Chickasha council approves amended audit engagement to meet April loan deadline

The Chickasha City Council approved an amendment to its engagement with HSPG and Associates LLC to accelerate completion of the city’s fiscal year 2024 audit and authorize additional auditor staffing at cost, with a not-to-exceed cap of $12,000.

The council approved the amendment after Speaker 3 told members the audit must be finished by April 1 “to be considered at the April meeting” of the Water Resources Board so the city can apply to roll the loan and replenish reserves after taking “a little over $5,000,000” from reserve to cover higher-than-expected water-treatment plant costs.

Finance Director Rich Edwards said the firm will “charge us at cost” for additional auditors and the engagement includes a written not-to-exceed amount so the city will not pay more than $12,000 for the accelerated work. “They didn’t get started until February 1,” Edwards said, and the firm brought in extra staff to meet the shortened timeline.

Council members asked whether a drop-dead date should be included in the engagement if the auditor does not meet the April deadline; Edwards said that specific date language is not in the engagement but the firm had begun work and the city was confident it would meet the deadline.

The motion to amend and authorize the engagement passed on a roll call vote. No additional formal conditions or amendments to the engagement were recorded in the transcript.

What happens next: city staff said the accelerated audit would allow a loan application to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board; the council did not take additional formal steps at the meeting beyond approving the engagement amendment.