're gonna have a total of three or four people at a time here going forward starting next week. Um so again, about three weeks. I will tell you we we have analyzed the CEPA, that is your federal grants schedule. Um that's one thing we do really early in planning to determine which audit pro which federal program we're gonna have to audit since you you all do receive federal awards. Um this year our through our risk assessment we identified the federal transit cluster uh that we're gonna have to audit this year. So in the process of developing PVC list for that, so you know how it works is we do we we get an initial upload of documents and data, and then we do our our planning, our risk assessment on that, and kind of formulate our audit plan uh select samples. So we haven't provided the city with with a numerous samples or anything yet, so that'll be upcoming uh next week for them to pull. So I don't have any doubt that they're not gonna be able to turn those around really quick for us. Um as a as part of our our our procedure, we will interview key members of management, um, including uh Sinfield is the audit committee chair just to determine if there's any items that what's going on, let us just get their feel for what's going on at the city, if there's anything that they feel is is riskier for us to look at. Um so we're in the process of getting those scheduled uh right now. Um you know, any audit um we are required by the standards to identify certain risks. I mean, there's those risks associated with any audit. Uh the vast majority of our audits have management over controls. Um that's still a risk for us in pretty much any audit. What that means is can management manipulate controls in order to do something they're not supposed to be doing, so that's always a risk that we have we we we develop audit procedures to to combat that. Another one is in proper revenue recognition. So for a city, you can imagine all the revenue sources that the city gets everywhere from property taxes to fees charge to water to everything.

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