Small Town News

Special districts to be audited, with county help

---

The Board of Supervisors has approved a contract with the accounting firm Blomberg & Griffin to conduct audits of 25 special districts, that hold their money in the Plumas County treasury.

Background material provided by Plumas County Auditor Shawn Montgomery explained a government code called for the county auditor to make contracts for special districts to be audited, if the districts haven't done so themselves.

Montgomery told the board, "There's 25 districts with their money in the county treasury that don't have current audits, and when I mean current, some of them you can't find if they'veever been audited and some the most recent audit is 1999."

The list includes fire, utility, cemetery and recreation districts, as well as the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Montgomery went on to say, "I've gotten really positive feedback from the districts. I requested to go to all their meetings and I have. Almost every district has invited me to their board meetings so that I could explain what this was all about and why."

The auditor provided the board with a list of expenses for each district, with the lowest price being $1,975 and the highest being $4,275.

"Some districts, you know this is a large portion of their operating budget, so I would like to come back to the board to discuss repayment options at a later date," she added.

Montgomery also reminded County Administrative Officer Jack Ingstad the county budget contained $50,000 for seed money to secure the contract, which is $80,625 total.

She said most of the districts were excited about being audited, but realistically some could not pay the county back.

The auditor informed the board there were five districts that didn't have funds in the county treasury but also needed to be audited--an issue that would have to be dealt with at a later date, as coordinating relationships between this auditing firm and the 25 districts would occupy her staff for some time.

Chairwoman Sherrie Thrall said this seemed like a good economy of scale idea, buying audits for all these districts in bulk.

Montgomery agreed, and also explained the firm gave a particularly good deal, $25,000 less than the next bidder. She said only one local group bid on the project and was significantly higher.

The auditor informed the board that government audits were simply harder to do, particularly for small auditing companies.

Finally, she explained future audits for these special districts would be cheaper, as reviews could be done instead of full audits.



Copyright 2009 The Chester Progressive, Chester, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 The Chester Progressive Chester, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from The Chester Progressive