The accountants who perform the annual external audit of the Village of New Paltz books and financial practices consider the municipality to be on sound footing. In their report during the October 28 board meeting, accountants Susan Barossi and Melissa Szot summarized the lengthy and detailed audit on a few slides with talking points. Just like the meeting, the audit was conducted remotely, which necessitated shifting to paperless sharing of information. Nevertheless, the audit was completed on time. Barossi lauded village employees for their high level of communication with the auditing team throughout the year.
Auditors review a selection of transactions to identify patterns of fraud and ways that the controls could be shored up to prevent malfeasance and mistakes. No fraud was detected, but if it had been, then treasurer Nancy Branco would have been notified immediately. If Branco was suspected, mayor Tim Rogers would have been looped in, and had the mayor been implicated, the concerns would have been relayed to the trustees.
The financial controls continue to receive high marks year after year. One recommendation was to find a way to implement a purchase-order system, which would provide an additional document to be used for confirming each transaction.
Fund balances, money that’s left from taxes for emergencies after budgeted items are spent, have hovered around 15 percent for several years. Mayor Rogers noted that the uncertainty of the pandemic made that reserve all the more important.Â
While the economic impacts on village government have not yet been as bad as trustees had feared in March, the mayor is bracing for the possibility of a tough winter. For now, the village remains financially healthy.
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