A financial turnaround for the City of Smithville

February 2, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

A financial turnaround for the City of Smithville.

During Monday night’s monthly meeting, the mayor and aldermen heard from the city’s auditor John Poole on the municipality’s financial condition for the year ended June 30, 2020 and he had good news to report.

Poole, a Hendersonville CPA who performs the annual audit for the city, said Smithville finished the fiscal year by $60,000 to the good in the water and sewer fund and by $862,000 in the general fund. A significant turnaround from the year ended June 30, 2019 when the city found itself in a negative “change in net position” of $96,391 (in the red) in the water and sewer fund and by $81,631 (in the red) in the general fund as revenues in both departments failed to keep pace with expenditures during the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Overall, Poole said the city is in good shape financially with low debt although it will be taking on more debt with construction of the new police department building. “As big as this city is with the minimal debt we have we are certainly way above average when it comes to the amount of dollars we have set aside for future development and future uses,” he said.

Poole said he found no other causes for concern in his audit. “The monies are only being spent on city business. We did not run across anything as auditors that came to our attention where we thought that was not the case. We also look to make sure we are following policies when it comes to city policies and grant agreements, etc. Our report shows that we did not find anything that gives us any concern about how the city’s monies are being spent,” said Poole.

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