Fraser receives clean audit

FRASER — At its final meeting of 2025, the Fraser City Council received a clean audit report from the contracted firm of Yeo & Yeo CPAs & Advisors.

According to the presentation at the meeting on Dec. 11 by Alan Panter, a principal with Yeo & Yeo, the city’s audit was given an “unmodified opinion,” which is the highest level of assurance that everything was filed correctly.

The fiscal year goes from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.

“That’s why your expenditures are a little higher this year and your fund balance went down,” Panter said. “But that was a planned spending of the fund balance there.”

He started off the presentation by stating the audit went very well. 

“The city was very well prepared when we arrived and we were able to complete our audit procedures efficiently,” Panter said.

He acknowledged last year’s audit went well, but that this year’s went even better. 

Panter explained that two years ago, the audit was late while three years ago the audit was late, and the city did not have a finance director for a while.

“The records were in disarray,” Panter said. “We had a very difficult time with the audit. It was late two years in a row. We had numerous findings and issues, and we’ve had some significant conversations here at the council level.”

Last year, there were still a couple of findings and management letter comments. That wasn’t the case this year. 

“Considering where you guys were three or four years ago, this is fantastic,” Panter said. 

He said this clean audit is due to the council and staff, but most of all due to the work of Finance Director/Assistant City Manager Anjilee Bansal.

“You have a finance director now who truly has full control over what she’s supposed to be doing, and she cares about what she’s doing and she’s doing a great job,” Panter said.

He went on to say the council can take great comfort in that.

Panter showed a graph of the general fund over the last five years. It depicted the revenues, expenditures and fund balance. He stated three out of the five years, revenue exceeded expenditures and that this fiscal year, the overall the fund balance is up to around $13 million.

The previous year, a $3.9 million pension grant given by the state was recorded in city records as both a revenue and an expenditure. It came into the general fund and went to the pension fund, pushing up the numbers last year.

This year, the graph shows the expenditures being a little higher and Panter explained that around $4 million was transferred out and around $3 million was transferred to a street improvement fund. 

At the end of the presentation, Mayor Michael Lesich thanked the finance department and its team. He stated he’s been there for 10 years and said last year was good.

“This was the shortest presentation I’ve read in 10 years,” Lesich said. 

Mayor Pro Tem O’Dell also thanked the finance team and Bansal, saying this is huge for the city. 

“We’re going to be budgeting soon and it’s great to know that the numbers are good that we can make those decisions on and not have surprises that can really throw us for a loop,” O’Dell said.

He said it’s a true testament to the work of the finance department.

“We put you to the task and you fulfilled it,” O’Dell said. “So keep it up and we appreciate it.”