Audit Objective 

Determine whether the Fairview Fire District (District) Board of Fire Commissioners (Board) and officials properly managed the District’s financial operations and were transparent.

Key Findings 

The Board and District officials did not properly manage and oversee the District’s financial operations and were not transparent. As a result, there was limited assurance the information used by the Board and District officials to make financial decisions was accurate and complete. We also determined that taxpayers had limited access to financial information to help ensure they could make informed decisions relating to District operations. As a result: 

• The Board improperly assigned the duties of the District Treasurer (Treasurer) to an independent contractor.
• Unrealistic budgets increased taxpayer burden and resulted in unrestricted fund balance totaling approximately $1.2 million, or 20 percent of the 2024 appropriations as of December 31, 2023.
• Unrealistic budgets increased taxpayer burden and resulted in the District’s reserve funds, in total, increasing by approximately $1.5 million (84 percent) over the last five fiscal years.
• The Board meeting minutes did not always contain complete information on formal Board actions and were not made available for public review in a timely manner.

Key Recommendations 

The audit report includes 18 recommendations that, if implemented, will help the Board improve its oversight of financial activities. 

District officials generally agreed with the recommendations and indicated they have initiated and will continue to take corrective action.