Champaign City Council: Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

City Council study session on January 28, 2020 covered two main topics- City of Champaign’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and the review of Boards and Commissions.

The CAFR, commonly known as “the audit” presents the financial operations and financial position of the city for fiscal year ended June 30, 2019. Study session began with City Manager, Dorothy Ann David remarking that this audit reflects the city’s top-notch financial management and that management was proud of how responsible they were with the public’s resources.

City of Champaign Finance Director, Kay Nees declared a clean audit opinion, with no major issues identified. City Accountant, Carrie Siems, reviewed the financials and presented some highlights.

The city’s assets exceeded liabilities by $329.9 million, with $321.9 million of net assets invested in capital assets (for example streets, land, buildings). This net position reflects a decrease by $7.0 million primarily due to net pension liability due to changes in the Police and Fire Pension Funds.

Jennifer Martinson, Principal at Lauterbach and Amen, presented the independent auditor’s report. The city received an unmodified opinion meaning that it was a clean and materially correct audit, and there were no difficulties to be reported to council.

One of the recommendations auditors had for the city was regarding the annual audit of the Police Pension Fund. Currently, the fund has a separate audit report from the city’s audit report. Ideally, the Police Pension Fund should us the city’s actuarial info in their report as the City of Champaign is their employer. This is a repeat recommendation from the prior year and city staff agree with the auditors, but the pension board has again elected to use a separate actuarial report to include with their audit.