City auditor and external firm report clean FY24-25 audit; no material weaknesses found

Sarah Dempsey, the audit partner from Weaver & Tidwell, told the Denton City Council on March 24 that the firm issued unmodified opinions on the city’s FY24-25 financial statements and on the federal and state single audits. “We did issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statement,” Dempsey said, adding the firm found no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies and no independence issues.

Matt Hamilton, the city’s chief financial officer, introduced the engagement and thanked finance staff for their “late nights” and extra work that supported the audit. Dempsey explained the audit included data analytics on roughly “1,000,000 lines of transactions,” testing of revenue recognition, cash and investments, long-term debt and capital assets, and compliance testing for major federal and state programs.

Dempsey described standard audit risks — improper revenue recognition and management override of controls — and said the engagement included journal-entry testing and IT general-controls review. She also noted the city files for GFOA review and that the audit team included multiple layers of partner and manager review.

Why it matters: an unmodified opinion is the highest level of assurance an external auditor can give and is used by bond-raters, creditors and oversight bodies. Councilmembers asked no substantive follow-up questions after the presentation. The auditor said the city had no identified or suspected fraud during the engagement.

What’s next: staff will incorporate the audit report into public records and close the agenda item. The council did not take additional direction beyond accepting the report.