• READ THE FULL AUDIT

During this week’s Jamestown City Council work session, independent auditor and public accountant John Trussalo presented his review of the 2018 city budget, noting that the city had finished with a $555,000 surplus. That’s nearly $140,000 more than the surplus city comptroller Joe Bellitto had reported for the city in April of this year when he went over the final budget numbers with the city council.

Final spending for the year was $35,931,000 compared to $36,480,000 in final revenue.

It was the second year the city finished in the black.

The audit also confirmed the city was again at 100 percent of its constitutional taxing limit, but was only at 29 percent the maximum debt limit allowed under state law.

CPA John Trussalo (right) goes over the final numbers for fiscal year 2017 with the Jamestown City Council during its Sept. 10, 2018 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown’s independent audit for 2017 confirms the city finished in a better financial position than what had been budgeted for that year.

That’s the news from independent auditor and public account John Trussalo, who went over the final 2017 budget numbers with the council during a presentation on Monday night.

• VIEW COMPLETE AUDIT

Trussalo’s audit confirmed the numbers that city comptroller Joe Bellitto had provided for the council earlier this year. According to Trussalo, the city saw $35,855,000 in revenue and $34,519,000 in expenditures. That was $621,000 more in revenue and $716,000 less in expenses than what had been budgeted. As a result, the city finished 2017 with a positive difference of $1,337,000.

During his audit, Trussalo also pointed out the city has some serious financial challenges, including the fact its constitutional taxing limit for 2017 was at 100 percent, meaning it won’t be able to raise taxes to offset rising costs associated with salaries and healthcare and pension benefits for employees.

Other findings in the audit included the city finishing the year with a debt of $17.38 million, placing it at 32.35 percent of its maximum debt limit. He said during 2017 the brought on an additional $400,000 in debt while also paying off $1.58 million in debt. He said if the city took on no more debt and if it kept with its current payment schedule, the city would be debt-free within 17 years.

The audit was also a clean audit, meaning there were no discrepancies found in regard to how the city was managing and overseeing is finances.

CPA John Trussalo (center) Goes over the 2016 Audit with the Jamestown City Council during its Sept. 18, 2017 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown had a clean audit for the 2016 fiscal year.

That’s according to certified public accountant John Trussalo, who presented the 2016 audit to the Jamestown City Council earlier this week.

• VIEW 2016 AUDIT

The audit found total revenue for the city in 2016 was at $34.85 million, which was about $107,000 less than what had been projected in the budget. But expenses were also nearly $500,000 lower than budgeted, coming in at $34.87 million. As a result, the city finished the year with a deficit that was about $20,000. That’s significantly lower than the $410,000 that was initially budgeted.

During his report, Trussalo noted that the audit verifies the city is at 98.86 percent of its constitutional taxing limit, meaning that unless the value of total taxable property in the city sees a significant increase, officials won’t be able to significantly increase taxes in 2018 to offset expenditures.  However, the audit also found the city is only at about 33.08 percent of its constitutional debt limit, meaning it has room to borrow money if it wanted to.  The current total debt for the city at the end of 2016 was $18.77 million.

CPA John Trussalo (left) delivers his independent 2015 audit to the Jamestown City Council during it’s Oct. 17 work session, as Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi (right) looks on.

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown’s 2015 finances have received a clean audit following an independent review.

Local CPA John Trussalo presented his independent audit for the 2015 finances during Monday night’s Jamestown City Council work session.

Trussalo said that his audit was an unmodified opinion, meaning it’s the cleanest audit that can be provided. His findings showed that the city was able to keep spending in 2015 relatively balanced with revenue, with the budget containing a $94,000 unfavorable net variance, compared to what had been projected to start that fiscal year.

The audit also showed that while the city’s constitutional taxing limit was approaching 100 percent in 2015, the city was only at about 35 percent of its constitutional borrowing limit.

Trussalo also commented on the New York State Comptroller’s Office recent audit, particularly with the recommendation the city should discontinue its use of a dedicated and separately tracked healthcare account from its general fund.  Trussalo said his conclusion was far different from the state, and that by removing the healthcare account, as directed by the comptroller’s office, the city is also removing some stability from its general fund and overall budget.

Trussalo – who’s conducted the independent audit of the city’s finances for the past several years – also said he was not interviewed by the state comptroller’s office during its review of the city finances.

At the end of September the comptroller released a report critical of the city finances – in regard to both the healthcare account, budgeting for healthcare costs, and for failing to properly document how the city does long-term financial planning.  The state audit reviewed more than four years of city financial records.

Local accountant John Trussalo, CPA presented the Jamestown city council Monday night with his review of the 2013 numbers, saying there were no significant deficincies and adding that it was as clean of an audit as the city could possibly have.

In his management letter to the city, Trussalo said that the biggest area of concern facing the city in future years is that it is approaching its constitutional tax limit, which is currently at 93.83. That means the city can only increase the tax levy by about $890,000.

• REVIEW TRUSSALO MANAGEMENT LETTER
• COPY OF AUDIT AVAILABLE BY REQUEST IN CITY CLERK’S OFFICE

During his presentation, Bellitto said the city’s expenditures came in at $32,514,000 – which was $685,000 below budget. According to Bellitto, there were a couple of reasons for the decrease… mainly a mild winter both at the beginning and end of 2012 – which reduced the amount of hours city highway crews had to work. He says a number of retirements from 2011 and new hires for 2012 also drove wages down.

Although the city was well below budget in expenses, it also failed to bring in as much in revenue in 2012. While the city budgeted for just over $32,484,000, the total revenue came in at $32,256,000 – which is a difference of about $228,000.

When preparing the budget, the city had expected its revenue to be lower than expenditures and as a result it budgeted $715,000 from its fund balance –  or “rainy day fund” – to offset that difference. However, because the expenditures came in far lower than anticipated, the city only needed to use $457,000 of that money to close the gap.

Before being finalized, the 2012 budget must first go through an independent audit. Local CPA John Trussalo will review the numbers and deliver his audit later this year.