Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
OXFORD – The Oxford Village Council received the village’s annual audit presentation on Dec. 12, earning an “unmodified opinion,” the highest form of assurance that can be given during an audit.
The council was joined by Ian Rees of Gabridge & Company, PLC, who presented the annual audit.
“It’s an unmodified or a clean opinion. It’s the best opinion the village could receive. There’s nothing better you could have done to receive a better opinion,” Rees said. “In essence, you passed the audit.”
The audit shows that the village assets exceeded its liabilities and deferred outflows of resources by about $11.6 million. Of that, about $2 million is unrestricted, which means it is equity in the village and can be used for anything, Rees said.
At the end of the year, the village’s governmental funds were just over $2 million, a decrease of about $276,000 from the year before. Additionally, $1.4 million of that is currently unassigned and has no use restrictions.
“Unassigned fund balance, which is your general fund, it’s $1.4 million. That equates to about 53% of your annual expenditures so, if you received no income for the next year, you’d survive about 53% of it,” said Rees. “It’s a sizable fund balance to the point where you’re not going to have money issues, but it’s not really large to where you don’t know what you’re spending it on.”
Assets, liabilities and equity stayed pretty much the same for the village, aside from a slight increase in net pension liability which was mostly due to the market, Rees said.
“The market had poor market returns and therefore increased your net pension liability,” Rees said. “There’s not anything you can really do about it just because it’s a bunch of actuarial stuff.”
Capital assets also increased by about $300,000 due to the village adding more assets, and cash increased slightly due to the village spending less money.
Property taxes in the village increased slightly due to increased taxable value, as did public safety expenses.
According to village Clerk/Treasurer Tere Onica it was a smooth audit for the village.
“This was probably the best audit year we ever had. Preparation is still intense because there’s a lot to do but I’m very happy with that and the audit in general,” Onica said. “The audit went very smoothly this year. They were very professional. We had a great price, great service. Working with them is awesome. We just had such confidence in presenting you with the information, we got to all the bases – because there was a lot to be straightened out.”