El Campo accepts FY2025 audit; auditor cites four findings and three recommendations

The El Campo City Council voted to accept the city's fiscal year 2025 audit after an auditor from Singleton Clark reported an unmodified (clean) opinion and several areas for improvement.

Robert Gautilya, an independent auditor with Singleton Clark, told the council that "El Campo received for the fiscal year ended 09/30/2025 an unmodified or clean audit opinion," meaning the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects. Gautilya said the firm focused its presentation on the opinion, other conclusions and a brief look at reserves.

Why it matters: a clean opinion affirms the city's financial statements met generally accepted accounting principles, but the audit also identified control weaknesses the city needs to address. Gautilya said the audit contained four findings, including a recurring material weakness and two deficiencies related to accrual accounting and the proper basis of accounting for certain funds, plus a technical noncompliance for budget-to-actual negative variances. He said the firm made three recommendations: improve bank reconciliations, increase staff training, and use individual fund accounting for significant grant programs.

Gautilya also reported about 49 audit adjustments and presented a reserves calculation. "During fiscal year 25, El Campo's general fund spent approximately $1,000,000 per month," he said; dividing the ending unassigned fund balance by that average produced roughly 3.3 months of reserves. Gautilya told the council his recommendation is to maintain between three and six months of reserves to avoid concerns about fund health.

Council members did not raise immediate questions; the city manager said staff and the finance committee will take a deeper dive into the findings. A councilmember moved to accept the audit "as presented." The motion was seconded; the clerk called the vote and announced the motion passed. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally.

What happens next: staff will take the auditor's recommendations to the finance committee for follow-up, and the auditor said the firm plans to submit an expanded ACFR for GFOA review later in the year.