GPCRDA audit with new firm goes smoothly

GROSSE POINTE SHORES — The financial records of the Grosse Pointes-Clinton Township Refuse Authority appear to be in good order.

Certified public accountant Lynn Gromaski, who handles the finances for the GPCRDA, shared the results of an audit of the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year — which ended on June 30 — with members of the GPCRDA Board during a meeting Nov. 11 in Grosse Pointe Shores. Gromaski said they received a “clean opinion” from their new auditor, CPA Rana M. Emmons at PSLZ PLLC, and there were no control issues reported.

GPCRDA Board Chair Peter Randazzo concurred.

“I looked over it,” Randazzo said. “It doesn’t look like there’s any red flags. It looks like it’s a clean audit.”

A clean or unmodified opinion is the highest rating auditors can give.

“In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements … present fairly, in all material aspects, the respective financial position of the business-type activities of the Grosse Pointes-Clinton Refuse Disposal Authority, Michigan, as of June 30, 2025, and the respective changes in its financial position and, where applicable, its cash flows thereof for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America,” the auditors wrote in their opinion letter.

This is the GPCRDA’s first new auditor since 2014. CPA Ramie Phillips Jr., of Rochester Hills, was their previous auditor, but he retired after last year’s audit.

The switch to a new firm “went really well,” Gromaski said. “I really liked working with (Emmons).”

Because a budgeted contribution last year to the pension of $27,503 wasn’t needed — the pension system was overfunded and no contribution was required — the GPCRDA showed operating income in that amount.

The pension covers employees who used to work at the GPCRDA’s former incinerator in Clinton Township. The incinerator ceased operations in 1999 and was torn down in 2001. The audit noted that the plan currently covers 14 retirees and one deferred member.

Because the GPCRDA’s pension system is closed — there are no longer any active employees contributing to it — they’re required to maintain pension funding at 120% of the plan’s actuarial accrued liability, according to officials at the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, which manages the GPCRDA’s pension plan.

The GPCRDA had a fund balance of $820,304 as of June 30.

“It looks like our $3 administrative fee is still helping us to operate efficiently,” Gromaski said after the meeting. “We have enough to get by.”

On July 1, 2017, a higher administrative fee — which rose from $1 per ton of trash to $3 per ton — went into effect for the member communities, because the old fee was no longer covering expenses such as insurance and contributions to the pension system. Member communities have been paying the $3 per ton fee ever since.

The board voted unanimously to accept the audit.

The five Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods make up the member communities of the GPCRDA, which handles trash disposal for the six cities.