Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to determine whether the Village’s water supply capital project and settlement proceeds were accounted for and monitored appropriately for the period April 21, 2009 through April 30, 2017.

Background

The Village of Stillwater is located in the Town of Stillwater in Saratoga County and is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees. General fund budgeted appropriations and water fund budgeted appropriations for the 2017-18 fiscal year totaled $837,800 and $418,500, respectively.

Key Findings

• The Clerk-Treasurer did not provide budget-to-actual reports of revenues and expenditures or project balances for assets and liabilities to the Board, and although budget amendments were authorized by the Mayor, they were not authorized by the Board.
• The Clerk-Treasurer accounted for water fund transactions in the general fund instead of the water fund, which resulted in overstating the general fund operating surplus and fund balance for 2014-15 by $420,641.
• The Board overrode the 2017-18 property tax levy limit and increased the tax levy by 21 percent, even though unassigned fund balance would provide enough funding for operations for nearly two years without a tax levy.

Key Recommendations

• Attend training for governmental accounting and recordkeeping.
• Correct the accounting errors identified in this report and resubmit the related annual update documents to our office.
• Periodically review the Clerk-Treasurer’s financial records to ensure errors and irregularities do not exist.