Sumner receives clean audit from state

The Washington State Auditor’s Office gave a relatively clean audit to the city of Sumner.

The audit focused on the city’s accountability for public resources and compliance with laws and regulations, financial statements, and federal compliance.

No findings were noted for the financial statements and federal compliance.

In the accountability category, however, the auditor found interfund loans have not been repaid to the lending funds according to the repayment schedules.

The auditor highlighted a loan of $290,000 made in December 1999 from the Cemetery Endowment Fund to the Golf Course Operations Fund. The other was a loan of $490,000 made in December 2000 from the Storm Drainage Capital Asset fund to the Golf Course Operations fund.

Neither of the two loans had a stated repayment schedule.

In 2005 and 2006, the city transferred $100,000 from the General Fund to the Golf Course Fund.

Payments totaling $100,000 were made on the Golf Course’s loan from the Cemetery Endowment Fund. The General Fund contributes $100,000 a year to the Golf Course Fund for repayment on these loans.

In 2008, the city refinanced the bond debt for the Golf Course fund and the resulting savings will be used to repay both loans.

Based on the auditor’s recommendation the city will create a council-approved repayment schedule for city interfund loans.

The annual financial report the city submitted to the state was timely, accurate and complete, according to the audit.

Meetings of the city council were conducted in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act although the auditor recommended that announcements of executive sessions contain more detailed information of their purpose.

“Behind all this financial wording, what you’re hearing is that the city of Sumner is financially accountable and accurate,” Mayor Dave Enslow said. “One of my highest priorities is that we are good stewards of the citizens’ money. My background in banking says that all details are important, so I thank the state auditor for identifying the details where we could improve. We’ve already taken steps to fix this situation.”