During the Feb. 4, 2025, meeting, the City Council reviewed and accepted Farmington’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and audit report for the past fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2024. 

Farmington’s financial records and financial statements are audited annually by the City’s independent auditor firm, Gilbert & Stewart, Certified Public Accountants. This year’s ACFR and Audit Report were presented to the City Council by Farmington City’s Director of Finance, Greg Davis and by Gilbert & Stewart, CPA’s head partner Ronald Stewart. 

In the interest of transparency, Stewart prefaced his presentation by saying to the City

Council and the community members in attendance, “What I’d like to do is take a couple minutes and talk to you about what we do as auditors.”

Stewart explained that for the audit of a city, he and his firm focus on three main areas. First, that the city’s financial statements are materially correct, meaning that they meet accounting standards and provide numbers that community members can rely upon as an accurate representation of the city’s investments and expenditures. 

Second, that the city’s internal controls for financial decisions are “designed, implemented, and effectively working,” so that they are guided by a system of checks and balances. 

Third, that the city has complied with the State of Utah’s financial statutes, based on the expectations set forth for the year by the state auditor. 

In regard to the first area of focus, Stewart described how his firm ran the city’s trial balance through a series of tests to ensure that it computed correctly. Additionally, Gilbert & Stewart sent out a wide variety of confirmations to third-party sources and delivered that information to another independent auditor who also ran the balances to ensure that the numbers matched. 

“We do that for cash, property taxes, sales and use taxes, roads, URS pension, and anything else we can think of that we can send a confirmation to. Through that testing, and a lot of other testing we do on the balances of the financial statements, we came to the conclusion that those financial statements are indeed materially correct.”

Stewart also referred community members to the independent auditor’s report and opinion statements within the ACFR, as a confirmation of the soundness of the City’s financial statements for Fiscal Year 2024. 

In regard to the second area of focus, Stewart explained that while his firm does not give an opinion on internal controls, they do evaluate them. “We want to make sure that those controls are designed, that they are actually implemented, and that they’re working – that they are actually effective at protecting the assets of your city.” 

Stewart reported that based on the information collected from walk-throughs, interviews, and questionnaires with city staff and employees, as well as the numbers collected from deposits to verify that the reported controls were working, Farmington’s internal controls are confirmed to be in place and operating as intended. 

In regard to the final area of focus, Stewart affirmed that based on the procedures provided to the firm by the state auditor, Farmington City was generally in compliance. However, he brought to the City Council’s attention that the city was over state budgetary compliance by “one budget, and one fund.” Stewart acknowledged that the issue is minor and advised the City Council on how to rectify the compliance for future fiscal years.

“If you’re going to have an issue, I think this is a good one to have,” he said. “For the majority, I think you’re doing a great job.”