Letter to the Editor: Says Charles City County leadership is financially irresponsible
Four months after the state deadline, the audit of Charles City’s finances was finally completed.
The audit reported material “weaknesses in internal controls,” resulting in a “reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the entity’s financial statements will not be prevented or detected.” The last delay was a $231,341 cash discrepancy, which the auditor never could sort out.
While the county’s dismal record-keeping casts all figures into doubt, the audit indicates that Charles City spent $30.2 million in 2024 on a budget of $24 million, which is 25 percent over budget. It is actually worse than that. The county expected revenues of $22 million and budgeted to spend $24 million. So, they [the county] planned to spend $2 million more than revenue, but actually spent $8 million more than expected revenue; 36 percent more. And still worse, they appropriated $33.8 million, meaning that they approved spending almost $12 million (over 50 percent) more than expected revenues.
Apparently, the county only stopped spending when they ran out of cash. They literally spent down the county’s checking and “savings” accounts until they were unable to make payroll. Then, they took out an emergency $5 million loan in August.
Audits of the previous four years show fairly consistent revenues while the county had significantly increased expenses (mostly administration costs and capital projects), causing the county’s “savings” (fund balance) to plummet.
Any sensible manager’s response would be to reduce costs to realign expenditures with revenues. Instead, our leadership has approved another budget that unsustainably increases spending, does nothing to address the $5 million loan balance, and includes one-time windfall revenues to fund recurring expenses.
Charles City’s Board of Supervisors either doesn’t understand its finances or is trying to manipulate public opinion by pretending that nothing is wrong, all while worsening the problems.
Rob Tyler
Charles City