Auditor: Opelika in strong financial position after debt payments; recommends earlier grant revenue recognition

An auditor presenting to the Opelika City Council on March 3 summarized the city's fiscal position and a relatively minor federal compliance finding. The auditor said government-wide assets totaled 582,000,000 and liabilities 168,000,000 (net assets roughly 414,000,000), and noted the general fund held about 73,000,000 in total fund balances with roughly 71,000,000 unassigned.

"You spent about 37,000,000 in capital outlay" and "you spent about 20,000,000 paying debt off this past year," the auditor told the council, adding that the electric utility (OPS) transferred $4,000,000 to the general fund and that utility funds carried no debt as of the audit. The auditor called the overall audit "good" and praised the city's accounting staff.

The auditor flagged one federal compliance issue tied to grants and reimbursements: departments sometimes delay recording receivables and revenue as they incur grant-eligible expenses. To address that, the auditor and city finance staff agreed to implement a control to estimate and record grant receivables and revenue on the front end and reconcile with department records later.

The auditor also warned the council about cybersecurity threats: "you guys get attacked, like, 80,000 times a day," he said, urging attention to IT security. He invited questions and said he would provide details in the audit report for council review.

Next steps: the council had the audit on the agenda for discussion and could follow up with finance staff on the proposed control to recognize grant receivables earlier.